Latest Folklore

..at St. Nicholas, near Cardiff, a man told me that his mother took him to ‘Castle Corrig’ (a cromlech near St. Nicholas, perhaps the biggest existing in Britain), when he ‘had a decline’ as a boy, and she spat upon the stone, rubbed her finger in the spittle and rubbed him on the forehead and chest.

... I feel convinced there is a good deal of this sort of thing, but I cannot get it out, or else it exists among a residuum which feels such a gap to exist between student and peasant that freedom of speech becomes impossible. But I have felt the sort of thing to underlie many ordinary stories, from certain turns of expression.

From ‘A Fisher-Story and Other Notes from South Wales’ by E. Sidney Hartland and T. H. Thomas, in Folklore, Vol. 16, No. 3. (Sep. 29, 1905), p339.

Perhaps he could have got more out of his informants if he didn’t use words like ‘residuum’ on them. It’s a shame though.

.. I found some five years ago that there were [magical rites] connected with Arthur’s Stone (Gower), though denied by my informant. But she “did hear that gels went and walked round it to see their sweethearts – a long time ago – and if they didn’t see him they took off their shawls and went on their hands and knees – nobody is so fulish now.” This from a young girl at Port Eynon.

Oh right. Just their shawls then is it. From p339 in ‘A Fisher-Story and Other Notes from South Wales’ by E. Sidney Hartland and T. H. Thomas, in Folklore, Vol. 16, No. 3. (Sep. 29, 1905).

..the inhabitants of the villages around Coldrum once believed that a battle was fought there, and that a ‘Black Prince’ was buried in the chamber.

From ‘Notes on the Folklore and Legends Associated with the Kentish Megaliths, by John H. Evans, in Folklore, Vol. 57, No. 1. (Mar., 1946), p42.

‘The’ Black Prince (Edward, the son of Edward the Third) was married to ‘Joan of Kent’, and was buried in Canterbury Cathedral in 1376.

A somewhat similar story [to that at the Countless Stones] is that Kits Coty House cannot be measured for as fast as the imprudent surveyor takes his measurements he is made to forget them even before he can commit them to paper.

From ‘Notes on the Folklore and Legends Associated with the Kentish Megaliths, by John H. Evans, in Folklore, Vol. 57, No. 1. (Mar., 1946), p. 39.

Up to the last generation there was a widespread belief that [megalithic] monuments could not be measured, nor the stones which composed them counted. Hence the name of “The Countless Stones” for the destroyed Lower Kits Coty, and as proof of their uncountability the story is told of a clever baker who placed a bread roll on each stone, thinking that when he collected his rolls again he would have the hidden number. His ingenious trick was in vain, however, for the Devil ate some of the rolls and then sat gibbering at the discomfited baker.

From ‘Notes on the Folklore and Legends Associated with the Kentish Megaliths, by John H. Evans, in Folklore, Vol. 57, No. 1. (Mar., 1946), p38.

As the Lower Kits Coty [the Countless Stones] were destroyed about 1690 it might be thought that this legend [of them being countless] arose after their dispersal, but this is not a necessary inference, sinceI was told many years ago by a countryman that the stones of Coldrum were ‘difficult’ to count, and that no two persons got the same number.

From ‘Notes on the Folklore and Legends Associated with the Kentish Megaliths, by John H. Evans, in Folklore, Vol. 57, No. 1. (Mar., 1946), p39.

..the building of Kits Coty House is attributed to the magical work of three witches who lived on Blue Bell Hill. Having raised the huge wall-stones, they found themselves unable to lift the capstones, and had to call in the assistance of a fourth member of the sisterhood, by whose help they were enabled to raise the immense stone into the air and lower it gently upon its walls.

From ‘Notes on the Folklore and Legends Associated with the Kentish Megaliths, by John H. Evans, in Folklore, Vol. 57, No. 1. (Mar., 1946), p. 39.

It is a persistent tradition that if a personal object is placed upon the capstone, and the donor thereof walks around the monument three times, then the object will disappear; this ritual must be carried out on the night of the full moon. Interested persons have carried out this ritual at intervals right up to this year when the activities of a local investigator were fully reported in the local press.

The insistence that a personal object must be used suggests a substitute sacrifice by which the worshipper buys his own immunity from the Otherworld powers, or, possibly, that the received gift is a reward for favours granted or to be granted, although there is no hint that the ritualist must make a wish when making the circuit.

Another curious story is that if a person climbs on to the capstone, again at full moon, and thrusts his hand into a natural cavity in the stone, he will withdraw five iron nails. The five iron nails (without doubt for a horseshoe) will irrisistably remind readers of the legend attached to Wayland the Smith’s Forge, in Berkshire, which is the ruined dolmen of a Long Barrow like Kits Coty House. The story attached to this megalith is that if a traveller places coins upon the capstone he will have his horse shod by an invisible smith. Bearing this story in mind there is thus the further possibility as regards the Kits Coty rituals that they have become confused and separated, and that the object which disappears is really payment for the nails.

From ‘Notes on the Folklore and Legends Associated with the Kentish Megaliths, by John H. Evans, in Folklore, Vol. 57, No. 1. (Mar., 1946), p. 39.

Between Maidstone and Blue Bell Hill the ‘Pilgrim’s Way’ crosses the Chatham-Maidstone road, and in the north-west angle there once stood upright another huge sarsen called variously ‘The Kentish Standard Stone’ or ‘The White Horse Stone’; but this was broken up about the beginning of the nineteenth century, but another stone, still existing, but standing in the opposite north-east angle of the crossing, has inherited the name, and is today marked on the Ordnance Survey maps as ‘The White Horse Stone’. It is a huge monolith standing upright and very similar to the great rectangular wall stones of Kits Coty House and Coldrum, having at one end the crude outline of a face caused by the natural configuration of the rock.

..... in 1834 we are told the legend of the (original) White Horse Stone. Upon this stone, it was written, fell the White Horse banner of Horsa when the Teutons were routed, hence its name of ‘The Kentish Standard Stone’. This stone was soon afterwards destroyed, and the present ‘White Horse Stone’ inherited the legend.

...Since the names of Hengest and Horsa mean ‘gelding and mare’ it has been suggested that they refer to the war standards or war effigies of the invaders, and not to actual persons. It would be interesting to trace the origin of the story that Horsa bore a White Horse emblem, for it fits in remarkably well with the other implications of the legend. We cannot digress here into the subject of the Horse-Cult, but readers will doubtless be aware of the ancient sanctity of the animal; alike among Kelts and Teutons, white horses were considered sacred, and only a priest among the pagan Saxons could ride a white mare. Carvings of horse-heads on the gables of roofs in Denmark are still called Hengest and Horsa, and represent the guardian deities. Thus the fall of a White Horse banner at Aylesford would represent the death of Horsa. It should be emphasized that we are dealing here with legend, for history has yet to be satisfied as to the acutality of the Jutish invasion of Kent.

From ‘Notes on the Folklore and Legends Associated with the Kentish Megaliths’ by John H. Evans, in Folklore, Vol. 57, No. 1. (Mar., 1946), pp. 36-43.

An old man of Newchurch, near the Gaerlwyd Cromlech, told the writer that Jackie Kent and the Devil threw the stone forming the Gaerlwyd Cromlech at Newchurch West – the same tradition as that about the Trelech maenhirs.

From ‘Folklore of Gwent’by T. A. Davies, in Folklore, Vol. 49, No. 1. (Mar., 1938), p. 30.

On the south side of this Loch Seante, as this small inlet of water is called in Gaelic, at the village of Sandbank, there is an interesting old cromlech, which is known in the region as ‘Adam’s Grave.’ [...] Lovers come from all parts of Cowal to make their vows at this old shrine. The lady has to creep into the recess formed by the stones, and, holding the hand of the gentleman, who stands at the entrance, he repeats in Gaelic a curious oath, and the spot is considered so sacred that a terrible fate is believed to befall anyone who should prove unfaithful to their troth when it has been thus plighted.

By H A Walker in the Daily News, June 7th 1878, reprinted in the ‘Notes’ section of ‘The Folk-Lore Record’, Vol. 1. (1878), p242.

“When Roseberry Topping wears a cappe,
Let Cleveland then beware a clappe.”

This cap refers to the mist overhanging the lofty hill bearing that name in the North Riding, previously to a thunderstorm. Camden, who notices this proverb, observes, that, “when its top begins to be darkened with clouds, rain generally follows.”
There are variations of the distich –

“When Roseberry Topping wears a cap,
Let Cleveland men beware of a rap.“**

And allusions to other places are made in some of the variants. Thus –
“When Roseberry Topping wears a hat
Morden carre will suffer for that.”

The latter place cannot be exactly indicated, but doubtless from its name, carre, some lowland likely to be flooded in wet weather.

From the Denham Tracts, privately printed at Richmond, Durham, and Newcastle upon-Tyne, in various years since 1850, we have –
“When Eston nabbe puts on a cloake,
And Roysberrye a cappe,
Then all the folks on Cleveland’s clay
Ken there will be a clappe.”

From ‘Yorkshire Local Rhymes and Sayings’ in The Folk-Lore Record, Vol. 1. (1878), pp. 160-175. The article is a compilation of folk lore collected by Mr Reginald W Corlass and Mr Edward Hailstone FSA.

**The Denham Tracts say “The ‘rap’ alluded to is, in plain language, a thunder-storm. This old proverb is noticed by Camden, two hundred years ago. He observes that ‘When its top begins to be darkened with clouds, rain generally follows.

At Offington, near Worthing, an old seat of the Delawarrs, a blocked-up passage, which can only be approached from the cellars, is still believed to communicate with the encampment on Cisbury Hill, and to be full of buried treasures. Some years ago there was a story current of the then occupier of the house having offered half the money to be found there to anybody who would clear out the subterranean passage, and that several persons had begun digging, but had all been driven back by large snakes springing at them with open mouths and angry hisses.

From ‘Some West Sussex Superstitions Lingering in 1868’ by Charlotte Latham, in ‘The Folk-Lore Record’ Vol. 1. (1878), p16.

Sir Charles Peers, the joint excavator of the site, described the folk lore and its curious confirmation by the post-War work. It was said that Wayland, the Farrier God, lived here and shod the horses of the wayfarer who left a silver groat upon the stones. Now in excavating the site two iron currency bars of the first century B.C. were revealed, as if in fulfilment of the story.

But the stones themselves are the remains of a 200ft. long barrow erected 2,000 years before the currency bars came into being, while the name of the Teutonic god could not have been attached to the site until four or five centuries within the Christian era.

From The Times, August 9th, 1932, p13.

However, dully, I have read elsewhere the suggestion that the ‘currency bars’ aren’t as old as they might be. But what’s the truth?
According to the Davidson article in the Folklore post above, the bars are mentioned in C R Peers and R A Smith’s article in Archaeological Journal, I, 1921, p188.

In Northamptonshire the plant [dwarf elder] is known also as Dane-weed, and Defoe in his ‘Tour through Great Britain’ speaks of his going a little out of the road from Daventry to see a great camp called Barrow Hill, and adds :—

“They say this was a Danish camp, and everything hereabout is attributed to the Danes, because of the neighbouring Daventry, which they suppose to be built by them. The road hereabouts, too, being overgrown with Dane-weed, they fancy it sprang from the blood of Danes slain in battle; and that, if upon a certain day in the year you cut it, it bleeds.“—Vol. ii. p. 362.

Notes and Queries January 7th, 1911.

In ’ Tongues in Trees,’ a work on plantlore published by George Allen in 1891, I read at p. 48 :— “The pasque-flower, Anemone pulsalilla, a native in the fields near Royston, is there supposed to have grown from the blood of Danes slain in battle.

Pasque flowers (with luck) still grow on Therfield Heath just outside Royston. And of course the long barrow must be where the Danes are buried? Quote in Notes and Queries January 7th 1911.

In a letter among his MSS. in the British Museum Bishop Pococke discusses the dragon legend. He dates from “Highworth, April 12th, 1757,” and the following expresses his views:—
” A mile further is the hamlet of Up Lamborn, which is a pretty place We went up the down to the right of it, and in three miles came to the camp over the White Horse, at the end of these hills. They command a glorious prospect into Wiltshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, and Gloucestershire. We passed a line to the east of it. The camp itself ii defended by one deep fosse. It is of an irregular form of four sides, about 800 paces in circumference. To the north-east of it is a small hill like a barrow, which was cut off from it. It is called Dragon Hill. On the side of the hill over it, just under the camp, is the White Horse, cut in turf as if in a trot. The green sod remains to form the body. It may be a hundred yards in length, and is well designed. On Dragon Hill the common people say St. George killed the dragon. They show a spot on it which they affirm is never covered with grass, and there they say the dragon was killed, and I think buried, and that the white horse was St. George’s steed.

Notes and Queries, October 25th 1884.

It is singular how tradition, which is sometimes a sure guide to truth, is in other cases prone to mislead us. In the celebrated field of battle at Killiecrankie the traveller is struck with one of those rugged pillars of rough stone which indicate the scenes of ancient conflict.

A friend of the author, well acquainted with the circumstances of the battle, was standing near this large stone, and looking on the scene around, when a Highland shepherd hurried down from the hill to offer his services as cicerone, and proceeded to inform him that Dundee was slain at that stone, which was raised to his memory. ’ Fie, Donald ! ’ answered my friend; ‘how can you tell such a story to a stranger: I am sure you know well enough that Dundee was killed at a considerable distance from this place, near the house of Fascally, and that the stone was here long before the battle, in 1688.‘

’ Oich ! oich !’ said Donald, no way abashed: ‘and your honour’s in the right, and I see ye ken a’ about it. And he wasna killed on the spot neither, but lived till the next morning; but a’ the Saxon gentlemen like best to hear he was killed at the great stane.‘

Further proof that those rural working class types weren’t as daft as the country gentlemen seemed to think sometimes. From the Appendix of Sir Walter Scott’s ‘Abbot’, which is online at Project Gutenberg here:
gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/abbot10.txt

It was said that a miller at Long Compton thinking the stone would be useful in damming the water of his mill, carried it away and used it for that purpose; but he found that whatever water was dammed up in the day disappeared in the night, and thinking this was done by the witches, and that they would punish him for his impertinence in removing the stone, he took it back again, and though it required three horses to take it to Long Compton, one easily brought it back.

Notes and Queries, April 8th 1876.

You may like the end of the letter:
“Witches, and ghosts, and village legends, though the belief in them may still linger in remote parishes, are becoming, as the old man at Rollright said, less cared for, and will soon be things of the past. But are the thoughts, and the interests, and the beliefs that are rising up in their place calculated to advance the morality and the religion of the labouring classes? I fear not.
J. W. LODOWICK.”

--It is, of course, a common practice in most places to make a neighbouring ancient object a kind of standard of age. At Honiton, and in the country round, “As old as Dump’n ” used to be, and perhaps still is, a popular expression, the reference being to a British or Roman earthwork conspicuously visible on Dumpdon Hill, close by.
PROCOL.

From Notes and Queries, November 4th 1876.

The climate is cold but invigorating and healthy. In the southern part of the parish is a tract of dreary treeless waste, commonly called King Harry, where, according to tradition, one of the Kings of England who bore that name encamped with his army. Tradition has not preserved any distinguishing feature to enable us to indicate the king alluded to, but we know that the unfortunate Henry VI, after the battle of Hexham, fled into Cumberland, and may probably have had with him a remnant of his army, and encamped here. A stone is pointed out from which, it is said, King Harry mounted his charger.

.. Upon an eminence near the centre of this moor are the remains of a Druidical circle, which formerly consisted of eighty-eight stones, and was fifty-two yards in diameter. It is designated in the locality Grey Yauds, from the colour of the stones, of which there now remains only one, and yaud, a north country name for a horse.

At Cairn Head, on the eastern side of King Harry, and within a space of twelve yards, are three springs, from which issue volumes of water sufficiently large to form, when united, a brook of considerable magnitude. These springs are not only the most copious, but also the purest in the county.

From Bulmer’s “History and Directory of Cumberland”, published in 1901, and online at Steve Bulman’s website here
stevebulman.f9.co.uk/cumbria/1901/cumwh_f.html

As a writer to Notes and Queries in October 1884 explained, the fort was also known as ‘Poor Man’s Wall’ – in Sussex the Poor Man was a euphemism for the Devil.

This fort is on the summit of Mynydd y Dref (Conwy Mountain). It has 24 hut circles inside, and some outside its walls. There’s the remains of a larger building (a ‘citadel’ so Coflein grandly says) at one end of the fort.

This from ‘Notes and Queries’, March 12,1870.

I have [examined repeatedly the] remains on Conway mountain. They are intensely interesting.. They consist of a multitude of circular structures partly sunk below the ground, with rough walling a little raised above, evidently the substructure for huts... They are called by the country people “Cyttiau Gwyddelod,” which is generally interpreted ” the huts of the Irishmen,” but which in its primary meaning is “the huts of the savages,” or wild men, in contradistinction from the Gal, or agricultural race.

‘Cytiau’ (so I understand from the dictionary) does imply a rude kind of hut, more of an animal shelter, so this could be a dig at the Irish?? Or maybe not at all. Maybe a Proper Welsh person can explain the subtleties of the phrase for me.

Notes and Queries, July 31st, 1875.

On Midsummer morning a party of Americans, who had left London for the purpose, visited Stonehenge for the purpose of witnessing the effects of the sunrise on this particular morning. They were not a little surprised to find that, instead of having the field all to themselves as they had expected, a number of people from all parts of the country side, principally belonging to the poorer classes, were already assembled on the spot. Inquiries failed to elicit any intelligible reason for this extraordinary early turn out of the population except this, that a tradition, which had trickled down through any number of generations, told them that at Stonehenge something unusual was to be seen at sunrise on the morning of the summer solstice.

Stonehenge may roughly be described as composing seven-eighths of a circle, from the open ends of which there runs eastward an avenue having upright stones on either side. At some distance beyond this avenue, but in a direct line with its centre, stands one solitary stone in a sloping position, in front of which, but at a considerable distance, is an eminence or hill. The point of observation chosen by the excursion party was the stone table or altar, near the head of and within the circle, directly looking down the avenue. The morning was unfavourable, but fortunately, just as the sun was beginning to appear over the top of the hill, the mist disappeared, and then for a few moments the on-lookers stood amazed at the phenomenon presented to their view. While it lasted, the sun, like an immense ball, appeared actually to rest on the isolated stone of which mention has been made, or, to quote the quaint though prosaic description of one present, ’ it was like a huge pudding placed on a stone.‘

[..] Unless it is conceivable that this nice orientation is the result of chance,—which would be hard to believe,—the inference is justifiable that the builders of Stonehenge and other rude monuments of a like description had a special design or object in view in erecting these cromlechs or circles, or whatever the name antiquarians may give them, and that they are really the manifestations of the Baalistic or sun worship professed by the early inhabitants of Great Britain [..]

JAY AITCH.

Slightly unfair on those ‘poorer classes’ who turned up, because the Americans were surely there for similarly vague reasons, and they’d come all the way from London (hmm.. plus ca change, eh).

An intersesting encounter with the Arch Druid of Anglesey reveled something of the folklaw of these stones. Until quite recent times these stones formed the only stone circle on Anglesey (his words), then the stone masons set to work! These two large stones which frame Snowdon, were reputedly cursed and they were left untouched! Well I’m not sure how he came across this piece of unrecorded history, but Francis Lynch (Prehistoric Anglesey) notes that in the Mid 1700’s there were indeed 3 standing stones and the broken remains of a fourth. I also noticed the large stone set into the wall perhaps 30m from the site back towards the road.