Collectanea. 241
An old inhabitant of Charlecote describes the custom as follows : — "Young men and lads armed themselves with tin cans etc., and went to both offenders' houses three nights in succession, and marched into three parishes, — Hampton Lucy, Charlecote, and Wasperton. On the third night they burnt the man's and woman's effigies in front of both their houses at Hampton Lucy. The last time it was done in this district was in 1892."
Ell.\ ^L Leather.
Folk-medicine. — At Pillerton a child with the whooping cough was given a piece of bread and butter every morning while the dew was still on the grass, a similar piece being put out on the grass for the black snails.
At Ilmington a cure for whooping cough is to take whatever is recommended by a man who rides a skewbald horse into the village. (A skewbald horse is one in which white is varied by patches of any other colour than black ; a horse with white and black only being called " piebald.') I have heard an aged relative, born about 1780, say that in his earlier days he had a friend who for a time rode a skewbald horse, and was so often stopped by anxious mothers that he found it necessary to be prepared with a remedy, which was always "buttered ale."
Once, when a small boy, I was present at the ceremony of charming for whitemouth or thrush. This was about 1841, but I remember it clearly, for I was much impressed. The operator was named Bennett, and was the village carpenter of Ilmington, and of some local reputation as a successful charmer for the ailment. The mother brought the sick child to his house ; he took it in his arms and muttered his charm over it in such a manner that no word was intelligible. He then took his fee, which was, I believe, a fixed one.
F. S. Potter.
