Some Longtown Superstitions

Some Longtown Superstitions

Life in Longtown

From the Carlisle Patriot (CP) and Carlisle Journal (CJ) newspapers

Feb 26th 1886 Carlisle PatriotLocal Superstitions ? Lecture at LongtownOn Tuesday evening last, under the auspices of the Longtown Literary and Scientific Society, Mr W Jardine gave an interesting lecture on ?Local Superstitions.? The Rev J R Gibson, president of the society, occupied the chair.Mr Jardine, after some introductory observations, remarked that the neighbourhood of Longtown was rich in absurd superstitions. Referring to unlucky omens, he said it was very unlucky when going away to meet a woman first. It was also a bad omen to meet a person who had at any time been the victim of bad luck. A farmer living in the neighbourhood told him that his father was once going from Rosetrees to Drybeck, where there was to be a cock-fighting contest. When nearing the latter place he met ?an unlucky person.? His first impulse was to climb a hedge and so avoid passing this man on the road, but on a second consideration he went on. The result of this unlucky meeting was the best possible luck, for he proved the champion of the day, his bird being victorious in eight contests, while he finally bore off the head prize, a pair of shoes. It would seem there was a possibility of defeating ill-luck and wooing good luck; for it was very common when people were going away, in order to avoid meeting a woman or a person accredited unlucky, to send a man out to meet them first. It was also still considered unlucky for a woman to be the first to enter a house on Christmas or New Year?s morning; why he did not know. He knew a man who last Christmas was absolutely forced to go into a certain house on the plea that the good wife would not like to see a woman enter first. Nor was this enough; he was pressed to take something to drink; but being a teetotaller, he had to eat a piece of bread before leaving the house. It was a common saying that as much as possible ought to be carried into a house on the first day of the year, but that nothing ought to be carried out. He thought, however, that the practice of rising early on that morning to carry into the house sticks, coal &c, &c, was obsolete; as also the great provision that used to be made by the old people for that day by emptying their dirty water, throwing out their ashes and completing multifarious other household duties on New Year?s Eve. Dealing with the superstition that Friday was an unlucky day, the lecturer remarked that very few servants in that district would go to their new places on that day; and he knew farmers who were unwilling to commence sowing corn on Friday. As showing how far the belief in the ill-luck of Friday was still carried in that district, Mr Jardine mentioned that a young man, a friend of his own, was visiting the house of a maiden lady living near Longtown about six weeks ago. The lady had a cow, whose tail required trimming; he suggested that he should trim it, and was just about to do so, when the lady interposed with, ?No, no; I won?t have it done today. This is Friday and it will not be lucky.? To find a horse shoe or a piece of horse shoe was deemed highly lucky. Two brothers left that district to seek their fortune in one of the larger centres of industry. One of them found a piece of old horse shoe. One had been very successful in business and prospered in life; that was the one who found the horse shoe. It was firmly believed by his parents and by a great many people who knew him that his good fortune was the result of his finding the horse shoe. An old lady in Longtown said that if any person made their ?honours? to the new moon the first time they saw it, they were sure to get a present during the month. The same lady said that her sister once did that, and she got a pair of gloves before the moon changed. The lecturer next spoke of charms and superstitions of that description. When the butter was long in coming, the churn was thought to be bewitched; the housewife used to throw some salt into the fire, and put a little into the churn to buy over or frighten the witches. Sometimes before the churning, the pitchers containing the cream were carried to the edge of a running water and back again before the cream was put into the churn. A person who gave him some information on this point said he had seen it done frequently at Mossband. Another very common practice in the Longtown neighbourhood was for people to sprinkle salt upon a cow?s back before calving to keep away the witches. It was also common to give the young calf an egg. One person known to the lecturer was no believer in the custom. On one occasion most of the household went to market, and instructions were left with the person referred to that when the cow calved he had to give an egg to the calf. The cow calved, but instead of following the instructions of his mother he ate the egg himself, and yet, he said, the calf seemed none the worse for want of the egg. This was a case of ?swallowing? a superstition. Lucky stones all must have seen. A few years ago very few stables were without this omen of good. These stones were considered a sort of general charm against the combined power of fairies and witches and also disease. Charms for the cure of warts were to be found in all parts of the country. The following was one of the charms used in the immediate district - Cut an apple in two. Eat one half, and rub the warts with the other; then throw it away; and the apple and the warts will decay together. Here was another charm ? Get as many little stones as there are warts on your hands, and put them in a bag. Turn your back to a hedge, shut your eyes, repeat certain words, then throw the bagful of stones over your shoulder. It was important that the person trying the charm should not go back to the place where the bag was lying and look at it. He himself remembered trying this cure, and he believed the warts were charmed away, because all disappeared except one.For whooping cough there were many cures. The following curious one was resorted to in Longtown only a few weeks ago. Two children ina house in English Street had the whooping cough. A pedlar who happened to call heard the children cough, and advised the mother to pass the children three times under a she ass. This was done, the children were cured, and the efficacy of the charm was established. Rheumatism was another ailment which yielded to charms. An old man living in the neighbourhood of Westlinton was much troubled with that painful disease. He hung a holed stone to the bed post, and so long as it remained there he was comparatively well. But his sister, having removed to Carlisle, lost the stone, and his pains returned. The lecturer then referred to the belief in witches, boggles and fairies. One person who lived in the neighbourhood informed him that it was once his bad fortune just to miss the sight of one. When he was a boy going to school at Mossband, a fairy was passing that way. There was a general rush to get a glimpse of the creature, and as he was too small to fight his way to the front, it got past before he could see it. Touching upon the local belief in witchcraft, the lecturer gave one or two stories still current in the Longtown district illustrative of the remarkable powers claimed for old Lizzie Douglas of Brampton. On one occasion, a bale of cloth was stolen from a cottage on the side of the Lyne near Breckonhill. Lizzie was consulted and probably the names of the suspected persons were mentioned to her. On being asked who had committed the theft, she declared she knew, but would not tell. She, however, said the cloth would be returned within a certain time, and in the meantime the guilty persons would be ?witched.? It was said that the cloth was returned within the prescribed time, being put through a pane of the window into the house, and that, to use a rustic phrase, some persons were ?severely handled? in the interval between the loss and the return of the cloth. A man who lived at Low Hallburn was said to have got out of bed and run along the ceiling and rafters of the house, to have set up unearthly cries, and to have baffled the efforts of many men to keep him in bed. Lizzie was applied to in the emergency. She told the applicants that they must go to a certain place, and there shoot a hare, and the man would get better. They went to the place indicated, and a hare rose at the very place, but no ? it could not be shot. It was, in fact a ?witched hare.? Referring to boggles and ghosts, the lecturer made allusion to the local belief that Netherby Hall was haunted. It was said that Lady Widdrington (who was a Graham and the widow of the unfortunate Lord Widdrington) made her appearance frequently; the pictures were nightly turned on the walls, and curious sounds were heard. There was also a white woman seen near the Fauld, and the Lyneside boggle had long been a terror to that road. The lecturer made brief reference to numerous other local superstitions, including some connected with marriages and deaths. As an example of credulity, he mentioned that the prophetic weather almanacks were still trusted. An old farmer, yet living in the district, once invested in a Belfast penny almanack. He however did not find it so trustworthy as he expected, and one day he exclaimed, ?That penny almanack tells nowt but lees. The first time aa ga tae Carel I?se gaan to get a sixpenny yan; it?ll tell t?treuth, and last a few years.?After Mr Wilson had added a few words illustrative of his belief that superstition was not dying out, the Rev W LYTTEIL, in an able and instructive speech, proposed a vote of thanks to Mr Jardine, in terms highly complimentary to the lecturer the motion was seconded by Mr Elliott and carried.

A prize fight between Carter and Oliver took place at Springfield in 1816, for the championship of England. See HERE for the full story