Copy 1, Volume 1
Essays on subjects connected with the literature, popular superstitions, and history of England in the Middle Ages / By Thomas Wright.
- Thomas Wright
- Date:
- 1846
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Essays on subjects connected with the literature, popular superstitions, and history of England in the Middle Ages / By Thomas Wright. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![fascinations with magical charms, and hide them m the grass, or in a tree, or in the path, for the preservation of their cattle. “He who places his child on the roof or ina furnace for the reeovery of his health, or for this purpose uses any charms, or characters, or magical figment, or any art, unless it be holy prayers, or the liberal art of medicine. “He who shall say any charm in the collecting of medi- cinal herbs, except such as the paternoster and the credo.” Many of the customs alluded to in the foregoing extracts may be traced, under different forms, nearly up to the present day ; and none more so than well-worship, some of the ceremonies of which are still performed in different parts of our island. We are tempted to point out two in- edited allusions to this latter branch of popular superstition, which we think extremely curious. When the Saxon hero, Hereward, was holding so bravely the marshes of Ely against the Norman Conqueror, he one day repaired in disguise to William’s court, and before presenting himself there, passed the night in a cottage in the town where the court was then held. It happened that at the same time there resided in the cottage a noted witch, who was em- ployed by the king to daunt the courage of Hereward’s soldiers by her incantations. Being disturbed at midnight by hearing the witch in conversation with his hostess, he followed them into the garden. They repaired to a foun- tain of water which flowed towards the east, and there he heard them holding converse with the spirit of the fountain.* In the following rather humorous song, pre- * Porro in medio noctis silentio illas ad fontes aquarum in orientem affluentes juxta [h]jortum domus etam (sic) egressas Herwardus per- cepit. Quas statim secutus est, ubi eas eminus colloquentes audivit,](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b33097963_0001_0260.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
