half-a-crown, actually took upon himself the sins of the deceased, by the simple process of eating them. The plan of operations was this: A loaf of bread was provided, which the sin-eater first placed upon the dead person’s chest, then muttered some incantations over it, finally eating it. Will it be credited that he was believed to have taken from the defunct the heavy weight of his sins, and to appropriate them to himself, for which act of kindness he was regarded by everybody as a tabooed outcast? Indeed, immediately after the ceremony was finished, and he had received his pay, he vanished in double quick time, it being the usual custom for the friends to belabour him with sticks—if they could catch him.
Deaths are common subjects of superstitious lore in almost every county. Wales, not less than other places, rejoices in the belief of corpse candles, which, when seen by parties in good health, betoken, like the Banshee of the west, the death of one of the members of the family. In some cases, indeed, not only a corpse candle, but a whole spectral funeral has appeared to persons coming home late at night, in which they have been able to foretell, from seeing the name on the coffin plate, which of their friends or acquaintance would be the next subject. Of similar ominous import, though extending more to localities than persons, was the Cyhiraeth, which appears to have been a sound more than a sight. It was generally heard at night in degrees varying from a low murmur to the most piercing scream, which petrified with horror the villagers in their beds as it swept past. As the Cyhiraeth was most frequently heard in sea-side places, it was considered to portend a wreck, which, however, in those days, was anything but a dispiriting prospect to the dwellers on the coast, who hoped to obtain good plunder thereby.
Before quitting the subject of Welsh usages, we must not omit to mention the Holy Wells, which are both numerous and important, although for one well in use and properly cared for, there are at least fifty desecrated, filled up, and comparatively unknown. We always find that the estimation in which they were held depended on two causes:—First, their medicinal virtues or properties; and, second, their character and associations. Of course, at one time or another, all the healing effects were based upon a superstitious foundation, and probably environed with superstitious rites; but it is an encouraging fact, that all these wells retain the patronage of the sick and infirm to this day, while those which were celebrated merely in connection with religion have lost their prestige, and in nine cases out of ten retain only the legend. First and foremost of Welsh wells is that of St. Winifred, at Holywell, in Flintshire, celebrated as much for the exquisite perpendicular building within which it is enshrined, as for the marvellous properties of the water, proofs of which are plentiful in the forest of sticks, crutches, and other kinds of votive offerings which have been deposited in the fretwork of the roof and pillars. There is really so much that is curious about this well, that apart from the legend, we cannot wonder that a large amount of the supernatural clung to it. The enormous quantity of water that bubbles up, viz., 100 tons a minute, the colouring of the stones by the red moss, attributed to the blood of the saint, the singular fact that although intensely cold, the water never freezes, are all features worth notice in themselves. It was invested with other properties in times of yore, as Drayton gravely informs us that no animal would drown when thrown in—
Shee strongly beares it up, not suffering it to sinke.
St. Gowan’s Well, in Pembrokeshire, is of a different class, although possessing medicinal claims, which are highly thought of by the neighbouring country folk. Here, however, it is not so much the water that acts as a specific as the red mud or clay from the adjoining rocks, which is made into a poultice, and thoroughly plastered round the invalid, who is then left to dry in the sun, while offering up prayers and vows to the patron saint. A well at Llandegla, in Denbighshire, was celebrated for its powers over epilepsy, but the mode of using the water was mixed up with a tremendous religious ceremony. First, the patient must wash himself in the well, then offer fourpence, and walk round it three times, reciting the Lord’s Prayer. After this he must carry a cock in a basket, again repeating the Paternoster. Finally, he must offer sixpence more, enter the church, and sleep for the whole night under the communion table. Even after all this amount of energy, the disease is not supposed to be cured unless the cock fortunately happens to die, in which case the afflicted invalid may fairly congratulate himself on having transferred his fits to the bird. Many wells were popular for other or less amiable qualities, being generally known as cursing wells, at which persons, by paying a consideration to the attendant minister, could procure any amount of discomfort or harm to their enemy, in proportion to the fee bestowed. The name of the devoted individual was registered in a book, and a pin or pebble, with his initials inscribed thereon, thrown into the water. These are certainly not the customs which we would wish retained, for they are neither pleasant or useful, and must have engendered a fearful amount of hate and revenge.
But while we dismiss the customs, every owner of property on which a well is situated should endeavour to restore it to its former efficiency, for many reasons—first, as a memorial of bygone times, and (in many cases) of extremely beautiful Gothic architecture; and, secondly, even if the character of the water is not medicinal, and thereby a cheap remedy for many disorders, as being at all events an easy and practical commentary on the old text that “cleanliness is next to godliness.”
THE CHARLTON HUNT.
Few of the many ardent lovers of our great national sport are aware at what an early period fox-hunting began, or that the hounds, whose jaws had been reddened by the last tributary wolf paid for by King Edgar’s wise law, were afterwards trained to the milder pursuit of the
