No. XXIX.]

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OLD TRADITIONS AND FOLK-LORE OF SURREY. THE memory of John Aubrey has come down to us, as that of a gossiping antiquary, with a scolding wife. The latter is too delicate a subject to handle at present; or we might have entered into a grave speculation how far the sharp utterings of her uneasy tongue, and what Shakespeare calls, combing his noddle with a threelegged stool," may have driven him from his fireside, and led him to wander in the "romancey" spots of Surrey, copying gravestones, decyphering inscriptions, peering at church windows, chatting with sextons, and by the "ingle nook" of the village cottage holding converse with ancient dames, and gathering that famous store of traditions, and pleasant bits of folk-lore he has jotted down in his Natural History and Antiquities of the County. We cannot help liking the old man-he was so harmless, so naive and credulous. His stories, too, have their value, simple and vulgar though they be. It is the people's way of interpreting antiquity, and reading his tory perhaps not quite so learnedly as a philosopher would discuss the question; but at all events far more amusingly, and in the main about as true. They may be covered under absurdities, and a ludicrous mask, yet still in these legends and old world notions, we catch a glimpse of the popular mind of that day, as well as many ponderous tomes could have taught us. We are sick of great battles, and political intrigues. We have grown weary of the pompous figures that strut upon the stage of history, and want to know what the people-the rude, unlettered common every-day sort of people - were talking and thinking about two hundred years ago! Aubrey tells us, that at Godalming the people have a current tradition, "That in a great tempest of thunder and lightning the great bell of the church was carried out of the tower and thrown into the river at a great distance, where the bell sinking, and being not possible to be taken up, it caused a great whirlpool, which no swimmer dares adventure into." On the hill-side at Chersey, "Lies a huge stone of gravel and sand which they call the devil's

stone, and believe it cannot be moved, and that treasure is

hid underneath." Near Bisley Church a spring called St. John the Baptist's Well, is cold in summer and warm

in winter."

Of the celebrated Archbishop Abbot who was born at Guildford "at the first house over the bridge," we are informed that his mother dreamt" if she could eat a pike, her son would be a great man.' The good woman tried hard accordingly to satisfy her longing, and "accidentally taking up some of the river water that ran close by the house in a pail, she took up the much desired banquet, dressed it, and devoured it almost all. This odd affair made no small noise in the neighbour

VOL. III.

[MAY, 1853.

hood, and the curiosity of it made several people of quality offer to be sponsors to the child. This their Poverty accepted joyfully, and three were chosen, who maintained him at school and afterwards at college. This dream was attested to me by the minister and several of the most sober inhabitants of the place."

The tradition concerning the foundation of Dulwich College runs thus: "Mr. Alleyne, the original actor of Shakspeare's plays, in one of which he played a Dæmon with six others, was in the midst of the play surprised by an apparition of the Devil. This so worked on his fancy that he made a vow which he performed at this place." We are further told that afterwards on a second marriage he wished to change his mind and was very desirous of revoking his charity but was not suffered.

At Norwood grew an oak tree that bore mistletoe. "Some persons cut this mistletoe for some apothecaries in London, and sold them a quantity for ten shillings each time, and left only one branch remaining for more to sprout out. One fell lame shortly after; soon after each of the others lost an eye, and he that felled the tree, about 1678, though warned of these misfortunes of the other after broke his leg, as if the Hamadryades had resolved to men would notwithstanding adventure to do it, and shortly take an ample revenge for the injury done to that sacred

and venerable oak." "I cannot omit," continues Aubrey, "here taking notice of the great misfortunes in the family of the Earl of Winchelsea who at Eastwell in Kent felled down a most curious grove of oaks near his noble seat, and gave the first blow with his own hands. Shortly after his Countess died in her bed suddenly, and his eldest son, Lord Maidstone, was killed at sea by a cannon bullet. It is a common notion that a strange noise proceeds from a falling oak, to be heard half a mile distant as if it were the genius of the oak lamenting. It has been not unusually observed that to cut oak wood is unfortunate."

The Newdegates of Newdegate pulled down a chapel and converted it into a farm house. Tradition says the family soon began to decay. The Parsonage-house at Sheere was surrounded with a deep moat.-The story goes that it was built on wool-packs. When a bourn

near Stoneham Lane overflows and runs down to

Croydon, it is held by the inhabitants to be ominous and prognosticating something remarkable approaching, of London, and the Revolution of 1688. In Warlingas it did before King Charles' Restoration, the Plague ham parish in a grove of yew trees rises a spring upon the approach of some remarkable alteration in Church and State.

"The grave-digger of Woking told me he had a rule from his father to know when not to dig a grave upon a corpse not rotted. This was when he found a certain plant about the bigness of the middle of a tobacco pipe; which came near the surface of the earth, but never appeare

F

above it. It is very tough about a yard long, the rind almost black and tender, so that when you pluck it, it slips off, and underneath is red. It hath a small button at top not much unlike asparagus. - Sometimes finds two or three in a grave.'- Sure it is not a fern root.' Hath with diligence traced to its root, and finds it to spring from the putrefaction of the dead body.'

Some curious stories are related in Britton and Brayley's History of Surrey. Pirbright, it appears, was such a desolate place that "Only a few years ago a stranger was hailed as a rarity, and it was a custom of the inhabitants to greet him by joining hands and dancing round him; and this singular mode of salutation had the boorish title attached to it of Dancing the Hog.'" The story goes that the people were so ignorant "they only knew when it rained by looking into the ponds on their heaths and commons. Guildford was a noted place for those two old English pastimes! Bull baiting and the Ducking stool. The Black Book accordingly has the following entry:

Anno 4 Ed. VI. At this daye was punnyshed by carting and duckinge Johan the wyfe of George Wryte of Guldeford, taylor.

In Russell's Guildford we read that "in a garden on the border of the river, at the deepest part of it, where it enters the mill, was fixed securely a strong post, about twelve feet in height. It had a long mortise not far from the top, in which a beam was held by means of a pin, so that it might be moved like a lever, and a chair was occasionally suspended from that end which hung over the water, for the more convenient ducking of scolds.' The custom has been discontinued many years. The last time the chair was taken out for use appears to have been about 1710, when one Margaret --, servant to Stephen Gould, a butcher in St. Mary's parish, left the town through fear, she having long been a reputed scold.'"

Of the Gossip's Bridle, preserved in the church at Walton-on-Thames, there is an account in the first vol. of the "Current Notes."-" Its presentation arose from the individual whose name it bears losing a valuable estate through the instrumentality of a gossiping lying woman." Cowey Stakes is traditionally recorded as the place where Cæsar crossed the Thames. Mr. Bray says "One Simmons, a fisherman, who had lived here, and known the river all his life, told him in 1807, that at the place called Cowey Stakes he had weighed up several stakes of the size of his thigh, about six feet long, shod with iron, the wood very black, and so hard as to turn an axe. His tradition is that they formed part of a bridge built by Julius Cæsar." Daines Barrington and some other writers have insinuated they were only the remains of a wear for fishing; however, the tradition is doubtless

correct.

Of the Pedlar and his dog in Lambeth church window, an engraving is given in the first vol. of the "Current Notes." The tradition goes, that it represents a person who gave the ground called Pedlar's Acre to the parish for leave to bury his dog in the churchyard. The following odd inscription was once to be seen on a grave

stone in Clapham old church. See Rawlinson's Notes on Aubrey in the Bodleian Library.

"From duns secure, if creditors should come, For once a debtor may be found at home; By Death arrested, and in gaol here laid, The first and last,-the only debt he paid." Brayley relates a tradition that "Camberwell Grove was the scene of the murder of his uncle, by the hero of Lillo's popular tragedy, The History of George Barnwell." We have not much faith in this, however; for "Lillo's drama was founded on a ballad which Bishop Percy states was printed as early as the middle of the seventeenth century. In that production Barnwell's uncle is described as a wealthy grazier dwelling at Ludlow, in a wood near which place the ballad goes on to say the murder was committed." The marvellous tale of the Stockwell Ghost is too well known to need insertion here. We must refer our readers to Hone's Every Day Book. Norwood, from time immemorial, was a famous haunt of the Gipsies, "who, from their reputed knowledge of futurity, were often consulted by the young and credulous.” According to Brayley— ago, when it was customary among the labouring classes "This was particularly the case some fifty or sixty years and servants of London, to walk to Norwood on the Sunday afternoon, to have their 'fortunes told,' and also to take refreshment at the Gipsey House, which long bore on its sign post a painting of the deformed figure of Margaret Finch, the queen of the gipsies." "This remarkable person," says Lysons," lived to the age of 109 years. After travelling over various parts of the kingdom, during the greater part of a century, she settled at Norwood; whither her great age, and the fame of her fortune-telling attracted numerous visitors. From a habit of sitting on the ground with her chin resting on her knees, the sinews at length became so contracted, that she could not rise from that posture; and after her death, they were obliged to inclose "She was buried, as her body in a deep square box." appears by the register, at Beckingham, in Kent, on the 24th October, 1740."

Russell, who always went under the guise of a woman.

At Streatham resided an eccentric character named

46

nied the celebrated Bampfylde Moore Carew in many of his Early in life he associated with gipsies and accomparambles. He also visited most parts of the Continent as a stroller and vagabond; and having acquired a knowledge of astrology and quackery, he returned to England, and practised in both arts with much profit. This was after his assumption of the female garb; and Lysons remarks, that fallible doctress;' he was likewise an excellent sempstress, 'his long experience gained him the character of a most inand celebrated for making a good shirt. His extraordinary age obtained him the charitable notice of many respectable families, and among others, of that of Mr. Thrale, at whose house Dr. Johnson, who found him a shrewd sensible person, with a good memory, was very fond of conversing with him.'"'

At Mortlake resided one Colston, a merchant, well known for his extensive charities. He founded a school at Bristol; "the boys wear a brass dolphin on their breasts in commemoration, as it is reported, of his pre

“Conjugii

·

THE MANUSCRIPT DIARY OF WILLIAM WHITEWAY. This curious little volume is numbered Bib. Eg. 784, in the British Museum. The author was a resident of Dorchester, engaged in trade, and apparently a man of some wealth and influence, since he was appointed Overseer of the Poor and Town Steward, and his father was a Justice of the Peace. His Diary records several anecdotes of the King and Court, with interesting notices, relative to foreign affairs, political rumours, and scraps of Parliamentary intelligence; the marriages and deaths of numerous individuals, together with lists of Members returned to Parliament; high sheriffs of the county, and officers of the borough of Dorchester. The entries date from 1618 to 1634. A few extracts may not be unacceptable to your readers.

1618, November.-Sir Walter Rawleigh was beheaded in London about the end of October, and after his death was much lamented by the Londoners, having acquitted himself of the death of the Earl of Essex and of his Atheism, as appeareth by his speech at his scaffold. To clear justice, the King's Majesty wrote a book concerning him.

1619, January 16.-It was reported that Sir Louis Stukeley, Vice-Admiral of Devon, who had the charge of Sir Walter Rawleigh when he was prisoner, having rhd. money for betraying him, fell to clipping the gold, and is thereupon apprehended.-In this month the King's banquetting-house at the Palace of Whitehall was burnt, and the 29th do. Sir Thomas Smith's house at Deptford near London, was burnt, lying next to the King's storehouse for cordage.

August. In this month was established a custom upon all wool-cloth, being on our Dorsets ninepence more than before, and sixpence on a Devon.

November. Sir Anthony Ashley was chosen Sheriff of Dorset, being an ancient gentleman and knighted in Calais action by the Earl of Essex for his valour.

1620, March 26.-The King, Prince, and a great part of the nobility came to Paul's, in London, to hear a Sermon and to see the ruins of that Church; to the repairing whereof his Majesty hath promised to be a royal benefactor. At this time there was in London an extraordinary Ambassador from Spain to treat about the inarriage, as some say, betwixt the two Kings; which is since reported to be broken off: the Prince standing upon it that he will treat of a match for himself.

June 14.-I, William Whiteway, was married to Elenor Parkins by Mr. John White, in the Church of the Holy Trinity, in Dorchester, in the presence of the greater part

The black jack! the merry black jack,
As it is tost on high a,

Grows, flows-till at last they full to blows,
And make their noddles cry, a.

The brown bowl! the merry brown bowl,
As it goes round about a ;

Fill, still-let the world say what it will,
And drink the drink all out, a.
The deep can! the merry deep can;
As we do freely quaff, a-
Fling, sing-be as merry as a King,

And sound a lusty laugh, a.

November.-In this month was there a free collection

made for the defence of the Palatinate, and in Dorchester was given £200. The Papists have collected in England for the Emperor £3000, whereof part is fallen into his Majesty's hands; the rest like to be recovered.

1621, January 3.-There came into the country a proclamation to forbid all men to speak of matters of state either of this kingdom or of any other place, upon pain of his Majesty's high displeasure.

February 15.-Forty lords of Parliament and four-score burgesses presented unto the King a petition for the restraining of the liberty that Papists and Jesuits have, who answered them, that he knew better how to govern them than they could teach him; that hereby he should move other princes to deal more violently with Protestants, but that he left them to be proceeded against by his laws.—The forty and eighty aforesaid did beseech his Majesty to recall a commission granted to the Spanish Ambassador for the shipping away of 100 pieces of iron ordnance, but received this answer; that he had given him the faith and word of a King, and therefore could not recall it-which two things made a great many to be exceeding sorry.

April.-About this time died the little old Earl of Hertford, as a'so Dr. King, Bishop of London, a man of excellent learning and great integrity.-The 6th hereof was a great tumult among the apprentices of London about the Spanish Ambassador, so that the King and all the Court did take knowledge of the matter, and caused one of them to be whipt about the streets guarded with 200 halberds.

M. This winter and spring all sort of corn was at a low price. Wheat was sold for 20d and 2s with us-barley for 16d-oats for 10d-rye for 16d-but towards summer the prices began to rise again.

May.-Sir Francis Mitchell, being one of Sir Giles Mompesson's cousins, was sent unto Finsbury jail, a place made by him for rogues, and made to ride on a lean jade backwards through London holding the tail in his hand, having a paper upon his forehead wherein was written his offence. And the 18th of this month Sir Henry Yelverton, Attorney-General, was called to answer to such things as were objected against him, and then had six days respite given him; which the Earl of Arundel did dislike, whereupon

66

the Lord Speaker said that the Lord of Arundel's predecessors had been censured there for treason, before their time, and therefore were offended; then said the Earl, My predecessors sat here while yours did keep shop ;" and upon that he was commanded to go to the bar and crave pardon of the Lord Spencer; which he refusing, was sent away to the Tower. And Sir Henry Yelverton, in his answer, offers to prove that wherein he had offended was upon the Lord Marquis of Buckingham's letters.

June 4.- Parliament was adjourned until the 14th Nov. next, and at breaking up of the sessions they all made a protestation to die in the Palsgrave's quarrel if need were.

July. This summer was finished the State BanquettingHouse at Whitehall, all built of Portland stone, which had been burnt down in January 1619.

Sept. 11.-This was a very cold and moist summer, which ripened corn but slowly. It was a very great year of plums, so that a peck was sold for a penny.

October.-Upon a report of shipping to be provided to suppress the insolency of the Hollanders, this was found in London :

The Belgic frog

Out of the bog

With the British mouse did strive

Th' Iberian kite

Meanwhile by sleight

Surpriseth both alive.

While for their shares
Of Indian wares

English and Dutch do brawl-
The Spaniard watcheth,
Advantage catcheth,

To seize on them and all.
Then be agreed

And take good heed,

Make not a needless fray,
Lest to a third,

That ravenous bird,

You both become a prey.

Dec. 20.-A fire broke out in Chancery Lane in London, by the negligence of a clerk, and burnt ten houses with a great number of records, and two lord's houses; but went no further.

1622, January 9.-His Majesty went from London to Theobalds', where riding into his park with some keepers to see the deer, being upon the ice it brake and his horse fell backward into the water, and the king all under water was drawn out by the legs, lay speechless for an hour, having received much water into his mouth-but is now well recovered.

DEFOE'S WORKS are enumerated in Lowndes. See also An Alphabetical Catalogue of an extensive Collection of his Writings (by Michael Stace), 1829; and a list of 210 pieces prefixed to Wilson's Life and Times of Daniel Defoe," vol. i. 1830.

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Can any of your Contributors to "Current Notes," inform me of the nature of the delusions of Kutswara, the composer of the Battle of Prague,' and what was his "unpitied end," alluded to in Millingen's "Curiosities of Medical Experience?"

Campden.

JOHN KETTLE.

RARE OLD BALLADS.

"The lamentable fall of Queene Eleanor, who for her pride and wickednesse by God's judgement sunke into the ground at Charing Crosse and rose up again at Queen Hive."

To the tune of Gentle and Courteous.
When Edward was in England

The first of all that name,
Proud Elnor he made his Queen,
A stately Spanish dame,
Whose wicked life and sinful pride
Through England did excel,
To dainty dames and gallant maids

This Queen was known full well.
She was the first that did invent
In coaches brave to ride;

She was the first that brought this land
The deadly sinne of pride;

No English taylor here could serve
To make her rich attyre,

But sent for taylors into Spaine,

To feed her vaine desire.

They brought in fashions strange and new,
With golden garments bright,

The farthingale and mighty cuffes,
With gownes of rare delight.
Our London dames in Spanish pride
Did flourish every where;

Our Englishmen, like women then,

Did weare long locks of haire.

Both man and childe, both maid and wife,
Were drown'd in pride of Spaine,

And thought the Spanish tailors then
Our Englishmen did staine;

Whereat the Queene did much despite
To see our English men,

In vestures clad as brave to see
As any Spaniard then.

She crav'd the King that every man,
That wore long locks of haire,
Might then be cut and powled all,

Or shaven very neare.
Whereat the King did seem content,
And soon thereon agreed,
And first commanded that his owne
Should then be cut with speed.
And after that, to please his Queene,
Proclaimed through the land,
That everie man that wore long hair
Should powle him out of hand.
But yet this Spaniard not content,
To women bore a spight,
And then requested of the King,
Against all law and right,

That everie womankinde should have
Her right breast cut away:
And then with burning irons sear'd,
The blood to stench and stay.

King Edward then perceiving wel

Her spight to women kinde,

Devised soon by policy

To turne her bloodie minde.

He sent for burning irons straight,

All sparkling hot to see,

And said, O Queene, come on thy way,

I will begin with thee.

Which words did much displease the Queene

That penance to begin,

But askt him pardon on her knees
Who gave her grace therein.
But afterward they chanst to passe
Along brave London streets,
Whereas the Maior of London's wife
In stately sort she meets,
With musick, mirth, and melody,
Unto the Church that went,

To give God thanks that to Lord Maior
A noble sonne had sent.

It grieved much this spightful Queene
To see that any one
Should so exceed in mirth and joy,
Except her selfe alone:

For which she after did devise

Within her bloody minde,
And practis'd still most secretly,
To kill that ladie kinde.

Unto Lord Maior of London then
She sent by letters straight,
To send his lady to the Court,

Upon her Grace to wait;
But when the London lady came

Before proud Elnor's face,
She stript her of her rich array,
And kept her vile and base.

She sent her into Wales with speed,
And kept her secret there,
And used her still more cruelly

Than ever man did heare;

She made her wash, she made her starch,
She made her drudge alway,

She made her nurse up children small,
And labour night and day.

But this contented not the Queene,
But shew'd her more despight;
She bound this lady to a post,

At twelve o'clock at night;

And as (poore lady !) she stood bound,
The Queene in angry mood

Did set two snakes unto her breast,
That suckt away her blood.

Thus died the Mayor of London's wife,

Most grievous for to heare;

Which made the Spaniard grow more proud,

As after shall appeare.

The wheat that dayly made her bread

Was bolted twenty times,

The food that fed this stately dame

Was boil'd in costly wines.

The water that did spring from ground
She would not touch at all,

But washt her hands with dew of heaven
That on sweet roses fall;

She bath'd her body manie a time
In fountaines filled with milke;
And every day did change attire
In costly Median silke.

But comming then to London backe
Within her coach of gold,

A tempest strange within the skies
This Queene did then behold;
Out of which storme she could not goe,
But there remained a space,

Foure horses could not stirre her coach
A foot out of that place.

A judgement surely sent from heaven
For shedding guiltlesse bloud,
Upon this sinful Queene that slew
The London lady good.

King Edward then (as wisdom wil'd)
Accus'd her for that deede;
But she denied, and wisht that God
Would send his wrath with speed,

If that upon so vile a thing

Her heart did ever thinke,

She wisht the ground might open wide,
And therein she might sinke;
With that at Charing Crosse she sunke
Into the ground alive,

And after rose with life againe
In London at Queene Hive.
Thus you have heard the fall of pride,
A just reward of sinne;

For those that wil forsweare themselves
God's vengeance daily winne.
Beware of pride, ye London dames,
Both wives and maidens all;
Beare this imprinted in your minde,
That pride must have a fall.

Printed by the Assignes of Thomas Symcocke. This black letter curiosity is preserved in the Roxburghe Collection of Ballads in the British Museum.

"AULD ROBIN GRAY." ("Current Notes," p. 31, April.)—This ballad (written in 1771) is undoubtedly the composition of Lady Ann Lindsay, who, in 1793, was married to Sir Andrew Barnard, Librarian to George III. For full particulars respecting the composition of it, see Lord Lindsay's "Lives of the Lindsays," vol. ii. chap. 18.

The Rev. W. Leeves, of Wrington, was only the composer of the music. Bristol.

J. K. R. W.

NATHANIEL BENTLEY, alias DIRTY DICK.-Perhaps some readers of the "Current Notes" can inform me in what part of Leadenhall Street the celebrated "Dirty Dick," (described in a recent poem in "Household Words,") kept shop, in the beginning of this century? W. A.