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Title: Yorkshire Oddities, Incidents and Strange Events
Author: S. Baring-Gould
Release Date: November 17, 2014 [EBook #47386]
Language: English
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YORKSHIRE ODDITIES
INCIDENTS
AND
STRANGE EVENTS
BY
S. BARING-GOULD, M.A.
AUTHOR OF "MEHALAH," "ICELAND: ITS SCENES AND SAGAS,"
"OLD COUNTRY LIFE," ETC.
"There be such a company of wilful gentlemen within Yorkshire as there
be not in all England besides."--_Abbot of York to Cromwell, 1556, Rolls
House MS._
FIFTH EDITION
London
METHUEN AND CO.
18 BURY STREET, W.C.
1900
PREFACE.
A residence of many years in Yorkshire, and an inveterate habit of
collecting all kinds of odd and out-of-the-way information concerning
men and matters, furnished me, when I left Yorkshire in 1872, with a
large amount of material, collected in that county, relating to its
eccentric children.
A friend, when he heard that I was collecting such material, exclaimed,
"What are you about? Every other Yorkshireman is a character!" Such is
the case. No other county produces so much originality--and that
originality, when carried to excess, is eccentricity.
I look back with the greatest pleasure to the kindness and hospitality I
met with in Yorkshire, where I spent some of the happiest years of my
life. I venture to offer this collection of memoirs of odd people, and
narrative of strange events, as a humble contribution to the annals of
the greatest, not perhaps only in extent, of our English counties, and a
slight return for the pleasant welcome it afforded a migratory penman
from the South.
PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION.
This book was well received in Yorkshire and elsewhere when it first
appeared, and as it preserved notices of strong characters, records of
whom were passing away, and some taken from Chap Books already become
scarce, a new edition (the 4th) is issued thoroughly revised and only
very slightly curtailed.
LEW TRENCHARD, _12th April, 1890_.
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
THE GHOST OF TRINITY CHURCH, YORK 1
PETER PRIESTLY, THE WAKEFIELD PARISH CLERK 22
PROPHET WROE 28
BISHOP-DYKE POND 59
SNOWDEN DUNHILL, THE CONVICT 65
JAMES NAYLOR, THE QUAKER 87
"OLD THREE LAPS" 102
CHRISTOPHER PIVETT 108
DAVID TURTON, MUSICIAN AT HORBURY 109
JOHN BARTENDALE, THE PIPER 117
BLIND JACK OF KNARESBOROUGH 120
"PEG PENNYWORTH" 169
PETER BARKER, THE BLIND JOINER 173
THE WHITE HOUSE 179
JEMMY HIRST, AN ODDITY 186
THE TRAGEDY OF BENINGBROUGH HALL 216
A YORKSHIRE BUTCHER 223
THE ONE-POUND NOTE 236
MR. WIKES OF LEASEHOLME 256
THE REV. MR. CARTER, PARSON-PUBLICAN 259
JOB SENIOR, THE HERMIT OF RUMBOLD'S MOOR 263
NANCY NICHOLSON, THE TERMAGANT 270
THE WOODEN BELL OF RIPON 318
OLD JOHN "MEALY-FACE" 322
THE BOGGART OF HELLEN-POT 326
JONATHAN MARTIN, THE INCENDIARY OF YORK
MINSTER 340
BROTHER JUCUNDUS 393
MARY BATEMAN, WITCH AND MURDERESS 401
YORKSHIRE ODDITIES AND INCIDENTS.
THE GHOST OF TRINITY CHURCH, YORK.
Some years ago I heard mention made of an apparition said to have been
seen in Trinity Church, Micklegate, York, which at the moment excited my
curiosity. But as I heard no more about it, it passed out of my mind.
In 1869 I was invited to deliver a lecture at Middlesborough, when I met
a clergyman who introduced himself to me as an old acquaintance. We had
not met for some years, and then he had been a boy at school. About a
week after I left Middlesborough I received from him the following
letter:--
I.
"_Easter Sunday Evening, 1869._
"DEAR MR. BARING-GOULD.
"I venture, from the slight acquaintance I am happy to have with
you personally, and the deeper one I have with your tastes from
external sources, to enclose for your perusal a narrative of a
perfectly true event, drawn up by myself some few years ago, at the
request of some friends who doubted the truth of the circumstances
therein related. If you have ever heard anything of it, and can
help me in explaining it, I shall be grateful, as it perplexes me,
as one always is teased when something which one cannot account for
has been brought to one's notice.
"Mr. S---- is going in a few Sundays to preach at the very church
in York where this took place, and this bringing again before my
mind the spectacle I then saw, caused me to apply to my friends for
the account I gave them, and I now send it to you. I could, if you
are interested, supply some minor details, but better by word of
mouth, if ever we meet again. The only correction I should make is
this: You will find that I relate a sequence of events, and I am
not quite satisfied in my own mind that I have given the order of
the incidents exactly as they occurred, and it is possible that I
may have inverted them. At the time I was so startled that I was
more intent on observing the figures than noting what was the
succession in the scenes, if I may use the expression. Indeed, each
reappearance was a surprise; and when I tried to recall each
incident in the order in which it occurred, I found that though I
could recall the appearance distinctly before my mind's eye, yet I
could not swear to which scene preceded the other.
"This was the only occasion of my visiting the church. I confess
the impression left on my nerves was not pleasant, and I do not
think I should like to risk the effect of a repetition of it.
Apologising for thus troubling you with my experiences,
"I remain, yours very truly,
"A. B.
"P.S.--The Incumbent, Mr. W----, has left, and another, Mr. M----,
has now the living of Holy Trinity, Micklegate."
The following account, dated 1866, was enclosed in the letter:--
"While staying in York at this time last year (1865), or perhaps a
little earlier, I first heard of the apparitions or ghosts supposed
to be seen in Trinity Church, Micklegate. I felt curious to see a
ghost, I confess, if such a thing is to be seen without the usual
concomitants of a dark night and a lone house. Accordingly I went
to the church for morning service on a blazing hot Sunday morning
in August last, with a girl about thirteen years old and her little
brother.
"The east window of the church, I must explain, is of stained
glass, rather tawdry, and of no particular design, except that the
colouring is much richer in the centre than at the sides, and that
at the extreme edge there is one pane of unstained glass which runs
all round the window.
"The peculiarity of the apparition is, that it is seen on the
window itself, rather less than half-way from the bottom (as I saw
it from the gallery), and has much the same effect as that of a
slide drawn through a magic lantern when seen on the exhibiting
sheet. The form seen--I am told invariably--is that of a figure
dressed in white walking across the window, and gives the idea of
some one passing in the churchyard in a surplice. I say a figure,
for the number is generally limited to one, and I was told that
only on Trinity Sunday did more than one appear, and that then
there were three.
"But I can vouch for the larger number appearing on other
occasions, as on the day I was there, which was one of the Sundays
after Trinity, there were rarely fewer than three visible.
"The figures began to move across the window long before the
commencement of the service, when in fact there was no one present
but ourselves. They did so again before the service began, as well
as during the 'Venite,' and subsequently as many as twenty or
thirty times, I should suppose, till the conclusion of the sermon.
"Of the three figures two were evidently those of women, and the
third was a little child. The two women were very distinct in
appearance. One was tall and very graceful, and the other
middle-sized; we called the second one the nursemaid, from her
evident care of the child during the absence of the mother, which
relationship we attributed to the tall one, from the passionate
affection she exhibited towards the child, her caressing it, and
the wringing of her hands over it.
"I may add that each figure is perfectly distinct from the others,
and after they had been seen once or twice are at once
recognisable.
"The order of their proceedings, with slight variation, was this:
The mother came alone from the north side of the window, and having
gone about half-way across, stopped, turned round, and waved her
arm towards the quarter whence she had come. This signal was
answered by the entry of the nurse with the child. Both figures
then bent over the child, and seemed to bemoan its fate; but the
taller one was always the most endearing in her gestures. The
mother then moved towards the other side of the window taking the
child with her, leaving the nurse in the centre of the window, from
which she gradually retired towards the north corner, whence she
had come, waving her hand, as though making signs of farewell, as
she retreated.
"After some little time she again appeared, bending forward, and
evidently anticipating the return of the other two, who never
failed to reappear from the south side of the window where they had
disappeared.
"The same gestures of despair and distress were repeated, and then
all three retired together to the north side of the window.
"Usually they appeared during the musical portions of the service,
and especially during one long eight-line hymn, when--for the only
occasion without the child--the two women rushed on (in stage
phrase), and remained during the whole hymn, making the most
frantic gestures of despair. Indeed, the louder the music in that
hymn, the more carried away with their grief did they seem to be.
"Nothing could be more emphatic than the individuality of the
several figures; the manner of each had its own peculiarity. I do
not doubt that if the stained glass were removed, a much plainer
view would be obtained. I think so, because the nearer the centre
of the window, where the stained glass was thickest, there the less
distinct were the forms. It was like catching glimpses of them
through leaves. But nearer the edge of the window, where the
colours were less bright, they were _perfectly_ distinct; and still
more so on the pane of unstained glass at the edge. There they
seemed most clear, and gave one the impression of being real
persons, not shadows.
"Indeed, by far the most remarkable and perplexing incident in the
whole spectacle was this, that on one occasion, when the mother and
child had taken their departure, the medium figure--the
nurse--waved her hands, and after walking slowly to the _very edge_
of the window, turned round _whilst on the pane of unstained
glass_, and waved her arm towards the other two with what one would
call a stage gesture, and then I most distinctly saw, and I
emphatically declare I did see the arm bare nearly to the shoulder,
with beautiful folds of white drapery hanging from it like a
picture on a Greek vase. Nothing could be plainer than the drag of
the robes on the ground after the figures as they retired at the
edge of the window where the clear glass was, previous to going
out. The impression produced was that one saw real persons in the
churchyard; for though the figures were seen on the window, yet
they gave one the impression of walking past the window outside,
and not moving upon the glass.
"No one in the church seemed to be in the smallest degree attracted
or discomposed by all this, or, indeed, to observe it.
"I talked a great deal on the subject with Miss C----, daughter of
the late Dr. C----, of York, and she told me that Mr. W----, the
Incumbent of Trinity Church, would give anything to get rid of it,
or discover the imposture, if imposture there be. She told me that
he and his family had watched day and night without being able to
find any clue to the mystery. Their house is in the churchyard and
opposite the east window, and therefore very favourably placed for
such an investigation. I am not inclined to think that the trees
outside the church at the east end can originate the appearance by
any optical illusions produced by waving branches. I could see
their leaves rustling in the air, and their movement was evidently
unconnected with the appearance and movement of the figures.
"A. B."
This curious communication led to my making inquiries, and I speedily
heard of several persons who had seen the "ghosts" at a later date.
Friends to whom I applied have sent me the following letters, written
independently of one another. They naturally shrink from having their
names published, but I can testify to these accounts being perfectly
_bona fide_:--
II.
SOUTH PARADE, YORK, _March 22nd, 1871_.
"DEAR MR. BARING-GOULD,
"I promised to send you an account of the ghost at Holy Trinity,
Micklegate, and I now forward you the enclosed, written by a friend
on whose word you may perfectly rely.
"I heard another account a few days ago from a lady who saw it on
Sunday, the 19th February last. She described the figure--for she
saw only one--as being dressed in a shining white garment, and says
that it crossed the east window twice, with a slightly 'skipping'
step. It appeared to be outside the church, as she saw it
distinctly through the stained glass.
"I have never seen it myself, though I have been several times to
the church.
"There are four lights in the east window, and the glass of the two
central lights is of a darker tint than that in the side ones.
There are, however, narrow panes of transparent glass in each of
the lights, so that a person passing across the window outside
could be distinctly seen by anyone sitting in the west gallery.
"The sill of the east window is about five feet from the ground
outside, and about seven feet from the pavement inside; about ten
yards from the east wall separating the churchyard from a private
garden.
"Yours very truly,
"R. T."
This is the enclosure alluded to by my friend "R. T.":--
III.
"Having heard from several people of the ghost at the Church of the
Holy Trinity, Micklegate, York, on Sunday, at the end of September,
1869, a friend and myself made up our minds to go and see if we
also could be favoured with a sight of this wonderful apparition.
"Well, we went up into the gallery, the only place whence they say
it is to be seen. You may, perhaps, already know that the gallery
faces the east window, which is filled with modern stained glass.
"I am afraid that our attention rambled somewhat from the service,
for we were looking out for the ghostly visitant. However, we
watched and watched, as we began to think, in vain, until at the
very end of the second lesson, when, just before the beginning of
the 'Jubilate Deo,' I saw a figure, I should say of a shortish
woman, with something white folded over her, covering even her head
and face, but still I could see what it was. The figure appeared to
walk very fast across the two middle lights of the east window,
from right to left (_i.e._, from south to north), and seemed to be
at some distance from the window.
"The strange thing is, that I saw it clearly through the thick
painted glass.
"The whole thing happened so suddenly, and really surprised me so
much, that for some time I could hardly get up from the seat or
find my place at the beginning of the chant. Just as it disappeared
my friend said, 'Did you see that?' To which, of course, I
answered, 'Yes; did you?' that was all we saw; and a lady who was
there at the same time, whom we knew, saw it also, exactly as we
did, only apparently not with the same distinctness.
"Many persons have seen a great deal more. I believe that the
figure is generally seen to walk across the window in the reverse
way to that which my friend and I saw, and returns with a child,
some say with two.
"We examined outside the window. It is a good deal above the
ground, about five feet, I should think, and at the side of it is a
very old gravestone, with no inscription on the headstone as far as
I could make out. I believe it is currently reported that the
apparition issues from that grave.
"Some people thought that it might be a shadow caused in some
peculiar manner by the trees that grew outside; but it was not, for
the trees were cut down about three years ago, and the apparition
is still seen, as it has been, I have been told, for a century.
"I have nothing to add, except that this is a true and
unexaggerated account of what I saw."
IV.
YORK, _March 28th, 1874_.
"SIR,
"Owing to severe illness in my family, I was not able to reply to
your note earlier. I will now try and tell you what I have seen and
been told on the subject of the ghosts at Holy Trinity Church,
Micklegate.
"A York lady, now dead, told me she remembered seeing it when a
child, and that she once read an account of it in an old History of
York: she thought the book must have been published in the
seventeenth century.
"We now live in the parish of Holy Trinity, and attend the church
regularly. A part of my family sit in the gallery, therefore I will
tell you, in as matter-of-fact a manner as possible, what I myself
have seen, and leave one of my daughters, if she likes, to give you
her experiences.
"I must state also that the ghost is seen more or less distinctly
as you happen to be seated in the centre or side of the gallery; as
a rule, the former is the best place.
"As I have no faith in ghosts, I have been most wishful to have the
matter cleared up. At present I cannot account for the appearance
in any way.
"I went many times to the gallery in hopes of seeing the
phenomenon, but was repeatedly disappointed. At last, one dull day,
hopeless for the purpose as I thought--rain was falling at the
time--I was startled by seeing something.
"There are two east windows--one on the right, filled with common
green glass, the organ in front of it. From the outside of this
window I saw something move, and immediately a graceful figure of a
girl of eighteen or twenty years crossed the outside of the stained
east window with a light, free step. She was entirely covered with
a fine lace veil which, as she walked and met the air, showed the
outline of the head and figure; the features I could not
distinguish, but could see a shade through the veil where they
naturally would be.
"The veil was of a pure white, flowing back as a train as she
walked. In two or three minutes the figure returned, the robe
flowing back in the same way, and disappeared behind the organ
window.
"The figure appeared to me to be decidedly outside the window, and
at a greater distance than was possible for any one to be; in the
first place, because the east window is high up, and therefore
anyone walking past it, to be seen at all, must be at some little
distance from it; and, secondly, because there is a dead wall
within a few yards of the window.
"The pure white of the robe quite obliterated the colours in the
window, but the lead work was distinct enough, and the figure
appeared behind it The distinct outline of the figure is most
striking.
"The apparition always returns to the organ window. I have seen
this several times since the first. Owing to the dull day and the
darkness of the windows, the appearance on the first occasion was
the more remarkable. Two or three other figures also appear, but I
never thought them as distinct as the first, and I thought the
second and third might be reflections of the first. The two or
three often move quickly back and forwards with a dancing movement
somewhat like the reflection of the sun on a wall, but taking the
form of human figures. However, it was dull and raining when first
I saw the apparition, so that on that occasion there could have
been no reflection of sunlight.
"These appearances are sometimes not seen for weeks and months;
then they appear once or twice on succeeding days or Sundays. No
one can be sure of seeing them if they go to the church for that
purpose. I do not believe the apparition takes place at one more
favoured time than another, though some people like to think so.
The present rector wished to abolish the 'ghosts,' and was advised
to cut down one or two trees. This was done; all thought that the
ghosts were banished. Ten months after there was a gay wedding; my
daughters went into the gallery to witness the ceremony, and lo!
the 'ghost or ghosts' were there also. They had not been seen for
nine or ten months. That was the first occasion since the cutting
down of the trees on which they reappeared.
"The Sunday-school children who sit in the gallery see the form so
often as to be quite familiar with the sight, and call them 'the
mother, nurse, and child.'
"The legend I have heard told of it is that a family, consisting of
a father, mother, and only child, lived here once upon a time. The
father died, and was buried at the east end of the church, under or
near the organ window. After a while the plague broke out in York
and carried off the child, and it was buried outside the city, as
those who died of plague were not allowed to be laid in the
churchyards for fear of communicating the infection.
"The mother died afterwards, and was laid in her husband's grave,
and now, as in her lifetime, continues to visit the grave of her
child and bemoan the separation. The child is brought from its
grave in the plague-pit by the mother and nurse, and brought to
the grave of its father, and then it is taken back to where it lies
outside the walls."
"L. S."
V.
The following appeared in the "Newcastle Daily Chronicle" a couple of
years after the publication of my book, in 1874:--
"SIR,--On Good Friday last I went to Holy Trinity Church, York, for
morning service, at 11 o'clock, and repaired with a friend to the
gallery, being anxious to see a certain apparition which is said to
haunt the place.
"The gallery is situated at the extreme west end of the building,
and faces the east window, from which it is distant some 50 feet or
so. It is said that in the aisle and body of the church nothing is
ever seen. The gallery was full, but no one seemed to have come
there especially for the ghost, and though many of them afterwards
said they saw it, they were not in the least affected by the
apparition, treating it as a matter of course, to which they were
well accustomed.
"I kept my eyes fixed upon the east window for nearly the whole of
the hour and a half during which the service lasted, but was not
favoured with a sight of the phenomenon; although others saw it
cross the window and return, and my friend, who knows it well,
called my attention to the fact, at the moment, yet I could not
perceive nothing. I therefore left the place as unbelieving as
ever, and supposed that either I was the victim of a hoax, or that
it required a great stretch of imagination to fancy that a passing
shadow was the desired object. However, not liking to discredit the
statements of many friends who were used to seeing it almost every
Sunday, I consented on Easter Day to go to the same place and pew.
The seat I occupied was not an advantageous one, a large brass
chandelier being between me and the lower panes of the window. In
the middle of the service my eyes, which had hardly once moved from
the left or north side of the window, were attracted by a bright
light formed like a female robed and hooded passing from north to
south with a rapid gliding motion outside the church apparently at
some distance. The window is Gothic, and I fancy, from 20 to 25
feet high, by 12 to 15 feet wide at the base. The panes through
which the ghost shines are about 5 feet high and about half-way
between the top and bottom. There are four divisions in the window,
all of stained glass, of no particular pattern, the outer on right
and left being of lighter colour than the two centre panes, and at
the edge of each runs a rim of plain transparent white glass, about
two inches wide, and adjoining the stone work. Through this rim,
especially, could be seen what looked like a form transparent, but
yet thick, (if such a term can be used) with light. It did not
resemble linen, for instance, but was far brighter, and would, no
doubt, have been dazzling to a near observer. The robe was long,
and trailed. The figure was of course not visible when it had
crossed the window and passed behind the wall. My friend whispered
to me that it would return, must return, and at the end of five
minutes or so, the same figure glided back from right to left,
having turned round while out of sight. About half an hour later it
again passed across from north to south, and having remained about
ten seconds only, returned with what I believe to have been the
figure of a young child, and stopped at the last pane but one,
where both vanished. I did not see the child again, but a few
seconds afterwards the woman reappeared, and completed the passage,
behind the last pane, very rapidly. Nothing more was seen during
the service, and no other opportunity presented itself to me for
making observations. During each time, the chandelier prevented me
from obtaining a complete view but there could be no doubt as to
the shape, a certain amount of indistinctness, however, being
caused by the stained glass. On the reappearance for the last time,
I saw the head, which was, I believe, that of the child, move up
and down distinctly, as if nodding. The figure shone with dazzling
brightness, and appeared to be at a considerable distance, say
thirty yards or so, though at the same time as distinct as
possible, considering the obstruction of coloured glass. Each time
the level upon which it glided was precisely the same, and
afterwards, on carrying a straight line from the spot in the
gallery where I sat, through the part of the glass where the feet
of the figure shone, and continuing that line (in my mind's eye,
with all the objects before me, except the ghost, whose position I
had taken good notice of), I found that it would traverse a thick
holly tree eight or nine feet high at about four feet from the
ground, and at two or three feet from the ground a low wall about
four feet high, and would reach the ground itself in the middle of
a gravel yard belonging to the back premises of the house, called
the vicarage, at a distance of twelve or fifteen yards from the
window. Any person walking between the window and the holly tree
would barely be seen at all, much less be seen in the place which
the apparition occupies; and any one on the further side of the
tree would be almost if not quite invisible on account of the holly
and other bushes and the dead wall. Any one about there at all can
easily be seen from the many houses on all sides.
"If it were a shadow thrown upon the glass of the window it would,
of course, be seen by those who sit in the body of the church as
well as those in the gallery.
"It cannot be a reflection on the principle of Pepper's Ghost,
which is produced by the figure actually being in a very strong
light and appearing reflected on glass in a darkish spot. The
lights both inside and outside of the church at York which might
be thought to produce the ghost, are precisely the reverse, and any
figure required to be reproduced by reflection on the east window
would have to be standing or walking in the centre of the aisle.
"For the above facts I can vouch, and I have no reason to believe
that the following are either incorrect or exaggerated.
"It is said to appear very frequently on Trinity Sunday, and to
bring two other figures on to the scene, another female, called the
nurse, and the child. It is often seen as distinctly on a dark,
rainy, or snowy day, as when the sun is shining. When I saw it the
sun was not bright.
"The motion is even, not at all jerky. Sometimes it glides swiftly;
at other times slowly. It cannot be a mere accidental reflection,
from a door or window, for instance, for the figure faces different
ways, according to the direction in which it is going; and it is
not always alone, nor do the figures always act in concert.
"One of my friends, with a companion, has watched outside on the
wall, where he had a full view of the whole place around, during
morning service. The ghost has been seen from the inside while
outside nothing was visible.
"It is said to have haunted the church for 150, 200, and some
authorities say 300 years, and there are many pretty legends
connected with it.
"One of the many traditions says that 300 years ago, during
religious disturbances, a party of soldiers came to sack the
convent attached to this church; that the abbess, a woman of great
virtue and courage, stopped them, as they were entering, declaring
that they should enter over her dead body only, and that, should
they succeed in their sacrilegious purpose, as they afterwards did,
her spirit would haunt the place until the true Church were
re-established, and a convent built on the same spot. Another story
relates that during the plague, some two hundred years ago, a
nurse and child died of the pestilence, and were necessarily buried
outside the city walls, while the unfortunate mother of the child,
at her death, was interred in Holy Trinity Churchyard. Here the
mother waits and receives the nurse and child, weeping and wringing
her hands before parting with them. The same scene is often enacted
several times during the same day, and even during the same
service.
"Whatever may have been the circumstances under which the ghost (if
it is one, which it is hard to believe in these matter-of-fact
days) commenced its peculiar promenade, I would recommend those who
have the chance to go to Holy Trinity Church, York, and see for
themselves, though an audience of the apparition cannot always be
assured. A ghost in broad daylight does no harm, frightens no one,
and ought to interest everybody.--I am, &c.,
"H. G. F. T."
Finally the Rector of Holy Trinity, York, intervened; he wrote to the
"York Herald":--
"I think the time has come when it is perhaps necessary for me to
give a word of explanation in regard to this imaginary apparition.
The fact is simply this: Any one seated in the gallery of the
church which is at the west end, can see through the east window
any person, or persons, walking in the vicarage garden. The wall at
the east end of the church, below the east window, is too high to
allow anyone in the body of the church to see either the garden or
anyone in it. This fact explains at once the reason, how it is
absolutely necessary for anyone to be in the gallery in order to
see the 'ghost.' This is the real truth of the matter. What is seen
is not a 'ghost;' it is not a 'reflection,' but it is a living
being, or beings, walking in a garden. Of course the east window
being of stained glass and of a rather peculiar pattern, a distinct
form is not always visible. And I may say that this simple
explanation has been attested and verified over and over again both
by myself and others. One argument of proof is all, I think, that I
need give. The Vicarage House was at one time empty for about 12
months, during which time the 'ghost' was neither seen nor heard
of, and then it was let to a person with a large family; and on the
very first Sunday after the family took possession of the premises,
I was told by a simple-minded youth that the ghost had returned,
and five or six young ghosts with it. After what I have here
stated, I need hardly say that all the sensational matter in regard
to vivid lights, mother, nurse, and child, extraordinary displays
on Trinity Sunday, &c., &c., is as pure an invention as ever was
fabricated by a morbid imagination. And I will add that I sincerely
hope that the people of York will not take the advice of one of
your voluminous correspondents, and will not go to the church for
the mere purpose of seeing this purely imaginative ghost. I trust
that all who go will remember it is God's house, intended to be a
house of prayer, and not a place for gratifying an idle curiosity."
This letter called forth a sharp animadversion from another
correspondent who signed himself "Novocastrensis," to which H. G. F. T.
replied:--"I have read Mr. Gould's accounts since I saw the 'ghost,' and
find that though they differ considerably in the details from my
description, in the essential points they agree with and corroborate it.
I should like to state here distinctly that the story was not adapted
for my 'own' or any other's 'purpose' from 'Yorkshire Oddities,' but is
an unprejudiced, and to the best of my belief, an unexaggerated and true
account and description of what I myself saw. It is not my desire to
raise a discussion, but the injustice implied in the letter is the
excuse I urge for thus trespassing upon your space.--I am, &c.
"H. G. F. T.
"Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 6th May, 1876."
This provoked another letter from a fresh correspondent:--"SIR,--I was
in York when the letters appeared in the _Chronicle_ and the _Journal_
about the ghost in Holy Trinity Church. A lady, a member of the
congregation, who has frequently seen the ghost, gave me the following
simple explanation. Opposite the window there is a cottage, in one of
the windows of which there is a swing pane of glass. The tenant of the
cottage can cause the ghost to appear and disappear at pleasure by
simply opening and shutting it, thus causing reflected sunlight to fall
on the church window:--I am, &c.,
"J. L.
"May 9th, 1876."
Another correspondent rushed into print:--"SIR,--though I am not one of
those who can boast of having seen the York ghost, yet even to me the
explanation published in today's _Journal_, in a letter signed 'J. L.,'
seems utterly inadequate to explain the matter. The fact of a swing
window opening and shutting might throw sunlight upon the church window,
but it is perfectly clear that in such a case the reflection would not
be confined perpetually to the same identical part of the window, the
angles caused by the sun and the swing window being of course varied,
according to the time of day. It strikes me that by those means the
figures could not be reversed on their return as is always the case,
according to the story. Again, the apparition is often seen in dull
weather, when no sunbeam could be reflected. If the light were actually
turned on to the stained glass, the congregation seated in the body of
the church would be able to see it as well as those in the gallery, but
they do not. I should like to see the matter explained. Yet a reason
such as 'J. L.' gives for it is altogether unsatisfactory, and may be
taken for what it is worth, which is not much, considering the evidence
against him, and the fact that his information is only second-hand.--I
am, &c.,
"R. H. H.
"Newcastle-on-Tyne."
VI
"M---- Rectory, York, "_Aug. 11th, 1875_.
"DEAR SIR,--Having had the pleasure of reading your interesting
book 'Yorkshire Oddities,' I recognised an old acquaintance in the
'Trinity Ghost.' Happening to have found out an apparent
explanation of the ghost, I thought you would be interested in
hearing what I know about it.
"In 1869 I went to school at Mr. Metcalfe's, the present incumbent
of the church. For my first year I saw and heard nothing about the
ghost. We used to sit in two pews in the body of the church under
the gallery. In 1870 we changed to a pew in the front of the
gallery and the one behind it. Soon after we changed our seats,
some of us saw the ghost, and the next Sunday we looked for it, and
most of us saw it. The attempt was made known to find out what the
ghost was. In 1871 my curiosity being rather excited by the
frequent appearances of the ghost, I and a boy of the name of
Yewdall determined to find out what it was. The appearance of the
ghost was, as one of your informants describes it, that of a figure
in a surplice, and it always went across the window from left to
right, and returned from right to left. The east window is a
pattern window of a good deal of red and blue glass, and beyond the
window there is a small strip of churchyard and then a wall. Beyond
the wall is the yard of the old parsonage house. On the left hand
side of this yard is the parsonage which is rented to a few poor
families who used to take in lodgers. On the other side are the
offices.
[Illustration:
A East window
B Gallery
C Parsonage
D Wall
E Churchyard
F Ashpit, &c.
G yard formerly garden]
"As we used to teach at the Sunday School which was held in a large
room jutting out from the parsonage towards the church, we often
noticed the women and children of the house going across the yard
to the ashpits; and it struck us that this might be the ghost. So
we went into the church directly the doors were opened and went up
into the gallery while another of us walked across the churchyard
in front of the east window. Curiously enough, at the same time we
saw him going across the window near the bottom, the ghost went
across higher up. This goes a good way to proving my supposition,
as is drawn in the following diagram.
[Illustration]
"I have forgotten to state that the ghost was always seen best in
sunny weather, but it is also to be seen in cloudy weather as well
as bright sunshine. Usually one ghost appeared, but I have often
seen two, and a few times as many as eight children with the two
big ones. This was, I suppose, the husband and wife of one of the
families surrounded by the children. In 1862 (I believe the date is
correct) Mr. Saul was the Incumbent, but upon his death, on
vacation of the living, the parsonage house was uninhabited. During
this time I have been told that the church was delivered from the
ghost, but the very first Sunday the new rector came the ghosts
reappeared as before.--I remain, yours truly,
"----."
The name I have not given, though the letter was signed.
PETER PRIESTLY,
THE WAKEFIELD PARISH CLERK.
In the middle of last century there lived in Wakefield a certain Peter
Priestly, who for many years was sexton of the parish church of All
Saints. The then vicar was Michael Bacon, D.D., a tall, portly man, of a
commanding presence, who wore a large bushy wig, as was the wont of many
old divines of that date. He was a man of rather a warm temperament, and
was apt at times, when matters did not flow quite according to his will,
to grow a little irritable, and whilst in that condition his habit was
frequently to thrust his right hand in a testy, impetuous way under his
wig. This habit destroyed the symmetry of that capital ornament, and
made it protrude considerably on the right side; and this protrusion
grew greater the longer the wig was worn.
The vicar's wigs were inherited and worn by the sexton, whose venerable
and awe-inspiring appearance was much enhanced thereby. Mrs. Priestly in
vain endeavoured to reduce the protuberance of hair on the right side,
so as not to betray the origin of the wig. The horse-hair resumed its
elasticity in spite of her efforts, and the congregation in the parish
church were amused to see the stately Doctor in his reading-desk with a
deformed wig, and below him the scarcely less stately clerk in a wig the
counterpart of that of the Doctor. But what amused the wags not a little
was to observe the fact that when the Doctor's wig was perfectly
symmetrical, instantly the sexton's assumed the most exaggerated
inequality in the sides. The secret, of course, was that the Doctor had
donned a new wig, and had given his old one to the clerk. But after a
while the irascible vicar had succeeded in brushing out the tufts of his
false head of hair on the right, and simultaneously the continued
efforts of Mrs. Priestly had reduced the right-hand protuberance in the
wig of her husband. Consequently, as one bush grew, the other shrank
into itself. But there were points--like the equinoxes--when both wigs
were alike.
Now it fell out that Doctor Bacon had determined to present himself with
a new wig one Easter, and he had accordingly given Peter Priestly his
old wig, which had arrived at its maximum of extension on the right-hand
side.
Peter had heard it said that on S. Mark's Eve the spirits of all those
who are to die during the year may be seen in the church. Half believing
this popular superstition and half in doubt about the truth of it, and
thinking, moreover, that if it might be so, he should like to know
whether trade would be brisk for him during the rest of the year, he
decided that anyhow he would go to the church and see what would happen;
and not wishing to spend his time idly, he determined to occupy himself
with lettering some grave-stones which he had not completed. The place
in which he carried on this work was the base of the church tower, which
was shut off from the nave by a large boarded partition, against which
stood the west gallery of the church. The opening from the tower into
the nave consisted of large folding-doors.
Now, according to the story, on S. Mark's Eve a train of all those who
are to die before the ensuing S. Mark's Eve come into the church through
one of the doors in their winding-sheets, each carrying a corpse-candle.
A ghostly priest precedes the weird procession, and dolefully intones
the burial service.
When Peter had finished his supper on that eventful evening, he said to
his wife: "I think, lass, I'll go and do a bit o' my lettering; so gi'e
me my lantern wi' a can'le in it. I happen shan't be so varry long; but
I think I'll just go for a bit. Howsomever, if I should stop a middling
while, ye needn't be flayed (frightened), for I want to finish them two
stoanes."
It was not without some trepidation that Peter took up his place in the
tower, and left the folding-doors ajar that he might look into the nave
and see the awful train sweep in.
Peter was not a nervous man, or at least he did not think himself so,
and he began his work, whistling a psalm tune. He was engaged on a large
grave-stone on which he had already completed about half the
inscription. It was standing raised upon tressels to the required
height; and at this he worked diligently for a long while, with his face
towards the east and the folding-doors, and every now and then he stole
to the doors and peeped through into the nave. All was perfectly dark
and silent. He returned to his work with lighter heart after each glance
into the great dark church. He had taken the candle out of his lantern,
and had put it into an old rusty candlestick, which he kept there for
the purpose, in order that he might have a better light.
The church clock, with many premonitory groanings, had struck the hours
of ten and eleven, and Peter still pursued his work. The eventful
ghostly hour was approaching when the graves reveal their secrets. As
this hour drew nigh Peter's courage began to fail. It flashed across his
mind that perhaps the spectral procession would enter the church, not
through the south porch, as he had at first conjectured, but through the
western tower-door; in which case it would be upon him, envelop him,
before he knew where he was.
This caused great agitation in Peter's breast, and made him turn his
head every now and then to see if anything were stirring. But all
remained still; the only sound that broke the silence was the pulse of
time, the old clock throbbing above in the tower, and that sound seemed
to grow more monotonous and weary.
Twelve o'clock drew near, and Peter's heart began to beat quicker. "I
arn't flayed," he said to himself, "but I'm varry hot; t' work ha' made
me so, I reckon. There's nowt to be flayed at, for there's nowt to be
seen. I'll just wait while it strikes twelve, and then I'll go home."
So on he worked, but his hand was not as steady as usual, and he made a
blunder in the letter he was cutting; and this annoyed him.
"I doan't know how it is," he said; "I think I mun be getting ow'd, for
my hand rather shakes, and I can't see as weel as I used." He wiped his
spectacles and snuffed the candle which stood at his right hand, and
drew it closer to him. At that moment the striking apparatus of the
clock groaned and prepared for twelve. Peter looked round over his
shoulder. The quarter began to strike, and then with a great whirr the
first stroke of the ominous hour sounded--the second--the third. How
slow they did strike--surely slower than usual. At each stroke he turned
his head and glanced behind him. Twice he started. Surely there was a
little sharp sound for a moment, like an unearthly hiss. He raised
himself and looked about him. There was nothing.
He bent himself again over his work, and the clock had reached the
eleventh stroke. The twelfth followed. He turned sharply round, and on
the instant such a rush sounded close to his right ear--such a strange,
supernatural light glared suddenly through the tower--such a breath of
hot air fanned his cheek--that he thought surely the ghostly train was
passing. Over went the candle, and was extinguished. Down fell mallet
and chisel. The old man stumbled out of the tower, rushed through the
churchyard, and ran home, never looking behind him till he reached his
door.
His house stood at the north-east corner of the churchyard. Opening his
door, he ran through the room, and, pale and breathless, sank into his
old arm-chair by the side of the fire. For a moment or two his mouth
opened and gasped inarticulate words. Then, extending his trembling
hand, he said to his alarmed wife, "Gi'e me my pipe, lass--gi'e me my
pipe."
"Why, Peter," said his loving spouse, "whativer is t' matter wi' thee?
Thou looks right flayed."
"Gi'e me my pipe, lass--gi'e me my pipe," he gasped again.
She went to the clock-case and took the pipe down from a ledge at the
side of it, where it always rested when not in use, and reached down the
tobacco-box from the delf-case against the wall; and bringing them to
the old man, said, as she gained a closer view of him, "Why, Peter,
whativer hast thou been doing? Thou'st burnt ommost half t' hair off t'
right side o' thy wig!"
"What?" said Peter, with a sudden feeling of relief from his fright.
"Why, tak' thy wig off, and thou'll soon see," said the wife.
Doing as he was bid, he sat studying the precious wig. The great bunch
of hair ruffled out by the vicar's hand was consumed to the roots.
Peter burst out laughing; the mystery was solved. But he made no more
visits to the church at midnight on S. Mark's Eve.
Peter was remarkable for many witty sayings, but most of these have
been forgotten.
He was lettering a grave-stone in the churchyard one day, when a
physician came by, who, looking at the inscription, which was partly
cut, said, "Why, Peter, you've spelt it wrong."
"Have I, Doctor?" said he, sharply. "Then how should it be?"
When he was told how to correct his blunder, he looked slyly into the
physician's face and said, "Well, well, pass it over, Doctor--pass it
over. I've covered up monny a blot o' yours."
He one day stood listening to a Methodist local preacher in the
market-place. The preacher was attempting an oratorical effect, and
exclaimed, "My brethren, if every field in the world was thrown into one
field, what a great field that would be!" "Ah!" said Peter, loud enough
to be heard, "if every jackass i' t' world was one jackass, what a big
jackass that 'ud be!"
PROPHET WROE.
John Wroe was born at Bowling, in the parish of Bradford, Yorkshire, on
September 19th, 1782, and was baptised in the old parish church of
Bradford. He was put to school, but from want of capacity or of
application he made such poor progress that when he left it he read very
imperfectly, and he never acquired a facility of reading.
He was brought up to follow his father's employment, which was that of
worsted manufacturer, combined with farming and the proprietorship of a
coal-pit. In course of time his father gave him a share in his business,
and articles of partnership were drawn up, but were never signed. John's
natural incapacity for application to business probably obliged his
father to place his brother Joseph in his room as partner, and John
afterwards often complained of being hardly treated by his father and
brothers. It is evident, however, that this treatment he brought on
himself, and that his father acted with judgment in not entrusting the
conduct of business into his hands.
His grandfather is said to have declared that "the Lord would raise up a
minister from among his offspring." To fulfil this prophecy Wroe placed
his youngest son Thomas in a school to be educated for the ministry in
the Church, but was prevented from applying to the Archbishop of York
for ordination for him, as the Vicar of Bradford and a friend dissuaded
him from doing so, on account of Thomas labouring from an impediment in
his speech.
John's irritation against his brother Joseph brought him to the verge
of committing a dreadful crime. He procured a pistol and lay in wait for
his brother, intending to shoot him, but his conscience reproached him,
and he did not put his murderous purpose into execution.[1]
John and his father in course of time came to an open rupture about some
wool that had been bought by the latter, and John determined to set up
for himself. He applied for a farm in Tory Street, and the landlord
would have accepted him, but his father intercepted the letter, and took
the farm himself for three years. John, highly incensed, moved into the
farm-house, and maintained his position there during all that time. His
father wished to dispossess him, but not liking to summons his own son,
he thought it better to suffer him to remain there.
On his way one night to Adwalton he was attacked by two men, who robbed
him of eighteen pounds. The men were apprehended but not convicted, and
John never recovered the money.
He took up wool-combing as a business, and engaged apprentices. One of
his apprentices, Benjamin Lockwood, involved him in losses, according to
his own account, and this led him to bankruptcy.
I give the next passage from his memoirs as it stands. It is vaguely
worded, and I do not profess to understand it. "He was about five years
an housekeeper previous to his marriage with the daughter of Benjamin
Appleby, of Fasseley Mills, near Leeds."
In 1819 John Wroe was attacked by fever, and was pronounced in danger.
Dr. Field, who attended him, advised Mrs. Wroe to prevail on him to
settle his affairs. The thought of death so moved and alarmed Wroe that
he entreated that some Methodist preacher might be brought to visit and
pray with him; but they refused, although his wife sent to four of them.
She then asked him if she had better not send for his parish priest, or
some of the clergymen of the Church; but he declined, saying it was too
late, and he begged her to read to him some chapters from the Bible;
"and," said he, "I will see what I can do for myself."
He gradually recovered his bodily health, but not his ease of mind, and
for some months he continued wandering about the fields with his Bible
in his hand, sitting down under the hedges, and spelling out easy
passages for himself; but still found no comfort.
Soon after this he fell into epileptic fits, and saw visions. In these
trances he became completely rigid, his eyes remained closed--the
eyelids as fast together as if they had grown to one another, and his
tongue stiff in his mouth. In this condition he remained sometimes
seven, twelve, twenty-four, or even thirty-six hours. After one of his
fits, his eyes remained closed for six days, but he recovered the use of
his tongue. The first of his trances came on in the morning of November
12th, 1819, at two o'clock, before dawn, as he was rambling in the
fields. He says: "A woman came to me, and tossed me up and down in the
field. I endeavoured to lay hold of her, but could not; I therefore knew
it was a spirit." Could this not have been his wife, impatient at him
leaving his bed and rambling about so early?
After this he was taken and put to bed. Whom by? Was it by this woman
who tossed him about? In bed he remained twelve hours.
On the 19th November, six days after his shaking, he had a fit, and lost
his sight and power of speech. On his returning to consciousness, he
wrote on a black board, in rude letters and abject spelling, the
revelations he had been allowed to behold. It consisted of oxen running
down a lane, tossing their horns, which frightened him to tears. "I
thought that I walked about a mile among these beasts, until I returned
to my former place, and there an angel met me, and he took me to a large
place, where I saw a great number of books, placed on their edges,
having gilt letters. There also appeared large altars, full of letters,
but I could not read them. I begged that I might be enabled to read and
understand what I had seen; and there appeared another, the letters of
which were black print or old English, with the word Jeremiah on the top
of it, and the letter L. I wrote on the wall with my fingers at the
time, as I lay in bed; the people who were present observing me,
concluded that I wished to write (I was dumb, for my tongue was fastened
in my mouth as before); they gave me a piece of board and chalk, and I
wrote Jeremiah, 50th chapter. I had never read this chapter, or heard it
read, or seen it before, to my recollection; but when I came to myself,
I could, without looking at it, repeat nearly every word in it."
On the 29th of November following he had another epileptic fit
accompanied with visions; and on the 14th of December "I was again
struck blind at about ten o'clock in the forenoon, and remained more
like a corpse than a living man for twenty-four hours, when I came to
myself by degrees, but continued blind for five days. After many things,
the angel said to me, 'Thou shalt be blind for six days, and on the
seventh day thy father shall come to thee, and many people with him; he
shall lay his right thumb on thy right eye, and his fourth finger on thy
left, as a token that he remembers his former sins and wickedness; and
if not, it will be a witness against him at the Day of Judgment, and
thou shalt receive thy sight.' During the six days that I was blind my
wife at one time was reading a hymn for me; when she had read it I
desired her to read it again; but before she had done so I fainted, and
saw the elements separated, and there appeared before me a large open
square; I saw our Saviour nailed on the cross and the tears trickling
down his face, and at that time I thought he was weeping for the wicked
people upon the earth. An angel then appeared holding a man by a single
hair of his head, who had a very large sword in his hand, which he waved
backward and forward. I then saw a pair of large scales let down to the
earth, and a great bundle, which was placed in one side of it, which I
thought was the sins of the people, and then saw a great number of
weights placed in the other; but the bundle was so much heavier that the
weights bounced out, and the scales were drawn up into heaven. Then the
man that was held by the hair of his head by the angel brandished his
sword six or seven times, as formerly, and disappeared. I afterwards saw
Moses and Aaron, accompanied by a great number of people, attended by
angels, and I heard such delightful music as it would be impossible to
describe. There was darkness over the place soon after, and I lost sight
of all in a moment."
He continued with his eyes shut for exactly six days, and on the seventh
his father came and placed his thumb on his right eye, and his fourth
finger on his left, whereupon John Wroe opened his eyes and then fainted
away. As soon as he received his sight the people surrounding him asked
if he really saw clearly. He found that with one eye he saw as
distinctly as before, but with the other only imperfectly, and this he
attributed to some one having three days before endeavoured to force the
eyelids open.
Wroe tells us in his Autobiography that his father, placing his thumb
and finger on his eyes in the manner indicated beforehand by the angel,
filled every one with astonishment; but from Joseph Wroe, his cousin,
we learn that the father did this according to the express orders of
John.
Samuel Muff, a spectator, says: "During the twenty-four hours that John
Wroe was in his trance reports of the circumstance frequently reached my
house, adding that he was likely to die. I accordingly went to see him,
and he came to himself when I was in the house, but was entirely blind.
On hearing my voice, he communicated many things to me which I cannot at
present recollect; but I remember his having said that he was blind, but
that he would yet see. He wrote me a few lines in the course of his six
days' blindness, desiring that I would come and see him at the time his
eyes were opened, and which he asserted would be at the end of the six
days; the letter was sent to me by one of my neighbours, who declared he
saw him write it; and stone blind as he then was, it is the best piece
of his writing I ever saw. I complied with his desire, and actually saw
his eyes open in the manner already related. After his father had placed
his thumb and finger on his eyes, he appeared to me for some time as if
he were dead. He afterwards came to himself, sat up in the chair, and
his eyes instantly opened. He and I were brought up within a quarter of
a mile of each other, and were schoolfellows, but the master who
instructed us never could teach him to spell or read, nor even to speak
plainly."
Joseph Wroe, John's cousin, says: "The first time I met with John Wroe
after the commencement of his visions, which was in the street in
Bradford, I said, 'I have been informed that thou hast begun to preach.'
He replied, 'Well, I do not know much about preaching, but I have begun
talking, and people may call it what they please.' I said, in a
contemptuous manner, 'I have also been informed that thou hast been
visited with visions or trances; what hast thou seen?' He replied, 'I
have seen a great deal too much to relate here.' He appeared reserved,
and would say no more. Some time after this a person came to my house,
and inquired of me whether I had seen my cousin John, adding, 'People
say he is blind, and has been so for three or four days.' I went to see
him on the following Sunday, with many others. At his desire I led him
to the door, and accompanied him to the house of a neighbour, named
Abraham Holmes: it was this man who wrote his visions, and part of which
was done on that occasion. We delayed there until it was dark, and I led
him back to his house. When I was about to return home he laid hold of
my hand, and would not suffer me to proceed until I had promised him to
return next day, as he asserted that he would then receive his sight. I
accordingly attended the same day; several persons did the same, and one
of them said to John, 'Art thou not afraid that thou wilt never see any
more?' He replied, 'No, I have not a doubt about it. I am as firm as a
rock in the belief that my sight will be restored at the appointed
time.' A few minutes before the time he requested that some person would
lead him to a private place, where he might have an opportunity for
prayer. I accordingly led him into the parlour, and withdrew; he soon
after returned, and ordered a chair to be placed in the middle of the
room, so that every person present might observe what was to be done. He
then called his father, directing him to lay his thumb and finger on his
eyes, and he did so. John said, 'You have done enough; take away your
hand.' He then stretched out his legs and feet, his head and arms fell
back, and he fainted, and his countenance appeared like that of a person
who was dead. He remained so for about a minute, when his eyelids began
to move, and suddenly opened: he came to himself and said, 'I can see.'
I inquired of him, 'How wast thou before thy sight was restored?' He
replied, 'I got a glance of that glorious place, and at that instant my
sight returned.'"
The following night he prayed that he might be guided in the choice of a
sect to which to belong. At about two in the morning he woke, and saw on
the tester of his bedstead a black board, on which appeared in gilt
letters, "A.A. Rabbi, Rabbi, Rabbi." He awoke his wife, and told her
what he had seen. He thought at first that Rabbi was the name of a town,
and that he was perhaps to go to that place and declare there what he
had seen; but afterwards concluded it was a sign that he was to go and
testify to the Jews. Afterwards he conceived himself to be commanded to
testify in England for three years, "with his hat on his head," and at
the expiration of that time to join the Jews.
Accordingly, in the same year, 1820, Wroe went to Liverpool by
Huddersfield, to visit the Jews there. At Huddersfield he was well
received by three Methodist preachers, who helped him on his way with
money. On reaching Manchester he lodged in a house, and was asked by the
person who let him his lodging whether he knew John Wroe, as he
understood that he came from Bradford. Wroe having answered in the
affirmative, the man continued--"What sort of a fellow is he?" John
replied, "Some give him a very indifferent character; but time proves
all things." He was then asked if he were John Wroe, and when he said he
was, he was told that he should be heartily welcome to his lodging and
victuals gratuitously as long as he stayed there.
The accomplishment of some predictions made by Wroe tended greatly to
increase his fame and impress the ignorant and superstitious with belief
in his supernatural mission. But it is as easy to account for the
accomplishment of these prophecies as it is to vindicate the natural
origin of his fits and visions. He predicted the speedy death of his
wife's brother, and he sent his wife to her brother, Joseph Appleby, to
inform him that before long he would be dead. Appleby was at the time
ill in bed: there is little doubt that the fright caused by receiving
this message killed him.
In the spring of 1821 the cousin of John Wroe, who employed him as a
wool-comber, refused to engage him or have any more of his
badly-executed work, telling him he was more fit to be a preacher than a
wool-comber. Thereupon John fell back in a fit against a bale of wool,
and when he recovered called all to witness what he said--"Take notice
of that young man," said he, pointing to the son of his employer, who
had been foremost in his complaints and abuse; "he will never more do
any work; he will never again pay any man wages." The young man was
immediately taken ill and died. In this case the lad was no doubt killed
by fright.
On the 14th of August, 1822, came the final summons to Wroe to go to the
Jews. As he was sitting in conversation with some dupes or believers he
asserted that he heard thrice a voice which cried, "Go to my people
Israel, and speak the words that I command thee." It continued speaking
for about a quarter of an hour, and was succeeded by beautiful music.
"He inquired of the aforenamed persons," we are told in his
Autobiography, "whether they heard anything? and when they answered in
the affirmative, and appeared alarmed, one of them said, 'The voice came
from beneath the second bar of the fire-grate.' Wroe said, 'This voice
is not come for my sake, but for yours.'" One regrets to hear this, for
hitherto Wroe seems to have been acting in sincere good faith, believing
in his visions; but on this occasion there is apparent deception. His
neglect had lost him his livelihood, and he was obliged to prey on those
deluded people who regarded him as a prophet, and to keep up the
delusion had recourse to artifice.
He was now convinced of the truth of the great revelation of Joanna
Southcott. Already, in August, 1820, he had had an interview with George
Turner, the prophet of that sect, on his visiting Bradford, on which
Wroe had informed Turner that he (Wroe) was sent exclusively to the
public, and that Turner was sent exclusively to the elect of the
Society; and on this understanding Turner had consented to shake hands
with him.
But in 1822 the Society of Joanna Southcott was in a state of
expectancy, awaiting the advent of the promised Shiloh on the 14th of
October in that year, and it seems to have entered into Wroe's head to
take advantage of this, and announce himself to the Society as a prophet
in place of Turner, who, he had the shrewdness to see, would be
discredited by the failure of the appearance of the Shiloh. He was
accordingly visited with trances, in which he saw Joanna "transfigured
before him in the open firmament, in the day-time, with the Child in her
left arm."
Accordingly, Wroe attended a meeting of the Society at Bradford on
August 25th, 1822, and he announced: "You are expecting Shiloh to appear
and be amongst you on a certain day; but I tell you He will not; and
many of the believers will fall off, not merely one or two in a society,
but whole societies will fall away. Yet I do not doubt that the
visitation to George Turner is of God; and as a testimony of which, I
will give in my name among you."
On the following Sunday evening he had one of his epileptic fits in the
meeting, and lay as if dead. On recovering he announced that he had seen
an angel, who had commissioned him to act as prophet. But only two
persons at the meeting believed in him, and the whole of the Society at
Bradford never thoroughly accepted him. He then went to Almondbury,
where was a meeting of the Southcottites, where also he met with
indifferent success.
On Sunday evening he reappeared in Bradford, and adopted the following
extraordinary expedient to impress the congregation:--Unknown to the
members, he caused two men to stand, one on each side of the archway
leading into the second room of the meeting-house--the house being
divided into three parallel apartments, which opened into each other by
an archway in each partition, thus forming a sort of narthex, nave, and
chancel. Each man held a sword, and the swords were united at the
points, so that the Friends, to enter, had to pass under the swords.
Wroe entered last of all. Then the men pointed their swords at his
breast saying, "The sword of the Lord is against thee." Wroe instantly
fell on his knees, and prayed aloud that if his mission were not Divine,
the swords might fall and smite him asunder.
Wroe then stood up and walked to the second archway, the men with the
swords stepping backwards before him, still with their swords at his
breast. Thus he stood and preached on his mission to the congregation,
who were amazingly impressed at this solemn farce. When all was over, he
bade those of the Bradford Society who believed in him to pass under the
swords; and the great majority of the congregation did so. This
naturally created a schism in the body.
Letters were written by the Committee of the Society at Bradford, by
Wroe's direction, to the Societies at Ashton-under-Line, Stockport,
Sheffield, and Colne, to inform them of what had taken place, and
requesting them to delegate two men from each congregation to come to
Bradford and examine the truth concerning the mission of Wroe. The
Societies at Stockport and Sheffield declined the invitation, but in the
following year nearly the whole of the body at Sheffield accepted the
prophetic mission of Wroe, and some at Stockport believed.
It was time now for Wroe to begin his mission to the Jews. He had a
large following, and was provided liberally with money by his dupes,
which he was not, however, suffered to touch himself.
After having visited Jews at Liverpool and London without success, on
April 27th he embarked in the brig _Doris_ at Liverpool for Gibraltar,
in company of Robert Harling, of Thornhill, and reached there on the
20th of May. But there Harling's heart failed, whether at the sight of
the "abominable idolatries" of the people, or because his faith was
shaken in Wroe, does not transpire. On the day following their landing
Harling returned to England in a vessel that was ready to sail; but
John, having visited and converted the local Methodist preacher,
remained with him two months. This preacher, Cooke, was greatly
exercised in spirit on the arrival of the Prophet; but having prayed
earnestly to the Lord, as he tells us, "The Lord opened my eyes to see,"
and he became an enthusiastic believer.
On Saturday, the 31st, Wroe appeared in the synagogue of the Jews and
delivered his testimony. The Governor of Gibraltar declined to permit
him to preach in public; consequently Wroe departed, having been offered
a free passage to England. Before he did so he had been turned out of
the synagogue, and had invaded the Roman Catholic Churches, where he
deposited his prophecies on the altar in Spanish. This is one of them:--
"I, Jesus from heaven, command thee, John Wroe, to warn the kingdom
of Spain that if they return not from their wicked ways of
worshipping images made with men's hands, and bowing before them, I
will draw my two-edged sword against them, and it shall turn every
way till I have destroyed them. But who is this that has caused
them to err? They have hearkened unto their priests instead of
hearkening unto me. Now, I will tell you what I will do unto your
priests: I will chase them as hounds chase a fox, until I utterly
destroy them, and the remnant that is left shall slay your king,
and they shall know that I have sent this unto them by my servant."
He began to address the Irish Roman Catholic soldiers on the Rock, but
the adjutant turned him out. In the two months he was at Gibraltar he
had succeeded in making many enemies. A woman threw a pitcher out of a
window at his head, but fortunately missed him, and he was several times
threatened with a pistol. One day that he was creating disorder in the
cathedral the priests took him by the shoulders, thrust him out, and
locked the doors behind him.
Wroe reached Liverpool on August 23rd, and then visited Ashton and
Birmingham. On October 12th he again sailed for the Continent, and
reaching Paris on the 16th, he began to preach his mission to the Jews
in the Palais Royal.
From Paris he and his companion, William Lees, went to Strasburg, where
they "attended the meeting of the Jews in their synagogue. These Jews,
not understanding English, conducted them to the house of the Rabbi, who
was not at home. His daughter could speak some English, but not
sufficient to admit of her understanding the whole of what John and
William wished to communicate. The Jews therefore requested to have the
purport of the message given to them in writing, which was accordingly
done. They behaved very well. On the following day, Sunday, John was so
ill that he was confined to the house, and sent William to the Hebrews
to receive their answer to his letter. William found a man who could
speak English. He said 'he had read the letter to the Rabbi, who was
very angry, and said he had power to imprison them for two years, but
had pity on them, thinking they were deranged.'"
After visiting Vienna, they proceeded to Trieste. One would like to know
what they thought of that glorious road over the Sommering Pass, and
down the valleys of the Murz and the Save, by Laibach and the weird
ashen-grey dolomite peaks of the Terglou and Dobratz; but no allusion to
the scenery escapes these dull travellers, except that they "durst not
proceed by night, through the apprehension of robbers, the road being
over the mountains."
At Trieste they visited the Jews and a Roman Catholic priest, who
treated them with good-natured contempt; and they went on to Venice,
where they again testified to the Jews. At Verona they left a letter
addressed to the Roman Catholic priests, on the altars. At Vicenza their
letter to the priests was returned to them unanswered. At _table d'hôte_
at the inn, where about forty gentlemen of different nations were
present, "the spirit of the Lord rested on John, and he stood up and
addressed them, and gave them two letters. _They appeared much
astonished._"
From Milan they made their way to Paris, distributing tracts and
prophecies among the Jews and Catholics, and strewing them on the altars
of the churches. Having deposited one of these prophecies, not couched
in the most sanguine and complimentary terms, addressed to the French
priest, upon the high altar at Amiens, they nearly got into trouble.
They were arrested at Calais, and their baggage overhauled by the
police, who had received orders from the Minister of the Interior to
search them for papers against the Government. But the police-officer,
having looked through their budget of tracts, observed, contemptuously,
that "they were all on religious subjects," and let them depart.
John then took all that remained of his tracts and denunciations of woe
against the idolators, in Italian and French, and tore them into small
pieces, which he scattered about the streets of Calais, saying "he was
commanded to do so as a testimony against them." On the 17th December
they embarked on the French mail, a sailing packet, and had a very rough
passage. It blew so hard that they could not reach Dover, but stood off
Deal beach, and a boat conveyed the mail and the passengers ashore. They
had to pay fifteen shillings each to the watermen, exclusive of their
fare in the packet. They were well drenched with salt water, but John
cheered on William by assuring him that before they reached home he
would see the young woman who was to become his wife.
On reaching London, Wroe visited some of the Believers, and prepared the
way for a future visit, when he would meet George Turner face to face.
He assembled the Friends at Gravesend and Chatham, and prophesied before
them, and William Lees at the former place saw the enchanting Cordelia
Chenne, whom he afterwards married, thus fulfilling the prediction of
Wroe in the billy-boat. The following year was an eventful one.
In January he received a communication "from the Spirit" that he was to
spend forty days in a dark hole, and eat nothing but butter and honey,
and drink milk. On the 29th he was publicly baptised in the river Aire,
above Apperley Bridge, by John Brunton, of Bradford, in the presence of
some thirty thousand spectators.
"Both sides of the river were lined with persons of various ages and
denominations. The Spirit had given John a sign--that on his entering
the water the sun should shine; for during the two preceding days the
weather was extremely cold, with severe frost accompanied with snow. The
Sunday forenoon on which the ceremony was to take place continued very
wet till noon, and when Wroe arrived at the brink of the river, the sun
was still veiled. He walked down the river, intending to delay till the
clouds broke; but the people, thinking that he was afraid of the cold
water, roared at him, 'he dussn't go in! He's runnin' away!' They were
all disposed to view the fun, and they endeavoured to stop Wroe's
further progress. Some friends followed him, urging him not to
disappoint the crowd, and he found that he had better put a bold face on
it, and go in. The sun just then shone forth with a degree of warmth
most unusual at that season of the year. The musicians and singers began
to play and sing, and he descended into the water. But when preparing to
do so, a cry was raised by the multitude, 'Drown him!' The same words
were uttered by some young men who had placed themselves on the branches
of a tree adjacent to the river. John commanded them, in the name of the
Lord, to come down. One of them, named Hudson, who was formerly John's
apprentice, cursed him. Immediately that part of the bank on which the
tree grew gave way, and all were precipitated into the river. None of
them were drowned, but some had five or six miles to travel home in
their wet clothes; and Hudson, who had cursed John, died within a few
days after. When John came out of the water the musicians and singers
again performed."
The mob then set on Wroe with sticks, pelted him with mud, and he and
his band of Believers were obliged to beat a precipitate retreat.
On April 17th, in the same year, he was _publicly circumcised_. This
function was introduced and announced by the band of singers of
Ashton-under-Line marching in procession through the village, playing
and singing the whole way. In the evening the highly unedifying
performance was performed in the meeting-house of the Friends, "in the
presence of the congregation."
On August 30th he was again baptised in the river Medlock, near Park
Bridge, and on coming out of the river he stood with one foot in the
water, the other on the land, raised his hands to heaven, and swore that
there should be no more time--in imitation of the angel described in
Revelation (x., 5, 6).
He seems now to have enjoined circumcision on all male adherents, and
reports circulated that several children had died in consequence. "But,"
says the Autobiography, "these reports, with one exception, were
entirely false." The child who died was the son of Robert Grimshaw, of
Hurst Brook, near Ashton. The poor child died six days after the
operation. An inquest was held by the coroner, and a verdict of
manslaughter was returned against Henry Lees, the operator. He was,
however, acquitted at the Assizes, as the medical evidence was not
conclusive that the wound occasioned by circumcision had caused the
child's death.
On the 11th September Wroe received a call to wander in the fields for
fourteen days, and live on nuts, wheat, blackberries, hips, herbs, and
water. But these, as may well be believed, did not satisfy his hunger.
At the end of this time, which he spent in wandering to Huddersfield and
Oakenshaw, he told his wife "he had a command from God that she should
destroy all pictures, portraits, or likenesses of anything he had
created or caused to grow, whether of iron, stone, wood, cloth, or
paper, and everything of a black colour that could be found within the
house." Which command she, like a dutiful but foolish wife, obeyed.
He then proceeded to Bradford, and on Sunday the 26th addressed a large
congregation which crowded into the chapel to hear him. It ended in a
riot. "John left the room, accompanied by Elizabeth Elsworth and Mary
Brear, with whom he walked about two hundred yards, when one of the
females received a blow and was pushed aside. John was also forced along
for some distance. However, they reached the New Inn, where there were
two horses in readiness for John and his friend. Many of the people were
about to enter, but were prevented by the landlord. Some persons already
in the house said the two females were 'John's women,' and that he was
picking poor people's pockets. The horses being got ready, the people in
the house rushed out, crying to their persecuting companions, 'Now,
lads, he's going!' on which they closed the yard gate. John, however,
escaped by another passage. Having succeeded in getting on the road
leading to Great Horton, a cry was raised, 'Kill him! kill him!' He was
then pursued by the mob, amounting to thousands, some crying out,
'That's the devil who says he's been living on hips and haws, wheat and
nuts, for fourteen days!' He was surrounded, and prevented from
proceeding. By being preceded by Joseph Brear, he soon after succeeded
in clearing his way, and proceeding a little further. But he was
stopped, the mob pulling his horse and tearing his clothes. Joseph again
succeeded in clearing the way a little, but was presently knocked off
his horse by a stone; when remounted, they proceeded a short distance.
John then turned and said something to the people. John and his horse
were then pulled down and struck; the bridle and girth were broken in
pieces. He at length succeeded in getting on the causeway, and resumed
his journey on foot; stones and other missiles were showered against him
in all directions. Some of his companions entertained fears that he
never would reach Horton with life."
The bursting of a storm of rain fortunately dispersed the mob, and the
Prophet escaped. "On arriving at Moses Elsworth's nearly his whole body
was black; he had also one of his eyes much discoloured, and received a
cut on his face from a stone." On the following day he obtained
warrants against nineteen of the mob, who appeared before the
magistrate, were bound over to keep the peace for twelve months, and had
to pay all expenses.
Prophet Wroe now deemed it expedient to visit London. Accordingly he had
a revelation in August, 1825: "Go thou to Tozer, and stand before him,
and prophesy, with thy rod in thy hand, and say, 'Thus saith the Lord,
the Lord thy God has showed thee many things; and for this end wast thou
born. The seal thou hast received thou shalt be able to retain; but thy
body shall go to the dust, and thou shalt put on incorruption at the
first resurrection.... Thou shalt be a witness for Joanna, and thou
shalt come with her, and at that day thou shalt be great unto the ends
of the earth."
On the 28th August, John Wroe, with his faithful ally, William Lees,
visited the chapel of Mr. Lindsay, a prophet of the congregation of
Joanna Southcott in London. Lindsay received them cordially, and
announced to his congregation that "Brother Wroe" was to have full
liberty to use the chapel morning and afternoon.
Now Tozer was the right-hand man of Lindsay--his faithful witness, who
wrote down the oracles that dropped from his lips. He was, in fact, to
Lindsay what William Lees was to John Wroe. It was to this Tozer that
Wroe bore the message given above, which was a speech wrapped up in the
most flattering and complimentary language, but a snub for all that. Mr.
Tozer was wont to designate himself, "The man clothed in linen, with the
writer's inkhorn," and believed himself, or endeavoured to induce others
to believe, that he was the person spoken of by the Prophet Ezekiel
(ix., 2); and when Mr. Lees appeared on the scene with a white surplice
on and an ink-bottle at his left side it was a distinct throwing down of
the gauntlet, and was likely to lead to unpleasant results. Foreseeing
which, Wroe wrestled in prayer before the congregation that "Satan might
be rebuked within _them_ walls that day." Then Wroe stood up and said
with a loud voice, "Thus saith the Lord, There are in this place those
whose places shall be taken by others who have mocked and despised them.
None shall enter but such as are circumcised or married." Lindsay turned
red, trembled, and knocked over his inkstand. Tozer got up and said,
"Friends, what must be my feelings at this time? This day of the month,
this day of the week, eleven years ago, I addressed 1500 people in this
city, and since that time the visitation has been trodden under foot.
Eleven days were spoken of by the Woman--take them to mean years--(see
the book, and find it). God grant that this may be the beginning of the
Gathering." The people answered "Amen." It is evident he was overawed by
Wroe and Lee in his white surplice and ink-pot.
In the afternoon Wroe was again at the chapel, and again hinted that
there was now a new outpouring upon himself, and that the old prophets
were to yield to him. "Thus saith the Lord, Many in this place that are
first shall be last." Tozer and Lindsay looked uneasy. "If you will sign
for Satan's destruction, let a man be deputed to Ashton on the 17th of
next month. Many dreams have been interpreted there; let the same be
sent to those who profess to be visited, and see who will get an answer
in truth."
Lindsay walked backward and forward, in and out of the room, whilst John
Wroe spoke, but said nothing. At the conclusion of Wroe's speech,
Lindsay, who was greatly agitated, said, "I have received an order from
above to go and see the Living Skeleton now exhibiting in Pall Mall, at
three o'clock to-morrow, and John, with others, must go with me. And
let so-and-so take his clarionette and play a tune before the skeleton,
but for what purpose I know not."
John Wroe answered--"If the Lord hath commanded me to go, I will go; if
not, I cannot go."
This Living Skeleton was Claude Ambroise Seurat, born in 1797, who was
exhibited in London in 1825. His flesh had wasted completely away, and
when he had attained his full height he presented the extraordinary
spectacle of a skeleton covered with skin, alive and able to move and
converse. A portion of Mr. Hones' description of him must be quoted
here:--"He seemed another 'Lazarus come forth,' without his
grave-clothes, and for a moment I was too consternated to observe more
than his general appearance. My eye then first caught the arm as the
most remarkable limb; from the shoulder to the elbow it is like an ivory
German flute, somewhat deepened in colour by age; it is not larger, and
the skin is of that hue, and not having a trace of muscle, it is as
perfect a cylinder as a writing-rule. Amazed by the wasted limbs, I was
still more amazed by the extraordinary depression of the chest. Its
indentation is similar to that which an over-careful mother makes in the
pillowed surface of an infant's bed for its repose. Nature has here
inverted her own order, and turned the convex inwards, while nobler
organs, obedient to her will, maintain life by the gentle exercise of
their wonted functions in a lower region. If the integument of the
bowels can be called flesh, it is the only flesh on the body; for it
seems to have wholly shrunk from the limbs, and where the muscles that
have not wholly disappeared remain, they are also shrunk."
That this emaciated object, whose appearance in London created a
sensation, should have been supposed by superstitious people, eagerly
looking out for portents and realisations of wild prophecies, to be
sent into the world with some peculiar significance, is not to be
wondered at.
Lindsay seems to have resolved to put Wroe's apostleship to the proof by
a visit to the extraordinary phenomenon, then exhibiting in the Chinese
Pavilion, in Pall Mall. The Living Skeleton was to have decided between
them, and confounded him who was the false prophet and impostor.
But Wroe would not go through this ordeal: he slunk away, conscious,
perhaps, that he was an impostor, and with superstitious fear of the
Walking Skeleton. He escaped to Greenwich, where he pretended to be ill.
Lindsay, finding Wroe was not at the exhibition, pursued him to
Greenwich, and an angry meeting ensued.
Next Sunday, Wroe again invaded the chapel of Lindsay, who began to
prophesy against him, saying, "I say, in the name of the Lord, you shall
shave!" Then John Wroe took the prophetic rod, and thrusting it towards
Lindsay, thundered forth, "Dost thou come to defy Israel? The Lord
rebuke thee, Satan!"
Lindsay was silent, but presently tried to create a diversion by setting
Wroe and his follower Lees at variance, for he pointed to the latter and
said, "Thus saith the Lord, This man shall shave, and shall prophesy
against his master." "When will he shave off his beard?" asked Wroe
indignantly. "When thine is plucked up by the roots," answered Lindsay.
The scene was becoming undignified. The prophets seemed to be aware of
it, and that it was necessary to patch the matter up; so Lindsay said,
"You see the spirits seem to differ a little; it is we who do not
understand how they work and move."
By degrees Wroe succeeded in obtaining recognition as the Prophet from
the majority of Joanna Southcott's congregations. The faithful men wore
long beards, "the city mark," as it was called, and white linen
vestments at the religious meetings in their tabernacles.
George Turner had succeeded Joanna Southcott; he was succeeded by
William Shaw, and then Wroe received general acknowledgment. He
announced that his mission would last forty years, and that at the
expiration of this period Shiloh would come.
As soon as he was acknowledged as Prophet, he had a power in his hands
which he did not fail to exercise. In 1830 he announced that he had
received orders from heaven that seven virgins should be delivered to
him to comfort and cherish him, and three of his believers at once gave
up to him their daughters. With these poor girls and some married women
Wroe wandered from place to place. They were with him in Kent, in
Devonshire, in Lancashire, and Yorkshire--wherever Wroe pretended that
he was called. The matter became scandalous, and the confidence of
several of the members of the community was shaken. The girls were
questioned, and made shocking disclosures. Two of the Society, named
Masterman and Walker, rose in the congregation at Ashton, on February
27th, 1831, and charged him with profligacy. Wroe could not stand
against the storm; he escaped through a trap-door in the orchestra,
amidst cat-calls, jeers, and howls. He remained secreted in Ashton a few
days, and then left the place for ever.
The confidence of his faithful disciple Lees was somewhat dashed shortly
before this by an exposure of the Prophet at Manchester. Lees had a
friend at Manchester with whom he did business. Wroe used to spend much
of his time in Lees' house. The Prophet announced to Lees that he was
called by the Spirit on a mission, but that he had no money. Lees called
a covenant meeting, and the sum of eighty pounds was raised, and placed
at the disposal of the Prophet, who departed with it. Now it happened
that Lees' friend did business at a certain public-house in Manchester,
and having noticed Wroe there, and being shortly after at Ashton, he
asked Lees where the Prophet was. Lees told him that he had gone on a
mission. His friend laughed, and said, "Come with me and you shall see
him."
With difficulty he persuaded Lees to get into a cab with him and drive
to Manchester to the public-house. The two men went in, opened the door
into a back parlour, and found the Prophet sitting by the fire, in his
low-crowned brown hat and long coat, between two low women, drinking hot
whiskey and water with them. The landlord informed them that Wroe had
been there several days. Lees went home, burned his white robe,
destroyed all his books and tracts belonging to the Society, shaved off
his beard, and next Sunday was in the parish church, which he had been
in the habit of attending before he fell under the influence of Wroe.
But his humiliation did not end here. His daughter gave promise of
becoming a mother by Wroe. In vain did the Prophet assure him that the
child that would be born was the promised Shiloh. It turned out to be a
girl. Lees put Wroe out of his doors.
It was soon after this that the Prophet was met by Masterman and Walker,
and the scandal of the virgins was exposed.
Lees, hearing that Wroe was coming to Ashton, exasperated at the
dishonour of his daughter and the dupe that had been made of himself,
stationed himself behind a chimney and fired a gun at Wroe. The ball
whizzed past his hat, and fortunately did him no injury. But the rumour
of these scandals and the death of a child named Wood whom he had
circumcised, caused a riot at Bradford when he visited it shortly after.
The mob broke into the tabernacle, tore up the benches, smashed the
windows, and would have maltreated Wroe if they could have caught him;
but the wary Prophet made his escape in time.
One day in July he had a vocation to go on a mission. He was then living
at Pudsey. His followers raised a handsome sum to defray his expenses,
and he departed. After he had gone, it was observed that his wife passed
a certain public-house in the neighbourhood every day. This was unusual,
and it was agreed to watch her. After John Wroe had been gone fourteen
days, she was followed at a distance. She went down a lane to a
corn-field and made a signal, whereupon Wroe was observed to creep out
of the standing corn. His wife opened her basket and produced a dish of
new potatoes and a mutton-chop, and a four-ounce bottle of wine. The
Prophet drew a horse-rug from out the corn, and prepared to seat himself
on it and enjoy his dinner, when the spies rushed upon him, carried him
in triumph into Pudsey, set him on a donkey, rode him through the town,
then tied a rope round his body, threw him into a horse-pond, pulled him
out, and threw him in again and again; till the women, seeing him nearly
exhausted, interfered and begged that he might be spared.
When he was living at Bowling he had a trance which lasted ten or twelve
days. He lay apparently insensible on a stump bedstead, and people came
from far and wide to see him. At the foot of the bed was a basket in
which the visitors deposited silver and copper; and all who came were
expected to give a trifle. There was a fixed hour at which the cottage
door was opened and closed, and when it was closed the key was turned in
the lock, and no one was admitted on any excuse.
It unfortunately happened that one night Mrs. Wroe went out for some
purpose or other, and left the door unfastened behind her, intending to
return in a minute. A man named Holt and his son lived close by. As
they saw Mrs. Wroe go out, they and a neighbour who was with them
thought the opportunity was not to be neglected, and opened the door of
Wroe's house and peeped cautiously in. To their surprise John was
sitting very comfortably in the ingle-nook, eating beef-steak, pickled
cabbage, and oat-cake.[2] Next day he was laid on his bed as usual in a
trance, and so he continued for three or more days. One of the visitors
wished to thrust a needle under Wroe's nail, to prove if he were
perfectly sensible, but his wife would not permit it.
Another of his devices for raising money was not more honest. He
announced that the Lord had declared to him that every member of the
Society of the house of Israel was to wear a gold ring of the value of
£1 3s. 6d., which was to be procured from the Prophet, and it was to be
a sign and a seal to them that they were the elect. This was in 1856,
and all the members were supplied with gold rings by 1857. At this time
the number of the members was thought to be about 6000, of whom 700 were
in Ireland.
Unfortunately for the credit of the Prophet, towards the end of 1856 one
of the members, who had not wholly lost his common-sense, thought it
advisable to have his gold ring tested with nitric acid, and the
startling discovery was made that the rings were not of gold at all, not
worth a florin each. Wroe threw the blame on the goldsmith who had
provided him with them, and ordered that no more should be issued.
About 1854 John Wroe said he had a command from the Lord to build a
mansion. The treasury of the "House of Israel" was empty; so the pillars
of the Church met, and on consultation agreed to let Wroe have the
Flying Roll money. This was a fund to which, after the death of Joanna
Southcott, all sealed members paid according to their income or ability.
It was a sacred fund retained by the Society for the purpose of
publishing the Eternal Gospel and sending it to all parts of the world,
proclaiming the millennium, the outpouring of the Spirit, and the Great
Desolation. This eternal Gospel was to be published forty years after
the death of Joanna.[3] The sum amounted to a large amount--over two
thousand pounds.
Wroe bought a piece of land on a height near Wakefield, and on this
began to build. The house, said Wroe, was to be dedicated to the Lord,
and was to belong to the members of the "House of Israel" gathered out
of all nations. No architect was to be employed. It was to be built as
the Spirit directed.
Subscription-books were issued to all the sanctuaries. Every member's
contribution was to be entered separately, and no man was to know what
his neighbour gave. The poorest workman was to contribute not less than
10 per cent, of his earnings.[4] All extra gifts were to be sent to John
Wroe at Wrenthorpe, near Wakefield, and those who did not wish to pay to
the local treasurers might send their subscriptions direct to the
Prophet.
During 1855 and 1856 post-office orders poured in from all parts, and
it was said in Wakefield at the time that Wroe had more orders cashed
than all the tradesmen of the town put together.
The female members of the Society were to furnish the mansion. They were
not to tell their husbands how much they gave; and many put down their
names for sums which they really could not pay, and had to sell goods
and borrow cash to keep up their payments to the end of 1856.[5]
The land was bought of Mr. William Ramsden, farmer, of Wrenthorpe, and
was conveyed by Mr. Haigh, solicitor, of Horbury, to John Wroe, and not
to the Society. A farm of upwards of a hundred acres was bought in
addition, and was conveyed to himself.
The rumour of this produced some uneasiness among the members, and
twenty of them waited on the Prophet to question him about the
conveyance. He spoke them fair, assured them that the mansion and land
would go to the Society, and in their presence drew up a will wherein he
devised the whole estate to the Society. Messrs. Snell, Currey, Gill,
and Farren, leading members and pillars of the Church, witnessed it, and
departed in satisfaction to their homes. A fortnight after, Wroe sent
for a solicitor of Wakefield, and privately drew up a new will,
cancelling the old one, and in this latter will he devised the mansion
and ninety-eight acres of land to his grandson, James Wroe; and to his
daughters, Susanna and Sarah, property producing about £50 per annum to
each; and to his only son Joseph property of the value of £60 per annum.
The mansion was designed somewhat in the style of Melbourne Town Hall.
It cost upwards of £2000, but need not have cost half as much. When Wroe
saw how the money poured in, he had the north-east wing taken
completely down, and enlarged the building. Much of the work was done
two or three times over. The glazier (Mr. Slater) had a contract to do
all the glazing, and as soon as his contract was finished, Wroe
contracted with Mr. Slater to take every square of glass out again, and
put good plate-glass into the windows instead.
Wroe found he could not get on without an architect, and therefore
employed Mr. Thorpe, of Wakefield, and worried him out of all endurance.
Wroe visited Australia in 1850, 1854, 1859, and 1862. He was in America
in 1840, 1848, 1853, and 1859. His wife died May 16th, 1853, aged
seventy-four years, a fortnight after he left for America. He is said to
have treated her badly. On his travels he assumed different names;
sometimes he called himself Johanan Asrael, sometimes Yokkow or
Yockaman.
He obtained the name of "Pudding Wroe" among the urchins of Wakefield
and Bradford; the origin of this was as follows:--After one of his long
trances, he began to walk about, and was asked by acquaintances
concerning his health and appetite, and "What could he eat or fancy?"
His invariable answer was, "Nowt but pudding."
The boys used to shout after him--"Pudding Wroe," or "Nowt but pudding,"
and this highly incensed the Prophet. One day, after he had had this cry
ringing in his ears, he came home, and, standing in the door, saw the
table laid for dinner, and his wife and children ready in their places.
"What is for dinner to-day?" asked Wroe.
"Nowt but pudding!" shouted the incautious children. Wroe flew into a
passion, and said to his wife, "I'll tell thee what, lass, I wi'nt have
yon stuff called pudding ony more."
"Why, lad!" said Mrs. Wroe, "what are t' bairns to call it, then?"
"They mun call it _soft meat_," answered John.
Wroe purchased a handsome mule with a long flowing tail, and a basket
carriage. The harness was of the best kind, with silver buckles, &c. One
day when Wroe drove to Sandal, and left his mule and carriage outside
the house where he had business, some evil-disposed persons shaved the
mule's tail. Wroe raved and threatened, but could not find the guilty
parties. He never went near Sandal afterwards.
The following is Wroe's receipt for curing a cold:--Put two gallons of
boiling water in a large bottle, and place a funnel on the neck; put
your face in the mouth of the funnel, and throw a blanket over your
head; thus you inhale the steam, and are thrown into a perspiration.
Wroe would put a pillow in the oven, lay his head on it, and let the
oven be heated as hot as he could bear it, to drive away a head cold.
In his last voyage to Australia, in 1862, he fell upon the deck of the
ship when it was rolling, and dislocated his shoulder. The doctor set
it, but it soon fell out of place again, and never was right after.
On the day of his death, which occurred at Fitzroy, in Australia, he had
been out walking as usual, and seemed in his wonted health. On his
return from a walk he seated himself in his chair, and suddenly fell
forward on the floor, and was taken up a corpse. He had been collecting
money in Australia; and directly it was rumoured that Wroe was dead, all
the members in Melbourne demanded back their money, and threatened to
roughly handle Benjamin Eddow, Wroe's companion and secretary, unless he
restored the subscriptions. He was obliged to surrender some of the
cash, and to conceal himself. He got away the following day, and
remained hidden in a blacksmith's shop till he could find a ship on
which to get back to England. He brought with him between six and seven
hundred pounds. The Melbourne Society complained that Wroe had not kept
faith with them, for he had promised them he would never die!
FOOTNOTES:
[1] This he mentions in his tract, "A Vision of an Angel," Bradford,
Inkersley, 1820.
[2] My informant, who knew Wroe well, says: "J. Holt, the young man who
saw this, told it me. He is now living at Bradford."
[3] Is it more than a coincidence that the Southcottites should
reproduce the forms and terminology of a heresy of the fourteenth
century? The Abbot Joachim was the prophet then, and his "Eternal
Gospel" proclaimed precisely the same doctrines as the "Eternal Gospel"
of Joanna. This heresy invaded the ranks of the Franciscans, and
produced a tremendous schism, which ended in the prescription of the
Fraticelli. For an account of the Abbot Joachim and the Eternal Gospel
see Hahn, "Ketzer Geschichte," ii. and iii.; and Dean Milman's "Latin
Christianity."
[4] The members were obliged to keep books of their earnings, and
exhibit them, to prove that they paid 10 per cent. to Wroe.
[5] This information comes from some of those who were thus victimised.
Some members turned total abstainers, others vegetarians, to economise
money in order to pay their subscriptions.
BISHOP-DYKE POND.[6]
On the Monday following Palm Sunday, being the 14th of April, 1690,
William Barwick, a man living in Cawood, a village a few miles south of
York, on the Ouse, below its junction with the Wharfe, took his wife a
stroll along a pleasant lane leading to Bishop Wood, then an extensive
tract of forest trees, and even now one of the wildest and most
picturesque spots in the neighbourhood of Selby.
Mary Barwick was expecting her confinement at no great distance of time.
William made her walk before him; they crossed the little bridge over
Bishop's Dyke, and entered a close or field where was a pond. It was
surrounded by thick rushes, and the willows were covered with their
silken tufts, unrifled by the children for "palms" on the preceding day.
William Barwick looked round. No one was in sight. He seized his wife,
threw her into the pond, and did not let go his hold till she was
drowned. When he was quite satisfied that life was extinct, he drew the
body out of the water, and concealed it among the rushes which lay
between the water and the quickwood hedge. He then returned home.
At dusk he revisited the spot, and taking a hay-spade from a rick that
stood in the field, he made a hole by the side of the pond, and there
buried the poor woman in her clothes. What was the motive which actuated
William Barwick does not transpire.
Next day Barwick visited his brother-in-law at Rufforth, three miles
east from York, a man named Thomas Lofthouse, who had married the sister
of poor Mary Barwick, and told him that his wife Mary had gone to his
uncle, Richard Harrison, in Selby, where she was likely to remain for
some time.
Lofthouse gave no thought to this announcement. Whether he supposed that
Barwick was in difficulties, and it was likely to prove advantageous to
his wife that she should be confined in Selby instead of at home, where
she could have more comforts; or whether he thought there had been a
quarrel, and the announcement of Barwick intimated a separation, I do
not know. At all events, the statement of Barwick caused no surprise to
his brother-in-law, nor did it arouse any suspicion of foul play in his
mind.
Exactly a week after that visit, on Tuesday in Easter week, about
half-past twelve o'clock in the afternoon, Thomas Lofthouse, having
occasion to water a quickset hedge not far from his house, brought water
for the purpose in a pail. As he was going for the second pailful, he
suddenly observed a woman, in shape like his sister-in-law, going before
him towards the pond. He was startled, but hardly thought at the moment
that he saw a ghost. The figure glided before him, and seated itself on
a rising green bank right over against the pond; he walked before her as
he went to the pond, and as he returned with the pail full of water he
looked sideways to see if the figure were still there. He saw the
face--it was that of Mary Barwick, but deadly pale; the lips bloodless,
the teeth showing, and the eyes fixed on something white, which he
thought was a bag at the time, but afterwards supposed to be a baby,
which she seemed to be dandling. As soon as he had emptied the pail, he
went into his yard, and stood still to see if the figure were still in
the same spot; but by this time it had vanished.
Lofthouse said nothing about what he had seen till evening. He was
saying family prayers that night before retiring to rest, when, in
praying for their friends and relations, he came to the name of his
sister-in-law. He faltered, trembled, his voice broke down, and he could
scarcely conclude his devotions.
When he went to bed he told his wife everything, and the poor woman was
dreadfully alarmed. She implored her husband next day to go to Selby and
see Richard Harrison, at whose house Barwick had said his wife was
staying. He promised to do so, and on the morning early saddled his
horse and rode to Selby. His nearest road was by York, Cawood, and
Wiston; but he had no mind to meet William Barwick, and he therefore
took the high road from York by Escrick, Riccal, and Barlby.
On reaching Selby he soon ascertained that poor Mary Barwick had never
been there. On his return he went to the Lord Mayor of York; and having
obtained a warrant, got Barwick apprehended and brought before the
Mayor. The wretched man then acknowledged what he had done, and his
confession was written down and signed in the presence of the Lord
Mayor. To this were annexed the depositions of Lofthouse, and Barwick
was consigned to York Castle.
These depositions are of sufficient interest to be here given
verbatim:--
"The Information of Thomas Lofthouse, of Rufforth, taken upon oath,
the twenty-fourth day of April, 1690; who sayeth and deposeth,--
"That one William Barwick, who lately married this informant's
wife's sister, came to this informant's house about the 14th
instant, and told this informant he had carried his wife to one
Richard Harrison's house in Selby, who was uncle to him, and would
take care of her; and this informant, hearing nothing of the said
Barwick's wife, his said sister-in-law, imagined he had done her
some mischief, did yesterday go to the said Harrison's house in
Selby, where he said he had carried her to; and the said Harrison
told this informant he knew nothing of the said Barwick or his
wife; and this informant doth verily believe the said Barwick to
have murdered her.
"THOMAS LOFTHOUSE.
"Jurat die et anno super dicto coram me.
"S. DAWSON, Mayor."
"The examination of the said William Barwick, taken the day and
year abovesaid, who sayeth and confesseth,--
"That he, this examinant, on Monday was seventh night, about two
o'clock in the afternoon, this examinant was walking in a close
betwixt Cawood and Wiston; and he farther sayeth that he threw his
said wife into the pond, where she was drowned; and the day
following, towards evening, got a hay-spade at a hay-stake in the
said close, and made a grave beside the said pond, and buried her.
"WILLIAM BARWICK.
"Exam. capt. die et anno super dict. coram me.
"S. DAWSON, Mayor."
"The examination of William Barwick, taken the twenty-fifth day of
April, 1690, who sayeth and confesseth,--
"That he carried his wife over a certain wain-bridge, called
Bishop-Dyke Bridge, betwixt Cawood and Sherborne, and within a lane
about one hundred yards from the said bridge, and on the left hand
of the said bridge, he and his wife went over a stile, on the
left-hand side of a certain gate entering into a certain close, on
the left hand of the said lane; and in a pond in the said close,
adjoining to a quickwood hedge, did drown his wife, and upon the
bank of the said pond did bury her; and further, that he was within
sight of Cawood Castle, on the left hand; and that there was but
one hedge betwixt the said close where he drowned his said wife and
the Bishop-slates belonging to the said castle.
"WILLIAM BARWICK.
"Exam. capt. die et anno super dict. coram me.
"S. DAWSON, Mayor."
William Barwick was tried and convicted before Sir John Powell, Knight,
at the Summer Assizes held in York on the 18th of September, 1690.
"On Tuesday, September the seventeenth, 1690, at York Assizes,
Thomas Lofthouse, of Rufforth, within three miles of York city,
sayeth,--
"That on Easter Tuesday last, about half an hour after twelve of
the clock in the daytime, he was watering quickwood, and as he was
going for the second pail there appeared, walking before him, an
apparition in the shape of a woman. Soon after, she sat down over
against the pond, on a green hill; he walked by her as he went to
the pond, and as he came with the pail of water from the pond,
looking sideways to see if she sat in the same place, which he saw
she did; and had on her lap something like a white bag, a-dandling
of it (as he thought), which he did not observe before. After he
had emptied his pail of water, he stood in his yard to see if he
could see her again, but could not. He says her apparel was brown
cloathes, waistcoat and petticoat, a white hood, such as his wife's
sister usually wore, and her face looked extream pale, her teeth in
sight, no gums appearing, her visage being like his wife's sister,
and wife to William Barwick.
(Signed)
"THOMAS LOFTHOUSE."
When Barwick ascended the gallows to be hung, he told the hangman that
he hoped the rope was strong enough, as if it should break with his
weight he would fall to the ground and become a cripple for life. His
apprehensions, however, were soon quieted, for the hangman assured him
he might venture upon it with perfect confidence.
After he was dead the body was hung in chains by the pond where the
murder had been committed.
FOOTNOTE:
[6] J. Aubery, in his "Miscellanies upon Various Subjects," 1696, gives
the particulars of this curious story.
SNOWDEN DUNHILL,
THE CONVICT.
The following life of a thief and housebreaker, written by himself, is
curious and sad.[7] The talent it exhibits, and the real feeling which
peeps out here and there, show that the man, had he been better brought
up, and subjected in early youth to religious influences, might have
become something very superior to the ordinary agricultural labourer.
The man cannot have been difficient in his secular education. His style
is singularly good for one in his class, but of moral education he had
none. The only religion he knew of was that of his wife, Sally Dunhill,
a fanatic, who combined hysterical piety with gross dishonesty:--
"I was born at a small village on the Wolds in the East Riding of
Yorkshire. The earliest circumstance of which I have any remembrance is
that of following bare-headed and on foot, a waggon containing furniture
belonging to a farmer who was removing to the village of Spaldington,
near Howden. Of my parents I have but an indistinct remembrance, for I
never returned to them, but continued to reside in the village of my
adoption, and principally in the house of the family I had accompanied.
"Spaldington is a secluded and purely agricultural village. My earliest
recollections are connected with the old hall at that place, a fine
building, erected in the time of Queen Elizabeth. This house, with its
peaked roof ornamented with large round stones, its moats, its rookery,
and the reputation of being haunted by a fairy, is yet strongly
impressed upon my memory. But the old seat of the De la Hayes, the
Vescis, and the Vavasours totters to its fall.
"I well remember the tradition which prevailed in the village, that one
of the De Vescis was a competitor for the crown of Scotland, he having
married a daughter of the King of that country. The burthen of an old
song, which is supposed to relate to some eventful battle in which De
Vesci bore a conspicuous part, still clings to my memory, and now, with
a world between me and the spot, I often catch myself humming the
chorus--
"'And the drums they did beat, and the trumpets did sound,
And the cannons did roar fit to tear up the ground;
For its oh! brave, gallant, and brave,
For the honour of England's crown.'"
Snowden Dunhill's youth was spent much as that of other rural bumpkins;
he wrestled, played football, and was passionately fond of
cock-fighting.
One day, when only six years old, he saved the life of a little
companion with whom he was playing by the side of the moat round the Old
Hall at Spaldington. The child fell into the water, sank, and rose for
the last time, when little Snowden, with great pluck, jumped in after
his playmate, and caught him by the dress. The two children struggled in
the water, and the drowning boy nearly dragged little Snowden under. But
Snowden maintained his hold, and succeeded in dragging his comrade to
the bank.
At fourteen or fifteen Snowden Dunhill, being a strong lad, was taken
into a small farmhouse to work for his food and clothes.
His master died shortly after, but his widow carried on the farm. She
was very poor, the farm was small, and the widow took her meals with the
farm servants in the kitchen.
Dunhill was given no pocket-money, and, as he kept fighting-cocks and
liked occasionally to go to the public-house to have a game of balls, he
was driven to obtain money by theft.
"During this time I practised a variety of petty thefts without being
suspected. I took apples, eggs, or anything I could lay my hands on, and
the corn which ought to have been given to the horses found its way to
my game cocks, of which I had several. These acts, which are generally
practised by farmers' servants, were confirmed into a habit before I had
begun to think them wrong. The education of this class is so utterly
neglected, and their morals so little attended to, that I have long been
satisfied that the honesty of the rural districts is very much inferior
to that of the towns.
"My next step in life--the most important one to all--was marriage, and
mine assuredly deepened the darkest shades of my character. It was not a
connection of the heart, but one almost of fear, for the woman to whom I
paid my addresses was the being who ruled me from the first moment of
our acquaintance. Had it been my fortune to have met with an honest and
industrious woman, my destiny might have been different. But if, as the
proverb says, 'Marriages are made in heaven,' it does not become me to
complain.
"We lived a short time in the village of Spaldington, but one farmer
missed his corn, the wife of another her poultry, a third her apples,
and a fourth her bees; when the bees were missed I fancy they thought
nothing could escape us. They were easily moved and carried into our
cottage, but the buzzing, the stinging, and the bother of the business,
determined me never again to attempt a similar undertaking. The proverb
of running your head into a swarm of bees has ever since appeared to me
the most forcible in the English language.
"We were then put into a house in the lanes of Spaldington, in the road
between Howden and Market-Weighton, apart from any other residence, and
in the very best situation that could have been chosen if the farmers
had wished us to continue our system of plunder. I had never been
accustomed to work, and I had now very little wish to learn. The new
connexions which I speedily formed put me in the way of obtaining a
better though more precarious subsistence.
"I continued to live in the cottage above alluded to, and my family
increasing rapidly, rendered it necessary to extend my operations. The
farmers in the neighbourhood were at first the greatest sufferers, and
there was scarcely a barn or granary within several miles which I had
not the means of entering when I chose. Either from discarded servants,
or from labourers who were daily about the farm-houses, I got all the
information I wanted.
"At this time I was master of two good horses, and I had a numerous
connexion among servants and labourers. But what I found most useful was
a secret understanding with two or three millers, by whose means I got
rid of all the corn which I stole. Millers are generally reputed to be
great rogues, but in their dealings with me I found them quite the
contrary. The most dishonest persons with whom I had dealings were the
attorneys, and they stripped me of the fruits of my toil with most
surprising expedition and facility. This, however, will be seen in the
sequel.
"About this time I was concerned in a robbery at Bubwith, by which I
obtained a considerable sum of money. After our arrangements were made,
a comrade entered the house through a back window, by taking an iron
bar out of the frame, the wood being quite rotten from age and damp. In
scrambling in he kicked from the shelf a large earthenware vessel, and
immediately after he himself tumbled head foremost into the pantry, a
depth of six or seven feet. The uproar occasioned by his fall caused us
to take to our heels and make to our horses, which were at no great
distance, in a large field behind the house. We laid down and listened
for a considerable time, and hearing nothing, we approached the house
again by degrees, and eventually got up to the very window. A low
whistle from me was instantly answered, which at once told us all went
well. We found the back door open for us, and our comrade, no way
alarmed, busy rummaging some drawers, and putting into a sack everything
he took a fancy to.
"As I had formerly lived in the service of a near relation of the old
lady to whom the house belonged (I had forgotten to say it was a widow
lady's house we took the liberty with), I found no difficulty in laying
my hands upon the tinder-box, candles, and everything else. It was an
exceedingly stormy night, or I think we must have been heard, for we
carried a chest of drawers out of the house and actually beat them to
pieces, not being able to open them. I knew that she had a considerable
sum of money, and I hoped we had found it, but it turned out to be a box
of farthings; and I was afterwards exceedingly provoked on learning that
we had missed three hundred guineas in gold which the old lady had in
her lodging room. I also learned that she had a presentiment that she
would be robbed, and made an observation to that effect the day
before--one of those curious anticipating feelings for which I know not
how to account, but which have in several instances happened to myself
when coming events, as it were, cast their shadows before.
"But to return to our adventure. After helping ourselves to such things
as we thought of most value, and such as could be most easily conveyed
away on our horses, and drinking the good old lady's health in some
excellent homemade wine, we mounted our horses, with four sacks filled
with many things of value. We took a route so as to avoid the toll-bars
and public roads, and reached my house just as the sun was beginning to
chase away the darkness which had proved so propitious to us. Having
instantly buried all the things, my companions departed, and all was
soon ready for the reception of any of those enemies of my profession,
the constables, should they pay us a visit. However, none came, and
though I was generally supposed to be the person who did the deed, no
steps were taken to make it out against me. This is one of the very few
exploits of the kind I was ever engaged in, and as to highway robberies,
I never dreamed of committing one.
"I had now accumulated a considerable sum of money, which I lent out on
note to several farmers in the neighbourhood, most of whom, from fear or
other considerations, were glad to be on good terms with me. Such
occurrences as the following frequently happened:--'Well, Snowden, how
do you do?' would Farmer ---- say, meeting me in the street towards dusk
on a market-day. 'Are you going home to-night?' 'Aye, my lad,' was my
general reply. 'I wanted to see you,' retorted the farmer; 'I have just
received fifty pounds for some oats; I wish you would take care of it
for me, and I will ask you for it again some day when I meet you.' I
took charge of the money, and was ever most punctual in returning it. I
could not help laughing, however, at the odd mixture of feelings that
must have dictated such a choice of a banker. I dare say some of these
very farmers have since met with bankers not quite so punctual in their
payments as I was in mine.
"I was once busily employed in coursing a hare when I was pounced upon
by a Mr. ----. He came suddenly upon me, with so many violent
denunciations that I was for a time really in a fright. However, I
eventually recovered my recollection, and had the good sense to leave
him without giving way to any abusive language in reply. I secretly,
however, resolved to have my revenge, and that in a way at once in
accordance with my profession and my own interest. I ordered two or
three of the persons I could place the most reliance in to be ready to
accompany me with their horses to Foggathorpe, the village in which I
think the gentleman resided. I had long had a key of his granary, in
which I knew he had recently stored a quantity of wheat of the finest
quality, and for which the soil of that village is much famed.
"We had already been up to the granary once with our horses, having
taken them loaded away, and secreted several sacks of wheat in a wood a
little from the turnpike road, and about three miles from the house. We
had filled our sacks a second time, and got them upon the horses, having
previously placed everything in the granary as we found it, or as nearly
so as we could. I had just thrown my legs over my horse, then standing
near the steps of the granary, I being the last of the party, when I
heard the gentleman's voice, which I at once knew, for neither his early
habit of rising nor the tone of his voice were unknown to me. It was
quite dark, and I proceeded with great care on the way towards the high
road till I reached a gate about seventy or eighty yards from his house.
By some mismanagement on my part, I had no sooner passed through the
gate than I fell back into its place with considerable noise. I again
heard his voice, but I made the best of my way with my load, and I felt
no little relief when I found myself in the Market-Weighton turnpike
road. Though I had no very great opinion of the gentleman's courage, I
felt quite sure he would have used every endeavour to make out the
charge against me had his suspicions of what had taken place been once
roused. As to his following me alone at that moment I had not the most
distant fear, for I knew well the care he always took of himself.
However, the whole affair passed over. I never heard that he missed what
we took away, and the reason probably was, that he at that very time had
a large stock of wheat on hand for the purpose of speculation, as I
afterwards learned. I remember this wheat was of such singularly good
quality that I sold it for the great sum of one guinea and ninepence the
bushel, a price I scarcely ever remember to have equalled.
"The next thing that occurs to me worthy of remark, and which I had good
cause to remember, nearly terminated fatally for myself. I expected a
good booty from the information I had previously received. This was an
attack upon the property of two bachelors who resided in the same house,
in a village about a mile and a half from Howden. The house was very
near the river Ouse, and we had prepared a boat to carry the gains of
the night down the river as far as Swinefleet, this being considered,
for many reasons, the readiest mode of moving it from the premises, and
I had some friends in that place in whom I placed the greatest
confidence. Between one and two o'clock we arrived at the house, and
were preparing all things in readiness for the business in hand. I was
crossing from the bank of the river over a garden, and so on to the back
of the premises. In my way I came to a piece of dead fence, over which I
was passing, and which gave a crackling sound under my tread. At that
moment I heard a dog bark, and instantly after a shot was fired from the
upper part of the eastern end of the house. I had my face at the time
rather turned away from the place whence the shot proceeded, and I
received the whole of the contents in my back and shoulders. I instantly
fell; and I well remember that I thought all was over with me, as I lay
for some time with my head in the ditch and my feet upon the dead thorns
over which I had just passed, and to which I attributed my mishap; for
the night was so dark I could not be seen, and the shot must have been
directed by the noise I made in getting over the fence. As I lay there I
could distinctly hear a whispering from a small door in the end of the
house, and I greatly feared lest the inmates should sally forth and take
me in my defenceless state. With my head laid upon the ground, the
sensation produced upon me by the striking of two o'clock by the church
of Howden, I well remember. All was now calm, quiet, and dark; and I
actually felt the earth vibrate under my ear as the hollow bell threw
over the land its sullen sound. I have understood, since I came here,
that the savages in America always resort to this mode of listening for
the approach of a friend or an enemy. But to return to myself again.
"I at length contrived with great difficulty to get upon my feet; and,
with still greater exertion and much loss of blood, I reached the boat,
where I found my men in great consternation and alarm. One of them
pushed the boat adrift, and the tide soon carried it away with the
waters. They then supported me at a slow pace to Howden, where I arrived
almost in a state of insensibility, from the combined effects of pain
and loss of blood. By my desire they took me to the house of a medical
man of my acquaintance, and knocked at his door. He soon came down, and
without asking a single question, stripped me; and during the night he
extracted no fewer than thirty-eight large shot corns from my back and
shoulders.
"I cannot even now recall the agony I suffered without a shudder; and my
general health and strength never recovered from the shock I received.
I remained secluded for a considerable time, but thanks to the attentive
care of my wife, and my own sober habits, for I never was an habitual
drunkard, I speedily was able to get out again. In all my night
excursions after this adventure I employed the greatest circumspection.
"My inward disposition was accurately betokened by my countenance and
outward appearance. I was tall and large-limbed, but neither clumsily
nor powerfully made, I speak now of forty years of age; for sufferings,
mental and bodily, have entirely changed my face and figure. My hair was
light, my eyes a bluish grey, my countenance round and somewhat florid.
In my looks I always fancied that I resembled two men of no little
celebrity--I mean Sir Walter Scott and William Cobbett, who certainly
bear a considerable resemblance to each other. But this may be my
vanity, for the best of us are not free from it.
"In my manners I was boisterous, and in tone familiar with all, and
overbearing with most. However, my general appearance promised anything
but cruelty and dishonesty; and, thank God, no one can charge me with
the former, whatever may be said of the latter.
"I must, however, plead guilty to one or two acts of apparent cruelty,
towards my horses, but which rather rose from the necessity of
self-preservation than from any other cause. It has often happened to
me, for the purpose of reaching a given place by a certain hour of the
night, to be compelled to strain my horse to the full extent of his
speed. I knew so well the general opinion entertained towards me, that I
felt I must find the greatest difficulty in clearing myself from
anything like a reasonable suspicion of crime.
"I distinctly remember once having upon me a considerable sum of money,
and I was riding at full speed upon a narrow strip of green sward by the
road side, which was nearly covered by the extended branches of the
trees. The moon was shining beautifully through them, and in
contemplating her I felt a soothing calmness spread over my soul, which
I cannot well account for or explain the cause of. My musings were
suddenly cut short by a deep-drawn sigh from my horse, then a slight
shudder, and the next moment he was dead under me. I cried like a child.
I raised his head, but all in vain, no trace of life remained.
"By the moon's rays, which at that instant shot through an opening in a
dark Scots fir immediately over his head, I saw the film of death
rapidly spread over his eyes, and felt his limbs stiffen under my grasp.
I had to travel several miles on foot, pretty well loaded, and through a
very lonely and suspicious-looking part of the country. However, I
reached the house of one of my friends towards morning, to his no small
astonishment, he thinking me fifty miles distant in a different
direction.
"My horse was soon recognised; and had any robbery been perpetrated
within a reasonable distance of the place where he fell, of course it
must have been done by me. The common question of the whole
neighbourhood was, 'What had I been doing?' However, this never
transpired. I ever afterwards tied a piece of raw beef round the bit of
my bridle when about to make hard use of my horse, and I always thought
that it afforded him considerable help. I need not observe that this was
done in imitation of poor Dick Turpin, whose history is infinitely
better known than mine can ever pretend to be.
"On the night of the 25th of October, 1812, I felt a presentiment that
something sinister was about to happen to me. Few men have passed
through life, particularly those of an excitable temperament, who have
not felt some boding of this kind. I was seated in my chair by the fire,
taking my accustomed pipe--an indulgence I never omitted the last thing
at night--when this sudden impression came over me. My wife observed
that something was the matter, and questioned me on the subject.
However, as I knew she would only laugh at me, I did not tell her the
cause.
"In the middle of the forenoon, whilst I was listening to my daughter
Rose, who was my favourite, she suddenly looked up and said, in a
hurried tone, 'Father, there are several men coming to the house.' It
instantly occurred to me that something had happened during the past
night, and that my forebodings would not prove vain. However, as my
whole family knew that I had not stirred out during the night, I had
little fear; and this circumstance even led me to suppose that it might
be some mistake.
"By this time the party had arrived at the door of the cottage, and one
of them gave me to understand that he had a justice's search-warrant,
and that I was their prisoner. I submitted at once to be taken into
custody, and I was immediately secured. Some of the party then began to
rummage every drawer and corner of the house, amidst the very voluble
abuse of my wife. They, however, found nothing they came to search for,
which, as I soon learned, was some wheat stolen during the last night
from a neighbouring farmer.
"On this information I felt considerable relief, conscious of my
innocence; but my wife became perfectly outrageous when the constable
refused to take her word that I had never stirred over my threshold
since six o'clock of the preceding evening. She, poor woman, swore she
would take the law of them threatened writs, indictments, justices, and
I know not what; and I verily believed she would have inflicted summary
vengeance on the head of the constable with the poker, so furious had
she become, from a consciousness that the accusation was without
foundation.
"However, in spite of all her threats and rage, I was speedily conveyed
before the justice who granted the warrant, and on the oath of a person,
who swore that he was going along a road near my house and towards the
farm-house in question, about two o'clock in the morning, that he saw a
horse and two men returning from it, and that he was quite sure I was
one of them, my commitment was made out for the House of Correction at
Beverley.
"All this took so short a time that I scarcely attempted to defend
myself; and indeed I scarcely even know now how I could effectually have
done so. For I could only bring the members of my own family to prove
that I had not been out of my cottage, and of course they would not have
been believed against the positive evidence of the witness who swore to
my person, though he was, according to his own statement, fifty yards
distant from me--in addition to this, at two o'clock in the morning."
The prosecutor of Snowden Dunhill was Mr. Barnard Clarkson, of Holme, at
that time a partner in the Howden Bank.
The consciousness that her husband was ignorant of the robbery imputed
to him caused Sally Dunhill to regard him as a martyr. Her Ranting
enthusiasm was excited, and she wrote a long letter to the prosecutor,
denouncing him, in Biblical terms, as one who "compassed about" the
righteous man "with words of hatred, and fought against him without a
cause"; and announced to him that she had given herself up to prayer
against him (Clarkson), and invoked the malediction of heaven upon his
head--"Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generations following
let their name be blotted out." And she concluded this strange epistle
with the words of the Psalmist: "Let them curse, but bless thou: when
they arise, let them be ashamed; but let thy servant rejoice. Let mine
enemies be clothed with shame, and let them cover themselves with their
own confusion as with a mantle. I will greatly praise the Lord with my
mouth; yea, I will praise him among the multitude, for he shall stand at
the right hand of the poor, to save him from those that condemn his
soul."
Snowden Dunhill continues in his Autobiography:--
"I now, for the first time, became an inmate of a prison, an event I had
always held in the greatest horror. As it was well known that I had
plenty of money, I had very soon the proffered and apparently
disinterested assistance of an attorney. My situation was maturely
considered, and it was soon determined that a writ of habeas corpus
should be put in, for the purpose of taking my trial at the approaching
Assizes at York, in preference to Beverley.
"I was in consequence taken up to London in custody, after the writ was
obtained, and my trial was appointed to take place at York, principally
on this ground, as urged by counsel, that my character was so notorious
in the East Riding of Yorkshire that no unprejudiced jury could there be
impannelled. The reader may be sure that all this was done at no slight
expense; but perhaps he will not believe me when I assure him that by
the time my counsel had received his fee for the approaching defence I
had scarcely a shilling left in the world.
"The March Assizes of 1813 at length arrived, when I gave myself up to
the gaoler of the Castle, and I was soon placed in the dock. My eyes
were cast on the ground, and I for a time felt stupefied. However, I at
last raised them to the objects before me, and the first that caught
them was the judge himself, then the counsel, and then the immense crowd
of spectators who had assembled to hear my trial. I soon was calm enough
to discover in the gallery the faces of many persons I knew, and I
endeavoured to put on a forced courage by nodding familiarly at them,
and by appearing to be utterly careless of what was going forward.
"The indictment was read over to me, and I was called upon to hold up my
hand and plead guilty or not guilty; though I uttered the latter with a
loud voice, it was with a full conviction that my doom was sealed. I
felt--and I suppose all persons similarly circumstanced feel the
same--that not only the assembled people, but that the whole world had
combined to destroy me.
"The facts above narrated were stated shortly to the jury. The witness
swore to my person, and accounted for his being there at that hour,
naturally enough, by stating that he had been to visit his sweetheart.
The farmer swore to having missed the corn on the night in question.
Though my counsel tried to confound the first witness by fierce looks
and bullying questions, and by dwelling upon the impossibility of his
being able to swear to a person at the distance of fifty yards and at
two in the morning, yet he stuck to his oath immovably. I was asked what
I wished to say, and all that I could state was that I was innocent;
that I was in bed at the time, and that all the family knew this to be
the fact. My wife was anxious to speak for me, but my counsel insisted
upon her holding her tongue, which she at last consented to do on his
assuring her that she would do my case more harm than good. The jury
without the slightest hesitation found me guilty, and the judge at once
sentenced me to seven years' transportation.
"I was immediately conveyed back to my cell, and a few days afterwards I
was forwarded to the hulks. In this miserable banishment I passed six
years, embittered by the most dreadful account of my family, every
member of it, even in the remotest degree, having transgressed the laws
of his country, and was then undergoing for his offences the punishment
awarded to him. Could hope under any form have presented herself to me,
I felt that I might yet be a reclaimed man, but I could not catch the
most distant glimpse of her. My years passed on in the midst of misery
the most distressing, till they at last came to an end. I obtained my
discharge or pardon a short time before the expiration of my full term,
for I had been guilty of no violence, or insolence, or excess, since my
arrival.
"I left this abode of vice and misery without a friend on the face of
the earth, and unconscious where to find even a momentary place of
refuge. There are many unfortunate individuals who, had they a house or
employment to fly to after having undergone their periods of punishment,
would be glad to betake themselves to habits of honesty and industry.
But, unluckily for them, they are turned out without a refuge to resort
to, and necessity, and not inclination, drives them to the commission of
fresh crimes.
"As to myself, I returned to Spaldington, but the change which my
worldly prospects and circumstances had undergone was in the extreme
overwhelming. Some of these misfortunes I well knew, but to others I was
an entire stranger, and I cannot at this day lay blame to anyone but
myself for them. My evil example pointed out the way of lawless
depredation to my children, in characters so legible that they could not
fail to read and study them.
"The farmers of the village had thought it right to clear my cottage of
every one connected with me in name, relationship, or blood.
"I felt at a great loss where to fix, or to what object to turn myself
for a livelihood and bare subsistence. As to my children and
connections, they were scattered in every direction, and for the most
part undergoing the punishment due to their crimes.
"My daughter, my favourite daughter, Rose, had been committed, and
sentenced to confinement in York Castle. During her imprisonment she
was delivered of a bastard-child; what its fate may be, heaven alone can
tell! She was visited in the Castle by a gentleman from Howden, for the
purpose of proffering her some assistance in her necessitous situation.
This I have understood she indignantly refused. Holding up her new-born
babe to his gaze, she said, 'See! he has hands to help himself, and if
ever there was a true-born rogue, here he is!' Thus, like Hannibal
towards Rome, was this poor child devoted from its earliest infancy to
war against all the settled institutions of society.
"After her release from York the reader will readily imagine from this
anecdote of her, that she would speedily fall into another scrape. This
soon happened. She was committed to Wakefield House of Correction, again
tried and found guilty, and I have never since heard of her. She had
cohabited with two different men, both of whom passed as her husband.
Their names were M'Dowel and Connor, and they both have been
transported.
"My daughter, Sarah Dunhill, after having been confined in York Castle,
was tried at the East Riding Sessions at Beverley, and imprisoned one
year. She was subsequently tried at the Borough Sessions at Beverley for
picking the pocket of a gentleman named Scholfield, and stealing from
him a considerable sum of money.
"During her trial she made a moving appeal to the barristers present,
stating that she had always found them her best friends; that their
ingenuity had often assisted her in the hour of need, and she yet
reposed faith in their kindness, and proudly left her honesty and honour
in their keeping. The Recorder, startled into momentary confusion at the
nature of this appeal, speedily recovered his dignity, and inflicted on
her the doom of the law. She was at this time residing at Hull, and had
come over to Beverley fair that morning for the purpose of depredation.
For this offence she was transported for seven years. She had three
husbands, named James Stanhope, William Rhodes, and James Crossland, all
of whom were severally transported, one after the other.
"My son, William Dunhill, was transported at the York Assizes for the
term of fourteen years. He, poor fellow, died immediately on his arrival
in New South Wales. He was the most promising of my family, and with
different examples before him, and good advice, would probably have
proved an ornament to society.
"Robert Taylor, son of my wife by a former husband, and who lived under
the same roof with us for several years, was also transported.
"I think I omitted to state that my wife at the time I married her was a
widow, and her name was Taylor. Her husband was shot in attempting to
commit a robbery shortly before I married her, a circumstance which was
not known to me, and which she never mentioned.
"As to my wife, she was also transported, after having contrived
innumerable depredations, and been the cause of those fatal events which
befel herself, myself, and the rest of the family.
"A robbery committed at Howden was readily traced home to the inmates of
our house; suspicion fell at once upon them, and the furniture, watches,
coins, and many other stolen articles were found on my premises. But as
this and many other things happened during my absence, and as I never
again saw several members of my family, I am the less particular in
narrating them, from my great anxiety that nothing should appear in this
history of myself for which I cannot vouch the truth."
Snowden returned to Spaldington, found his family dispersed, his cottage
occupied by other tenants, and no one in the village disposed to receive
him with open arms. The farmers naturally viewed his return with alarm,
and he found none in the neighbourhood disposed to give him work, had he
cared to take it. But steady work was distasteful to him. Had he sought
it in other parts of Yorkshire he might readily have found it. Instead
of this he loafed about, sulky and angry with society. By degrees he
formed new connections, in Hull and Lincolnshire, and resumed his former
dishonest practices in concert with them.
"I had heard much of the easy lives led by the convicts in New South
Wales; and, moreover, some members of my family were already there, and
I felt impelled to make an endeavour to join them.
"I had not long to wait for the gratification of this wish, for I was
soon traced to the commission of a paltry crime. I was apprehended,
tried, and convicted; my character did the rest, and readily procured
for me that banishment from England on which I had set my heart. My
trial took place at a district Quarter sessions in the north of
Lincolnshire, in the gaol of which I was only detained a few days when,
with several others, I was transmitted, pinioned and loaded with irons,
to London, there to await a ship to convey me to Botany Bay.
"It was a cold, bleak morning when I was put upon the coach in the
court-yard of the prison, before daylight, with the rain and sleet
falling in abundance. The coach remained half-an-hour or more in the
yard of the prison till all was in readiness, when the gates were thrown
open and we commenced our inauspicious journey. I cannot at all describe
the feelings of loneliness and of heartrending distress which came over
me at this moment, in which I felt that I was rushing from certain
misery to something that might be even still worse, and yet in my
despair I felt a clinging to existence. I have never met with--nay, I
have never heard of--a bad man who could look death unflinchingly in
the face. On ascending the first rise of the ground in our journey
towards London a breeze from the north suddenly sprung up, which
scattered the loaded clouds, and the sun burst forth in all its glory.
There appeared before me, as if a veil had been taken off the earth by
magic power, a wide-spread picture. The Humber, glorying in its Scythian
name, rolling to the ocean its mass of waters; and in the distance the
winding Trent and Ouse, stealing onward like two wily serpents; and I
could just discover the broad expanse where they became united.
"The beautiful Lincolnshire hills on my left, and the still more
beautiful hills, dales, and woods of my own native Yorkshire to the
north, lent their charms to form a landscape I never saw equalled, and
in casting my last lingering gaze upon it I felt that the inanimate
beauties of creation must now to me for ever be a blank. I strained my
eyes to catch as much of it as I could, feeling the prospect, as it
were, a part of myself, and necessary to my very existence, for there it
had commenced, and little at one time did I think at how great a
distance I was doomed to end it.
"Arrived at Botany Bay, I was soon disposed of, and commenced in good
earnest the life of a slave. Hard-worked, half-starved, ill-fed, and
worse clothed, such is the fate of the hapless convict."
Whilst in confinement, Snowden Dunhill wrote his Autobiography, and much
wished to send it to his native village that it might be printed there
for circulation. But it was some time before an opportunity presented
itself.
One October day, 1830, as he was wheeling earth and stones near the pier
of Sydney, in the harbour of Port Jackson, he rested for a moment to
look at the beautiful bay before him, and compare it with one of the
lake-like reaches of the Humber, when he was roused from his musings by
a tap on the shoulder, and the salutation of "Well, Snowden, how are
you?"
He touched his cap, and looked up. Before him stood a sailor, who
grasped his hand and shook it warmly. The sailor was the little boy
whose life he had saved in the moat of Spaldington Old Hall so many
years before.
The sailor gave him some money, and told him he was about to return to
Hull. Dunhill at once produced his little Autobiography, and entreated
him to take it back to Yorkshire, and get it printed there. The sailor
readily promised to do this, and to his fulfilment of the promise we owe
the existence of the curious little memoir presented to the reader.
In August, 1833, Snowden Dunhill was seen by another Howden man, who was
at Hobart Town, Van Dieman's Land. His account of Dunhill is that he was
"a tall, stout man, bent and stooping with suffering and privation more
than from natural infirmity, but with the step and assurance of his old
self."
The Howden man would not have known Dunhill had not the convict heard
his name mentioned, and introduced himself to him: "Ye're one of ----'s
sons i' Howden?" in the broadest East Riding Yorkshire. Then, when the
stranger answered that he was, Dunhill's eyes filled with tears, and he
began to sob.
"In external appearance he was not very much altered. The boisterous and
overbearing manners of former years yet remained, unsoftened and
unrepressed by the sufferings he had undergone. An habitual stoop had
bent down his person, and somewhat taken away from the portly and
blustering gait of early life. The small, grey, quick, and piercing eye
still retained its cunning and prying character. His dress was much the
same as he wore in England."
Dunhill had received his ticket of freedom at Sydney two or three years
before this, and had then removed to Van Dieman's Land, where his wife
and daughter were settled.
There is a strange irony in facts. Sally Dunhill, who had been unable to
rear one of her own children in morality and honesty, so impressed on
the people of Hobart Town that she was a saintly woman by her vociferous
prayers and familiarity with Holy Scripture, that she was employed in
teaching at a day-school, and was entrusted with the education of
children in those paths she had never trodden herself. The residue of
her time was spent in making penny pies, which Snowden hawked about the
town.
Snowden Dunhill gradually sank into habitual drunkenness, and was
suspected of reverting to his old tricks of petty larceny. When he died
is not known.
FOOTNOTE:
[7] "The Life of Snowden Dunhill, written by Himself." Howden, 1833.
JAMES NAYLOR,
THE QUAKER.[8]
James Naylor was born at East Ardsley, near Wakefield, in 1616. He was
the son of a small farmer, whose house was near the old church. He
received a passable education in reading, writing, and arithmetic. In
1628, when he was aged twenty-two, he married, and settled in Wakefield
parish. He was a diligent reader of the Scriptures, and zealous as an
Independent. He spent about three years at Wakefield, and then joined
the Parliamentary army as a private in 1641. He rose to become
quartermaster of his regiment under Major-General Lambert, but in 1649,
on account of ill-health, he was obliged to leave the army and return to
Wakefield. The pulpits of the Established Church were now in the hands
of Independent ministers, and that of Horbury, near Wakefield, was
occupied by the "godly and painful Master Marshall," under whom James
Naylor sat and groaned with unction.
But Naylor relaxed his religious exercises on visits to a Mrs. Roper at
Horbury, a lady whose husband had been for some time absent. When this
lady became a mother by James Naylor, the Rev. Mr. Marshall thought it
necessary to expose him, and Naylor, indignant with his Independent
minister, joined the sect of the Quakers, then founded by George Fox. In
1652 he went on a religious visitation to the West, and in 1655 he
visited London, in which city a meeting of Quakers had been established
by the ministry of Edward Burrough and Francis Howgill, two men of
Westmoreland.
Naylor prophesied in the meeting with so great applause that several
women began to exalt him above Burrough and Howgill, and disturbed the
latter when they attempted to speak. The two ministers reproved the
women, and they in dudgeon complained to Naylor, and he encouraged them
in their opposition to Burrough and Howgill. Two of these women, Martha
Symonds and Hannah Stranger, became his most devoted adherents, and
followed him in all his wanderings.
In 1656 he revisited the West, prophesied in Cornwall, and on passing
through Exeter was arrested under the sweeping charge of vagrancy, and
committed to gaol. There he was visited by many devout females, amongst
others by one Dorcas Erbury, who fell into a swoon, and was revived by
Naylor, who cried over her, "Tabitha, I say unto thee, arise!" She
awoke, and the faithful believed that Naylor had restored her from death
to life.
He was released at length by order of Council and then he travelled to
Bristol at the head of six believers. On reaching Bedminster, a village
a mile from Old Bristol, though now a suburb of the town, Naylor and his
party formed in procession, intending to produce a scene in the streets
of Bristol.
One of his disciples, a young man with bare head, led the horse by the
bridle upon which Naylor was mounted; two men followed in single file on
horseback, each with his wife on a pillion behind him; and one woman
walked on the causeway. As they went forward the six shouted, "Holy,
holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth!" till they came to the almshouse in the
suburbs of Bristol, "when one of the women alighted, and she, with the
other of her own sex, lovingly marched on each side of Naylor's horse."
The road was deep in mud and rain was falling, but neither mud nor rain
damped the ardour of the enthusiasts. On reaching Redcliffe Gate,
Timothy Wedlock, a Devonshire man of the company, bareheaded, and Martha
Symonds holding the bridle on one side and Hannah Stranger holding it on
the other, advanced, chanting their hymn of praise.
Naylor wore a broad-brimmed hat and a long sad-coloured mantle. He was
of a moderate height, ruddy complexion, had a slightly arched nose,
large brown eyes, was a remarkably handsome man, and was thought by many
to resemble the traditional type of face attributed to our Lord. Martha
Symonds was the wife of Thomas Symonds, bookbinder of London; and Hannah
Stranger was the wife of John Stranger, combmaker in London. The two
other women accompanying Naylor were Dorcas Erbury, whom he had raised
from the dead, and her mother.
In this way the solemn procession advanced to the High Cross at Bristol,
and after that to the White Hart, Broad Street, where lodged two
Quakers, Dennis Hollister and Henry Row.
The magistrates at once apprehended the party, and committed them to
prison.
The following is the examination of the prisoners, somewhat condensed:--
EXAMINATION OF JAMES NAYLOR.
Being asked his name, he replied, "The men of this world call me James
Naylor."
_Q._ "Art not thou the man that rid on horseback into Bristol, a woman
leading thy horse, and others saying before thee, 'Holy, holy, holy,
Hosannah to the Son of David'?"
_A._ "I did ride into a town, but what its name was I know not; and by
the Spirit a woman was commanded to hold my horse's bridle, and some
there were that cast down clothes and sang praises to the Lord, such
songs as the Lord put into their hearts; and it is like it might be the
song, 'Holy, holy, holy,' &c."
_Q._ "Whether or no didst thou reprove these women?"
_A._ "Nay; but I bade them take heed that they say nothing but what they
were moved to by the Lord."
_Q._ "Dost thou own this letter which Hannah Stranger sent unto thee?"
_A._ "Yes, I do own that letter."
_Q._ "Art thou (according to that letter) the fairest of ten thousand?"
_A._ "As to the visible, I deny any such attribute to be due unto me;
but if as to that which the Father hath begotten in me, I shall own it."
Two letters were then produced and read; we need only give one:--
"JAMES NAYLOR,
"Oh! thou fairest of ten thousand, thou only begotten Son of God,
how my heart panteth after thee! O stay me with flaggons and
comfort me with wine. My beloved, thou art like a roe or young hart
upon the mountains of spices, where thy beloved spouse hath long
been calling thee to come away, but hath been but lately heard of
thee. Now it lies something upon me that thou mindest to see her,
for the spirit and power of God is with her, and there is given to
her much of excellent and innocent wisdom arisen and arising in
her, which will make all the honest-hearted to praise the Lord
alone, and no more set up self. And therefore let not my lord and
master have any jealousy against her, for she is highly beloved of
the Lord, and that shall all see who come to know the Lord. And now
He doth bless them that bless His, and curse them that curse His;
for this hath the Lord showed me, that her portion is exceedingly
large in the Lord, and as her sorrow hath been much, so shall her
joy be much more; which rejoiceth my heart to see her walk so
valiantly and so faithfully in the work of the Lord, in this time
of so great trials as hath been upon her especially.
"And I am,
"HANNAH STRANGER.
"_The Postscript._
"Remember my dear love to thy master. Thy name is no more James,
but Jesus.
"JOHN STRANGER."
"Remember my love to these friends with thee. The 17th day of 8th
month, superscribed to the hands of James Naylor."
_Q._ "Art thou the only Son of God?"
_A._ "I am the son of God; but I have many brethren."
_Q._ "Have any called thee by the name of Jesus?"
_A._ "Not as unto the visible, but as Jesus, the Christ that is in me."
_Q._ "Dost thou own the name of the King of Israel?"
_A._ "Not as a creature; but if they gave it to Christ within, I own it,
and have a kingdom, but not of this world; my kingdom is of another
world, of which thou wotest not."
_Q._ "Whether or no art thou the prophet of the Most High?"
_A._ "Thou hast said I am a prophet."
_Q._ "By whom were you sent?"
_A._ "By Him who hath sent the Spirit of His Son in me to try, not as to
carnal matters, but belonging to the kingdom of God, by the indwelling
of the Father and the Son, to judge all spirits, to be guided by none."
_Q._ "Is not the written Word of God the guide?"
_A._ "The written Word declares of it, and what is not according to that
is not true."
_Q._ "Who is thy mother? or whether or no is she a virgin?"
_A._ "Nay, according to the natural birth."
_Q._ "Who is thy mother according to thy spiritual birth?"
_A._ "No carnal creature."
_Q._ "Who, then?"
He returned no answer.
_Q._ "Art thou the everlasting Son of God?"
_A._ "When God is manifest in the flesh there is the everlasting Son;
and I do witness God in the flesh. I am the Son of God, and the Son of
God is but one."
_Q._ "Art thou the everlasting Son of God, the King of Righteousness?"
_A._ "I am; and the everlasting righteousness is wrought in me; if ye
were acquainted with the Father ye would also be acquainted with me."
_Q._ "Do any kiss thy feet?"
_A._ "It might be they did, but I minded them not."
_Q._ "How dost thou provide for a livelihood?"
_A._ "As do the lilies, without care, being maintained of my Father."
_Q._ "What business hast thou at Bristol, or that way?"
_A._ "I was guided and directed by my Father."
_Q._ "Where were you born?"
_A._ "At Arderslow, in Yorkshire."
_Q._ "Where lives thy wife?"
_A._ "She whom thou callest my wife lives in Wakefield."
_Q._ "Why dost thou not live with her?"
_A._ "I did till I was called to the army."
_Q._ "Under whose command didst thou serve in the army?"
_A._ "First under him they call Lord Fairfax."
_Q._ "Who then?"
_A._ "Afterwards with that man called Colonel Lambert. And then I went
into Scotland, where I was quartermaster, and returned sick to my
earthly habitation."
_Q._ "What wentest thou for to Exeter?"
_A._ "I went to Launceston to see the Brethren."
_Q._ "What estate hast thou?"
_A._ "Take no care for that."
_Q._ "Wherefore camest thou in such an unusual posture as two women
leading thy horse; others saying, 'Holy, holy, holy!' &c, with another
before thee bareheaded, knee-deep in the highway mud, when thou mightest
have gone on the causey; and at such a time that, it raining, thy
companions received the rain at their necks, and vented it at their hose
and breeches?"
_A._ "It tended to my Father's praise and glory; and I ought not to
slight anything which the Spirit of the Lord moves."
_Q._ "Wherefore didst thou call Marthy Symonds 'Mother,' as George Fox
affirms?"
_A._ "George Fox is a liar and a firebrand of hell; for neither I, nor
any with me, called her so."
_Q._ "Thou hast a wife at this time?"
_A._ "A woman I have, who by the world is called my wife, and some
children I have, which according to the flesh are mine."
MARTHA SYMONDS' EXAMINATION.
"She contendeth she knew James Naylor formerly, for he is now no more
James Naylor, but refined to a more excellent substance; and so she
saith she came with him from Eccles to Bristol."
_Q._ "What made thee lead his horse into Bristol, and cry, 'Holy, holy,
holy!' and to spread thy garment before him?"
_A._ "I was forced thereto by the power of the Lord."
_Q._ "Whether didst thou kneel before him?"
_A._ "I was forced thereto by the power of love."
_Q._ "Dost thou own him to be the Prince of Peace?"
_A._ "He is a perfect man; and he that is a perfect man is the Prince of
Peace."
_Q._ "Hast thou a husband?"
_A._ "I have a man which thou callest my husband."
_Q._ "What made thee leave him, and to follow James Naylor?"
_A._ "It is our life to praise the Lord, and the Lord my strength is
manifest in James Naylor."
_Q._ "Oughtest thou to worship James Naylor upon thy knees?"
_A._ "Yea, I ought so to do."
Hannah Stranger, Thomas Stranger, and Timothy Wedlock were next
examined. It is not necessary to reproduce their interrogations; they
much resemble what has been given above.
Dorcas Erbury was next called. She was widow of William Erbury, once a
minister.
_Q._ "Where dost thou live?"
_A._ "With Margaret Thomas."
_Q._ "Wherefore dost thou sing, 'Holy, holy, holy'?"
_A._ "I did not at that time; but those that sang did it discharging of
their duty."
_Q._ "Dost thou own him to be the Holy One of Israel?"
_A._ "I do, and with my blood will seal it."
_Q._ "And dost thou own him for the Son of God?"
_A._ "He is the only begotten son of God."
_Q._ "Wherefore didst thou pull off his stockings, and lay thy clothes
beneath his feet?"
_A._ "He is worthy of it, for he is the Holy One of Israel."
_Q._ "Christ raised those that had been dead; so did not he?"
_A._ "He raised me."
_Q._ "In what manner?"
_A._ "He laid his hand on my head after I had been dead two days, and
said, 'Dorcas, arise!' and I arose, and live, as thou seest."
_Q._ "Where did he this?"
_A._ "At the gaol in Exeter."
_Q._ "What witness hast thou for this?"
_A._ "My mother, who was present."
_Q._ "His power being so much, wherefore opened he not the prison doors
and escaped?"
_A._ "The doors shall open when the Lord's wish is done."
The Bristol magistrates sent Naylor and his deluded followers to London,
to be examined before Parliament.
On the 31st October it was ordered that a Committee should be appointed
to consider the information given touching "the misdemeanour and
blasphemies of James Naylor and others at Bristol and elsewhere, and to
report thereon."
The Committee met next day, and on December 2nd it was resolved that the
report of the Committee should be brought in and read on the following
Friday, December 5th. On that day it was read by the reporter,--it
consisted of thirteen sheets of paper--and the debate on the report
began on the 6th, when James Naylor was called to the bar of the House.
He came with his hat on, but it was removed by the Serjeant. The report
was read to him, and he was demanded whether each particular was true,
and he acknowledged that it was so.
The debate was adjourned to Monday, the 8th, and it occupied Parliament
till the 20th December. The House resolved "that James Naylor was guilty
of horrid blasphemy, and that he was a grand impostor and seducer of the
people," and his sentence was, "that he should be set on the pillory,
with his head in the pillory, in the Palace Yard, Westminster, during
the space of two hours, on Thursday next, and be whipped by the hangman
through the streets from Westminster to the Old Exchange, London; and
there, likewise, he should be set on the pillory, with his head in the
pillory, for the space of two hours, between the hours of eleven and
one, on Saturday next, in each place wearing a paper containing an
inscription of his crimes; and that at the Old Exchange his tongue
should be bored through with a hot iron, and that he should be there
also stigmatised in the forehead with the letter B; and that he should
afterwards be sent to Bristol, to be conveyed into and through the city
on horseback, with his face backwards, and there also should be whipped
the next market-day after he came thither; and that thence he should be
committed to prison in Bridewell, London, and there be restrained from
the society of all people, and there to labour hard till he should be
released by Parliament; and during that time he should be debarred the
use of pen, ink, and paper, and should have no relief but what he earned
by his daily labour."
The women were ordered to be kept in confinement. The severity of this
atrocious sentence deserves notice. The Independents, who had suffered
under Laud and the Star Chamber, now that they were in power, had no
idea of tolerating the Quakers, who read their Bibles differently from
themselves. Cromwell was especially prejudiced against them, and it is
probable that the Protector had something to do with the severity of the
sentence on Naylor.
One Robert Rich, a merchant of London, wrote to the Parliament, on
December 15, a petition in favour of Naylor: "If I may have liberty of
those that sit in Parliament, I do here attend at this door, and am now
ready out of the Scriptures of truth to show that not anything that
James Naylor hath said or done is blasphemy, &c."
Sentence was pronounced by the Speaker, Sir Thomas Widdrington. Naylor
on hearing it said, "I pray God He may not lay it to your charge." On
December 20th, 1656, Naylor suffered a part of his sentence, standing
two hours in the pillory, and receiving at the cart's tail three hundred
and ten stripes. "The executioner gave him three hundred and ten
stripes," says Sewell, "and would have given him one more, as he
confessed to the Sheriff, but his foot slipping, the stroke fell upon
his own hand, which hurt him much. Naylor was hurt with the horses
treading on his feet, whereon the prints of the nails were seen. His
wounds were washed by R. Travers, who certified, 'there was not the
space of a man's nail free from stripes and blood, from his shoulders
near to his waist; his right arm sorely striped; his hands much hurt by
the cords that they bled and were swelled: the blood and wounds of his
back did very little appear at first sight, by reason of abundance of
dirt that covered them, till it was washed off.'"
Another petition in his favour was presented, signed by about a hundred
persons, to Parliament, requesting the remission of the rest of his
sentence, and as this was refused, appeal was made to Cromwell the
Protector, with like want of success.
Five Independent ministers visited Naylor in prison, and vainly urged
him to recant.
Rich besieged the doors of Parliament on December 27th, from eight
o'clock till eleven, imploring a respite, but all in vain. Naylor was
then brought out to undergo the rest of his sentence; he was again
pilloried, his tongue bored through, and his forehead branded. Rich held
the hand of the unhappy man whilst his tongue was pierced, and the
red-hot iron applied to his brow, and he licked the wounds to allay the
pain. Thousands who witnessed the execution of the sentence exhibited
their respect by removing their caps. There was no reviling, and nothing
thrown at Naylor, but all stood silent and sympathetic.
James Naylor was then sent to Bristol, and whipped from the middle of
St. Thomas' Street to the middle of Broad Street, and taken back to his
prison in Bridewell. There he wrote his recantation, in epistles
addressed to the Quakers. In one of these he says: "Dear brethren, my
heart is broken this day for the offence which I have occasioned to
God's truth and people, and especially to you, who in dear love followed
me, seeking me in faithfulness to God, which I rejected, being bound
wherein I could not come forth, till God's hand brought me, to whose
love I now confess. And I beseech you forgive wherein I evil requited
your love in that day. God knows my sorrow for it, since I see it, that
ever I should offend that of God in any, or reject his counsel; and I
greatly fear further to offend or do amiss, whereby the innocent truth
or people of God should suffer, or that I should disobey therein."
He was confined about two years, and was then set at liberty. He
thereupon went to Bristol, where in a public meeting he made confession
of his offence and fall so movingly as to draw tears from most of those
present; and he was then restored to the community of the Quakers, from
which he had been excluded by George Fox at Exeter for his presumption
and pride.
Charges of the most gross immorality have been brought against James
Naylor, whether truly or falsely who can now decide? It is possible that
the language of the women who followed him, in speaking of him, their
letters to him, one of which has been quoted, may have given rise to
these reports. Naylor, however, never would admit that there had been
anything unseemly in his behaviour towards the women who followed him
from London into Cornwall, and from Cornwall to Bristol; and Sewell, who
knew Hannah Stranger, repudiates the charge as utterly false. But it is
curious to notice how that religious fanaticism and sensuality so
frequently run together. It was so in that outburst of mysticism in the
Middle Ages--the heresy of the Fraticelli; it was so with at least one
branch of the Hussites in Bohemia; and in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, when the great convulsion of the Reformation had set minds
naturally predisposed to religious excitement in a ferment, this was
most conspicuous, as in the ferocious licentiousness of John Bockelson,
the Anabaptist King of Sion, or the more cautious profligacy, under a
cloak of religion, of Ludwig Hetzer and David Joris.
James Naylor quitted London finally in 1660, intending to return to
Wakefield; but was found by a countryman one evening in a field near
Holm and King's Rippon, in Huntingdonshire, having been robbed and left
bound. He was taken to Holm, and his clothes were changed. To those who
kindly cared for him he said, "You have refreshed my body; the Lord
refresh your souls."
He shortly after died there of the rough handling he had received from
the highwaymen who had plundered him, and was buried in a Quaker's
cemetery belonging to Thomas Parnel, a physician.
Two hours before he died he uttered the touching and eloquent
speech:--"There is a spirit which I feel that delights to endure all
things, in hope to enjoy its own in the end. Its hope is to outlive all
wrath and contention, and to weary out all exultation and cruelty, or
whatever is of a nature contrary to itself. It sees to the end of all
temptations. As it bears no evil in itself, so it conceives none in
thoughts to any other. If it be betrayed, it bears it; for its ground
and spring are the mercies and forgiveness of God. Its crown is
meekness; its life is everlasting love, unfeigned, and takes its kingdom
with entreaty and not with contention, and keeps it by lowliness of
mind. In God alone it can rejoice, though none else regard it or can own
its life. It is conceived in sorrow, and brought forth without any to
pity it; nor doth it murmur at grief and oppression. It never rejoiceth
but through sufferings; for with the world's joy it is murdered. I found
it alone, being forsaken; I have fellowship therein with them who lived
in dens and desolate places in the earth; who through death obtained
their resurrection, and eternal, holy life."
A more beautiful and true description of the Christian spirit was never
uttered. It is a passage meriting a place beside the famous definition
of charity by S. Paul. The man who used such words was no hypocrite when
he used them. If he had erred greatly, he had also repented; if he had
fallen, he had risen after his fall. One is glad to turn away the eye
from the blemishes of the unfortunate Quaker's career to the spot of
pure light that rests on his death-bed.
His writings were collected and published in an octavo volume in 1716.
They are very unequal. Some passages of great beauty, almost comparable
to that given above, may be found, but there is also much that is as
involved in style and confused in thought as the specimen quoted earlier
from his recantation.
FOOTNOTE:
[8] Authorities:--"The Grand Imposter Examined; or, the Life, Trial, and
Examination of James Naylor, London, 1656," reprinted in the Harleian
Misc., vi., 424. Johannis Lussenii "Hist. u. Schrifft-mässige Erörterung
der vor wenig Zeit in Engelland entstandenen secte der Quäcker," in
"Quäcker Grueuel," published by authority of the magistrates of Hamburg,
1702. "The Recantation of James Naylor," in "Somers' Tracts," vi., 22,
pub. 1659. "Naylor's Writings Collected," 8vo, 1716. Sewell's "Hist. of
the Quakers," 1714. Sewell was personally acquainted with Hannah
Stranger, one of Naylor's followers. "The Journals of the House of
Commons," vi., p. 448-59. Blome's "Fanatick History." J. Whiting's
"Account."
"OLD THREE LAPS."
At Laycock, two miles west of Keighley, at a farm called "The Worlds,"
lived a close-fisted yeoman named Sharp, at the end of last century and
the beginning of this. He carried on a small weaving business in
addition to his farm, and amassed a considerable sum of money. The story
goes that on one occasion old Sharp brought a piece of cloth to the
Keighley tailor and told him to make a coat for him out of it. The
tailor on measuring the farmer pronounced the cloth to be insufficient
to allow of tails to the coat, and asked what he was to do under the
circumstances. "Tho' mun make it three laps,"--_i.e._, _any way_. The
expression stuck to him, and till the day of his death the name of
"Three Laps" adhered to him, when it passed to his still more eccentric
son.
This son, William Sharp, for a while followed the trade of a weaver, but
was more inclined to range the moors with his gun than stick to his
loom; and the evenings generally found him in the bar of the "Devonshire
Inn" at Keighley, the landlord of which was a Mr. Morgan. Young Three
Laps was fond of chaffing his boon companions. On one occasion he
encountered a commercial traveller in the timber trade, and began his
banter by asking him the price of a pair of mahogany "laithe" (barn)
doors. The traveller, prompted by Mr. Morgan, drew him out, and booked
his order.
After some weeks the invoice of mahogany barn-doors, price upwards of
£30, was forwarded to William Sharp. Young Three Laps was beside his
wits with dismay, and had recourse to Mr. Morgan, and through his
intervention the imaginary mahogany barn-doors were not sent.
The barmaid of the "Devonshire" was a comely, respectable young woman,
the daughter of a neighbouring farmer named Smith. William Sharp fell
desperately in love with the girl, proposed, and was accepted. The day
for the wedding was fixed, and the young man went to Keighley Church at
the appointed hour to be married. But the bride was not there. At the
last moment a difficulty had arisen about the settlements. Mr. Smith
could not induce Old Three Laps to bestow on his son sufficient money to
support him in a married condition, and the two old men had quarrelled
and torn up the settlements.
The blow was more than the mind of William Sharp could bear. He returned
to "The Worlds" sulky, went to bed, and never rose from it again. For
forty-nine years he kept to his bed, and refused to speak to anyone. He
was just thirty years old when he thus isolated himself from society and
active life, and he died in his bed at the age of seventy-nine, on March
3rd, 1856.
The room he occupied measured nine feet long and was about the same
breadth. The floor was covered with stone flags, and was generally damp.
In one corner was a fire-place which could be used only when the wind
blew from one or two points of the compass; the window was permanently
fastened, and where some of the squares had been broken, was carefully
patched with wood. At the time of his death, this window had not been
opened for thirty-eight years. The sole furniture comprised an antique
clock, minus weight and pendulum, the hands and face covered with a
network of cobwebs; a small round table of dark oak, and a plain
unvarnished four-post bedstead, entirely without hangings. In this
dreary cell, whose only inlet for fresh air during thirty-eight years
was the door occasionally left open, did this strange being immure
himself. He obstinately refused to speak to anyone, and if spoken to
even by his attendants would not answer. All trace of intelligence
gradually faded away; the only faculties which remained in active
exercise were those he shared with the beasts.
His father by his will made provision for the temporal wants of his
eccentric son, and so secured him a constant attendant. He ate his meals
regularly when brought to him, and latterly in a very singular manner,
for in process of time his legs became contracted and drawn towards his
body, and when about to eat his food he used to roll himself over and
take his meals in a kneeling posture. He was generally cleanly in his
habits. During the whole period of his self-imposed confinement he never
had any serious illness, the only case of indisposition those connected
with him could remember being a slight loss of appetite, caused
apparently by indigestion, for two or three days--and this,
notwithstanding that he ate on an average as much as any farm labourer.
He certainly, physically speaking, did credit to his food, for though
arrived at the age of seventy-nine years, his flesh was firm, fair and
unwrinkled, save with fat, and he weighed about 240 lbs. He showed great
repugnance to being seen, and whenever a stranger entered his den he
immediately buried his head in the bed-clothes. About a week before his
death his appetite began to fail; his limbs became partially benumbed,
so that he could not roll himself over to take his food in his
accustomed posture.
From this attack he seemed to rally, and no apprehensions were
entertained that the attack would prove fatal, till the evening before
his death.
However, during the night he rapidly became worse, and expired at four
a.m. on Monday, March 3rd, 1856.
Shortly before he expired he was heard to exclaim--"Poor Bill! poor
Bill! poor Bill Sharp!"--the most connected sentence he had been known
to utter for forty nine years.
He was buried in Keighley Churchyard on the 7th of March, amidst crowds
who had come from all parts of the neighbourhood to witness the scene.
The coffin excited considerable attention from its extraordinary shape,
as his body could not be straightened, the muscles of the knees and
thighs being contracted. It was an oak chest, two feet four inches in
depth. The weight was so great that it required eight men with strong
ropes to lower it into the grave. It was thought to weigh with its
contents 480 lbs.
A gentleman who visited Old Three Laps before his death has given the
following account of what he saw:--
"If you chance to go a-skating 'to the Tarn,' and want a fine bracing
walk, keep on the Sutton road about a mile, and you will come to an
avenue of larch, not in a very thriving state, but sufficient to
indicate that some one had an idea of the picturesque who planted the
trees, although the house at the top of the avenue has not a very
attractive appearance. You have now reached 'World's End,' and save here
and there a solitary farm, with its cold stone buildings and treeless
fields, there are few signs of life between you and the wide and
boundless moors of Yorkshire and Lancashire. On the opposite hill, right
up in the clouds, is 'Tewett Hall,' the residence of a Bradford Town
Councillor. He alone, in this part, seems to follow Three Laps'
ancestors' plan of planting, and in a few years we may expect to see a
fine belt of timber on the verge of the horizon, a sight that will cheer
the heart of some future Dr. Syntax when in search of the picturesque.
At this place Three Laps 'took his bed,' and in a little parlour, with a
northern light, the sill of which is level with the field, the floor
cold and damp, and meanly furnished, it was my privilege to see Three
Laps some twenty-five years ago. To gain admission we had some
difficulty; but with the assistance of the farmer and a tin of tobacco
to the nurse, who was an inveterate smoker, we were shown into his
bedroom. As soon as he heard strangers, he pulled the bed-clothes over
his head, which the nurse with considerable force removed, and uncovered
his body, which was devoid of every vestige of body-linen. A more
startling and sickening sight I never saw. Nebuchadnezzar rushed into my
mind. Three Laps covered his face with his hands, his fingers being like
birds' claws, while, with his legs drawn under his body, he had the
appearance of a huge beast. He had white hair, and a very handsome head,
well set on a strong chest. His body and all about him was scrupulously
clean, and his condition healthy, as his nurse proudly pointed out,
digging her fist furiously into his ribs. He gave no signs of joy or
pain, but lay like a mass of inanimate matter. It struck me at the time
that his limbs were stiff; but a neighbour of his, who after his dinner
stole a peep into his bedroom window, told me that he found him playing
with his plate in the manner of a Chinese juggler, and with considerable
ability. On my informant tapping the window, he vanished under the
bed-clothes.
"Such was the life of the strange man who for love of a woman never left
this obscure room for nearly half a century."
The case of Old Three Laps is not unique.
In the early part of this century there lived in the neighbourhood of
Caen, in Normandy, a Juge de Paix, M. Halloin, a great lover of
tranquillity and ease; so much so, indeed, that, as bed is the article
of furniture most adapted to repose, he rarely quitted it, but made his
bed-chamber a hall of audience, in which he exercised his functions of
magistrate, pronouncing sentence with his head resting on a pillow, and
his body languidly extended on the softest of feather beds. However, his
services were dispensed with, and he devoted the remaining six years of
his life to still greater ease. Feeling his end approach, M. Halloin
determined on remaining constant to his principle, and showing to the
world to what an extent he carried his passion for bed. Consequently,
his last will contained a clause expressing his desire to be buried at
night, in his bed, comfortably tucked in, with pillows and coverlets, as
he had died.
As no opposition was raised against the execution of this clause, a huge
pit was sunk, and the defunct was lowered into his last resting-place
without any alteration having been made in the position in which death
had overtaken him. Boards were laid over the bed, that the falling earth
might not disturb this imperturbable quietist.
CHRISTOPHER PIVETT.
Christopher Pivett died at York, in 1796, at the advanced age of
ninety-three years. He was by trade a carver and gilder, but in early
life had served in the army, and been present in several
battles--Fontenoy, Dettingen, and the siege of Carlisle.
After he settled at York, his house was accidentally burnt down; and he
then formed the singular resolution never again to sleep in a bed, lest
he should be burned to death whilst asleep, or not have sufficient time
to remove his property, should an accident again occur. This resolution
he strictly adhered to for the remaining forty years of his life.
His practice was to repose upon the floor, or on two chairs, or sitting
in a chair, but always dressed.
During the whole period he dwelt alone he was his own cook, and seldom
suffered anyone to enter the house. He would not tell anyone where he
had been born or to whom he was related, and there can be little doubt
that the name of Pivett was an assumed one. Among other singularities,
he kept a human skull in his house, and strictly ordered that it should
be buried with him.
DAVID TURTON,
MUSICIAN AT HORBURY.
David Turton was born in Horbury, near Wakefield, A.D. 1768, and died
August 18th, 1846.
He was by trade a weaver of flannel, and his loom, which was in the
upper room of the cottage in which he lived, might be heard by
passers-by going diligently from early morn to dewy eve. In this way he
supplied his few earthly wants, for he was a man of a very simple and
unobtrusive character; and he did not change either his dress or his
habits with the growing luxury of the times.
In matter of diet he was frugal, and he always stuck to the old oat-cake
and oatmeal porridge he had been accustomed to from childhood. "Avver
bread and avver me-al porritch" was what he called them, for he spoke
the broadest Yorkshire. Alas! the delightful oat-cake, thin, crisp, is
now a thing of the past in Horbury. There was an old woman made it, the
last of a glorious race of avver bre-ad makers in Horbury, some years
ago. But she has gone the way of all flesh; and the base descendants of
the oat-cake crunchers, the little men of to-day, sustain their
miserable lives on bakers' wheat bread.
David did not, as is the custom with Northerners now, speak two
languages--English and Yorkshire, according to the company in which they
find themselves; but on all occasions, and for all purposes, he adhered
to that peculiarly racy and piquant tongue, both in pronunciation and
phraseology, which was so well known to those who dwelt in the West
Riding of Yorkshire half a century ago, and which still more or less
prevails in that locality. Half a century ago every village had its own
peculiarity of intonation, its own specialities in words. A Horbury man
could be distinguished from a man of Dewsbury, and a Thornhill man from
one of Batley. The railways have blended, fused these peculiar dialects
into one, and taken off the old peculiar edge of provincialism, so that
now it is only to be found in its most pronounced and perfect
development among the aged.
The figure of David Turton was spare, his legs long and lean as
clothes-line props. He wore drab breeches and white stockings, a long
waistcoat of rather coarse black cloth, with a long coat of the same
material, much the pattern of that now affected by our bishops.
His features were small and sharp, his eye especially bright and full of
life; and having lost nearly all his teeth at a comparatively early age,
his pointed chin and nose inclined much towards each other.
Music was his great delight, and in that he spent all his spare time and
money. He was a good singer, and could handle the violoncello
creditably. All Handel's oratorios, besides many other works of the
classical composers, he knew off by heart, and he was for a long time
the chief musical oracle in the neighbourhood in which he lived. He even
aspired to be a composer, and published a volume of chants and psalm
tunes. Some of the former, but few of the latter, have survived. His
chants have found their way into various collections of Anglican chants
along with those of Dr Turton, Bishop of Ely, also a musician and
composer of chants. But they have ceased to sound in his own parish
church, where they have been displaced by Gregorians. Not one of his
hymn tunes has found its way into the most popular collection of the
day--"Hymns Ancient and Modern"--which is the more to be regretted, as
Turton's tunes were often original, which is much more than can be said
for a good many of the new tunes inserted in that collection.
A considerable number of choristers in cathedral and parish church
choirs owed all their musical skill to the careful training of old David
Turton.
His efficiency in music, together with the simple goodness of his
character, made him a favourite among musical people in all grades of
society, and there was seldom a gathering in the neighbourhood where any
good class of music was performed in which his well-known figure was not
to be seen.
On one occasion he went to Hatfield Hall, then the residence of Francis
Maude, Esq., who was a great lover of music, and a friend and patron of
old David.
His own account of his _débût_ on that occasion is sufficiently
characteristic to be given:--
"I went t' other day," said he, "to a gre-at meusic do at ou'd Mr.
Maude's at 'Atfield 'All. Nah! when I gat theare, a smart looking chap
o' a waiter telled me I was to goa into t' parlour; soa I follows efter
him doun a long passage till we commed to a big oppen place like, and
then he oppens a doo-ar, and says to me, 'Cum in!' soa I walks in, and
theare I seed t' place were right full o' quality (gentlefolks), and Mr.
Maude comes to me and says, 'Now, David, haw are ye?' 'Middlin',' says
I, 'thenk ye!' Soa then there comes a smart chap wi' a tray full of cups
o' tea, and he says to me, 'Will ye hev sum?' 'Thenk ye,' says I, 'I'm
none particular.' 'Why, then, help yer sen,' says he. Soa I taks a cup
i' my hand; and then says he, 'Weant ye hev sum sugar and cre-am?' 'Aye,
for sure,' says I; soa I sugars and creams it, and then there comes
another chap wi' a tray full of bre-ad and butter, and cakes like, and
says he, 'Will ye hev sum?' 'I don't mind if I do,' says I. 'Well,
then,' says he, 'tak sum wi' thy fingers.' Soa I holds t' cup and t'
sawcer i' one hand, and taks a piece of spice cake i' t' other. 'Now,
then,' thinks I, 'how am I ever to sup my te-a? I can't team (pour) it
out into t' sawcer, for boath my hands is fast.' But all at once I sees
a plan o' doin' it. I thowt I could hold t' cake i' my mouth while I
teamed (poured) t' te-a into t' sawcer, and then claps th' cup on a
chair while I supped my tea. But, bless ye, t' cake war so varry short
(crumbling) that it brake off i' my mouth, and tum'led onto t' floor,
and I were in a bonny tak-ing. Howsomever, I clapt t' cup and t' sawcer
onto t' chair, and kneeled me down on t' floor, and sammed (picked) it
all up as weel as I could; and then I sups up my tea as sharp as I
could, and gave t' cup and t' sawcer to t' chap who cumed round again
wi' his tray. 'Will ye hev some more?' says he. 'Noa,' says I, 'noa
more, thenk ye.' For I thowt to mysen I had made maugrums (antics)
enough, and all t' quality 'at war theare mun ha' thowt me a hawkard owd
chap. Weel! when tea were finish'd we gat to th' music, and then, I
promise ye, I war all reet, an' a rare do we had on it."
David was returning through a pasture one day in which was a furious
bull, who seeing old David with his red bag, made at him. The musician
did not fly; that would not comport with his dignity, and his bass viol
that he carried in the bag might be injured by a precipitate retreat
over the hedge. The bull bellowed, and came on with lowered horns.
"Steady!" soliloquised the musician; "I reckon that was double B
nat'ral."
Again the bull bellowed.
"I am pretty sure it were B," said David again, "but I'll mak' sure;"
and opening his bag, he extracted the bass viol, set it down, and
drawing his bow across the vibrating string, produced a sound as full
of volume and of the same pitch as the tone of the infuriated beast.
"I thowt I were reet," said David, with a grim smile.
At the sound of the bass viol the bull stood still, raised his head, and
glowered at the extraordinary object before him. David, having his viol
out, thought it a pity to bag it again without a tune, and began the
violoncello part in one of Handel's choruses. It was too much for the
bull; he was out-bellowed, and turned tail.
When David was getting a little advanced in years he was coming home on
a dark night from a musical gathering, and tumbling over a large stone
which happened to be lying on the road, he fell down with great force
and dislocated his hip.
This was a sore trial to him in many ways. In the first place, it quite
prevented his going on with his customary means of obtaining his living,
and, besides that, it deprived him of the pleasure of going about among
his musical friends.
For a long, weary time he was quite confined to his bed, and time hung
heavy on his hands, for he had no other resources except his loom and
his music. His constant companion in bed was his violoncello, and as he
could not for a long time sit up sufficiently to enable him to use the
bow, he spent a great part of the day in playing over pizzicato the
music which he loved so well.
After some time he got about a little on crutches, and ultimately was
able to go by the help of a stick. His little savings had now dwindled
away, and poverty began to look him in the face. But at this crisis his
musical friends came forward, and gave with great success for his
benefit the oratorio of the "Messiah" in the town of Wakefield, and by
this means raised for him the liberal sum of £70, of which they begged
his acceptance.
He was afraid to have so large a sum in his own charge, and he
therefore requested that it might be placed in the hands of the Vicar of
Horbury, so that he might draw from time to time just as much as he
needed. This was accordingly done, and by his careful expenditure of it,
it sufficed to make him quite comfortable during the rest of his life,
and to erect the simple memorial-stone which now stands over his grave
in Horbury churchyard.
He had a married sister living in London who had often invited him to
pay her a visit, and when he had recovered from his accident
sufficiently to go about pretty well by the aid of a stick, and having
now plenty of time at his disposal, on account of his being lame and
unable to work at his loom, he determined to embark on the railway to
London.
His sister lived in Kensington, and his own account, of his visit, and
of what he saw in the great city, was highly amusing:--
"I went up," said he, "on a Setterday, and o' t' Sunday-morn, while we
was getting our breakfast, th' sister's husband says to me across t'
table, 'I reckon ye'll goa wi' us to chapel this forenoin,' for ye see
they was chapel-folks. 'We'll see,' says I, 'efter a bit.' But I knew
varry weel mysen what I were boun' to do, though I didn't say so to
them.
"Soa I just watches my opportunity, an' when they was all gone out of
the room, I nips out, as sharp as a lark, and goas to t' end o' t'
entry. For t' sister's house war not to t' street, but up a bit on a
entry like; and away I goas till I sees a homnibus, and I calls out to
t' fellow, 'I say, are ye for Sant Paul's?' 'Aye,' says he.
"Why then,' says I, 'ye're t' chap for me!' Soa he oppens t' door, an' I
jumps in.
"'How much is it?' says I. 'Nobbut sixpence,' says he. Soa I rode all t'
way thro' (from) Kensington to Sant Paul's--and ye know it's a rare
way--all for sixpence.
"Eh! and bless ye! we just hed a sarvice! Think nobbut o' me goin to
their ou'd chapel, wi' nowt but a bit on a poor snufflin' hymn or two,
an' some squealin' bairns and women to sing 'em, and a ram'lin, rantin'
sarmon iver so long, when I had t' opportunity o' going to Sant Paul's
to hear thinks done as they sud be done. Nay, nay!--I warn't sich a
fooil as that nauther. I warn't born i' Yorkshire to know no better nor
that, I'll uphou'd ye.
"Howsomever, when I gat back hoame, they was into me weel for giving 'em
t' slip, an' turnin' my back, as they said, on t' blessed Gospel
invitin' of me. But I let 'em say what they'd a mind to. When a beer
barrel begins to fiz out o' t' bung hoil, tha' mun let it fiz a bit,
thof't mak a mucky slop, or it'll bust t' barrel. I said nowt; I just
set and thowt o' what I'd heard, and I played it ower again on my
in'ards.
"T' next day I thowt I sud like to goa and hear t' band of t' Orse
Guards. Now t' sister 'usband had a nephy 'at was one on 'em; soa I went
wi' him. And after they'd played iver so mony things--eh! an' bless ye,
they just did play 'em--he says to t' leader o' t' band--'Yon ow'd
chap'--meaning' me--'knows a bit about meusic.' Soa t' fellow says to
me, 'Is there owt partickler ye'd like?' 'Nay,' says I, owt 'at ye've
got'll be reight for me.'
"'Nay,' says he, 'owt' at ye've a mind to ax for.' Soa I picks two or
three things 'at justs comes to my mind like. And, bless ye! they play
'em like owt at all, and then I menshuned another or two, an' they were
never fast wi owt till it was time for 'em to lap up. Soa they says, 'we
mun goa now, but ye mun come agean another day!' 'I sall,' says I, 'ye
may depend.' And I went reg'lar every day as long as I war i' London;
and rared pleased they war wi' me an' all, and so ye mind war I wi'
them.
"That, and Sant Paul's, an' Westminster Habbey, war t' main o' what I
seed and heeard all t' time I war i' London."
JOHN BARTENDALE,
THE PIPER.
In the reign of King Charles I. a strolling musician, a poor piper,
named John Bartendale, was brought, in 1634, before the Assizes, and was
convicted of felony.
He received sentence, and on March 27th was hung on the gallows, outside
Micklegate Bar, York. There were no houses there at that time--it was
open country. After he had remained swinging for three-quarters of an
hour, and was to all appearance dead, he was cut down, and buried near
the place of execution. The officers of justice had accomplished their
work carelessly in both particulars, as it afterwards transpired, for he
had been neither properly hung nor properly buried.
Earth has a peculiarly invigorating and restorative effect, as has been
recently discovered; and patients suffering from debility are by some
medical men now-a-days placed in earth baths with the most salutary
effects. In the case of gangrened wounds a little earth has been found
efficacious in promoting healthy action of the skin. John Bartendale was
now to experience the advantages of an earth-bath.
That same day, in the afternoon, a gentleman, one of the Vavasours of
Hazlewood, was riding by, when he observed the earth moving in a certain
place. He ordered his servant to alight; he himself descended from his
horse; and together they threw off the mould, and discovered the
unfortunate piper alive. He opened his eyes, sat up, and asked where he
was, and how he came there. Mr. Vavasour and his servant helped him out
of his grave, and seated him on the side. The man was sent for water and
other restoratives, and before long the news had spread about down
Micklegate that the poor piper was come to life again. A swarm of
wondering and sympathising people poured out to congratulate John the
Piper on his resurrection, and to offer their assistance. A conveyance
was obtained, and as soon as Bartendale was in a sufficient condition to
be moved, he was placed in it, covered with Mr. Vavasour's cloak,--for
he had been stripped by the executioner before he was laid in the
earth--and was removed again to York Castle.
It was rather hard that the poor fellow, after he had obtained his
release, should have been returned to his prison; but there was no help
for it. The resurrection of the piper was no secret; otherwise Mr.
Vavasour would doubtless have removed him privately to a place of
security till he was recovered, and then have sent him into another part
of the country.
At the following Assizes, Bartendale was brought up again. It was a nice
point at law whether the man could be sentenced to execution again after
the Sheriff had signed his affidavit that the man had been hung till he
was dead. Mr. Vavasour was naturally reluctant to supply the one link in
the chain of evidence which established the identity of the prisoner
with the piper who had been hung and buried for felony; he made earnest
intercession that the poor fellow might be reprieved, popular sympathy
was on his side, the judge was disposed to mercy, and Bartendale was
accorded a full and free pardon, the judge remarking that the case was
one in which the Almighty seemed to have interfered in mercy to
frustrate the ends of human justice, and that therefore he was not
disposed to reverse the decree of Providence according to the piper a
prolongation of his days on earth.
Drunken Barnaby in his "Book of Travels" alludes to Bartendale, when he
stops at York:
"Here a piper apprehended,
Was found guilty and suspended;
Being led to t' fatal gallows,
Boys did cry, 'Where is thy bellows?
Ever must thou cease thy tuning,'
Answered he, 'For all your cunning,
You may fail in your prediction.'
Which did happen without fiction;
For cut down, and quick interred,
Earth rejected what was buried;
Half alive or dead he rises,
Got a pardon next Assizes,
And in York continued blowing--
Yet a sense of goodness showing."
After his wonderful deliverance the poor fellow turned hostler, and
lived very honestly afterwards.
When asked to describe his sensations on being hung, he said that when
he was turned off, flashes of fire seemed to dart before his eyes, and
were succeeded by darkness and a state of insensibility.
BLIND JACK OF KNARESBOROUGH.[9]
Blind Jack Metcalf is certainly one of the most remarkable characters
that Yorkshire has produced. Afflicted with loss of sight, the
indomitable energy of his true north-country character enabled him to
carry on a successful business where many a south countryman would have
failed.
He was born at Knaresborough on the 15th August, 1717, and was the son
of a labourer. At the age of six he was seized with small-pox, and on
his recovery it was found that he had become totally blind. Children
speedily accommodate themselves to circumstances. Jack in six months was
able to find his way from his father's cottage along the street of
Knaresborough and back home without a guide, and in the course of three
years could go to any part of the little town alone, could find the
shops, and execute errands for his father or mother. He began also to
associate with other boys in bird-nesting expeditions, and would climb
the trees and throw down the nests to his companions. By accompanying
the boys in their rambles he learned his way about the neighbourhood,
and was in a short time perfectly acquainted with all the lanes, woods,
and fields within a radius of two or three miles. As his father kept
horses, he learned to ride, and in time became an able horseman. He was
taught the fiddle, as it was thought that the only means open to him for
obtaining a subsistence was that of strolling musician. But Jack
Metcalf had more natural taste for the cry of a hound or a harrier than
for the squeak of his fiddle.
A gentleman at Knaresborough, of the name of Woodburn, was owner of a
pack of hounds. This gentleman encouraged young Metcalf by taking him to
hunt with him, and Blind Jack kept five hounds of his own. Mr.
Woodburn's hounds being seldom kennelled, Metcalf used to take several
of them out secretly along with his own at night when the hares were out
feeding in the fields; but one of them having destroyed a couple of
lambs, he got into trouble, and was obliged to discontinue his midnight
excursions.
When about fourteen years old, his activity of limb led him to imagine
that he could undertake anything without danger, and with certainty of
success. The following adventure, however, somewhat modified his
opinion:--
A large plum-tree in the neighbourhood of Knaresborough having attracted
the attention of Metcalf's companions, they with one consent repaired to
the place on a Sunday morning. In these cases Metcalf was always
appointed to ascend for the purpose of shaking the trees. Accordingly,
he was sent to his post; but his comrades being suddenly alarmed by the
appearance of the owner of the tree, ran away, leaving Blind Jack up the
tree. He, taking the alarm, dropped, and fell headlong into a gravel-pit
belonging to Sir Henry Slingsby, cut his face, and lay for some time
stunned in the pit.
Shortly after this, he and some other boys, one night between eleven and
twelve o'clock, assembled in the church porch at Knaresborough--that
being the usual place of meeting. They determined to rob an orchard.
Having accomplished this feat with success, they returned to the
church-porch to divide their booty. Now it happened that the door of
Knaresborough church was opened by means of a ring, which turned the
latch. One of the party took hold of it, and by way of bravado gave a
loud rap, calling out, "A tankard of ale here!" A voice from within
answered aloud, "You are at the wrong house!" The boys were so scared
that for a moment or two none spoke or moved. At length Metcalf said,
"Did not you hear something speak in the church?" Upon this, without
answering, they all ran until they got out of the churchyard. They then
held a consultation, all equally wondering at the voice, and equally
unable to account satisfactorily for it.
Like true Yorkshire boys, they were not, however, to be scared away
without knowing what had frightened them; and they stealthily returned
to the porch. But no sooner had they reached it, than the ring turned,
and the door began to open. This was too much even for their nerves, and
they fled in all directions like wind. Only on reaching the outside of
the churchyard wall did they venture to breathe freely and look back,
and then, lo! the whole of the interior of the church was alight--
". . . Glimmering thro' the groaning trees,
Kirk Alloway seem'd in a bleeze."
Uninspired, like Tam o' Shanter, with draughts of John Barleycorn, they
did not venture nearer, but dispersed to their homes. The cause of this
panic was as follows:--The remains of an old lady in the neighbourhood
had been kept from interment until the arrival of her relations, who
lived at a great distance. Immediately on their arrival the sexton was
called up to dig the grave in the church, and had lighted a great number
of candles.
About the year 1731, when Metcalf was fourteen years old, he began to
learn swimming in the river Nidd, and soon became so expert, that he
surpassed all his companions. About this time two men were drowned in
the eddies of the Nidd. Metcalf was sent to dive for the bodies, and
after four attempts succeeded in bringing up one of the corpses. The
other body could not be found.
There are frequent floods in the river Nidd, and in the deep places
there are eddies, which draw to the bottom any substance, however light,
that comes within their sphere of action. Large pieces of timber were
often carried down by the floods; these on coming over the deep places
spun round, and then sank. Upon these occasions Metcalf would dive for
them, and with the greatest ease fix ropes to the wood, which was then
drawn up by persons stationed on the banks.
In the year 1732, one John Barker kept an inn at the west end of the
High Bridge, Knaresborough. This man was a manufacturer of linen cloth,
and used to bleach his own yarn. At one time, having brought two packs
of yarn to the river to wash, a sudden flood, occasioned by a heavy rain
in the neighbourhood, swept them away, and carried them through the
arches of the bridge, which stands on a rock. A little below was a sheet
of still water, supposed to be twenty-one feet in depth; as soon as the
yarn got to this it sank, except a little which caught the edge of the
rock in going down. Metcalf being intimate with Barker, and calling at
his house a few days after the accident, found him lamenting his loss.
Metcalf told him that he hoped to recover the yarn, but Barker smiled at
the supposed absurdity of the proposal; finding, however, that his
friend was resolved on trial, he consented. Metcalf then ordered some
long cart-ropes to be procured, and fixing a hook at one end, the other
being held by some persons on the High Bridge, he descended, and hooking
as much of the yarn as he could at one time, gave orders for drawing up.
In this way the whole was recovered with little damage.
At Bilton, two miles from Knaresborough, was a rookery, where boys had
made many attempts to take the young birds; but the owner wishing to
preserve them, they were prevented. Metcalf determined to make a trial,
sent one of his comrades in the day-time to reconnoitre the position of
the nests, and having received his information, they set out in the dead
of night and brought away seven dozen and a half, excepting the heads,
which they left under the trees. The owner of the rooks finding the
heads, offered a reward of two guineas for the discovery of the
offenders; but the secret was kept until long afterwards.
A person at Knaresborough having occasion to go to Borough Bridge, which
is about seven miles distant, and having left something behind, sent his
son for it. Metcalf being about the same age as this boy, chose to
accompany him. When they got to the place the boy missed the key, which
he had lost from his pocket by the way, and being afraid to return, he
consulted Metcalf how they should proceed. Metcalf was for entering the
house at all events, and not being able to procure a ladder, got a pole,
which reached to the thatch, and having borrowed a rope and a stick, he
climbed up the pole, and then ascending by the roof to the chimney, he
placed the stick across, and fastening the rope to it, attempted to
descend, but finding the flue too narrow, he threw off his clothes, and
laying them on the ridge of the house, made a second attempt, and got
down by the assistance of the rope; he then opened the door for his
companion. While they were in the house there was a heavy
thunder-shower, to which Metcalf's clothes were exposed. He attempted to
get up again to fetch them, but the pole by which he had ascended was
now so wet that he could not climb by it; he was therefore obliged to
wait till it dried, when he succeeded in recovering his clothes.
In the year 1732, Metcalf was invited to Harrogate to succeed as
fiddler an old man of the name of Morrison, who had played there for
seventy years. The old man died in the 102nd year of his age, and played
in the year he died. Metcalf was well received by the nobility and
gentry, who employed no other fiddler, except a boy, whom he hired as an
assistant.
Metcalf now bought a horse, and often ran him for small plates. He kept
game-cocks, as he was devotedly fond of cock-fighting. He often hunted,
and sometimes went coursing. In the evenings he played at the
assemblies.
About this time there was a long room built at the Green Dragon at
Harrogate. More music being then wanted, he engaged one Midgeley (one of
the Leeds waits) and his son as assistants. Midgeley, senior, being a
good performer, was taken into partnership gratis, but the son and
Metcalf's former assistant paid five pounds each as premium.
In the year 1735, Francis Barlow, Esq., of Middlethorpe, near York, who
kept a pack of hounds, was at Harrogate, and, liking Metcalf, invited
him to spend the winter at Middlethorpe, and bring his horse with him.
The invitation was gladly accepted, and he went out with Mr. Barlow's
hounds twice a week. Having completed a visit of six months at
Middlethorpe, he had learnt to walk and ride very readily through most
of the streets of York, and as he was riding past the George Inn, in
Coney Street, Standish, the landlord, stopped him, calling out, "What
haste?" Metcalf told him he was for Knaresborough that night; the
landlord replied that there was a gentleman in the house who wanted a
guide to Harrogate; adding, "I know you can do that as well as
anyone."--"So I can," said he, "but you must not let him know that I am
blind, for perhaps he will be afraid to trust me."--"I shall manage
that," replied Standish. So going in, he informed the gentleman that he
had procured a safe guide. Pleased at this, the gentleman requested
Metcalf to come in and take a glass. This, for an obvious reason, the
landlord objected to, on the part of Metcalf, but recommended some wine
at the door. Metcalf started as soon as the wine was drunk, taking the
lead, naturally enough. As they were turning Ousegate corner, a voice
shouted out, "SQUIRE BARLOW'S BLIND HUNTSMAN!" But the gentleman had no
suspicion that the cry had any reference to his guide. They rode briskly
up Micklegate, through the Bar, turned the corner at Holgate, and
through Poppleton Field, on to Hessay Moor, and so proceeded forward,
going over Skip Bridge. At this time the turnpike was not made between
York and Harrogate.
On the north-west of Kirk-Hammerton Moor the road to Knaresborough
joined the main road which leads to Borough Bridge by a sudden turn to
the left; but Metcalf cleared that without any difficulty. When they
came to Allerton-Mauleverer, the stranger asked whose large house that
was on the right, and was immediately informed by Metcalf. A little
farther on, the road is crossed by the one from Wetherby to Borough
Bridge, and proceeds along by the high brick wall of Allerton Park.
There was a road leading out of the park opposite to the gate upon the
Knaresborough road, which Metcalf was afraid of missing, but the wind
being from the east, and he perceiving a blast coming through the park
gate, readily turned his horse to the opposite gate, which leads to
Knaresborough. Reaching out his hand to open it, and feeling the heel,
as it is called, he believed the gate had been changed in the hanging
part, as he had not been there for seven months; and backing his horse,
exclaimed, "Confound thee! thou always goes to the gate's heel, instead
of the head!" The gentleman observed to him that his horse seemed
awkward, and that his own mare was good at coming up to a gate;
whereupon Metcalf permitted him to perform this office. Darkness, which
had now come on, being no obstruction to him, he briskly led the way,
resolved that his companion should not again see his face till they got
to Harrogate. As they were going through Knaresborough the gentleman
proposed a glass of wine, which Metcalf refused, alleging that the
horses were hot, and that as they were near their journey's end, it was
not worth their while to stop.
Forward they went, and presently some one cried out, "That's Blind
Jack!" This, however, was contradicted by another person, who could not
clearly distinguish him; and by this means the stranger was kept in the
dark as effectually as his guide. They then proceeded over the High
Bridge and up Forest Lane, and entered the forest about a mile from
Knaresborough. They had now to pass along a narrow causeway which
reached about one-third of the way to Harrogate, the forest at that time
not being inclosed, and no turnpike being made. Metcalf still kept the
lead.
When they had gone a little way upon the forest the gentleman saw a
light. He asked what place it was. There were some rocks called Hookston
Crags, and near to these the ground was low and swampy in some places,
close by which runs the Leeds road. About this part will-o'-the-wisp
used to be commonly seen. Metcalf took it for granted that his companion
had seen one of these lights, but for good reasons declined asking him
whereabouts the light was; and to divert his attention, asked him, "Do
you not see two lights--one to the right, the other to the left?"--"No,"
replied the gentleman, "I see but one--to the right."--"Well, then,
sir," said Metcalf, "that is Harrogate." There were then many tracks,
but Metcalf made choice of that nearest the fence. By the side of this
path, which is very near Harrogate, some larches were planted, and
stepping-stones laid for the convenience of foot-passengers. Metcalf
got upon this stony path, and the gentleman's horse following, got one
of his hind feet jammed between two of the stones. When his horse was
freed, he asked, "Is there no other road?"--"Yes," replied Metcalf,
"there is another, but it's a mile about"; knowing there was a dirty
cart-way, but thinking the stony road preferable to the deep slough of
the other, he preferred this rugged path.
On reaching their journey's end, they stopped at the house called the
Marquis of Granby, but found that the hostler was gone to bed. Metcalf
being very well acquainted with the place, led both the horses into the
stable and the hostler soon after appearing, he delivered them into his
care, and went into the house to inquire after his fellow-traveller,
whom he found comfortably seated over a tankard of negus, in which he
pledged his guide. Metcalf took the tankard the first time very nicely,
but when attempting to take it the second time, he reached out his hand
wide of the mark; however, he soon found it, and drank, and going out
again, left the landlord with his companion. "I think, landlord," said
the gentleman, "my guide must have drunk a great deal of spirits since
we came here."--"Why, my good sir, what makes you think so?"--"Well, I
judge so from the appearance of his eyes."--"Eyes! bless you, sir,"
rejoined the landlord, "do you not know that he is blind?"--"What do you
mean?"--"I mean, sir, that he cannot see!"--"Blind! Are you in
earnest?"--"Yes, sir; as blind as a stone!"--"Come, come, landlord,"
said the gentleman, "this is too much. Call him in." Metcalf entered.
"My friend, are you really blind?"--"Yes, sir; I lost my sight when six
years old."--"Had I known that, I would not have ventured with you for a
hundred pounds."--"And I, sir," said Metcalf, "would not have lost my
way for a thousand." Metcalf was rewarded by a present of two guineas,
besides a plentiful entertainment the next day at the cost of this
gentleman.
In 1736, when the Harrogate season commenced, Metcalf resumed his
musical occupation, and was well received at all the inns, where he was
always given free quarters for himself and horse.
The Green Dragon at that place was kept by a Mr. Body, who had two
nephews with him; and when the hunting season drew near its close,
these, with some other young men, expressed a desire for a day's sport;
and knowing that Mr. Woodburn, the master of the Knaresborough pack of
hounds, had often lent them to Metcalf, they asked Blind Jack to procure
for them the pleasure of a run. Metcalf had no doubt but that Mr.
Woodburn would grant him this favour, and went, flushed with hope, to
Mr. Woodburn, requesting him to lend the pack the next day. This,
however, was a favour out of his power to grant, as Mr. Woodburn
politely informed him, as he had engaged to meet Mr. Trappes with the
hounds next morning upon Scotton Moor, for the purpose of entering some
young foxhounds. Chagrined at this, Metcalf debated with himself whether
the disappointment should fall to the lot of Mr. Woodburn's friends or
his own, and resolved that it should not be to the latter. He arose the
next morning before daybreak, and crossed the High Bridge. He took with
him an excellent hound of his own, and nipping him by the ears, made him
give mouth loudly, himself hallooing at the same time. This device had
so good an effect that in a few minutes he had nine couples about him,
as the hounds were kept by various people about the shambles, &c, and
were suffered to lie unkennelled. Mounting his horse, away he rode with
the dogs to Harrogate, where he met his friends ready mounted and in
high spirits. Some of them proposed going to Bilton wood, near
Knaresborough, but this was opposed by Metcalf, who preferred the moor;
in fact, he was apprehensive of being followed by Mr. Woodburn, and
wished accordingly to be at some distance from Knaresborough.
Following his advice, they drew the moor at the distance of five miles,
where they started a hare, killed her after a fine chase, and
immediately put up another. Just at this moment up came Mr. Woodburn,
foaming with anger, swearing terribly, and threatening to send Metcalf
to the House of Correction.
He swung his whip round his head, intending to horse-whip the rogue, but
Metcalf heard the whistle of the lash in the air, and escaped the stroke
by making his horse start aside.
Mr. Woodburn then endeavoured to call off his hounds, but Metcalf,
knowing the fleetness of his own horse, ventured within speaking, but
not within whipping distance of him, and begged that he would permit the
dogs to finish the chase, alleging that it would spoil them to take them
off, and that he was sure they would (as they actually did) kill in a
very short time. Metcalf soon found that Mr. Woodburn's anger had begun
to abate; and going nearer to him, he pleaded in excuse, a
misunderstanding. The apology was accepted, for Mr. Woodburn, though hot
of temper, was very good-natured; and so the affair ended.
Blind Jack became also very skilful at bowls, but he always bargained
that he should count three to his adversary's one; and he bribed the
jacks to give him hints as to the direction he was to throw, by the
inflexion of their voices, lowering their tones in speaking to one
another if he flung too much to the right, raising them if he threw too
wide on the left.
But what is far more singular is, that he was able to distinguish cards
by their feel, and that by simply passing his fingers over their
surface. By this means he was able to play whist and other games, and
beat those opposed to him; by this means realising a little money.
These achievements were far from exhausting his ambition. He aspired to
the acquaintance of jockeys, and frequented the York races, where he
betted, and was able to make books with men of rank and position, who
took an interest in Jack on account of his affliction and the energy of
his character.
He commonly rode to the race-ground amongst the crowd, and kept in
memory both the winning and losing horses.
Being much in the habit of visiting York in the winter time, a whim
would often take him to call for his horse at bed-time, and set out for
Knaresborough, regardless of the badness of the roads and weather, and
of all remonstrance from his friends.
About the year 1738, Metcalf having increased his stud, and being aware
of the docility of that noble animal the horse, he so tutored his own
that whenever he called them by their respective names they would
immediately answer him by neighing. This was chiefly accomplished by
some discipline at the time of feeding. He could, however, without the
help of those responses, select his own horse out of any number.
Having matched one of his horses to run three miles for a wager of some
note, and the parties agreeing to ride each his own, they set up posts
at certain distances in the forest, marking a course of one mile;
having, of course, three miles to go. Great odds were laid against
Metcalf, upon the supposition of his inability to keep the course. But
Blind Jack was quite equal to the occasion. He procured four
dinner-bells, and placed a bell-man at each post. Each man rang in turn,
and Metcalf was thus able to run from one post to the next, and know
where to turn his horse. By this means he was able to win the race.
A gentleman who was present, named Skelton, then came up, and proposed
to Metcalf a small wager, that he could not gallop a horse of his 50
yards, and stop him within 200. This horse was notorious as a runaway,
and had baffled the efforts of the best and strongest riders to hold
him. Metcalf agreed to the wager on condition that he might choose his
ground; but Skelton bargained that there should be neither hedge nor
wall on the course, lest his horse should be injured. Metcalf agreed;
the stakes were deposited; and knowing that there was a large bog near
the old Spa at Harrogate, he mounted at about a distance of 150 yards
from it. Having observed the wind, and placed a person who was to sing a
song to guide him by the sound, he set off at a full gallop towards the
bog, and soon fixed the horse saddle-deep in the mire. He then
floundered through the dirt as well as he was able, till he gained a
firm footing, when he demanded his wager, which was allotted him by
general suffrage. It was with the greatest difficulty, however, that the
horse could be extricated. That Metcalf was so well acquainted with the
spot was owing to his having about three weeks before relieved a
stranger who had got fast in it in the night, and whose cries attracted
him.
It was now no unusual thing with him to buy horses with a view to
selling them. Happening to meet with a man who had been huntsman to Sir
John Kaye, and who had a horse to sell, Metcalf inquired the price of
the horse, and asked to try it. Having trotted the horse a mile or two,
he returned, and told the owner that the eyes of his nag would soon
fail. The man, however, stood firm to his demand of 25 guineas for the
horse, alleging that he was beautifully moulded, only six years old, and
his action good. Metcalf then followed the man into the stable, and
desired him to lay his hand upon the eyes of the horse, and feel their
unusual heat; asking, at the same time, how he could, in conscience,
demand so great a price for a horse that was going blind. The treaty
ended with Metcalf purchasing the horse, bridle, and saddle for £14.
A few days after, as he was riding on his new purchase, he ran against a
sign-post upon the common, near a toyshop, and nearly threw it down. Not
discouraged by this, he set off for Ripon to play at an assembly; and
passing by a place at Harrogate called the World's-End, he overtook a
man going the Ripon road: with him Metcalf laid a wager of
sixpenny-worth of liquor that he would get first to an ale-house at some
distance. The ground being rough, Metcalf's horse soon fell, and lay for
a while on the thigh of his master, when, making an effort to rise, he
cut Metcalfs face with one of his fore-shoes. The Rev. Mr. Richardson,
coming up at this moment and expressing his concern for the accident,
Metcalf told him that nothing had hurt him but the cowardice of his
horse, who had "struck him whilst he was down." His instrument, however,
suffered so materially, that he was obliged to borrow one to perform on
for the night at Ripon, to which place he got without further accident.
The assembly over, he set off to return to Harrogate, and arrived there
about three in the morning.
He now thought it was time to dispose of his fine horse, whose eyes
began to discharge much. After applying the usual remedies of alum blown
into the eyes, rowelling in different parts, &c., he found the beast in
marketable condition; and knowing that there would soon be a great show
of horses without Micklegate Bar at York, he resolved to take the chance
of that mart; and setting out the night before put up at the Swan, in
Micklegate. The next morning, when the show began, Metcalf's nag
attracted the notice of one Carter, a very extensive dealer, who, asking
the price, was told twenty-two guineas. Carter then inquired if he was
sound, and received for answer, "I have never known him LAME; but I will
trot him on this pavement, and if there be any ailment of that sort it
will soon appear with my weight." The dealer bade him sixteen guineas,
and a little after seventeen; which Metcalf, for well-known reasons, was
glad to receive.
In the year 1738 Metcalf attained the age of twenty-one years and the
height of six feet one inch and a half, and was remarkably robust
withal.
About this time Dr. Chambers of Ripon had a well-made horse with which
he used to hunt, but finding that he had become a great stumbler, he
exchanged him with a dealer, who took him to Harrogate, and meeting with
Metcalf told him he had an excellent hunter to sell at a low price.
Metcalf desired to try how the horse leaped, and the owner agreeing, he
mounted him, and found that he could, when saddled, leap over any wall
or fence the height of himself. The bargain was soon struck, and this
happening at the Queen's Head Hotel, several gentlemen who were
witnesses of the horse's performance invited Metcalf to accompany them
two days after to Belmond Wood, where a pack of hounds were to throw
off. These hounds were the joint property of Francis Trappes, Esq., and
his brother, of Nidd, near Ripley. A pack superior to this was not to be
found in the kingdom.
The wished-for day arriving, Metcalf attended the gentlemen, and the
hounds were not long in finding. The fox took away to Plumpton Rocks,
but finding all secure there, he made for Stockeld Wood, and found
matters in the same state as at Plumpton--he had then run about six
miles: he came back and crossed the river Nidd near the old abbey, and
went on the east side of Knaresborough to a place called Coney-Garths
(where there were earths), near Scriven. Metcalf's horse carried him
nobly, pulling hard, and he required proportionate resistance. The wind
being high, Metcalf lost his hat, but would not stop to recover it; and
coming to Thistle Hill, near Knaresborough, he resolved to cross the
river at the Abbey Mill, having often before gone on foot over the
dam-stones. When he got to the dam he attended to the noise of the fall
as a guide, and ranging his horse in a line with the stories dashed
forward for some part of the way; but the stones being slippery with a
kind of moss, the horse stumbled, but recovered this and a second
blunder; the third time, however, floundering completely, away went
horse and rider into the dam. Metcalf had presence of mind to disengage
his feet from the stirrups during the descent, but both the horse and
himself were immersed over head in water. He then quitted his seat and
made for the opposite side, the horse following him. Having secured his
nag, he laid himself down on his back and held up his heels to let the
water run out of his boots, which done, he quickly remounted and went up
a narrow lane which leads to the road betwixt Knaresborough and
Wetherby; then through some lanes on the north-east side of
Knaresborough, and crossing the Borough Bridge Road, he got to the
Coney-Garths, where he found that the whipper-in only had arrived before
him.
Here the fox had earthed, as was expected; and the other horsemen (who
had gone over the Low Bridge and through the town) after some time came
up. They were much surprised at finding Metcalf there, and attributed
the soaked condition of himself and horse to profuse sweating; nor were
they undeceived till they reached Scriven.
Soon after this, Blind Jack was at Scarborough. As he was walking one
day on the sands with a friend, he resolved to take a swim in the sea,
his companion agreeing to shout out when he should think he had gone far
enough outward; but the other not making a sufficient allowance for the
noise of the sea, suffered him to go out of hearing before he shouted,
and Metcalf continued swimming until he got out of sight of his friend,
who now expected to see him no more. At length Metcalf began to think he
must have got out of hearing of his friend, and becoming rather tired he
turned on his back to rest himself, his ears being covered with water;
but after he had sufficiently rested he turned himself again, and
removing the hair of his head from his ears, began to listen, when he
thought he heard the breakers beating against the pier which defends the
Spa; finding by the noise that he was at a great distance, he increased
his efforts, and providentially taking a right direction, he landed in
safety, to the immense relief of his friend.
Having an aunt at Whitby, near the Alum Works, he went there, left his
horse, and got on board an alum ship bound for London. He arrived at the
metropolis, stayed there only a few weeks, played on the violin, and did
very well; but meeting so many acquaintances, did not think himself
safe. After some time, meeting with a vessel, he returned back again to
Whitby; and having a numerous acquaintance at Newcastle, formed at
Harrogate, he went thither, and was kindly received by many persons.
Amongst the rest was one Councillor Grey, who invited Metcalf to dine
with him every day during the time he should stay, which was about a
month. One day he said to Metcalf, "You and I are near a size," and
brought down a suit of clothes, saying, "I think these will fit you, and
are at your service if you please to accept them; they have scarcely
been worn; go into the next room and try them on." Metcalf then left
Newcastle and went to Sunderland, where he stayed a short time among the
sailors; then proceeded to Whitby to his aunt's, with whom he had left
his horse, as she was in tolerable circumstances; after that he
determined to go to Knaresborough, and set off in the forenoon,
intending to call at Mr. Varley's, as he had been there for six months
shortly before. He had company over the moor to Pickering, as he had
never been that road. At Pickering his company left him.
He then went to Malton, which was six miles, though he had never been
that road before, but had been at Malton; he got safe there, and
continued along the York road. A little from Malton his horse began to
tire at a place called Crombeck, where there is a ford dangerous in
times of flood. It happened to be a very rainy time, and his horse being
weak, he took hold of the bridle-rein to lead him through, not being
afraid of the water himself, but fearful of drowning his horse. Having
got safe through, he pursued his journey, but his horse being weak, he
was under the necessity of leading him part of the road, and walking
sometimes up to the boot-tops in dirt.
He soon came to a common called Stockton Moor, about four or five miles
from York, where was neither turnpike nor paved causeway at that time,
and he had got out of the track and was in great difficulty; but
fortunately he heard a cock crow in Stockton, and by turning in the
direction whence he heard the call of chanticleer, he got into Stockton.
From this place there was a paved causeway all the way to York, upon
which he went, now feeling himself safe. He then came down Goodram Gate,
crossed Peter Gate, down the Shambles, and through Pavement, over Ouse
Bridge, turned into Skelder Gate, and through the Postern, it being in
the dead of night, but he wanted no guide, as he knew the places so
well; then coming to Middlethorpe, the gates were fast: they were made
of wood, with iron spikes at the top, which made it difficult to climb
over; but necessity being the mother of invention, he called forth her
aid. Metcalf took the bridle from off his horse's head, doubled the
rein, and throwing it over one of the spikes of the gate, by that means
and the help of a corner of the wall that joined the gate, he got up and
climbed over; but when he was at the top his situation was perilous, for
if his foot had slipped he would have fallen on the spikes and been
impaled. He then opened the gates, and led his horse through, and
greatly surprised some women by his appearance, who happened to be up
washing. When daylight appeared, the family received him very kindly. He
stayed about three weeks, and then returned to Knaresborough, where he
met with a north countryman who played on the bagpipes and frequented
the houses of many gentlemen in town. He had been in London several
times, and he advised Metcalf to take a trip with him, which he did.
By this man Metcalf found out several gentlefolks who were in the habit
of visiting Harrogate during the season, and amongst others Colonel
Liddell, who resided in King Street, Covent Garden, and who gave him a
general invitation to his house. The colonel was member of Parliament
for Berwick-upon-Tweed, and lived at Ravensworth Castle, near
Newcastle-upon-Tyne; and on his return from London to the North, which
generally took place in the month of May, he was accustomed to spend
three weeks at Harrogate.
When the winter was over, Metcalf thought he must take a walk out of
London. Accordingly he set out through Kensington, Hammersmith,
Colnbrook, Maidenhead, and Reading, in Berkshire; and returned by
Windsor and Hampton Court to London in the beginning of May. In his
absence, Colonel Liddell had sent to his lodgings to let him know that
he was going to Harrogate, and that if agreeable to him he might go down
either behind his coach or on the top. Metcalf on his return waited upon
the colonel and thanked him, but declined his kind offer, observing that
he could with great ease walk as far in a day as he would choose to
travel in his coach. The next day at noon the colonel and his suite,
consisting of sixteen servants on horseback, set off, Metcalf starting
about an hour before them. They were to go by the way of Bugden, and he
proceeded as far as Barnet. A little way from Barnet the Bugden and St.
Alban's roads part, and he had taken the latter; however, he arrived at
Welling, the place where they were to sleep, a little before the
colonel, who was surprised at his performance. Metcalf set off again
next morning before his friends, and coming to Biggleswade, found the
road was crossed with water, there being no bridge at that time. He made
a circuitous cast, but found no other way except a footpath, which he
was doubtful whether to trust. A person coming up, asked, "What road are
you for?" He answered, "For Bugden." "You have had some liquor this
morning, I suppose?" said the stranger. "Yes," replied Metcalf, although
he had tasted none that day. The stranger then bid him follow, and he
would direct him into the highway. Soon after, they came to some sluices
with planks laid across, and Metcalf followed by the sound of his
guide's feet; then to a gate on one side of the turnpike, which being
locked he was told to climb over. Metcalf was struck with the kind
attention of his conductor, and taking twopence from his pocket, said,
"Here, good fellow, take that, and get thee a pint of beer;" but the
other declined it, saying he was welcome. Metcalf, however, pressing the
reward upon him, was asked, "Can you see very well?" "Not remarkably
well," he replied. "My friend," said the stranger, "I do not mean to
tithe thee--I am rector of this parish; and so God bless you, and I
wish you a good journey." Metcalf set forward with the parson's
benediction, and stopped every night with the colonel. On coming to
Wetherby, he arrived at the inn before him, as usual, and told the
landlord of his approach, who asked him by what means he had become
acquainted with that, and was informed by him how he had preceded the
colonel the whole week, this being Saturday, and they had left town on
Monday noon. The colonel arriving, ordered Metcalf into his room, and
proposed halting till Monday, but Metcalf replied, "With your leave,
sir, I shall go to Harrogate to-night, and meet you there on Monday." So
he set off for Knaresborough that night, and met the colonel at
Harrogate on Monday, as he had said.
Metcalf became now in great request as a performer at Ripon assembly,
which was resorted to by many families of distinction, such as Sir
Walter Blacket of Newby; Sir John Wray, Sir R. Graham, Squire Rhodes,
Squire Aislaby of Studley, and many others. When he played alone, it was
usual with him after the assembly to set off for Harrogate or
Knaresborough; but when he had an assistant he remained all night at
Ripon to keep him company, his partner being afraid to ride in the dark.
Finding himself worth £15 (a larger sum than he ever had before), and a
main of cocks having been made in the neighbourhood, he became a party,
and lost two-thirds of his whole fortune. The remaining £5 he laid out
on a horse which was to run at York a few days later; and had the good
fortune to win the last wager.
Metcalf still followed cock-fighting, cards, and racing, but continued
to play at the assemblies; but his profession interfered with his
sports, and he cast about in his mind how to obtain an independence. Now
it fell out that about this time a Miss Benson, daughter of the host of
the Royal Oak, was about to be married to a young man whom Metcalf was
convinced she did not like. It was a match made up by the parents, and
there was no affection in it--at least on her side. Blind Jack had some
reason to think that the fair lady was not insensible to him, and he
hastened to Harrogate, and hung about the Royal Oak till he had an
opportunity of speaking to the damsel, who was to be married the very
next day. Metcalf used his most urgent persuasion with the girl to elope
with him that night, and obtained from her a tardy consent. It was
arranged that she should put a lighted candle in the window when ready
to run away, and Metcalf engaged a friend to look out for the candle for
him.
This having been settled, the lady went into the house, and in a short
time was followed by Metcalf, who was warmly received by the supposed
bridegroom and company.
The tankard went briskly round with "Success to the intended couple!" in
which toast, it may be readily believed, Metcalf joined most cordially.
Having stayed till it was near dark, he thought it time for putting
business into proper train. Going then to the public-house known by the
name of the World's End, he inquired for the hostler, whom he knew to be
a steady fellow; and after obtaining from this man a promise either to
serve him in an affair of moment in which he was engaged, or keep the
secret, he related the particulars of his assignation and the intended
elopement, to forward which he desired him to let him have his master's
mare, which he knew would carry two. This agreed on, he requested the
further service of meeting him at Ross's Library at ten o'clock. A
whistle was to be given by the first who got there, as a signal. They
met pretty punctually, and Metcalf asked if he saw a star, meaning the
lighted candle. After half-an-hour's delay the signal-light appeared.
They then approached the house, and left the horses at a little
distance, not choosing to venture into the court-yard, which was paved.
On the door being opened by the lady, he asked her if she was ready, and
she replied in the affirmative. He advised her, however, to pack up a
dress or two, as she probably might not see her mother again for some
time. She had about twenty gowns at that time, and a new pillion and
cloth. Metcalf asked her for it. "Oh, dear," said she, "it is in the
other house; but we must have it." She then went to the window and
called up her sister, who let her in. The pillion and cloth were in the
room where the intended bridegroom slept, and on his seeing her enter,
she said, "I will take this and brush it, that it may be ready in the
morning."--"That's well thought on, my dear," said he. She then went
down, and all three hastened to the horses. Metcalf mounted her behind
his friend, then got upon his own horse, and away they went. At that
time it was not a matter of so much difficulty to get married as it is
at present, and they had only the trouble of riding twelve miles, and a
fee to pay, without any calling of banns requiring a delay of three
weeks.
Metcalf left his bride at a friend's house within five miles of
Harrogate, and came to the Queen's Head to perform the usual service of
playing his violin during the breakfast half-hour. In the meantime Mrs.
Benson and her other daughter began to prepare for breakfast, and
observing that Dolly lay very long in bed, her mother desired that she
might be called; but her usual bed-fellow declaring that she had not
slept with her, she was ordered to seek her in some of the other rooms.
This was done, but in vain. They then took it for granted that she had
gone out early to take a morning ride with Mr. Dickenson (the intended
bridegroom), but he could give no account of her. All her friends now
began to be seriously alarmed, and a person from the Oak came and
informed Metcalf of all that had happened there that morning.
Metcalf listened seriously to the news, and then composedly said, "You
need not be alarmed. I MARRIED HER since you saw me last night!"
He then sent a message through the brother of his Dolly to the father
and mother, to the effect that he asked their pardon. He acknowledged
that he was far below them in circumstances, but his affection for their
daughter was sincere, and he promised that he would make them the best
amends in his power by affectionate treatment of his wife.
It is hardly to be supposed that they were mollified by this assurance.
Metcalf took a small house at Knaresborough. It was a matter of wonder
that Miss Benson should have preferred a blind man to Dickenson, she
being as handsome a woman as any in the country. A lady having asked her
why she had refused so many good offers for Blind Jack, she answered,
"Because I could not be happy without him." And being more particularly
questioned, she replied, "His actions are so singular, and his spirit so
manly and enterprising, that I could not help liking him."
Metcalf continued going to Harrogate as usual, and one day determined to
pay a visit to his mother-in-law. He mounted his horse, and riding up to
the kitchen-door called for a pint of wine. There were then only women
in the house, who were afraid to serve him, and they all ran upstairs in
a fright. He then rode into the kitchen, through the house, and out at
the hall-door, no one molesting him.
He afterwards went to demand his wife's clothes, but was refused; on a
second application, however, he succeeded. His wife having brought him
a boy, and some respectable people being the sponsors, they employed
their good offices to heal the breach between the families, and were
fortunately successful. On the birth of a daughter (the second child)
Mrs. Benson herself was godmother, and presented Metcalf with twenty
guineas.
He continued to play at Harrogate in the season; and set up a four-wheel
chaise and a one-horse chair for public accommodation, there having been
nothing of the kind there before. He kept these vehicles two summers,
when the innkeepers, beginning to run their own, he gave them up, as he
also did racing and hunting; but still wanting employment, he bought
horses, and went to the coast for fish, which he took to Leeds and
Manchester; and so indefatigable was he that he would frequently walk
for two nights and a day with little or no rest; for as a family was
coming on he was as eager for business as he had been for diversion,
keeping up his spirits, and blessed with good health.
Going from Knaresborough to Leeds in a snowstorm, and crossing a brook,
the ice gave way under one of his horses, and he was under the necessity
of unloading to get him out; but the horse as soon as free ran back to
Knaresborough, leaving him with two panniers of fish and three other
loaded horses in the midst of a snowstorm at night. After much
difficulty, however, he divided the weight amongst the others, and
pursuing his journey, arrived at Leeds by break of day.
Once passing through Halifax, he stopped at an inn called the Broad
Stone. The landlord's son, and some others who frequented Harrogate,
seeing Metcalf come in, and having often heard of his exploits,
signified a wish to play at cards with him; he agreed, and accordingly
they sent for a pack, but before playing he asked to feel them over.
The man of the house being his friend, he could depend upon his honour
in preventing deception. They began to play, and Metcalf beat four of
them in turn, playing only for liquor. Not satisfied with this, some of
the company proposed playing for money, and when engaged at shilling
whist, Metcalf won 15s. The losing party then proposed to play double or
quit, but Metcalf declined playing for more than half-a-guinea points;
till at last, yielding to much importunity, he got engaged for guineas,
and, favoured by fortune, won ten, and a shilling for liquor each game,
which completely cleared the loser of his cash, who took up the cards
and went out, but shortly returned with eight guineas more. Metcalf's
friend examined the cards to see if they were not marked, and finding
all fair, they went on again, until those eight pieces followed the
other ten. They then drank freely at Metcalf's cost, he being now in
circumstances to treat. About ten o'clock at night he took his leave,
saying he must be at Knaresborough in the morning, having sent his
horses before. On his way he crossed the river Wharfe, about a mile
below Poole; the water being high, his horse swam, and he got safe home.
Thus ended his pursuits as a fishmonger, the profit being small and his
fatigue very considerable.
From the period of his discontinuing the business of fishmonger Metcalf
continued to attend Harrogate as a player on the violin, in the long
room, until the commencement of the rebellion in 1745.
The alarm which took place was great; and loyalty to the House of
Hanover, and preparations against the Jacobites, were general in the
county of York.
Amongst the many instances which mark this, none were more striking than
the conduct of William Thornton of Thornville, near Knaresborough, for
he determined to raise a company of soldiers at his own expense, and
went to Knaresborough about the 1st of October, 1745, where he sent for
our blind hero to his inn, and asked him if he knew of any brave fellows
who were likely to make spirited soldiers. Jack having satisfied his
patron on this head, he was appointed assistant to a sergeant already
procured, with orders to begin recruiting the next day.
Such was their success that in two days only they enlisted 140 men at
5s. each, their allowance being 1s. per day; out of whom the captain
drafted sixty-four, the number of privates he wanted. Soon after, he
brought them to Thornville, where he ordered every other day a fat ox to
be killed for their entertainment, and gave them beer seven years old,
expressing great pleasure at its being reserved for so good a purpose.
He now began to sound the company as to their attachment to the cause
and to himself. "My lads!" said he, "you are going to form a part of a
ring-fence to the finest estate in the world! The king's army is on its
march northward, and I have confidence that all of you are willing to
join them." They replied, enthusiastic for the whole ox a day and the
seven-year-old beer, "We will follow you to the world's end!"
All matters being adjusted, the company was drawn up, and amongst them
BLIND JACK cut no small figure, being near six feet two inches high,
and, like his companions, dressed in blue and buff, with a large
gold-laced hat. Jack played a march, and off the company moved for
Boroughbridge to join General Wade's army, which was there.
On reaching Newcastle, by order of General Wade they were united with
Pulteney's regiment, which having suffered much in some late actions,
was thought unduly weak. Captain Thornton gave orders for tents for his
men and a marquee for himself. He pitched them on Newcastle Moor, and
served out a pair of blankets to each tent. On the first night of their
encampment the snow fell six inches.
After stopping there for about a week, the General received intelligence
of the motions of the Jacobite army, and gave orders to march by break
of day for Hexham in three columns, wishing to intercept it upon the
west road, as their route seemed to be for England that way. The tents
were instantly struck, but the Swiss troops in the van not being willing
to move at so early an hour, it was half-past ten before they left the
ground, and the snow by that time was extremely deep. The troops were
often three or four hours in marching a mile, the pioneers having to cut
through some of the drifts, level some of the obstructions, and fill up
several ditches, to make a passage for the artillery and baggage.
About ten at night they arrived at Ovington, the place marked out for
them, with straw to rest on; but the ground was frozen so hard that but
few of the tent-pins would enter in, and in those few tents which were
pitched the men lay upon one another, greatly fatigued with their march,
it having been fifteen hours from the time of their striking their tents
till their arrival at this place, although the distance was only seven
miles.
The next day they reached Hexham, where they halted. On Monday night
about ten o'clock the army was put in motion by a false alarm. After
stopping there about three days, General Wade returned to Newcastle to
catch the post-road leading to Yorkshire, and immediately began his
march for Yorkshire by way of Pierse Bridge, Catterick, and
Boroughbridge; and continuing his route southward, encamped his men on
Clifford Moor, where they halted a few days, and then moved to ground
between Ferrybridge and Knottingley. The Scottish army had now
penetrated southward as far as Derby; but the General having heard that
they had received a check from the Duke of Cumberland, sent General
Oglethorpe with 1000 horse towards Manchester, either to harass the
enemy in their retreat, or to join the Duke's forces; and retired
himself with the remainder, by Wakefield-Outwood and Leeds, to
Newcastle.
In the meantime the Duke came up with the army of Prince Charles Edward
at Clifton, on the borders of Westmoreland. Lord George Murray occupied
the town, and the Highlanders were fortified behind hedges and a ditch.
The Duke coming upon the open moor after sunset, gave orders for 300
dragoons to dismount and advance to the brink of the ditch; the rebels
then fired upon them from behind the hedges; they returned the fire, and
fell a few paces back. The Highlanders mistaking this for flight, rushed
over the ditch, but meeting a warmer reception than they expected, were
glad to retreat, and continued their route to Penrith, and from thence
to Carlisle, where they left part of their army.
His Royal Highness thought it advisable to reduce this place; and on its
surrender he returned to London. General Wade continued his march for
the North, dismissing all the foreigners from his army; and General
Hawley, on coming from London to take the command, was joined by some
regiments which had been withdrawn from Flanders. They marched to
Edinburgh, and from thence to Falkirk, and pitched their tents on the
north-east side of the town on the 16th of January; the Highland army
being at Torwood, about midway between Falkirk and Stirling, and about
three miles from the English camp, they could easily see each other's
camp light. The English army lay all night on their arms in expectation
of being attacked, but the van and picket-guards came in on the morning
of the 17th, having observed no motions in the hostile camp which
showed any signs of an attack, although they were as near as safety
would permit. Soon after, the enemy were observed to move some of their
flags from Torwood towards Stirling, which made the English suppose that
they were retreating; but this motion was a feint to deceive them.
However, upon this the soldiers were ordered to pile their arms and take
some refreshment; and although Lord Kilmarnock was in the army of Prince
Charles Edward, General Hawley went to breakfast with Lady Kilmarnock at
Callander House. The enemy in the meantime stole a march down a valley
northward, unperceived; but just before the army discovered them, they
were seen by a person, who ran into the camp exclaiming, "Gentlemen!
what are you about? The Highlanders will be upon you!" On which some of
the officers said, "Seize that rascal; he is spreading a false
alarm!"--"Will you believe your own eyes?" said the man; and at that
moment the line of Highlanders was seen fringing the high ground on
Falkirk Moor.
It is unnecessary here to relate the details of the engagement of
Falkirk, so graphically described by Sir Walter Scott in "Waverley,"
resulting in a momentary gleam of hope to the adherents of Prince
Charles Edward, and in as brief a discouragement to the English. Captain
Thornton lost twenty of his men, together with his lieutenant and
ensign, who were taken prisoners. The captain was in a house when the
English were surprised, and hearing the bagpipes at the door, he ran
up-stairs and hid in a room behind the door. One of the Highlanders ran
in, looked round, but not seeing him, called out, "None of the rascals
are here."
The woman of the house having seen the captain go up-stairs, went to him
soon after, and opening a closet door, entreated him to enter, which he
did; she then brought a dresser and placed dishes, &c, upon it, which
prevented all appearance of a door in that place; and fortunately there
was no bed in the room. About ten minutes after he had been fixed in his
new quarters a great number of people, consisting chiefly of Highland
officers, amongst whom was Secretary Murray, took possession of the
apartment, which being large, they proposed making use of for business
during their stay.
In the meantime Metcalf had escaped the Highlanders. Knowing that two of
his master's horses had been left at a widow's house a short distance
from the town, he made his way to the place with intent to secure them.
This woman had in the morning expressed great seeming loyalty to King
George; but when Metcalf returned in the evening, the wind had changed:
she now extolled Prince Charles, and said, "The defeat of George's folk
was a just judgment."
Metcalf went into the stable and found the horses, saddled them, and was
leading out the first, when he was surrounded by a few stragglers of the
Highland army. "We must have that beast," said they; but Metcalf
refusing to give him up, they said one to another, "Shoot him!" On
hearing two of them cock their pieces, he asked, "What do you want with
him?"--They answered that they wanted him for the Prince.--"If so, you
must have him," replied he. They took him, and immediately went off.
Metcalf then brought out the other, but as he was about to mount, the
captain's coachman (whose name was Snowden), joined him, and Metcalf
inquiring of him the fate of his master, was answered that he had not
seen him for some time. This induced Metcalf to think that the worst had
befallen him. They then thought it advisable to attempt falling in with
the rear of the army, but before they had proceeded many yards their
horse sank up to the saddle-girths in a bog; however, being strong, and
plunging out, they mounted again, and soon joined the army as they had
wished; when, on making diligent inquiry after their captain, they were
told that he was left behind. Snowden thereupon returned as far as he
could with safety, but without gaining any intelligence, and Metcalf
walked on with the army.
They arrived at Linlithgow, where they halted, and the next day marched
to Edinburgh. There the mob and the lower orders of people were very
free in their expressions, and some of the higher also spoke out warmly
in favour of Prince Charles, making no secret of their wishes and hopes
that "the King should have his own again."
The next morning as many of Captain Thornton's men as had escaped being
taken prisoners (about forty-eight in number) assembled; and none of
them knowing what had become of the Captain, they supposed him to have
shared the fate of many other brave men who had fallen in the action.
There was therefore no more ox and beer to sustain their loyalty. The
disappearance also of two other officers and twenty of their men greatly
dispirited them, and to this was added the suspension of their regular
pay. This induced some of them to apply to Metcalf for a supply in order
to carry them home; but this he refused, in part, no doubt, because he
had not the means of paying them.
The headquarters of the army were now at Edinburgh, the staff being
located in Holyrood Palace. The superior officers sent for Metcalf,
thinking it singular that a person deprived of sight should have entered
the army. One of the officers belonging to the dragoons who retreated
from Falkirk, speaking ironically of Thornton's men, asked Jack how he
got off the field of battle. Metcalf answered, "I found it very easy to
follow by the sound of the dragoon horses, they made such a clatter over
the stones." This reply turned the laugh against the officer, who
coloured with anger and shame. Colonel Cockayne then asked how he durst
venture into the service, blind as he was. To which he replied "that had
he possessed a pair of good eyes, he would never have come there to have
risked the loss of them by gunpowder." Then making his obeisance, he
withdrew.
He now determined upon a journey to Falkirk in search of his captain;
but this being attended with difficulty, he applied to a Knaresborough
man who lived at Edinburgh, and was of the party of Prince Charles
Edward, telling him that he wished to be a musician to the gallant young
Prince, as he found it was all over with the English. The man informed
him that they had a spy, an Irishman, going to the Prince, and that he
might travel with him. This he agreed to do, and they started together;
but on coming up to the English out-sentries they were stopped. Metcalf
inquired for the captain, and informed him of the real cause of his
journey. By him he was kindly advised to lay aside his dangerous
project; but as he still persisted, he was allowed to proceed with the
spy, and arrived at Linlithgow, where they stayed all night. They met
with several women who had been plundering, and were then on their
return to Edinburgh; and the spy instructed them how to avoid the
English sentries. Metcalf was very careful to examine the clothes they
had got, making it appear he wanted to purchase some, thinking that by
chance he might meet with some of his captain's, and so ascertain if he
were dead. One of the women sent a token by Metcalf to her husband, who
was Lord George Murray's cook. This woman's guide was a horse-dealer,
who soon became acquainted with Metcalf, having frequented the fairs in
Yorkshire, and at this time by some means had got introduced to the
heads of both armies, and obtained a pass and orders from each to press
horses. This man's fate was remarkable; for going into Stirling, where
the English army lay, he found that orders were given to let no
strangers pass without an examination. He said that he had a protection
from General Huske. Being ordered to produce it, he had the misfortune
to take that out of his pocket which he had got from the Pretender; and
when informed of his mistake instantly produced the other. But too late!
for he was tied up by the neck to a lamp-post and hung.
A short time before Metcalf and the spy had got clear away from
Linlithgow, some of the vanguard of the rebels came in and called for
whiskey; and it was supposed that they dropped there a silver-mounted
pistol, which on their setting out the spy picked up and offered to
Metcalf. He refused it, saying he thought it not advisable to have
fire-arms about him, as he expected to be searched. So they pursued
their journey, and presently fell in with the rebel out-guard, several
of whom accosted Metcalf, and as all seemed well, they were allowed to
pass, and arrived at Falkirk, where Metcalf inquired for Lord George
Murray's cook to deliver his present, and was afterwards introduced to
and conversed with Lord George Murray, Secretary Murray, and other
gentlemen. Lord George Murray gave him part of a glass of wine, an
article at that time of great rarity, for, as the rebels had been there
three times, and the English twice, they had almost swept the cupboard
clean of crumbs.
Whilst conversing with them he was very cautious, knowing that his life
was in danger if the real purpose of his journey became known.
He then made his way towards the market-place, where a number of
Highlanders were assembled. This was on Wednesday, the 22nd; but it
happened that his master had left the place that morning about four
hours before his arrival.
We must now return to Captain Thornton, whom we left on Friday in the
closet, in close neighbourhood to the Highland chiefs, who every day
transacted business in the room. The quartermasters of the Jacobite army
having taken the house, and given the woman to whom it belonged a small
apartment at the back, it made Captain Thornton's position very
critical; but every night she took care to carry him such provisions as
she could convey through a crevice at the bottom of the door, and this
she did for fear of alarming those who slept in the adjoining rooms. The
closet was only a yard and a half square, and the captain's clothes
being wet when he entered, made his situation the more uncomfortable, as
he had got a severe cold, and sometimes could not forbear coughing even
when the rebels were in the room. Once in particular, hearing a cough,
they said one to another, "What is that?" But one of them answered that
it was somebody in another room, not in the least suspecting that one of
their enemies lay hid so near.
On Monday night the woman of the house went to the door to carry
provisions as usual, when the captain said to her, "I am determined to
come out, let the consequence be what it may; for I will not die like a
dog in this hole." But she begged that he would bear this confinement
until the next night, and she would adopt some plan to effect his
escape. She accordingly consulted an old carpenter who was true to the
Hanoverian cause, and he came the following night when the room was
vacant, removed the dresser, and liberated the captain. They proceeded
down-stairs in the dark to the woman's apartment, where she made tea
whilst the carpenter and captain concerted their plan of operation. They
dressed him in a plaid and brogues, and put on him a black wig. The
captain had only ten guineas about him (having left his cash with his
lieutenant, Mr. Crofts), eight of which he gave to the woman who had so
faithfully preserved him, and two to the carpenter; who, to secrete
them, put them into his mouth along with his tobacco, fearful of a
search by the Highlanders, who would have suspected him had they found
more than a shilling.
Everything being ready, they set out, the captain, with a bag of tools,
following his supposed master. On coming into the crowd, the old
carpenter looked about and was rather dismayed, for although in
disguise, the captain did not look like a common workman. This made the
old man dread discovery, so he called out to him: "Come alang, ye filthy
loon; ye have had half a bannock and a mutchkin of drink in your wame:
we shall be o'er late for our day's wark." Whether this artifice served
him or not is uncertain; but they got safe through the throng, and
leaving the high road, pursued their journey across the country. Having
come to a rising ground, the captain took a view of Falkirk Moor, and
said, "Yonder's the place where such a sad piece of work was made last
Friday." The old man at the same time looking the other way saw about
300 Highlanders, who had been on plunder, coming down a lane which led
from Callander House (Lord Kilmarnock's seat) into the main road; and
being desirous of passing the end of this lane before they came up, in
order to avoid them, said, "We shall have a worse piece of wark of it
than we had on Friday if ye do not hasten your pace," and begged the
captain to come forward, which he did; but walking briskly up a hill, he
suddenly stopped, and said, "I am very sick." However they gained their
point, and passed the Highlanders; for had they come up with them, the
captain's speech or appearance might have led to suspicion, and he would
have been shot or led back to Falkirk as a prisoner. On going two miles
farther, they arrived at a house belonging to a friend of the
carpenter's, and which had been plundered. There the old man got an egg,
but not being able to find a pan to boil it in, he roasted it in peat
ashes, and gave it to the captain to put in his wame or stomach.
Proceeding a few miles farther, they arrived at another house, where
they procured a horse for the captain. He arrived at the English
outposts, and making himself known, was permitted to pass, and reached
Edinburgh in safety.
To return to Metcalf, whom we left at Falkirk, and whose dress was a
plaid waistcoat laced with gold, which he had borrowed of a friend at
Edinburgh, together with a blue regimental coat faced with buff. Jack
told the Highlanders, in answer to their inquiries, that he had been
fiddling for the English officers, and that they had given him that
coat, which had belonged to a man who was killed; and also that his
intention was to serve in the same capacity with Prince Charles. But a
person coming up who had seen Jack at Harrogate, said, "That fellow
ought to be taken up, for there is something more than common in his
proceedings;" on which Metcalf was taken to the guard-room and searched
for letters, but none were found, he having only a pack of cards in his
pocket, which they split, to see if they contained any writing in the
folds. Finding nothing, he was put into a loft in the roof of the
building, along with a dragoon and some other prisoners, and there for
three days they were suffered to remain in confinement, exposed to
severe cold.
Metcalf and his fellow-prisoners were brought out at the end of this
time, and tried by a court-martial. Metcalf was acquitted, and had
permission given to go to the Prince; but as he asked to borrow a clean
shirt they inquired where his own was. He said at Linlithgow, but that
he durst not go there on account of George's fellows. They then
informed him he might safely go there along with the Irish spy. He knew
that his companion had letters for the Highlanders' friends at
Edinburgh, but had no intention to pass the English sentries. Metcalf
therefore amused him with assurances that he had £10 at Edinburgh, for
which he should have no occasion if he joined the Prince, and that he
would give his friend a share of it. The spy on hearing this became very
desirous of his company to Edinburgh, wishing to finger the money, and
proposed going across the country; but Metcalf said he could pass the
English sentries by saying he was going to Captain Thornton. They then
proceeded, and after going two miles they met an officer who was
reconnoitring, and he knowing Metcalf, told him that his master was
arrived safely at Edinburgh. On leaving the officer the spy accosted him
with, "So, then, you ARE going to him." "No!" said Jack, "nor to any
such fellows." They then passed the sentry, as Metcalf proposed, and
arrived at Edinburgh, where they parted, but promised to meet the next
evening at nine o'clock. Jack went directly to his captain, who rejoiced
at so unexpected a meeting. Metcalf told him that he had given him a
great deal of trouble, adding that he thought people might come home
from market without being fetched. The captain smiled and said, "What is
to be done, for I have neither money nor clothes, having left all behind
at Falkirk; but I have bills upon the road to the amount of £300?" This
proved fortunate; for had they been a few days sooner, these also might
have been lost. The reason of the delay was that all letters directed to
Scotland were at this time sent to London to be examined at the General
Post-Office. Metcalf told the captain that he could get him some money,
but this the other thought impossible. However, he went to a friend and
obtained £30. Tailors were immediately set to work, and next morning the
captain was enabled to visit his brother officers at Holyrood.
The army remained quartered at Edinburgh, while part of the rebels were
in Falkirk, and another part at Stirling, where they raised several
batteries, and besieged Stirling Castle.
The Duke of Cumberland arrived at Edinburgh on the 30th of January,
1746; and two days afterwards marched at the head of the army towards
Falkirk, Prince Charles' army leaving it a little time before. Captain
Thornton visited the Duke often, and his Royal Highness took particular
notice of Metcalf, speaking to him several times on the march. On the
arrival of the army at Linlithgow, intelligence was received that the
rebels were marching towards them to give them battle; upon which the
army was drawn up in order, and the Duke rode through the lines, and
addressed the men as follows:--"If there be any who think themselves in
a bad cause, or are afraid to engage the enemy, thinking they may fight
against any of their relations, let them now turn out, receive pardon,
and go about their business without any further question." On the
conclusion of this speech, the whole army gave three hearty cheers. But
the intelligence proving false, they proceeded to Falkirk, and continued
their journey to Stirling, Perth, Montrose, Brechin, and Aberdeen, where
they halted. The army of the Prince was encamped at Strathbogie.
At Aberdeen the Duke gave a ball to the ladies, and personally solicited
Captain Thornton for his fiddler, there being at that time no music in
the army except Colonel Howard's (the Old Buffs), which was wind music,
and the performers, who were Germans, were unaccustomed to country
dances. As the Prince's army was only twenty miles distant, no
invitations were sent until five o'clock, though the ball was to begin
at six. Twenty-five couples danced for eight hours, and his Royal
Highness made one of the party, and several times as he passed Metcalf,
who stood on a chair to play, shouted, "Thornton, play up!" But Jack
needed no exhortation, for he was well practised and better inclined.
Next morning the Duke sent him two guineas; but as he was not permitted
to take money, he informed his captain, who said, as it was the Duke's
money, he might take it, but observed that he should give his Royal
Highness's servants a treat (he had only three servants with him--viz.,
his gentleman, cook, and groom). So the next night two of them paid
Metcalf a visit, and a merry party they made, the captain ordering them
plenty of refreshments.
In a little time they proceeded on their march, and engaged the gallant
army of the Prince on Culloden Moor. The battle ended in the total rout
of the army of the young "Pretender," and the somewhat severe treatment
of his soldiers by the "Butcher" Duke.
The English prisoners were all liberated. Three of Captain Thornton's
men had died in prison; the rest returned home.
The rebellion having been completely suppressed and peace restored,
Captain Thornton returned home, accompanied by Metcalf, who had the
happiness to find his faithful partner and children in good health.
Blind Jack being now at liberty to choose his occupation, attended
Harrogate as usual; but having in the course of his Scotch expedition
kept his eyes open (if we may use such an expression of a blind man), he
had become acquainted with various articles manufactured in that
country, and judging that some of them might find a market in England,
he repaired in the spring to Scotland, and supplied himself with various
articles in cotton and worsted, especially Aberdeen stockings. For all
these articles he found a ready sale at the houses of gentlemen in the
county of York; and being personally known to most of the families, was
everywhere kindly received. He was never at a loss to know among one
thousand articles what each had cost him, as he had a method of marking
them which enabled him to distinguish them by the feel. It was also
customary with him to buy horses for sale in Scotland, bringing back
galloways in return. He was an admirable judge of horses by running his
hands over them.
He also engaged pretty deeply in contraband trade, the profits of which
at that time were so considerable as to make it worth while running the
risk. Once, having received a pressing letter from Newcastle-upon-Tyne
requiring his speedy attendance, he set out on horseback from
Knaresborough at three in the morning, and got into Newcastle the same
evening about six o'clock, a distance of nearly seventy-four miles, and
did not feel fatigued.
Having received some packages, he employed a few soldiers to convey them
to a carrier, judging that men of their description were least liable to
suspicion. After sending off his goods, he stayed two nights with some
relations, and then set out for home. He had with him about a
hundred-weight of tea, cased over with tow, and tightly corded up; this
he put into a wallet, which he laid across the saddle.
Coming to Chester-le-Street (about half-way between Newcastle and
Durham), he met at the inn an exciseman, who knew him as soon as he had
dismounted, and asked him what he had got there. Metcalf answered, "It
is some tow and line for my aunt, who lives a few miles distant. I wish
she was far enough, for giving me the trouble to fetch it." The officer
said to him, "Bring it in"; he replied, "I am only here for a few
minutes; it may as well remain on the horsing-stone." By this seeming
indifference about his packet he removed suspicion from the mind of the
exciseman, who assisted in replacing it across the saddle.
Once having disposed of a string of horses, he bought with the produce a
quantity of rum, brandy, and tea, to the amount of £200, put them on
board a vessel for Leith, and travelled overland on foot to meet the
vessel at that port. He had about thirty miles to walk, and carried near
five stone weight of goods, which he did not choose to put on shipboard.
At Leith he had the mortification to wait six weeks without receiving
any tidings of the vessel, which many supposed to have been lost, there
having been a storm in the interval. The distress of mind resulting from
this induced him to say, "If she is lost I wish I had been in her, for
she had all my property on board." Soon after, however, the ship got
into Leith harbour. He then went on board, and set sail for Newcastle;
but another storm arising, the mate was washed overboard, the main-sail
carried away, and the ship driven near the coast of Norway. Despair now
became general, the prospect of going to the bottom seemed almost
certain. Metcalf had now no wish to go to the bottom with his property,
and vowed he would give all his fortune to touch dry earth again. But
the wind changing, hope began to return, and the captain put about for
the Scotch coast, intending to make Aberbrothock. A signal of distress
was put up, but the sea ran so high that no boat could venture out with
a pilot. He then stood in for the harbour, but struck against the pier
end, owing to the unmanageable state of the vessel from the loss of her
main-sail; she narrowly escaped being bulged, but having got to the back
of the pier, was towed round into the harbour with nearly five feet of
water in her hold.
As the vessel stood in need of repairs, Metcalf put his goods on board
another, and went in her to Newcastle. There he met with an
acquaintance, and thinking the fellow trustworthy, over his cups
informed him that he had got 400 gallons of gin and brandy for which he
had a permit, and about thirty gallons for which he had none, and which
he wanted to land. In a quarter of an hour he found that the man whom he
had taken for a friend had gone down the quayside and given information
of what he knew, and all the goods were seized and brought on shore.
Metcalf imagined that none were seizable but the small part for which he
had not obtained a permit; but was soon undeceived, the whole being
liable to seizure as not agreeing with the specified quantity.
He then repaired to the Custom-house and applied to Mr. Sunderland, the
collector. This gentleman knew Metcalf, whom he had seen at Harrogate;
he received him very kindly, but informed him that it was not in his
power to serve him, the captors being the Excise people, and not of his
department. He, however, suggested that some good might result from an
application to Alderman Pelreth, with whom Metcalf was acquainted, and
who was intimate with the collector of the Excise. The alderman gave him
a letter to the collector, representing that the bearer had bought 400
gallons of spirits at the Custom-house at Aberdeen, and that the extra
quantity was for the purpose of treating the sailors and other friends,
as well as for sea-stock for himself. At first the collector told him
that nothing could be done for him until he should write up to the
Board, and receive an answer; but Metcalf remonstrating on the
inconvenience of the delay, and the other reconsidering the letter, he
agreed to come down to the quay at four o'clock in the afternoon, which
he accordingly did, and released everything without any expense.
A short time after, the regiment called "The Queen's Bays" were raised;
they were quartered at Knaresborough and the adjacent towns; but after
a short stay they were ordered to the North. The country people seemed
unwilling to supply carriages for the baggage, the King's allowance
being but ninepence a mile per ton: that of the county, one shilling in
the West Riding, and fifteenpence in the North Riding. Metcalf having
two waggons, was desirous to try this new business; and to make sure of
the job, got the soldiers to press his two carriages, which were
accordingly loaded, and he attended them to Durham himself. Previous to
loading, however, the country people, who knew the advantage of carrying
for the army, and who had kept back in hopes of an advance in the price,
came forward with their waggons in opposition to Metcalf; but they were
now too late--Metcalf had secured the job.
On arriving at Durham, he met Bland's dragoons on their march from the
North to York; they loaded his waggons again for Northallerton, and
would willingly have engaged them to York; but this he was obliged to
decline, having promised to bring twenty-three wool-packs to
Knaresborough. He was just six days in performing this journey; and
cleared, with eight horses and the one he rode, as much as £20.
Some horses belonging to the Queen's Bays, stationed at Durham, were to
be sold, and Metcalf, hearing of the sale, set off from Knaresborough
only the day before, and arrived there in time. Amongst the horses to be
sold was a grey one, belonging to one of the drums. The man who had the
charge of him not having been sufficiently careful in trimming him, had
burnt him severely, which caused a swelling. Had his careless conduct
been known to his superiors he would have been punished for it; upon
that account the matter was hushed up. Metcalf, however, having been
apprised of the circumstances from a farrier whom he had got to know,
determined to purchase him, judging that the horse would be sold cheap.
He was not mistaken. He bought him for very little, and realised a good
profit out of him shortly afterwards.
In the year 1754 Metcalf commenced a new business. He set up a
stage-coach between York and Knaresborough, and conducted it himself,
twice a week in the summer season, and once in the winter; and this
business, together with the occasional conveyance of army baggage,
employed him until his first contract for making roads, which suiting
him better, he disposed of his draught and interest in the road.
An Act of Parliament having been obtained to make a turnpike from
Harrogate to Boroughbridge, a person of the name of Ostler, of Farnham,
two miles from Knaresborough, was appointed surveyor. Metcalf being in
company with him, agreed to make about three miles of it, between
Minskip and Ferrensby. The materials were to be procured from one
gravel-pit for the whole length. He therefore provided deal boards and
erected a temporary house at the pit, took twelve horses to the place,
fixed racks and mangers, and hired a house for his men at Minskip,
distant about three-quarters of a mile. He often walked from
Knaresborough in the morning, with four or five stone-weight of meat on
his shoulders, and joined his men by six o'clock. By his attention and
diligence he completed the work much sooner than was expected, to the
entire satisfaction of the surveyor and trustees.
During his leisure hours he studied measurement in a way of his own, and
when certain of the girth and length of any piece of timber, he was able
to reduce its true contents to feet and inches, and would bring the
dimensions of any building into yards and feet.
About the time that this road was finished the building of a bridge was
advertised to be contracted for at Boroughbridge, and a number of
gentlemen met there for that purpose at the Crown Inn. Metcalf, amongst
others, went also. The masons varied considerably in their estimates.
Ostler, the surveyor of the roads, was appointed to survey the bridge,
and Metcalf told him that he wished to undertake it, though he had never
done anything of the kind before.
On this the surveyor acquainted the gentlemen with what Metcalf
proposed; when he was sent for and asked what he knew about a bridge. He
told them that he could readily describe it, if they would take the
trouble of writing down his plan, which was as follows:--"The span of
the arch 18 feet, being a semicircle, makes 27; the arch-stones must be
a foot deep, which, if multiplied by 27, will be 486; and the basis will
be 72 feet more. For the arch, it will require good backing; for which
purpose there are proper stones in the old Roman wall at Aldborough,
which may be brought, if you please to give directions to that effect."
The gentlemen were surprised at his readiness, and agreed with him for
building the bridge. The persons who had given in their estimates were
much offended; and as the stone was to be procured from Renten, a sale
quarry belonging to one of the masons who was there, he was unwilling to
sell any to Metcalf; upon which he went to Farnham, and found good
stones which the lime-burners had left (being too strong for their
purpose), got them dressed at the place for a trifle, conveyed them to
Boroughbridge, and having men to take them off the carts, set them, and
completed the arch in one day.
Soon after, there was a mile and a half of turnpike road to be made
between Knaresborough Bridge and Harrogate, for which Metcalf also
agreed. Going one day over a place covered with grass, he told his men
that he thought it different from the ground adjoining, and would have
them try for stone or gravel, which they immediately did, and found an
old causeway, supposed to have been made in the time of the Romans,
which afforded many materials for the new road. Between the forest
lane-head and Knaresborough Bridge there was a bog in a low piece of
ground. The surveyor thought it impossible to make a road over it, but
Metcalf assured him he could accomplish it. The other then told him that
if so he should be paid as if he had carried the road round the bog.
Jack set about it, cast the road up, and covered it with whin and ling,
and made it as good as any part he had undertaken. He received for his
contract about £400. He afterwards contracted for making five miles of
road between Harrogate and Harewood Bridge, and received for it £1200.
For a mile and a half through part of Chapeltown to Leeds, and for
lengthening the arch of Sheepscar Bridge, he received £400.
The following are some of his other contracts:--Four miles of the road
between Skipton and Colne, and two miles on the Burnley Road. Two miles
of the road through Broughton to Marton, and two miles more through
Addingham and over part of Romalds Moor, for all which he received
£1350. Four miles between Mill Bridge and Halifax, and five miles
between Wakefield and Chickingley Beck, near Dewsbury; and received for
the same £1200. Three miles and a half between Hag Bridge and
Pontefract, and one mile and a half on the Doncaster Road, from Crafton,
through Foldby. For the road from Wakefield to Pontefract, Doncaster,
and Halifax, he received £6400. From Blackmoor foot to Marsden, and from
thence to Standish foot; also from Lupset Gate through Horbury; and also
three miles from Standish to Thurton Clough; from Sir John Kaye's seat
to Huddersfield; and thence to Longroyd Bridge toll-bar, in the course
of which were several bridges, the whole distance about twenty-one
miles, for which he received £4500.
In the building of bridges, where the foundations were bad, he laid on
a sufficient thickness of ling (where it could be got), otherwise straw;
he next laid planks five inches thick, with square mortices cut through,
and driving in a number of piles, made the foundations secure. He then
laid springs for the arches upon the planks, which caused all to settle
regularly. And though he built many arches of different sizes, none ever
fell. He also undertook to build houses, amongst which was one belonging
to Mr. Marmaduke Hebden, near Huddersfield, nine yards wide,
twenty-three long, and twenty-one feet from the foundation to the square
of the building, with twenty chimneys.
Metcalf having now made up his mind to follow building and road-making,
finding it remunerative, contracted for and executed at various times a
great many roads.
About the year 1781 Metcalf, hearing how beneficial the cotton business
was to all that were engaged in it, resolved to have a share in that
also; he accordingly purchased the necessary machinery, but the scheme
failed, as a time came when no yarn could be sold without loss;
therefore he gave up that business. In 1789 he contracted for making
several pieces of road in Lancashire, between Bury and Heslington, and
another part from Heslington to Accrington; and also a branch from that
to Blackburn, the work of two summers, for which he received £3500. In
1791 he returned into Yorkshire, and began to speculate in buying and
selling hay, measuring the stacks with his arms, and having learnt the
height, he could soon tell the number of square yards contained in the
whole.
Having gone to York in the first days of 1795, he set out on January 9th
to walk to Green-Hammerton, on his way to Thornville Royal, and
accomplished the distance, which was ten miles, in three hours and a
half. He slept that night at Thornville Royal, and next day walked to
Knaresborough, January 10th, the birthday of Sir Thomas Slingsby's
eldest son, which was kept with great rejoicings.
Thence he went to Spofforth, where he resided with his daughter, after
the death of his wife in 1778. There he died on the 27th April, 1810, in
the full possession of his faculties, aged ninety-three. He was buried
in Spofforth churchyard.
At the time of his death his descendants were four children, twenty
grandchildren, and ninety great and great-great grandchildren.
FOOTNOTE:
[9] Chiefly from a Chapbook Life, written apparently shortly after his
death. Published by Johnson, of Leeds.
"PEG PENNYWORTH."
Margaret Wharton, an unmarried lady of great wealth and ancient family,
was one of the Yorkshire oddities of last century.
She belonged to the family of the Whartons of Skelton Castle, in
Cleveland, and possessed a fortune of £200,000, of which, with rare
liberality, she made her nephew a present of £100,000. Her charities
were liberal, but always private, and if she heard that a recipient of
her bounty had disclosed the good deed, that person never received
another penny from her.
She was a short, stout lady, dressed fashionably, had an aristocratic
air, and liked to be respected as rich and of good family.
For some time she resided at York, and visited Scarborough in the
season, where she was well known on account of her eccentricities. She
used to send for "a pennyworth of strawberries" or "a pennyworth of
cream" at a time, and pay down her penny, as she had an aversion to
tradesmen's bills. From this she obtained the name of "Peg Pennyworth,"
which stuck to her through life. An incident occurred at Scarborough in
which she displayed her dislike to public charities. She was solicited
by some gentlemen to give a subscription to a charity on behalf of which
they were making a collection. Peg pulled out her purse with an ominous
frown, and turned out its contents into her palm. This was in or about
1774, when light guineas were in disgrace. She deliberately selected
from among the coins the lightest guinea she could find, and handed it
to the gentlemen.
The celebrated Foote is said to have drawn her character in a farce.
When informed of this she exclaimed, with a smile, "I will see it acted,
as I live." She did, and expressed her satisfaction that the character
in the play did her justice.
She frequently catered for herself, making her own purchases, and taking
them home in her carriage. Once, having purchased some eels, she put
them in her pocket, entered her coach, and called on a lady friend and
invited her to come out with her for an airing.
The warmth of Peg's pocket revived the seemingly dead eels, and they
began to wriggle out to enjoy a little fresh air. The lady who was
sitting beside Peg, happening to look down, saw what she thought was a
serpent writhing into her lap, and several hideous heads breaking out of
the side of Mistress Margaret Wharton. She uttered an awful shriek,
bounded to her feet, pulled the checkstring, and cried, "Madam! madam!
you are swarming with adders! Coachman, stop! Let me out! let me out!"
Mistress Wharton coolly looked at the eels, now escaping rapidly from
her pocket, gathered them up, and shoved them into her reticule, saying,
"I protest, madam, it is only my eels come to life. Sit you down again,
and don't be frightened."
One day at Scarborough she had ordered a large meat-pie to be baked for
dinner. It was a very large one--to serve for herself, some visitors,
and all the servants. When it was made she ordered the footman to take
it to the bakehouse, but he declined, saying that it was not his place,
neither did it comport with his dignity, to be seen in Scarborough
stalking through the streets in plush and tags, bearing a huge meat-pie.
Mistress Margaret then ordered the coachman to take it, but he declined.
"Bring out the carriage, then!" said Peg Pennyworth. The horses were
harnessed; the coachman put on his powdered wig and mounted the box; the
footman took his place behind; and Mistress Margaret Wharton, bearing
the meat-pie, sat in state in the carriage. "Drive to the bakehouse."
So the coachman whipped his horses, and the meat-pie was carried thus to
the baker's. An hour or two later the carriage was ordered out again,
the coachman remounted the box, the footman took his stand behind, and
the lady drove to the bakehouse to fetch her pie, which she carried back
thus to her house. "Now," said she to the coachman, "you have kept your
place, which is to drive; and you," turning to the footman, "have kept
yours, which is to wait; and now we shall all have some of the pie."
Mistress Wharton had a visiting acquaintance with a lady, a clergyman's
wife, in York. On the death of her husband, the widow retired with her
four daughters to Thirsk, and she invited Peg Pennyworth to visit her.
To her dismay, one day up drove Mistress Wharton in her carriage, with
coachman, footman, and lady's maid. The widow, whose means were not very
ample, endured having all these people quartered on her for a month, but
at the expiration of that time she was obliged to hint to the nephew of
her guest that "the pressure on her means was rather greater than she
could bear."
"Let my aunt have her way," said Mr. Wharton. "I will pay you two
hundred a year during her life, and one hundred during your own, should
you survive her."
Mistress Margaret Wharton never left the house of the widow, but died
there after some years, in the one hundred and third year of her age, in
1791. The annuity was regularly paid to the widow lady to the day of her
death.
PETER BARKER,
THE BLIND JOINER OF HAMPSWAITE.
Peter Barker was born on July 10th, 1808. At the age of four he was
deprived of sight by an inflammation of the eyes, and ever afterwards he
was--
"dark, amid the blaze of noon,
Irrevocably dark; total eclipse,
Without all hope of day."
The loss of his sight caused Peter from an early age to cultivate music,
and he became a skilful performer on the violin; and as he grew up to
manhood he frequented the village feasts, dances, and merry-makings all
round the country, as a performer on that instrument. This led him into
habits of intemperance. But he had a strong will, a tender conscience,
and seeing that he was sinking in his own respect and in that of others,
he determined to abandon his musical profession.
But he must earn his livelihood; and he determined to become a joiner.
He fell to work to make a chair, succeeded in the first attempt, and for
the rest of his life followed carpentering as his profession. He handled
his tools with all the dexterity of a practised workman; his shop was
always in order, the tools in their proper position in the rack, or in
his hands. The only peculiarity about his instruments was in the
foot-rule he used for making his measurements, the lines on which were
marked by small pins, of different numbers, to indicate the different
feet on the rule. The idea of having his rule thus marked was suggested
by a lady who interested herself in his welfare. She wrote to a
manufacturer of carpenters' rules in London, to inquire if such a thing
could be had as a rule with raised lines and figures; the answer was
that no such rules were made. Failing to procure an article of this
kind, she suggested the making of the measurements on it with pins; and
this was carried into effect.
The articles made by this blind workman were firm and substantial, the
joints even and close, and the polish smooth. It is said that a
cabinet-maker at Leeds, having heard reports of the blind joiner's
skill, procured a chair he had made, and showed it to the workmen in his
shop, asking them their opinion of the chair. After examining it, they
said that they thought there was nothing particular about the chair,
only it was a thoroughly well-made, serviceable one. "So it is," said
the master; "but--will you believe it?--the man who made it never saw
it: he was blind from a child." Their indifference was at once turned
into amazement.
The writer of a memoir of Peter Barker[10] says:--
"We have frequently seen him at work, and were it not from the more
frequent handling of the articles operated on, and the nearness of his
fingers to the edge of the chisel or saw, there was nothing apparently
to distinguish his manner from that of an ordinary workman. In 1868 we
found him at work in the church, repairing the seats, and watched him
for some time before he was conscious of the presence of any one. He
showed us what he had done--lowered the fronts of both the pulpit and
reading-desk, the one twenty inches, the other a foot: brought forward a
pew some three feet, and refronted it with panels of old carved oak,
which he asserted was very difficult to work over again; showed us a
piece of carving which he, in conjunction with the churchwarden, had
only discovered the day before, and which was upwards of 200 years old;
led the way into the belfry, giving a word of advice to be careful in
ascending the old rickety stairs; showed the clock, which he had under
his care to keep clean and in going order. At this point, while seated
on a bench, he gave us a narrative of his first acquaintance with the
clock, which we give in his own words as nearly as we can
remember:--[11] "You see, our clock is yan o' these and fashion'd
handmade 'uns, not made exact and true by machinery as they are now, but
ivvery wheel cut an' filed by hand. Aud Snow, a notified clock-makker
'at lived up aboon abit here, had the managing of her a lang time, at so
much a year. He used to come just at t' time when his year was up, give
t' aud clock a fether full o' oil, tak his brass, and there was no mair
on him till t' next year. At last she gat as she wadn't gang at all; she
wad naither turn pointers nor strike. T' foaks i' t' toon were sadly
dissatisfied; they neither knew when to get up nor gang to bed, as they
had done afore, when t' clock was all reet. T' church-maister sent for
t' clock-maker, and he come an' come ageean, an' fizzled an faff'd aboot
her, but nivver did her a farthing's worth o' good. At last he was
forced to give her up as a bad job; she was fairly worn out, an' she wad
nivver be no better till she was mended with a new un; and that's aboon
twenty year sin, an' t' aud clock's here yet. Then Johnny Gill, another
clever fellow, took her under hands, and she lick'd him as fairly as
she'd deean aud Snow. I was i' t' church by mysel one day, I hardly know
what aboot, when it com' into my heead 'at I would try my hand at her;
I nivver had deean nowt o' t' sort; but if ye nivver try, ye nivver can
dea (do) nowt. So t' first thing I did was to give her a reet good
feelin' all ower her; an' then, heving settled all her parts fairly i'
my mind, I fell to work and took her to pieces, bit by bit, got all t'
works out of her, and cleaned her all ower reet soundly, particularly t'
pivots, and then gav 'em all a sup o' nice oil; then I put her together
ageean; efter a few trials I got her all reet, got her started--she
strake an' kept time like a good un. Efter I finish'd I com' doon, an'
into th' church garth, and wha did I meet there but Mr. Shann, our vicar
at that time, and just as I was meeting him t' clock strake ageean.
'What's that, Peter?' he says. I says, 'It's t' clock, sir!' He says
ageean, 'What does this mean, Peter?' I says, 'It meeans t' time o' day
when t' clock strikes.' He began o' laughing, and said, 'You're a queer
fellow, Peter. I mean who made the clock strike?' 'Oh,' I says, 'I've
deean that mysel, sir. I've been at her a goodish bit to-day, an' I
think I've gotten her put all reet at last.' 'Well done, Peter, you're a
clever fellow,' he says. 'But you sha'n't do all this for nothing. I
shall let the churchwardens know what you have done. You must have some
reward.' 'Varry weel, sir,' I says, and so we parted. And he was as good
as his word. When t' churchmaisters met, he tell'd 'em all aboot it, and
they allowed me four shillings for my job; and I was to have ten
shillings a year for keeping her ganning ivvery year efter."
In the month of July, 1865, the clock did not strike correctly. As Peter
told the tale himself:--"I was i' t' shop when I heard her at it, two or
three times. I stood it as lang as I could; at last I banged down my
teeals (tools), and says to mysel', 'I'll mak thee either strake reet,
or I'll mak thee as that thou'll nivver strike ageean.' Away I went,
spent an hour over her, gat her reet, and she's kept reet ever sin'."
His biographer says:--"Once on a visit to Peter's cottage, we found a
window had been recently inserted, according to his statement, to make
the fireside more lightsome--Peter having been mason, joiner, and
glazier himself. In short, he appeared to be able to do any kind of work
that he had the desire or the will to do. He was an expert in the art of
netting--fabricating articles in that line from the common cabbage net
to the curtains which adorn the windows of the stately drawing-room. As
a vocalist he sang bass in the church on Sundays. He was also one of the
bell-ringers; and during the winter months the curfew bell is rung at
Hampswaite at eight o'clock every evening. When it was Peter's turn to
ring he took a lighted lanthorn with him--not for the purpose of seeing
others, but that others might see him.
"He always fattened a pig in the winter season, and had a method of
measurement of his own for ascertaining how much weight the pig had
gained every week; and to such measurement and calculation the pig was
weekly subjected until he attained the proper bulk and weight. Peter
generally bought his pig himself, and for that purpose attended the
market at Knaresborough, where the bargain was cause of much amusement
to the onlookers. When the pig was pointed out which was thought likely,
the seller had to seize the same, and hold it still as possible, until
Peter had felt it over and ascertained its _points_, and passed his
judgment on its feeding qualities."
Peter learned to read with his fingers in 1853, and was given a New
Testament with embossed letters.
He was very fond of children, and would play tunes to them on his fiddle
at his shop door of a summer evening, whilst they danced and sang. He
had made this fiddle himself, as well as the case in which he kept it.
So delicate was Peter's touch that he was able to tell the hour on a
watch by opening the case and running his fingers lightly over the face.
Peter in his youth had a romantic courtship, and married a wife. She
presented him with a son, born in 1846; and died on June 3rd, 1862. The
boy, who was his father's constant companion and delight, died the
following year, on Jan. 19th, 1863, leaving the poor blind joiner's
house completely desolate.
After a few weeks' illness, Peter died in his cottage, near the
churchyard gate, on February 18th, 1873, at the age of sixty-five.
FOOTNOTES:
[10] Published by T. Thorpe, Pately Bridge, 1873.
[11] The strong provincial dialect is somewhat modified in this, or it
would be unintelligible except to Yorkshire readers.
THE WHITE HOUSE.
On the road between Raskelfe and Easingwold stood in 1623, and stands
still, a lonely inn called "The White House."
The wide, brown, heathery moor called Pill-Moor then extended to the
roots of the Hambledon hills; on a slight rising ground above the
marshes stood here and there a farm or cottage; and here and there a
portion of the soil had been enclosed. To this day a large portion of
the moor remains untilled, and is a favourite resort of botanists, who
find there several varieties of gentian and orchis, rare elsewhere.
Originally it stretched from Borough Bridge to the Hambledons,
intersected by the streams flowing into the Ouse, patched here and there
with pools of water.
In the White House lived a man called Ralph Raynard, and his sister.
Ralph paid his addresses to a fine-looking young woman, dark-eyed,
dark-haired, who lived at Thornton Bridge, at the Red House, where the
road from Brafferton or Tollerton crossed the Ouse to Topcliffe and
Ripon. The old house, lonely, surrounded by trees, with traces of a moat
or pond, in spring full of yellow flags, stands to this day, almost
deserted. The girl was poor, and a good match was of the first advantage
to her; she was at the time in service at the Red House, and thither
Ralph came to visit her.
But, for some cause unknown, they quarrelled, an estrangement ensued,
and Ralph came no more across Thornton Bridge.
At the same time a yeoman named Fletcher, living at Moor House, in the
parish of Raskelfe, had cast his eyes on the comely young woman, and he
took advantage of the rupture between the lovers to step in and offer
his hand to the damsel. He was at once accepted, in a fit of resentment
against Ralph Raynard, and the marriage rapidly followed; so that she
soon found herself the wife of a man whom she did not love, and some
miles nearer the White House, where lived Ralph, whom she did love, than
when she had resided at Thornton Bridge.
The resentment she had felt died away; an explanation followed when too
late. There was a scene--despair on both sides, and resentment
entertained by both Ralph Raynard and Mrs. Fletcher against the
unfortunate yeoman who stood between them and perfect union and
happiness.
On market-day, when Mrs. Fletcher ambled on her nag into Easingwold, she
invariably halted at the White House, when the hostler, one Mark Dunn, a
beetle-browed, uncouth fellow from Huby, received and held her horse as
she dismounted and entered the inn. Ralph, the host, was always there,
and received Mrs. Fletcher with an affection which dissatisfied his
sister, a woman of sense, who saw that this cherishing of an old passion
could lead to no good. When Mark Dunn disappeared for hours at a time,
she shrewdly suspected that he was sent on messages to Raskelfe.
More than once she interfered and rebuked Ralph, her brother, warning
him of the dangerous consequences of thus encouraging the attachment of
a woman now bound to another man by the most sacred ties. With an oath
he bade her mind her own business, and not interfere with him.
Fletcher could not but be aware that his wife did not love him; whispers
reached him that she met her old sweetheart when he was from home; that
her nag was seen standing an unreasonable time outside the door of the
White House. He caught Mark Dunn one evening prowling in his orchard,
and he fell on him with a stick. The ungainly fellow howled with pain,
and swore revenge.
Fletcher became gloomy, neglected his affairs, and began to fall into
difficulties. He had been sincerely, passionately attached to the
dark-eyed, handsome girl he had brought to his home. He had done his
utmost to render her happy, and now she was making his home miserable,
destroying the former serenity of his spirits.
He was obliged to go one day on business to Easingwold. He would not
return till late. His wife knew it. Something troubled his mind. A
presentiment of evil which he could not shake off hung over him, and he
wrote on a sheet of paper--
"If I should be missing, or suddenly wanted be,
Mark Ralph Raynard, Mark Dunn, and mark my wife for me,"
directed it to his sister, and on reaching Easingwold, posted it.
No sooner was he gone than Mrs. Fletcher mounted her horse and rode to
the White House. She asked to see Raynard, and he walked by her side
some way back to Raskelfe. There they parted; and Raynard was next
observed in close conversation with his hostler, Mark Dunn.
It was May-Day. In the sweet spring evening Fletcher was returning on
foot from Easingwold, when he came to Daunay Bridge, where at that time
a road branched off from the highway from the North to York, and
traversing the Lund, led to Raskelfe. As he crossed the bridge he stood
still for a moment, and looked up at the stars, just appearing. Next
moment Raynard and Dunn were upon him; they had sprung from behind the
bridge, and he was flung over it into the water. The stream is narrow
and not deep, so that, once recovered from the shock, he could have
easily crawled out. But the murderers leaped into the water after him.
Mrs. Fletcher, with a long sack over her shoulder, ran out from the
shadow of a bush where she had been concealed, and they held the farmer
under water, the two men grasping his throat, his wife retaining his
feet in the sack, into which she thrust them, till his struggles ceased,
and he was, or was supposed to be, dead.
The body was then thrust into the sack which Mrs. Fletcher had brought
for the purpose, and the three guilty ones assisted in carrying or
dragging the body along the road towards the White House. They were
alarmed once; the clatter of a horse's hoofs was heard, and they
concealed themselves by the road-side. The horseman passed, they emerged
from their place of hiding, and continued their course.
As they drew near to the inn a streak of light from the inn-door showed
that it was open. They heard voices. The horseman had called for
something to drink, and it was brought to him without his dismounting.
Then Miss Raynard was heard calling, "Ralph! Ralph!" She wondered,
perhaps, at his long absence, or wanted him for some purpose in the
house.
No answer was returned. Raynard, Dunn, and Mrs. Fletcher lifted the body
over the low hedge into Raynard's croft or garden, and buried it in a
place where the ground had been disturbed that day by his having stubbed
up an old root. They carefully covered the body with earth, and Raynard
sowed mustard-seed over the place.
It was thought prudent that Mrs. Fletcher and Raynard should not meet
after this.
People wondered what had become of Fletcher; but knowing that he was
somewhat embarrassed in his circumstances, they readily accepted the
statement of his wife--that he had gone out of the way to avoid having
a writ served on him.
Thus matters stood till the 7th July, when Ralph Raynard rode to
Topcliffe fair. It was a bright sunny day. He passed the Moor House, but
did not stay there; crossed Thornton Bridge, went before the Red House,
where he had so often visited and spent such happy hours with the woman
who was now his accomplice in crime, along by Cundall to Topcliffe.
He dismounted at the inn there--the Angel, an old-fashioned house near
the dilapidated market-cross. He led his horse out of the yard into the
stable. The sun glared without; within it was dark. As he was removing
the bridle from his horse, suddenly he saw standing before him the
spirit of Fletcher, pale, with a phosphoric light playing about him,
pointing to him, and saying, "O Ralph, Ralph! repent. Vengeance is at
hand!" In an agony of horror he fled out of the stable. In the daylight
without he recovered composure, and endeavoured to believe that he had
been a victim to delusion. He thought he must buy some present for the
woman, love for whom had led him to the commission of murder. He went to
one of the stalls to buy some trinket--a chain of imitation coral beads.
"How does it look on the neck?" he asked, extending it to the keeper of
the stall. Then he looked up and saw a ghastly figure opposite--the dead
man with the coral round his neck, knotted under his ear, and his head
on one side, the eyes wide open, with a blaze in the eyes, and heard him
say: "How like you a red streak round the neck such as this? I will put
one round the throat of my wife; and you shall wear one too!"
Sick and faint, he hastened back to the inn, and called for beer.
Towards evening he rode home. He saw as he came towards the Carr, where
there is a dense clump of trees, a figure looking at him. It was
deliberately getting out of a sack, and shaking and wringing water out
of its clothes. With a scream of terror Raynard plunged his spurs into
the horse's flanks, and galloped past Cundall, home. As he crossed
Thornton Bridge he closed his eyes, but when he opened them again he saw
the well-known figure of the dead man walking before him so fast that
his horse could not catch him up. The ghost trailed the sack after it,
and left a luminous track on the road. When it reached a point at a
little distance from the White House--the very spot where Raynard, Mrs.
Fletcher, and Mark Dunn had turned aside with the body--the spectre
strode across the heather, leaped the low hedge, and melted, apparently,
into the ground, where now a rich, green crop of mustard was growing.
"You're back earlier than I thought," said the sister of Ralph Raynard.
"I reckon thou'st not been stopping this time at Moor House?"
Raynard said nothing, except "I'm ill."
"Ah," said his sister, "I've gotten thee a nice bit o' supper ready,
with a beautiful dish o' salad."
And she laid the cloth, and placed upon it a plate of fresh-cut
_mustard_!
Raynard's face grew rigid and white.
"What is the matter?" asked his sister.
Opposite him, on the settle, sat the dead man, pointing to the salad.
Ralph sprang up, drew his sister away, and told her all.
She, poor woman, horror-struck, ran off at once to Sir William
Sheffield, a justice of peace, residing at Raskelfe Park. The three
guilty parties were apprehended and taken to York, where, on July 28th,
1623, all three were hung.
When they had been cut down, the bodies were removed and conveyed in a
waggon to the White House, the hangman seated by the driver in front.
There is a little rise not far from the inn, commanding the spot where
the murder was committed, and the green mustard-bed where the body of
Fletcher had been hidden, but which had been removed and buried in
Raskelfe churchyard. On this hill a gibbet had been erected, and there
the three bodies were hung, with their faces towards the dismal flat and
the gurgling stream where the murdered man had been drowned. There they
hung, blown about by the autumn storms, screeched over by the ravens and
magpies, baked by the summer sun, their bare scalps capped with cakes of
snow in the cold winter, till they dropped upon the ground, and then the
bones were buried and the gallows cut down.
About eighty years ago the plough was drawn over Gallows Hill, when a
quantity of bones were unearthed by the share. They were the bones of
Raynard, Dunn, and Mrs. Fletcher. The hill to this day bears its
ill-omened name, and people mutter about Raskelfe the doggerel lines--
"A wooden church, a wooden steeple,
Rascally church, and rascally[12] people."
FOOTNOTE:
[12] Raskelfe is commonly called Rascall.
JEMMY HIRST;
AN ODDITY.[13]
Jemmy was born at Rawcliffe, in the West Riding, on October 12th, 1738.
His father was a respectable substantial farmer, without great
brilliancy of parts, but with the usual Yorkshire shrewdness.
The boy soon began to exhibit originality; mischievousness was mistaken
by a fond mother for genius, and he was destined for the Church. He was
sent accordingly to a boarding-school, to a clergyman, at the age of
eight, to acquire the rudiments of the necessary education.
But at school Jemmy's genius took an altogether perverse turn. He was
always first in the playground and last in class; a leader in mischief,
a laggard in study. Finding his master's spectacles on the desk one day,
Jemmy unscrewed them, and removed the glasses. When the Principal came
in, he gravely took up the spectacles and put them on. Finding them dim,
he removed them. When he was seen demurely to wipe where the glasses had
been, and then, with his fingers through the rims, to hold them up to
his eyes to see what was the matter, the whole school burst out
laughing. The pedagogue demanded the name of the culprit. Jemmy had not
the honesty or courage to proclaim himself the author of the trick, and
the whole school was whipped accordingly. On the morning of the 1st
April, early, a big boy in his dormitory sent Jemmy to the master,
expecting that he would knock at his bedroom door, wake him, and get a
thrashing for his pains. Jemmy turned out of bed and went outside the
door, waited a minute, and then came into the dormitory again. "Ah! Tom,
thou'rt in for it. Thou mun go at once to Lovell for having made an
April fool of him and me." The boy, believing this, went to the master's
door, knocked him up, and got well thrashed for his pains. "You will
know in future what is meant by the biter being bit," said Jemmy, when
the boy returned, crying. "There's an old fable about the viper biting
the file and breaking his teeth. Perhaps you can understand the moral of
it now."
The Principal kept an old sow. Jemmy used to get on her back, tie a
piece of twine--"band" a Yorkshire boy would call it--to the ring in her
snout, run a nail through the heel of his boot to act as spur, and
gallop the old sow round the yard. This was often performed with
impunity, but not always. The master saw him from his window one morning
as he was shaving, and rushed down with a horse-whip in his hand. Jemmy
was careering joyously round and round the yard when a crack of the lash
across his back dislodged him. He was fed next day on bread and water as
a punishment.
One night Jemmy and some of his schoolmates got out of the house with
intent to rob an orchard. But one of the day scholars had overheard the
boarders planning the raid, and he informed the farmer whose orchard it
was purposed to rob, and he was on the look-out for the young rogues.
When they arrived he suffered one of them--it was Jemmy--to climb an
apple-tree without molestation, but then he rushed forth from his
hiding-place and laid about him with a carter's whip with hearty
good-will. The boys fled in all directions, except Jemmy, who escaped
further up the tree, and there remained, unable, like a squirrel, to
leap from bough to bough, and so escape. The farmer went under the tree
and shouted to him, "Come down, you young rascal! I'll strap thee!"
"Nay," answered Jemmy, "dost see any green in my eye? It's like I should
come down to get a whipping, isn't it?" And he began leisurely to eat
some of the apples, and pelt the farmer with others. The man, highly
irate, began to climb the tree after him. Jem remained composedly eating
till the farmer was within reach of him, and then he drew a cornet of
pepper from his pocket and dusted it into the eyes of his pursuer. The
man, half-blinded, desisted from his attempts to catch the boy, in his
efforts to clear his eyes, and Jemmy slipt past him down the tree and
escaped. Next day the farmer came to the school to complain, and Jemmy
received thirty strokes on his back with the birch. "Ah!" said Jemmy,
"thou'st made my back tingle, and I'll make thine smart." So he got a
darning-needle, and stuck it in the master's hair-bottomed chair in such
a way that when anyone sat down the needle would protrude through the
cushion, but would recede on the person's rising again.
At school hour the master came in, and seated himself in his chair with
his usual gravity. But suddenly up he bounded like a rocket; then turned
and examined the cushion, very red in the face. The cushion seemed all
right when he felt it with his hand, so he sat himself down on it again,
but this time much more leisurely. No sooner, however, was his weight on
it than up came the needle again, and with it up bounded the master.
"Please, sir," said Jemmy, affecting simplicity, "was there a thorn in
the seat? If so, thou'd better run two or three times round t' school
yard; I did so yesterday to work t' birch buds out o' my flesh."
Jemmy had one day tied two cats together by their hind legs and thrown
them over a rail, when the master, who had been watching him from an
upper window, made his appearance on the scene, horsewhip in hand, and
belaboured Jemmy severely. But little Hirst always retaliated in some
way. The master used to walk up and down in the evening in the yard
behind the school. He wore a foxy wig. Jemmy one evening went into the
study where Mr. Lovell kept his fishing tackle, for he was fond of
angling. The window was open; Jemmy cast the hook, as for a fish, and
caught the little fox-coloured wig. Then leaving the rod in the window,
and the head of hair dangling above the master's reach, he ran down into
the school. The Principal was therefore obliged to go upstairs with bald
head to his study to recover his wig. This final act of insubordination
was too much for Mr. Lovell--it touched him in his tenderest point; and
he wrote to Mr. Hirst to request him to remove the unmanageable boy from
his school.
He was fourteen years old when his father took him away, and was little
advanced in his learning. Every prospect of his going into the Church
was abandoned, but what trade or profession he was qualified for was as
yet undecided. His father wanted to put him to school again, but Jemmy
so steadily and doggedly persisted in his refusal to go to another, that
his indulgent father ceased to press it. The boy showed no inclination
for farming, and no persuasion of his father could induce him to take a
farming implement in his hands to work with. His chief pleasure
consisted in teaching pigs and calves to jump.
Mr. Hirst had a friend at Rawcliffe, a tanner, and this friend persuaded
Mr. Hirst to bind Jemmy apprentice to him; and as the boy showed no
disinclination to the trade, he was bound to the tanner for seven years.
The tanner had a daughter called Mary, a year younger than Jemmy, and a
tender friendship grew up between the young people: Jemmy was softened
and civilised by the gentle influence of the girl; he took willingly to
the trade, became settled, lost his mischievous propensities, and
promised to turn out a respectable member of society. An incident
occurred three years after he had entered the tanner's house which
tended to cement this attachment closer. Mary went one Saturday to spend
the day with an aunt living at Barnsley. Jemmy ferried her over the
river in a boat belonging to the tanner, and promised to fetch her in
the evening. Accordingly, towards nightfall, he crossed the river, and
made his boat fast to a stake, and then walked to Barnsley to meet the
young girl. Mary met him with her usual smile, and tripped by his side
to the boat, but in stepping into it her foot slipped, and she was swept
down by the current. Jemmy instantly leaped overboard, swam after her,
overtook her before she sank, and supporting her with one arm, succeeded
in bringing her ashore, where several persons who had witnessed the
accident were assembled to assist and receive her.
Mary's parents showed Jemmy much gratitude for his courageous conduct in
saving her life, and the girl clung to him with intense affection;
whilst Jemmy, who seemed to think he had acquired some right over her by
his having saved her life, was never happy unless he was by her side.
They were always together. She would steal in to do her needlework in
the place where he was engaged in his trade, and when work was over they
were together walking in the lanes and fields.
But in the midst of this happiness a stroke fell on them which for ever
altered the tenor of Jemmy's life. Mary fell ill with small-pox. The lad
watched by her bedside night and day, giving her medicine, making up her
pillow, tending her with agonised heart, utterly forgetful of himself,
fearing no risk of infection, heedless of taking his natural rest. The
whole time of her illness he never slept, and could scarcely be induced
to leave her side for his meals.
On the fifth day she died. The blow was more than Jemmy could bear, and
he was prostrated with brain-fever.
That the poor boy had naturally very deep feelings is evident from his
having, some few years before, been laid up with fever when his mother
died. Hearing of her death whilst he was at school, he became ill and
was removed home, where it was some time before he got over the shock.
Mary had taken the place in his vacant heart formerly occupied by his
mother, and with years the strength of his feelings had increased.
Consequently the loss of Mary affected him even more than that of his
mother.
In his brain fever he raved incessantly of the poor dead girl, and for
several weeks his life was despaired of. By degrees he slowly recovered;
but for some time it was feared that his reason was gone. At the end of
six or seven months he was able to take a little exercise without
attendance; but, as will be seen, he never wholly recovered the blow,
and his conduct thenceforth was so eccentric that there can be no doubt
his brain was affected.
He left the tanner's, abandoned the trade, and returned to his father's
house, where he idled, preying on his fancies--one day in mad, exuberant
spirits, the next overwhelmed with despondency.
When aged five-and-twenty he took a fancy to a fine bull-calf belonging
to his father, which he called "Jupiter," and he began to train it to
perform various tricks, and to break it to bear the saddle. Jupiter bore
the bridle patiently enough, but plunged and tossed his horns when the
saddle was placed on his back. Jemmy next ventured to mount his back.
The young bull stood for a minute or two, as his father said, "right
down stagnated," and then began to plunge and kick. Jemmy held fast, and
Jupiter, finding he could not thus dislodge his rider, set off, tearing
across the paddock towards a thick quickset hedge at the bottom. But
instead of leaping it, as Jemmy expected, the bull ran against the
fence, and precipitated his rider over the hedge into the ditch on the
further side. Jemmy was unhurt, except for a few scratches and some
rents in his garments, and patches of mud, and picking himself up, raced
after Jupiter, nothing daunted, caught him, and remounting him, mastered
the beast. After this he rode Jupiter daily, to the great amusement of
people generally, especially when he trotted into Snaith on market-days
on the back of the now docile bull.
On the death of his father he was left about £1000. The farm he gave up,
having no taste for agriculture, and he took a house on the bank of the
river, not far from his old master's the tanner. The house had a few
acres of land attached to it, which he cultivated. The old housekeeper,
who had known him since a child, followed him to his new home; and in
his stable was a stall for Jupiter.
He began to speculate in corn, flax, and potatoes, and having
considerable natural shrewdness underlying his eccentric manners, he
managed to realise enough to support himself comfortably. He invested
£4000 in consols, and had £2000 lying at interest in a neighbouring
bank. He rode out with Lord Beaumont's foxhounds, always on Jupiter, who
was trained to jump as well as to run. When he was seen coming up on the
bull, Lord Beaumont would turn to those with him at the meet and say,
"Well, gentlemen, if we are not destined to find game to-day, we may be
sure of sport."
His dress was as extraordinary as his mount, for he wore a broad-brimmed
hat of lambskin, fully nine feet in circumference; his waistcoat was
like Joseph's coat of many colours, made of patchwork; his breeches were
of listings of various colours, plaited together by his housekeeper; and
he wore yellow boots.
Though Jupiter could keep up with the foxhunters for a few miles, his
powers of endurance were not so great as those of a horse, and he began
to lag. Lord Beaumont would pass Jemmy, and say, "Come, Mr. Hirst, you
will not be in at the death."
"No; but I shall at the dinner," was Jemmy's dry reply. Lord Beaumont
always took the hint and invited him to Carlton House to the hunting
dinner.
His Lordship had a nephew visiting him on one occasion, a London
exquisite, who thought he could amuse himself at Jemmy's expense. One
day at the meet this young man said to Captain Bolton, "Let us quiz the
old fellow."--"By all means," answered the captain; "but take care that
you do not get the worst of it."
When Jemmy came up, the young dandy, bowing to him on his saddle, said,
"I wish you a good morning, Joseph."
"My name isn't Joseph," answered Jemmy.
"Oh, I beg pardon. I mistook you by your coat and waistcoat for that
patriarch."
"Young man," said Jemmy, with perfect composure, "'t win't do to judge
by appearances. As I wor a-coming up, says I to mysen, 'You're a
gentleman.' When I gotten a bit closer, says I, 'Nay, he's a dandy.' And
now that I heard thee voice, I knows thou'rt nowt but a jackass."
Jemmy was out with the hounds one day, along with Lord Wharncliffe and
Lord Beaumont and several of the gentry of the neighbourhood. It was
agreed amongst them, unknown to Jemmy, that he should be let into a
scrape, if possible. Accordingly, after the start, Lord Wharncliffe kept
near him, and led him into a field surrounded by a low, thick hedge--low
enough for Jupiter to clear without any trouble. On the other side of
the hedge in one place there was a drinking-pond for the cattle, five or
six feet deep, and full of water at the time. Lord Wharncliffe kept
close by Jemmy, and edged towards where the pond was; and then, putting
spurs to his horse, he leaped the fence, and Jemmy did the same to
Jupiter, and clearing the hedge in gallant style, came splashing into
the water, and rolled off Jupiter.
Lord Wharncliffe, when he saw Jemmy fairly in the middle of the pond,
turned back, and alighted, in order to assist him out of the water. He
found him half blinded with mud and dirt, trying to scramble out, his
clothes completely saturated. Jemmy managed to get out without
assistance, but it was some time before their united efforts could
extricate Jupiter.
Lord Beaumont offered Jemmy a change of clothes if he would go to his
house, but he would not hear of the proposal, declaring he would see the
day's sport over first; and so they rode on together towards the rest of
the party, who were halted near Rawcliffe Wood. The fox had been caught
after a short run, and the huntsmen were already beating after another.
Jemmy was greeted with a general titter. Captain Bolton laughed out, and
said, "Why, Jemmy, you've been fishing, not hunting. What have you
caught?"
Jemmy looked hard at him--he was in no good humour after his plunge--and
said, "I reckon there's a flat fish I know of that I'll catch some day."
"Why, Jemmy," said Lord Wharncliffe, laughing, "I saw you catch a
flounder."
"Ha! ha!" said the captain, "that's good! You've taken the shine out of
your smart clothes to-day, Jemmy."
"A little water will give it back to them," answered Hirst, sulkily.
"Jemmy," asked Captain Bolton, "did you think you were drowning in the
wash-tub? Did you say your prayers in it?"
"No," answered Jemmy, angrily, "I didn't; but what I was doing then was
wishing I'd got a contemptible puppy named Bolton in the pond with me,
that I might kick his breech."
Jemmy soon saw that he had been the victim of a planned trick, and he
determined to have his revenge. "I know very well that Lord Wharncliffe
led me o' purpose into t' pond--I could see't by his manner; but I'll be
even wi' him."
He did not carry his purpose into execution at once, lest he should
arouse suspicion, but about a month afterwards, when in company with
Lord Wharncliffe, he adroitly let drop that he had seen a number of
snipe on Rawcliffe moor. This moor, now enclosed, was then a wide, open
common, full of marshy places, and with here and there bogs covered with
a little green moss, deep holes full of peat water, not to be discerned
except by those who were well acquainted with them and the
treacherousness of their bright green covering. Lord Wharncliffe,
Captain Bolton, and some others, made up a party to shoot on the common
the following day, and met Jemmy, who undertook to show them where the
snipe most congregated.
They had a good day's sport, and when it fell dusk were returning home,
Jemmy beside Lord Wharncliffe, whom he engaged in conversation, and
Captain Bolton, with his gun over his shoulder, immediately behind,
joining in the conversation at intervals. Jemmy led the way direct to
one of these bog-holes, and on reaching the patch of moss adroitly
slipped on one side, and let Lord Wharncliffe and Captain Bolton walk
straight into it. The moss at once yielded, and both sank to their
breasts, and only kept their heads above water by spreading out their
arms on the moss. In this condition they were perfectly helpless. To
struggle was to endanger their lives, for if the web of moss were torn,
they must infallibly sink beneath it.
Jemmy looked at them from the firm ground with a malicious grin.
"Ha, ha! captain," said he, laughing; "art thou saying thy prayers in
yond wash-tub?"
"Go to the devil!" roared Captain Bolton.
"Nay," answered Jemmy, "thou'rt going to him as fast as thou can, unless
I pull thee out."
He held out his gun to Lord Wharncliffe, and assisted him from the hole.
"There, my lord, now you have tit for tat."
"Well, Mr. Hirst, I shall take care how I play with edged tools again.
But I think it is too bad of you to punish Captain Bolton as well as
me."
"Why, my lord, he seemed to enjoy the horse-pond so much that I thowt
I'd let him taste the bog-pit. I've no doubt it gives him a deal o'
pleasure."
"You old scarecrow!" said the captain, angrily. "I've a great mind to
shoot you."
As he was helping Captain Bolton out with his gun he said drily, "Sure
it's a rare funny sight to see a queer sole angling for a flat fish."
The immersed man little enjoyed the jokes at his expense, and he swore
at Jemmy. "Ah!" said that oddity, "I don't think thou'rt a fish worth
catching. Shall I fling him in again, my lord? He's nowt but what folks
would call a little common-place."
Jemmy's old housekeeper died, and he supplied her place by a strange
creature, nearly as great an oddity as himself, called Sarah, who for
many years had kept house for a rag-and-bone dealer at Howden, but who
at his death had returned to Rawcliffe, her native place, and was living
with her brother there when Jemmy engaged her.
Having made money by his speculations in corn and potatoes, he resolved
to retire from business. He invested £4000 in the funds and £2000 in the
bank, and lived on the interest. He was now forty-five years old.
An inactive life, however, did not suit him, so he turned his mind to
mechanics, and made several curious contrivances, some useful. He
constructed a windmill to thrash corn, but for this purpose it did not
answer, though it served for cutting up straw and chopping turnips.
His next contrivance was a carriage, the body of which was made of
wickerwork. It cost him a year's constant application to finish it, and
when completed it was calculated to cause a sensation. It was a huge
palanquin, with a top like an exaggerated Chinaman's hat, supported on
four iron rods, which were screwed into the shafts, the shafts running
the whole length of the carriage, and resting on springs connected with
the axle of the wheels. The sides and back of the carriage were made of
wickerwork matting. The axle-case was faced with a clock dial with
numbers, and hands connected with a piece of ingenious mechanism,
afterwards perfected and patented by another person, which told the
distance the carriage had gone by measuring the number of rotations made
by the wheels.
Jemmy used for his hunting-suit a lambskin hat, a rabbit-skin jacket, a
waistcoat made of the skins of drakes' necks with the feathers on, a
pair of list breeches, yellow, blue, black, and red, stockings of red
and white worsted, and yellow boots. His best room was furnished as
curiously as his person. Instead of pictures, the walls were hung round
with bits of old iron and coils of rope; in one place an old frying-pan,
in another a rusty sword, a piece of a chair, or a jug.
One evening, after a day's sport, he invited the party to join him for a
social evening, and the offer was eagerly accepted, as every one was
curious to see the interior of his house. He gave them a very fair
entertainment, and amused them all the evening with his jokes.
Immediately over Lord Wharncliffe's head was suspended a pair of horse's
blinkers.
"Do you wear these?" asked a Mr. Sadler who was present.
"No, sir, I do not; I keep them for donkeys of a peculiar make, who
stand on their hind legs and ask impertinent questions."
"What do you mean?" asked the young man, reddening. "Is that intended as
a personal remark?"
"Draw your own inferences," answered Jemmy, knocking the ashes out of
his pipe.
The young man was so offended that he demanded satisfaction for the
insult. The company tried hard to pacify him, but in vain. Jemmy then
whispered in Lord Wharncliffe's ear, and the latter immediately rose
from the table, and said, "Now, gentlemen, Mr. Hirst is quite willing to
give Mr. Sadler that satisfaction he desires. He has requested my
services as second. I have granted his wish. As soon as Mr. Sadler can
arrange with any gentleman to act as his second, I shall be happy to
arrange preliminaries with him."
Mr. Sadler having chosen a second, the belligerents were desired to
leave the room for a few moments until arrangements had been made for
the duel.
As they left the room Lord Wharncliffe whispered in the ear of one of
the party, "Follow Mr. Sadler into the other room, and take a bottle of
wine with you; get him to drink as much as possible, and we will manage
to make the affair end in fun."
The gentleman did as desired. Then Lord Wharncliffe and Jemmy, slipping
in by another door, proceeded to dress up a dummy that was in a closet
hard by in Jemmy's clothes.
Mr. Sadler was then told that all was ready, and he returned into the
room rather the worse for the liquor he had drunk.
The pistol was put into his hand, and he was stationed opposite the
dummy, which with outstretched arm pointed a pistol at him. The signal
was given, and Mr. Sadler fired; then Jemmy, who was secreted in a
closet hard by, pulled a string, and the dummy fell with a heavy thud
upon the floor.
Mr. Sadler, who thought he had killed his antagonist, was sobered
instantly, and was filled with remorse and fear. He rushed to the dead
man and then towards the door, then back to the corpse to see if life
were quite extinct. Then only, to his great relief, he found that the
supposed dead man was made of wood. The company burst into a roar of
laughter, and when he had sufficiently recovered from his bewilderment
he joined heartily in the mirth raised at his own expense. Jemmy,
emerging from his place of concealment, apologised for the offence he
had given, and both shook hands. The carouse was renewed with fresh
vigour, and the sun had risen an hour before the party broke up, and its
members unsteadily wended their way homewards.
Jemmy had bought a litter of pigs, and entertained the idea of teaching
them to act as setters in his shooting expeditions, and therefore spent
a considerable time every day in training them. There were only two that
he could make anything of. But he never could induce them to desist
from grunting. It was impossible to make them control their emotions
sufficiently to keep quiet, and this inveterate habit of course spoiled
them as setters.
When the litter was about six months old, one of the little pigs
discovered his potato garden, and that by putting its snout under the
lowest bar of the gate it could lift the gate so that the latch was
disengaged from the catch, and the gate swung open; by this means the
pig was able to get to the roots. Hirst saw the pig do this several
times, and he determined to stop the little game. He therefore ground
the blade of a scythe, and fixed it, with the sharp edge downwards, to
the lower bar.
Shortly after, Jemmy saw the pig go to the gate, but in lifting it off
the hasp the scythe-blade cut the end of the Snout off. Jemmy burst out
laughing, and called his old housekeeper to see the fun; but old Sarah
was more compassionate than her master, and begged him to kill the pig
and put it out of its pain.
The carriage did not altogether satisfy Jemmy; he therefore enlarged it
to double its former size. He made it so that, when necessary, he could
have a bed in it; and then he bought four Andalusian mules to draw it,
and with them he drove to Pontefract and Doncaster races, which he
attended every year, and created no small sensation along the roads and
on the course. Bear and bull baiting were favourite pastimes with him,
as was also cock-fighting. He kept two bulls and a bear for this
purpose. He used to call the bear Nicholas. It was a large savage
animal, and was always kept muzzled at home.
One morning, after it had been baited and had destroyed four dogs, he
took it something to eat, but it would not touch the meat. "Ah! thou'rt
sulky; then I mun gi'e thee a taste o' t' whip." So saying, he struck
the bear over the muzzle with a hunting-whip he carried in his hand.
He had no sooner done so than the bear sprang upon him, seized him, and
began to hug him. Jemmy roared for help, and a favourite dog rushed to
his assistance and seized Bruin by the ear. The bear let go Jemmy to
defend itself against the dog, and Jemmy, who had the breath nearly
squeezed out of him, managed to crawl beyond the reach of the beast. The
dog seeing his master safe, laid himself down by him, facing the bear,
to guard him from further attacks. Sarah found her master half-an-hour
after on the ground, unable to rise, and in great pain. She raised him,
assisted him to the house, and put him to bed. He was confined for three
weeks by the injuries he had received.
A few weeks after his recovery he attended Pontefract races in his
carriage, drawn by four splendid mules, and no one on the course could
keep up with him when he put the mules to their speed. Sir John Ramsden
was in a carriage drawn by two fine bays, of which he was not a little
proud, and he challenged Jemmy to a trial of speed round the course. Off
they started, Sir John taking the lead for a short time, but Jemmy's
mules, with their light carriage, soon overtook Sir John's bays, and
came in a hundred yards before them. It was the most popular race run
that year on the Pontefract course.
He also constructed for himself a pair of wings, and by an ingenious
contrivance was able to spread the feathers. But his attempt to fly from
the mast-top of a boat in the Humber failed. He fell into the water, and
was drawn out covered with mud, amidst the laughter of a crowd which had
assembled to witness his flight.
Jemmy's eccentricities had reached the ears of King George III., and he
expressed a desire to see him. Lord Beaumont promised to do his best to
persuade Hirst to come to town, but at the same time he told the King
that if Jemmy took it into his head to decline the invitation, no power
on earth could move him.
Accordingly, Lord Beaumont wrote to Jemmy, stating his Majesty's wish to
see him, and urging him to come as soon as possible. At the end of the
week Lord Beaumont received the following reply:--
"MY LORD,--I have received thy letter stating his Majesty's wish to
see me. What does his Majesty wish to see me for? I'm nothing
related to him, and I owe him nothing that I know of; so I can't
conceive what he wants with me. I suspect thou hast been telling
him what queer clothes I wear, and such like. Well, thou may tell
his Majesty that I am very busy just now training an otter to fish;
but I'll contrive to come in the course of a month or so, as I
should like to see London."
Lord Beaumont showed Jemmy's letter to George III., who laughed when he
read it, and said, "He seems to think more of seeing London than of the
honour of introduction to royalty."
Jemmy spent a month in getting ready for his journey to London; he had
an entirely new suit made--a new lambskin hat of the old dimensions, an
otter-skin coat lined with red flannel and turned up with scarlet cloth,
a waistcoat of the skins of drakes' necks, list breeches, red and white
striped stockings, and shoes with large silver buckles on them. His
carriage was repainted in the most lively colours; and when all was
ready he adjured Sarah to look well after his favourites during his
absence, and then drove off at a slashing pace, drawn by his four
Andalusians.
He created a sensation in every town and village he passed through.
People turned out of their shops and houses to see him.
He put up at Doncaster at the King's Head Inn. The hostler there
exhibited Jemmy's carriage and mules at a penny charge for admission,
and realised something handsome thereby. The landlord also reaped a good
harvest, for the inn was crowded as long as Jemmy stayed there.
Jemmy reached London in three days. Lord Beaumont's butler had been sent
some time before to Tottenham, with orders to wait there till Mr. Hirst
made his appearance and then to conduct him to his Lordship's town
residence.
On Jemmy arriving at Tottenham, the butler informed him of his
lordship's orders, and then rode off before him to show the way. The
news spread through London, and the streets were crowded, so that the
carriage could hardly make its way through the numbers of people whom
the report of the arrival of an eccentric Yorkshireman on a visit to the
King had drawn together. Jemmy, who was immensely conceited, was greatly
delighted with this ovation. On reaching Lord Beaumont's house he was
welcomed by his Lordship with great cordiality; and after lunch was
driven out in Lord Beaumont's carriage to see the sights of London. The
King was informed of Jemmy's arrival, and his Majesty expressed his wish
that Jemmy should be presented to him on the morrow. Lord Beaumont
vainly endeavoured to press on the strange fellow the obligations of the
Court ceremonial. "D---- your forms and ceremonies!" said he,
impatiently. "If the King don't like my ways, he must let it alone. I
did not seek his acquaintance--he must take me as I am. I am a plain
Yorkshireman, and if the King asks me a question in a plain manner, I
shall answer him in a plain way, so that he or anybody else may
understand. I can do no more."
Lord Beaumont saw it was in vain to press him further in the matter,
and therefore left him to follow his own course.
On the following morning, Jemmy set out in his wickerwork carriage, in
all the glory of drakes' necks, lambs' wool, and otter skins turned up
with scarlet, to visit the King. But if the streets were crowded the day
before, on this occasion they were crammed, for the news had spread that
Jemmy was going in state to Court.
Lord Beaumont and a couple of Horse Guards accompanied the carriage, and
with difficulty made a passage for Jemmy; and all along the streets the
windows were filled with heads.
When Jemmy alighted he was conducted by Lord Beaumont into an
ante-chamber, to await the King's pleasure. The Duke of Devonshire was
also waiting there for an audience with His Majesty, and on seeing this
extraordinary fellow enter, he burst into a fit of uncontrollable
laughter, and exclaimed, "'Pon my honour! what a scarecrow. Why,
Beaumont, where did you pick up that ridiculous object? Why have you
brought such a merry-andrew here?" Jemmy listened patiently for a moment
only to the Duke's exclamations and laughter, and then seizing a tumbler
of water that stood on the sideboard, he dashed it in the Duke's face,
exclaiming that the poor man was in hysterics: he ran to the Duke,
loosed his cravat, pulled his nose, and shook him, pretending that he
was using his best endeavours to bring him round from his fit.
At that moment a messenger came to announce that his Majesty wished to
see Lord Beaumont and Mr. Hirst; so Jemmy was ushered into the royal
presence. But instead of kneeling and kissing the hand that was extended
to him in silence, he caught it and gave it a hearty shake, saying,
"Eh! I'm glad to see thee such a plain owd chap. If thou ever comes to
Rawcliffe, step in and give me a visit. I can give thee some rare good
wine, or a sup of brandy and water at ony time."
The court was convulsed with laughter, and King George III. could hardly
contain himself. However, he did not laugh out openly, but with courtesy
maintained his gravity, and asked Jemmy how he liked London. "I like it
weel enow," answered the oddity; "but I hadn't ony idea afore yesterday
and to-day there were sae mony fools in it."
"Indeed!" said the King; "you pay us a very poor compliment, Mr. Hirst.
I did not know that we were so badly off for wisdom in London. Perhaps
that is an article in such demand in Yorkshire that there is none to
spare for cockneys."
"Why, I'll thee how it were," said Jemmy. "When I come into t' town
yesterday, and to thy house to-day, the streets were full o' crowds of
folks gathered as thick as owt to see me, just a cause I happ'd to be
dressed different frae other folk; and as I were waiting out yonder i'
t' fore-chamber, there were one o' thy sarvants burst out laughing at
me; but I reckon I spoiled his ruffled shirt for him and punished his
impertinence."
The King asked an explanation of Lord Beaumont, and when he had heard
what Jemmy had done to the Duke of Devonshire, the King laughed
heartily.
"Did you think to find London streets paved with gold?" asked the King.
"Mebbe I did," answered Jemmy; "but I've found out I was mista'en. It's
nowt but a mucky place, after all."
"A Yorkshire bite," said his Majesty.
"Aye," answered Jemmy, "but I'm no a bite for thee."
After some further conversation the King and his attendants descended
to look at Jemmy's carriage, and he showed the clock for marking the
distance he travelled; the King was interested with this, and praised it
as an ingenious contrivance. Jemmy then showed him the place he had made
for the reception of his wine when he travelled, but which was then
empty. His Majesty immediately ordered it to be filled with bottles from
the royal cellar.
As Jemmy was taking leave of the King he heard a young nobleman say to
another, "What an old fool that is to wear such a hat; it is three times
as large as is necessary."
Jemmy turned sharply upon him and said: "I'll tell thee what, young
chap, folks don't always have things aboot 'em that's necessary, or his
Majesty could dispense varry weel wi' thee."
Lord Beaumont gave an entertainment at which Jemmy was present, and
danced with a niece of his host. He danced very well, and was very
popular; all the evening he was surrounded by a knot of young ladies and
gentlemen who did their best to draw him out. But it was dangerous game,
for those who attempted to play jokes on him generally got the worst of
it. A young man present asked Jemmy to procure him a suit of clothes
like his own, as he wanted them to attend a masquerade in. Jemmy asked
in what character he wished to appear.
"Oh, as a clown, of course," was the answer.
"Nay, then," said Jemmy, "thou'st nowt to do but go just as thou art;
nobbudy'll mistake thee for owt else."
"You have got your answer," said Lord Beaumont's niece, laughing; "I
hope you are satisfied with it."
During his stay in London, Jemmy visited the Court of Chancery, and
whilst Lord Beaumont was talking to a friend, a barrister in wig and
gown passing by stopped, and staring at Jemmy, said, "Holloa, my man,
what lunatic asylum have you escaped from, eh?"
"Bless me!" exclaimed Jemmy, catching Lord Beaumont's arm; "sithere,
yonder's an owd woman i' her nightdress that's tummled out o' bed into
an ink-pot, and is crawling aboot. Let's get a mop and clean her."
After spending a week in the metropolis, he returned home much delighted
with his visit, which furnished him with topics of conversation for a
long time.
Sarah, his old housekeeper, falling ill, and being unable to work, Jemmy
engaged the services of a young woman from Snaith to wait upon him, and
she so accommodated herself to Jemmy's whims, that she soon became a
great favourite with him. He would not, however, allow followers about
the house; and as Mary had a sweetheart, the meetings between them had
to be carried on surreptitiously.
However, one day whilst Jemmy was hunting, his bull tripped in jumping a
fence, and fell, with Jemmy's leg under him, which was broken with
compound fracture.
This invalided him for some while. He had a block-tackle fixed to a hook
in the ceiling of the room, and a sling made for his leg to rest in,
fastened to the lower end, and whenever he wished to alter the position
of his leg, he hoisted it up or let it down with the tackle.
During his illness the restraint of his observant eye was off Mary, and
the sweetheart had opportunities of visiting her. One night, when Jemmy
was somewhat recovered, he was sitting in the corner of his garden
enjoying a pipe of tobacco, when he saw a man jump over the wall into
the garden and make his way to the kitchen window, then rap with his
fingers against the glass. Mary came out to him, and they spent some
time in conversation together, and when they parted he promised to
return and see her the following night.
Jemmy heard every word that had been said, and he sat chuckling to
himself, and muttered, "So thou'lt come again to-morrow night, wilt
thou? I'll learn thee to come poaching on my preserves."
Next morning, very early, Jemmy rose and dug a hole, four or five feet
deep and six or seven feet long, just under that part of the garden wall
where the sweetheart had clambered over the night before, and covered it
all over with thin laths and brown paper, and then sprinkled mould over
it, so that it had all the appearance of solid earth. A small stream of
water ran through his garden into the river. Jemmy cut a small grip from
it to the hole he had dug, and filled the hole with water; then choked
the grip up and went into his house, laughing to himself at what would
probably happen that night.
Stationing himself at nightfall in the garden where he could not be
seen, he had not long to wait before he saw a head rising above the
wall, then the body of a man, and in another moment the expectant lover
had cleared the wall, and dropped on the covering of the pitfall. The
laths and brown paper yielded to his weight, and he plunged up to his
neck in water. The unfortunate young man screamed with fright, and Jemmy
and Mary rushed to the spot.
"Holloa, my man! what's the matter? What art a' doing i' yond water-pit?
Hast a' come to steal my apples and pears?"
Then turning to Mary, he asked if she knew him. The poor girl hesitated,
but at last confessed that the young man was her sweetheart. "Well,
then," said Jemmy, "help him out and get him into t' house, and let us
change his clothes, for I reckon he's all over muck."
The young man was brought in dripping like a water-rat.
"Now, then," said Jemmy, "thou mun have a dry suit. Which wilt a'
have--a pair o' my list breeches and rabbit-skin coat, or my old
housekeeper's petticoats and gown?"
The young man ungallantly chose the former, thinking if he must be made
ridiculous before the eyes of Mary, he would be less so in male than
female attire. Jemmy gave him a glass of hot brandy-and-water, kept him
talking by the kitchen fire till his clothes were dried, and then
dismissed him with permission to come to the house openly, and visit
Mary as often as he liked. The young fellow became in time a great
favourite with the old man, and when he married Mary, Jemmy gave him £50
to start life with.
Jemmy took it into his head to make himself a coffin, for he said he was
getting old, and did not know how soon he might require one, and
therefore it was best to be ready. It took him a month to construct it.
It had folding-doors instead of a lid, and two panes of glass in each
door; and he fitted the inside with shelves for a cupboard, saying that
he might as well turn it to some use whilst he was alive, and then fixed
it upright in the corner of his sitting-room. Twelve months after, he
had a second coffin made on the same model, but better, and with some
improvements, by a joiner at Snaith, which cost him £12. "He always
wished people to believe that he made it himself; but this was not the
case, for the person that made it declared to us that Jemmy enjoined him
not to divulge who had made it during his lifetime."[14] Inside the
coffin he placed a handle connected with a bell outside, so that, as he
said, if he wanted anything when in his grave--shaving-water, sherry, or
his boots--he would ring the bell for his servant to bring them to him.
He bought a sloop, which he called "The Bull," and made a voyage in her
once as far as Boston; but he was so sick during the passage that he
could never after be persuaded to set foot on her again. "Nay, nay,"
said he, "a yard of dry land is worth a mile of water."
Otter-hunting on the marshes between Rawcliffe and Goole was one of his
favourite pastimes. He kept a small pack of otter-hounds for the
purpose.
One day, when out with three dogs, near where Tunbridge House now
stands, the dogs started an otter and gave him chase. He made for a
drain, and there being plenty of water in it, he dived several times.
The dogs followed him in the water, and Jemmy ran along the edge waiting
for him. When the otter came out close to him, Jemmy struck at him, but
missed his aim and fell, owing to the mud being slippery. The otter
immediately seized him by the leg, and succeeded in dragging him into
the water before the hounds could come to his assistance. A favourite
dog, named Sancho, dived, and seizing the otter by the throat, forced it
to release Jemmy's leg, and he reached the bank greatly shaken and
exhausted. He fortunately wore that day a thick pair of leather boots,
which prevented the teeth of the otter from cutting his flesh. The other
dogs had dived to the assistance of Sancho, and they brought the otter
to the bank, where Jemmy clubbed it. It was the largest otter that he
had ever caught, and he had the skin tanned. He kept it for two or three
years, and then made a present of it to a hair-dresser who used to
attend and shave him.
As he was returning one night about eight o'clock from Howden, where he
had been to the bank to draw some money, he was attacked by a couple of
footpads, who probably knew where he had been. One seized the bridle of
his bull, and the other took hold of Jemmy's arm and demanded his money.
Jemmy suddenly drew a pistol from his pocket and fired it--according to
his own account--full in the man's face, then struck spurs into the bull
and galloped home. After getting assistance, he returned to the place
where he had been stopped, but could find no trace of the persons who
had attempted to rob him.
With the assistance of the captain of his sloop, Jemmy rigged some sails
to his carriage, and after a few trials of the new contrivance in the
lanes about Rawcliffe, he set off one day to Pontefract with all sail
set. Having a fair wind he went at a dashing speed. When he reached the
town every one turned out to see the wonderful ship that sailed on dry
land.
But when Jemmy reached the first cross-street a puff of wind caught him
sideways, upset the carriage, and flung Jemmy through the window of a
draper's shop, smashing several panes.
The crowd that followed speedily righted the carriage and extricated
Jemmy, who paid for the damage he had done, and led the way to the
nearest tavern, where he treated the whole crowd with ale. This bounty
naturally elicited great enthusiasm, which exhibited itself in prolonged
cheers, to Jemmy's great delight, for he was one of the most conceited
of men.
The authorities having intimated to him that he would not be allowed to
sail back through the streets, the crowd yoked themselves to the
carriage, and drew him triumphantly out of the town, and would have
dragged him half way to Rawcliffe had not a favourable wind sprung up,
when Jemmy spread his sails again, and was blown out of sight of the
crowd with expedition. He reached home without any further mishap.
A friend writes to me:--"I remember Jemmy Hirst well coming to Doncaster
races in his wretched turn-out, and with a bag of nuts, which he always
brought with him for a scramble. He was not a very reputable individual,
and must have been, I fancy, half-witted. He was wont to issue flash
notes on the 'Bank of Rawcliffe,' meaning the river bank, for five
farthings; and as these bore a great resemblance to the notes issued by
a banking firm in Doncaster, he was able to deceive many people with
them."
Among other accomplishments, Jemmy played the fiddle tolerably well. In
winter he would collect all the boys and girls of Rawcliffe at his house
in the evenings, once a week at least, when he would play the fiddle for
them to dance to. At nine o'clock punctually he rang a bell and
dismissed them. He never would allow them to remain a minute longer.
They were sent away with buns, simnel-cake, or apples.
On another evening of the week he would have all the old women to tea,
but he would allow no men in to have tea with him on these occasions.
They were invited to come in later, and then dancing and singing began,
which continued till nine, when he would dismiss them with a glass of
rum or gin each.
On the evenings that he wished the children to come he blew a horn
thrice at his door, and six blasts of the horn assembled the old people.
In his old age, Jemmy was frequently laid up with gout, when he amused
himself with the composition of doggerel verses, mostly about himself.
They were contemptible productions, but his vanity made him suppose that
he was a poet. He got these rhymes printed, and sold them for a penny to
his numerous visitors, and as sometimes on a Sunday he had three or four
hundred people to see him, he realised a good sum--enough to keep him
for the week--from this source.
But besides selling his verses, Jemmy used to make money by showing his
coffin to visitors. He would induce them to enter the largest one, which
was contrived to close upon any one inside, and hold him fast as a
prisoner till released from the outside. No one once within was
suffered to escape without payment--men were charged a penny, women one
of their garters. In this way Jemmy accumulated hundreds of garters,
which he tied to his chair. They were of all sorts, from a piece of silk
down to a bit of whip-cord. He used to say that he could always tell a
woman's character by her garter.
His old housekeeper, Sarah, after a tedious illness, died, and then
Jemmy would not suffer any one to attend him except the wife of the
captain of his sloop, "The Bull," who used to live in the house with him
when her husband was at sea. All his pets were sold off, except a fox
which he called Charley, that was chained in the back-yard; and his
pointer pigs were converted into bacon and eaten.
During the last few years of his life Jemmy was confined a great deal
within doors, and the neighbouring gentry used very often to visit him
for the sake of old times; but he never would tolerate a visit from a
clergyman. He had no religion whatever, and very little morality either.
No one ever saw him inside a church or chapel, or got him to enter on
religious conversation.
He was visited one day when he was visibly declining by Lord and Lady
Wharncliffe; and the latter, on his swearing at the twinges of his gout,
gently reproved him, pained to see how utterly indifferent he seemed to
the future. "Mr. Hirst," said her Ladyship, "you should not swear; you
really ought to make some preparation for death."
"Haven't I, my lady?" asked Jemmy. "I've had my coffin made these ten
years."
It was in vain that Lady Wharncliffe endeavoured to get him into a
serious turn; he turned off all her remarks with a bantering reply.
Jemmy was subject to temporary fits of insanity, in one of which he
stripped himself stark naked and ran all round Rawcliffe. Fortunately
it was night, so that there were not many people abroad; but he nearly
frightened one young fellow out of his wits as he came bounding upon him
in the moonlight, round a corner. The cries of this man brought people
to his assistance, and they ran after Jemmy and caught him as he was
stepping into a boat with the purpose of ferrying himself across the
river, his mind in this disordered condition returning to the event of
his youth, when he rowed across to meet his poor Mary. They brought him,
not without trouble, to his house, and put him to bed. What made it the
more remarkable was, that he had been confined to his bed all day with
gout, and could scarcely move a limb.
Jemmy died on October 29th, 1829, at the age of ninety-one. By his will
he left £12 to be given to twelve old maids for carrying him to his
grave, £5 for a bagpiper from Aberdeen to play before him alternately
with a fiddler to whom he also bequeathed £5, as he was borne to the
churchyard.
The executors had some trouble in carrying out his wishes. The rector of
Rawcliffe protested against the music being played on the occasion; but
eventually a compromise was effected, and the piper was alone allowed to
head the funeral to church, playing sacred music. Sacred music on a
Scottish bagpipe!
Long before the funeral started for the church hundreds of spectators
had collected in front of the house. Everything being in readiness, the
procession moved off--the neighbouring gentry and farmers on horseback,
followed by the piper; next came the coffin, carried by six of the old
maids and two men, the other six of the old maids bearing the pall. The
piper played a psalm tune; but as soon as ever the funeral was over, the
fiddler met the piper at the church gates, and they struck up the tune
of "Owre the hills and far awa'," followed by the crowd to Jemmy's late
residence, where they received their money and were dismissed.
FOOTNOTES:
[13] "The Life and Adventures of J. Hirst." Hepworth, Knottingly (n.d.)
Another Life published at Pontefract.
[14] "Life and Adventures of James Hirst," Knottingley: Hepworth (n.d.)
THE TRAGEDY OF BENINGBROUGH HALL.
In 1670, Beningbrough Hall, a fine Elizabethan red-brick mansion, stood
in a park near the junction of the Ouse and Nidd. The old house has been
pulled down, and replaced by an edifice neat and commodious, as the
guide-books would say, and we need say no more.
In 1670 Beningbrough Hall belonged to a Roman Catholic family of the
name of Earle. Mr. Earle, the proprietor, was in somewhat embarrassed
circumstances, and was mixed up with some of the plots then rife. He was
much away from the Hall--generally in London; but the house was full of
servants, under the control of a steward, Philip Laurie, and a
housekeeper, named Marian--a comely woman, just passing into middle age.
One day, when Laurie was absent, two gentlemen arrived at the Hall,
cloaked, with their hats drawn over their eyes, and were admitted by
Marian. One of these was Mr. Earle himself, anxious to escape
recognition. Who the other was did not transpire. After some
conversation with the housekeeper, Marian summoned the servants into the
hall, and ordered them immediately to collect and pack the plate and
pictures--everything that was of value and readily movable. Mr. Earle
did not show himself--he remained in the housekeeper's room; but his
companion appeared, and announced that he and Marian were acting under
the authority of Mr. Earle, and he read them a letter from that
gentleman requiring the removal of his valuable property as the
housekeeper should direct.
The servants were much surprised; but as it was known that their master
was in difficulties, and as some suspicion seems to have entered their
heads that he was engaged in a plot, their wonder died away; they
diligently discharged their duty, and everything that was required was
speedily collected and stowed away in leather bags or wooden boxes in
the hall. The housekeeper then dismissed the servants, and she and the
stranger conveyed the articles packed up into her room.
Where were they next to be conveyed to, so as to be readily removed? Mr.
Earle expected a warrant for his arrest on the charge of high treason,
and the confiscation of all his property. He was therefore desirous to
remove all he could in time to escape to France.
To avoid observation, it was advisable that his valuables should be
secreted somewhere near, but not in the house. Marian then, with some
hesitation, told the master that an attachment subsisted between her and
the gamekeeper, a man named Martin Giles; that she could rely on his not
divulging the secret, and trust him with the custody of the plate, &c.,
till it suited the convenience of Mr. Earle to take them away. She was
accordingly despatched to the gamekeeper's cottage, and he was brought
to the Hall, and as much of the secret confided to him as could not well
be retained. He promised most frankly to do what was desired of him, and
as he was a Roman Catholic, Mr. Earle felt satisfied that he could trust
him not to betray a master who professed the same faith.
When Philip Laurie returned he found to his surprise that the house had
been stripped of everything precious. He was extremely incensed, and in
an angry interview with Marian charged her with having told tales of him
to her master, and so of having lost him the confidence of Mr. Earle.
She did not deny that she mistrusted his honesty, unhappily recalled a
circumstance he thought she knew nothing of, and took occasion to give
him "a bit of her mind"; but she protested that she had not spoken on
the subject to her master.
Philip Laurie asked where the property was removed to. She refused to
tell him. He swore he would know. He did not trust her story. The house
had been plundered; the opportunity had been taken when he was absent,
and Marian was privy to a robbery.
After violent words on both sides they parted. As he left the room the
steward turned, fixing his eyes, blazing with deadly hate, upon the
housekeeper, and muttered a few inarticulate words.
It was not long before Laurie suspected or discovered where the
valuables were secreted.
Chance had thrown in his way a labourer of bad character named William
Vasey, a poacher and a reputed thief. Laurie walked through the park to
the cottage of this miscreant, and it was resolved between them that the
housekeeper should be murdered, and then that the lodge of the
gamekeeper should be robbed.
In the evening Marian was taking her accustomed walk along a beech
avenue beside the Ouse. It was evening, and the red evening sky was
reflected in the water, which looked like a streak of blood. The rooks
were cawing and wheeling about the tree-tops, settling for the night.
A white owl that lived in the ivy that covered the north side of the
house floated, ghostlike, through the gathering darkness. Marian in her
white cap walked quietly in the avenue. She was a Roman Catholic, and
was reciting her beads. Laurie knew that she was accustomed every
evening to retire into this walk to say her rosary.
At one point a beech-tree had been blown over, and had left a gap to the
west, through which the faint reflection of the evening sky fell,
leaving the shadows beyond it in deeper gloom. For some unaccountable
reason, as Marian came to this gap, instead of passing it and continuing
her walk, she stood still, and then turned. A second time she walked the
avenue and came to this gap. A mysterious repugnance to advance caused
her to hesitate and halt.
Thinking that this was an unreasonable feeling, she walked on a couple
of steps, and then stood still, turned round, and looked at the spot
where the sun had gone down.
At that moment Vasey sprang from behind a tree, and thrust Marian over
the brink. With a shriek she sank.
Next morning the body was found, a part of the rosary clenched in her
hand, and the other portion was discovered caught in the stump of the
broken beech. Prints of a man's boots in the mud showed that Marian had
not died by accidentally falling into the water.
Suspicion of the guilt of the murder fell upon Martin Giles, the
gamekeeper. Laurie was in the Hall the whole time, and therefore no one
supposed him implicated in the commission of the crime. The gamekeeper
had behaved mysteriously for the last day or two. He had avoided his
usual friends; he had been seen privately conversing with the
housekeeper. Only Marian and he knew that their master had been in the
house; his presence had been concealed from the other servants, who only
saw his companion. The removal of the valuables to the house of Giles
had been accomplished by the two gentlemen with the assistance of the
gamekeeper alone. After the valuables had been taken away, the two
gentlemen in disguise had ridden off.
The servants, who had noticed that there was some mystery to which Giles
and Marian were privy, thought that the keeper had killed the poor woman
out of dread lest she should prove an untrustworthy depositary of the
secret, whatever it was. It was known also that the lovers had been
accustomed to meet in the beech avenue, the place where the murder had
been committed.
Whilst the tide of popular indignation ran strong against the
unfortunate gamekeeper, Laurie and Vasey resolved on committing the
robbery--before also Mr. Earle and his companion had found means to
remove the property entrusted to his custody.
At midnight Vasey and the steward went to the gamekeeper's cottage.
Laurie was to remain outside, and the other ruffian to enter and rob the
house. They thought that Martin Giles was sure to be asleep; but they
were mistaken. The man had been sincerely attached to poor Marian, and
lay tossing in bed, wondering who could have murdered her, and vainly
racking his brain to discover some clue which could guide him to a
solution of the mystery. As he thus lay, he thought he heard a slight
sound down-stairs. But the wind was blowing, and the trees roaring in
the blast; the little diamond panes in the latticed windows clattered,
and the keeper thought nothing of it.
Presently, however, he heard the latch of his door gently raised, and in
the darkness he just distinguished the figure of a man entering the
room. He immediately jumped out of bed, but was felled to the ground. As
he struggled to rise he was again struck down, and for the moment was
stunned. But he recovered consciousness almost immediately. He had
fallen upon a sheep net, which lay in a heap on the floor. He quietly
gathered up the net in his hands, sprang to his feet, and flinging the
net over the murderer, entangled his arms so that he could not extricate
himself.
He wrenched the bludgeon out of his hand, and struck him over the head
with it, so that he measured his length, insensible, on the floor.
Had Martin only known that this ruffian had been the murderer of her
who had been dearer to him than anyone else in the world, there is no
doubt but the blow would have fallen heavier, and would have spared the
hangman his trouble.
Giles then threw open his window and fired off his gun, to alarm the
inmates of the Hall.
In a few minutes the servants made their appearance, amongst them Philip
Laurie, with a ghastly face. A sign passed between him and Vasey, and he
recovered some of his composure. The captured ruffian had assured him he
would not betray his accomplice.
Vasey was taken into custody, and on the following day was removed to
York Castle, where he was committed for burglary with intent to commit
murder.
When Mr. and Mrs. Earle heard of what had taken place, the latter came
with the utmost speed into Yorkshire. Mr. Earle, fearing arrest for
treasonable practices, did not venture to do so.
Laurie's conduct had already excited suspicion. He had not been seen
issuing from the Hall on the night of the attempted robbery with the
other servants, and was found on the spot fully dressed, and that not in
his usual costume, but one which looked as if intended for a disguise.
Mrs. Earle sent for him to her boudoir, and dismissed him from her
service. As yet there was no charge sufficiently established against him
to warrant her committing him to custody; but, she added, Vasey had
declared his full intention to confess before his execution.
Laurie, a desperate man, flung himself on his knees, and implored his
mistress not to send him away; or if, as he heard, she was about to
escape with Mr. Earle to France, would she allow him to accompany them?
She indignantly thrust the wretch from her. He started to his feet,
drew a pistol from his coat-pocket, and presented it at her head. She
struck up his hand, and the contents of the pistol shivered the glasses
of a chandelier that hung in the room. He rushed out of the room, ran to
his own apartment, put another pistol to his forehead, and blew his
brains out.
Vasey now confessed everything, and was executed at the Tyburn, outside
Micklegate Bar, at York, on August 18th, 1670.
It is said that at night a pale, female figure is seen to steal along
the bank of the Ouse, where the avenue stood in olden time, and to
disappear in the churchyard of Newton, which adjoins the park, where
Marian was buried.
A YORKSHIRE BUTCHER.
The subject of this memoir has been dead but a few years, and therefore
I do not give his name, lest it should cause annoyance to his relatives.
He was a tall, red-faced, jovial man, with a merry twinkle in his small
eyes; a man who could tell a good story with incomparable drollery, and
withal was the gentlest, kindest-hearted man, who would never wound the
most sensitive feelings by ridicule. He had a splendid bass voice, and
sang in the church choir; his knowledge of music was not inconsiderable,
and for some time he was choir-master, and performed a feat few other
men have been able to accomplish--he was able to keep the discordant
elements of a choir in harmony. His inimitable tact, unvarying good
nature, and readiness to humour the most self-consequential of the
performers, made him vastly popular with them, and prevented or healed
those jars which are proverbial among professed votaries of harmony.
This worthy butcher thus narrated his courtship:--
"It's a queer thing, sir, hoo things turns oot sometimes. Noo it war a
queer thing hoo I chanced to get wed. I war at Leeds once, and I'd na
mair thowts aboot marrying na mair 'an nowt; and I war just going doon
t' street, tha knaws, sir, when I met wi' my wife--that's her 'at's my
wife noo, tha knaws. I'd kenned her afore, a piece back; soa shoo comes
oop to me, an' shoo ses, 'Why, James, lad, is that thee?'--'Aye,' I ses,
'it is awever.'--'Weel, James,' ses she, 'what's ta doing wi' thysen
noo?'--'Why,' I ses, 'I's joost getten me a new hoose.' Soa wi' that she
ses, 'Then I lay, James, if tha's getting a new hoose, tha'll be
wanting a hoosekeeper.' Soa I ses to 'er, ses I, 'Tha ma' coom and be t'
wife if ta likes; tha mawn't be t' hoosekeeper, tha knaws, but tha ma'
coom and be t' wife.' And soa shoo ses, 'I ain't partikler. I don't mind
if I do.' So we never had na mair to do aboot t' job."
I asked him if he ever had found occasion to regret such an expeditious
way of settling the matter. He shook his head and said, "Noa, sir,
niver. Shoo's made a rare good wife. But shoo's her mawgrums a' times.
But what women ain't got 'em? They've all on 'em maggots i' their heads
or tempers. Tha sees, sir, when a bone were took out o' t' side o' Adam,
to mak a wife for 'm, 't were hot weather, an' a blue-bottle settled on
t' rib. When shoo's i' her tantrums ses I to her, 'Ma dear,' ses I, 'I
wish thy great-great-grand ancestress hed chanced ta be made i' winter."
When he was married he took his wife a trip to Bolton, and spent a week
on his honeymoon tour. As soon as he was returned home, the first thing
he did was to put his wife into the scales and weigh her. Then the
butcher took out his account-book, and divided the expenses of the
marriage and wedding-tour by the weight of the wife. "Eh! lass!" said
he, "thou'st cost me fourteen pence ha'penny a pound. Thou'st the
dearest piece o' meat that iver I bought."
He had a barometer. The glass stood at set-fair, and for a whole week
the rain had been pouring down. On the eighth day the glass was still
telling the same tale, and the rain was still falling. Our friend lost
his patience, and holding the barometer up to the window he said,
"Sithere, lass! thou'st been telling lees. Dost thou see how it's
pouring? I'll teach thee to tell lees again!" And he smashed the glass.
He was laid up with gout. The doctor had tried all sorts of medicines,
but nothing seemed to profit him. At last the medical man said, "Try
smoking. I daresay smoking would do you a deal of good."
"Ah," said the wife, "it's possible it might. But thou seest, doctor,
chimleys is made so narrow nowadays that one cannot hang un up i' t'
reek (smoke) as one did wi' one's bacon i' bygone days."
His wife was dying. She was long ill, and during her sickness was always
exclaiming, "Eh! I'm boun' to dee. It win't be long afore I dee. I
shan't be long here"--and the like. Our jolly butcher heard these
exclamations day after day, and said nothing. At last he got a little
impatient over them, and said one day, as she was exclaiming as usual,
"O dear! I'm goin' to dee!"--"Why, lass, thou'st said that ower and ower
again a mony times. Why doan't thou set a time, and stick to it?"
On another occasion his wife slightly varied the tune to "Eh! the poor
bairns! What will become o' t' bairns when I dee? Who will mind t'
bairns when their mother is dead?"
"Never thee trouble thy head about that," said her husband; "go on wi'
thy deein'. I'll mind t' bairns."
He was going to York with his son, a boy of eighteen. He took a ticket
for himself and a half-one for the boy. When the train drew near to
York, the ticket-collector came round, and exclaimed at this
half-ticket, "Where's the child?"
"Here," said the butcher, pointing to the tall, awkward youth.
"What do you mean?" asked the indignant ticket-collector. "He ain't a
child; he's a young man!"
"Ah! so he is, now," answered the butcher; "but that's thy fault, not
mine. I know when we got in at Wakefield he were nobbut a bairn; but
tha'st been going so confounded slow that he's growed sin' we started!"
Many years ago, on a rare occasion, James took a glass too much. It was
the last time such a misfortune took place with him. His clergyman was
obliged to speak to him about it, and in doing so said--"You know,
James, beasts do not get drunk."
"There's a deal o' things belonging to all things," answered the worthy
butcher, who never suffered himself to be cornered. "If a horse were o'
one side o' a pond, and another on t' other side, and t' first horse ses
to t' other, 'Jim, I looks towards ye!' and t' other ses to the first,
'Thank y' kindly, Tom; I catches your eye.' And the first horse ses
again, 'Tha'll tak' another sup, lad, and drink ma health'; the second
will be sewer to say, 'I will, and I'll drink to lots o' your healths.'
Why, sir, them two horses will be nobbin to one another iver so long.
Lor bless ye! them two horses win't part till they's as drunk as
Christians."
James at one time was not well off. He had a brother whom we will call
Tom, who had some money.
Now James happened to hear that his brother was very ill, and as they
had not latterly been very good friends, he was afraid lest, if Tom
died, he would not leave him his money.
So he immediately set off to his brother's house, and on his arrival
found him ill in bed. He went up to the room in which his brother lay,
and began--"Weel, Tommy, an' hoo art a'?"
"Oah, James!" said Tom, "I'se vara bad. I thinks I's boun' to dee."
"Eh!" said James, "well, mebbe tha'lt outlive me, Tommy; I nobbut feels
vara middlin' mysen. I hain't felt weel for a long while, and I war just
thinking, Tommy, o' sending to Mr. Smith, t' lawyer, to mak' me a bit o'
a will, tha knaws. Hast a' made _thy_ will, Tommy?"
"Noa," said Tom, "I hain't; but I was thinking wi' thee, James, o'
sending for Lawyer Smith. Noo, who wast a' thinking o' making thy heir,
James?"
"Weel, tha knaws, Tommy," said James, "mebbe thou and me hain't lately
been vara particklers; but I war thinking it ever owt ta be, 'Let
bygones be bygones'; and soa I was thinking o' leaving my bit o' brass
to thee. Noo, Tommy, hoo wast a' thinking o' leaving thy money?"
"Why," said Tommy, "as thou'st been sa good as leave thy money ta me, I
think it wadn't be reet if I didn't do t' same by thee, and leave thee
my brass."
"Weel," said James, "I think thou couldn't do better; and soa let's send
for Mr. Smith to mak' our wills, and I think mebbe, Tommy, _thou'd
better ha' thy will made fust_."
So these two men sent for the lawyer to make their wills. Tommy's was
made first, and a very few days after he died. His money then came to
James, who in reality was not ill in the least, but had only pretended
to be so.
One of James the butcher's sayings I well remember. He was addressing a
young man who was courting a girl, and was very hot and eager in his
pursuit of her.
"I'll gi'e thee a bit o' advice, Joa: Don't bother to shuttle a
happle-tree to get t' fruit; tak' it easy; wait, and t' apples will fall
into thy lap o' their selves. Don't go coursing over hedges and threw
ditches after rabbits; wait a bit, and t' rabbits 'all come into thy
springes without trouble. Don't take on running after t' lasses; take it
easy, and thou'lt find, Joa, lad, that t' lasses will run after thee."
At one time James rented some land of a neighbouring gentleman of large
fortune and estates who was well known for his hospitality. James was
invited with other tenants to dine on Court day at the Hall, and dinner
was served up in the best style. On his return home to his wife, he gave
her an account of it "Eh! Phoebe, but it wad ha' capped owt. There were
beef and mutton, and chickens and game, and ivery thing one could think
of. I's sewer I were fair an' bet wi' it all; but what bet ma moast o'
all were 'at we'd ivery one on us a small loaf lapped up i' a clout."
Liqueurs were handed round after dinner. Our good friend took his little
glass of the, to him, unknown tipple, and after drinking it off at one
gulp, and considering a while, turned round to the waiter and said,
"John, bring us some o' this 'ere i' a moog."
At a club dinner, a wedding breakfast, or a funeral lunch, James was
overflowing with anecdotes. He was generally the hero of his stories;
but I do not believe that they all in reality happened to himself. The
stories often told against the principal actor in them, and therefore he
may have thought it legitimate to appropriate to himself tales which
made him appear in a ludicrous light.
I can remember only a few of these stories.
"It was one night in November last that I and my wife Phoebe was sitting
tawking i' t' house. It were a dark night, as black as Warren's best.
Now I mun tell thee that our Rachel Anne--that's our grown up
daughter--were at that age when they mostly likes to ha' a sweetheart,
Shoo'd gotten a young man. I don't like to name names, but as we're all
friends here, I don't mind saying he were a downright blackguard. It
were old Greenwood's son, tha knaws; t' lad as were locked up by t'
police for boiling a cat. Well, Rachel Anne were mad after him, and
nother her mother nor I liked it. We were nicely put out, I promise you.
"To go on with my tale. Phoebe and I were sitting by t' fire, when all
at once I ses to my old woman, 'Phoebe, lass, where's Rachel Anne?
Shoo's not at home, I reckon.'
"'Nay, James, lad,' said she, 'shoo's at a confirmation class.'
"'At a confirmation!' said I, and I whistled. 'I thowt confirmation was
ower.'
"'Ah! I dunnow sure; but that's what shoo said.'
"'Is owd Greenwood's son, Jim, going to confirmation class too?'
"'I cannot tell,' shoo said.
"'No more can I,' said I; 'but I'd like to know?'
"'So should I,' said she.
"'Win't thee look out o' chamber window and see if there's a leet i' t'
school?' said I. So my owd woman went upstairs and looked, and when shoo
came doun, 'No, there ain't,' said she.
"'I thowt not,' said I.
"Well, we sat by t' fire some while, and then my owd lass went into back
kitchen to get a bit o' supper ready. Shoo hadn't been there long afore
shoo come back and said, 'James, lad!'
"'Ah!' says I; 'what's up?'
"'Why, this,' says she; 'there's summun i' t' back yard.'
"'How dost a' know?' says I.
"Says she, 'I heard 'em taukin'; and there's a lanthorn there.'
"'There's impidence!' says I. 'Who is they?'
"'I think Rachel Anne is one,' says Phoebe.
"'And Jim Greenwood is t' other,' says I; 'and I'm glad on't.'
"'Why?' says Phoebe.
"'Lass,' says I, 'I'll pay yond chap out, I will. I'll go out by t'
front door, and I'll come on him, and I'll let him know what I think of
him, coming arter our Rachel Anne. And when I've gotten howd on him,
I'll hollow. Then do thou run out o' t' back door, and I'll howd him
tight, and thou can poise him behind as much as thou like. Since we've
been man and wife these fourteen year,' says I, 'we've taken our
pleasure in common,' says I. 'We've been to Hollingworth Lake together,'
says I. 'And we've been to Southport together,' says I. 'And wunce we've
went together to t' exhibition i' Wakefield together. So,' says I,
'we'll ha' the kicking, and the shuttling, and the rumpling up o' yond
lad o' Greenwood's together. O glory!' And then I run out o' t' front
door as wick as a scoprill,[15] and came shirking round towards t' back
door i' t' yard. Well, t' night were dark, but I could see there were
some folks there, and I could see the glint o' a lanthorn, and t' leet
from t' back kitchen window came on a bit o' gownd, and I know'd it
belonged to Rachel Anne.
"'Drat him!' said I to mysen, 'what is lasses coming to next, when they
brings their young men under the noses o' their parents wot can't abear
them?'
"So I came sloping up along the wall till I was quite near. Will you
believe it?--her young man, that's owd Greenwood's lad Jim, was sitting
as easy as owt i' a chair.
"'Oh, you charmer!' says Rachel Anne. I heard her voice. I know'd it
were she. 'You're near perfect noo!'
"'Oh lawk!' thinks I, 'there's no accounting for tastes.' Jim he ain't
ower much o' a beauty, I promise thee. He's gotten a cast i' one o' his
eyes, and when he washes his face he's gotten a black stock on; and when
he don't, why, then he's all o' a muck, face and neck alike.
"'Can I get thee owt?' says Rachel Anne, as shameless as owt. 'Ah! tha
wants a pair o' boots. I reckon father's gotten an owd pair he win't
miss. I'll get them for thee.' Then sudden, as she was going away to t'
back door, she turns and says, 'My! he ain't got no pipe. I mun get him
one o' father's.'
"'Oh, ye abandoned profligate!' groaned I, 'robbing thy parents to
bestow all on this owdacious waggabone! But I'll be even wi' thee! I'll
let my fine gentleman know the looks o' my back-yard! I'll let un ha' a
taste o' my baccy! I'll let un know the feel o' my boots!'
"'Father's breeches fit un rare!' said Rachel Anne.
"Well, now! if that warn't too much. I yelled--
"'Ah! ye dirty waggabone! Thou stealing rascal! Thou cock-eyed
raggamuffin!' And I wor upon him in no time. I caught un by t' neck and
shook un furious. I wor nigh brussen wi' rage. He were fair down capped,
and said nowt. But, as you'll see presently, he were gathering up his
rage for a reglar outbust. He were nigh brussen too.
"'Well,' says I, 'wot is't a doing here? I knows! Thou'rt arter my
Rachel Anne. Well. Tha'lt never marry my daughter if I can help it. I'll
never own thee wi' thy ugly face for a son-in-law. I win't run the
chance o' a cock-eye i' my grand-children. If my dowter will ha' thee,
I'll disown her; I win't speak to her again.' Then I shook him. 'Take
that,' says I, and I gave him a blow o' the fist on his nose, and I
reckon I flattened it in. 'Dost a' like it?' says I. 'Take another
taste--a little stimulant will do thee good.' Then I kicked un off t'
chair, and dragged him up, and shook, and shook, and shook him till I
were all of a muck wi' sweat. So I hollered to my Phoebe. 'Phoebe, lass!
come and poise un i' t' rear. I'll hold un i' position.' Well, she came
out, and she gave him a crack.
"'Now,' says I, 'I'd like to look i' thy ugly face and take stock o' t'
damages. I've done thy beauty. Phoebe, lass! give me t' candle.' Shoo
went to t' lanthorn, and browt out t' candle and gave it to me.
"Jim Greenwood hung all limp, like old clothes i' my hand, and never
spoke. But I didn't know what fire and fury was in him then. He wor just
one o' them chaps as endures what you may say and do up to a certain
point, but when that point is passed, then--Lor'!'
"I took t' candle from my owd woman--that's my wife, I mean, tha mun
know--and I held it afore me. Lor-a-mussy, I were flayed! I let go hold,
and let t' candle tumble on Jim--that's owd Greenwood's son, tha
knows--and I stood shakin' i' all my limbs. I'd smashed his nose right
in; I'd broken t' bridge and knocked it in, and there weren't nowt on it
remaining. And his eyes--Lor'! I hadn't time to think, for I had passed
t' point, and t' chap couldn't stan' no more. I'd let t' candle fall on
him, and set him on fire. Folks don't over much like being set fire
to--leastways owd Greenwood's son didn't; for he did blaze, and bang,
and fizz, and snap, and crackle away! He reglar exploded, he did! I
stood in a sort o' maze like--I were dazed. Phoebe screamed. And then
came a great haw-haw from my boys, who were all there. I could see 'em
now by t' leet o' t' burning sweetheart. 'Lor', father!' said Rachel
Anne, as innocent as owt, _'What hast a' been doing to our Guy Fawkes?_'
"Well, sir, will you believe it?--it was nowt but a Guy Fawkes full o'
straw and squibs and crackers 'at I'd involuntarily set on fire."
This story was told, scarcely above a breath, during a missionary
meeting, whilst a colonial bishop was addressing us. James did not laugh
himself--was as grave as was proper on the occasion; but his little eyes
twinkled roguishly, and those who could hear the whispered tale with
difficulty restrained their laughter.
"I think I can tell you summut as happened to my brother Tommy," said
James, after we had sung "From Greenland's icy mountains," and were
walking at a judicious distance from the colonial bishop. "Well, my
brother Tom were a rare bird to drink. He'd been to t' Horse and Jockey
one day, and had supped enough beer for once, and when he came out about
half after ten, he warn't ower clear as to t' direction he sud go.
Howm'ever, he took t' loin (lane) all right. Presently there come some
one along t' road. 'Now,' thowt he, 'I mun keep clear o' he, or he'll
run hissel' again' me, and knock me down.' T' mooin were up, just
settin', and castin' shadows; so he made a great roundabout to avoid
lurching again' t' man as were comin' along; but seeing his shadow, ma
brother mistook that for t' man, and thowt t' shadow had cast t' feller.
So he tried to step ower t' chap and avoid t' shadow. As tha mun see, he
came wi' a crack again t' chap.
"'Ye druffen rascal,' said he, giving ma brother a bang on t' lugs
(ears) as made his head spin.
"'It's thy fault,' said Tom. 'What dost a' mean by having a standing-up
shadow and solid too?'
"The chap gives him another crack and tumbles him down. When ma brother
got up again he went on his road again, saying to hissel', 'I winna go
blundering again' no more shadows to-night if I see anybody coming.'
Just then he thowt he saw another chap; so to get out o' his way he
turned into a field by a gate to let un pass. Now, ma brother had a
little too much beer in his head; soa when he got into t' field he
couldn't get out again. He rambled round and round, and t' mooin went
down.
"'Weel,' ses he, 'I don't care; I'll sleep where I am.' And he ligs him
down on t' ground. He hadn't been long asleep afore he wakened wi' cold.
T' dews o' neet came falling on him and wetted him, and his teeth were
chattering; so then he opened his eyes. And what dost a' think he seed?
Why, standing above him were a hawful form as black as a crow. His legs
was crooked, his arms was spread, and Tom could see claws on his
fingers. His face were like nowt earthly; and he had bristling hair,
and great horns like a coo. Tom could see t' glint o' his wicked een
fixed on him.
"Weel, now, Tommas weren't that sort o' chap exackly as might flatter
hissen angels 'ud come after him out o' heaven; so the thowt came on him
it were t' owd chap come to fetch his soul to t' other place.
"Tom lay quite still. He thowt t' owd chap mebbe would let un lig a
while if he shammed sleep. He wouldn't be so unmannerly as to wake un up
for the purpose o' takin' him away. Tha knaws t' owd chap war' a gem'man
once, tho' he's fallen a bit sin'. Yet what's born i' t' bone comes out
i' t' flesh--leastwise so Tom thowt.
"Soa Tom lay quiet. But presently he thowt he felt t' owd chap's fingers
feeling in his pocket for four and twopence he'd gotten aboot him
somewhere. Soa Tom turned round sudden on him and ses, 'Tha mun tak ma
soul if tha's boun' to do soa; but I'll trouble thee to let t' four and
twopence aloan.'
"Ah! he war' a deep one war' t' owd chap. As sharp as owt, when Tom
turned on un, he were standing up stiff and unconcerned, and looking t'
other way.
"Nah, as Tom had spoken, 't warn't no use his pretending any more to be
asleep. So he thowt, 'What am I to do next? Tha mun do more wi' traycle
than tha can wi' brimstone. I'll soap un down a bit.'
"Then Tom opens his eyes and looks at un and ses, 'Owt fresh?' But he
wouldn't answer and reveal the mysteries o' his shop.
"So Tom ses, ses he, 'I reckon tha'st coom a rare long way, and it's
thirsty work walking, or flying, or travelling by train, or whichiver
way tha hast comed. And,' ses he, 'I tak it vara civil o' thee to come
for me. There's ma owd woman grummles if shoo's to come for ma to t'
Horse and Jockey, and that's half a mile from my home. And mebbe tha's
comed for me five thousand mile. It's vara civil. It's not like a north
countryman that,' ses he. 'We are outspoken folk, and there ain't much
civility among us, but hard rubs. But I won't be outdone by a south
countryman i' civility. I daresay tha'rt dry. Tha'll stop a bit, and
I'll fetch thee a sup o' home-brewed beer.'
"Soa Tom gets up on his feet, and away he goes as wick as a scoprell,
and gets home, and dashes in at t' door. There were Sarah Anne, his
wife, as red as a turkey-cock, and swollen fit to brussen wi' he getting
home so late.
"But Tommy he out wi' it at once. 'Sarah Anne, lass! run and get a jug
o' beer and a mug, and off wi' thee as fast as tha' can to t' owd
chap--he's waiting for thee.' He thowt, tha knaws, to get t' owd chap to
tak t' wife instead of he. But Sarah Anne she up wi' her fist and
knocked him down as flat as ginger-beer as has had t' cork out a
fortnight. 'Ah, James,' ses ma brother to me, 'I've tried to send ma owd
woman to t' owd chap, but shoo winna go. Tha mun tak' a horse to t'
water, but tha canna mak' un drink.'
"Weel, next morning ma brother Tom hoo went to look at t' place where he
was i' t' neet, and there he see'd t' owd chap still.... But by day
leet--what dost a' think?--he was nowt but a flaycrow (scarecrow)."
FOOTNOTE:
[15] As lively as a teetotum.
THE ONE-POUND NOTE.[16]
Samuel Sutcliffe lived at Hebden Hay, or Hawden Hole, about a quarter of
a mile west of Newbridge, nearly at the bottom of the steep slope which
descends from Whitehill Nook to the river Hebden. The house is still
standing, easy to be recognised by its whitewash and by the yew-tree
which grows between the door and the path leading to Upper Hepton and
Tommy Rocky's. Beside the farmhouse there is under the same roof a
cottage at the east end. In the field at the west end, and below the
house, stretching down to the stream, were formerly some mounds, where
it was said that the Heptonstall people during the plague buried their
dead. Crabtree says (p. 15): "Of that dreadful epidemic, the plague, one
hundred and seventeen persons are said to have died at Heptonstall in
1631, several of whom were buried at home, but all entered in the
register there." In the old barn near the house, pulled down a few years
ago, since 1817, an old man cut his throat. The yew-tree is no inapt
symbol of the melancholy associations of this secluded spot--a cemetery,
a suicide, and a murder.
Samuel Sutcliffe, commonly called Sammy o' Kattie's, lived there to the
age of eighty, a bachelor. He was a manufacturer of worsted pieces, and
for several years farmed the small farm. The only person living with him
was his nephew, William Sutcliffe. On Saturdays, sometimes the uncle,
sometimes the nephew, attended Halifax market; sometimes both. On
Saturdays, towards evening, the old man might have been seen crossing
the old bridge at Hebden Bridge, and calling at the "Hole in the Wall"
to take a single glass of ale and hear the news, while he gave himself a
very brief rest after his walk from Halifax, before passing on. He was a
stout, active man for his age; sober, steady, and industrious; and by
economy, but without penuriousness, had saved a considerable sum of
money. The cottage adjoining Sammy's dwelling was inhabited by a weaver
named William Greenwood.
For five or six years the nephew, William Sutcliffe, had carried on a
little business in the fustian trade on his own account; and for two
years he had the take of the farm, on which he kept a couple of cows.
His business led him to travel into Lancashire, Craven, and even
Westmoreland. His journeys were taken three times a year: he started on
Monday morning, and returned usually on Friday evening, sometimes on
Saturday. He left Hawden Hole on one of these journeys on Monday,
February 3rd, 1817, and was this time expected home on the Thursday
night following, but circumstances prevented his return till the
Saturday.
The name of the murderer was Michael Pickles, commonly designated "Old
Mike." He lived at Northwell, near Heptonstall, on the road leading from
Heptonstall by Newbridge to Haworth. His cottage, since pulled down, was
of one storey: it contained two rooms--one towards the valley and the
township of Wadsworth, into which the door entered, formed the dwelling
or "house;" the other, trenching back into the hill-side, was called the
"shop," and contained the looms. Some portion of the walls of the shop
are still visible. Approached from the road, Old Mike's cottage stood a
little below and a little beyond the principal house now standing at
Northwell. A small garden was attached, in the walls of which are still
to be seen the recesses which contained Mike's bee-hives. The
plump-looking navel-wort, possibly introduced by him, may be seen
peeping from crevices in the walls. Like Hawden Hole, Northwell has also
its characteristic tree. The sombre Scotch pine which stands prominently
forward in front of Northwell is in the corner of Mike's garden, and is
said to have been planted by him. He lived at this cottage fifteen
years. His age was forty-one. He is described as a strong, broad-set,
but not a tall man, with rather dark hair, pale, cadaverous face, no
whiskers, and large rolling eyes. He was left-handed, his hands being
very large: he often made exhibition of the power of his left hand in
grasping and crushing anything placed within it, in which exploit he
surpassed all competitors. He had a very large, flat foot; his knees
inclined very much inwards. He had the reputation of being
"double-jointed," whatever may be meant by that term. His occupation was
sometimes that of weaving at Northwell, sometimes of gardening for his
neighbours, but more frequently that of an out-door labourer in
dry-walling, and especially in constructing, of large stones, what is
called "weiring," for preventing the river-edge from encroaching on the
neighbouring fields; for which his great strength qualified him. He had
the reputation of being light-fingered. In dressing the gardens of his
neighbours he not unfrequently helped himself to some of the contents.
His house was generally very well supplied with milk in summer, which
was considered to have been obtained by milking the cows in the fields.
Above all, he had the reputation of stealing bee-hives, to which the
fact of his being a bee-keeper was a sort of cover. As a gentleman was
one night riding along the "Needless Road" when not quite dark, he and
his horse were suddenly startled, on coming in view of the steep field
stretching from that road up to Northwell, by the sight of a strange
figure moving slowly and heavily up the field: it was Mike with his not
uncommon night burden, a hive of bees on his head. Another gentleman,
stopping late at Kebcote Inn because of the rain, saw Mike and a
companion take shelter there about an hour after midnight, the former
being loaded with the customary "hive-piche" on his head. In the floor
of his house, under the bed, he had excavated a secret hiding-place for
stolen goods, covered by a moveable flag-stone. The paving before his
door had been raised by the earth taken from this so-called "cave."
Notwithstanding these dishonest practices, Mike made a considerable
profession of religion. He was a joined member at Birchcliffe Chapel,
having, with his wife, received adult baptism. Whether he was originally
sincere in his profession and afterwards fell away, is more than
doubtful when we consider that, notwithstanding his mal-practices, he
continued to make great religious profession. In conversation he would
expound at large the doctrines of Christianity. To approach him with
the view of holding short discourse with him on general topics while he
was gardening for you, was to incur the risk of a sermon from him. He
fetched milk from old Sammy's at Hawden Hole, and was in the habit of
sitting and conversing with him, not unfrequently of reading to him
during the long evenings. They had been acquainted many years.
Mike's accomplice was John Greenwood, a weaver, a tallish, slender man,
aged twenty-nine years, with lightish hair, whose features gave the
impression of a weak and undecided, rather than a depraved and wicked
disposition. His characteristic want of firmness rendered him the easy
dupe of any deeper adept in villany who might throw temptation into his
way. It is believed that he would not have been connected with the
murder but for the persuasion of Mike. His character does not appear to
have lain under any suspicion, although, as his confession afterwards
showed, he was already addicted to dishonest practices. He and Mike
married sisters. He lived in a cottage attached to a remote farm in
Wadsworth called Bog-eggs, above Old Town, a little below the moorland
prominence called Tomtitiman from which so noble a prospect of this
district may be obtained. His cottage, now unoccupied, forms the upper
part of the building at Bog-eggs, being contiguous to the farm-house.
On Thursday, the 6th of February, 1817, "Joan o' t' Bog-eggs" went over
to Northwell to try to obtain some money from Old Mike, saying that he
was "pinned." Times were very hard just now, and doubtless there was
much suffering among the poor. Flour was selling at eight shillings per
stone, and meal at four and sixpence to five shillings. Old Mike said
that he had no money, but that he knew of a place where they could get
some. This was just the sort of temptation in which Joan's (John's)
weak principles were likely to fail; and Mike was exactly the sort of
man to attempt to turn Joan's infirmities to his own advantage. Mike's
plausible speech soon prevailed over Joan's scruples; and it was agreed
that that night they should sally forth and rob Old Sammy.
On Thursday evening, February 6th, 1817, "Old Mike" and "Joan o' t'
Bog-Eggs" were sitting by Old Mike's fireside at Northwell. The night
was wearing late, and the family had been sometime in bed. It was
clearly understood between Mike and Joan, that after waiting till the
hour was sufficiently advanced, they should sally out and rob "Sammy o'
Kattie's." The hour agreed upon was midnight. Mike was smoking his pipe,
and thinking over the circumstances of the intended burglary. Simple,
unthinking Joan had fallen asleep under the influence of the warm fire.
At length the clock struck twelve, and Mike aroused his companion,
saying, "Come, it's time to be going." They took with them Mike's gun,
and left the house, proceeding towards Whitehill Nook, along a field
called Adcock, which is to the left of and above the public road leading
to Whitehill Nook. They then travelled down the steep rough wood to
Hawden Hole. Thrice Joan's heart failed him as he thought of the
possible consequences to them both of the meditated robbery. Reassured
by Mike's arguments, he proceeded to Old Sammy's. Half-past twelve was
the hour for the moon to rise; but the night was cloudy, though without
rain. Arrived at the house, Joan was placed as sentry before the door,
with the gun in his hand, and directed to shoot any person who should
offer interruption. Mike, perfectly familiar with the premises, took out
a window at the west end of the house. There were more than one window
at that end. He took out the larger one, being that nearest to the
river. He then entered the house, and undid the door, and opened it.
Besides a lock, the door was also fastened by a stout wooden bar placed
across it, with the ends inserted in holes in the masonry. Coming out of
the house through the now opened door, he fastened the door of William
Greenwood, the neighbouring cottager, by placing the wooden bar across
the doorway, and fastening the latch to the bar with string. Probably
they both entered Sammy's cottage. Mike mounted the stairs into the room
where Old Sammy was sleeping alone. About a month before, the old man
had bought a small oak box, in which he placed such of his papers and
documents as were of value, and most of his money. The box was placed in
a bucket which stood in one corner of his bedroom. Mike secured this
bucket, with its contents. Three cotton pieces and four warps were also
taken from the bedroom: the pieces were marked by William Greenwood. A
cloth-coat, and a pair of shoes belonging to William Sutcliffe, which
wanted soling, were also taken, and a new shirt of Sammy's.
But old men sleep lightly. Before these things were secured and got
away, Sammy awoke. Sitting up in bed to listen, he heard footsteps in
the house. He endeavoured to alarm his neighbour in the adjoining
cottage, and called out, "William! William! William!" Fearful of being
disturbed or detected, Mike approached the bed and seized his old friend
and companion by the throat with his terrible left hand. Gripping him as
in a vice, he held him down; nor did he quit his grasp till the spark of
life was extinguished.
William Greenwood was disturbed during the night. He fancied he heard a
noise in Sammy's house, but could not be sure. He called out, but
received no answer. He conjectured that the old man might be talking in
his sleep; at any rate, he took no more notice of the matter, and fell
asleep again. The wind was very strong, and roared terrible in the
yew-tree. Probably the noise which he heard was Sammy's voice calling
out "William" the third and last time. The silence which ensued was, as
Mr. Hardy eloquently described it at York, "the silence of death."
I have a short document drawn up at Halifax for the satisfaction of
William Sutcliffe, on the 17th or 18th of February, 1817, that he might
possess some account of the manner of his uncle's last struggles, in
which is recorded the substance of what Mike confessed on the subject at
Halifax, February 17th. It is as follows:--"The further examination of
William Sutcliffe, of Hawden Hole, in Heptonstall, who saith that on
Monday, the 17th day of February, 1817, Michael Pickles, the prisoner,
told this examinant that after he had entered the dwelling-house of his
late uncle, Samuel Sutcliffe, and had got into the bedroom, the said
Samuel Sutcliffe rose up on the bed and called out, 'William! William!
William!' on which the said Michael Pickles seized the said Samuel
Sutcliffe by the throat, and heard no more from him, except that he
sobbed, as it was soon over with him, and he bore very little. And saith
that the cause of his asking the question of the said Michael Pickles as
to his uncle's death was to know what his said uncle said previous to
his death, and if he suffered much."
Mike now descended the stairs, and greatly alarmed his companion by
telling him he was afraid he had killed Sammy. Leaving the bucket
outside the house, they made off to Northwell with their booty--the
cotton pieces, the warps, the shoes, the cloth-coat, the shirt, and,
above all, the oak box with its contents.
Having arrived at Northwell, Mike deposited the cotton pieces and warps
in the hiding-place under the flag-stone. Joan took the shoes. The oak
box they at once burnt to prevent detection, but preserved the
contents. Mike told his wife he was afraid he had killed Sammy, and she
began to cry. He also charged Joan to keep it a secret, even from his
wife, for his revealing it would cause them both to be hanged. In
dividing the money Joan contrived to take advantage of his more crafty
companion; for he pocketed one note unknown to Mike. Mike's "Confession"
says respecting the remaining notes--"John Greenwood took the
guinea-note, and gave me the two Bank of England notes, and I gave him
nine shillings and sixpence in silver, which made it equal--one pound
ten shillings and sixpence each."
William Sutcliffe in his evidence at York said that on going from home
on Monday, February 3rd, "he left his uncle four one-pound notes and
some silver, to pay wages with in his absence. His uncle had also some
notes of his own; among others, one of Mytholm Bank, which had been
issued without the signature of Turner, Bent, and Co. It was No. 63. His
attention had been called to this note on the 1st of February (the
preceding Saturday); his uncle had brought it down-stairs in an old
book: there were also in this book another pound-note and a
guinea-note"--in all seven notes. William Sutcliffe on his return said
that Sammy's three notes were pinned in a ready reckoner. Now, on
examining the house the following morning, among some loose papers in
the window down-stairs, there were found three one-pound notes which had
escaped the notice of the robbers. These three which were left being
added to the four which Mike and Joan took away, made seven notes. It
would seem that Sammy had separated one of William's four notes from the
remaining three; that this note he had placed in his box up-stairs with
the three notes belonging to himself; and that thus his three notes and
one of William's were taken away, while three of William's notes had
been left in the pocket-book in the window down-stairs. The note which
Joan appropriated to himself, unknown to Mike, was the unsigned Mytholm
note. Had this note fallen into Mike's hands, he would probably have
observed the danger arising from the circumstance, and destroyed the
note; but the ignorant and unsuspecting Joan was not aware of the
danger.
There was at this time a set of men in the Cragg valley who went by a
bad name. In order to shift the suspicion of the murder and robbery from
himself and Mike, Joan, on his way home to Bog-eggs, instead of crossing
the valley at Foster Mill, travelled down towards Mytholmroyd, and
crossing the Calder at Carr Bridge, threw down the papers and documents
obtained from Sammy's box at Carr Green, hoping thereby to induce
suspicion that some of the Cragg band were the robbers and murderers.
And now for the events of the following morning. During the week Sammy
had paid some money for work to a man named James Greenwood, of
Lobbmill; but a balance of four shillings was left unpaid. Before
daylight on Friday morning James Greenwood presented himself at Sammy's
door, having come for his four shillings. He was surprised to find the
door wide open. This excited his fears that some mischief had taken
place during the night. He knocked at William Greenwood's door, stated
the suspicious circumstance, and desired him to come out. On attempting
to do so, he found that the door would not open. James Greenwood then
discovered (it was still dark) that the door was fastened by means of
the wooden bar. It was now ascertained that Sammy's house had been
entered by robbers through the window, and that he lay lifeless in his
bed. His mouth was full of blood, and some had run out upon the
bed-clothes. The empty bucket was found outside the door. William
Greenwood, who had seen Sammy at half-past ten the night before in good
health, looked for the cotton pieces which he had taken in the previous
day, but they were gone. He observed one footstep leading to the window
which had been removed. It was the mark of a bare foot.
There was great consternation in the neighbourhood as soon as the murder
was known. Mr. Thomas Dineley, surgeon, of Hebden Bridge, was called in.
He gave his opinion that the deceased died of strangulation. It is
commonly said that he also pronounced Sammy to have been strangled by a
left-handed person; but some persons very likely to know most of the
facts have no remembrance of this circumstance.
The papers and documents were found at Carr Green early in the morning
by Olive Heyhirst, who was going to fetch milk.
Several persons expressed to each other their suspicions that Old Mike
was the criminal. A woman met him in Northwell Lane on Friday morning.
He said, "Have you heard that Old Sammy's murdered?" She replied, "If he
is, it's thee that's done it."
Mike afterwards confessed that the day after the murder he could neither
eat, drink, nor sleep, and was always uneasy wherever he was. On Friday
evening he went to Heptonstall to be shaved. He was in such a state of
restless agitation that the barber had much difficulty in fulfilling his
office, and when Mike was gone out, the barber said to some bystanders,
"Yon's the man that's murdered Sammy."
William Sutcliffe, the nephew, returned from his journey on Saturday
afternoon. A messenger had been sent to expedite his return; but he was
not able to get back more than a couple of hours earlier than he would
otherwise have done. He now privately made known to several neighbours,
and among others to Mr. John Sutcliffe, of The Lee, that among the
missing property there was an unsigned Mytholm note. It had been entered
by Mr. Barker, the clerk to Turner, Bent, and Co., but was not signed by
them. Having been pinned in the ready reckoner, it would show the marks
of pin-holes. At that time several firms near Hebden Bridge issued
private notes of various values. Messrs. Turner, Bent, and Co. issued
both guinea and one-pound notes, printed in black ink. Messrs. Rawden,
of Callis Mill, issued both guinea-notes and five-shilling cards,
printed in blue ink, and therefore called "blue-backs." Mr. John
Sutcliffe, of The Lee, issued cards, value three shillings and sixpence,
printed red. Mr. Edmondson issued seven-shilling notes. Mr. Richard
Chatburn, of Sprutts, issued three and sixpenny cards. Mr. Robert
Sutcliffe, of New Shop, put out five-shilling notes. Silver was very
scarce just then; the smooth shillings which had been current were being
called in by Government, and stamped ones were being issued instead.
Monday, February 10th, Mike attended service at Birchcliffe Chapel. The
minister, Mr. Hollinrake, during his sermon made some strong remarks
about the murder. His text was Matthew xxiv., 43--"But know this, that
if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would
come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be
broken up." This smote Mike's conscience so severely that he afterwards
declared that, if any one had looked him earnestly in the face, he might
have discovered that he was the man. An inquest was held at Heptonstall;
and poor old Sammy's remains were interred at Heptonstall church.
Standing outside the churchyard, at the east end, near the street, you
may read his epitaph through the rails:--"In memory of Samuel
Sutcliffe, of Hebden Hay, in Heptonstall, who died February 7, 1817,
aged eighty-one years."
John Greenwood had a brother living at Luddenden, named William. John
went to him, and gave the unsigned note into his hand. He then received
the note back again from his brother. This farce was enacted between
them to enable John to give an evasive answer to any one who should make
troublesome inquiries as to how he became possessed of the note. John
now went to the house of Thomas Greenwood, of Birchcliffe, and completed
the purchase of a clock from him, giving him in payment the unsigned
note, with some other money. Another version of the story is that given
by William Greenwood, the brother, at York, viz., that "John Greenwood
came to his father's house on Tuesday, February 11th, and on going home,
desired William to 'go agatards' with him; when he told him that he had
bought a clock of Thomas Greenwood that came to forty-two shillings;
that he would give him a note which the witness was to give to Thomas
Greenwood on John's account, and say that he had lent it to John. This
William did; but he then began to think that John had not come by the
note in an honest manner."
A woman named Betty Wadsworth, having had an illegitimate child, had
been disowned by her relatives, and was now living "afore t' friend" at
Rawholme with another William Greenwood, commonly known by the name of
"Will o' t' shop." She possessed a chest of drawers, which, to raise
money, she disposed of to Thomas Greenwood, of Birchcliffe, who in
payment handed over to her the unsigned note on Tuesday, February 11th.
The same evening she went to the shop of John Hoyle, of Woodend, to buy
groceries, and offered the unsigned note in payment. Hoyle refused to
receive it, seeing it was unsigned. She took it back to Rawholme.
Wednesday morning, the 12th, she sent it up to Thomas Greenwood by
Sarah, wife of "Will o' t' shop," complaining that he had paid to her a
note which was not genuine. Now this Thomas Greenwood[17] was a weaver
for Mr. John Sutcliffe, of The Lee; and on the day before Tuesday he had
received from Mr. John Sutcliffe, for wages, a Halifax banknote. Not
being able to read, he was not aware whether the rejected note was that
which he had received from William Greenwood, of Luddenden, or from Mr.
John Sutcliffe. Doubting whether he should be able to get a good note
from John or William Greenwood in exchange for it, he decided to try The
Lee first, and hope for a successful issue of the experiment. He went
immediately to The Lee, and found in the warehouse Mr. Richard Aked, who
was learning the business with Mr. Sutcliffe. To him he gave the note,
saying that Mr. Sutcliffe must have given him an unsigned note by
mistake the day before. Mr. Aked took the note to Mr. Sutcliffe, who was
breakfasting. He at once saw that this note was the key to the discovery
of Sammy's murderer. He sent for some constables, and meanwhile learned
from Thomas Greenwood that the note had come from "Joan o' t' Bog-eggs."
James Wilson, the constable, sizer, of Hebden Bridge Lanes, soon made
his appearance, and with him three others--viz., George Hargreaves, John
o' Paul's (Greenwood), and John Uttley, commonly called John Clerk,
being the clerk of Heptonstall church. Mr. John Sutcliffe and Thomas
Greenwood accompany the officers to Bog-eggs, and Joan is apprehended.
He declares that the note was paid to him by his brother William. Joan
is therefore set at liberty, and William is apprehended at Luddenden,
and taken to Halifax in proper custody the same day. He is brought
before Thomas Horton, Esq., J.P., at the justice-room, Copper Street. He
refuses to give any account of the note, being afraid of criminating his
brother, till Friday, February 14th. On that day William Greenwood
confesses the hoax as to the passing of the note from Joan to him, and
back again. The same day Joan is re-apprehended, and declares before Mr.
Horton that he received the unsigned note from Old Mike. William
Greenwood is set at liberty. Old Mike is looked for, but cannot be
found, his wife stating that he is gone off seeking for work.
Sunday, February 16th, Mike is apprehended at his brother's at Cowside,
near Blackshaw Head. He is kept in custody at an inn in Heptonstall for
the night. He declared to the Rev. J. Charnock, who visited him, "I am
as innocent as you are; I am as innocent as a child unborn."
Monday morning, February 17th, Mike was taken to Halifax, before Justice
Horton, with many other persons who had by this time been apprehended on
suspicion. (Some had already been brought before Mr. Horton at Halifax.
As many as sixteen or seventeen persons in all were taken up. Some of
these confessed other crimes, being, however, unconnected with this
murder, as of stealing meal and flour, and a gun from Handganroyd Mill,
sheep-stealing, &c. I believe that one or two persons were convicted of
sheep-stealing. The rest escaped, partly from the unwillingness of the
parties robbed to prosecute.) Mike is confronted with Joan, and denies
Joan's accusation. Joan contradicts himself by some blunder as to the
day of the week and day in the month when he went to Old Mike's to
borrow money. Hereupon Mike appears to be cleared, and is set at
liberty. Joan's father comes to Joan, and entreats him, if he knows
anything about the robbery, to confess it. At length he yields to this
persuasion, and unreservedly confesses all about both the robbery and
the murder. John Uttley, the constable, is in court, and having a horse
at the inn, he volunteers to pursue Old Mike on his way back to
Heptonstall. He overtakes him in King's Cross Lane, walking quickly
homewards, and eating "sweet parkin." Uttley calls out, "You must come
back with me." Mike, off his guard, asks, "What! has he been telling
something?" Uttley brings him quietly back to the magistrates' room.
Mike no longer denies the crimes of murder and burglary. When he and
Joan were confronted by each other there occurred such a scene of
crimination and recrimination that it was found necessary to place Joan
in the cell (or cellar) until the minutes of Joan's confession had been
read over to Mike. After Mike had confessed many circumstances connected
with the affair, the prisoners exchanged places, and the minutes of
Mike's confession were read over to Joan. Both were now consigned to
their cells.
Tuesday, February 18th, the prisoners were again before Mr. Horton, but
nothing new was elicited. They were this day committed to York Castle.
The same day James Wilson, the constable, searched Mike's house for the
third time. His evidence at York is that "he found, concealed under a
flag, under the bed, three fustian pieces and four warps, and some other
articles, and above the fireplace a gun. The cotton pieces were
identified by William Greenwood, Sammy's neighbour, who had taken them
into the house of the deceased and marked them; the other articles were
identified by William Sutcliffe."
The _Leeds Mercury_ of Saturday, Feb. 22nd, says that on Wednesday, the
13th, the two prisoners passed through that town, strongly ironed, on
their way to York Castle.
The trial took place at York Castle on Friday, March 14th, 1817. The
prisoners were arraigned on an indictment of murdering Samuel Sutcliffe,
and also on an indictment of burglary. Both admitted the burglary; both
denied the murder. By the recommendation of the judge they pleaded "Not
guilty" to both indictments. No fewer than 22 witnesses were taken to
York, including all the individuals whose names have been given above;
with Mr. William Sutcliffe, of Heptonstall, who made Sammy's writings;
Mr. John Barker and Mr. Jas. Bent, of Mytholm, and Mr. Henry Sutcliffe,
of Pendle Forest, &c. Mr. Hardy, in a very eloquent and perspicuous
opening, stated the facts of the case. The names of the witnesses whose
evidence is given in the _Leeds Mercury_ (Saturday, March 22, 1817),
are William Sutcliffe, William Greenwood (the neighbouring cottager),
Thomas Dyneley, Betty Wadsworth, John Hoyle, Sarah Greenwood, Thomas
Greenwood, William Greenwood, of Luddenden, Thomas Horton, Esq., Olive
Heyhirst, John Thomas, of Midgley, and James Wilson. John Thomas "was a
shoemaker, and received a pair of shoes from the prisoner, John
Greenwood, on the 8th of February, which he delivered to the constable,
and which, being produced in court, were identified by William Sutcliffe
as the shoes which he had left in the house" when he went on his
journey. The other witnesses gave evidence agreeing in most particulars
with the facts stated above.
The remainder of the proceedings at York we give in the words of the
_Leeds Mercury_ of Saturday, March 22nd, 1817. "The prisoners being
called upon for their defence, Michael Pickles said--John Greenwood came
to my house and said he was pined, and asked me to go with him to
Sammy's, of Hawden Hole, which I did, and he took the gun with him. When
we got to the old man's house, we got in at the window, and we both went
into the chamber where the old man was. He started up in bed when he
heard us, and we both ran away, and I never touched the man.
"John Greenwood said--The robbery was proposed by Michael Pickles, for I
did not know that there was such a house--I had never been there in my
life. When we got to the house, Pickles went in at the window, but I
stayed at the outside. I was never in the biggin' at all, but stood at
the shop-end all the time, and Pickles brought out all the goods to me
that he had taken out of the biggin'. He then told me that he had taken
the old man by the neck, and was afraid he had killed him; and I said,
'Surely thou hast not hurt the old man?' Michael Pickles gave me the gun
to carry, but I tied my handkerchief in two knots over the lock, for
fear I should do some mischief with it. When we got back to Pickles'
house, he told his wife he was afraid he had killed the old man; and his
wife began to cry. Pickles charged me that I should keep it a secret
from every one, even from my wife, for if I told I should be hanged.
"Three witnesses were called. Two of them spoke favourably of the
character of John Greenwood. The third stated that he had a wife and
three children, but that he did not know much about his character.
"His Lordship, in his charge to the jury, stated that where two or more
persons were jointly engaged in the commission of any burglary or other
felonious act, and one of the party killed a person in furtherance of
their common object, every one of the party would in law be guilty of
the crime of murder. And it was necessary, continued his Lordship, for
the safety of society, that it should be so, that associations in guilt
might be as much as possible prevented. If indeed an individual of any
such party should put a person to death to gratify his own private
revenge, and not for the furtherance of their common object, in that
case he alone would be answerable for the murder. His Lordship explained
that this furtherance comprises all acts done to prevent or overpower
resistance and to prevent discovery. Applying this rule to the case
before them, his Lordship said that if the jury were satisfied that both
the prisoners had gone to the house of the deceased for the purpose of
committing a robbery, and that one of them, to prevent any alarm or
discovery, had by violence occasioned the death of the deceased, it
would be murder in them both, though one of the prisoners should not
have been within the house at the time, and should have given no consent
to the murderous deed, or even not have known of its being committed.
That a burglary had been committed in the house was too evident to admit
of a doubt. It also appeared from all the circumstances of the case
that the death of Samuel Sutcliffe had been produced by strangulation,
and it was admitted by Pickles that he had seized him by the throat, and
that when he quitted his grasp he had reason to suppose he was dead. If
the jury were satisfied of these facts, and further thought that Michael
Pickles had committed this violence, not from any personal enmity (of
which there was not the least proof), but with a view to prevent alarm
and secure the accomplishment of their design of robbing the house, it
would be the duty of the jury to find both the prisoners guilty.
"The jury turned round in the box for a moment, and then pronounced
against both prisoners the fatal verdict of 'Guilty.' His Lordship
proceeded, after a most solemn and affecting address, to pass the
sentence of the law, which was, that they were both of them to be hung
by the neck on Monday until they were dead, and that their bodies should
be delivered to the surgeons for dissection.
"John Greenwood fell on his knees, begging for mercy, and protesting his
innocence of the murder.
"It is understood that since his conviction he has acknowledged to the
chaplain that he was in the house, and stood at the foot of the steps
with the gun.
"The sentence of the law was carried into execution on Monday, March
17th, a few minutes after eleven o'clock, and their bodies, after being
suspended the usual time, were delivered to the surgeons for dissection.
The body of Pickles has been sent to the Dispensary at Halifax."
FOOTNOTES:
[16] The circumstances of the murder and the discovery of the murderer
were collected with great care by the brother of a friend of the author,
now dead, and were communicated by him to the _Hebden Bridge Chronicle_
in 1856. The papers of the compiler have been kindly sent to the author,
and placed at his disposal. The facts of this extraordinary story were
collected partly from individuals now surviving, who lived in the
neighbourhood at the time, especially from one who was a principal
witness at the trial at York, and partly from documents. Of the latter
the principal are a good report of the trial given in the _Leeds
Mercury_ of Saturday, March 22nd, 1817, and a confession by the
condemned parties drawn up in the usual style of confessions, and
printed at Leeds for the purpose of being hawked about the streets. The
_Manchester Mercury_ of Tuesday, March, 18th, 1817, gives a short
account of the trial and condemnation of the prisoners, and concludes
with a confession of the principal prisoner; being a long verbatim
extract from the confession printed at Leeds for sale by hawkers. One of
the official books belonging to Heptonstall church contains a copy of
the charge of the judge to the jury at York, taken verbatim from the
_Leeds Mercury_ of March 22nd.
[17] Greenwood is probably the most prevalent name in the neighbourhood.
Out of 755 entries in a public register in the neighbourhood, the name
Greenwood occurs 48 times, Helliwell 34, Sutcliffe 33, Cockcroft 18,
Smith 18, Akroyd 15, Crabtree 15, Mitchell 14, Stansfield 13, Uttley 13,
Horsfall 12, Midgley 12, Gibson 11, Taylor 11, Pickles 9, Fielden 9,
Gill 9, &c. We may here remark on the prevalence of patronymic names,
which sometimes are really useful, however inelegant, in a district
where the same names recur so frequently. Thus "John o' Abbie's" and
"Joan o' Jim's" were the ordinary names of two individuals who were each
legally designated John Stansfield. By how many useful variations is the
name John Sutcliffe represented! To strangers this practice is the more
puzzling from the frequent use of abbreviations, such as Eam, Tham, Lol,
Abbie, Jooas, Kit (or Katie), Joan, Tim, and Tum; for Edmund, Nathaniel,
Lawrence, Abraham, Joseph, Catherine, John, Timothy, Thomas. There was
formerly a "Jimmie, o' Jamie, o' James, o'th Jumps." "George o' my
Gronny's" and "Will o' Nobody's" are bold specimens of what may be done
by the principle in question carried out with a little licence. Not
unfrequently, also, people are named from their residences, as "John up
th' steps," and "Old Ann o' th' Hinging Royd." Bye-names also become
sometimes attached as if they were real family surnames. If it were not
personal, many singular instances might be given. Persons are frequently
unable, without some consideration, to recognise the legal names of
their neighbours. Upon the hillside at Jumps, near Todmorden, I once
asked a little girl who was her father. "Will o' th' Jumps," she
replied. "And who's Will o' th' Jumps?" I again inquired. "He's Ailse o'
th' Jumps, fellie," replied the girl; and I doubt whether she had any
idea whatever of her legal surname.
MR. WIKES, OF LEASEHOLME.[18]
The living of Leaseholme, in the North Riding of Yorkshire, was held by
three successive generations of the Wikeses for upwards of a century;
all of whom were men of literary talents, popular preachers, great
oddities--but much given to the bottle. The first of the Wikes family
who held the living was a gentleman who had been captain in the army in
the reign of Charles I., and had fought for the unfortunate monarch
throughout the civil war. In one of the battles he received a wound in
his leg, which incapacitated him from further active service, and the
death of the king and the supremacy of Cromwell prevented him from
looking to Government for promotion.
But on the Restoration Mr. Wikes cast about for some berth in which he
might spend his declining years in ease and comfort. The living of
Leaseholme fell vacant, and he applied for it, remembering how his old
friend the sea-captain, Lyons, had obtained the bishopric of York from
Queen Elizabeth.
Captain Wikes was ordained by the Archbishop of York, and given the
living he solicited, King Charles II. being glad to reward an old
soldier of his father, who had shared his misfortunes, thus economically
to himself.
Mr. Wikes also held the incumbency of Ellerburn, near Leaseholme, and
took service in the morning at Leaseholme, and in the afternoon at
Ellerburn, or _vice versà_.
One year, when the 30th of January fell on a Sunday, Mr. Wikes marched
off to Ellerburn for morning service, with a pathetic sermon on the
martyrdom of his royal master in his pocket; but on his arrival at the
place he found the clerk and sexton near the churchyard, with a short
pole in their hands, watching a domestic quarrel that was going forward
on the opposite side of the beck that flows through the village. The
parson asked why the church was empty and his subordinates were not in
their places. The clerk pointed across the beck, and bade Parson Wikes
"look and see a woman combing her husband's head with a three-legged
stool."
Mr. Wikes at once plunged over the brook, and striking the husband with
his fist, tore the furious pair asunder, shouting, "Be quiet, you
brute!" to the husband, and "Hold your tongue, you vixen!" to the woman.
Both fell on him, and he had hard work in defending himself from husband
and wife. In the fray that ensued the yells of the parson--"Peace, you
monster! Have done, termagant! Hands off, you coward! Retire,
virago!"--were mingled with the abuse and blows of the disputants, till
the absurdity of the whole scene burst upon them all, as the crowd of
delighted parishioners and neighbours gathered in a circle about them,
and they fell back laughing, and shook hands all round.
But matters did not end here. When husband and wife disagree, and a
third party interferes, according to local custom, all three are doomed
to "ride the stang," whilst the people shout and caper around the
victims, chanting, as they beat frying-pans and blow horns--
"Rub-a-dub, dub-a-dub, ran-a-tan-tang,
It's neither what you say nor I say, but I ride the stang."
The parishioners insisted on the immemorial custom being complied with,
and Parson Wikes was made to sit astride on the short pole the clerk and
sexton had prepared; two others were provided for the belligerent
husband and wife; and the whole village prepared to march in procession
with them. But though the parson sat complacently on his pole, the
husband and wife refused to submit to the ignominious custom, and he
armed himself with the pitch-fork, she with the poker, and began to
defend themselves against the villagers. Parson Wikes was carried to the
scene of conflict, and the clerk and sexton, in their eagerness to join
in the struggle, dropped him into the beck. Then the villagers rushed
upon him, swearing that he was shirking his duty of riding the stang,
and he had to stand up to his middle in the water, and fight them off.
Armed with the stick, which he whirled about him in single-stick
fashion, he rattled their heads and arms with it to such good purpose
that he was able to beat a retreat into the church, where he rapidly
vested himself in his surplice, and placed the sanctity of the place and
garb between him and his opponents.
The crowd now poured into the church, and Parson Wikes proceeded with
the service, leaving a trail of water up and down the chancel as he
paced to the altar and thence to the pulpit. Having prefaced his sermon
with an announcement that he took in good part the disorderly conduct
and undignified treatment he had met with, he preached them a moving
sermon on the merits of Charles the Martyr, and the ingratitude of the
people of England to such a virtuous monarch, and wound up with--"Let
those who feel the consequence of such a misfortune deplore with me upon
this melancholy occasion; but if there be any among you (and I make no
doubt there are) who may have secretly wished for this event, they have
now got their desire, and may the devil do them good with it." After
which he made the best of his way home to his rectory, and endeavoured
to counteract the effects of his dipping by moistening his clay within
with hot punch.
FOOTNOTE:
[18] "Anecdotes and Manners of a few Ancient and Modern Oddities." York,
1806.
THE REV. MR. CARTER,
PARSON-PUBLICAN.
I cannot do better than extract verbatim the following account from a
curious book entitled "Anecdotes and Manners of a Few Ancient and Modern
Oddities, interspersed with Deductive Inferences and Occasional
Observations, tending to reclaim some Interlocutory Foibles which often
occur in the Common Intercourses of Society." York, 1806:--
"The Rev. Mr. Carter, when curate of Lastingham, had a very large
family, with only a small income to support them, and therefore often
had recourse to many innocent alternatives to augment it; and as the
best of men have their enemies--too often more than the worst--he was
represented to the archdeacon by an invidious neighbour as a very
disorderly character, particularly by keeping a public-house, with the
consequences resulting from it.
"The archdeacon was a very humane, worthy, good man, who had imbibed the
principles not only of a parson, but of a divine, and therefore treated
such calumniating insinuations against his subordinate brethren with
that contempt which would accrue to the satisfaction and advantage of
such as listen to a set of sycophantic tattlers culled from the refuse
of society. Besides, the improbability of a malevolent story generally
renders it more current by increasing the scandal; and the world, like
the pious S. Austin, believes some things because they are impossible.
However, he considered that not only the conduct of the inferior clergy
claimed his attention, but also to have some idea how far their
subsistence was compatible with the sanctity of their functions;
therefore, at the ensuing visitation, when the business of the day was
over, he, in a very delicate and candid manner, interrogated Mr. Carter
as to his means of supporting so numerous a family--ever thinking of
this admirable hint to charity, that the more a person wants, the less
will do him good--which was answered, as related to me by one well
acquainted with the parties, in nearly the following words:--
"'I have a wife and thirteen children, and with a stipend of £20 per
annum, increased only by a few trifling surplice fees. I will not impose
upon your understanding by attempting to advance any argument to show
the impossibility of us all being supported from my church preferment.
But I am fortunate enough to live in a neighbourhood where there are
many rivulets which abound with fish, and being particularly partial to
angling, I am frequently so successful as to catch more than my family
can consume while good, of which I make presents to the neighbouring
gentry, all of whom are so generously grateful as to requite me with
something else of seldom less value than two or three-fold. This is not
all. My wife keeps a public-house, and as my parish is so wide that some
of my parishioners have to come from ten to fifteen miles to church, you
will readily allow that some refreshment before they return must
occasionally be necessary, and when can they have it more properly than
when their journey is half performed? Now, sir, from your general
knowledge of the world, I make no doubt but you are well assured that
the most general topics in conversation at public-houses are politics
and religion, with which ninety-nine out of one hundred of those who
participate in the general clamour are totally unacquainted; and that
perpetually ringing in the ears of a pastor who has the welfare and
happiness of his flock at heart, must be no small mortification. To
divert their attention from these foibles over their cups, I take down
my violin and play them a few tunes, which gives me an opportunity of
seeing that they get no more liquor than necessary for refreshment; and
if the young people propose a dance, I seldom answer in the negative;
nevertheless, when I announce time for return, they are ever ready to
obey my commands, and generally with the donation of a sixpence they
shake hands with my children, and bid God bless them. Thus my
parishioners enjoy a triple advantage, being instructed, fed, and amused
at the same time. Moreover, this method of spending their Sundays is so
congenial with their inclinations, that they are imperceptibly led along
the paths of piety and morality; whereas, in all probability, the most
exalted discourses, followed with no variety but heavenly
contemplations, would pass like the sounds of harmony over an ear
incapable of discerning the distinction of sounds. It is this true sense
of religion that has rendered my whole life so remarkably cheerful as it
has been, to the great offence of superstitious and enthusiastic
religionists. For why should priests be always grave? Is it so sad to be
a parson? Cheerfulness, even gaiety, is consonant with every species of
virtue and practice of religion, and I think it inconsistent only with
impiety and vice. The ways of heaven are pleasantness. Let "O be joyful"
be the Christian's psalm, and leave to the sad Indian to incant the
devil with tears and screeches. Now, to corroborate my remarks upon
cheerfulness as conducive to contentment, I will by leave solicit so
much of your indulgence as to hear the following extract from the works
of an eminent divine of the Established Church:--The Thirty-Nine
Articles are incomplete without a fortieth precept enjoining
cheerfulness; or you may let the number stand as it does at present,
provided you expunge the thirteenth article, and place that heavenly
maxim in the room of it. Might not the Archbishop of Cashel have been a
sound divine though he added the arch-stanza about Broglio to the old
Irish ballad in praise of Moll Roe? Or did the Bishop (not the Earl) of
Rochester's poems on the man-like properties of a lady's fan ever
impeach his orthodoxy in the least?'
"Here the archdeacon very candidly acknowledged the propriety of Mr.
Carter's arguments in defence of his conduct, and complimented him on
his discernment in using the most convenient vehicle for instruction;
observing that, although he might deviate a little from the plans
generally advised for the accomplishment of that purpose, yet it bore no
less authority than the celebrated Dr. Young, who wrote a play ('The
Brothers') for the propagation of the Gospel, the profits of which he
consecrated to the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts."
JOB SENIOR,
THE HERMIT OF RUMBOLD'S MOOR.[19]
Job's mother was Ann Senior, of Beckfoot, near Ilkley; he was an
illegitimate child. His father, a man named Hacksworth, left him a
little money when he died. Job grew up a spruce, active young man, very
strong, and not devoid of good looks. He was employed as a labourer by
the farmers round Ilkley; but afterwards went to live at Whitkirk, near
Leeds. He there fell into disorderly ways, drank, and became careless in
his dress and dirty in his habits. Yet he was a good workman, and when
he returned to Ilkley he was readily engaged by the farmers to plough,
mow, and reap for them. He was a good fence-waller, and being a man of
prodigious strength, is said to have used very heavy stones for the
purpose, and when days were short he was frequently seen walling by
candlelight. Some of his walls are still pointed out, and the large
stones he lifted elicit surprise. In winter he employed himself in
wool-combing at a place called The Castle, near Ilkley. It is related of
him that he once laid himself down on the combing-shed floor, and that
some of his fellow-workmen chalked out his figure on the floor. By this
outline he used to cut his shirts, the material being coarse harden,
sewed with strong hemp-string.
Job was at one time an hostler in the village, and a person who knew him
well at the time says that at this period his dissipated habits made
him the subject of many a practical joke.
He was afterwards employed by the farmers at Burley Woodhead; but as he
became old and infirm, and troubled with rheumatism, he could not work
as formerly, but did what he could, making no stipulations for wages,
but asking only for his board, and that his employers should pay him
whatever extra they thought his labour entitled him to receive.
About this time he became acquainted with a widow named Mary Barret, who
lived in a cottage near Coldstone Beck, on the edge of Rumbold's Moor.
The widow had a little garden and a paddock which, together with the
cottage, had been left her by her husband, who had taken the land from
the common and built the cottage on it. Job thought if he could secure
the hand of the widow the house and land would be his for life. So one
day he paid her a visit.
"I'll tell ye what I've been thinking," said Job Senior.
"What hast a' been thinking on then, Job? Out wi' it, lad," said the
widow.
"Well, I've been thinking thou'st getting ou'd, and thou lives all by
thy sen i' this house. And I'm a young man"--(he was about sixty)--"and
I lives all by my sen by yond crag. Why should not thou and me make it
agreeable to live together?"
"Dost a' mean that I'm to take thee as a lodger?" asked Mary Barret.
"Nay, nay, lass!" answered Job; "I mean we'd better goa to t' kirk
together and be wed."
"I reckon I'm ower ou'd for that," said the widow. She was in her
eightieth year.
"I doan't know if tha be ou'd," said Job; "but I knows vary weel thou'rt
bonny."
No woman's heart, not even in her eightieth year, is proof against
flattery, and the fair Mary blushed and yielded to the blooming Job, and
married they were.
"It's an easy gotten penny by the light o' the moon," said Job, looking
over his domain.
Mrs. Senior did not long survive her second marriage. She had a long
sickness, and Job was kind to her in it. "It's cou'd, Job," she said to
her husband one evening when he returned from his work on the moor.
"It's cou'd i' this bed, and I cannot feel t' warmth o' t' fire."
"Thou shalt be warm, ou'd lass, if I can fashion it," said Job. "But as
I cannot bring t' fire nigher thee, I mun bring thee nigher to t' fire."
So he pulled up a couple of flags in the floor beside the hearth, dug a
pit, and made the old woman's bed in this premature grave, so that she
could be close to the fire and comfortable, and if she wanted a cup of
tea, could put out her hand and take the pot from the hearth.
"Eh, Job!" said old Mary another day, "I think I'd like summut good to
eat afore I dies."
"Ah!" answered her husband; "then I'll get thee a rare good morsel,
that'll set thee up on thy legs again, ou'd lass."
So he bought a pound of bacon, roasted it, caught the melted fat in a
large iron spoon, and ladled it down his wife's throat.
"It's rare good now, isn't it?" exclaimed the husband, as the old woman
gulped it down. "Open the trap and I'll teem (pour) down some more."
The old woman lay back in her hole and groaned. "I'm boun' to die!" she
said.
"Nay, lass! take another spoonful first."
But the poor creature was dead. Job looked at her disconsolately for a
minute, and whilst doing so the fat of the frying bacon fell into the
fire and blazed up. "Eh! but I mustn't waste the fat," said Job. "If t'
ou'd lass cannot take it, why, I mun eat it mysen. Ah! it's varry good;
but it's hot. I reckon 't were too hot for her ou'd insides."
Job now thought that the house, garden, and paddock were his own; but he
was mistaken. The family of Barret, the first husband of Mary, claimed
it and took possession of the field. Job clung desperately to the
cottage and the potato-garth. One evening when he returned from his work
he found that the cottage had been pulled to pieces. He had hidden some
money in the walls, and this was either lost or stolen. His rage and
disappointment completely disturbed his brain, and from that time
forward he lived in a miserable hovel he erected for himself out of the
ruins of the house, in idleness and squalor.
His hut was like a dog-kennel; to enter it he was obliged to creep on
hands and knees. Within it was only large enough for him to lie down in
and turn himself about: it was thatched, and provided with a rude door,
but no window. The garden had contained fruit trees; but these he
stubbed up, and instead planted the whole garth with potatoes. He made
large, unsightly ridges, and put in a great quantity of seed, always
planting for the following year when he gathered his crop in autumn. In
one corner of his garth was a peat fire where he roasted his potatoes.
His custom was, when eating, to sit with one leg on each side of the
fire of peat, his little bag of oatmeal before him; then with his staff
he poked the potatoes out of the embers, peeled them with his dirty
fingers, rolled them in his meal bag, and then ate them. He always drank
his water warm.
"Do you drink your water warm, Job?" asked a visitor.
"Yes," said the hermit, "I reckon I does."
"And your butter-milk too?"
"Aye, aye. Sithere." And he poked two stone bottles out from the embers.
"I do it to clear my voice," said the hermit. "Now thou shalt hear my
four voices." He then got up, set his face to the crag, and began a
wonderful performance of four voices--treble, alto, tenor, and bass. He
said he had picked up his "four voices" by listening to the choir in
Leeds parish church. He usually sang sacred hymns, such as "While
shepherds watched their flocks by night," "Christians, awake," and the
Old Hundredth. He went about the country in winter, singing in four
parts for money, and his performance was sufficiently remarkable for him
to be brought to perform in public at the theatre at Leeds, and in the
Headingly Gardens and the Woolsorters' Gardens at Bradford, where he
stayed for weeks at a time. He would sleep in any outbuilding or
blacksmith's shop; indeed, he was so dirty that few people would like to
have given him a bed in their houses.
He used to walk leaning on two rough sticks, wearing a pair of heavy
wooden clogs on his feet, stuffed with hay, his legs bandaged with
straw. His coat was of many colours and much patched; his trousers were
to match. He wore no braces, but kept his trousers in position with a
hempen belt, part of an old horse-girth, which he buckled round his
body. A bag on his back was fastened at the front to his belt. His head
was adorned with a hat of the most antique shape, without a brim, and
stitched together with hemp-string.
The condition of his skin, which had not seen water for years, need not
be described. His hair, once jetty black, now hung in heavy clotted
locks on his shoulders. His eyebrows were black and prominent; his eyes
low-set and watery. He wore a coarse beard, grizzled with age, and very
dirty. From his hat depended a tobacco-pipe, hung by a string.
"Never," he would say to his visitors, "never take to nowt, but whenever
you can get a penny, felt (hide) it, and let nobody know about it, and
then they cannot get it from you. Get all the brass ye can, and as soon
as ye can buy a bit o' grund like this o' mine, ye see, set it with
potatoes, and it'll keep ye. There'll be a peck or two to spare; ye can
sell them, and so ha' brass agean. Are ye married?" said the hermit to a
young man who went to see him.
"No," answered the visitor.
"Then ye are right there, young chap. Keep so. If ye get a wife, ye'll
see shoo'll be coming on wi' a family, and then that'll take all your
brass. I' th' first place, ye'll want a house and furniture, and then
there'll be rent and taxes, and your wife'll be always wanting summat
for hersen or the bairns. And besides, just look how more flour ye'll
want, and sugar, and soap, and candles. And look how many more potatoes
ye'll want for them all to eat. Eh! but they're the animals 'at eats
brass. They say that maggots eats cheese, and weevils eats cloathes, and
mice eats corn; but wife and bairns eats brass, and it's t' brass as
gets cheese, and cloathes, and corn. Nay, lad! have nowt to do wi' them
soort o' cattle. And then--if th' wife takes to bonnets and gowns, ye're
ruined directly. Nay, nay, grund is better nor a wife, and potatoes nor
bairns. If ye want to save your brass and snap up a bit o' grund, ye
munna be married."
Job's end came as he was on one of his singing rounds. It is thought
that some youngsters drugged his drink, in prank, at Silsden, and the
consequences were a violent attack of English cholera. He got back to
Ilkley, and crept into a barn belonging to the White Sheaf Inn; but the
landlord seeing that his end was near, sent for the parish authorities,
and he was moved to the Carlton workhouse, as he belonged to Burley. He
died in the course of a few days, at the age of seventy-seven, and was
buried in Burley churchyard, near Otley.
FOOTNOTE:
[19] "The Hermit of Rumbold's Moor." Bingley: Harrison (n.d.)
NANCY NICHOLSON,
THE TERMAGANT.
Mrs. Nancy Nicholson[20] was born at Drax, in the county of York, on the
3rd day of May, 1785, and was the only child of the Rev. John Jackson,
vicar of Drax, by his second wife. Mr. Jackson had a son by a former
marriage, but he was taken by his mother's relatives into Cumberland;
consequently the daughter, Nancy, was the only child at home, and from
her infancy was indulged to a fault, and suffered to grow up without
restraint, so that she soon became a terror to the other children in the
school of which her father was the master.[21]
It is curious that the child of a schoolmaster should have been suffered
to grow to womanhood almost wholly without education; but such was the
case. The following extract from a letter written by her when aged
sixty-four shows how miserably her education had been neglected:--"Dear
Mrs. Wilson,--Your letter just came in time as I whas thinking of
letting my land but if John Harrison will come and we can a gree I ceep
it on if not I shall let it Mr. Totton of Howden whants it and Taylors
of Asselby also I Ceep all land and Hosses while I see him pray send him
word to Come this week as I must have my Patays up and also my stakes
wants thashing."
Having naturally a certain amount of shrewdness, it was mistaken for
talent, and low cunning for genius. Being indulged in every way, her
headstrong will became intolerant of the smallest restraint. She played
with the boys of the school, and acquired from them the coarsest
language, and throughout her life never learned, indeed never attempted,
to control her tongue.
When Miss Jackson was about twenty years old, the Rev. John Nicholson, a
young man from Cumberland, came to Drax to assist Mr. Jackson in his
school. He was at that time a well-disposed, gentlemanly young fellow,
who gave promise of being a scholar and of use in his generation. But
Miss Jackson, who was not without some charms of person, was the
ill-omened star that was to blight his life. Living in the house of her
father, he was brought in daily contact with her, and she exerted some
sort of fascination upon him. If two young people are brought much
together, they are sure to form an attachment, and it was so in this
case. Nancy concealed her evil disposition from the usher, and laid
herself out to catch him.
Mr. Nicholson could not be blind to the fact that Miss Jackson was
entitled to property on the death of her parents, and it is probable
enough that to a needy young clergyman without interest, the chance of
making himself master of a competence may have had more to do with his
paying his addresses to Miss Jackson than love.
In the year 1810 Mr. Jackson died, and perhaps this event decided Mr.
Nicholson to offer his hand to Nancy. He was at once accepted, and the
interest of her friends secured for him immediately the vacant situation
of master of the Grammar School. Shortly after the marriage he also
became vicar of Drax.
Mr. and Mrs. Nicholson were married at Drax Church in October, 1811, and
she then became undisputed mistress of the establishment. Her harsh and
tyrannical disposition had now free scope to develop, and the first to
feel it was the mother who had encouraged her as a child. The widow was
soon obliged to leave the house, where her daughter made it impossible
for her to live in comfort and tranquillity. The servants would not
stay; no fresh ones could be induced to enter the house under such a
mistress. She was therefore obliged to do all the work of the
school-house herself, making the unhappy boarders help her in cleaning
the house and in washing the clothes. The poor boys were scantily fed,
and otherwise miserably provided for.
Four gentlemen, including Lord Downe, were trustees of the Grammar
School at Drax, and made visits of inspection regularly every quarter.
Nancy was always prepared for these occasions. She had a clean cloth on
the table, a plentiful dinner provided, and a dumpling set before each
boy. But she took care to impress on each boarder that the one who left
the largest amount of dumpling on his plate would receive a reward, and
he should receive a hiding who emptied his plate. "And," said Mrs.
Nicholson, "let any boy beware how he looks sad or dissatisfied."
When these quarterly visits took place in the cold weather, she had a
large fire lighted in the school-room, round which she assembled the
boys, and when the trustees came in, she would address them with--"Well,
gentlemen, and you, my lord, you see how saucy these boys are; scarce
one of them has eaten his dumpling. And capital dumplings they are, my
lord and gentlemen!"
When Mr. and Mrs. Nicholson had been married about three years they took
an orphan niece of Mr. Nicholson's from Cumberland to provide for, and
to this child for several years she behaved with the greatest cruelty,
until at length Mrs. Nicholson's mother took compassion on the child,
and removed it to her own house. However, when Mrs. Nicholson considered
her niece capable of working, she insisted on her return, making her do
the work of a servant, and subjecting her to the harshest treatment. The
work was heavy, as she kept two or three cows, besides pigs and poultry.
The schoolboys were compelled to collect her eggs, and she caused them
to rob the neighbours to obtain a greater number. These depredations
were not unknown to the neighbours, but they good-naturedly excused the
boys, as they knew they were urged to them by Mrs. Nicholson. She gave
the boys a penny a score for all the eggs they could bring. She would
then say, "Now, boys, I have such nice apples; I will give you a good
pennyworth of apples for your penny; do have a pennyworth." The boys
durst not object, and bought the apples. But still she was not
satisfied, but would say, "Come, I will play you a game at push-pin for
your apples, and I daresay you will win." However, as may be supposed,
they never were suffered to win, so that she obtained eggs, penny,
apples, and pins also. She committed various other depredations on the
property of her neighbours, such as taking coals, corn, goslings--and,
in short, anything that came within her reach. One Sunday morning, while
the neighbours were at church, she made some of the boys assist her in
stealing a hen and fourteen chickens. These she confined in a brick oven
till the following morning, when she took them to Selby and disposed of
them in the market.
For many years she regularly attended Selby market with her butter,
which more than once was seized and taken from her for being light
weight. She employed the boys in collecting rags, old iron, &c., all of
which she took to Selby, because she could obtain a better price there
than at home. It was in vain that Mr. Nicholson remonstrated with her
on the disgrace her conduct brought upon him; she only replied in
abusive language.
On Sunday mornings she was always remarkably late in her attendance at
church, generally entering in the middle of the service, and her
appearance was like anything but that which became a vicar's wife, and
formed a strange contrast to that of her husband, who retained his care
to appear like a gentleman, in clean and well-brushed clothes, and with
scrupulously white cravat.
Nancy was neither clean nor well-dressed. For many years she would not
afford herself a new bonnet, until at length her mother, utterly ashamed
of her appearance, bought one for her. But Mrs. Jackson made her give up
the old bonnet before she received the new one, being convinced, if she
had the chance, that Nancy would put the new one away and continue to
wear the old one.
Mr. and Mrs. Nicholson continued in the school-house several years,
during which time they amassed a considerable sum of money, with which
they bought various lots of property in the parish, Mrs. Nicholson
always contriving to have her name inserted in the deeds as well as Mr.
Nicholson's, so that he could not deprive her of her life-interest. One
field which they purchased at Carlton she had conveyed to her for her
own use and disposal. This caused great dissension between them when
discovered by Mr. Nicholson.
At length the trustees were obliged to interfere in behalf of the
school. They did so with the utmost reluctance. All respected and pitied
Mr. Nicholson, who was a good Christian and a gentleman, and was
prepared to discharge his duty conscientiously. But it was impossible
for him to control his wife, and make her treat the boarders with
ordinary humanity. She was a genuine Mrs. Squeers; but he was a very
different sort of person to the Yorkshire schoolmaster of "Nicholas
Nickleby."
The trustees were obliged to insist on an investigation. It was
conducted with the greatest consideration for the feelings of Mr.
Nicholson; but the investigation ended in the school being taken from
him.
"Oh, Nancy, Nancy!" Mr. Nicholson would repeat, "you have disgraced me
terribly!"
The humiliations he was obliged to undergo broke his spirit, and his
self-respect, which had battled against adverse circumstances, gradually
gave way. She used the most insulting language to him, not only in
private, but in public, making the most odious insinuations, and
bringing the scarlet spot of shame to his cheek. The unfortunate man was
made to drink to the dregs the cup of degradation.
At last, maddened beyond self-control, he beat her with his horse-whip.
A friend, whose house was situated a mile from that of the Nicholsons,
has told me that his father has often heard at that distance the screams
of rage uttered by Nancy when in a passion with her husband. Their
quarrels became the gossip and scandal of Drax. Mr. Nicholson at last,
driven of an evening from his home, would visit farmers, or sometimes
the public-house, and forget his humiliation in the society of his
inferiors. On these occasions he sometimes took too much.
When they lost the school-house the Nicholsons built a new house for
themselves on some ground they had purchased at a place called Newland,
near Drax, where Mrs. Nicholson had full opportunity for keeping cows,
pigs, and poultry, her favourite occupation. But having no family, she
would not be at the expense of a servant, and soon gave herself up to
sloth and dirt, both in her person and house.
She would rarely admit any visitors, and if Mr. Nicholson occasionally
ventured to invite a friend, she would either offend the guest at the
time (unless she saw her way to gaining some advantage by him), or
revenge herself on Mr. Nicholson after his departure. And if Mr.
Nicholson absented himself from the house without her consent, she
always upbraided him on his return with the vilest language, attributing
the visits to his neighbours or tenants to evil motives.
The following extract from the correspondence of a young lady from
Cumberland, a cousin of Mrs. Nicholson's, who was staying a few months
at Drax in the year 1837, gives a lively picture of her mode of life at
that period:--
"One evening after tea my sister and I proposed, as we frequently did,
to walk out as far as Newland, to see Mr. and Mrs. Nicholson. It was a
delightful evening, and a pleasant walk we had. Chatting over bygone
times and talking about our future prospects, we soon arrived at the
little gate, through which we entered the back grounds belonging to the
house, and passed on into the kitchen, where we found Mr. and Mrs.
Nicholson seated by the little window which looks out upon the road. As
soon as we had got seated and the usual salutations were over, Mrs.
Nicholson (who, by-the-bye, I must confess, however little to my credit,
was my cousin) began with saying, 'Well, Miss H----n, there is going to
be a confirmation at Selby to-morrow, and Mr. Nicholson will have to go
with the young people; what do you say, will you go with him? You have
never been at Selby, and it will be a nice opportunity.' 'I certainly
would like it very much,' I replied, 'if you are going also. But how are
we to go?' 'By Langrick Ferry,' said Mr. Nicholson. 'We must be up there
by nine o'clock, and meet the packet. You can be up by that time?' 'And
who do you think is going to pay a shilling a-piece to go by the packet?
Not I, nor you either,' said Mrs. Nicholson, in an angry tone. 'And as
for Mary Anne, she has more sense than to waste her money in that way.'
I replied by saying, 'Oh, a shilling is not much; and as there is no
other conveyance by which we can get, we have no alternative, as we
cannot possibly walk it.'--'No,' said she, 'we cannot walk it, but there
is a man who has a cart, and I am sure if we could get a dozen to go he
would take us at threepence a-piece. There's plenty of lasses and lads
who are going to be confirmed would be glad of the chance. Why, you see,
we should make three ourselves, and Mr. Nicholson can speak to some of
them. The man can put the shelvings on, and we'll go rarely.' 'Who do
you mean will go?' said the clergyman. 'Do you think that I will go to
Selby in a waggon, or Miss H----n either? No, you shall not bring me to
that. You have made me give up my horse and gig long since; but, go as
you will yourself, I and Miss H----n will take the packet.' At this his
amiable wife got into such a rage, and went on at such a rate, that to
make matters up I was glad to give my consent to go with her in the
waggon, and Mr. Nicholson said he would ask one of the churchwardens to
take him in his gig. This pacified her, and as we rose to take our
departure, she said she would see the man about the cart, and I was to
mind and be ready at nine o'clock, when they would call for me with it.
However, I could not bear the idea of the neighbours around seeing a
great waggon filled with country rustics stopping at our door for me to
go with them, so I told her I would come up to their house by that time,
and we would go direct from thence. But she was afraid I wanted to get
off going, and it was not without extorting a faithful promise from me
that I would not disappoint her that I succeeded in obtaining her
consent at last.
"The morning came, chill and gloomy, and I rose, hoping it was going to
rain, that I might make that an excuse for not going. So I made myself
ready, and taking an umbrella, set off for Newland. I had proceeded as
far as a turn there is in the road, when I heard such a shouting and
hurrahing that I stopped to see from whence it proceeded. I had not long
to look, for turning the corner, the waggon appeared in sight, with
about fourteen or fifteen young people in it of both sexes, and Mrs.
Nicholson in the centre, laughing and shouting as loud as the rest. She
soon saw me, and bawled out, 'Oh, yonder is Miss H----n coming! Stop the
cart!--stop the cart!' By this time I had come up to them, but was
trembling with shame at the idea of going with them, and I felt vexed at
the predicament I was in. At length I said, 'I think the cart is so full
there is no room for me, and as the rain is already falling, I would
rather not go. So do not disturb yourselves, for I will walk back again
as quick as possible.' 'Oh, it's not going to be much rain, and you
shall come,' replied Mrs. Nicholson; 'so make room for her, lasses.
There, Betty, you can sit on the edge of the shelves, and Polly can take
your place. Now, Miss H----n, jump in, and let us be off.' It was in
vain that I made every excuse I could think of. She appealed to them
all, and they joined her, until I was forced to consent, and off we
drove. I felt thankful that it was raining a little as we passed through
the village, so I put up my umbrella to screen myself from view,
pretending that my clothes would get wet and spoiled.
"On we went, and after we had got through Drax the young people and she
indulged themselves in conversation such as I had never heard before,
and strove in vain to get me to join them, or laugh at their low and
obscene discourse. Mrs. Nicholson at length said, 'Come, lasses, can't
you raise a song? We'll get her to laugh just now, I warrant us.' They
then inquired of her what they must sing, and she told them three or
four songs, all of which they sang with all their might, she every now
and then asking me how I liked it. At last she said, 'Give us some sea
songs; she comes from a seaport town, and will maybe like them better.'
So, first one and then another was sung, but with no better success. At
length I saw a gig coming fast after us, and begged them to give over
till it got past. They all looked, and said it was Mr. Nicholson. 'Oh,
sing away! Don't give over. Let them see how we are enjoying ourselves.
Don't stop for him,' said Mrs. Nicholson. 'Come, go on--go on!'--'No,'
replied some of the young people, 'we won't sing while Mr. Nicholson is
going past. Wait awhile.'
"Oh, how glad was I that they kept quiet while the gig was passing,
although she was urging them to sing all the time.
"Many other carriages passed us on the road, and they sang and shouted
loudly without regarding them; but I did not feel so mortified as I
should have done had I not been a stranger whom they could not know.
"At length we arrived at Selby, and I begged that I might be allowed to
get out at the entrance to the town. But no. She declared I should not
till we arrived at the inn where the cart would put up; and I was
obliged to submit. On reaching the inn many were the people that stood
looking at us as we alighted. I got out almost the first, and Mrs.
Nicholson was the last. I had then an opportunity of seeing her costume
in full. There she stood, dressed in an old dirty print gown, so
straight that it was like a sack around her, and over her shoulders was
thrown an old scarlet cloak, very short, with three small capes, the
largest of which did not reach down to her waist. Then the bonnet is
beyond description, and the cap beneath, with one plain muslin border
that had not been ironed, and sadly soiled. These, with a pair of great
dirty shoes that looked fit for a ploughman, over a pair of coarse
black, or rather brown, worsted stockings, which her short petticoats
displayed to full advantage, completed her attire. And thus, with a
great, square, butter basket hanging over her arm, stood like some gipsy
woman the wife of the Rev. Mr. Nicholson.
"We then went to the inn, where Mr. Nicholson and all the other
clergymen were to meet the children, from whence they would proceed to
church, each at the head of his own flock. We found Mr. Nicholson in a
room upstairs with some other clergymen. To these he introduced me as
his cousin, but none of them appeared to notice Mrs. Nicholson. At last
she said, 'Come, Mr. Nicholson, we have business at the bank, and we
will have time enough to get it done before you have all to walk to
church.' And bidding me come with them also, she proceeded downstairs,
and left the inn. Mr. Nicholson was dressed in his gown and bands, and
no one who was not acquainted with them would have thought for a moment
that she was his wife. However, she trotted on before us with her
basket, and, I daresay, we were neither of us sorry that she did so.
When we reached the bank Mr. Nicholson's business was soon settled, and
then she said he had better go on to the children, or he would be too
late. 'Come, then, Miss H----n,' said Mr. Nicholson, 'she can meet us at
the church.' I replied, 'I had better wait for her.' (I had been told
that she was jealous of almost every female that he spoke to, so I
feared if I went with him she might abuse me about it another time.) But
though I declined going with him till I was ashamed, she insisted that I
should go. Accordingly we left her, and went again to the inn. The
procession was just walking off when Mr. Nicholson requested me to take
his arm, and we walked before the children of his flock to the church.
At the entrance we separated. He desired me to go upstairs into the
gallery, as he would have to remain below with the children. I was shown
into a pew in the gallery, and viewed the imposing and solemn sight with
reverential feelings. I thought, how much it was to be feared, many were
there that knew not what they did. I thought of our journey to Selby;
and then I wondered why Mrs. Nicholson was not coming. Often and often
did I look to the entrance behind me to catch a glimpse of the bouncing
dame in the old red cloak. (She was then very stout, being upwards of
seventeen stones in weight.) At length the service was concluded. I
hurried down as fast as possible, and, without waiting for Mr.
Nicholson, went out to seek her. After having sought some time, I spied
her in a spirit-shop. She saw me at the same time, and called to me to
go in. She seemed quite in good humour, and asked where Mr. Nicholson
was. I replied I had left him in the church, having come out to seek
her, as I wondered she had not come according to promise. She said she
had been doing business all the time, but when she had ordered some
spirits here she had done, and would then go with me to the inn, as it
was time to be starting for home.
"When we got again to the inn, and into the room where we had been
before, she inquired for Mr. Nicholson, and was told he was in another
room. She said, 'I suppose he is tipsy; show me where he is.' The waiter
went out, and she followed him, desiring me to wait until her return. In
a short time she came back, saying, 'Aye, he is yonder, tipsy enough. He
has been dining and drinking wine with a set of them, and now he is laid
upon a sofa, and I cannot get him to stir. It will have cost him a fine
deal; but he won't tell me anything, and what is worse, I can't get his
money from him, and he has a large sum in his pocket. I expect the cart
will be here presently, and they won't wait for me. I suppose I must go,
but if I leave him, he'll be robbed. I never can walk home, and besides,
I shall have my threepence to pay. So I suppose I must go. Oh, Mary
Anne, do you go and speak to him, and see if he will come. The gentleman
with whom he came has gone for his gig, and if he won't go with him, and
we leave him, he will be robbed, and perhaps murdered.'
"'Well,' I replied, 'I'll go and see; but if he won't move for you, I
don't expect he will for me. But see, there is the waggon with its live
load at the door. For my part I would rather walk all the way than go in
that horrid thing.'
"She went out, and I followed her down a short passage, at the end of
which we entered another room, where one or two gentlemen were sitting.
We found Mr. Nicholson lying on a sofa. I went up to him and said,
'Come, Mr. Nicholson, won't you go home? The cart is at the door waiting
for Mrs. Nicholson, and she is quite distressed that you would not speak
to her.' He replied that he would go directly the gig was ready. She
then came forward and said, 'Give me your money, or you will lose or
spend it.'
"'No,' he replied, 'I won't; you shall not have it. Go away, I do not
want you here.'
"'Well, then,' said she, 'may Miss H----n stop with you?'
"'Yes,' he replied, 'I shall be glad of her company.'
"'No,' I said, 'I cannot stop, for I intend walking home, and it is time
I was going.'
"'Oh, you must not leave him,' said Mrs. Nicholson. 'He will get more to
drink, and Mr. ---- will not get him home. He will be as stupid as a
mule if he gets any more drink; so, there's a dear good girl, do stay
with him, and don't let him get any more drink, and mind and watch that
nobody robs him, and see that he does not lose his bands. Now,' she
said, addressing him, 'mind you do as Mary Anne wishes you.'
"'Yes; certainly,' he replied.
"'But,' I said, 'I shall have a long walk; so I must go directly.'
"'No,' said Mr. Nicholson, 'you had better come with us. I am sure that
Mr. ----, the churchwarden, will be glad to accommodate you with a seat
in his gig. I will go and ask him.'
"'You'll get more drink if you go,' said Mrs. Nicholson; 'he is in the
parlour below, and I'll go and ask him myself. So promise me, Mary Anne,
that you won't leave him, and then I'll be content.'
"Just then the gentleman himself entered the room, and Mr. Nicholson
asked him if he could take this young lady also. He said he could, with
the greatest pleasure. Mrs. Nicholson was delighted with this
arrangement. She charged me again not to leave him, and then hurried
away, and got into the cart, where the driver was grumbling at having to
wait so long.
"Mr. Nicholson, Mr. ----, and myself had a pleasant chat until the gig
drove up. We were soon wheeling along the road, and overtook the waggon
a short distance from the town, Mrs. Nicholson bawling out as we
passed--'Mind, Mary Anne, and take care of him; don't let him out of
your sight till I come.'"
About this time they bought some more land, and, as usual, Mrs.
Nicholson wanted to have it secured to herself, but her husband
positively refused to hear of it. On the morning when he was going to
order the writings she endeavoured to gain her point by a little
coaxing. As she assisted him on with his coat she said, "Come, Johnny,
honey, I'll give you a glass of gin for fear you get cold. It is such a
cold morning." And when she gave it to him she added, "Now, Johnny,
honey, you'll get these deeds made the same as the others?" "No, Nancy,"
he replied, "I shall not indeed. I have been deceived by you too often."
This led to a torrent of abuse, before which Mr. Nicholson fled. He went
to Howden to order the writings, from which, however, he excluded her
name, an offence which she never forgave him, and the loss of that land
after Mr. Nicholson's death was a constant subject of regret.
A small orchard was attached to one of their houses at Drax, and at the
end of the building was a plum-tree. Mrs. Nicholson frequently cast a
longing eye on the plums, and as she was not on the best terms with the
person who occupied the premises, she determined, as the tree was not
within the orchard fence, that she would have the plums for herself.
Accordingly, by alternate scolding and coaxing, she prevailed on Mr.
Nicholson to go with her early one morning to assist in pulling the
plums. When they arrived at the place she said--"Now, Johnny, honey,
you'll be like to get into the tree." He told her the consequence of the
act, and endeavoured to dissuade her from the attempt, but in vain. She
insisted on his climbing; to this he at length consented, and commenced
pulling the plums, which Mrs. Nicholson received in her apron. While
they were thus engaged the tenant discovered them, and assembled several
other people as witnesses. He then ordered Mr. Nicholson out of the
tree, and afterwards summoned him before a magistrate for stealing the
plums.
Mr. Nicholson felt keenly the disgraceful position in which he had
placed himself by yielding to his wife's solicitations, and upbraided
her bitterly, declaring that he should die of shame if he had to appear
before a magistrate. Mrs. Nicholson advised him to feign himself ill,
and undertook to appear in his stead. Accordingly, Mrs. Nicholson set
out, and met at Langrick Ferry with the constable and witnesses, when
the constable inquired for Mr. Nicholson. She informed him he was so
poorly he would not be able to walk. The constable said he would get a
horse for him, for come he must. Having procured a horse, he went to Mr.
Nicholson's, who, finding he had no means of escape, determined to go
and endeavour to come to some arrangement with his tenant when he
arrived at the ferry.
Having proposed to settle the affair amicably, the tenant assured Mr.
Nicholson that he felt no resentment against him; and if he would pay £5
for expenses, he would proceed no further. The money was paid, and the
affair settled, but much to the vexation of Mrs. Nicholson. The tenant,
however, generously proposed to spend the five pounds, stating that he
only wanted protection, not profit. He accordingly ordered supper for
all present, and spent the remainder in drink. Mrs. Nicholson sulked for
some time, but at length joined the party, considering that she might as
well get all she could out of the £5 as let them enjoy it without her.
After Mr. Nicholson refused to let his wife's name appear in the deeds
for the property he purchased, she saved up a considerable sum of money
unknown to her husband, and with it bought some property at Rawcliffe.
The deeds for this property she ordered to be made in her mother's name,
and thus revenged herself on Mr. Nicholson for excluding her name from
his deeds. Mr. Nicholson often said it was his money which bought it,
and they had frequent altercations about it.
Her disposition for avarice seems to have increased, if possible, with
her years. Her mother frequently declared it was impossible for anyone
to live with her, and that although Nancy was her only child, she (her
mother) would rather spend her declining years in the Union than in the
house with her.
In the year 1842 Mrs. Jackson died, leaving Mrs. Nicholson the whole of
her property for her own disposal, over which he, her husband,
notwithstanding the marriage, could have no control. After her mother's
death she at once resolved to keep a separate purse, being determined
that Mr. Nicholson should not squander her money by his extravagance.
She told him she would not ask him for anything but the egg, butter, and
fruit money, just to provide groceries, &c., and she would superintend
his house for her meat without any wage. But Mr. Nicholson had to
provide a servant, and he was bound to pay for coals, taxes, butcher's
meat, drink, and extras of all kinds, without touching the profits of
the dairy. She would never let him have a single penny without insisting
on its return, but she was by no means scrupulous about helping herself
from his pockets when she had an opportunity, and if he missed anything,
she always persisted that he had lost it.
As soon as she had got matters settled after her mother's death, she
wrote to a cousin in Dublin, desiring him to come over and divide the
land, which, up to this time, had been a joint estate. But previous to
his coming, Mrs. Nicholson took care to pay a visit to the person who
occupied the greatest portion of the land. She got him to show her all
over the property, and point out to her where the best land was
situated, promising as he was an old tenant that he should never be
disturbed. Having obtained all the information she could, she took
advantage of her cousin, who was ignorant of the different qualities of
the soil, and she took care that no person should have an opportunity of
telling him till it was too late to retract. When he came over to
Yorkshire to accommodate her by dividing the land, she laid her plans,
and partly by promises if he gratified her in letting her have such and
such portions in her allotment, and partly by threats of disinheriting
him if he refused, she succeeded in getting nearly all the best land
laid to her share, and left him only the same quantity of the inferior
quality.
At the same time that the cousin from Dublin was at Drax, another
cousin, a widow from Cumberland, happened to arrive on some business of
her own. Mrs. Nicholson conceived the project of getting this widow to
come and live in Yorkshire, doubtless thinking she would be able to make
her useful, and, besides, she had a house unoccupied at Drax, and
thought she might find in this cousin an eligible tenant. These
circumstances induced her to behave with tolerable civility to her
visitors for a short time, but her temper was so irritable that they
could not speak freely in her presence.
Her cousins had agreed to depart from Yorkshire together, and travel in
company as far as Liverpool, and the day of their departure was fixed,
much to the satisfaction of all parties, for she sorely grudged the
expense of providing for them, and, as may well be believed, they did
not find themselves particularly comfortable at Drax.
Mrs. Nicholson had living with her at this time a great-niece of Mr.
Nicholson's, who was acting in place of the servant whom she had
discharged in a fit of jealousy.
The young girl had striven all she could, along with Mr. Nicholson, to
make the visitors comfortable, and generally contrived during the day to
have some eatables deposited where she could have free access to them at
night when they went to bed, so that while Mrs. Nicholson was enjoying
her supper in the dairy, her visitors, thanks to the young girl's
kindness, were quietly enjoying themselves upstairs in their bedrooms.
Mr. Nicholson, during the visit of these friends of Mrs. Nicholson's,
had behaved with the utmost kindness and cordiality towards them. On the
Monday evening previous to their departure (which was fixed for
Wednesday), as they were together walking in the orchard, Mr. Nicholson
directed their attention towards some fine geese. "Yes," he repeated, as
his visitors admired them, "they are fine ones, and we will have one
killed and roasted for tomorrow's dinner, as it may be a long time
before we shall all have an opportunity of dining together again." "No,"
exclaimed Mrs. Nicholson, "we will not; they are not your geese, they
are mine; and I intend to send them to Selby market where I shall get
four and sixpence a-piece for them." "Well, if they are yours," replied
Mr. Nicholson, "you will surely not refuse to have one of them taken as
a treat for your friends the last day they will be here." "Yes, but I
will, though," replied she. "You care nothing about a goose, do you?"
said she, addressing herself to them. Of course they answered "No."
"But," said Mr. Nicholson, "we must have one; and if you will not give a
paltry goose as a treat to your friends, I will buy one from you, for I
am determined we shall have it." "Well, then," she replied, "I will sell
you one for five shillings." "No," he answered; "you said you would get
four and sixpence at the market, and I will give you no more." After
much altercation and debate, it was at length agreed that he should have
a goose for four and sixpence, but he refused to pay the money without a
receipt, for he knew if he did not get one she would swear that he had
not paid for it. At last a receipt was written out and duly signed, and
deposited by Mr. Nicholson in his pocket-book. The evening passed away
pleasantly enough, and the visitors retired to rest not a little amused
at the bargain which had been made between the husband and wife. Very
different, however, were the sentiments they experienced for the two
individuals; for the husband they could not help feeling both pity and
esteem, but for the wife they felt nothing but disgust.
In the morning a scene ensued which it is difficult to describe. The
visitors were awakened by loud quarrelling and angry and bitter words.
They arose and went down-stairs, and found Mr. and Mrs. Nicholson almost
at blows. It was supposed that Mrs. Nicholson, after they had all
retired for the night, crept into her husband's room when she had been
assured he was asleep (for at this time, and long previous, they had
occupied separate apartments), and taking the pocket-book out of his
pocket stole therefrom the receipt for the goose; she then replaced the
pocket-book, and went quietly to bed. In the morning Mr. Nicholson rose
early to have the goose killed and dressed in good time, and it was
ready for the spit when Mrs. Nicholson came down-stairs. When she saw
it, she was in a furious rage. She stormed and raved, and swore she
would have Mr. Nicholson taken up for theft. Just then her cousins all
came down-stairs and endeavoured to make peace, but in vain. She
declared she would have him taken up, for the goose was hers, and he had
stolen it.
"How can you say so," he replied, "when I have your own receipt showing
that I paid you for it?"
"You are a liar!" she replied. "You did not pay for it. You have no
receipt. You have killed my goose; but I will have you taken up, I
will."
"Did you ever hear such a woman?" said Mr. Nicholson, appealing to the
company. "Is she not enough to drive a man mad? You all saw me pay for
the goose last night, and I can produce the receipt she gave me for it."
"You can't! you can't! I never gave you one, and you shall pay me for
my goose yet. Show the receipt if you have it, you thief!"
Mr. Nicholson took out his pocket-book immediately, thinking to silence
her; but the receipt was gone. Finding it had been abstracted from his
pocket-book, he was very much enraged, and accused her of having taken
it. But she did not care for that, and after some more angry
recrimination, Mr. Nicholson, for the sake of peace, and to prevent the
company from being any longer annoyed by their disagreement, consented
to pay for the goose a second time, and it was then roasted for dinner.
After dinner was over she suddenly declared her intention of going to
Cumberland to see some property she had there, and also to visit her
half-brother and his children, whom she had not seen for many years.
Another inducement was her fear that her cousin would not return to
settle in Yorkshire unless she accompanied her on her journey to
Cumberland, when she would have an opportunity of continually urging her
to do so. She also thought she could travel cheaper in her cousin's
company than alone, for she always managed to lean pretty heavily on her
companions.
The plan which the other friends had formed of travelling as far as
Liverpool together was prevented by this fresh arrangement, and one of
the cousins was placed in a dilemma by a little act of kindness on the
part of the niece, who had hidden in her box a few fine pears as a
remembrance for the children in Cumberland. Now, Mrs. Nicholson had
declared that she would not take any box or trunk with her, and desired
her cousin to bring down her trunk to see if room could be made for the
few things she would require during her absence from home. No time was
therefore to be lost in removing the pears, which the niece slyly
effected by transferring them to her pocket whilst her aunt was looking
in another direction. Had Mrs. Nicholson seen the pears in the box, she
would have had cousins, niece, and all indicted together for stealing
them.
On the Wednesday morning her cousin from Dublin, with his wife and
daughter, took their departure, heartily glad to leave their
inhospitable relative.
Mrs. Nicholson immediately commenced preparing for her journey, giving a
particular charge to her niece not to let Mr. Nicholson get possession
of the butter or apple money during her absence, and to keep close watch
over him that he did not get drunk. Previous to her departure, Mr.
Nicholson asked her to bring back with her into Yorkshire his sister,
who was decrepit and destitute, and dependent on him for her support.
She agreed to the proposal, remarking if he would keep her he could do
it cheaper at home. But before she would undertake to bring the old lady
she required a promise in writing from Mr. Nicholson that he would
refund all travelling expenses incurred on his sister's account;
remarking to her cousin that she would charge him plenty, for she was
not going to be at the trouble of bringing the old woman for nothing;
and she thought if she proved good for anything, she might make her take
the place of a servant, if the niece left her, as she often threatened
to do.
Taking all these things into consideration, she promised to bring her
sister-in-law with her when she returned from Cumberland. And now, all
other things being arranged, she began to contrive the most economical
way of making the journey. She proposed to take the packet for York at
Langrick Ferry. She could walk that distance very well, but as her
cousin had a trunk she advised her to hire a cart, which would take them
all, for it would cost as much if she sent the trunk by itself.
Accordingly, a cart was procured, they bade farewell to Mr. Nicholson,
and proceeded on their journey. They got safe on board the packet, and
nothing particular occurred until they arrived in York, about three
o'clock in the afternoon, when Mrs. Nicholson told her cousin that she
knew a respectable house in Lendal where they could lodge cheap. Upon
proceeding there they found very comfortable accommodation, and the
cousin was much relieved by finding that the landlady perfectly
understood Mrs. Nicholson's character.
At this time Mrs. Nicholson's dress consisted of an old mourning print
dress, very thin and faded, and so scanty for her corpulent figure that
it was scarcely sufficient to cover her under-garments, which were of a
corresponding description. Over her shoulders was an old black or rather
brown stuff shawl, bound round the edge with what had once been black
crape; her bonnet was an old fancy straw, trimmed with black ribbon; a
cap to correspond; a large yellow silk handkerchief round her neck, and
a large printed apron tied before her, completed her travelling attire.
In the trunk was deposited a black, stuff dress. This, along with the
shawl she wore, had been bought for her by her mother thirteen years
before, as mourning for an aunt, and it had also served as mourning for
her mother, for whom she was then wearing it. In addition to the gown,
there was a black apron, an old vest, and an old dimity skirt, which
formed the whole of her wardrobe. However, the idea of these treasures
being in the trunk made her very anxious about its safety in the various
stages of their journey. After they had taken some refreshment, Mrs.
Nicholson said they must now consider which would be the cheapest way of
getting into Cumberland. It would never do to go by train. She knew
there were fly waggons travelling from York to various places, and they
must try and find them out.
Being, however, informed that the fly waggons had ceased travelling
since all goods were forwarded by train, it occurred to her that perhaps
she might get conveyed cheaper by luggage train. Accordingly she went to
the railway station, and applied at the offices of Pickford and other
carriers, telling them of her wish to travel by the fly waggons, but as
they were superseded by the luggage trains, she thought they might take
passengers along with the goods in the same way as was formerly done by
the waggons. The clerks and porters told her they could not do anything
of the sort; there were regular passenger trains, and she could not go
by any other. She said she could scarcely afford to travel in that way,
and begged to be allowed to go with the goods. But her labour was in
vain, and much to the satisfaction of her thoroughly-ashamed companion,
she was obliged to relinquish her hopes, and return to her lodgings,
fatigued, dispirited, and abusing everybody she had met with.
On the following morning she reluctantly consented to take the train as
far as Northallerton. When she arrived there several hours were spent in
similar fruitless attempts to procure a conveyance to Darlington.
Finding her efforts were useless, she began to consider that the expense
of lodgings would be incurred if they remained there much longer, and
she then determined to take the last train at night for Darlington, at
which station they arrived about ten o'clock. Proceeding towards the
town, they inquired where they could get a decent private lodging, and
were directed to an old couple, with whom they spent the night and next
day till the conveyance they had chosen was ready to depart.
They found the waggon was very heavily loaded, having among other things
several very long fir planks. There was some difficulty in getting Mrs.
Nicholson mounted, but at length she got squeezed in, and reclining
herself on the planks, endeavoured to compose herself to sleep. But what
with the jolting of the waggon and the confined space into which she was
squeezed being insufficient for her huge person, her limbs became
completely cramped; and this, with the excessive closeness of the place,
for the waggon was covered with canvas, made Mrs. Nicholson ill.
Reaching out her arms in the dark, she seized her companion by the hair,
and exclaimed, "Oh, I am dying! Oh, do get the man to stop! Oh, do, or I
shall die in this confounded waggon." In vain did her companion beg she
would relinquish her hold of her hair, telling her if she did not
release her she could not get to the front of the waggon to make the man
hear. The only reply was, "Oh, I am dying! Get a knife out of your
pocket and cut the cover open." At length her companion succeeded in
disengaging herself from Mrs. Nicholson's grasp, and scrambling over the
various packages in the waggon, attracted the attention of the waggoner,
who immediately stopped his horses, and did all in his power to render
the situation of the travellers a little more comfortable. They arrived
at Barnard Castle about nine in the morning. Here the driver said they
would remain until noon, and then proceed to Brough.
Mrs. Nicholson told the landlady of the house where the waggon stopped
how ill she had been on the road; that she could not afford to travel by
a better conveyance; that she could not take any refreshment except a
cup of tea, and that she had plenty of eatables with her in her basket.
The kind landlady looked at her as if she sincerely pitied her, and
said, "Well, never mind, you shall have a kettle boiled, and you shall
make yourself comfortable. I will charge you nothing for it." She then
showed the travellers into a neat little room, and said she hoped when
Mrs. Nicholson had taken some tea, and had a little rest on the sofa,
she would be able to proceed on her journey as soon as the waggon was
ready.
They arrived in safety at Brough, intending to proceed on their journey
next morning. But in the morning she was very ill. She had been little
accustomed to exercise for some time before, and the long and toilsome
journey in the waggon had been too much for her.
A day or two recruited her strength, and with the recovery of health,
she forgot her dislike to the waggon, for they next proceeded by
carrier's cart by Appleby to Penrith. But here she declared her
intention of finishing her journey on foot, for what with lodgings and
what with travelling expenses, she said it was going to cost as much as
if they had proceeded direct by railway. The trunk was accordingly
re-directed, to be left at Coldbeck, in Cumberland, till called for, and
given in charge of the carrier, with many injunctions from Mrs.
Nicholson to be careful of it, as it contained many things of
consequence.
When they reached the little inn at Blencow the landlady eyed them
suspiciously from head to foot.
The landlady, being unable to accommodate them, set a domestic to
inquire for lodgings, but returned unsuccessful, for a company of
Sappers and Miners who were then in that neighbourhood occupied every
place which was available in the little village.
Mrs. Nicholson declared her intention of remaining, repeatedly asserting
that the landlady was compelled to accommodate them. But the landlady
appeared to be anxious to get rid of them, and said she could not be
compelled to accommodate more travellers than the size of the house
would afford.
Fortunately Mrs. Nicholson remembered having an old acquaintance in the
place, and from him a light cart was obtained to convey the travellers
to Southernby, where Mrs. Nicholson's tenant, Mr. Ralph, resided. Here
they remained a day or two, and were treated most hospitably.
Mr. Ralph conveyed them in his own cart to Park End, near Coldbeck,
where Mrs. Nicholson's brother and family resided. The travellers
received a hearty welcome and the kindest treatment. On the day after
their arrival at Park End, at Mrs. Nicholson's request, her nephew
proceeded to Coldbeck to inquire after the trunk. He brought the trunk
back with him, and informed them that it had been carried by mistake to
another person of the same name, who had opened it, but finding it was
not hers, she had fastened it up again as well as she could, and said
the owner would find all right inside. "Oh, my apron, my good black
apron, I am sure it will be gone," exclaimed Mrs. Nicholson; "I wish I
had never put anything into your nasty trunk. My good skirts, too, if
they are gone I'll make them pay dearly for them." The trunk was soon
examined, and fortunately her precious things were all safe, so that
peace was soon restored.
They remained at Park End about a week, and but for the restraint her
presence always inflicted on those connected with her, the kindness they
received would have made the visit delightful.
Mrs. Nicholson's nephew took his aunt and her cousin to the place where
Mr. Nicholson's sister resided. She explained to the persons who had the
care of her the arrangement which Mr. Nicholson had made for her future
custody, and desired them to be in readiness to convey her to Whitehaven
when she was sent for. Both the old woman and the person she lived with,
who was a niece of Mr. Nicholson's, seemed much affected at the thought
of parting with each other; but the idea of joining her dear brother
seemed to console the old lady. Alas! she little knew the cheerless home
that awaited her.
When they had arranged this business, they returned to Park End. Her
nephew then took her to visit another lady, an old acquaintance of Mr.
Nicholson's, between whom it appeared a rather close intimacy had
subsisted previous to Mr. Nicholson's removal to Yorkshire. They
received as usual a very kind reception, and an invitation to remain.
Many sheep are kept in that part of Cumberland, and this was the period
for the annual clipping. At this season they make a kind of feast with
what is called there "butter sopps." Mrs. S----, the lady of the house
where they were staying, presented Mrs. Nicholson with some of the
butter sopps in a basin, requesting her to take them to Mr. Nicholson as
a present from her, jocosely remarking that she would like to be within
hearing when he was eating them. Mrs. Nicholson accepted the butter
sopps, and promised to deliver the message.
Part of old Miss Nicholson's furniture was sold, and arrangements were
made for removing the remainder to Yorkshire. Then Mrs. Nicholson and
the old lady started. It happened that part of the furniture of Miss
Nicholson had been bought by parties from Whitehaven, and a cart was
engaged next day to convey a sofa and a clock to the abode of the
purchaser. Mrs. Nicholson persuaded her cousin to proceed in this cart
to Whitehaven, at which place her other sister resided. This lady was
the companion of Mrs. Nicholson when she went to Selby confirmation, and
wrote the lively account of her visit which appears in this memoir. Mrs.
Nicholson's notable plan of travelling in the cart with the sofa and
clock was adopted. The sofa was placed lengthways on the cart, so that
the two passengers when seated thereon travelled sideways. The
clock-case lay behind, with a basket containing the works placed on the
top. They proceeded along pretty well until they were near a town named
Distington, through which they had to pass, when by some means the works
of the clock began to strike like a bell ringing, nor could their
efforts to stop it avail. With every roll of the cart it went tingle,
tingle, tingle, until the people began to look out of their houses as
they passed. "Come and look," said they; "here is such a fat woman
mounted on a sofa, and they are ringing a bell and going to show her."
This exasperated Nancy Nicholson to the utmost. She swore at the urchins
that ran by the side of the cart, and the more furious she grew the more
provoking did they become.
When they arrived at their cousin's house at Whitehaven the servants
were struck with amazement at her great size, and exclaimed, "However
shall we get her off the cart? We shall be forced to take her to the
warehouse and bouse her out with the crane." However, they managed to
assist her down without the aid of the crane, and she was very soon made
so comfortable that she forgot the vexation of her journey through
Distington.
Mrs. Nicholson, old Miss Nicholson, and a cousin who was travelling with
them, and to whom the reader is indebted for the details of the journey,
were hospitably received by the cousin at Whitehaven.
Mrs. Nicholson appears to have been still fearful that her companion
would not return with her, and therefore determined to take her
departure by the packet which left Whitehaven on Saturday for Liverpool,
and her cousin arranged to accompany her. They had been informed that
the packet would start at two o'clock in the afternoon, but just as they
were sitting down to dinner a gentleman called to say the packet was
then making ready. Immediately all was bustle and confusion. It was
necessary to convey down to the vessel not only the luggage, but Mr.
Nicholson's sister also, who was unable to walk. The dinner was left
untasted, but the kind cousin at whose house they had been staying
placed the meat and vegetables in a basket, and sent it after them,
saying they must dine when they got on board.
All their friends assembled on the pier from which the packet sailed,
and the sad farewell was followed by many prayers for her who had been
lured away from her friends and home by what they considered the
specious promises of Mrs. Nicholson.
The travelling party now comprised Mrs. Nicholson, her sister-in-law
(who was quite decrepit, and could scarcely walk even with the
assistance of sticks), the cousin who had accompanied her throughout the
journey, and her two children.
Soon after the packet left Whitehaven, it commenced blowing pretty
strong, and many of the passengers were very sick; amongst the rest,
Mrs. Nicholson and her cousin.
When the passengers left Whitehaven they expected to reach Liverpool by
midnight, when they would have been able to take the first train in the
morning for Manchester. The wind had caused some delay, and
unfortunately the packet had run against a loaded schooner, which had
carried away one of her paddles, and in consequence the remainder of the
voyage was performed without the aid of steam.
It was late in the forenoon when our travellers arrived in Liverpool,
and having procured a cab, as Miss Nicholson could not walk, they
proceeded at once to the railway station in Lime Street. To their dismay
they found the station closed, and on inquiry were informed that it
would not be open again for some hours. They were now in an awkward
dilemma, for Mrs. Nicholson declared her intention of remaining in the
street until the doors were opened, for she could not think of being at
the trouble and expense of removing her sister-in-law backwards and
forwards in vain.
Her cousin urged her to go to the nearest public-house, as it would be
disgraceful to remain at the doors of a railway station for such a
length of time on the Sabbath-day. Her cousin felt herself degraded, as
she had both friends and relations in Liverpool, and was fearful of
being recognised. But entreaties and expostulations were all in vain.
Mrs. Nicholson seated herself and her sister-in-law on the baggage, and
took out the mutton and potatoes, declaring herself right hungry, and
they would have their dinners. Mrs. Nicholson shared out the mutton and
potatoes, settled herself down with the dish on her knees, and commenced
her dinner most vigorously, declaring the meat was very good. Heartily
glad was the cousin when the doors opened; in a few minutes they
obtained their tickets, and were soon on their way to Manchester. On
their arrival they alighted from the train, not being certain that they
could proceed any further that night, and their movements being very
slow, the train started off again before they got fresh tickets. After
the train had departed and the crowd dispersed, the party proceeded to
the waiting-room to consult about procuring lodgings for the night, when
Mrs. Nicholson settled the point by declaring she would not leave the
station. They were still in the midst of their discussion when some of
the company's servants entered the waiting-room, and curtly informed
them it was necessary to depart, as the last train had gone, and they
wanted to close the station. But Mrs. Nicholson told them the train had
gone off and left them, as that old woman, pointing to her
sister-in-law, was unable to walk; and if she was removed from the
station that night they would not be able to get her there again in time
for the morning train. They replied that there was an hotel close to
the doors of the station where they might all be accommodated, and being
so near, the old woman could be brought to the train in the morning
without much difficulty. "Oh," replied Mrs. Nicholson, "do, if you
please, my good man, let us remain here; we would rather remain here
than go anywhere else. We will give you a trifle to let us stop where we
are, for we cannot afford to pay for our beds. But we will give you
something if you will let us stop here; we can sleep on the long
settle." "Well, poor woman," replied the kind-hearted man, evidently
touched with pity, "I cannot give you leave to stay, neither can I
accept anything from you; but I will acquaint the master, and see what I
can do for you." He accordingly departed, and in a little time returned,
saying it was quite contrary to their rules to permit anyone to remain
in the station all night. However, as their case was so pitiful, and
they had missed the train, they would be allowed to remain till morning.
He then kindly offered to make a fire, which, however, Mrs. Nicholson
declined, but thanked him heartily for his kindness. She said if he
would only permit the gaslight to remain burning, it would be all they
would require. He granted her request, and very kindly bade them
good-night, and shut the door.
The travellers then endeavoured to compose themselves to rest, Mrs.
Nicholson exulting in her success in obtaining leave to remain at the
station, whereby they would save the expense of lodgings. Fortunately a
pair of pillows belonging to the cousin were corded on the top of one of
their trunks. They were accidentally omitted when the other portion of
her furniture was packed off, and they now proved extremely useful. The
cords were speedily untied, and Mrs. Nicholson and her sister-in-law
each took a pillow, and laid down on the long seats of the waiting-room.
Her cousin and her children, with the help of sundry bundles, followed
their example, and wrapping themselves in shawls and cloaks, were soon
settled down, and prepared for a sound sleep after the fatigues of the
day.
On the following morning they took tickets for Selby, where they arrived
safely without any further adventures, and returned to Drax in the
evening by the carrier's cart, after having been absent from home about
a month.
Mr. Nicholson received his poor old sister very kindly.
Mr. Nicholson's niece left a few weeks after her aunt returned from
Cumberland, after which time Mrs. Nicholson treated the poor
sister-in-law with the greatest cruelty, compelling her to walk without
the assistance of her sticks, although she was scarcely able to totter
along.
It will be readily imagined that under these circumstances matters
became worse and worse in Mr. Nicholson's house.
It was about the end of November, 1844, that husband and wife had a
violent quarrel, which ended in a mutual agreement to separate.
Mrs. Nicholson's intention was to take up her abode in a house belonging
to her at Drax, which was next door but one to that occupied by her
cousin, and at that time unoccupied, and thither she moved with such
furniture as Mr. Nicholson would spare her. A series of miserable
squabbles ensued, an account of which is given in full in the chap. book
from which this notice is taken, but which we will spare our readers.
The final quarrel took place in 1845, when Mr. Nicholson beat his wife,
in the house where she lived. He never from that day visited her again,
or would suffer her to re-enter his doors. Indeed, they never again met.
She remained at Newland some time, and then removed to Asselby. The
first change she made there was to turn out of his farm the tenant who
had given her so much information previous to the division of the land
with her Dublin cousin, by means of which she had obtained the best
land. For the purpose of gaining this information she had made her
tenant a promise that he should never be disturbed. He reminded her of
her promise, but she had made her plan, and cared neither for his
entreaties nor for her promise. He was compelled to leave the farm at
the termination of his tenancy, which was the Lady-day following her
final separation from her husband.
She persuaded her cousin to come and live with her at Asselby, promising
her if she would do so that she would leave her all her property. The
cousin, although to do so was extremely inconvenient, and certainly most
unpleasant, agreed on these terms to do what she wished.
Poor Mr. Nicholson had bought an accordion, which he amused himself in
the long evenings with playing. On a summer night he sat out under the
trees and practised on his instrument. Nancy was highly exasperated when
she heard this. It was done, she concluded, out of malice, to exhibit to
the whole parish that he was indifferent to his loss, and could be
supremely happy without his wife.
"And I can be happy too," said Nancy, and she launched out in the
extravagance of an organ. She could not play it, but she could pull out
all the stops, bang her fist on the notes, and let the roar of the
instrument proclaim to the neighbourhood through the open windows that
she too was merry.
But not satisfied with this, she determined to be revenged on her
husband by obtaining, if possible, his inhibition. She resolved on
bringing Mr. Nicholson's intemperance under the notice of the
Archbishop, yet so ingeniously did she lay her plans, that when the
investigation took place, the part she had taken in it did not
transpire.
It appears that Mr. Nicholson had a dispute with a tenant at Drax about
giving up possession of his premises at a certain time, and this tenant
called on Mrs. Nicholson at Asselby, requesting her to be a witness as
to the time of his entering into possession, when she instigated him to
write to the Archbishop of York and give a full account of Mr.
Nicholson's various acts of intemperance, with a full detail of all the
circumstances in his conduct which were likely to degrade him in the
eyes of the Archbishop.
Mrs. Nicholson then caused letters to be written to the Archbishop,
complaining that Mr. Nicholson had beat her, and caused her to be turned
away without a home. This brought about a correspondence between the
Archbishop and Mrs. Nicholson, but, contrary to her hopes, it ended in
the Archbishop advising Mrs. Nicholson to consult a solicitor on the
subject.
The investigation caused Mr. Nicholson's suspension from preaching for
two years, which event gave Mrs. Nicholson great satisfaction. She wrote
several letters to him from Asselby, in some of which she abused him,
and in others expressed a wish to be again reconciled, but she never
received any reply.
Being now in comparative tranquillity with all around her, she was at a
loss for an object on which to employ her ever active brain, when one
day, as she was reading over the advertisements in the newspaper, she
suddenly exclaimed, "I am tired of doing nothing, and I think it is a
sin to be idle. To be sure I have what will keep me, and somebody after
me, but I would rather be employed. I will try to obtain a housekeeper's
situation. I know there are many who would be glad to have such a person
as me, if it was only to take care of things for them." It is probable
that no one else would be of the same opinion, but from that time she
searched the advertisements in the newspapers with an interest truly
ridiculous. Week after week passed, but nothing appeared which was
likely to suit her.
At length an advertisement appeared for a cook and housekeeper wanted
for a single gentleman. The address was copied, and a letter written,
describing her as a clergyman's daughter, &c. It was read over several
times by Mrs. Nicholson previous to its being deposited in the
post-office, and the reply was anxiously looked for. At length it
arrived, when it appeared that the advertiser was a highly respectable
physician residing at Thirsk, and he appointed a time for meeting Mrs.
Nicholson at the Railway Hotel at York.
Mrs. Nicholson immediately considered herself engaged, and as she
expected to leave Asselby for some time, she made great preparations for
securing her apartments and the property they contained, locking and
marking every drawer and cupboard, so that she might know if anyone
meddled with them during her absence.
She had then to consider what clothing would be necessary for this
important occasion. She thought it probable that she would be expected
to dress rather smartly in her new situation, and accordingly packed up
in a band-box an old-fashioned black silk pelisse, lined in front with
yellow; a pink muslin gown which she had got soon after her marriage,
and which was consequently too small for her at this time; her
never-failing black stuff gown for occasional use; and a light shawl.
These formed her wardrobe and filled the band-box, which was then tied
up in a large old shawl. She then packed a few articles in a reticule
basket covered with a piece of old blue print. This she secured with a
padlock passed through the lid of the basket and the willows at the top
which were left uncovered by the print.
In vain her friends tried to persuade her not to take her clothes with
her, as it was doubtful if she would get the situation. She appeared to
think that was impossible, because she was determined to go, let the
place be what it might, never seeming to think the other side would
refuse. She was then entreated to dress herself as tidily as possible,
but she would only go her own way. So she arrayed herself in an old
print gown, very much soiled, the indispensable apron, a woollen plaid
shawl, a cap very much crushed, and a bonnet little better.
The day appointed for meeting the gentleman at York was wet and stormy,
but Mrs. Nicholson resolutely faced the storm, and taking the packet at
the ferry, arrived in safety at York. She then set off to walk to the
hotel, but by the time she reached the end of Skeldergate she was pretty
well fatigued with her great bundle and basket, and her shoes were
covered with mud, her bonnet blown back off her face, and her hair
hanging about in disorder.
She was in this state when she arrived at the hotel, and inquired if Mr.
---- from Thirsk was there. She was immediately shown into his presence.
On entering the room she made a low curtsey, placed her bundle on the
floor, and sat down on the nearest chair, almost overcome.
The gentleman approached from the other end of the room, which was a
large one, and looking at her for about a minute, he inquired, "Were you
wanting me?"
"Yes, sir," she replied. "I suppose you are Mr. ----, from Thirsk?"
"I am," said the gentleman.
"Oh, then," said she, "I am Mrs. Nicholson who wrote to you about your
situation as cook and housekeeper."
The gentleman, who appeared rather nervous, immediately replied, "Oh,
dear me--you Mrs. Nicholson!--you the person who wrote to me! I
understood----"
Here his sentence was left unfinished, and he commenced again, "Oh, my
good woman, it must be some mistake. Are you the person who wrote to
me?"
"Yes, sir," she replied; "and I assure you I will take all possible care
of anything intrusted to me."
"Oh, dear!" said he, "you are not at all the kind of person that I
require. I have hitherto had my sister to superintend my house, but she
is going to travel in Italy, and I want a person qualified to supply her
place."
"Oh," answered Mrs. Nicholson, "I can do that. I have been used to
manage a family of fifteen, and I am sure I can do all you require."
"Oh, dear, no!" again retorted the gentleman, who began to look upon her
with some degree of apprehension. "I assure you, you are not the sort of
person I want. There must have been some mistake, my good woman--you
really will not do for me." So saying, he retreated towards the other
end of the room.
Mrs. Nicholson began to feel disappointed, but resolved to try again.
Once more advancing towards him, she said, "Well, sir, I am very sorry
you think so. However, I have no objections to travel, and if your
sister should want a companion----"
Here the gentleman interrupted her, saying, "My good woman, no such
thing, I assure you. You really will not do at all. There has evidently
been some mistake, for had I known before, I need not have troubled
you."
"Well, indeed," said Mrs. Nicholson, "it has been a great deal of
trouble, for I have come all the way on purpose, and have brought my
clothes with me."
The gentleman involuntarily cast his eyes first at the great bundle and
then at the speaker, and observed he was really sorry, though he could
not be answerable for her actions, but if she desired, he would order
her some refreshment.
However, she declined, and took her departure, murmuring something
about her disappointment and the trouble she had been at.
Week after week rolled on, and she was still pondering over a situation,
when her attention was again attracted by an advertisement for a
housekeeper. Application was made, and an answer duly returned,
informing her that her services would be required to manage a large
establishment. Her wages would be thirty pounds per annum, and she would
have the control of all the female servants, except the lady's maid and
the governess. The others she would have power to engage and discharge
at her own discretion. She was requested to go over immediately to meet
the lady and gentleman at their own house.
Mrs. Nicholson was delighted with these proposals, and already fancied
herself at the head of the establishment. She immediately began to
calculate how much money she could save out of her wages, and the
various perquisites which she considered would be within her reach, and
she then rejoiced that she had not obtained the old bachelor's situation
at Thirsk.
As this situation promised to be one of importance, she thought it would
be necessary to take most of her smart clothes, but after mature
consideration she made up her mind to take precisely the same as she had
taken to York. The band-box had not been unpacked since her former
journey, so that she had only the covered basket to fill, and she was
then ready to start.
The letter she had received directed her to a beautiful mansion near
Skipton in Craven. As it was necessary to be there as early as possible,
she was obliged to travel by rail. When she arrived at the station at
Skipton, she inquired the way to A----, and after a weary walk, at
length reached the entrance to the grounds surrounding the Hall. After
proceeding a few yards along the avenue, she sat down to arrange her
dress, and then took a survey of the place. From the spot which she
occupied she could obtain a slight glimpse of the building. "Why," she
exclaimed, "this is much finer than K---- Hall; I shall have a grander
place than him." After resting a short time she proceeded to a door, and
slightly tapping at it, retired a few steps. It was speedily opened by a
female domestic, who inquired of Mrs. Nicholson what she wanted. She
replied by asking if Mrs. ---- was at home. The girl having answered in
the affirmative, she requested her to be so kind as to inform the lady
that Mrs. Nicholson had arrived.
"Oh, certainly," replied the girl; and eyeing her from head to foot, she
asked, "are you Mrs. Nicholson?"
"Yes," replied Mrs. Nicholson, "and I have just arrived by the train."
The girl then invited her to walk in, and she was shown into a small
sitting-room. In passing along she saw that the house was very
extensive, and the apartments so numerous and so grand that she would
not be able to stop there. She had just made up her mind that the place
was too grand for her, when the door opened and a lady entered. Mrs.
Nicholson arose and curtsied, but was full of confusion, and unable to
utter a word. The lady requested her to sit down, and informed her that
Mrs. ---- would be with her in a few minutes.
"What," answered Mrs. Nicholson, "are not you Mrs. ----?"
"Oh, no," replied she; "I am her maid."
"I suppose Mrs. ---- is expecting me?" said Mrs. Nicholson.
"Oh, yes," replied the maid; "she sent the carriage to the railway
station to meet the train, and bring you here. But it returned some time
since. The groom said he made inquiries, but could not hear of a
passenger likely to be the new housekeeper."
During this speech the lady's maid appeared to be examining Mrs.
Nicholson's dress most minutely.
In a short time the lady herself appeared, and the maid withdrew, but
Mrs. Nicholson had both seen and heard sufficient to prevent her from
feeling the least desire to remain. She therefore at once said to the
lady, "Oh, ma'am, I am sorry I have come here, for I could never stay in
this great place."
The lady replied, "Well, Mrs. Nicholson, I am sorry likewise, for I was
really in hopes I had met with an excellent housekeeper. However, as you
see it yourself, I shall be spared the necessity of wounding your
feelings."
The lady then repeated what the maid had told her about sending the
carriage to the railway station, but Mrs. Nicholson appeared quite
incapable of entering into conversation. The lady evidently observed her
confusion, and behaved with the utmost kindness and condescension. She
remarked that night was coming on; therefore if Mrs. Nicholson would
remain till morning, she would give orders for her accommodation.
Mrs. Nicholson decided not to remain, and she also declined taking any
refreshments, but she expressed a desire to see some of the rooms in the
Hall. The lady readily granted her wish, and showed her through the
splendid apartments herself. She again expressed her sorrow that a
mistake, as she expressed it, had occurred, and Mrs. Nicholson replied
that she was sorry too, for the journey had been a great expense to her,
but she hoped the lady would give her something towards it.
The lady smiled at her request, and gave her a few shillings, remarking
that she had now paid for advertising for a housekeeper.
Mrs. Nicholson humbly thanked her, and took her departure, amidst the
half-suppressed titters of the servants, who had assembled to witness
her exit.
These events were seldom referred to afterwards, and Mrs. Nicholson
thenceforth rested satisfied without seeking another situation, but
continued steadily her usual mode of living and amassing money.
In the beginning of the year 1850, having heard that Mr. Nicholson was
dangerously ill, she felt anxious to see him, but first caused the
question to be put to him if he wished to see her, when he expressed the
greatest abhorrence at the idea, and declared that he never wished to
see her more. He died on the 8th of February following.
At the invitation of the executors she attended the funeral. She was
dressed in her never-failing black stuff gown, and a white Tuscan bonnet
which she bought soon after she separated from her husband. The bonnet
was trimmed for the funeral with a narrow black gauze ribbon.
Mr. Nicholson left a will wherein he provided for his poor old sister
for life, with remainder to a niece in Northamptonshire. His household
furniture and effects were to be sold. Of course he could not prevent
Mrs. Nicholson from having a life interest in any property referred to
in the deeds in which her name was inserted.
When the sale of the furniture was advertised, Mrs. Nicholson determined
to go over to Newland and take possession of the house. Her cousin was
invited to accompany her. She was much troubled at the thought of the
sale, for the things had formerly been hers, and she seemed to feel
great pain at parting with them in that way. At length she declared, as
she could not keep them herself, she would endeavour to prevent anybody
else from enjoying them. She then broke the glass over the clock face,
and with a penknife cut slits in the carpets and haircloth covering of
the sofa. These were not visible at the time of the sale, but would
undoubtedly appear when brought into use.
The sale took place on the Saturday, and it was late in the evening when
it was concluded. Several friends invited Mrs. Nicholson to their homes,
but she refused to leave the house. Two bedsteads and a crimson sofa
were left, which the purchasers could not conveniently remove that
evening, and which Mrs. Nicholson gladly allowed to remain, as they were
likely to be useful to her. She had previously observed a large bundle
in the garden, which had evidently been overlooked by the auctioneer and
his assistants. This she contrived to conceal in the cellar until all
the company had retired, when she brought it forth, and found it to
contain an excellent pair of blankets and a good quilt, which enabled
the pair to make their quarters rather more comfortable. She also found
in the cellar a barrel containing a considerable quantity of ale, with
which she nearly filled an old kettle, and having boiled it over a fire
made of sticks and old wood, she drank the greater part of the kettleful
at her supper, and was soon as fast asleep in her new-found blankets,
laid on the bare bedstead, as if she had been on a bed of down.
When morning arrived, the house, as might be expected, presented a very
desolate appearance. The cold was intense, but Mrs. Nicholson resolutely
refused every invitation to leave it. She and her cousin found plenty of
sticks and wood, with which they kept up a tolerable fire, and having
drunk some more boiled ale, Nancy commenced a thorough inspection of the
house. She found some old lumber which had not been worth selling, and
in one of the chambers a good heap of barley. Into this chamber she
removed all the lumber, together with all the pots and pans, whether
broken or sound, a quantity of doctors' bottles, and every piece of wood
about the place which was not then required for their fire.
Having only a life interest in the house, she determined to remove the
fixtures. She pulled the shelves out of the cupboard, tore down the
banisters at the top of the stairs, took the lock off the parlour door
and the rollers from the windows, and deposited them in the chamber with
the lumber and the barley. When night again drew on she had all arranged
to her satisfaction. Again she boiled her kettleful of ale, and again
slept soundly in her blankets as on the previous night.
Early on Monday morning she deposited in the chamber the blankets, the
quilt, and the old kettle, and having securely locked the door and
placed a private mark upon it that she might know if an entrance had
been attempted, she waited anxiously until the owner of the bedsteads
and sofa arrived and took them away. She then secured the house by
nailing down the windows, &c., and taking the path across the fields,
once more returned to Asselby.
Almost immediately after she arrived at home, she was informed by the
niece whose husband was tenant of the farm, that, owing to the heavy
rent and other circumstances, their affairs had become embarrassed. Mrs.
Nicholson had always promised to be a friend to them, and they now
offered to give all up to her, hoping by that means to secure a
continuance of her friendship. But she suddenly took offence at
something or other, and seized upon all they possessed, which was
immediately advertised to be sold by auction, and her niece and family
left the house the same evening.
There was then no one left about the premises but herself, and as she
could not bear to be alone, she again entreated her cousin to remain
with her for a time.
The sale of her niece's stock and furniture proceeded. At the
conclusion, the villagers, to whom she had always been an object of
dislike, made a large straw effigy, and paraded it up and down the
place. They then set fire to it in front of her window, and saluted her
with songs, hisses, and execrations.
The sight of the fire thoroughly alarmed her, and throwing open the
window she screamed and swore like a mad woman. She sent for a constable
and shouted for help. No one appeared to interfere on her behalf, but
when the effigy had ceased burning, the crowd dispersed of their own
accord.
Nancy Nicholson was so offended at having been burnt in effigy that she
determined to leave Asselby, and as she had again a house at liberty at
Drax, she moved her furniture into it, and persuaded her cousin to
accompany her.
About six weeks after the death of her husband, an elderly gentleman
began to pay his addresses to Mrs. Nicholson. A second suitor speedily
followed, and shortly afterwards a third. This bevy of suitors had a
wonderful effect on the old lady, and she began to pay great attention
to her dress and personal appearance. She purchased within one week
three new gowns, all of which she had made up with flounces; she got
also a new bonnet, and had several caps newly trimmed. She then brought
from her stores several rings, not one of which was gold except her
marriage ring, and with these she adorned her fingers. An hour or more
she would spend every morning in rubbing her rings, and in oiling and
dressing her hair, taking great pains to set herself off to the best
advantage, assuming all the giddy flirting airs of a girl of sixteen.
There is little doubt she would have married a second time, but feared
parting with her money, and it is thought that none of her suitors were
particularly anxious to take her without it.
About this time she began to attend the Roman Catholic chapel at Howden,
and shortly after was received into the Roman Church by baptism; and at
that time she certainly appeared to have more devotional feeling than
she ever displayed either before or afterwards. But on being applied to
for a small donation towards the new church then in course of erection
at Howden, she speedily withdrew from the Roman communion, remarking
that she had a good pew in the parish church, to which she could go
without expense whenever she felt disposed, and she would, too, in spite
of every one.
Mrs. Nicholson could never get a servant to live with her for any length
of time, her filthy habits being past endurance. She endeavoured to do
without assistance, but finding that impossible, she prevailed on her
cousin to come once a week to help her to clean up a little. She had her
bed in the room down-stairs where she lived, and her chambers were not
swept for months previous to her death. If her cousin offered to clean
up-stairs, she would reply that it was of no consequence, for no one
went up but herself. Her cousin received no payment for her attendance,
although she found her own provisions, relying entirely on Mrs.
Nicholson's oft-repeated promise that she should be rewarded in her
will. Her weekly attendance was continued until about the beginning of
July, 1854, when Mrs. Nicholson engaged a daughter of the niece before
mentioned, to go three times a week. She also found her own provisions,
but had wages for her labour. The cousin, at Mrs. Nicholson's request,
still went occasionally.
Soon after this Mrs. Nicholson became very ill, but was without medical
advice until the 4th of August, making her words good in that respect,
that she would never have another doctor until the last extremity. On
that day she allowed one to be sent for, and on the following day she
gave instructions for her will to be made. She bequeathed the farm and
house she occupied, with all her furniture and money in the bank, to the
niece before mentioned. She left another farm to the cousin in Ireland,
who had been defrauded when they separated their land. She left £1500 to
the son of a half-cousin by her mother's side, residing in Cumberland.
But the great bulk of her property was left to her half-nephew mentioned
in the account of her visit to Cumberland.
Although both the medical gentlemen and the solicitor very kindly urged
her to remember the cousin who had so constantly attended upon her,
without having hitherto received the slightest recompense or reward for
her trouble and expense, she refused to leave her anything.
About a fortnight before her death she wished for some wine, and sent
for a bottle of the best that could be procured. The wine was brought,
and she was informed the price was four shillings, which caused her
great dissatisfaction. She accused the person who brought it with
extravagance in paying so much, and with folly in not ascertaining what
would be allowed for the bottle when empty.
She then ordered in a five-gallon barrel of ale, all of which she
consumed in the week previous to her death. Hearing from the doctor that
she could not live long, she was dreadfully afraid of dying before she
had finished the barrel, and so not have had all she could out of her
money. As she had not been accustomed to drink fermented liquors for
some years before, there is no doubt she must have been half-stupefied
with beer during the last week of her existence.
She signed her will on Sunday morning, August 6th, 1854, and died the
evening of the same day.
FOOTNOTES:
[20] "The Life of Mrs Nancy Nicholson, who died August 6th, 1854."
Howden: W. Small. 1855.
[21] The Free Grammar School at Drax, where twelve boys are boarded and
educated from a fund left for the purpose.
THE WOODEN BELL OF RIPON.
Near the railway station at Ripon is a quaint block of old almshouses,
with an ancient chapel dedicated to St. Mary Magdalen, of grey stone,
backed by a grove of elms. The little chapel contains some curious wood
carving, the original stone altar, and a large oak chest in which
reposes a solitary curiosity--a wooden bell, painted grey-green. The
chapel is fortunately unrestored, left in its picturesque antiquity to
moulder away. Any one who had seen the chapel of Barden Tower some years
ago, and what it has become under the hand of the restorer, will know
what it is to be grateful that a venerable relic of antiquity has not
been furbished up to suit modern taste. That St. Mary Magdalen's would
have fallen into bad hands had it been given over to restoration may be
judged by the hideous new chapel which the authorities have recently
erected close to the almshouses.
By that wooden bell in the oak chest hangs a tale.
In the time of our grandfathers, Dr. W----, was Dean of Ripon, a divine
of the old port-wine-drinking school.
Now St. Mary Magdalen's chapel was no longer used. By the ancient
endowment there was to be a resident chaplain and daily service in the
little church, which the inmates of the almshouses were expected to
attend. But the chaplaincy and its emoluments were usually held by one
of the canons of the Minster. The stipend went into his pocket; the
duties were neglected. If the old almsfolk wished to pray to God daily,
they might totter three-quarters of a mile up to the Minster.
Dean W----, took on himself the chaplaincy; that is, he appropriated to
the stocking of his cellar the money bequeathed to the almonership of
the Magdalen Hospital.
But his cellar fell low. The Dean wanted money; his credit with the
wine-merchants was as low as his cellar. How was money to be raised?
One day he had the bell of the Magdalen Chapel removed from the gable in
which it had hung for many centuries, and had hung silent for many
years.
The bell was supposed to have gone to the founders; and the money paid
for it to the wine-merchant; anyhow, soon after, a hamper of fine old
crusted port arrived at the Deanery.
But Ripon people, though long-suffering, could not quite endure the
"robbing of churches." Murmurs were heard; the Dean was remonstrated
with. He puffed out, turning as red as a turkey-cock--
"Well, well! the bell shall go back again."
And sure enough next week the bell was seen once more hanging in the
gable of St. Mary Magdalen's chapel as of yore.
The Ripon people were content. The bell was never rung, but to that they
were accustomed. Who cared whether the old goodies in the hospital were
ministered to or not? It was no affair of theirs if the founder's wishes
were set at nought, and the walls of the Magdalen never sounded with the
voice of prayer.
But next spring, as on many a former one, the swallows built their nests
among the eaves, and found a place about the altar of God's deserted
house, as they had done in the days of the Psalmist. When nesting-time
came, some boys began climbing about the roofs in quest of eggs.
One of them, seeing a rope dangling from the bell, caught it and began
to pull, when, to his amazement, the bell uttered no sound. He crept
under it. There was no clapper; and what was more, it hardly looked
hollow. His curiosity was excited, and he climbed up to it, and
discovered that the bell was only a piece of deal turned, and painted
the colour of bell metal!
The story sounded further than ever had the old bell; and for very shame
the Dean was obliged to take it down, and hide it in the chest of the
Magdalen chapel.
Autumn came round. The Dean had notable espalliers in his garden. His
trees were too attractive to the urchins of Ripon to escape visits. This
highly incensed the Dean; and one night, hearing the boys at his
apple-trees, he rushed, stick in hand, upon them. One he caught by the
scruff of his neck. The others fled over the wall.
"Oh, you young ruffian! you audacious young scoundrel!" roared the Dean;
"where do you think thieves will go to hereafter? What do you think will
happen to them here?"
"Please, sir! please, sir!----"
"Hold your wicked tongue, you rascal!" thundered the Dean, whistling his
cudgel round his head, "I shall thrash you unmercifully now, and lock
you up in the black-hole to-night, and take you to the magistrate
to-morrow, and have you sent to prison. And then, if you go on with your
stealing, sir! you will go--there!" And the Dean progged with his stick
in the direction of the centre of the globe.
Then he shook the boy furiously--"one, two," bang came the stick down.
"Please, mercy, Mr. Dean; spare me!"
"Spare you, sir! no--three."
"But, please, Mr. Dean, _my father made the wooden bell for you_."
"Go along, you rascal," gasped the Dean, relaxing his hold, and rushing
back into his house.
In 1877 the Dean of Ripon (Dr. Freemantle) wrote to me relative to this
matter:--"My attention has been directed to an anecdote told by you in
your book called 'Yorkshire Oddities' of the late Dean W----. I have
made it my business to ascertain the correctness of the story, as it has
excited a good deal of feeling in the minds of some of the old residents
here. We have found a bell which was sent from the Deanery at least 40
years ago, and which has been in the crypt of the Cathedral ever since.
It is exactly the same size as the wooden bell, which we have recovered
from a heap of cinders." So Dean W---- did not sell the bell after all!
OLD JOHN MEALY-FACE.
Old John M----[22], a character in his way, and a celebrity in his very
little circle, was born in the parish of Topcliffe, near Thirsk, on
February 20th, 1784.
He was thrice married. His first and second wives I did not know; the
third he married March 29th, 1838. She was afflicted with paralysis of
her legs during a great part of her later life. She was a charming old
woman--religious, amiable, and a general favourite with her neighbours.
Old John had sharp features, an eagle nose, and a prominent chin. He
wore drab corduroy breeches and blue stockings. He shaved all the hair
off his face. The nickname he bore in the village, where he resided on
his small farm, was "Mealy-Face." He obtained it by this means: John was
a close-fisted old man, who stinted himself, and his wife above all, in
every possible way, for he dearly loved money. He did not allow his wife
enough food, and she, poor thing, was wont, when he was out for the day
at market or at fair, to bake herself a loaf from which she could cut a
hunch when hungry.
Her husband found this out, and was very wroth. When he went to market
he pressed his face down in the flour at the top of the bin, and on his
return put his face back in the depressions, to make sure that the flour
had not been disturbed.
The old man was not without dry humour. The story is told of him that a
clergyman called on him one day to say he was about to leave his
present sphere of work, "the Lord having called him to work in another
vineyard."
"Then," said Old Mealy-Face, "I lay you get a better wage."
"Yes," answered the clergyman, "it is a better living by a hundred
a-year."
"Heh! I thowt seah (so)," said John, dryly; "else the Lord mud ha'
called while (till) he'd been hoarse, and ye'd niver ha' heeard."
An excursionist met him on Whitson Scar, on the Hambledons. The
traveller had come there from Thirsk, hoping to see the glorious view
stretching to Pendle Hill, in Lancashire. But a fog came on and obscured
the scene. The gentleman coming upon John, who had been to Helmsley on
some business or other, accosted him in an off-hand manner:
"Hey, gaffer! there's a fine view from here, ain't there, on fine days?"
"Aye, sur, it might be worse."
"One can see a long way, I'm told."
"I reckon one may if one's got eyes."
"Now tell me, gaffer, can one see as far as America, do you think?"
"One can see a deel furder," answered John
"You don't mean to say so?"
"Eh, but I do. One can see t' moon from Whitston on a moonshiny neet."
Old John had a famous pear-tree in his garden. Two years running his
pears were stolen, and no doubt were sold in Thirsk market, without John
being a penny the richer. The old man grimly awaited the thief as the
fruit ripened in the following autumn, sitting nightly in his window,
gun in hand.
One dark night, just before market-day, he heard some one at his tree.
He took careful aim at the spot whence the sound proceeded, fired, and a
scream told him his bullet had taken effect. In fact, he had hit the
thief in the thigh; but the ball had fortunately penetrated the flesh,
and broken no bone.
The pear-stealer was caught, and on the first opportunity brought before
the magistrates at Thirsk. The presiding magistrate--I think it was Sir
John Galway, but am not certain--deemed it advisable to caution John
M---- against too free a use of his gun.
"You know, my good friend, that a gun loaded with a bullet might have
killed the man who stole your pears."
"Ah, it might, and it would, but t' gun snecked (kicked) as I were
blazin' wi' it."
"If the gun had not 'snecked,' as you call it, the bullet would probably
have gone into the poor fellow's heart and killed him dead."
"I'll tak' care it deean't sneck again," said Old John, who had no
scruples against shooting a pear-stealer.
Whilst in the parish of Topcliffe I am constrained to relate an anecdote
illustrative of Yorkshire shrewdness, though unconnected with
Mealy-Face.
An old woman--Molly Jakes, we will call her--died, or was thought to
have died, and was buried by the parish. A few days after the funeral
the vicar was talking to the sexton, when the latter said, drawing the
back of his hand across his nose, "Ye thowt old Molly Jakes were deead,
sur?"
"Dead, dead! bless my soul! of course she was."
"Well, mebbe she is neah (now)."
"What do you mean? Speak, for heaven's sake!"
"Nay, sur, it's nowt! Only I thowt efter I'd thrown the mould in as I
heeard her movin' and grum'ling under t' greand (ground)."
"You dug her up at once, of course, man?"
"Nay," said the sexton, "I know two o' that," casting a knowing look at
the parson. "T' parish paid one burying: who was to pay me for digging
her up and putting her in ageean, if she died once maire? Besides," said
the sexton, drawing his hand back again across his nose, "Old Molly cost
t' parish hef-a-croon a week when she war wick (alive). Noo she's felted
(hidden) under t' greeand, she costs nowt. If I'd dug her up and she
lived ever seah (so) long, what would ha' t' rate-payers 'a said teah
(to) me?"
John M----, once, when I was in his house, told me a curious tale about
himself. He was riding one night to Thirsk, when he suddenly saw passing
him a radiant boy on a white horse. There was no sound of footfall as he
drew nigh. Old John was first aware of the approach of the mysterious
rider by seeing the shadow of himself and his horse flung before him on
the high-road. Thinking there might be a carriage with lamps, he was not
alarmed till by the shortening of the shadow he knew that the light must
be near him, and then he was surprised to hear no sound. He thereupon
turned in his saddle, and at the same moment the radiant boy passed him.
He was a child of about eleven, with a bright, fresh face.
"Had he any clothes on, and, if so, what were they like?" I asked. But
John was unable to tell me. His astonishment was so great that he took
no notice of particulars.
The boy rode on till he came to a gate which led into a field. He
stooped as if to open the gate, rode through, and all was instantly
dark.
"I'm an owd customer," said John when he presented himself to be married
the third time; "soa, vicar, I hope ye'll do t' job cheap. Strike off
two-thirds, as it's the third wife."
John Mealy-Face died at the age of eighty-four, and was buried at
Topcliffe on November 5th, 1868.
FOOTNOTE:
[22] I suppress the name, as the old man died but lately.
THE BOGGART OF HELLEN-POT.
A TALE OF THE YORKSHIRE MOORS.[23]
I took the opportunity last autumn, just before the break-up of the
weather, of shaking off the dust of shoddy-mills, and getting a whiff of
air, unadulterated with smoke, in a run among the Yorkshire moors for
the better part of a week. I spent the first night at Bolton, and slept
soundly, after a ramble through the beautiful Wharfedale, and an
examination of the Strid, where the river gushes through a rift in the
rock so narrow that it is supposed possible to stride across it, though
I never heard of any man venturesome enough to make the attempt. A
friend accompanied me, a Mr. Keene, and on the following day we ascended
the valley of the Wharfe to Arncliffe, visiting on the way the
picturesque ruin called Barden Tower, and the magnificent hanging crags
at Kilnsea.
At Arncliffe, a quaint moor village, my companion fell lame, and was
unable to accompany me next day on a mapless ramble in search of
whatsoever was picturesque and wild. It was a glorious day, the sky pure
and blue, the air elastic, the heather and fern twinkling with dew. It
was really very hard for poor Keene to spend ten hours alone in a dismal
little country inn, without either a book or a newspaper, whilst I was
brushing through the heather, scrambling limestone scaurs, and exploring
ravines, inhaling at every breath life and health and ozone. But it
served him right. What was the fellow thinking of when he put on a pair
of new boots for his walking expedition? He looked wistfully after me
out of the parlour window, and called to me to be back for a dinner-tea
at seven, adding that he hoped his feet would be better in the
afternoon, and then he would stroll to meet me.
Leaving Arncliffe, and noticing a bright, fretful little stream, dashing
through a broken and beautiful cleft in the hills, I took a sheep-track
above it, and determined on following its course. In a few minutes I
seemed to have left civilisation behind me entirely. The great expanse
of moorland which opened before, the utter absence of all signs of
cultivation, the wild rocky pile of the Hard Flask on one side and of
Fountains Fell on the other, gave the scene a savage grandeur which one
hardly expects to find in England. The little beck moaned far away below
me out of sight, the wind soughed pleasantly among the heather, and the
curlew, which I constantly started, rose with a melancholy pipe and flew
away to the grey scaurs on the side of Fountains Fell.
Being of the geological persuasion, I usually carry about with me a
hammer and a small sack or pouch, which I sling round my neck, for the
conveyance of specimens. I revelled in these limestone hills, spending
hour after hour chipping off fragments of rock, and breaking them up to
extract the fossils. I hardly knew whither I rambled, but I certainly
got into Silverdale, for I lunched on my bread and cheese with Penigent
towering above me on the west, and beyond it rose the glorious pile of
Ingleborough. I ascended Penigent, the height of which is 2270 feet, and
watched the sunset from the top. Then I followed the precedent of the
illustrious King of France who, having marched to the top of a hill,
marched down again. But I was quite out in my geography. Now, with the
map before me, I see that my ideas as to the direction in which
Arncliffe lay were entirely wrong. My walk during the day had been of
such a zig-zag nature that I had lost my compass points, and had made no
landmarks. The consequence naturally was, that I descended Penigent on
the wrong side, and then instinctively perceiving I was in the wrong, I
did a foolish thing--I struck off from my line of course at right
angles. It would have been better for me to have retraced my steps up
the mountain-side, and taken bearings again whilst there was still a
little light; but instead of doing so, I involved myself more and more
in confusion, and at last, as it became dark, I was utterly ignorant of
where I was, and which was the direction in which my face was turned.
Under such circumstances a man is tempted to allow himself to be that
which in a brighter hour he would repudiate--a fool. I remember mentally
expressing my conviction that I was an idiot, and indignantly asking
myself how I could have thought of setting out on a walk in an unknown
country without map or compass? My exasperation with self was by no
means allayed when I tripped over a stone and fell my length in a sludgy
patch of swamp. At the same time I became conscious of a growing pain in
my vitals, and was sensible of a vacuum in that region of the body which
is situated beneath the lower buttons of the waistcoat; and a vacuum is
what nature is well known to abhor. There was a dinner-tea spread for me
in the inn at Arncliffe: chickens and ham I knew had been promised;
trout I naturally anticipated would prove part of the fare in a famous
fishing district; veal cutlets perhaps, and mashed potatoes. Heavens!
and I not there. I know I groaned at the thought, for the sound as it
issued from my lips startled me. As I walked on with drooping head,
those veal cutlets and mashed potatoes rose up before me tauntingly. I
am a man of resolution, and finding that the vision only aggravated
matters, I beat the veal cutlets down; yet, when they vanished, a new
phantom rose to distress me. During the day I had examined on the slopes
of Coska, Fountains, and Penigent several of those curious pots which
are peculiar to the Yorkshire limestone moors. These pots, as they are
called, are natural wells, hideous circular gaping holes opening
perpendicularly into the bowels of the mountain. In rainy weather the
tiny rills which descend the fells precipitate themselves into these
black gulfs and disappear. Far down at the bottom of the mountain the
streams bubble out again from low-browed caverns. Some of these pots are
many hundred feet deep; some are supposed by the vulgar to be
unfathomable, for certainly their bottoms have not been sounded yet, and
a stone dropped falls and falls, each rebound becoming fainter, but the
ear catches no final splash.
Now, the number of these frightful holes I had stumbled upon during the
day made me fear lest in the darkness I should come upon one, and tumble
down it without hope of ever coming up alive, or indeed of my bones
receiving Christian burial. It was now in vain for me to endeavour to
revive the dream of veal cutlets in order to obliterate the hideous
image of these pots; the pots maintained the day, and haunted me
till--till I suddenly became conscious of some one walking rapidly after
me, endeavouring apparently to overtake me. The conviction came upon me
with relief, and I stood still, eagerly awaiting the individual,
expecting at length to be put in the right direction. The stars gave
light enough for me to discern the figure as that of a man, but I could
scarcely discover more. His walk was strange, a wriggle and duck
accompanying each step, the reason being, as I ascertained on his coming
alongside of me, that he was a cripple in both legs.
"Good evening, friend," said I; "I'm a stranger lost on the moor: can
you direct me towards Arncliffe?"
"On, on with me," was the answer, and the hand was waved as though
pointing forward.
"Dark night this," I said.
"Darker below," he muttered, as though to himself; "darker, darker,
darker."
"Shall we have a bit of moon, think you, presently?"
He made no answer, and I turned to look at him.
There was something in the way he walked which made me uneasy. When he
took a step with his right foot he worked his body round facing me, and
then his head jogged on to his left shoulder and reclined upon it. When
he stepped out with his left foot his body revolved so that his back was
presented to me, and the head was jerked on to the right shoulder. I
noticed that he never held his head upright; sometimes it dropped on his
breast, and once I saw it drop backwards. The impression forced itself
on me that just thus would a man walk who had his neck and legs broken,
if by any means the possibility were afforded him to attempt a
promenade.
"How far to Arncliffe?" I asked, but he vouchsafed no answer. I tried
another question or two, but could obtain no reply. I lost my temper,
and laid my hand on his shoulder to draw his attention to what I was
inquiring, but with a wriggle he glided from under my hand, and hobbled
on before me.
I had no resource but to follow him. He kept ahead of me, and seemed
determined not to enter into conversation; yet I offered him
half-a-crown if he would give me the information I desired to obtain.
I was puzzled with my strange companion, and felt somewhat uneasy. I
felt that he was a bit "uncanny," both in his appearance and in his
manner.
Presently we came near water, as I judged by the sound, which was that
of a beck murmuring among stones. On went my conductor, following the
water-course, and so rapidly that I had difficulty in keeping up with
him. When he leaped on a stone or scrambled up a turf-hummock, so as to
stand against the horizon, where a feeble light still lingered, I could
distinguish the horrible contortions of his body, and the sight
invariably heightened my uneasiness.
Suddenly I missed him!
I called--but there was no reply! I stood still and listened, but heard
nothing save the bubbling of the stream, and, far, far away, the to-whoo
of an owl.
Noiselessly a bat fluttered past me, coming instantaneously out of the
blackness of the night, and vanishing back into it as instantaneously.
"I say, you fellow!" hallooed I to the vanishing guide.
"You fellow!" answered the scaurs of Penigent, in a lower key.
"To-whoo," faintly called the owl.
"What do you mean by deserting me like this?" I roared.
"Like this," muttered the echo. "To-whoo," responded the owl.
"I must follow the beck," I said; "that will lead me to the river, and
the river will guide me to some habitation of living man."
"Living man," growled the echo. "To-whoo," sang the owl.
I stumbled over the water-worn stones, and splashed into water. My
ankles were scarified, my shins bruised; I narrowly escaped breaking my
bones as I fell again and again. I did not dare leave the stream, lest I
should lose my way.
Then a nightjar began to hiss from among the rocks, and the stream to
dash along more wildly. The banks rose higher, and I seemed to be
walking through a railway cutting. I looked up, and saw the rugged
outline of rock and furze on the eastern bank, and on top of a huge
block stood a distorted human figure. It was that of my strange
companion.
Down the slope he came with wriggle and jump; he came straight towards
me, spread out his arms--in a moment they were clasped round me, and I
was lifted from my feet. I was so astonished that I made no resistance
at first, and it was only after he had taken a dozen steps with me, and
I heard the splash of the beck falling into what must be a pot, and saw
the black yawning hole open before me, and felt the man bending as
though about to leap down it with me in his arms, that I tore my right
arm loose, and caught at a young rowan-tree which leaned over the gulf.
At the same moment there flashed before my eyes the light of a lanthorn,
the flame small and yellow, yet sufficient to illumine the face of the
bearer--a young woman, the countenance wondrously beautiful, but full of
woe unutterable.
The lanthorn passed across the open mouth of the pot. The moment it
became visible the arms which held me were unclasped, and I saw the man
sink down the abyss, with the light reflected from his upturned face. He
went down it, not with a whizz as a falling stone, but slowly as a man
might sink in water. Thus I was well able to observe his blanched face
and wide dilated eyes fixed with horror on the lanthorn flame.
Having recovered my feet, naturally my first impulse was to run up the
bank, and get as far as possible from the ugly well into which I might
have been precipitated. My next was to look round for the young woman
who bore the light. I could see the lanthorn at some little distance,
but I could not distinguish the bearer.
I called to her; she lifted the light till her hand came within its
radiance. The small white hand beckoned me to follow.
I ran to catch her up, but the faster I pursued, the swifter glided the
flame before me. Evidently the bearer did not desire to be overtaken.
When I stopped, she stopped; when I advanced, she moved onwards; always
keeping the same distance ahead of me. So we must have proceeded for a
couple of miles, when suddenly the light went out, and at the same
instant I became conscious of a small farm-house lying before me.
In less time than it takes me to write this I had entered the enclosure
which surrounded it, and had rapped hastily at the door. A gaunt
moorland farmer opened it, and looked at me with surprise.
"Can you let me have shelter for a little while, and then a guide to
Arncliffe?" I asked. "I have lost my way, and have met with a strange
adventure, which has somewhat shaken my nerves."
"Sit here; come here; sit thee down there," he said, pointing to the
ingle corner with the stem of his pipe, and then closing and bolting the
door, he stalked over to the opposite corner and sat down on a
rocking-chair. He eyed me musingly, and smoked steadily without making
any remark. After having puffed away for ten minutes, he shouted at the
top of his voice:
"Gi'e him a glass of ale, lass."
"A'm boune to, lad," replied a voice from the back-kitchen: and looking
over my shoulder, I noticed that there was a woman in the little lean-to
back room, "fettling up" by the light of a rush-candle.
"Thou'rt none boune to Arncliffe to-neet?" said the man, slowly
withdrawing his pipe from his mouth.
"I am, if you will direct me," I replied, "for I have a friend there
who is expecting me, and who will be sorely put out at my non-appearance
earlier."
"Humph!"
He smoked for ten minutes more, and then said:
"And what brought thee this road?"
"I will tell you," I replied; and then proceeded to relate what had
happened to me. As soon as I mentioned the strange companion I had met
with--
"It's t' Boggart, lass!" called the farmer to his wife, "he's gotten
agait misleading folk again."
When I spoke of the flash of light before which the man had quailed, and
which had revealed the face of a woman, pale and sad, bending over it--
"Weel done, Peggy!" roared the farmer; "'tis no but Peggy wi' t'
lanthorn, lass,"--again to his wife.
"She's a good 'un," responded the lady from the kitchen.
"Who are the Boggart and Peggy?" I asked; "they seem to be intimate
acquaintances of yours."
The great Yorkshireman did not answer, but whiffed away, with his dreamy
eyes fixed on the fire.
"So t' Boggart thowt to ha' hugged thee down Pothoile!" Then he laughed.
"I reckon," mused he again, "I reckon he were a bit flayed to see Peggy
come anent him that road!"
"I wish," said I, "that you would tell me all about him and her."
"So I will, lad, bi'm bye, if thou'rt boune to Arncliffe to-neet." He
looked up at me. "We can gi' thee a bed if thou likes: it's no but a
poor one, but it's none so bad--eh, lass?" The last two words were
shouted to his wife.
"Ay, ay," she replied from the kitchen.
"Thank you very kindly," said I; "if it were not for my friend at
Arncliffe, I would accept your offer with alacrity; but as it happens, I
_must_ return there to-night."
"Gi'e us a leet, lass!" called the man, knocking the ashes from his
pipe, rising, and taking down a lanthorn.
The good woman lighted the candle for him, and the great Yorkshireman
shut the lanthorn door, took up his cap, and said to me--
"Now, if thou'rt boune to come, come on."
I rose and followed him. He led the way, and as we walked towards
Arncliffe he told me the following tale:--
"Some hundred years ago there lived a young woman in a cottage near
Kettlewell. A strange man came into the neighbourhood, gained her
affections, and married her. They settled at the little farm in which my
guide now resided. They had not lived a twelvemonth together before the
constables entered the house one evening, and took the man up on the
charge of bigamy. He had a wife and family living at Bolton, in
Lancashire. As they were carrying him off, he broke from them and fled
over the moors, and was never retaken. By some it was supposed that he
had escaped to America, but by others that he had fallen into one of the
pots and had perished. His poor second wife, heart-broken, wandered all
that night searching for him, and was found dead on the side of Penigent
next morning. And they say," added my guide, in a low voice, "that she
seeks him still; and when she's gotten him she'll tak' him before the
throne of God to be sentenced for having ruined her happiness, and been
the cause of her death. That's why he's so flayed (afraid) of meeting
wi' she, and sma' blame to him."
"So you think the wretched man perished in one of the pots?"
"I reckon he did. And he'll never have rest till his bones are laid i'
t' churchyard, and that'll never be."
"Farmer," said I, after a pause, "have you plenty of rope about your
house?"
He grunted an assent.
"Then I will descend the pot to-morrow."
I am sorry to state here that my companion was so completely thrown off
his balance by this announcement that he swore.
"Shall you have time to assist me?" I asked.
"I'm none particular thronged," he replied.
"Some additional help will be needed," I continued; "if you have a
workman or two disposed to earn a day's wage by being useful to me, bid
them be ready with all that is requisite at the mouth of the pot
to-morrow."
"Ay! if we can addle us a bit brass that road," responded the farmer,
"we're t' chaps for thee. But I reckon thou'rt no but making gam' of
me."
"I am not, indeed," I replied; "get plenty of rope ready, and a stout
pole laid across the mouth of the hole, and I will go down to-morrow."
I was as good as my word. Keene accompanied me next day to the little
farm, and there we found half-a-dozen men with ropes and windlass ready
to assist in the exploit.
As the sun was shining, I felt no fear whatever, and I laughed and
chatted whilst a belt was strapped round my waist, another under my
arms, and the cord passed beneath them. Before descending I took up my
geological bag and slung it round my neck; I also picked up my hammer.
"You may be sure I shall find some magnificent stalactites down there,"
said I.
"Are you ready?" asked Keene.
I sat on the edge of the gulf under the mountain ash to which I had
clung for life the night before. I directed my eyes downwards, and saw
the little stream lose itself in spray after a leap or two. How awfully
black the abyss seemed! "Now, then!" I slipped down, and the windlass
was slowly unwound. Click, click, click! I heard each sound of the
crank as it descended. The air about me was cold and damp. Beautiful
ferns and mosses flourished on every ledge; presently, however, I got
beyond the fern zone. I was in darkness. The spray of the falling stream
was so finely comminuted that it was more like mist than spray. The
walls of the pot were green with lichen, and now I was below the region
of mosses. Here, on a little patch of moist _Marchanta polymorpha_, I
found a poor butterfly, the common meadow brown. It had probably
fluttered some way down the chasm in the giddiness of the moment, its
wings had been clogged with spray, and it had been carried lower and
lower till at last it had alighted, dripping and chilled, without hope
of seeing sunlight again, on a small ledge covered with lichen. I
rescued the poor insect, and put it inside my hat. I began to swing like
a pendulum, and at one time had some difficulty in preventing myself
from striking the rocky sides.
I could not see the walls now; I could not hear the click of the
windlass. All below was perfectly black; not a sign of a bottom; but
white terraces, covered with stalagmite, gleamed up round the well-like
ribs, catching a little light from above. With my hammer I broke off a
large mass of deposit formed by the droppings of water largely
impregnated with lime. It whizzed down, but still I heard no final
splash. I shouted--only faintly, as the pressure on my lungs from the
belt prevented my using my voice to its full extent--but the whole well
seemed alive with echoes. I tried to turn my head and look up at the
sky, but I was unable. The darkness and chill began to tell upon me, and
an agonising cramp contracted my legs. However I managed to place my
feet upon a ledge, and to stand up. Those working the windlass, feeling
that the strain was off the rope, let out no more. When the cramp left
me, I cast myself off again, and dropped below the ledge. After a while
I began to hear a sound of falling water, and in a few minutes passed an
opening in the side of the pit, out of which gushed an underground
stream, and precipitated itself down the chasm.
Now I became conscious of a broad ledge of rock, extending considerably
out into the well, and contracting its size; something lay upon
it--fragments of broken stalactites and stalagmites, I fancied--what
they were I could not distinguish, especially as at the same moment that
I saw them I perceived something black rising towards me. In one second
I saw the face of the Boggart flash up at me full of hideous triumph,
and I felt the grip of his arms about my waist. Next moment I lost all
consciousness.
When I came to myself I was lying in the sunshine on the slope above the
pot--Hellen or Hull-pot is its name--with Keene and the farmer bending
anxiously over me.
"I'm all right," said I, in a low voice; and in a couple of minutes I
was sufficiently recovered to sit up.
I took off my hat, and away flew the butterfly I had rescued, oblivious
of the hours of darkness and misery it had passed through.
"Did you reach the bottom?" asked Keene. I shook my head.
"We let out all the rope we had," said my friend, "and then we pulled up
again, and found you at the end in a dead faint. I see you have not been
idle," he added, lifting my geological bag. "Full of stalactites, I
suppose," and as he shook it the contents rattled.
"No," said I, "I put nothing into it."
"Then how comes it filled?" he asked. "Why, halloo! what have we here?"
and he emptied out of it a heap of human bones and a shattered skull.
_How_ they got into the sack I shall never know. The remains were very
old, and were encrusted with stalagmite. They lie now in Horton
churchyard. I believe the Boggart has not been seen since.
* * * * * * *
For a considerable time during our walk from Malham Tarn to Settle I had
been silent. Keene could endure it no longer, and at last exclaimed,
"Really this is intolerable! You have been in a brown study for the last
half-hour without speaking a word. A penny for your thoughts!"
"To tell you the truth," I replied, "I have been thinking over what
might have happened if you had fallen lame at Arncliffe, _if_ I had gone
on a geological walk without you, and had lost my way on Penigent, and
had fallen in with a Boggart, who tried to precipitate me down a pot,
and if I had been rescued by an _ignus fatuus_, and had finally
descended the pot and brought up the Boggart's bones!"
Mr. Keene stared at me with amazement. I then related to him what I have
just related to you, good reader, and I concluded with the observation:
"All this, you know, _might_ have happened, but unfortunately it
_didn't_. You have had my thoughts, so hand me your penny."
FOOTNOTE:
[23] Contributed by me to _Once a Week_, March, 1867.
JONATHAN MARTIN,
THE INCENDIARY OF YORK MINSTER.[24]
Jonathan Martin was not a native of Yorkshire, but as it was in
Yorkshire that he lived part of his time, and as his name is inseparably
connected with the glorious Minster at York, which he partially burnt,
he claims our notice in this volume.
He was born, according to his own account, at Hexham, in Northumberland,
in 1782, of poor but honest parents, and by them, at a suitable age, was
put apprentice to a tanner. He appears to have served his apprenticeship
with steadiness, and on its expiration, when he was in his twenty-second
year, he removed to London, intending to travel. Soon after his arrival
in the metropolis, as he was one day viewing the Monument, a man
accosted him, and inquired if he wanted a situation. Martin told him he
wished to go abroad, on which the man replied that he could suit him
exactly, as a gentleman of his acquaintance had a son on board a frigate
on the Indian station, who wanted a person of Martin's description, and
would give him thirty-two shillings per month, besides his chance of
prize-money.
Martin eagerly accepted this offer. But he soon found that he was in
the hands of a press-gang; and he was sent to the Nore, where he was
placed on board the Hercules, 74 guns, which formed a part of the
expedition against Copenhagen in 1804 under Lord Nelson. After the
surrender of the Danish fleet he was drafted into one of the prizes, an
84-gun ship, which, with a squadron of seven other vessels, was ordered
to proceed to Lisbon to blockade the Russian fleet in the Tagus, in
order to prevent it from falling into the hands of the French. These
ships were taken by the British, and were brought to England.
The next affair Martin mentions in his biography as having been engaged
in was in assisting to bring off the troops from Corunna in January,
1809. He says, setting sail from Vigo Bay--
"We reached Corunna in one day, and then approached the shore: the
numerous carcases of dead horses, all floating in the bay, showed us the
toil our army had suffered. We could plainly see the French and English
camps from our ships, each occupying a hill very near the other. We made
every exertion to get close in, to cover the embarkation of our troops,
who were sadly annoyed by the fire from the French artillery on the
heights. Our ships replied to the French as well as the heavy sea then
setting would allow. By great exertion the whole embarkation was
completed. They then directed their batteries against our transports,
who had to slip their cables, and stand out of the reach of their guns.
During this scene of confusion and terror several boats were sunk by the
fire of the enemy and some by the violence of the sea. Our vessels
presented an awful spectacle, from the number and condition of the
wounded, who occupied our cockpit, cable tier, and every spare place on
board, and whose misery was rendered greater by the tempest which
arose, and prevented that attention being paid to them which their
situation required: a great number perished solely on this account.
During the gale five transports were lost, from which only few lives
could be saved, owing to the state of the weather and the rocky nature
of the coast."
Having landed the wounded men in England, the ship on board which Martin
was sailed for Lisbon. Of his adventures at sea Martin tells several
remarkable incidents; but they are many of them connected with dreams,
and if not wilful falsehoods, are most probably misrepresentations. Of
such probably is what he relates as occurring whilst he was at Lisbon.
He says that whilst in the Tagus the whole crew went on shore except
himself, a young negro, and the captain's wife and daughter. The black,
knowing the captain had a quantity of gold in his chest, proposed to
Martin to murder the ladies, and take a boat and escape with it--to
India, Martin says. To this he refused to accede, and ultimately
succeeded in persuading the Indian (African?) to abandon his dreadful
intention. About this time, he says--
"I began to see my lost and ruined state as a sinner, and to cry to God
for mercy and salvation, hoping He would spare me to return to my native
land, when I would join myself to the people of God. But alas! my vows,
often repeated, were as often broken. Notwithstanding, the Lord heard my
prayers, and restored me to my parents as safe and well as when I left
them. My deliverance from on board a man-of-war was extraordinary, but
the Lord having given me favour in the sight of the whole crew, when all
hands were piped to breakfast, a boat appointed for the purpose was
brought under our bows, and the soldiers formed a circle on the
forecastle of the ship, to prevent the sentry seeing what was going
forward; I dropped into the boat and got ashore, and remained in safety
at the waterman's house until our ship sailed. I entered on board a
transport going to Egypt for corn for our troops then lying at Messina.
When I arrived in Egypt, I was filled with delight on beholding the
place where our blessed Lord took refuge from the rage of Herod; and
where the wisdom of Joseph (directed by Almighty God) saved the land of
Egypt and his own father's house from the effects of the seven years'
famine, of which I had so often read. A wide range of buildings was
pointed out to me by the Turks, which they said formerly held the grain
preserved by Joseph. Reflecting on these things, led me to review my
mis-spent life, and to see how often God had preserved me in many
dangers, and how ill I had requited Him; so that my thoughts troubled me
sore, and I resolved anew to amend my life. I began to be comforted by
reflecting that He preserved me for wise purposes, and that I should
live to praise Him. Blessed be the name of the Lord, I was not
disappointed."
A Mr. Nicoll, a native of Peterhead, who was formerly in the navy, and
was a messmate with Martin in two vessels, of which one was the
"Hercules," says--
"I remember Martin well, and sailed with him first about 1803. He was
always skittish. We used to say that he was fitter for a parson than a
sailor; nicknamed him Parson Saxe. He was often sulky and idle. He did
not pray much, but was inclined to argue on religious subjects; he said
he had a light that we had not, and that he held meetings in his dreams.
He told extraordinary and unaccountable tales; but," said Mr. Nicoll,
"they have gone from me, as I treated them as fudge and palaver." Mr.
Nicoll adds that Martin was jolly as any at one time, and would drink
and dance and be merry as the rest; at another time he would weep
bitterly. Some were angry with him, others ridiculed him; "but I," said
Mr. Nicoll, "thought him more rogue than fool. I remember his saying
that a book was shot from his hands at Cadiz, and that he considered it
a warning from heaven. Some one told him he should have been otherwise
employed than in reading at such a time; in reply to which he abused the
person who rebuked him. It was my opinion that he shammed a good deal
for a sulk. He was particularly fond of viewing and conversing about the
celestial bodies, but had a dread of any one pointing to a star,[25] and
would not believe that they were other worlds; and, indeed, grew quite
angry at such an assertion. I have often said such things as a scot
(jest), to draw him on, and he has abused me. He was hale enough, but
used to complain of weakness, and, as I thought, sham sick."
A Greenwich pensioner, who served with him, says:--"I knew Jonathan
twenty-three years ago and upwards; he was a good sailor, but had fits
of melancholy, and then would talk of dying and a future state. I have
often told him that our days were fixed, and he blamed me for saying so.
I remember somebody larking in the top, and he, Martin, fell, catching
the hair of the sailor in his way; he actually tore off a portion of his
scalp; he saved himself by clinging to the cross-trees. He quarrelled
with and fought a man named Dobson, who died in Greenwich Hospital some
years since. They sat across a bench and fought. Martin was beaten. He
was laughed into this quarrel."
Martin gives the following account of his escape:--
"Being on the main yard, and losing my balance, I found myself falling;
there seemed nothing to save me from being dashed to pieces. The loose
end of the tracing line, about an inch thick, was hanging near me. I got
it round my left hand, and grasping it with my right, the swing of the
rope, together with my weight, threw me overboard, and I remained
suspended by my arm, within a few feet of the sea, until my shipmates
came to my assistance; and I praised God that I received no material
injury, except my arm being a little wrenched by my weight. Again,
falling by accident out of a gun-port, my shipmates succeeded in
rescuing me when not able to help myself. And being on the
top-gallant-yard, the topping-lift broke, and the end I was on went down
like the end of a beam. In my fall I grappled with the backstay, and
brought myself up, and landed on the cross-trees. Thus the Almighty
preserved me from death when there was no other hope--the height from
the deck being about eighty feet."
He relates also the following circumstance, which was corroborated by a
Greenwich pensioner:--
"After I was appointed to the gunners' crew, when on our voyage to
Cadiz, the gunners' yeoman, who had charge of the stores and all the
powder, shot himself through the head in the store-room, where there
were upwards of five hundred barrels of gunpowder, and joining the place
where all our oakum and old ropes lay. When the report of the pistol was
heard in that place, the consternation became general throughout the
ship's company, as an explosion was to be dreaded. Some were for making
to the boats; others, more desperate, were for leaping overboard,
expecting the ship to blow up every moment. In the midst of the panic
produced, I and four of my shipmates ran below, rushed into the
store-room amidst the smoke, and soon extinguished the little fire
produced by the wadding of the pistol, and then we discovered the body
of the unfortunate man lying bleeding, his brains literally strewed over
the floor. Thus did God put in our hearts to risk our lives, and by
that means save our ship's company, six hundred in number, from an awful
death."
"Martin," says one of the Greenwich pensioners, "went with a boat's crew
to get water. In crossing some buoys he fell in; the accident was not
perceived, but we at length missed him; when we got him out he was all
but gone. He said we had conspired against him, but God had delivered
him. I remember this, for Dobson threatened to thrash him if he repeated
it. Martin was punished for drunkenness, and bore it in a very cowardly
manner. When he was in the mortar-boat he sang psalms, but when we were
afterwards very near wrecked, he was as cool or cooler than any one on
board. He fell overboard whilst assisting in hooking a shark, but was
picked up almost immediately. He got hurt in falling, and would never
assist in the hooking again. We had many sick and dying aboard, and the
sharks often followed in our wake: we burnt bricks and covered them with
tarpauling, &c., fixing a hook in the brick; this the fish would
swallow. Martin was very active in this, until his accident. After that
he said, 'The Lord was vexed at the guile.' He hated the Catholics."
Another pensioner, who corroborated a portion of the foregoing, added:
"Martin was much noticed by the officers; but he told them many
falsehoods, and at last was generally disliked. He was at one time in
such favour with his superiors, that two men were punished for cutting
the slings of his hammock whilst he was asleep, which is generally
passed over as a joke; but he pretended to have been hurt with the fall.
When angered, he would swear as much as anyone, and sometimes
immediately afterwards would cry and pray. His dreams and stories would
have filled a book. I saw him years afterwards at Portsmouth. Never
knew that he had deserted; he was continually amongst the crews of the
King's ships. Went to London with him, and he talked a good deal about
religion when at Portsmouth, but lived very loosely in London.[26]
Martin told me a variety of his adventures--that he was nearly murdered
by the Algerines, &c., &c., but that he was marvellously delivered, and
that God had told him in his dreams to quit the sea. He had a good deal
of prize-money to receive, but there was a delay in his getting it. The
day he was to have it finally, he was to meet me at Rotherhithe; he
never came, and from that time (1810) I never saw nor heard of him."
Martin does not tell us how long he remained in the transport service;
but when he was paid off, he proceeded to Newcastle to visit his
parents, probably in 1810; and then went to work with Mr. Page, a farmer
at Norton, in Durham.
"Here," he observes, "commenced that series of trials which almost
obliterated the remembrance of my former difficulties, and which, were
they not well-known to many now living, might appear to border on
romance." In reading his life, however, we can find no traces of
"trials" which were not brought upon himself; and there is very little
of the "romantic" about them. A few months after his residence at Norton
he married, and became the father of a son.
"I had him baptised Richard," he says. "I was deterred from giving him
my own name on account of the sins of my youth, as I conceived if I did,
the Lord might take him away." Not long after, he dreamed that his
mother came to see him, and told him he would be hanged; and his dream
produced a strong impression upon his mind.
His thoughts became more directed than before to religious matters, but
not without "manifold backslidings," as he himself confessed.
At Yarm, in Yorkshire, four miles from Norton, where he lived, was a
Methodist chapel, and he used to attend church at Norton in the morning,
and chapel at Yarm in the evening. One Sunday morning he received the
Holy Communion in the church at Norton, and in the evening he was at a
love-feast at the Wesleyan chapel.[27] This was his first formal
reception into full membership with the Methodist body. He had obtained,
as he calls it, "perfect liberty." He was converted, a new being,
emancipated from obedience to the law, being justified by faith only.
He now began to feel strongly against the Church of England, which
taught the necessity of obedience to the moral law even to those who
walked in the Spirit. The laxity of the clergy in going to parties,
balls, and plays, offended him.
"I knew also that I was not authorised by law to interfere with the
Establishment. I betook myself to fasting and prayer, earnestly seeking
direction of the Lord how I should proceed in this matter. I dreamed on
Friday night that a man held out to me a piece of honeycomb, of which I
did eat, and felt refreshed, and concluded this a gift divine. I felt
greatly encouraged. On Saturday I gave away most of my working clothes
among my shopmates, having fully resolved to confess my Lord and Saviour
the next day before the congregation; not doubting but the step I was
about to take would lead me into trouble. I spent that night chiefly in
prayer, for strength to perform the task I had undertaken--of warning
people of their dangerous state by their carnal security; the necessity
of repentance and regeneration, by the operation of the Spirit; and
finally of their having the witness of the Holy Ghost that their sins
were blotted out through faith in a crucified Saviour."
He accordingly entered the church with the clerk early in the morning,
and whilst the latter went to ring the bell, Martin secreted himself in
the pulpit, and remained hidden there till the end of the prayers, when
he suddenly stood up, and gave forth as his text, St. Mark iv. 21-23,
and began to preach, with violent gesticulations. He was at once removed
by the churchwardens and constable, but was allowed to remain in the
church, though dislodged from the pulpit.
About this time he was favoured, or deluded, with the following
vision:--
"I dreamed that I was called to the city gates of London, and
beheld the inhabitants tearing each other's flesh in the most
horrible manner, and I heard a voice speak to me--'In one day this
city shall be burnt to the ground.' And I was taken by the Spirit
to the banks of a river, and I commenced digging the earth, and
cast up several sharp-edged weapons, in particular a large axe,
stained with human blood. I took hold of it, and that instant there
appeared, as I thought, St. James, and I struck off his head at one
blow, and awoke out of my sleep. This strange concern opprest me
in the spirit, and I said, 'This is no other than Popery and
persecution are intending to come forward amongst true Christians.
Oh! England, beware of Popery!'"
Martin now began to write letters to the clergy and other members of the
Church, "entreating them, as they valued their souls, to amend their
lives, and flee to the blood of sprinkling for mercy and pardon." His
conduct seems to have been so improper, so marked by a "zeal not
according to knowledge," that he was expelled the Methodist Society; and
he complains that his religious friends were afraid to own him--he was
left alone in the world; and, to add to his troubles, he lost his
employment. He then went to Whitby and worked for a few weeks, but soon
returned to Norton, and from thence went to Bishop Auckland, where he
obtained employment; and determined once more to attempt exhorting the
people in the church. He was, however, taken out by a constable; and
then he began that practice which he appears never afterwards to have
abandoned, of posting papers on the church doors, as a warning to the
clergy and congregation. The following is a copy of one of these
singular productions:--
"Oh! hear the word of the Lord, you clergymen, for the mighty sword
is expanded over your guilty heads; now shall you come to a
complete dissolution; now shall your candlesticks be completely
overthrown; now shall your blindness come to the light, and your
shame before all the people, for the Lord will not suffer you to
deceive the work of His hands any longer. Oh! prepare yourselves to
meet your God, you double-hearted sinners; cry aloud for mercy, and
now shall my God make bare His arm and conquer the devil, your
great master, for the monster of hell shall be completely
overthrown, and you and him shall not deceive the nations any
longer, for now shall God be worshipped in spirit and truth; now
you shall and must throw away your little books you carry into the
pulpits to deceive the people with; you now preach for wine and
gluttonous living, and not for precious souls--will you not get
your portion with the rich man in hell if you do not repent and
find mercy?
"JONATHAN MARTIN,
"Your sincere friend."
Martin continued for some time attending church, and disturbing the
service by his groans and exclamations of assent to, or dissent from,
what was enunciated from the pulpit. At Bishop Auckland one day he heard
the preacher declare that no man could be absolutely certain that his
sins were forgiven, and his happiness hereafter was assured, till he had
put off mortality, and his eyes were opened in the light of eternity.
This was too much for Martin to bear. He says:--
"The bitterness of my soul constrained me to call out--'Thou hast no
business in that pulpit, thou whitened sepulchre, thou deceiver of the
people, how canst thou escape the damnation of hell?' I was determined
to address the people on the following Sunday, and tell them the state
they must be in under such a ministry, and of the justness of that God
who will judge the world in righteousness. John Bunyan admonished his
hearers to an upright and strict life, being assured if this were
neglected they were void of religion, and Popery would again spread
through England. Like poor John Bunyan, I was pulled out of the place as
soon as I began to speak. The clergyman employed an attorney to write
against me, and I was apprehended as a vagabond; and they wanted my
master to swear that I was deranged. My master objected thereto, stating
that I had been with him seven months, and had been a faithful servant.
He inquired of my master and several neighbours at Norton if they were
not afraid of me, but was answered in the negative."
Martin mentions here that his wife had become a great enemy to him since
he joined the Methodists; that she wanted him to leave them, and vowed
to God that, unless he deserted them, she would disown him as a husband;
and "from that period to the day of her death, eight years, she kept her
word, but his firmness was not shaken."
"About this time the Bishop (I think of Lincoln) was to hold a
confirmation at Stockton, for the Bishop of Durham. I had heard that he
was a good man, and that numbers attended his visitation. I was glad to
hear so good a report of him, and concluded that if he were really so
good a man and so eminent a Christian, he would not fear death, and
resolved to try his faith by pretending to shoot him. I had been in
Newcastle to see my brother, and recollecting he had an old pistol, I
asked and obtained it, and brought it home with me. On my arrival, my
wife, observing the pistol, inquired what I wanted with it. I replied
with a smile that I got it to shoot the Bishop. I laid it down
carelessly, determined, if she should remove it, and I should receive no
encouragement by a dream, I would proceed no further in the matter. When
I got up in the morning the pistol was not to be found, and there, as I
thought, the matter dropped; but some officious person hearing of it,
told the clergyman of Norton, and he laid a complaint before the
magistrate against me. A vestry meeting was then called, to which I was
summoned. My previous interference with the church was urged against me,
and so much was I tormented with questions on the subject, before I went
to the vestry, and while there, that I was considerably agitated and off
my guard. However, the reverend gentleman was little better tempered
than myself, and showed a degree of rancour that I did not expect. I
was asked if I had a pistol to shoot the Bishop with; to which I
replied, 'that I did not mean to injure the man, although I considered
they all deserved shooting, being blind leaders of the blind;
consequently both must fall into the ditch.' I was then suffered to
depart, but was next day taken into custody, and brought before the
meeting of justices at Stockton, and examined very harshly. They asked
me, if I had found the pistol, would I really have shot the Bishop? I
replied, 'It depended upon circumstances--I would ask him some questions
out of the Creed, and if he did not answer me satisfactorily as to his
conversion, and the evidence of the Spirit, he must be branded as a
deceiver of the people.' For this I was sentenced to be confined in a
mad-house for life, but glory be to God, they could not keep me an hour
longer than my Lord and Saviour thought fit. I felt as happy under this
trial, in the assurance of Jesus' love, as if I had been going to a
palace."
He was at first confined in a lunatic asylum at West Auckland, but was
afterwards removed to a similar establishment at Gateshead. His
afflictions then and subsequently he relates thus:--
"I had not for a long time seen my wife and child, as during the time I
was so rigorously confined they had been denied admittance. My poor wife
had long been labouring under heavy affliction, having a cancer in her
breast When I began to work they were allowed to come and see me, and my
wife at parting said--'Farewell, Jonathan, look to Jesus; pray for me;
may God bless you; my strength is fast failing, and I feel that I shall
not be able to come any more.' She spoke prophetically, for we met no
more. A short time after, she took to her bed, from which she never
rose. My readers may judge of my grief to think that my poor wife was
a-dying, at no great distance, and when she requested to see me, even in
custody and in chains, the keeper was so unfeeling as to refuse her
dying request. She afterwards sent my son (little more than seven years
old), hoping that his youth, innocence, and distress might soften their
hearts, but his appeal was unheeded. She sent him again with her dying
love to me, and the keeper's wife shut the door in his face, and the
child was suffered to return weeping to his mother. His supplication, as
I afterwards heard, would have melted any heart, crying, 'What will
become of me? My mother is dying, and my father is shut up in a
mad-house, where I am not so much as allowed to see him.'"
It must be remembered that Martin's account of things is not to be
trusted in all particulars. At the same time it is certain that asylums
were not conducted at that period with humanity and judgment.
Mrs. Orton, the keeper's wife alluded to, was examined at the trial of
Martin, ten years later. She said: "When Martin was with me I thought
him a really insane person. He would sit on the floor with two
cross-sticks as if he was fiddling, either singing hymns or whistling.
He called his sticks an imitation of David's harp. I have known him fast
four days--and say it was God Almighty's orders--in imitation of Christ
fasting forty days on the Mount. He was often under restraint, and was
bad to manage."
He succeeded in making his escape from the asylum[28] on the 17th of
June, 1820, but was caught at Norton and brought back. On the 1st of
July, 1820, he made his escape again by rubbing the rivets of his irons
with freestone, which he managed to secrete in his room. He broke
through the ceiling, got into a garret, and escaped through the tiles
upon the roof. He thence descended cautiously and safely to the ground;
and thus ended his captivity of three years.
With great difficulty--still with the rings of his chains on his
ankles--he reached the house of Mr. Kell, an intimate friend, of the
same way of thinking, at Cadlaw Hill. Mr. Kell freed him from the
remains of his fetters--"the degrading emblem of slavery," as Jonathan
termed them. Mr. Kell was a distant relation of Martin on his mother's
side; and he remained there a fortnight, till his strength was
recruited, when he left him, designing to proceed to an uncle's, a
distance of sixteen miles, to assist him to get in his hay harvest.
However, before he reached his uncle's house, he was met by his cousin,
who told him that Orton, the keeper, with a constable, had been there in
search of him: he therefore escaped as fast as he could to Glasgow,
where another uncle resided; and he reached it in safety. From Glasgow
he went to Edinburgh; and was in that city at the rejoicings on account
of the coronation of George IV. Martin stopped at Edinburgh only one
day, being anxious to see his wife; and on returning to Norton he found
his wife still alive, but in the last stage.
After remaining three weeks with his friend Mr. Kell, he determined to
go to London to be near his brothers, one of whom was the celebrated
imaginative painter so well known by his wonderful pictures, "The Eve of
the Deluge," "The Plains of Heaven," &c.
His friend having furnished him with money, he left Darlington for
London on the 1st of August, 1820, exactly a month after he had made his
escape. He went, however, no farther than Boroughbridge, where, on
September 8th, he received a letter informing him of his wife's death,
and of his having had his house robbed of money and goods to the amount
of £24. He gives a pitiable account of the last illness and the distress
of his poor wife:--
"I learned afterwards that my dear wife had to go through great
tribulation. There was a woman allowed one shilling and sixpence per
week to wait on her, but she always locked her in at night, without any
attendant but the poor child to wait on his wretched mother; until my
sister, hearing of their condition, came and took him away with her. So
greatly neglected was he, that there was none to cut the bread for him;
and when my sister came to see them he had the loaf picked out, as if
eaten by mice, not being able to cut it himself. In this pitiable
condition my poor boy sat up several nights with his mother, to hold the
drink to her when she became too weak to do it for herself."
He then went to Hull, where he began to preach to his mates in the
tannery where he worked. "I was moved to speak to them of their drunken
lives, what would be the consequence if they did not repent. One or two
of them, more wicked than the rest, got above me with a bucket of
bullock's blood, which they heaved over me; but that did not move me
from my stand: then they tried water. Then the devil put it into their
minds to heave wet skins in my face, and that did not make me quit my
stand until the hour was up."
Notwithstanding these checks, which in Jonathan's description strongly
remind the reader of the sufferings of Mawworm, he continued his
exhortations in and out of the shop, and if we are to believe his own
account, two hundred persons were converted by him.
From Hull he was driven by this treatment by his carnally-minded
shopmates, and went to Norton, where his old master, Mr. Page, having
obtained the consent of the magistrates that Martin should not be again
consigned to the asylum, employed him as a tanner. But he soon after (in
1822) removed to Darlington, where he also worked at his trade, and
spent his evenings in preaching to and praying with those who would hear
him. He boasts that through his labours in seven weeks "two hundred
precious souls were set at liberty." He remained at Darlington
apparently till 1827, and here he pretends to have had some remarkable
visions.
"I should inform my readers how I was taken to the seaside in a vision,
and beheld a countless army of men arising from the waves. As I stood
gazing thereon a man advanced towards me, and said, 'Where shall we find
bread for so great a multitude?' He quickly answered, 'Where they can.'
They then advanced with great fury, and covered, as it were, the whole
earth, and I thought England fled before them. This dream made great
impression on my mind after I came to Darlington, and I determined to
make known the things that will befall England, unless we all turn to
the Lord with full purpose of heart, for I dreamed of a great battle
between Newcastle and Sunderland; and again, that the son of Buonaparte
came and conversed with me, and having a musket, said he would shoot
through the door of an Englishman. He tried three times, and the third
was successful.
"I then left him, and was soon overtaken by some baggage waggons; all
the French fired their muskets in the air. I was taken prisoner, and
they shut me up with the Word of God and a Wesley hymn-book in my hand.
In the prison the sun shone upon me with all its splendour, and I
rejoiced to see the mercy of God towards me."
He then bursts out into the following denunciation against clergymen:--
"Deceive not yourselves, oh, you clergymen, for my dream has been
doubled, for you will have to fly to the mountains to hide yourselves
from your enemies, for the son of Buonaparte has a second time appeared
to me. The first time he stood before me, he stood with a firelock in
his hand, and said to me, I will shoot through the door of an
Englishman. The first time he tried to present, but he was too weak, but
willing to avenge the death of his father, though but a child. The
second time he levelled the firelock, but could not stand the force of
powder. The third time he levelled and fired, and hit his mark, and
said, I will shoot through the door of an Englishman. The second dream
was like unto the first: he broke through the door, and demolished the
house before me with great dexterity and art. The youth appeared before
me with a beautiful countenance, with a light complexion, and light
curled hair; and as he passed before me through the door, I held out my
hand, and he shook hands with me. I have the honour of shaking hands
with the son of Buonaparte, though I have not seen his father, and he
vanished out of my sight. He came from Denmark to reside in England. O
England! prepare for war, and to meet a hot reception; for as you
surprised the Danes at Copenhagen, so will the son of Buonaparte
surprise you and reign in England, and come off victoriously. The thing
is certain, and will come to pass. You must not think the time long, for
the youth will soon be ready to act the part of his father, and do
valiantly; for he shall be a scourge to the wicked clergymen of
England."
At Darlington he was wont to declare that Prayer-books had been the
means of sending many souls to hell. He then wore a coat and boots of
seal-skin, with the hairy side outwards. Afterwards he procured an ass,
which he rode upon, to be more like Christ; and he used to preach to a
society of Oddfellows at the High Cross at Darlington. His son Richard
he put with a pedlar Jew, as his assistant; and when remonstrated with,
said that his reason was that little Dick might labour at the conversion
of the Jews. He was a good workman.
"I came to Lincoln on one Saturday in September, 1827, and on the
following Sunday went to view the Cathedral, as I was a stranger in the
town. I heard the voice of singing close by the Cathedral; I drew near,
and as I stood listening, a young man, a Methodist, opened the door and
invited me in. Three violent young men (for piety), Sunday-school
teachers, pressed me hard to join them to assist them in instructing the
rising generation, and pray that God would give a blessing to their
labours. I told them I would as well as God would teach me. We had not
been long together before the Lord put it in our minds to hold a short
prayer-meeting, that God would own our feeble efforts, and bless the
children. Whilst I was at prayer it was impressed on my mind to pray
that the Lord would fill the large Cathedral full of converted
clergymen, and that He would distribute them amongst all the churches of
Great Britain, that blind guides and the devil might not deceive the
people any longer. I was fervent in prayer, and that prayer disturbed
the devil out of his den. A public-house being next door, the landlady
and her company came into the room whilst I was on my knees, the
landlady afraid of losing her company, and, as it were, hell broke loose
upon me. The devil fiercely attacked me, but I stood to my arms: the
powers of the bottomless pit could not make me rise from my knees until
I had prayed for my enemies; then I arose and gave out a hymn to
conclude the meeting. When the landlady could not turn us out, then she
engaged her wicked company to attack me. They surrounded me, and flew
upon me like fiery serpents from hell, gnashing their teeth, and crying
out: 'Out with him, head first! Break his neck over the stones!' But I
alighted on my feet, and the devil was conquered."
At Lincoln, where Martin worked for a man named Weatherall, he compiled
and printed his biography; two editions were soon disposed of, and he
printed a third edition in 1828, of five thousand copies. A friend and
fellow-believer wrote his biography from his dictation, and it underwent
some sort of supervision, for Martin was wholly ignorant of spelling,
and had little idea of constructing a grammatical sentence.
By hawking his little book about the country, and by quartering
occasionally in the houses of those who were willing to extend their
hospitality to him on account of his gifts of prayer and the Word, he
contrived to make a decent living. He frequented the Methodist chapel at
Lincoln, and received his card of membership from the minister there. In
1828 he got acquainted with a young woman, twenty years his junior,
named Maria Hodson, who lived at Boston. Martin visited her there, and
they were married in Boston parish church. Shortly after the marriage
they came together to York, on the day after Christmas-day, 1828, and
obtained lodgings in the house of a shoemaker named William Lawn, No.
60, Aldwark.
During his stay in York he employed himself in vending his books, and
was well known in the city from wearing a glazed, broad-brimmed,
low-crowned hat, and a singular black leather cape, which came down to
his elbows, with a square patch of fur sewn on the back, and extending
from one corner to the other. At York he attended the Methodist meeting,
but sometimes was with the Primitives, or Ranters. When he had any
vacant time, he spent it in reading either the Bible or his hymn-book.
On Sunday afternoon he was wont to go to the Minster, and on the 6th of
January the following letter was found tied to one of the iron gates of
the Minster choir; it was fastened by a shoemaker's waxed thread, but
was not directed. A verger, however, took it down and gave it to one of
the canons or minor canons, who, however, thought it too absurd to
deserve notice. The following is a verbatim copy of it:--
"York, Janrey the 5-- 1829.
"Hear the word of Lord, Oh you Dark and Lost Clergymen.
"Repent and cry for marcey for know is the day of vangens and your
Cumplet Destruction is at Hand for the Lord will not sufer you and
the Deveal and your blind Hellish Docktren to dseve the works of
His Hands no longer.
"Oh, you Desevears will not milleons of the mighty and Rich men of
the Earth have to Curs the Day that ever they gat under your blind
Docktren know to be a shamd of your selvs and wepe for your Bottls
of Wine and your downey Beds will be taken away from you I warn you
to repent in the name of Jesuse and believe he is able on Earth to
forgeve Sines, for there is no repenting in the greave Oh you blind
Gydes are you not like the man that bilt his Hous upon the Sands
when the Thunder starmes of Gods Heavey vangens lites upon your
Gildrys Heads a way gos your sandey Foundaytons and you to the
deepest pet of Hell re Serve the Curses of millions that your blind
Doctrens has Decevd and to reseve Gods Heve Curs and the Ward
pronounst Depart you Carsit blind Gides in to the Hotist plase of
Hell to be tormented with the Deveal and all his Eanguls for Ever
and Ever
"Jona. Martin, a frind of the Sun of Boneypart Must Conclude By
warning you again Oh Repent repent He will soon be able to act
"the part of his Father
"Derect for Jonathan Martin
"Aldwark No. 60"
Another epistle was also found, on Wednesday, the 21st of January, by a
sailor from Hull, who being at York, visited the Cathedral in company
with his wife. When walking along the western aisle he saw on the ground
near a pillar, a small packet, which he had the curiosity to open. It
was tied with a shoemaker's waxed thread, covered with old matting, and
contained a stone, round which was wrapped a pamphlet, entitled "The
Life of Jonathan Martin." He also found in the parcel a letter, sealed
with cobbler's wax, and addressed to the Clergy of York. He read and
exhibited both the letter and pamphlet at the house where he was
stopping, but they were thought of no consequence. Fortunately,
unimportant as they were considered, he did not destroy them. The letter
was couched in the same strain as that already given.
In other MSS. dropped in or near the Minster, and bearing the signature
of "M.," the following expressions were found:--
"Your great churches and minsters will fall down on your guilty heads;"
but no sort of suspicion was entertained that anyone was wicked or mad
enough to cherish the determination of destroying one of the finest
existing specimens of the munificence and piety of our ancestors;
therefore no precautionary measures were taken.
On the 27th of January, Martin left York with his wife, stating that
they were going to Leeds to reside, and his luggage was sent off
accordingly to that place. They arrived in Leeds on the 28th, and Martin
remained there till the Saturday following. They lodged at the house of
John Quin, No. 6, Brick Street. His conduct is described as having been
most orderly and decorous. He attended worship at a chapel of the
Primitive Methodists one evening; his conversation was cheerful and
perfectly rational; he appeared to be kind and affectionate to his wife,
and spent the time while he was in the house chiefly in singing hymns,
reading the Scriptures, and conversing on sacred subjects. The principal
part of Thursday and Friday he was engaged in vending his pamphlet. When
he left Quin's house on Saturday morning, between nine and ten o' clock,
he seemed perfectly tranquil, and said he was going to fulfil an
appointment that he had in the neighbourhood of Tadcaster, and that he
should return to his wife at Leeds on Monday by dinner-time. Instead of
stopping at Tadcaster, he came back to York, and went to his old
lodgings in Aldwark. He told Mr. and Mrs. Lawn that he and his wife had
been no further than Tadcaster, and that he was going to stop in that
neighbourhood for the purpose of hawking books. He asked if he could
sleep there that night, and on being answered in the affirmative, he
took possession of the room he had before occupied. In the afternoon he
went out and was observed perambulating the Minster-yard, and taking
special note of the building. His attention appeared particularly
directed to the western towers. He returned to Mr. Lawn's in the
evening, and remained till eleven o'clock on Sunday morning, when he
went out--and returned no more.
This wretched incendiary had then, no doubt, laid all his plans for the
destruction of the Minster; a project which, to judge from his
subsequent communications to Mr. Wilson, a local preacher at the
Wesleyan Methodist Connexion at Hexham, he seems to have entertained for
some time. The motives which prompted him to attempt the destruction of
this beautiful church were the fanatical antipathy he entertained
towards the clergy of the Church, whom he condemned as "blind
guides"--to whom, however, he said he felt no ill-will, malice, or
personal hostility, but he was sorry for them, as he believed they were
leading the higher ranks in society astray; and the destruction of the
Minster, he was of opinion, "was for the glory of God, the good of the
people of England generally, and for the good of the inhabitants of York
in particular, as when the Cathedral was destroyed they would be
compelled to disperse themselves to other places of worship, where they
would hear the Gospel preached." When he had fully made up his mind on
the subject, he began to apprehend opposition from his wife; and he told
Mr. Wilson that he adopted the following extraordinary mode of
neutralising it:--"He took the ring from her finger whilst she slept,
and though she manifested much concern at the loss of her ring, he
allowed her to vent her feelings in unavailing regrets, until he thought
her sufficiently moulded to his purpose. He then exacted a vow from her
that she was to keep his secret, and he would restore her ring. This
being agreed to, he told her his intention, on which she seemed greatly
disturbed, and they went to Leeds."
After Martin left his lodgings on Sunday morning he went to the Minster
and heard the sermon. In the afternoon he repaired there again, and
entered the south transept as soon as the doors were open. He walked
about till after the service began; and the sexton (Job Knowles) noticed
him passing several times as he was ringing the bell for prayers. Before
he entered the Minster in the afternoon he had provided himself with a
"razor with a white haft, the back of which he used instead of a steel;
a flint, tinder, matches, and a penny candle cut in two." This, however,
soon burnt out, and he replaced it with one of the wax candles which had
been used in the Minster the previous evening. During service he
concealed himself behind a tomb--probably Archbishop Grinfield's, in the
north transept--muttering to himself as the organ played, "Buzz,
buzz--I'll teach thee to stop thy buzzing." There he remained till all
the people had left. He then quitted his place of concealment and walked
about, looking where he could best make the fire. The ringers were in
the belfry in the evening, and from behind a column he watched them go
out. And here it may be remarked that very important consequences often
result from apparent accidents. If the ringers had locked the door of
the belfry after them, in all probability he could not have made his
escape from the Minster, but would have been compelled to remain till
the doors were opened in the morning; when mingling with the crowd, in
the hurry and confusion, he might not have been noticed, and the
calamity would always have been ascribed to accident.
After the ringers left, Martin went into the belfry and struck a light.
A gentleman who was passing the Minster about half-past eight o'clock,
saw a light in the belfry at that time; but as the ringers had been
there, he thought they were about ringing again, and took no notice of
the circumstance. Two persons who were confined in Peter Prison also saw
a light in the belfry after nine o'clock. At this time the incendiary
was busy preparing his means of escape. He cut about ninety feet off the
rope attached to the prayer-bell, which passed through a hole in the
floor of the belfry into the aisle below, and having pulled it up, he
formed it into a ladder by doubling it and tying knots at regular
distances. After he had worked some time, he put out his light, and
finished his ladder in the dark. When this was completed he left the
belfry, and having climbed over the iron gates which separate the nave
from the north-east aisle, he used the rope-ladder to get over the gate
leading from that aisle into the choir, which is usually kept fast. He
then struck a light the second time, and with the razor cut three yards
of gold fringe, two gold tassels, &c., from the pulpit, and the crimson
velvet curtains from the dean's and precentor's seats at the bottom of
the choir, and those from the archbishop's throne. He also took a small
Bible, and as he expected to be taken and imprisoned, he brought away
the Bible that it might be a comfort to him in his confinement. He then
piled the cushions and Prayer-books in two heaps, on each side near the
carved work, and set them on fire by introducing matches among them.
Having done this, he set about making his escape. He had brought with
him a pair of shoemaker's pincers, which Mr. Lawn had left in the room
where he slept on Saturday night, and having tied one end of his rope to
the machine used for cleaning the Minster, he dragged it under the
window in the west aisle of the north transept, which he broke with the
pincers; and having seen that one of the piles (that by the archbishop's
throne) to which he had set fire was burning briskly, he descended, and
left the Cathedral a little after three o'clock in the morning of the
2nd of February, taking with him the articles before mentioned, and also
some purple silk--a part of one of the robes of the clergy.
During the time he was in the Minster he says he felt no fear, but was,
"on the contrary, quite happy; sometimes he prayed, and sometimes he
praised God, because, as he said, He had strengthened him to do so good
a work!"
The incendiary had left the Minster several hours before the fire was
discovered. The patrol left the Minster-yard about half-past two
o'clock, before he had made his escape, and they saw no indications of
anything unusual when they left. About four o'clock a man going past saw
a light in the Minster, but he thought the workmen were preparing a
vault, and unfortunately passed on without endeavouring to ascertain
what was really the cause of so unusual an occurrence as a light burning
in the sacred edifice at that early hour.
At five o'clock a series of reports, resembling repeated explosions,
were heard. The parties who heard them wondered what they meant, but
never thought of tracing them to their source. The discovery at last
took place in the following singular manner:--A lad named Swinbank, one
of the younger choristers, whose duty it was to go and practise at the
Minster early every morning, went as usual a little before seven o'clock
on the morning of the 2nd of February. He found the doors were not open,
and began to slide on a piece of ice in the Minster-yard to amuse
himself. Whilst so doing he fell on his back, and before he recovered
himself from that position he saw smoke issuing from the roof of the
Minster. Alarmed at the sight, he went to Job Knowles, the sexton, for
the keys. On his return he found the doors had been opened by some of
the workmen, and Mr. Scott, the builder, entered the building at the
south door, but had scarcely got in when he was compelled to retreat--so
dense was the smoke that respiration was impossible. A gentleman with
difficulty then made his way to the organ screen; but was compelled to
retreat to avoid suffocation. By the vestry-door, however, access was
obtained to the choir--the gates from the vestry, and also those leading
from the aisle into the choir, being fortunately open. The fire, which
originated at one end of the stalls, had consumed the whole row, with
all their tabernacle work; and about half-an-hour after it was first
discovered, the flames had spread to the stalls on the other side. One
of the Minster engines was kept in the vestry, and this was immediately
placed in the aisle, where it played on the place where the
communion-plate was kept, and around which the flames were raging with
great intensity: the tabernacle screen was in this spot burnt to the
ground, and the plate was melted into one mass. As soon as this engine
was got to work, several individuals succeeded in carrying out the whole
of the cushions and books from the north side of the choir; the cushions
and part of the hangings of the Cathedral were also saved, as was the
curious old chair which stood within the rails. The next effort was to
remove the brass eagle or lectern. This was effected with great
difficulty, owing to its weight, by the few persons who had the courage
to brave the suffocating effects of the smoke. They were driven back
three times before they succeeded in carrying off the upper part of the
eagle, which was taken into the vestry; the other portion was afterwards
carried out at a door on the chapter-house side. All this was the work
of a few minutes; and at this time (perhaps about a quarter after
seven), the organ screen, the north side of the choir, and the roof,
were to all appearance untouched by the fire. At this period, if a few
firemen had been present who understood their business, this part of the
church might have been saved. Shortly after, however, the flames spread
round the south-west corner of the choir and reached the organ; and when
this noble instrument caught fire, an appalling noise--occasioned by the
action of the air in the pipes upon the flames--resounded through the
building, and struck with awe all who heard it.
Whilst this was passing in the interior of the building, the alarm had
been spread through the city by the ringing of the bells of St.
Michael-le-Belfry, and the Yorkshire Insurance Company's engine was soon
on the spot. It was placed at the south door, and the pipes were carried
into the Minster, and directed over the organ upon the fire which was
then raging in the choir. The city engines arrived soon after, and were
stationed at different parts of the building. An express was sent to the
barracks, and the barrack engine arrived about eight o'clock. Major
Clark and several officers accompanied it with a file of the 7th Dragoon
Guards, who were of great use in facilitating the operations of the
persons employed in extinguishing the flames.
About ten minutes before eight o'clock another engine was brought into
the Minster; but the roof having caught fire from the organ--the flames
from the latter igniting some of the bosses of the groining, which were
of maple-wood--the melted lead and pieces of burning timber began to
fall so rapidly that the men were compelled to abandon their positions,
and the engine was stationed further off, in the nave, whence it
continued to play over the screen upon the burning ruins in the choir
for several hours. Previous to the removal of this engine, an attempt
was made by two or three gentlemen to cut down the great gates leading
from the choir into the north-east aisle, with a view to cut off the
communication with the altar: the molten lead and burning rafters,
however, fell about them so rapidly that they were obliged to desist.
By eight o'clock, or a little later, the organ--one scarce equalled for
tone and power by any instrument in the world--was totally consumed,
together with the valuable collection of music which was deposited in
the organ loft; and much of which, being in manuscript, could not be
replaced.
By the exertions of Mr. Plows, stone-mason, a number of men were about
this time got upon the roof of the side aisle; by means of ropes,
buckets and the pipe of an engine were hoisted up, and from this
elevation a torrent of water was discharged upon the flames beneath. A
number of men were also employed in cutting away the roof towards the
east window, who continued their exertions as long as they were
practicable. About a quarter past eight o'clock the flames burst through
the roof, near the lantern tower, and the spectacle from the exterior
was awful and impressive in the extreme, whilst the effect of the scene
in the interior was magnificent beyond description. Immediately in front
of the screen which divides the nave from the choir, the engine already
alluded to was playing directly upon the fire, but with little effect,
owing to the magnitude of the space over which the flames had spread
themselves. From the screen to the altar the vast area had the
appearance of an ignited furnace; and the men who were employed in
working the engines, and in various other ways endeavouring to stop the
progress of the flames, resembled beings of another world rather than
inhabitants of this material globe. Their voices, as they shouted to
their comrades for "water" or for more assistance, fell in harsh and
discordant tones on the ear; they moved enveloped in an atmosphere so
dense that it was scarcely possible to breathe in it, partially
illumined by the flames and partly by the rays of the sun, which now
streamed in through the painted windows, producing altogether an effect
indescribably beautiful and grand. A number of bats and other birds,
burnt out of their retreats, were now seen flitting about, unable to
find an outlet, and many perished in the flames.
About half-past eight o'clock an express was sent by Archdeacon Markham
to the Mayor of Leeds, informing him that the Minster was on fire, and
requesting that two of the largest engines belonging to that town might
be sent off immediately. This was shortly followed by another express
from Mr. Newman, the actuary of the Yorkshire Fire Office, requesting
that two more engines might be immediately forwarded to York. At this
period serious fears were entertained that the fire would extend over
the whole of this immense fabric; the flames were rapidly gaining ground
at the east end, and the engines had not the least effect in allaying
their progress. The lantern tower, and the whole of the roof of the nave
appeared to be saturated with smoke, which also poured out of the
windows of the western towers. The knotted rope having been discovered
by which Martin made his escape, and not satisfactorily accounted for,
and its being rumoured that a bunch of matches had also been found which
had been lighted at both ends, the opinion that the fire was not caused
by the gas, or by candles being left in the organ-loft or in the
clergymen's robing-room, which had at first been entertained, began to
give way to the idea that this was the work of an incendiary; and when
the smoke was seen issuing from the places we have mentioned, it was at
once said that a train had been laid, and that it was breaking out in
different places. This, providentially, was not the case; the smoke
penetrating the roof, &c., was merely occasioned by the denseness of the
volume of vapour collected in the church before the doors were opened,
and which at last found vent in that manner; and the fire never extended
beyond the lantern tower.
At ten minutes past nine a portion of the burning roof fell in with a
tremendous crash. For an instant the whole area was illuminated, and the
next moment a volume of smoke and ashes was sent forth which involved
for a short time everything in darkness and obscurity. From that time
till half-past ten portions of the roof kept falling in, till from the
lantern tower to the east window the blue vault of heaven was the only
canopy. The molten lead from the roof during this period poured down in
torrents.
Soon after ten o'clock an engine arrived from Escrick Park, near York,
the seat of Paul Beilby Thompson, Esq., M.P. That no time might be
lost, that gentleman's beautiful grey carriage horses were yoked to his
engine, and it was driven into the city with the utmost promptitude.
About half-past ten another engine arrived from Tadcaster, and was
immediately got to work. One of these engines was brought to the east
end, and played into the choir through an aperture made in the lower
department of the window; another also played for a short time through
the farthest window at the north-east end.
As great alarm was felt lest the east end of the Minster should fall, a
part of the staff of the 2nd West York Militia was placed to prevent the
public from passing in that direction; the inmates of the opposite
houses had previously removed their families. Providentially, however,
this alarm turned out to be unfounded. This fine window--the largest, we
believe, in England, if not in the world--was only very partially
injured.
The floor of the choir was strewed with fierce-burning timbers, and
resembled a liquid lake of fire; it was heated completely through, and
the vaults below glowed with a radiance that occasioned a general cry
from those who could get near, of "The vaults are on fire." But the heat
now began sensibly to abate, owing partly to the quantity of water
poured upon the burning timbers which covered the floor of the choir and
the Lady's Chapel behind the altar screen, and partly to the removal of
the burning rubbish from the bases of the pillars, which latter being of
limestone, were very much injured by the action of the fire. The rafters
of the roof, and other immense pieces of timber, were converted
literally into charcoal, and were removed to the nave and into the
Minster-yard.
About noon the fears of the fire spreading any farther were removed; but
the engines continued to play for hours after upon the mass of fire and
flame on the floor of the church. Great efforts were also made to save
the beautiful screen which divides the nave from the choir, and this was
effected, for that ornament of the Minster was only very slightly
injured.
About two o'clock the engine of the Norwich Union Company, with the
requisite number of men, arrived from Leeds. They had been barely two
hours on the road, and in less than three minutes after the engine
stopped in the Minster-yard it was at work. Two other engines arrived
from Leeds shortly after. A fourth arrived about four o'clock.
When the fire was so far got under that no fears were apprehended of its
extending beyond the choir and chancel, several parties were admitted
into the nave to view the spectacle. Some ladies were amongst them, one
of whom was heard to exclaim, on viewing the awfully splendid yet
distressing scene, "What a subject for Martin!" alluding to the
celebrated painter. Little did she then think that Martin's brother had
occasioned this terrible conflagration.
The crowds of people who flocked to the scene of this calamity continued
to increase all the afternoon, and it was found necessary to place
constables at the Minster doors, to prevent the influx of persons
desirous of seeing the state of the edifice; many arrived from a
considerable distance, and it was quite impossible that more intense
feelings of anxiety and distress could have been evinced than were
displayed by the inhabitants of York, who from their infant days had
been accustomed to consider the Minster as their boast and glory.
A great-aunt of mine has often described to me the overwhelming
sensation it caused. Her father, a man of remarkable self-restraint,
wept like a child. The feeling in many a home was as if some accident
had befallen and carried off a dearly-loved relation.
There was gloom that day on every countenance, and in the early part of
the day a sort of stupor appeared to pervade all ranks; people were
overcome by the greatness of the unexpected calamity, and seemed
scarcely to know whether to consider as real the events which were
passing around them, or whether they were under the influence of a
dream.
During the whole of the afternoon the workmen and others were busily
employed in removing the fallen rafters and other rubbish from the
choir. Most of these were carried out into the Minster-yard, which was
thickly strewed from the south door to the vestry with the fragments of
the roof, blackened and reduced to charcoal. Within the nave a
detachment of the Dragoon Guards was drawn up to prevent intrusion
there, and a guard of the staff of the 2nd West York was mounted for the
same purpose, as well as to secure the ornamental portions of that part
of the structure from damage. The floor of the nave was strewn with
fragments of the roof which had been brought from the choir; and against
one of the pillars lay the remains of the organ--a few fragments of the
gilt pipes and a portion of the iron work. A dense mass of smoke still
rose from the embers, on which several of the engines continued to play
during the night. The fire was not totally extinguished when the shades
of evening drew on, for occasionally a fitful flash of lambent flame was
seen struggling with the gloom, but was quickly extinguished by the
water from the engines directed to the spot.
During the evening the silence which reigned around, only broken at
intervals by the tread of the sentinels or the occasional remarks of a
passenger, formed a striking contrast to the bustle and confusion which
had prevailed during the day. About ten o'clock men were observed with
lanterns visiting every part of the roof, to see that all was safe; and
the night was passed without any further alarm.
A word as to the extent of injury which the sacred building sustained.
The roof of the central aisle, which was of exquisite workmanship, was
entirely destroyed from the lantern tower to the east window; this roof
occupied a space of 131 feet in length by 45 in breadth, and was 99 in
height from the floor of the choir. In the interior, from the organ
screen to the altar screen, all the beautiful tabernacle work, the
stalls, galleries, bishop's throne, pulpit, &c., were entirely consumed.
The altar screen was so much injured that it was obliged to be taken
down. Of the monuments, several were damaged either from the effect of
the fire or the falling of the timbers of the roof.
It is impossible to conclude this part of the subject without alluding
to the remarkable circumstance that one of the lessons appointed to be
read on the Sunday after this calamity at the evening service was the
64th chapter of Isaiah, being the Church's prayer to God. It was
singularly applicable to the fire which destroyed the Cathedral; one
verse especially--"Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers
praised Thee, is burned with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid
waste." Few in the congregations assembled in the numerous churches of
York on the Sunday evening heard it unmoved. Another thing, thought to
be a coincidence, but which is certainly a very remote one, was that the
Cathedral was fired by Martin on Candlemas Day, using one of the
wax-candles employed in the choir during evensong.
Various reports as to the origin of the fire circulated in York. Some
supposed it originated from the gas, others attributed it to the candles
left alight in the organ loft or in the vestry of the clergy. But others
suspected it was the work of an incendiary, and they were confirmed in
this belief by finding the knotted rope which had been left by Martin,
and was discovered early in the morning.
On Monday evening a committee of inquiry was formed, consisting of
clergy and gentlemen. They met at the Residence; and the vergers,
workmen, and other individuals connected with the Minster, underwent a
rigorous examination. The investigation was continued on Tuesday and
Wednesday, and the strictest secrecy was observed in the proceedings; in
the course of which it was ascertained that the rope was cut from the
one which is attached to the prayer-bell, and that not with a knife, but
by being chafed with a sharp stone. It was also ascertained that the
window was opened from the interior; and a bunch of matches, burnt at
both ends, was found among the rubbish, and afterwards a pair of
shoemaker's pincers. The matches were found under the rubbish of the
burnt organ; the pincers on the stool of the window out of which the
knotted rope was suspended. The fact was also proved that several
anonymous letters had been sent to the vergers; and also that the
parcel, with the letter and pamphlet before alluded to, had been found
in the Minster by a person from Hull. A gentleman was despatched to Hull
to obtain possession of these documents; but in the meantime they had
fallen into the hands of Mr. Isaac Wilson, of that place, who with great
promptitude came to York and laid them before the committee.
Mr. Pardoe, the active police officer of York, was employed to ascertain
to whom the shoemaker's pincers belonged, and they were owned by Mr.
Lawn, at whose house Martin had lodged. Other circumstances formed a
chain of evidence so complete and conclusive as to leave no doubt that
Jonathan Martin was the incendiary, and hand-bills were issued on
Thursday offering a reward for his apprehension. Pardoe had been
despatched to Leeds in pursuit the previous day, with a warrant from
Archdeacon Markham, which on his arrival was instantly backed by the
Mayor of the borough. For the rest of the day and during the night
Pardoe and the whole force of the police were employed in endeavouring
to find a clue to the retreat of the incendiary. They were not
successful; but on Thursday morning his wife was taken into custody
while vending the "History of his Life." When discovered by the
officers, she expressed her surprise at the charge against her husband;
and after admitting that he left that town on Saturday morning, said
that she understood, on his departure, he was going into the
neighbourhood of Tadcaster; that she had not heard of him since; and
that she had experienced great uneasiness at his long absence. She added
that his place of concealment, or anything further connected with the
affair, was totally unknown to her. She was kept in custody at Leeds, in
her own house, in the charge of two constables, who obtained possession
of all Martin's books and papers.
On Thursday morning information was received which caused an express to
be sent off to the neighbourhood of Pontefract, where an active and
diligent search was commenced. A clue was obtained, which led to the
belief that the incendiary had passed through Pontefract on the road to
Wakefield. The Mayor of Pontefract ordered the police of that town to
afford every assistance to the gentlemen in pursuit, and he was traced
to Polston toll-gate. From the information there obtained it was
supposed he had taken the direction to Heath; and the pursuit was
immediately followed up in that direction, and continued through most of
Friday. It was reported in the evening about seven o'clock that Martin
had been captured about five miles from Bedale, and would be brought
into York by the Carlisle Express coach. The coach was half-an-hour
beyond its time, and the streets were filled with crowds of anxious
spectators, who waited in the expectation that the incendiary would
arrive by it. Many persons went out of Micklegate Bar, and ran alongside
of the coach till it stopped in Coney Street. It was then found that the
report was an erroneous one, for Martin was not there; nor was it true
that he had been captured.
On Saturday morning it was ascertained that the police had been on a
wrong scent, as Martin had proceeded to the north instead of to the
west; and about half-past nine o'clock that morning an express was
received stating that he had been arrested the previous evening near
Hexham. The following are the particulars of his flight and capture:
Martin left the Minster, as has been stated, a little after three
o'clock in the morning. He proceeded to Easingwold and got a pint of
ale; from thence to Thirsk, at which place he arrived at eleven o'clock;
from Thirsk he went to Northallerton, where he arrived about three
o'clock in the afternoon in a state of apparent fatigue. He remained
till evening with a brother in-law who resided there, and expressed
great anxiety to get on to Hexham to see a friend. At nine that evening
he left Northallerton in a coal cart, in which he travelled all night
till he arrived at Joft-hill pit, near West Auckland, on the Watling
Street road. The next morning he proceeded to Alensford, on the Derwent,
where he slept on the Tuesday evening. He left Alensford about eight
o'clock on the Wednesday morning, and stopped at the Riding Mill, where
he had a pint of ale; from thence he proceeded to Corbridge, where he
arrived about twelve o'clock, and had half-a-pint of ale; and then went
to Cadlaw Hill to his friend Mr. Kell, where he arrived about two the
same afternoon, being the same place where he sought refuge when he
escaped from the asylum at Gateshead. Martin remained there till eleven
o'clock on Friday morning, and during his stay he expressed a great
anxiety to see newspapers.
The handbills giving a description of Martin's person, and offering a
reward for his apprehension, were circulated in all parts of the North;
and one of them fell into the hands of Mr. Stainthorpe, a sheriff's
officer, of Newcastle, who knew him. Mr. S., on Friday, the 6th, having
to go to Corbridge, heard that Martin had returned home, but did not at
that time know there was any charge against him. Returning to Hexham,
where he kept a public-house, Mr. S. found the handbill lying on the
table; and he immediately saddled his pony and set off to Mr. Kell's,
where he felt satisfied he would find him. The house, called Cadlaw
Hill, is situated between Stagshaw Bank and Hexham, on the north side of
the Tyne. It is a house situated by itself, and had Martin not been well
known in the neighbourhood, it might have afforded concealment for some
time. On alighting he inquired of a young woman who was standing at the
door if Jonathan Martin had got home. The family, it would seem, were
not aware of the crime he had committed, as the bailiff was readily
answered in the affirmative. On receiving this information he bolted in,
and found Mr. Kell and Martin sitting together, the latter engaged in
reading a hymn-book. They both rose on his entrance, and he, accosting
Martin, asked, "Is not your name Jonathan Martin?" He immediately
replied, "Yes, it is." On which Mr. Stainthorpe said, "You are my
prisoner." Martin displayed very little emotion, nor did he even ask why
he was made a prisoner. Mr. Kell was greatly surprised, and asked Mr.
Stainthorpe what Martin was charged with. He replied he was not at
liberty to tell him; but that he should require his assistance to convey
the prisoner to Hexham, on reaching which place he would give him every
information necessary. Mr. Kell readily agreed, and the prisoner as
readily seemed disposed to take the road. The first question he asked
Mr. Stainthorpe was, "Do you belong to York?" Mr. Stainthorpe replied in
the negative, and cautioned him not to say anything that might criminate
himself. On their coming in sight of Hexham, from which Cadlaw Hill is
distant nearly four miles, Martin, pointing to Highside House, two miles
from Hexham, said, "Yonder is the house in which I was born;" and seeing
the church of Hexham, he exclaimed, "That is a fine old church. Did the
Catholics build that too?" On the way Martin asked if any York papers
came to Hexham. And also he said to Mr. Stainthorpe, "Am I advertised in
the Newcastle papers?" On being told he was, and also that he was
charged with burning York Cathedral, he readily said _he had done it_;
and he added, "As soon as I knew I was advertised, I intended to tell
everything." On reaching the House of Correction, Martin's bundle was
opened, when it was found to contain part of the valuable crimson
fringe, &c., which he said he had cut away from the pulpit, or some part
of the Minster, a small Bible which he had brought away at the same
time, and a piece or two of the painted glass of the Minster. An old
razor was found in his pocket, with which he said he cut the crimson
fringe, &c., and with which also he struck the fatal light by which he
was able to fire the Minster. There were found also seven copies of his
Life, but only one penny of money. He appeared up to the moment of his
apprehension to have been profoundly ignorant of the extent of the
injury he had occasioned; but on a gentleman telling him he had totally
destroyed the Cathedral, his countenance brightened, and the news seemed
to exhilarate him. He exclaimed, seemingly pleased, "Have I?" After he
was lodged in the House of Correction an express was sent off to York
with the intelligence.
It was whilst he was in the House of Correction at Hexham that Mr.
Wilson (of whom mention has been made) visited him, in company with Mr.
Stainthorpe. Mr. Wilson asked him whether his desire to see the
newspapers at Cadlaw Hill arose from an anxiety for self-preservation.
He replied, "None whatever;" but as he was ignorant what effects had
been produced by the fires he had kindled, he was anxious to know; on
which Mr. Stainthorpe said the damage was estimated at £100,000. He
coolly said, "If it were not for the glory of God, if that could be
promoted, £200,000 would not have been too much, and that in his opinion
it would have been well if all the Minster had gone together, as the
worship carried on in it was idolatrous and superstitious." He declared
that he was quite happy and fully resigned to his situation, and "would
give himself up into the hands of the Lord."
Such had been the demonstration of popular feeling shown by the persons
collected at different times to wait the coaches coming in when Martin
was expected, that the magistrates very prudently arranged that he
should arrive in York early on Monday morning, and that the examination
should take place immediately on his arrival. It was as near as possible
half-past three o'clock when Mr. Newstead and Pardoe arrived with their
prisoner in a post-chaise at the Session House in the Minster-yard. He
was taken into the room occupied by Harrison, the keeper of Peter
Prison, where he seated himself on a chair with his hands clasped, his
feet elevated on the fender, and his eyes closed. Mr. Pardoe asked him
if his feet were cold; to which he replied "Yes"; and this was the only
word he spoke till the examination commenced. He was dressed in a blue
coat and trousers, with a drab great-coat. He had by no means the
appearance of a "stout man," as described in the bill; but the person
where he lodged said he had fallen away very much in that short period.
It was half-past four o'clock when everything was arranged for
examination. The magistrates took their seats on the bench, and Martin
was placed at the bar; the warrant under which he was apprehended was
read over to him, and the depositions of witnesses were also read.
It is unnecessary here to give the evidence either on this occasion or
at the subsequent trial. On being asked what he had to say for himself,
he made the following confession in a firm tone of voice:--
"The reason that I set fire to the Cathedral was on account of two
particular dreams. In the first dream I dreamed that a man stood by me
with a bow and a sheath of arrows. He shot an arrow, and the arrow stuck
in the Minster door. I then wished to shoot, and the man presented me
the bow, and I took an arrow from the sheath and shot, and it struck on
a stone and I lost it. In the second dream I dreamed that a cloud came
down on the Cathedral, and came over to the house where I slept, and it
made the whole house tremble. Then I woke; and I thought it was the hand
of God pointing out that I was to set fire to the Cathedral. And those
things which were found on me I took lest any one should be blamed
wrongfully. I took them to bear witness against myself; I cut the
hangings from the throne, or cathedra, or whatever you call it, and tore
down the curtains."
Here he stopped rather abruptly, and being asked whether he had anything
more to say, he replied, "No."
During the whole of the proceedings Martin appeared perfectly calm, and
stood with his eyes closed nearly the whole of the time, his head
inclining over the right shoulder.
His committal was then made out, and signed by Mr. Dickens, the
chairman, and the Rev. D. R. Currer, and he was removed to the City
Gaol, and given into the custody of Mr. Kilby, to remain till the
Assizes.
After Martin was committed to the charge of the gaoler on the morning
of the 9th of February, he breakfasted and went to bed. His sleep was
sound and tranquil, and he awoke much refreshed and in good spirits.
Strangers were not admitted to see him. Next day he appeared greatly
depressed, and was very anxious to avoid public observation. He attended
prayers in the chapel during the morning. The next day, however, he
refused to attend the chapel. Subsequently he was visited by the Rev. G.
Coopland, the chaplain, in his day-room, who found that so deeply rooted
was his aversion to the Liturgy of the Church of England as to leave him
no reason to doubt that a forced attendance during the chapel service
would be much more likely to prove injurious than beneficial to his own
mind. Besides, he thought it not at all improbable that were he
compelled to attend, he might consider it his duty to interrupt the
service, and publicly to protest against a mode of worship which he
deemed unscriptural. Under these circumstances his attendance at chapel
was not enforced. He frequently prayed and sang hymns, and when the
order was relaxed by which strangers were prohibited from seeing him, he
entered very freely into conversation with them. He still pretended to
be favoured with extraordinary visions. On one occasion he said he
dreamed that two angels appeared to him in prison, one of whom told him
to apply his lips to the tip of his wings, which he did, when he was
immediately conveyed beyond the walls of his prison.
His brother arrived in York about ten days before the Assizes commenced,
to make preparations for his defence. The defence intended to be set up
was insanity; and a number of witnesses were collected with a view to
support this plea. Dr. Wake, at the request of his brother, visited him
on Friday, the 20th. Up to this period his conduct had been extremely
mild, and his feelings composed; but a little change had been observed
for a day or two previous, and that night, about twelve o'clock, he
attempted to make his escape. He slept in what was called the Hospital
Room--a room in which there were two beds, a person who was appointed as
his guard sleeping in one of them, and Martin in the other. The guard
fell asleep about half-past eleven o'clock, and was soon after awoke by
a knocking, apparently outside the room. Not apprehending anything, he
went to sleep again; and Martin, having torn his bed-rug into lengths,
tied them together, and formed a rope about nine yards long. He fastened
this round his ankles, and having on only his shirt and his drawers, he
ascended the chimney. An iron grate which was fixed in near the top
prevented him, however, from getting to the outside of the prison, and
he was obliged to descend again. He then placed his sooty shirt under
the bed, swept the soot into the same place, and put on his flannel
dress, and retired to bed. The attendant, on awaking about two o'clock,
found him up, but he soon lay down again; and both rose at half-past six
o'clock. Almost as soon as the door was opened Martin bolted out, and
went into the yard. His attendant, alarmed, followed him, and found him
washing himself. The state of the room and of his person, together with
two bricks being laid in the fire-place, proved the fact that an escape
had been attempted. Indeed, when charged with it, he did not deny it. He
said, if he had been a smaller person he should have effected his
escape; but that it was the "will of God" he should make the attempt,
and be frustrated.
Of course, after this, a closer watch was kept upon the actions of the
prisoner.
On Monday, March 23rd, he was brought before Mr. Justice Bayley at the
Guildhall, and true bills were found against him for arson and
sacrilege. He is described during the examination at the Guildhall as
having been perfectly placid, and as having smiled occasionally.
When the Court adjourned for rest and refreshment to the Mansion House
during the proceedings, he engaged in conversation with the parties near
him, and laughed at their observations. A lady said to him--"In
destroying that beautiful pile of buildings you inflicted no real
punishment on its clergy."
Martin laughed, and answered--"Eh, but it may mak' them stand and
consider their ways. All those who are really converted will think I've
done reight enuff."
The trumpets soon after sounded, heralding the approach of the judge.
The prisoner said--"Hark, how the watchman cries. Oh! attend to the
sound." The crowd was so dense in the hall that it was with difficulty a
passage could be made for his lordship. Martin laughed, and observed to
Mr. Kilby, "They'll have t' ould man down." A gentleman asked him if he
was not afraid. He said, "No, not at all."
The populace entirely filled the hall and part of the yard; and Jonathan
turned his face towards them, frequently laughing, and talking to those
with whom he came immediately in contact. He said he "believed he was
the most righteous man in court"; adding, "I have made as much noise as
Buonaparte ever did. I think this is a very throng day." He then turned
round to the counsel and reporters, and said, "I keep them very busy; I
have given them all a job. I'll put their hands in by-and-bye." When the
judge returned he said, "Here's t' ould man coming again." He seemed
quite pleased at being the object of such universal interest, and
repeatedly laughed at the attempts of the people to get a sight of him.
The trial of Jonathan Martin took place in the Crown Court of York
Castle before Mr. Baron Hullock, on Monday, March 30. The Court was
crowded. When placed at the bar, and the first charge, that of having
feloniously set fire to the Cathedral Church of St. Peter's, York, had
been read to Martin by the clerk of arraigns, and he had been asked the
usual question whether he were "guilty or not guilty," he placed himself
in a theatrical attitude, and said, "It was not me, my lord, but my God
did it. It is quite common to Him to punish to the third and fourth
generation, and to show mercy to all that fear Him and keep His
commandments."
A plea of "Not guilty" was entered.
The second indictment was then read over to him, charging him with
feloniously stealing a quantity of crimson velvet and gold fringe and
two gold tassels, the property of the Dean and Chapter of the Cathedral
and Metropolitical Church of York. He was asked whether he was guilty or
not guilty. Throwing out his left hand, he replied--
"My God gave me that for my hire. The Lord gave the silk to mak' a robe,
like David the King, and the velvet to mak' a cap, and the tassels I
took from the pulpit to hang down over my right and left ear."
THE CLERK OF INDICTMENTS.--"Are you guilty or not guilty?"
MARTIN.--"I had it given me for my hire."
This was taken as a plea of "Not guilty;" and Mr. Baron Hullock
addressing him, said, "You will be tried to-morrow morning at nine
o'clock." He bowed, and said, "Very well, my lord;" and was removed from
the bar.
The crier of the Court then announced, at the desire of the judge, that
the trial of Jonathan Martin would not take place till Tuesday morning
at nine o'clock.
On Tuesday, March 31st, the Court was as crowded as on the preceding
day, and great confusion was the result; this seemed to cause Martin
much amusement, and he laughed repeatedly at the struggles of the crowd
at the door, and leaped on a seat to observe it.
After the hearing of the evidence, the substance of which has been
incorporated in the narrative, Jonathan Martin was called upon for his
defence. Martin, who had become very listless during the examination,
seemed at this moment full of animation, and in a very vehement manner
uttered in broad Northern dialect the following words in his defence:--
"The first impression that I had was by two particular dreams, sir; and
after I had written five letters to warn the clergy. I think the last I
wrote was a very severe one. I believe I wrote in it all the curses of
the Scripture to warn them, and likewise signed my name to every letter,
and the place I lodged at, No. 60, Aldgate. I never received any
letters, which I was anxious to have from these clergymen, to speak to
them by mouth, but there was found none among them that dared to answer
me. I prayed to the Lord what I was to do. The next night I dreamt that
a wonderful thick cloud came from heaven and rested upon the Minster."
[Here the prisoner gave a long account of his dream, mentioned above,
and about the cloud resting over the house.] He continued:--"The house
was so shook that it awoke me from sleep. I was astonished, and began to
ask the Lord what it meant. I felt a voice inwardly speak that the Lord
had chosen me to destroy the Cathedral for the wrong that was doing by
the clergy in going to plays, and balls, and card-tables, and dinners.
Different things impressed my mind that the Lord had chosen me, because
the house shook and trembled. I thought it resembled the pillar of
smoke, and fulfilled the prophecy of Joel, that God would pour out His
Spirit upon all flesh, and the old men should see visions, and the young
men dream dreams, and that there should be signs in the heavens, blood
and fire, and vapour and smoke. I thought that I should be fulfilling
the word of God, and it was so impressed on my mind I had no rest night
or day; for I found the Lord had determined to have me to show this
people a warning to flee from the wrath to come. I was rather at a loss,
and astonished about my wife lest she should attack me, for I could not
do it without being all night from her. After I had considered a while
and got everything in order, I began to think it was impossible for me
to do it, as if I was away without my wife knowing where, she might
conceive I was about the Cathedral, and come and put me out. Therefore I
thought of this, to take my wife's ring off her finger, and tie her over
to this concern, which I did, as I have mentioned before, and the
circumstance of my wife's keeping the vow. After I told her the
circumstance she was much grieved, and strove to get me away to Leeds,
to get me from the purpose I had informed her of. We went to Leeds and
stayed a few days there, but I could get no rest to my mind till I had
accomplished the deed. I was obliged to take leave of her on the
Saturday morning. I had a severe contest between flesh and blood. It was
a sair contest, especially when she asked what was to become of her, and
of my child Richard I had at school at Lincoln. I thought she would have
nailed me to the spot; but after a moment a passage of Scripture struck
my ears, and it cried out like a whisper, 'What thou doest, do quickly.'
I heard another--'He that loveth father or mother more than me is not
worthy of me.' And I heard a third whisper--'Even thine own life.' I
tore myself from her arms. I said--'Lord, not my will, but thine be
done.' I then felt the love of God in my heart. I thought I would go to
Tadcaster, and took twenty books with me. When I got them the Spirit
told me to go forward. I had no money to keep me over the Sunday. I had
only fourpence-halfpenny." The prisoner then gave a minute detail of his
proceedings, and the different expedients resorted to in order to set
fire to the building, which he described as having been a work of great
labour and difficulty. He said, at the evening service he was "very much
vexed at hearing them sing the prayers and amens; he thought the prayer
of the heart came from the heart, and that they had no call for
prayer-books." He observed--"The organ then made such a buzzing noise, I
thought, 'Thou shalt buzz no more--I'll have thee down to-night.' Well,"
he continued, "they were all going out, and I lay me down aside of the
bishop, round by the pillar." [The prisoner concealed himself behind a
tomb.] "I lay here till all went out. I thought I heard the people
coming down from ringing the bells; they all went out, and then it was
so dark that I could not see my hand. Well, I left the bishop, and came
out and fell upon my knees, and asked the Lord what I was to do first,
and he said--'Get thy way up into the belfry and cut a rope;' and I had
never been there, and I went round and round; I had a sort of a guess of
the place from hearing the men, as I thought, come down. Then the Spirit
said, 'Strike a light.' And I then struck a light with a flint and razor
that I had got, and some tinder that I had brought from my landlord's. I
saw there were plenty of ropes: then I cut one, and then another; but I
had no idea they were so long, and I kept draw, draw, and the rope came
up till I daresay I had near 100 feet. I have been a sailor, and thought
to myself, this will make a man-rope, a sort of scaling-rope, and I tied
knots in it. Aye, this is it, I know it well enough (pointing to the
rope which lay upon the table). So I went down to the body of the
Cathedral, and bethought me how I should go inside. I thought if I did
so, by throwing the rope over the organ, I might set it _ganging_, and
that would spoil the job. So I made an end of the rope fast, and went
hand-over-hand over the gates, and got down on the other side, and fell
on my knees, and prayed to the Lord, and He told me that do what I would
they would take me. Then I asked the Lord what I was to do with the
velvet, and He told me," (the prisoner here repeated what he had before
stated in his plea about the robe, cap, and tassels.) "The fringe, I
thought, would do for my hairy jacket that I have at Lincoln. I have a
very good sealskin one there; I wish I had it with me, that I might show
it you. Then I got all ready. Glory to God! I never felt so happy; but I
had a hard night's work of it, particularly with a hungry belly. Well, I
got a bit of wax-candle, and I set fire to one heap, and with the
matches I set fire to the other. I then tied up the things that the Lord
had given me for my hire in this very handkerchief that I have in my
hand." He then observed that he had "hard work" while engaged in making
his preparations; "but," said he, "I had a glorious time of it; and many
a time I called 'Glory be to God' in a way which I wonder they did not
hear on the outside." He left the pincers, he said, because the old man
with whom he lodged could not afford to lose them, and he knew he would
get them again. He thought it a work of merit to burn prayer-books and
music-books, but not to burn the Word of God, and he appeared to regret
that he could not save the large Bible by getting it over the gates and
putting it outside. He detailed the particulars of his journey to the
North; and described himself as having, from his arrival at York till he
reached Northallerton, had very little food, but "t' Lord refreshed my
soul on t' road wi' t' snow upon t' ground." He then went on with his
story till he reached Mr. Kell's house, and "t' Hexham man came, tapped
me on t' shoulder, and took me to t' lock-up." He concluded, after
speaking twenty minutes--"I am almost tired of talking, but I will
efterwards tell ye a bit more."
A minute or two after, he said to the reporters--"An' you have been
writing down what I said--I think I talked o'er fast for thee!" He then
espied one of his publications, and said--"I see the'se gotten one of my
bukes. I wrote mysen at different times, and have sold 10,000 copies."
The defence set up for the prisoner by Mr. Brougham, acting for Jonathan
Martin's brother, was that Jonathan had perpetrated the deed when in an
unsound state of mind. The jury returned the verdict--"We are of opinion
that he set fire to the Cathedral, being at the time insane, or of
unsound mind."
Baron Hulloch:--"Then your verdict must be _not guilty_ on the ground of
insanity; and the prisoner must remain in close custody during his
Majesty's pleasure."
Martin was highly irritated at the line of defence adopted by Mr.
Brougham; but that some suspicion of his lunacy was entertained by
himself at an early period appears from his own words in his
autobiography, written before he set fire to York Minster:--"The devil
suggested to me that the people would think me mad. My wife endeavoured
to comfort me, as she feared for my head."
After the sentence he was handcuffed and conveyed into the Castle. He
made no observation, but was evidently disappointed and dejected at the
result. For some days after this Martin seemed rather despondent, but he
soon resumed his activity, pacing up and down at the rate of five miles
an hour, and at an average of twenty miles per day. He asked some one
he knew, who visited him, after his son, who was at school at Lincoln,
and said--"I'm thinking that God ha' used me varry badly."
He was removed from York Castle to St. Luke's Hospital in London, where
his conduct is described as having been generally rational. He seldom
spoke on the subject of his crime. Towards his brother he entertained
the bitterest enmity for having had him proved insane. But he consoled
himself in his confinement with the thought, "The Lord will take His own
time to deliver me, and that will not be long, for He has a great work
which cannot be done without me."
When he heard of the death of Baron Hulloch, before whom he was tried,
and which took place the same year, he seemed much agitated, walked
about a while, as if talking to himself, but made no observation. It
transpired afterwards that he looked on this as a signal instance of the
Lord punishing one of his enemies.
FOOTNOTES:
[24] Authorities for this memoir:--"A Full and Authentic Report of the
Trial of Jonathan Martin for setting fire to York Minster; with an
Account of the Life of the Lunatic." York: Bellerby, 1829. His own Life,
written by himself, 1828, 1829. "York Castle in the Nineteenth Century;
being an Account of the Principal Offences Committed in Yorkshire from
the year 1800." By L. T. Rede. Leeds, 1829.
[25] In Yorkshire this prejudice exists strongly. A Yorkshireman once
pulled down my hand as I pointed to the Great Bear, saying that if I
pointed to a star I should be struck dead--it was a sin.
[26] Neither Mr. Nicoll nor the other pensioner assert that Martin was
guilty of a loose life. Perhaps this was only on the occasion of his
visiting London with the sailor who mentions it. Mr. Nicoll says Martin
was a moral man.
[27] As an instance of Martin's carelessness of expression, I may say
that he relates in his own biography that he attended the love-feast at
Yarm half-an-hour after Communion at the church at Norton. Yarm is four
miles from Norton. This mistake arose from the Life being written from
his dictation by a second, who wrote half-an-hour per afternoon.
[28] Nicholson, the keeper of the Gateshead Asylum before the Ortons,
said at the trial: "Martin was under my care eleven or twelve months. He
conversed very rationally. I should not have thought him fit for a
lunatic asylum."
BROTHER JUCUNDUS.
At York were two religious houses--St. Mary's Abbey and St. Leonard's
Priory--so close together that their walls abutted. The magnificent
ruins of St. Mary's Abbey Church, the heavy fragments of the Priory
Church of St. Leonard's, now stand in the gardens of the Botanical
Society, and resound no longer to the sound of psalmody, but to the
strains of the band playing marches, waltzes, and overtures.
At the close of the fifteenth century, before the Dissolution was
thought of, there lived, and fasted, and prayed in St. Leonard's Priory
a fat monk named Brother Jucundus. He had not been long in the house. He
had joined the order in a fit of headache and remorse, after heavy
potations on the occasion of the installation of a new Lord Mayor, and
it is possible--probable, I suspect--that he somewhat regretted his
precipitancy. Yet there was no escape. The irrevocable vows were on him;
for life he was bound to eat only vegetables and bread, drink very small
beer, and sleep only six hours in the night.
Convivial songs floated through his mind when he ought to have been
chanting the Psalms of David, and the flavour of old sack rose upon his
palate when he looked dolefully down at dinner-time into his mug of
"swipes."
A year passed. The full paunch of Brother Jucundus began to subside; his
fat cheeks to fall flabby, like the dewlaps of a cow; a dispirited
expression took the place of the watery twinkle which had once animated
his eye.
Come what might, Brother Jucundus felt he must have a fling. He should
die without it. Just one jolification in the twelvemonth, and then he
would put up for the rest of the year with beans and cabbage, small beer
and matins before dawn.
York fair approached. York fair! of all that is ravishing! The shows of
dancing dogs, the whirli-go-rounds, the giantesses and dwarfs, the
"spice" stalls, the drinking-booths! To York fair he must, he would go,
if condemned to a bean and a thimbleful of water for fasting dinner ever
after.
And go he did. He managed it in this way:--After dinner the whole
community took an hour's sleep. As they rose at midnight and dined at
mid-day, this was very necessary, and the Priory was silent, save for
snores, from one o'clock to two. At half-past one Brother Jucundus stole
to the porter's lodge, found the porter asleep in his chair--so took
possession of his keys; went to the Prior's apartment; the Prior was
asleep; pocketed a crown from his money-box, and left the Priory.
At two o'clock the community awoke. The porter missed his keys. The
Prior missed the crown. All the monks were summoned into the
chapter-house, and all missed Brother Jucundus.
After long deliberation it was decided that two sedate and trusty
brothers should be sent out in quest of him.
It was a bright, sunny afternoon. Jucundus had enjoyed himself
amazingly. The amount of gingerbread horses and men he had consumed was
prodigious. He had seen "The Spotted Boy" and "The Bearded Woman;" he
had gone round in the whirligig on the back of a wooden horse; he had
shot for nuts at a mark, and won his pocket full, which he cracked every
now and then, and washed down with a draft of really good ale. And now,
just now, he was going up in the boat of a great see-saw, with a
foaming tankard in his hand, his jolly red face illumined with glee, and
his ample throat thundering forth--
"In dulce jubilo-o-o,
Up, up, up we go-o-o;"
when his sweet jubilee was cut short by the sight of two monks from his
Priory, with grim faces, making their way towards the see-saw.
Brother Jucundus tried to scramble out, and in so doing tumbled down. He
was picked up. Either his libations, or the fall, or disinclination to
return to St. Leonard's weakened his legs, and he tottered so much that
the reverend fathers were obliged to put him in a wheelbarrow and roll
him to the Priory gate. At the entrance stood the Prior with a brow of
thunder.
Brother Jucundus looked pleasantly up in his face from out of his
conveyance, smiled benignantly, and piped--
"In dulce jubilo-o-o,
Up, up, up we go-o-o."
The chapter was still sitting, stern and threatening.
The helpless monk was trundled in his barrow into the midst of the
assembled fathers, to be tried and sentenced.
He had been caught, _flagrante delicto_, in a see-saw, drunk, riotous,
and incapable. Nevertheless, Brother Jucundus was not disposed to view
his case unfavourably. He looked round on the chapter with an
affectionate glance from out of his watery eye, and the kindest, most
winsome smile on his ruddy cheeks.
He was asked at once for his defence. He murmured, with a hiccup--
"In dulce jubilo-o-o."
The sentence was unanimous, and unfalteringly given. He was to be
walled alive into a niche in the Priory cellar. The execution was to be
carried into effect immediately.
As he was helped down the cellar stairs, some glimmer of his situation
came in on the mind of Jucundus, and he sadly trolled out--
"Down, down, down we go-o-o."
A convenient niche was soon found. A cruse of water and a loaf of bread,
with cruel mockery, were placed in the recess. The ready hands of
zealous monks mixed the mortar, brought the bricks, and in a quarter of
an hour Brother Jucundus was firmly walled in to his living grave.
Now for the first time did the extreme inconvenience of his position
break upon the unfortunate monk. In the wheelbarrow he had been able to
sit; here he was walled upright. It was cramping, intolerable. He
kicked, he pressed backwards with all his might; and suddenly, with a
crash, the wall behind him gave way, and he rolled backwards over a heap
of fallen bricks into a cellar.
The shock brought him completely to his senses. Where was he? Now he saw
the gravity of his offence--the terrible fate that had been prepared for
him. Escape was fortunately open to him. He ran up the cellar stairs,
and found himself in the Abbey of St. Mary's. The cellars of the two
monasteries had adjoined; a wall alone had divided them. He had tumbled
out of St. Leonard's into St. Mary's.
St. Mary's Abbey belonged to the severe Cistercian Order. Complete
silence was one of the rules of the society. Except on Easter day, no
monk might speak; on Easter day every one talked, and nobody listened.
When Brother Jucundus accordingly appeared in the cloisters, no monk
turned to look at him, or asked him "how the saints he had come there?"
but swept by him like a ghost. Jucundus made himself as much at home as
was possible. He took his place at table, ate and drank what was set
before him, occupied a pallet in the common dormitory, lifted his voice
in concert with the others in the Abbey choir, and nobody meddled with
him. The monks, if they thought about him at all--and it was against
their rules to think of anything but their own spiritual
affairs--thought he was a new monk just joined in the usual accepted
manner.
A twelvemonth passed. It had been dull in St. Leonard's; it was duller
in St. Mary's. The day came round on which York fair was held, the day,
that happy day, which had ended so dolorously.
Now the day before York fair the office of cellarer fell vacant in St.
Mary's Abbey by the death of the monk who had presided over the wine and
beer. The Abbot by a happy inspiration committed the keys to Brother
Jucundus. Here was an opportunity! If York fair might not be enjoyed in
the market-place and the Pavement, he would at least commemorate it in
the Abbey cellar.
On York fair day, accordingly, Brother Jucundus, after having seen all
his fellow monks safe in bed, stole down the stone steps into the vault
where were the barrels, with a tankard in his one hand and a lantern in
the other.
St. Mary's Abbey was often called upon to receive noble, even royal
guests, and entertain them nobly and royally. It therefore contained
barrels of very prime wine and very strong audit ale. Brother Jucundus
went along the range of barrels trying one tipple after another. There
is nothing so dangerous as mixing your drink, and this the reverend
brother discovered at last, for he sat down, unable to proceed further,
by the best cask of Malmsey, and turning the tap, filled his tankard.
Next day at noon the Cistercians assembled in the refectory for their
frugal repast, dinner and breakfast in one: and as they had been up
since midnight, and had eaten and drunk nothing for twelve hours, were
tolerably hungry and dry. But the mugs were empty. At the Abbot's table
even was neither wine nor beer. The silent fraternity bore with this
some time, but at last even the rules of the Order could not keep them
perfectly silent. They shuffled with their feet, growled and grunted
discontentedly. At last the Abbot, in a voice of thunder, shouted--
"I want my beer!" and the example of the head becoming infectious,
"Beer, beer, beer! we all want our beer!" resounded from every part of
the refectory.
"Where was the cellarer?" Nobody knew. At last two brothers were
commissioned to go to the cellar and fetch ale. They presently returned
with awe-struck countenances, beckoned to the Abbot to follow them, and
led the way along the cloisters down the cellar stairs. Curiosity,
though against the rule, was infectious, and all the monks crept _en
queue_ after the Abbot. When they reached the vault a shocking sight
presented itself to their eyes. Brother Jucundus lay with his head
against the butt of Malmsey, flourishing his tankard over his head, and
feebly, incoherently, trolling forth--
"In dulce jubilo-o-o,
Up, up, up we go-o-o."
It was too flagrant an offence to be passed over. A chapter of the Order
was at once constituted in the cellar itself. All the monks were
present. Unanimously it was decided that after solemn excommunication
with bell, book, and candle, the guilty brother should be walled up
alive on the scene of his crime in that very cellar.
The awful scene of excommunication was proceeded with. It took some
time, and during the ceremony Brother Jucundus gradually resumed
consciousness--the fumes of Malmsey slowly evaporated. A convenient
recess was found, where a heap of crumbling bricks lay prostrate. It was
the identical nook out of which a year and a day before Brother Jucundus
had escaped into the Cistercian Order and Abbey of St. Mary.
Into this niche therefore he was built. His terrible position had not,
however, as yet forced itself on the monk's brain; he still tasted
Malmsey, still was his heart buoyant, and with swelling lungs he roared
forth his song--
"In dulce jubilo-o-o,
Up, up, up we go-o-o."
Now, it happened that the clocks in St. Leonard's and St. Mary's
differed by a quarter of an hour. That of St. Leonard's was slower than
that of St. Mary's. Consequently it was only just dinner-time in St.
Leonard's Priory, and the cellarer, pitcher in hand, had just descended
the stairs, and was filling his vessel with small beer, when he heard
close to his ear, from behind the wall, a stentorian voice thunder
forth--
"In dulce jubilo-o-o,
Up, up, up we go-o-o."
The voice, the strain, the words were those of Brother Jucundus, who a
year and a day before had been immured at that very spot.
Down went the pitcher, and away fled the monk--amazement, admiration in
his countenance, "A miracle! a miracle!" in his mouth--to the monks,
just issuing from the church and the recitation of Sext and the office
for the dead around the body of their Prior, lately deceased, and that
day to be buried.
The whole community rolled like a tidal wave down the cellar-stairs, and
stood with breathless awe in a circle about the spot where twelve months
and a day before they had walled in Brother Jucundus.
It was a miracle--there could be no doubt of it. Eager hands tore down
the wall, and revealed the reverend brother, hale and rosy as of yore,
and at his side a loaf as fresh as when put in, and a pitcher still full
to the brim.
There could be no doubt but that this was a special interposition to
establish the innocence of the monk, and to indicate to the community
who was to be their future Prior.
With one voice they shouted, "Jucundus our Prior! Saint Jucundus our
head and father!"
On the shoulders of the enthusiastic brethren the miraculous monk was
carried up-stairs and installed in the Prior's seat in the
chapter-house.
Under him St. Leonard's jogged along very pleasantly, and he did much in
his long rule of the monastery for its discipline and good order, if not
to justify, at least to excuse the dissolution which fell on it
immediately after his death.
MARY BATEMAN,
WITCH AND MURDERESS.
Mary Harker was the daughter of a small farmer at Aisenby, in the parish
of Topcliffe, near Thirsk, where she was born in 1768. From an early age
she exhibited great quickness, which, instead of taking a direct course
and developing into intelligence, was warped into low cunning.
She received, for one in her situation, a good education--was taught to
read, and write, and cypher. But she very early showed a want of moral
principle, very possibly because it was never instilled into her by her
parents, and her first petty thefts having been pardoned or laughed at,
she grew bolder, and what had been occasional grew to be frequent, and
matured into a habit of peculation. Her father sent her into service at
the age of thirteen, in Thirsk, and for a while she either concealed or
did not yield to her propensity for theft. At all events, if she did
pilfer, she was neither suspected nor discovered.
At the age of twenty she left Thirsk for York, and after a year's
sojourn in that city, was detected in an attempt at robbery, and ran
away to Leeds, where, in 1788, she worked as a mantua-maker; but as her
knowledge of dressmaking was imperfect--she had only acquired it during
her twelvemonth at York, where her mistress had been a dressmaker--she
was able to work for the lower classes alone. She lived in Leeds for
four years, following this occupation and occasionally telling fortunes.
Her professed calling admirably served to introduce dupes to her, and
the servant-girls for whom she worked not infrequently introduced her to
their young mistresses.
In the year 1792 she married an honest, hard-working man named John
Bateman, who had made her acquaintance only three weeks previously. This
man, there is no reason for believing, was, at first at all events, an
accomplice in, or acquainted with, the crimes committed subsequently by
his wife, though afterwards it is scarcely possible to exculpate him
from connivance in them.
She now began openly to profess fortune-telling, the removal of spells,
the power of controlling the future, &c., in which, however, she did not
act in her own name, but as the deputy of Mrs. Moore, whom she
represented as a person endowed with the supernatural powers belonging
to the seventh child of a seventh child.
Whether such a person existed or not was never ascertained, but it is
certain that Mary Bateman, at the outset of her career, had some
accomplice, and she was from her youth fond of associating with gipsies
and other vagrants, from whom she learned the art she afterwards
practised.
The Batemans lodged in High Court Lane, Leeds, and she stole from a
fellow-lodger a silver watch, a spoon of the same metal, and two
guineas. The theft was discovered, and she was made to restore what she
had taken, but she was not prosecuted.
Several charges of obtaining silk goods under various names of persons
with whom she was acquainted were made and substantiated at this time,
but the shopkeepers, with mistaken clemency, regarding her as a poor
milliner, forgave her.
A poor man, a neighbour, who earned his living and supported his family
with the assistance of a horse and cart, sickened and died, leaving a
widow and four children, the eldest a boy about fifteen years of age.
The widow, who was only stepmother of the children, was persuaded by
Mary Bateman that the eldest boy meant to sell all the little property
his father had left, and appropriate the money to his own use, to
prevent which she advised the mother to sell the horse, cart, and
furniture as soon as possible, and to quit Yorkshire. This advice the
infatuated woman took, turned everything into money, left a share with
Mary for the children, and departed. Mary Bateman appropriated the sum
entrusted to her, and sent the children to the union.
A gentleman living in Meadow Lane, in Leeds, bought a leg of mutton at
the shambles, and requested that it might be sent home immediately.
Mary, ever on the watch for her prey, hastened to the bridge over which
the butcher's boy had to pass, and when she saw him approach, made
towards him in a great hurry, pretending she was the gentleman's
servant, scolded the boy for being so long upon the road, and taking the
mutton by the shank, gave him a slap on the back, telling him she would
carry it home herself. It is needless to say that carry it home she did,
but not to the gentleman's house. When dinner-time came the joint had
not arrived. The gentleman went to his butcher to inquire about the
neglect, but he was informed that the meat had been sent an hour ago,
and was taken from the boy by a woman, whom the butcher described, and
whom the gentleman recollected to have seen at the stall when he was
buying the meat, and whose residence he luckily knew to be in the Old
Assembly-room Yard, in Kirkgate. He accordingly posted down to her
house, and the first object that presented itself to his eyes on
entering it was his leg of mutton roasting before Bateman's fire. After
upbraiding Mary, she agreed to pay for the mutton, and the matter was
thus compromised.
In 1793 Bateman took a small house in Well's Yard, and furnished it
decently--by what means, unless from the proceeds of her frauds, it is
difficult to say, though it is due to the husband to admit that he was
never proved to be cognisant of any of her malpractices, and was
sometimes the victim of them. She once went to his workshop and took
with her a letter representing that his father, who was then town-crier
at Thirsk, was at the point of death.
Her husband instantly set off for that town, and had scarcely entered it
when he heard his father's voice in the market-place announcing an
auction. He hurried back to Leeds to inform his wife of the hoax that
had been practised upon them; but on his return he found his house
stripped of every article of furniture, which Mary had sold, in all
probability to hush up some robbery she had committed.
After some time they jointly found means to get fresh furniture, and
they took in lodgers, one of whom, a Mr. Dixon, discovered Mary in the
act of purloining money from his box. She was forced to refund it, and
make good several losses that Mr. Dixon had before sustained, but for
which he had not been able to account.
In the year 1796 a tremendous fire broke out in a large manufactory in
Leeds, and by the falling of one of the walls many unfortunate people
lost their lives. This calamity Mary Bateman turned to her own
advantage. She went to Miss Maude, a lady known for her charitable
disposition, and telling her that the child of a poor woman had fallen a
victim, and that she had not linen to lay the child out on, begged she
would lend her a pair of sheets. This request was complied with; but the
sheets, instead of being turned to such a benevolent purpose, were
pledged at a pawnbroker's shop. Three similar instances occurred at the
same time, and all the sheets were disposed of in the same way. Nor did
her frauds on the plea of this calamity end here. She went round the
town representing herself as a nurse at the General Infirmary, and
collecting all the old linen she could beg to dress the wounds, as she
said, of the patients who had been brought into the infirmary, but in
reality to dispose of them for herself.
Bateman, ashamed of the disgrace caused by his wife's conduct, entered
the supplementary militia, but he took with him his plague--his wife.
And here a wide field opened for a woman of her disposition. She
practised her old arts and learnt fresh ones. Of her exploits while in
this situation we have no information; but when she quitted the army
with her husband in the year 1796, on their return to Leeds, they took
up their residence in Marsh Lane, near Timble Bridge. Mary then began to
practise on a large scale. She herself, as she said, had no skill in
casting nativities or reading the stars, but a certain Mrs. Moore was a
proficient in this art, and to Mrs. Moore she referred all knotty
points. It is hardly necessary to say that Mrs. Moore had no existence
whatever.
The first experiment in witchcraft was made upon a Mrs. Greenwood, whom
she attempted to persuade that she, Mrs. Greenwood, was in danger of
committing suicide on account of domestic misfortunes, and that the
skill of Mrs. Moore would be necessary to prevent so dire a catastrophe.
Next she informed her that her husband, who was then from home, was
taken up for some offence, and placed in confinement; that four men had
been set to watch him; and that if four pieces of gold, four pieces of
leather, four pieces of blotting-paper, and four brass screws were not
produced that night, and placed in her hands to give to Mrs. Moore to
"screw down" the guards, her husband would be a dead man before morning.
In vain did Mrs. Greenwood plead that she had no pieces of gold; this
difficulty Mrs. Bateman proposed to overcome by suggesting to her that
she might borrow or steal them; the latter proposal startled her
intended dupe, and, fortunately for her, she had fortitude enough to
emancipate herself from the witch's trammels.
The family of Barzillai Stead, a person who had been unsuccessful in
business, next became the object of Mary's iniquitous exactions. Upon
the husband's fears she contrived to work with so much success, by
representing the bailiffs to be in continual pursuit of him, that she
obliged him to enlist, and to share his bounty with her and her
imaginary wise-woman. Her next object was to arouse the jealousy of the
wife: this she did by assuring her that it was the intention of
Barzillai to take with him, when he went to his regiment, a young woman
out of Vicar Lane, Leeds. In order to prevent this it became necessary
to "screw down" the rival queen; this was to be effected by the agency
of Mrs. Moore, but Mrs. Moore's screws would never drive without
money--three half-crowns were to be produced for this purpose, and two
pieces of coal; the coals were to be placed at the woman's door in Vicar
Lane; they were then to be laid on the fire--the woman was to be thrown
into a sound sleep--the fire was to communicate to her clean clothes,
which had been washed in contemplation of the intended journey, and, the
clothes being consumed, she could not of course elope without them. The
morning after this charm had taken effect, Stead left Leeds to join his
regiment, and left the imaginary woman of Vicar Lane behind him. Mary
was then left at liberty to play off the whole artillery of her frauds
upon the unsuspecting wife of Stead. To enter into all the expedients
she adopted to fleece this poor woman would swell this article to an
inconvenient length; suffice it to say that she obliged her to sell or
pawn every article in her house that would raise money, and drove her to
such a state of desperation as to lead her victim to attempt suicide.
While Mary Bateman was practising upon this woman, her dupe was
confined, and the Leeds Benevolent Society, finding her in a state of
destitution, determined to apply a guinea to the relief of her wants.
This sum was given to her in three payments of 7s., and out of this
guinea Mary Bateman had the inhumanity to extort 18s. by persuading the
credulous woman that she would "screw down" the Benevolent Society, so
as to force the managers to give her more alms.
The furniture and clothes were now all gone, and nothing remained but a
few tools left by Stead when he went into the army, but even these could
not escape the avarice of Mary Bateman, who was never at a loss for
expedients to effect her purposes. She persuaded Stead's wife that it
was in the power of Mrs. Moore--Mrs. Moore again!--to "screw down" all
the officers in her husband's regiment, and so to screw them that they
could not avoid giving him his discharge; but then money must be raised,
and how, when nothing remained in the house but the tools? They of
course must be sent to the pawnbroker's and every farthing they fetched
was paid to Mary to get her friend Moore to interpose her kind offices
for the liberation of the soldier. This charm failed, as the officers
were too much for the witch.
Mary Bateman next became acquainted with a tradesman's wife of the name
of Cooper. She persuaded this woman that her husband was about to
abscond, and take with him all the property he could raise, and that she
might not be left quite destitute, Mary prevailed upon her to convey as
much of the furniture as she could out of the house, including an
excellent clock, and to lodge all this furniture at Bateman's. There it
did not remain long. Mary took it all to the pawnbroker's, got for it
what it would fetch, and left the abused husband and his credulous wife
to redeem it at their leisure.
Blown upon as the credit of Mrs. Bateman's witchcraft then was, she
removed from Timble Bridge to the Black Dog Yard, at the Bank. While she
lived here one of her hens laid a wonderful egg, remarkable for bearing
this inscription--
"CHRIST IS COMING."
But as so singular a phenomenon was not likely to obtain all the credit
necessary for carrying into effect her fraudulent intentions unless
supported by some kind of proof, she had the ingenuity and cruelty to
contrive that two other eggs, bearing similar inscriptions, should be
deposited in the nest by the same unfortunate hen. Persons flocked from
all quarters to see the wonderful eggs, and they who dared to disbelieve
stood a good chance of being maltreated by the credulous multitude.
Mary's motive for producing those eggs is not well made out, but it is
supposed that she had at that time a notion of following the example of
Joanna Southcote, as she was then in the habit of attending the meetings
of the sect founded by that extraordinary woman. Mary succeeded in
realising no inconsiderable sum by means of these eggs, for she made
those who came to see the miracle pay a penny each for the gratification
of their curiosity.
Shortly after, the subject of this narrative contrived to ingratiate
herself, as she well knew how, into the good graces of a family of the
name of Kitchin, two maiden ladies of the Quaker persuasion, who kept a
small linen-draper's shop near St. Peter's Square, in Leeds. There is
every reason to suppose that she had deluded these unfortunate young
women with some idea of her skill in looking into futurity, or, at
least, that some of her friends--a Mrs. Moore or a Miss Blythe
perhaps--could read their destiny in the stars! For some time Mary was
the confidant of the Misses Kitchin. She was frequently at their house;
she assisted in their shop; and her interference extended even to their
domestic concerns. In the early part of September, 1803, one of the
young women became very ill; Mary Bateman procured for her medicines, as
she said, from a country doctor. These medicines, like those
administered afterwards to Perigo and his unfortunate wife, were of
powerful efficacy, and in the course of less than one week Miss Kitchin
died. In the meantime her mother, hearing of her dangerous situation,
came from Wakefield, and though in good health when she left home, the
mother as well as the second daughter took the same illness, and in a
few days both were laid in the grave, at the side of their ill-fated
relation.
Previous to the death of one of the sisters a female friend of the
family was sent for, and when she arrived the poor sufferer seemed
oppressed with some secret that she wished to communicate, but her
strength failing her, she expired without being able to do so.
Only ten days sufficed to carry off the mother and two sisters. The
complaint of which they died was said to be _cholera_--a complaint, let
it be remembered, attended by symptoms resembling those produced by
poison. It did not, however, suit the purposes of Mary Bateman to give
the disorder so mild a name. She represented it to be the plague, and
the whole neighbourhood shunned the place, and would as soon have
entered the most infectious wards of a pest-house as this dwelling.
Mary alone, in the face of all danger, was ready to afford her friendly
offices; and when the persons composing this unfortunate family were
buried, the door was closed, and a padlock placed upon it.
A physician of eminence in the town, on being called in to visit the
last surviving sister, was so strongly impressed with the opinion that
her sickness and sudden death had been caused by poison, that he
examined with much care many of the vessels in the house, inquired if
any water for poisoning flies had been used, and expressed a wish to
open the body; but the family being all dead, and no persons at hand who
thought themselves authorised to give that permission, the corpse was
interred unopened, and with it the opportunity for detection. During the
time of the fatal illness in the Misses Kitchin's house, Mary Bateman
was unremitting in her attention; she administered their food, and from
her hands the medicine was conveyed to their lips. Some time after the
death of these ladies their creditors looked over their effects, when it
was found that their house and shop had been plundered of almost
everything they contained: and to add to the embarrassment of their
affairs, the shop books were missing. The creditors only divided
eightpence in the pound.
Two young women, then servants in Leeds, had long been in Mary's toils,
and she had fleeced them pretty handsomely; and not only them, but their
friends, for she had prevailed upon one of them to rob her mother of
several articles, and amongst the rest of a large family Bible. When she
had got all from them that could be extorted without awakening the
suspicions of their friends, she sent both these deluded girls, at
different times, to seek service in Manchester, cautioning them, if they
met, not to speak to each other, on pain of breaking the charm. When
they arrived in Manchester, Mary contrived to keep up a correspondence
with them, and got from them even the clothes they wore, so that they
were almost reduced to a state of nakedness. One day these poor
destitute girls met in the streets of Manchester; the meeting being
quite unexpected, they both burst into tears, and their emotions became
so violent that further concealment was out of the question. They
thereupon related to each other their sad history, and by comparing
notes, found that they were both the dupes of Mary Bateman. They then
wrote to Leeds, and laid their case before their friends, who interfered
in their behalf, and got from the witch part of the property she had so
wickedly extorted.
The witch also contrived to ingratiate herself into the good opinion of
another young woman, and got from her several sums of money for the
purpose of curing her of an "evil wish" laid upon her by an old
beggar-woman whom she had refused to relieve. The cure was to be
effected by Miss Blythe, to whom a pocket-handkerchief was to be sent.
In due course the directions arrived, and Miss Blythe, who, like Mrs.
Moore, could never put her charms in motion without money, required that
different sums, amounting in all to five guineas, should be produced,
and as much wearing apparel as was worth about the same sum; but this
money and these clothes were only to be kept till the evil wish was
removed, and then to be restored to the owner. The period fixed for the
opening of the mysterious bags, in which these articles were deposited,
had arrived, when one day a person brought a fruit-pie to the young
woman, telling her that her sweetheart had sent it. This pie she tasted,
and let a fellow-servant partake with her, but though very nice in
appearance, the taste was hot and offensive; they in consequence
desisted from eating it, and the young woman took it down to Mary
Bateman to ask her opinion. Mary affected that she knew nothing herself
of such things, but she would send it to the sagacious Miss Blythe.
This, as the simple girl supposed, was done, and Miss Blythe informed
her that it was very well she had not eaten much of the pie, for if she
had, it would have been her last, as it was "full of poison!" Soon after
the girl opened the bags, and found that her guineas had turned to
copper and her clothes to old rags!
In the year 1807, Bateman, who, owing to the conduct of Mary, never
remained long in one place, removed into Meadow Lane. While living in
this situation a very extraordinary circumstance occurred, and it is not
improbable that Mary was in some way privy to the transaction. A man of
the name of Joseph Gosling, a cloth-dresser, had been long out of
employ, and his family, which consisted of a wife and four children, was
reduced to great extremity. One day the whole of the family had been out
for some time, when one of the children, a boy about seven years of age,
returned, and found on the table a small cake; the mother and other
children soon after returned, and partook of this cake. They immediately
became so sick as to render medical aid necessary. Mr. Atkinson, the
surgeon, was then sent for, and by administering emetics saved the lives
of the family. On analysing the cake it was found to contain a large
quantity of arsenic. It is impossible to say why or by whom this
poisonous bread was placed in the situation in which the boy found it,
and the only reason why it is supposed to have been placed there by Mary
Bateman is the knowledge that poisonous drugs were much in use by her,
that human life was in her estimation of little value; and that the
cries or tricks of the children may have inconvenienced her.
In the month of April, 1807, Judith Cryer, a poor old washerwoman, and a
widow, was occasioned uneasiness by the misconduct of her grandson, a
boy about eleven years of age. Winifred Bond, a person who had some
dealings with Mary Bateman, either as her dupe or her agent, recommended
the old woman to apply to Mary, as a person who could remove the cause
of her distress. Judith consented to consult her; Mary soon found out
the foible of the poor woman. An inordinate fear about the future fate
of this darling grandson was the spring in Judith's mind on which the
witch found she could play with success. She recommended that an
application should be made to Miss Blythe, a lady of her acquaintance,
who she said lived at Scarboro', but who, in fact, had no more real
existence than the invisible Mrs. Moore. She then undertook to write to
her dear friend. In a few days an answer was received from this lady,
which shocked Judith beyond description. The letter contained the
representation of a gallows, with a rope dangling from it. The letter
also stated that the grandson would be executed before he attained the
age of fourteen years, unless the catastrophe was prevented by the old
woman raising four guineas, and applying them as Miss Blythe should
direct. To raise such a sum seemed as impossible to poor Judith as to
pay the National Debt. At last, however, she contrived to scrape it
together with the utmost difficulty. When raised, it was, as Mary
pretended, to remain unapplied till she received further instructions
from Miss Blythe. The instructions at length arrived, and ordered that
three guineas should be put into a leathern bag, and sewed up in
Judith's bed, where they were to remain untouched till the boy had
attained the age of fourteen. The former part of these directions were,
as far as concerned Judith, faithfully complied with--Mary, as she
thought, deposited the money as directed; but when the witch was
afterwards apprehended, Judith opened her bed, took out the bag, and
found it empty.
Mary having embraced the faith of the followers of Joanna Southcote,
got introduced to the houses of many of them, and invariably robbed
them: sometimes by practising on their fears, and at others by absolute
theft.
In the year 1808, Bateman's family removed to Camp Field, in Water Lane,
and there Mary met with a new and profitable subject for the exercise of
her villainous arts. The wife of James Snowden, a neighbour, had a sort
of presentiment that one of her children would be drowned; but whether
this notion proceeded from morbid fancies originating in her own mind,
or was suggested to her by Mary Bateman, is not known. Mary Bateman
offered her services, or rather the services of Miss Blythe, to save the
child from a watery grave. Miss Blythe was then represented as living at
Thirsk, and a letter was received from her, directing that James
Snowden's silver watch should be sewed up in the bed by Mary Bateman.
This was accordingly done.
Next, money to the amount of twelve guineas was required. Letters were
received from Miss Blythe, directing that this money should also be sewn
up in the bed, to be restored when the charm had taken effect.
By-and-bye it was found necessary to increase the terrors, and in
addition to the death of the son, Miss Blythe suggested that ill would
befall the daughter, unless the family left Leeds, and removed to
Bowling, near Bradford. The bed containing the charms they were allowed
to take with them, but it was thought expedient to leave a considerable
portion of their property in the house, and deposit the key with
Bateman.
At length they expressed a wish to be allowed to rip open the bed and
take out the watch and money, but the proper time, they were told, had
not yet arrived; and before the property was taken out, the family of
Snowden was to take a DOSE, which was at that time in preparation for
them, and was to have been administered about the end of October, 1808.
Happily for them this dose was never taken.
At this juncture, so critical to the family in question, Mary Bateman
was apprehended for the frauds committed on William Perigo's family, and
the wilful murder of Perigo's wife, by administering poison, of which
she had died nearly two years before. This event naturally created a
good deal of interest, and a narrative of the transaction was published
in the _Leeds Mercury_ of the 22nd of October. On the evening of that
day Snowden was sitting in a public-house at Bradford when the _Mercury_
was produced, and the narrative read by some person in the company.
Snowden heard the relation with violent emotion, and as soon as it was
finished, started from his chair and hurried home with all possible
expedition. His first care was to give his wife a hasty and confused
notion of the imposition that had been practised upon them, and next to
unrip the folds of the bed; when, instead of watch and money, he
discovered--a coal! He then went to Leeds, and found his house, which he
had left in the care of Mary Bateman, plundered of almost everything it
had contained, and on a search-warrant being procured, part of the
property was found in Bateman's house.
John Bateman, the husband, was in consequence apprehended and committed
to prison, to take his trial for the offence, either as a principal or
as an accomplice. At the following Sessions his trial came on, and he
was acquitted.
A brother of Mary Bateman, who had deserted from his Majesty's navy, had
come with his wife to live in Leeds, and lodged with Bateman. Mary
finding that her lodgers were a restraint upon her, determined to be
quit of them. For this purpose she wrote, or procured to be written, a
letter to her sister-in-law, stating that her father was on the point
of death, and summoning her to attend to receive his last blessing. The
affectionate daughter answered the summons instantly, but when she
arrived at Newcastle, where her father lived, she found him in perfect
health. In the absence of his wife, Mary contrived to persuade her
brother that she was inconstant, and was plunging him into debt, and so
far succeeded as to induce him to write to his wife and tell her she
need not return, for he would not receive her. She did, however, return,
and convinced him of her innocence; when on examining their trunks it
was discovered that Mary had, in the wife's absence, stolen their
clothes, and disposed of them for what they would bring. This, as might
be expected, roused the brother's indignation; but Mary soon got him out
of the way, for she actually went before the magistrates and lodged an
information against him as a deserter. He was in consequence obliged to
quit Leeds, and afterwards entered military service. This did not,
however, content Mary. She wrote to his mother, and told her that her
son had been apprehended as a deserter, and that if she could send £10,
a substitute was ready to go, and would be accepted in his stead. The
ten pounds were sent, and Mary pocketed the money.
On the 21st of October, 1808, Mary Bateman was apprehended by the Chief
Constable of Leeds on a charge of fraud, and was, after undergoing
several long examinations before the magistrates of the borough,
committed to York Castle on suspicion of the wilful murder of Rebecca
Perigo, of Bramley.
A poor family of the name of Perigo, living at Bramley, near Leeds, had
been defrauded by Mary Bateman of money to the amount of nearly £70, and
of clothes and furniture to a considerable amount. These frauds were
committed under the pretence of engaging Miss Blythe to relieve Mrs.
Perigo from the effects of an "evil wish" under which she was supposed
to labour. The money was all represented as sewn up in the bed, and was
to be at the disposal of the Perigos when the spell was broken. But when
the appointed time for restoring the property approached, Mary Bateman
conveyed poison to Perigo and his wife in their food. The woman died,
but providentially Perigo recovered, and was able to bring the poisoner
to justice.
It is unnecessary to give the particulars of the series of extortions
committed on the Perigos. When nothing more could be extracted from the
unfortunate people, and Mary saw that the time was come when she must
refund or be exposed, the following letter reached her victims,
purporting to come from Miss Blythe:--
"My Dear Friends,--
"I am sorry to tell you you will take an illness in the month of
May next, either one or both, but I think both; but the work of God
must have its course. You will escape the chambers of the grave;
though you seem to be dead, yet you will live. Your wife must take
half a pound of honey down from Bramley to Mary Bateman's at Leeds,
and it must remain there till you go down yourself, and she will
put in such like stuff as I have sent from Scarboro' to her, and
she will put it in when you come down and see her yourself, or it
will not do. You must eat pudding for six days, and you must put in
such like stuff as I have sent to Mary Bateman from Scarboro', and
she will give your wife it, but you must not begin to eat of this
pudding while I let you know. If ever you find yourselves sickly at
any time, you must take each of you a teaspoonful of this honey. I
will remit £20 to you on the 20th day of May, and it will pay a
little of what you owe. You must bring this down to Mary
Bateman's, and burn it at her house when you come down the next
time."
The rest shall be told by Perigo himself, as given in his evidence at
the trial.
Pursuant to the directions in this letter, witness stated that his wife
took the honey to Mary Bateman's; that when she returned she brought six
powders with her. The witness went to Mary Bateman's house, and talked
to her about the letter he had received, and said it was a queerish
thing that Miss Blythe should be able to foresee that they should be
ill. Mary explained that she (Miss Blythe) knew everything relating to
them, and that if they followed her directions all would be well. Mary
also told him that they were to do with the powders each day as they
were marked, or it would kill them all. Mrs. Bateman then mixed a powder
in the honey in his presence, and he took the honey home. On the 5th of
May witness received another letter from Miss Blythe, but after reading
it over one or twice, and copying a few lines from it, he destroyed it.
He said the copy he had taken was also destroyed. The witness was then
desired to state the contents of this letter, which he recited, as he
did all the letters that had been destroyed, from memory, as follows:--
"My Dear Friends,--
"You must begin to eat pudding on the 11th of May, and you must put
one of the powders in every day as they are marked, for six days;
and you must see it put in yourself every day, or else it will not
do. If you find yourself sickly at any time, you must not have no
doctor, for it will not do, and you must not let the boy that used
to eat with you eat of that pudding for six days; and you must
make only just as much as you can eat yourselves; if there is any
left it will not do. You must keep the door fast as much as
possible, or you will be overcome by some enemy. Now think on and
take my directions, or else it will kill us all. About the 25th of
May I will come to Leeds, and send for your wife to Mary Bateman's.
Your wife will take me by the hand, and say, 'God bless you that I
ever found you out.' It has pleased God to send me into the world
that I might destroy the works of darkness. I call them the works
of darkness because they are dark to you. Now, mind what I say,
whatever you do. This letter must be burnt in straw on the hearth
by your wife."
The witness proceeded to state that in consequence of these directions,
on the 11th of May (Monday) they began to eat of the pudding, a powder
being put in each day as marked on the paper, and that they found no
particular taste in the pudding for five days. And that on Saturday the
witness was coming to Leeds without seeing the powder put in, when his
wife reminded him that it was necessary he should see it put in. Witness
said his wife had made the pudding earlier than usual for that purpose.
Witness saw the powder put in, which was four or five times larger than
any of the other powders. On his return from Leeds, about twenty minutes
after twelve o'clock, his wife had prepared a small cake from some of
the dough which was left after making the pudding; this she broke in two
pieces, and he ate one of them. Witness said the cake tasted very keen,
and observed to his wife if the pudding tasted as bad he would not eat
it. When the pudding was ready he ate a single mouthful, but it was so
nauseous that he could eat no more of it; his wife, however, swallowed
three or four mouthfuls, but was unable to eat more, and she carried the
pudding into the cellar, and was there seized with the most violent
vomitings. His wife said this was the illness predicted by Miss Blythe,
and they should take the honey. Witness took two spoonfuls of it, and
his wife took six or seven. This made them worse than before. The
vomiting continued incessantly for twenty-four hours. His wife would not
hear of a doctor being sent for, as that was contrary to Miss Blythe's
directions, who had assured them that their sickness should not be unto
death, and though they might seem to be dead, yet should they live, for
that she was sent to destroy the works of darkness. Witness said a
violent heat came out of his mouth, which was very sore, that his lips
were black, and that he had a most violent pain in his head, twenty
times worse than a common headache; everything appeared green to him.
Witness had also a violent complaint in his bowels; he could eat nothing
for several days, and began to get better only by hairbreadths. The
witness then proceeded to detail the symptoms of his wife, which were
similar to his own, only more violent. Her tongue swelled so that she
could not shut her mouth, she was constantly thirsty, entirely lost her
strength, and expired on Sunday, the 24th of May. Before she died he
sent for Mr. Chorley, a surgeon from Leeds, but as she died before his
arrival, a messenger was sent to acquaint him with this circumstance,
and therefore he did not come. His wife before she died made him promise
not to be rash with Mary Bateman, but to wait the appointed time.
Witness himself went to Mr. Chorley on the day after the death of his
wife. Mr. Chorley having examined him and heard his account of the
symptoms, expressed his opinion that he had received poison into his
stomach. Witness said that his wife was perfectly well immediately
before eating of the pudding on Saturday. By the directions of Mr.
Chorley, a paste was made of the flour of which their pudding had been
made and given to a fowl; but it received no injury, and the witness
said it was alive to this day. A part of the fatal pudding was also
given to a cat, which it poisoned, but the result of this experiment was
detailed by another witness.
Witness now went into a detail of transactions subsequent to the death
of his wife. In the month of June, a short time after that event, the
witness went to the prisoner's house, and acquainted her with the death
of his wife, and told her he was sorry they had not sent for a doctor
when they were sick, but that they had acted according to the directions
of the letter. Mary Bateman said, "Perhaps you did not lick up all the
honey as directed in the letter;" and I said, "No; I am afraid it is
that honey that has done our job."
About the beginning of June, Perigo received a letter to the following
effect, purporting to be from Miss Blythe:--
"My Dear Friend,--
"I am sorry to tell you that your wife should touch of those things
which I ordered her not, and for that reason it has caused her
death. It had likened to have killed me at Scarboro' and Mary
Bateman at Leeds, and you and all; and for this reason she will
rise from the grave, she will stroke your face with her right hand,
and you will lose the use of one side, but I will pray for you. I
would not have you to go to no doctor, for it will not do. I would
have you eat and drink what you like, and you will be better. Now,
my dear friend, take my directions, do, and it will be better for
you. Pray God bless you. Amen, amen. You must burn this letter
immediately after it is read."
Soon after this, witness was ordered by Mr. Chorley to Buxton, and
having on his return called on the poisoner, she expressed her surprise
that he should have gone to a doctor contrary to Miss Blythe's command,
and said that had she known he had been going to Buxton, she would have
given him a bottle that would have cured him on the road.
William Perigo proceeded to relate that on the 19th of October, 1808, he
unripped the bed in which all the bags were sewn up, and having opened
the whole of them, he found no money whatever. In the bags in which he
expected to find guinea-notes, he found only waste paper, and where he
expected to find gold, he found only a halfpenny or a farthing. But the
four silk bags in which he saw four guinea-notes put, he could not find
at all, nor could he give any account as to how or where they were gone.
Upon making this discovery the witness went to Leeds, and saw Mary
Bateman, and said to her, "I am sorry to think you should use me in this
manner;" to which she replied, "How?" He then said, "I have opened the
bags, and there is nothing in them but bits of lead, plain paper, bad
halfpennies, and bad farthings." At which she did not seem at all
surprised, but said, "You have opened them too soon." He answered, "I
think it is too late." He then said he would come down to her house in
the morning with two or three men and have things settled. The prisoner
begged that he would not, and said if he would appoint a time and place
to meet her alone, she would satisfy him. To this the witness consented,
and the Leeds and Liverpool canal bank, near the bridge, was fixed as
the place of meeting.
The officers of justice arrested Mary Bateman at this meeting.
The trial was conducted at York before Sir Simon Le Blanc on the 17th
March, 1809; she was found guilty, and condemned to death.
During the brief interval between her receiving the sentence of death
and her execution, the Rev. George Brown took great pains to prevail
upon her to acknowledge and confess her crime. On his touching upon the
subject of the Quaker ladies, whose death had been so sudden and
mysterious, she seemed perfectly to understand his meaning, but said
that she knew nothing about it, as at the time she was confined in
childbirth.
Though the prisoner behaved with her usual decorum during the time that
remained to her, and joined with apparent fervour in the customary
offices of devotion, she exhibited no compunction for crimes of which
she would not acknowledge herself to be guilty. She maintained her
caution and mystery to the last. On the day preceding her execution she
wrote a letter to her husband, in which she enclosed her wedding-ring,
with a request that it might be given to her daughter. In this letter
she lamented the disgrace she had brought upon her husband and family,
but declared her entire innocence of the crime laid to her charge, and
for which she was about to suffer, though she acknowledged--what,
indeed, she could not deny to her husband--that she had been guilty of
several frauds. "I have made my peace with my God, and am easy in mind.
To-morrow will end all here, and the Lord will care for me hereafter."
It will hardly be credited, though it is a certain fact, that this
unhappy woman was so addicted to fraud that even then she was incapable
of refraining from her trickery and deception. A young female prisoner
had, in her presence, expressed a wish to see her sweetheart. Mary
Bateman took her aside, and said that if she could procure a sum of
money to be made into a charm, and sewed into her stays, the young man
would be compelled to visit her. The simple girl complied, and Mary
Bateman having prepared a potent spell, it was bound round the breast
of the young woman. No sweetheart made his appearance, and the girl's
confidence beginning to waver, she unbound the charm to take out her
money, and found that it had vanished.
The circumstance having been reported to the Governor of York Castle,
where Mary Bateman and the girl were confined, part of the spoil was
refunded, and Mary Bateman directed to balance the account by giving to
the dupe some of her clothes. Exhortations and remonstrances failed to
move her to confess her crimes. At five o'clock on the morning of
Monday, March 20th, 1809, she was removed from her cell and from her
infant child, which lay sleeping on the bed, unconscious of the fate of
its wretched mother. She stopped and kissed it for the last time, but
without showing any emotion at having to leave it for ever. Every
possible effort, every religious influence was brought to bear on her to
make her confess, but in vain. At twelve o'clock she was led forth to
execution. On the scaffold she again denied her guilt, and with this
denial on her lips was launched into eternity.
Her body was taken to the General Infirmary at Leeds. Though the hearse
did not reach Leeds till midnight, it was met by a considerable number
of people who were waiting for it. At the Infirmary her body was
exhibited at the charge of 3d. a head to visitors for the benefit of the
institution. At this rate 2500 individuals were admitted, and upwards of
£30 was realised. Her body was afterwards dissected, and in compliance
with a favourite Yorkshire custom, her skin was tanned and distributed
in small pieces to various applicants.
THE END.
_Printed by Cowan & Co., Limited, Perth._
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Strange Events, by S. Baring-Gould
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