Part 21
The land was afforested immediately after the Conquest, though the Saxon owner was, for a time, allowed to keep his estate in it. About 1123 Ranulph de Meschines, third Earl of Chester, added to the forest some waste lands and the villa or township of Kingsley, and conferred on Ranulph de Kingsley the forestry rights to be held in grand serjeantry, and gave him a horn in token of his rights as master forester. It is worth noting that the horns of Wirral and Delamere were _both_ given, and at the same period, by this third Earl of Chester. But it is important to note that the office of master forester was not altogether paramount. Certain other rights belonged to the families of Grosvenors, Weavers, and Mertons; and the rights in the two forests were often kept separate and distinct. Finally, however, the whole of the forest rights were vested in the family of Done of Utkinton, and in 1617 James I. came “a-hunting” in the forest of Delamere and knighted John Done, who attended him as _chief forester_ and _bow bearer_. Sir John died in 1629, and the male line of Dones came to an end. Through the female line the horn and forest rights descended to the Crewes and Ardernes, and then to the present Earl of Haddington, who married Miss Arderne in 1854.
The horn is a beautiful black colour and strongly curved. It is 14 in. on outside curve, but it is only 5 in. across from mouthpiece to mouth. Its greatest width is 1¾ in. at the mouth, and ¾ in. at the other end. The mouthpiece seems of silver gilt, but there is no sign of the other two “golden” bands with which pictures and old documents show it was embellished.
_Forest of Macclesfield._--The third great forest of Cheshire was that of Macclesfield, which was in existence before Domesday survey.
The office of hereditary master forester of the forests of Leek and Macclesfield was held by the Davenports of Davenport by a grant from Hugh Cyvelioc, Earl of Chester (1160).
Now the original grant, as in the case of Mara and Mondrem, did not prevent subordinate rights being granted, and there were no less than eight sub-foresters who exercised rights down to the sixteenth century.
One of these foresterships belonged to the manor of Taxal, which was held by the Downes of Sutton Downes and Taxal. According to depositions about the year 1720, it is said of Reginald Downes, the then owner:--
“That hee when ye King came a hunting allways rowsed ye stagg, and when ye King came to ye forest Mr. D. held ye King’s stirrup and ye L’d Darby held _his_ stirrup; and that the L’d Darby, instead of actually holding ye stirrup, put his strop or whip and held it towards ye stirrup while Mr. Downes mounted.
“That the said Mr. Downes had informed this deponent that he held his land by the blast of a horn on Midsummer Day, and paying a pepper-corn yearly; and that once, about 63 or 64 years agoe, this deponent was with the said Mr. Downes when he blowed his horn at Windcather (a range of high hills above Taxal) on that occasion.”
Another deposition states that the horn required “three blasts.” No special horn seems to have existed.
PROVERBS AND SAYINGS
The hard-headed Cheshireman may be deficient in legend, but he has invented a number of wise sayings and proverbs which can hold their own in quality and quantity with any other county. Some of the oldest, however, given by Ray, are wrapped in obscurity. The following is a selection:--
“---- by a proverbe certan Good manners and conynge maken a man.”
Bradshaw (_Life of St. Werburgh_).
[He was a contemporary of William of Wykeham.]
“Cheshire, Chief of men.”
“_Stout, bold, and hardy withal, impatient of wrong, and ready to resist the enemy or stranger that shall invade their country._”--Webb.
Fuller says: “_Its gentry is remarkable on a fourfold account--their numerousness ... their antiquity, their loyalty, and their hospitality._”
“Cheshire for men, Berkshire for dogs, Bedfordshire for naked flesh, And Lincolnshire for bogs.”
“By waif, soc and theam, You may know Cheshire men.”
[Powerful in their legal rights and tenacious of them.]
“As many Leighs as fleas, Massies as asses, Crewes as crows, and Davenports as dogs’ tails.”
_Some of the great Cheshire families._
“There is more than one yew bow in Chester.”
_As many a Welshman had found out._
“Cheshire born and Cheshire bred, Strong i’ th’ arm and weak i’ th’ yed.”
_Perhaps invented by neighbours “over the border” who had felt the strong arm._
“To grin like a Cheshire cat.”
_No satisfactory explanation of this has ever been given. It has formed the subject for inquiries innumerable in “Notes and Queries.”_
_There is another version: “To grin like a Cheshire cat chewing gravel.”_
“It is better to marry over the mixen than over the moor.”
_It is better to marry an honest farmer from next door whom you know, than a fine gentleman from a distance who may turn out a fraud._
“Enough and no more, like Mrs. Milton’s feast.”
_Milton married as his third wife Elizabeth Minshull of Wistanstow, near Nantwich, who survived him. She was poor and proud, and her enforced economy was not to the taste of her neighbours._
“When the daughter is stolen, shut the Pepper-gate.”
_Equivalent to “shutting the stable door when the steed is stolen.” This originated in a former Mayor of Chester fastening up the Pepper-gate after his daughter had eloped through it with her lover._
“If thou hadst the rent of Dee Mills--thou wouldst spend it.”
_These Chester mills yielded annually a large rent._
“As fair as Lady Done.”
_The wife of Sir John Done, hereditary bow-bearer of Delamere Forest. Pennant, in his “Tour from Chester to London,” says that “when a Cheshireman would express supereminent excellency in one of the fair sex, he will say, ‘There is a Lady Done for you.’”_
“Higgledy Piggledy--Malpas shot.”
_All share alike._
_The well-known anecdote need not be quoted._
“All on one side, like Parkgate.”
_A single street with one side only, the river being on the other side._
“Every man was not born to be Vicar of Bowdon.”
_One of the most valuable livings in Cheshire._
“To pull Lymm from Warburton.”
_Complete and absolute separation._
“Hanged hay never does cattle.”
_Bought hay, hung and weighed in the scales, is not economical. It will not do (pronounced “doe”) cattle._
“To scold like a wych-waller.”
_I.e., a “salt-boiler” at one of the wyches of Cheshire._
“To catch a person napping, as Moss caught his mare.”
“I’ll tell thee, quoth Wood, If I can’t rule my daughter, I’ll rule my good.”
“But when? quoth Kettle to his mare.”
_Of these three worthies history is silent._
“Like Goodyer’s pig, never well but when he is doing mischief.”
“He stands like Mumphazard, who was hanged for saying nothing.”
“Like the parson of Saddleworth who could read no book but his own.”
“Roint you witch! as Bessy Locket said to her mother.”
“No more sib (akin) than sieve and riddle that grew in a wood together.”
“If he were as long as a lither, he might thatch a house without a ladder.”
“It would make a dog doff his doublet.”
“She hath broken her elbow at the Church door.”
_A woman grown idle after marriage._
“Score twice before you cut once.”
_Used by curriers. Holmes’ “Academie of Armourie.”_
_Don’t cut your leather until you feel sure you have selected the right place._
“Stoppord law, no stake no draw.”
_Stockport or Stopport--only those who contribute to an undertaking may reap benefit from it._
“You may know a Mobberley man by his breeches.”
_An allusion to poachers in the neighbouring Tatton Park. They made their breeches of buckskin._
“The Mayor of Altrincham lies in bed while his breeches are mending.”
“The Mayor of Altrincham, and the Mayor of Over, The one is a thatcher, the other a dauber.”
_These places were small and unimportant, and the mayors were therefore sometimes chosen from men in humble ranks of life._
“A Stopport (Stockport) chaise.”
_Two women riding sideways on one horse._
“As thrunk as three in a bed.”
_Thrunk = crowded._
“It is time to yoke when the cart comes to the caples.”
“_In some part of England they call a horse a caple._”--Chaucer. Latin = _Caballus_.
“Good to fetch a rich man sorrow and a dead man woe.”
“As much wit as three folks--two fools and a madman.”
“She hath been to London to call a strea a straw, and a waw a wall.”
_Adopting the London pronunciation and forgetting, or being ashamed of, the county dialect._
“To come home like the parson’s cow, with a calf at her foot.”
“To look a strained hair in a can.”
“To shed riners with a whaver.”
“_To surpass anything skilful or adroit by something still more so._”--Wilbraham. _Riner_ = _a toucher used at quoits_.
“Too-Too will in two.”
_Strain a thing too much and it will not hold._
“Well, well, is a word of malice.”
“You been like Smithwick, either clemed or bossten.”
_Too little or too much._
“Afraid of far enough.”
“Afraid of him that died last year.”
_Of that which is never likely to happen._
LOCAL RHYMES
Holt liars, Farndon bears, Churton greyhounds, Aldford hares.
In Stoak there are but few good folk, In Stanney--hardly any.
Gobbinshire, Gobbinshire from Gobbinshire Green, The ronkest oud beggar as ever was seen.
_Gobbinshire was a name of the lower portion of the Wirral peninsula._
Sir Randle Crewe, the Lord of this manor, Was born in Nantwich, the son of a Tanner.
Middlewych is a pretty toun Seated in a valley, With a Church and Market Cross And eke a bouling alley; All the men are loyal there, Pretty girls are plenty, Church and King, and doun with the Rump There’s not such a toun in twenty. --_Cavalier Ballad._
“Congleton rare, where they sold the Bible to buy a bear.”
_The inhabitants once laid by money for a new Bible, but the town bear having died, they devoted their savings to buying a new bear for baiting._
When the Chester and Birkenhead railway was made, the name of Ledsham was given to a station which was nearest to Sutton, and this gave rise to the following:--
“I want to go to Sutton please.” “There aren’t no Sutton _now_.” “It’s taken t’name o’ Ledsham, sir.” “For an estate? or how?”
SUNDRY SAWS
Farm servants dissatisfied say:--
Maily bread an maily pies, Skim Dick full o’ eyes, Buttermilk astid o’ beer, I’m sartin I shanna stop here. (_South Cheshire._)
Come aw ye buttermilk sellers that have buttermilk to sell, Ah’d have ye give good mizzer, and scrub yo’r vessels well; For there’s a day o’ reckoning, an hell will have its share, An’ the devil will have you nappers as Mossy ketched his mare.
“Go fiddle for shives (slices of food) Amongst old wives.”
_Said in contempt._
“Laus-a-dees What times be these.”
“Stare-agog, stare agog Tumbled o’er the tatoe-hog.”
Children irritate bulls by shouting:--
“Billy Billy Belder Sucked the cai’s elder” (udder).
PHENOMENA
Dee’s valley mild till close of year Means three months cold in store, I fear.
THE MOON.
When hoo fulls at ye midnight, or soone after that, In ye sommer, great heat, In ye winter, hard frost. When hoo fulls at ye midday, or soone after that, Winter cries, “O ye rain,” Summer says, “Cheshire’s lost.” --_Old Cheshire Household Book_, 1675-85.
(_Hoo_ is the old English “she.”)
A winde from Sandbach in the Easte Blows good to neither man nor beast.
Malpas ales and Malpas gales Cheer the farmer, fill his pails.
Whenever Chester chimes at Congleton do sound A flood, like Noah’s, will wash away ye ground.
_The towns are thirty miles apart._
It rains, it pains, it patters i’ the docks, Mobberley wenches are weshin’ their smocks.
As long as Helsby (hill) wears a hood, The weather’s never very good.
If Wednesday, Thursday, or if Friday Happen this year to be May day, Then begin some harmless thing And it will thee much credit bring. --Randle Holme, _Harleian MSS._
LEGENDS
The Celtic legend already alluded to comes from Alderley Edge. It is a version of _Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table_.
A farmer going through Alderley Edge, on his way to the fair to sell a beautiful white mare, was accosted by a venerable old man dressed as a monk, who said:
“Sell as thou wilt that steed of thine ’Tis fated that the steed be mine.”
The farmer found no purchaser, and, returning at night, met the monk by two enormous iron gates, through which they entered into a huge cavern where numbers of milk-white steeds were stalled, and by each lay an armed warrior asleep. The wizard paid the farmer, who asked the meaning of the mysterious troopers, and was told that they would, when England
“Was thrice lost and thrice won ’Twixt dawn of day and setting sun,”
come to her aid.
When the wizard ceased, the farmer found himself alone on the hill, and the gates closed behind him.
A dragon legend is connected with Thomas Venables, son of Sir Gilbert Venables, cousin-german to William the Conqueror:--
“It chaunced a terrible dragon to remayne and make his abode in the lordeshippe of Moston in the Countye of Chester, wheare he devoured all such persons as he laid hold on, which ye said Thomas Venables herringe tell of ... dyd in his awne person valiantly set on the saide dragon, where first he shotte hym throwe with an arrowe, and afterward with other weapons manfullie slew him, at which instant the dragon was devouringe of a childe.”
A greater fund of legendary lore is found with regard to the lakes or meres of Cheshire:--
BRERETON--BAG OR BLACK MERE.
“Here is one exceeding strange, but attested in my hearing by many persons, and commonly believed. Before any heir of this (Brereton) family dies, there are seen in a lake adjoining, the bodies of trees swimming upon the water for several days together.”--Camden.
Sir Philip Sidney, in _Seven Wonders of England_, says:--
“The Breretons have a lake, which, when the sun Approaching warms (not else) dead logs up sends From hideous depth, which tribute when it ends Sure sign it is the Lord’s last thread is spun.”
CAPESTHORN--RUDESMERE, OR REEDSMERE.
In the grounds of Capesthorne is a fine sheet of water called Reedsmere, containing a floating island about 1½ acres in size, which in strong winds is blown here and there. A country legend accounts for this floating island by a story that a certain knight was jealous of his lady-love, and vowed not to look upon her face until the island moved on the face of the mere. But he fell sick, and was nigh to death, when he was nursed back to health by the lady, to reward whose constancy a tremendous hurricane tore the island up by the roots.
ROSTHERNE MERE.
“All kinds of legends are current about Rostherne, as is the case with most lakes which are reported to be deep. One is, that a mermaid comes up on Easter Day and rings a bell; another, that it communicates with the Irish Channel by a subterranean passage; another, that it once formed with Tabley, Tatton, Mere, and other lakes, a vast sheet of water that covered the country between Alderley Edge and High Leigh.”--Hope, _Holy Wells and Traditions_.
COMBERMERE
Has also a bell legend.
BELLS
The Curfew is still tolled at nine o’clock at Chester Cathedral, and the big bell used to be tolled whenever the Dean or Bishop was going to preach, but this has been discontinued. “Curfew” is tolled at many of the country churches, sometimes throughout the year, and sometimes only at harvest-time.
At Frodsham Church a small bell, which stood over the chancel arch, was called the “Dag-tale” bell, or “day-telling” bell--probably from being used to denote the hours of the day to those working in the fields. At Holmes Chapel, in the parish of Sandbach, there is an entry in 1723 for “bell ropes to Dag-tail 12s.”
The “Pancake” bell is still rung at Congleton on Shrove Tuesday at 11 A.M., and at Tarvin; and at Barthomley and other places it was called by the expressive name of the “Guttit” bell.
Ray says:--
“At Nantwich they have a custom like that in Scotland; when anyone is dead a Bellman goeth about the streets in the morning that the dead person is to be buried, tinkling a bell he has in his hand, and now and then makes a stand and invites the people to come to the funeral at such an hour.”
Prebendary Garencieres of Chester Cathedral, in his will of 1703, says:--
“I would have no other invitation to my funeral than by notice given by the Clerk to the parishioners of Handley and Waverton, and by the Belman to the people of Chester, of the time when, and the place where my corps is to be buried.”
Congleton still preserves three ancient leather belts, on which are strung a number of metal bells with rolling clappers. Two belts have seven, and one has five, and each bell has a different tone. They are said to have been worn by three church officials on the Congleton “Wake” day, the Feast of St. Peter _ad vincula_, or “St. Peter in Chains.” At midnight of that day three acolytes ran round the town summoning the people to church, thereby representing the clanking of chains. About one hundred years ago the bells fell into the hands of a family of chimney-sweeps, but were ultimately seized and preserved by the town authorities. They are unique.
The following is a Cheshire distich on bells:--
Higher Peover kettles, Lower Peover pans, Knutsford sweet music, and Rostherne great drones.
BIRDS
Two cocks answer one another:--
1. “Cocky Keeko! The women been master here.”
2. “Cocky Keeko! It’s the same everywhere.” (_South Cheshire._)
The “Golden Plover” is called “The Sheep’s Guide” by the Longdendale shepherds, who say the bird’s note warns the sheep of danger.
It is considered bad luck to take the eggs of, or to kill the Robin, Wren, Spotted Fly-catcher, and Swallow, hence the following:--
The Martin and the Swallow Are God’s Mate and Marrow,
or,
“Are God Almighty’s birds to hollow” (= to _hallow_ or _keep holy_).
Eggs of game-fowl are placed in Magpies’ nests to be hatched, in order to make the game-cocks fight better.
The calling of a green Woodpecker indicates rain.
The name of “Boggarts muck” is given to Owl pellets, the idea being that the small bones therein are those of fairies eaten by boggarts.
The Cuckoo was called “The Welsh ambassador” in Cheshire, because this herald of spring was generally heard first on the Welsh border.
GAMES
Randle Holme gives an entertaining list of children’s games in the Stuart period, nearly all of which are now obsolete. He does not mention one which is more popular in Cheshire than the Southern Counties. This is the game in which a horse chestnut is threaded on a string and struck at with chestnuts similarly threaded. The chestnut is called a “coppity-co”:--
“Coppity-co, My first blow”
is the rhyme used. The word is now softened into cobbity-co (so in _Shropshire_) and even into comity-co (_Chester_, 1909).
“Cobbity-cuts Put daïn your nuts.” (_South Cheshire._)
_Cop_ is old English for _top_ or _head_.[67] Somnolent church-goers in olden times had reason to remember this fact.
Paid Richard Pennington for whiping dogs and cobing sleeping folke £0 10 0
(_Bunbury Church Accounts._)
[67] So at Chester, the top of the river bank is called “The Cop,” and a “cop-hedge” is, in Cheshire, a bank with a hedge on top of it.
A similar official at Tarvin was familiarly known as “The Cobber,” and at Tarporley as “The Awakener.”[68]
[68] The following anecdote, which is vouched for, is too good to omit:--At a certain Cheshire church, where the farmers slumbered peacefully during the afternoon sermon, the incumbent was surprised on a certain Sunday to see the farmers, one after another, waking up suddenly and vigorously rubbing their faces. At last, looking up in a gallery to the left of the pulpit, he saw a boy with a pea-shooter, and at once discerned the cause of the commotion. He shook his fist at the lad, but to no effect, and at last cried out, “Young man, desist!” but the boy, bent on his work, replied, “Never thee mind! get along with thy sermon; I’ll keep the beggars awaken for thee!”
Another curious game is “Dot.” Children move in a ring round one representing “Dot,” and sing:--
“Dun yo’ wot, ’oo were Dot? He were not a bad lot; Whereabouts was his cot, Oi’n furgotten to jot.” (_North Cheshire and Malpas._)
At this point “Dot” puts his hand out, and the one touched has to take his place. This is practically a “counting-out rhyme,” and there seems every probability that it is a very ancient one.
The Manor of Edge, in the Hundred of Broxton, was held, according to _Domesday Survey_, by Edwin, a Saxon thane, who, although he was compelled to become tenant to Norman Robert FitzHugh, managed to retain for himself the two Edges. Contemporary with him was Dot, the Saxon lord of sixteen manors, some of them conjointly with Edwin; but, more unlucky than he, Dot lost all his manors and fled to Wales. His grandson, Cadwgan Dot, was father of Hova Dot or Dod, from whom the Edge and Broxton Dods claim lineal descent.
The following are additional “counting-out” specimens:--
Orcum, Borcum, Boni, Corkum, Ericum, Bericum, bo-ni-bus. O.U.T. spells out. (_Chester._)
One, two, Sky-blue; All in But you. (_Chester_, 1904.)
MUSIC
Although Cheshire cannot be described as a musical county, yet it has no reason to be ashamed of its past musical history.
“Cheshire Rounds” was a celebrated tune and dance--sometimes danced by a couple (whose gyrations resembled the movements of the sun and moon) and sometimes by a single person. The only known portrait of Doggett (who founded the celebrated waterman’s badge) shows him dancing the “Cheshire Round.”
Miss Stanley writes from Alderley Park--
_Sep. 8, 1798._ We had yesterday what is generally called a harvest home supper, but _here_ a “shutting.” Old Peter danced the Cheshire Round on the table after supper with Charlotte Alcock, one of the women.
A play-bill of the time of William III. shows how popular the dance was then--
In Bartholomew Fair, at the Coach-house, on the pav’d stones at Hosier Lane end, you will see a Black that dances the _Cheshire Rounds_ to perfection.
The Morris Dance has always been a favourite, especially in the Knutsford district, where it was danced to the following:--
[Music:
Morris Dance is a very pretty tune, I can dance in my new shoon; My new shoon they are so good, I could dance it if I would. This is it, and that is it, And this is Morris dancing. My poor father broke his leg, And so it fell a chancing. ]
Just over the border, in Lancashire, the version runs--
My new shoon, they are so good, I could dance Morris if I would; And if hat and sark be drest I will dance Morris with the rest.
Three ballads were very popular, viz. “The Miller of the Dee,” “The Spanish Lady” (who is supposed to have fallen in love with the Cheshire knight Sir Uryan Leigh), and “The Cheshire Cheese.”
CHURCHES
The old parish account-books show that much more was spent on music in old times than in the present day, _e.g._ _Bunbury_:--