SINGLE-STICK AND CUDGELS.

[To Mr. Hone.]

I do not observe that you notice the yearlyvillage sports of Single-stick playing and Cudgelling, in your Year-Book.You may know, perhaps, that the inhabitants of many of the villages in the western counties, not having a fair or other merry-making to collect a fun-seeking money spending crowd, and being willing to have one day of mirth in the year, have some time in the summer what are called feasts; when they are generally visited by their friends, whom they treat with the old English fare of beef and plumb pudding, followed by the sports of single-stick playing, cudgelling, or wrestling and sometimes by those delectable inventions of merry Comus, and mirthful spectacles of the village green, jumping in the sack, grinning through the horse-collar, or the running of blushing damsels for that indispensable article of female dress-the plain English name of which rhymes with a frock.

Single-stick playing is so called to distinguish it from cudgelling, in which two sticks are used: the single-stick player having the left hand tied down, and using only one stick both to defend himself and strike his antagonist. The object of each gamester in this play, as in cudgelling, is to guard himself, and to fetch blood from the other's head; whether by taking a little skin from his pericranium, drawing a stream from his nose, or knocking out a few of those early inventions for grinding the teeth.

They are both sanguine in their hope of victory, and, as many other ambitious fighters have done, they both aim at the

crown.

In cudgelling, as the name implies, the weapon is a stout cudgel; and the player defends himself with another having a large hemisphere of wicker-work upon it. This is called thepot, either from its likeness in shape to that kitchen article, or else in commemoration of some ancient warfare, when the "rude forefathers of the hamlet," being suddenly surrounded with their foes, sallied forth against them, armed with the pot and ladle.

Single-stick playing, and cudgelling, would be more useful to a man as an art of self-defence, if he were sure that his enemy would always use the same mode of fighting: but the worst of it is, if a Somersetshire single-stick player quarrel with a Devonshire wrestler, the latter, not

Dear Sir,

At p. 954 occurs the word "Handsell." The practise of nailing the horse shoes to keep out the witches is generally the same in all the counties I have been in; as also that of rubbing by some, and spitting on by others, of the first money taken for articles usually sold by petty carriers the good luck or bad of the sales for the day, being usually laid to the charge of the first purchaser. I have known when they would not sell at all to some, at the commencement a reduced price was gladly taken from a person presumed to be lucky as a purchaser.

Brand I find has much on spitting and saliva; but the word "Handsell," is in my opinion a hand full of such articles as could be so measured and valued by such-Yet I find in Arnold's chronicle of the customs of London, quarto, page 191, the following curious item, which may have reference to the above custom :

"Another Weight is called auncels shaft, and this weight is forboden in England by statute of parliament, and also Holy church hath cursed in England all those that bye and sell by that auncel weight, for it is a disuseable weight if a man cast him to deceive the people and for to be false."

Handsell to me certainly appears to be a corruption of Auncel, and the spitting on the first conceived good money is to keep away the bad which probably your more learned correspondent may further

illustrate.

I remain, Dear sir,

Your most obedient servant,
J. F. PHOENIX.

6th August, 1831. Liverpool.

AIRIES.

There are some very pretty notions in verse on the love of order and cleanliness among the "Good People," of our old

popular Mythology. They were famous slut-pinchers; and celebrated, withal, for dressing themselves gallantly.

MAB, The Fairy Queen, condescends to her subjects in a ditty entitled with her own name, wherein she says,

When mortals are at rest
And snoring in their nest,
Unheard, and unespied,
Through key-holes we do glide;
Over tables, stools, and shelves,
We trip it with our fairy elves.
And, if the house be foul
With platter, dish, or bowl,
Up stairs we nimbly creep,
And find the sluts asleep;
There we pinch their arms and thighs;
None escapes, and none espies.

So much for punishment of offences; next, as in moral justice, comes reward for services:

But if the house be swept,
And from uncleanness kept,
We praise the household maid,
And duly she is paid :

For we use, before we go,
To drop a tester in her shoe.

Dr. Richard Corbet, Bishop of Norwich, speaks of this practice in the outset of "A proper New Ballad, entitled, The FAIRIES FAREWELL."

Farewell Rewards and Fairies!

Good housewives now may say: For now foul sluts in dairies

Do fare as well as they :

And though they sweep their hearths no less
Than maids were wont to do,
Yet who, of late, for cleanliness,
Finds sixpence in her shoe?

The cheerful Prelate afterwards says,
in praise of the “Good People,”
A telltale in their company
They never could endure ;
And whoso kept not secretly

Their mirth was punished sure;
It was a just and Christian deed
To pinch such black and blue.

O how the commonwealth doth need
Such justiees as you!

To the same effect, Herrick, who wrote the glorious poem, "Corinna going a Maying," gives goodly counsel and caution to household maids,

If we will with Mab find grace,
Set each platter in his place;

Rake the fire up, and get

Water in, ere sun be set.

Wash your pails, and cleanse your dairies,
Sluts are loathsome to the fairies :

Sweep your house who doth not so,
Mab will pinch her by the toe.

The state dresses of their high and mighty little Majesties are always de scribed as suitable to their quality. Two pieces on this subject from The Rhapsody, 8vo. 1750, with some befitting alterations, are at the reader's service. The first which I find to have been abridged fr Dale's "English Parnassus," is on The King.

Upon a time the Fairy elves,
Having newly dress'd themselves,
Thought it meet to clothe their king
In robes most fit for revelling.

They wrought a cobweb shirt more thi
Than ever spiders since could spin;
And bleach'd it in the whitest snow
When the northern winds do blow,
A rich waistcoat they did bring
Form'd of the trout fly's golden wing;
Dyed crimson in a maiden's blush,
And lined with humming bees' soft plash.
His hosen and his cassock were
Wove of the silken gossamer;
And down the seams, with careful pace,
An unctuous snail drew curious lace.
His girdle was a wreath of pearls
Dropt from the eyes of silly girls,
Pinch'd because they had forgot
To sweep the hearth, and clean the pot.
His hat was all of ladies' love,
So passing light that it would move
If any gnat or tiny fly

But stirr'd the air in passing by.

The next, in a different measure, closes with a verse of agreeable sarcasm, and ends the entertainment somewhat abruptly— The Queen.

No sooner was their king attired

As prince had never been,
Than, as in duty was required,

They next array'd their queen.
With shining thread shot from the sun
And twisted into line,

They on the Wheel of Fortune spun
Her body-linen fine.

They made her gown of morning dawn
When Phoebus did but peep,
As by a poet's pencil drawn,
In Chloris' lap asleep.
Its colour was all colours fair,

The rainbow gave the dip;
Its perfume was the amber air

Drawn from a virgin's lip.
Her necklace was a subtile tye
Of glorious atoms, set
In the pure black of Beauty's eye,
As they had been in jet.
Her shoes were lover's hopes abed,
So passing thin and light,
That all her care was how to tread ;
A thought would burst them quite.

The revels ended, she put off;

Because her grace was warm, She fann'd her with a lady's scoff, And so she took no harm.

WELL FAIRIES.

Hutchinson, in his History of Cumberland, speaking of Eden-hall, says: " In this house are some good old-fashioned apartments. An old painted drinking glass, called the 'Luck of Eden-hall,' is preserved with great care. In the garden, near to the house, is a well of excellent spring water, called St. Cuthbert's well (the church is dedicated to that saint); this glass is supposed to have been a sacred chalice; but the legendary tale is, that the butler, going to draw water, surprised a company of fairies who were amusing themselves upon the green near the well: he seized the glass which was standing upon its margin; they tried to recover it; but, after an ineffectual struggle, flew away, saying,

'If that glass either break or fall,

Fare well the luck of Eden-hall.""

a remarkable

This cup is celebrated in the duke of Wharton's ballad upon drinking match held at sir Christopher Musgrave's. Another reading of the lines said to have been left with it, is,

"Whene'er this cup shall break or fall,
Farewell the luck of Eden-hall."

FAIRY SADdle.

Waldron, in his Description of the Isle of Man, tells us that there is in that island," the fairies' saddle, a stone termed so, as I suppose, from the similitude it has of a saddle. It seems to lie loose on the edge of a small rock, and the wise natives of Man tell you it is every night made use of by the fairies, but what kind of horses they are, on whose backs this is put, I could never find any of them who pretended to resolve me.' The same writer acquaints us that the Monks confidently assert that the first inhabitants of their island were fairies, and that these little people have still their residence among them. They call them the good people, and say they live in wilds and forests, and on mountains, and shun great cities because of the wickedness acted therein.*

* Brand.

FAIRY HAUNTS, &c.

In a curious and rare book entitled "Paradoxical Assertions, &c., by R. H." 1664, we read, that Englishmen "maintain and defend the sacred hearth, as the sanctuary and chief place of residence of the tutelary lares and household 'gods, and the only court where the lady Fairies convene to dance and revel?"

Aubrey, in his Miscellanies, says that, "When Fairies remove from place to place they are said to use the words Horse and Hattock."

In Sir John Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland, the intelligent minister of the parishes of Strachur and Stralachlan in Argyleshire, tells us, that "About eight miles to the eastward of Cailleach-vear, a small conical hill rises considerably above the neighbouring hills. It is seen from Inverary, and from many parts at a great distance. It is called Sien-Sluai, the fairy habitation of a multitude. A belief in Fairies prevailed very much in the Highlands of old; nor at this day is it quite obliterated. A small Iconical hill, called Sien, was assigned them for a dwelling, from which melodi

ous music

was frequently heard, and gleams of light seen in dark nights."

The account of Kirkmichael says, "Not more firmly established in this country is the belief in ghosts than that in fairies. The legendary records of fancy, transmitted from age to age, have assigned their mansions to that class of Genii, in detached hillocks covered with verdure, situated on the banks of purling brooks, or surrounded by thickets of wood. These hillocks are called sioth-dhunan, abbreviated sioth-anan, from sioth, peace, and dun, a mound. They derive this name from the practice of the druids, who were wont occasionally to retire to green eminences to administer justice, establish peace, and compose differences between contending parties. Their followers, when they were no more, fondly imagined, that seats where they exercised a virtue so beneficial to mankind, were still inhabited by them in their disembodied state. the autumnal season, when the moon

In

shines from a serene sky, often is the wayfaring traveller arrested by the music of the hills, more melodious than the strains of Orpheus. Often, struck with a more solemn scene, he beholds the visionary hunters engaged in the chace, and pursuing the deer of the clouds, while the hollow rocks, in long-sounding echoes, rever

berate their cries. About fifty years ago, a clergyman in the neighbourhood, whose faith was more regulated by the scepticism of Philosophy than the credulity of Superstition, could not be prevailed upon to yield his assent to the opinion of the times. At length, however, he felt from experience, that he doubted what he ought to have believed. One night as he was returning home, at a late hour, from a presbytery, he was seized by the fairies, and carried aloft into the air. Through fields of æther and fleecy-clouds he journeyed many a mile, descrying, like Sancho Panza on his Clavileno, the earth far distant below him, and no bigger than a nut-shell. Being thus sufficiently convinced of the reality of their existence, they let him down at the door of his own house, where he afterward often recited to the wondering circle the marvellous tale of his adventure. These genii are still supposed by many of the people to exist in the woods and sequestered valleys of the mountains, where they frequently appear to the lonely traveller, clothed in green, with dishevelled hair floating over their shoulders, and with faces more blooming than the vermil blush of a summer morning. At night, in particular, when fancy assimilates to its own preconceived ideas every appearance and every sound, the wandering enthusiast is frequently entertained by their music, more melodious than he ever before heard.

Tells how the drudging goblin swet,
To earn his cream-bowl duly set,
When in one night, ere glimpse of mora,
His shadowy flale hath thresh'd the com
That ten day-lab'rers could not end;
Then lays him down the lubbar-end.
And stretch'd out all the chimney's leagh,
Basks at the fire his hairy strength,
And, crop-full, out of doors he fings,
Ere the first cock his matin rings.

Martin, in his description of the Sheiland Isles, says: "It is not long since every family of any considerable substance in those islands was haunted by a spint they called Browny, which did several sorts of work and this was the reason why they gave him offerings of the var ous products of the place. Thus some, when they charmed their milk, or brewed, poured some milk and wort through the hole of a stone called Browny's stone.— Browny was frequently seen in all the most considerable families in these isles, and north of Scotland, in the shape of a tall man: but, within these twenty or thirty years past, he is seen but rarely.There were spirits, also, that appeared the shape of women, horses, swine, cats, and some like fiery balls, which would follow men in the fields: but there have been but few instances of these for forty years past. These spirits used to form sounds in the air, resembling those of a harp, pipe, crowing of a cock, and of the grinding of querns; and sometimes they thrice heard voices in the air by night singing Irish songs: the words of which songs some of my acquaintance sti retain. One of them resembled the voice of a woman who had died some time before, and the song related to her stare in the other world.-Below the chappes (three chapels in the island of Valay there is a flat thin stone, called Brownie's stone, upon which the ancient inhabitant offered a cow's milk every Sunday: ht this custom is now quite abolished"

King James I., in his Dæmonology,sh "Brownie appeared like a rough mat and haunted divers houses without doing any evill, but doing, as it were, necessarie turnes up and downe the house; ye some were so blinded as to beleeve that their house was all the sonsier, as they called it, that such spirits resorted there

Dr. Johnson, in his Journey to t Western Islands, observes," Browny a sturdy fairy, who, if he was fed, an kindly treated, would, as they say, de1 great deal of work. They now pay h

no wages, and are content to labor for themselves."

Robert Heron says, "The Brownie was a very obliging spirit, who used to come into houses by night, and, for a dish of cream, to perform lustily any piece of work that might remain to be done: sometimes he would work, and sometimes eat till he bursted: if old clothes were laid out for him, he took them in great distress, and never more returned."

KNOCKERS.

Besides the common class of imaginary beings called fairies, with whose qualities we are familiar, through the story-books of childhood; we have accounts, on like good authority, of another species, who dwelt in the mines, where, it is said, they were often heard to imitate the actions of the workmen, whom they were thought to be inclined to assist, and never, unless provoked by insult, to injure. In Wales they were called knockers, and were said to point out the rich veins of silver and lead. Some fairies are also said to have resiaed in wells.

Respecting knockers," the Scottish Encyclopedia says: "The belief of fairies still subsists in many parts of our own country. The swart fairy of the mine' (of German extraction) has scarce yet quitted our subterraneous works. The Germans believed in two species of fairies of the mines, one fierce and malevolent, the other a gentle race, appearing like little old men dressed like miners, and not much above two feet high." Our "knockers" are described by Mr. John Lewis, in his correspondence with Mr. Baxter, as little statured, and about half a yard long he adds, "at this very in stant there are miners on a discovery of a vein of metal, and two of them are ready to make oath they have heard these knockers in the day-time."

FAIRY SICKNESS.

says, I call thee P. from the east, west, south, and north, from the groves, woods, rivers, marshes, fairies white, red, black,' &c.; and, after uttering certain short prayers, she returns home to the sick person, to see whether it be the distemper they call esane, which they suppose inflicted by the fairies, and, whispering in his ear another short prayer, with the pater-noster, puts some burning coals into a cup of clear water, and forms a better judgment of the disorder than most physicians."

In the "Survey of the South of Ireland," there is this passage,—“ I have seen one of those elf-stones like a thin triangular flint, not half an inch in diameter, with which they suppose the fairies And when these destroy their cows.

animals are seized with a certain disorder, to which they are very incident, they say they are elf-shot."

A cow, or other animal, supposed to have been injured by these missiles, was to be touched with one of them, or to be made to drink of the water in which one of them had been dipped.

The origin of these fairy weapons is of high antiquity; they were either flint arrow-heads used by our ancestors, in battle or chase, or tools of ordinary service in a barbarous state of society, before iron was known.*

FAIRY RINGS.

Fairies were thought to have their haunts in groves or on mountains,the southern side of hills, and in verdant meadows, where their diversion was dancing hand in hand in a circle. The traces of their tiny feet are supposed to remain visible on the grass a long time afterwards, and are called "Fairy Rings," or circles.

Moses Pitt, in a scarce tract, relates

• Brand.