England in the Days of Old Part 8

Bewdley was famous for its ringers and singers, and its town crier was a man of note. An old couplet says:

"For ringers, singers, and a crier Bewdley excelled all Worcesters.h.i.+re."

In Lancas.h.i.+re was heard the following, proclaimed in the towns and villages:

"Get up old wives, And bake your pies, 'Tis Christmas-day in the morning; The bells shall ring, The birds shall sing, 'Tis Christmas-day in the morning."

At Morley, near Leeds, a man was formerly paid for blowing a horn at 5 a.m. to make known the time for commencing, and at 8 p.m. the hour for giving up work. His blast was heard daily except on Sundays. On Christmas-day morning he blew his horn and sang:

"Dames arise and bake your pies, And let your maids lie still; For they have risen all the year, Sore against their will."

The Turnspit.

One of the most menial positions in an ancient feudal household was that of turnspit. A person too old or too young for more important duties usually performed the work. John Lydgate, the monk of Bury, who was born in 1375, and died in 1460, gives us a picture of the turnspit as follows:--

"His mouth wel wet, his sleeves right thredbare, A turnbroche, a boy for hagge of ware, With louring face noddynge and slumberyng."

Says Aubrey that these servants "did lick the dripping for their pains."

In the reign of Edward III., the manor of Finchingfield was held by Sir John Compes, by the service of turning the spit at His Majesty's coronation. This certainly appears a humble position for a knight to fill in "the gallant days of chivalry."

The spits or "broches" were often made of silver, and were usually carried to the table with the fish, fowl, or joint roasted upon them.

The humble turnspit was not overlooked by the guests in the days of old, when largess was bestowed. We gather from "Howard's Household Book" that Lord Howard gave four old turnspits a penny each. When Mary Tudor dined at Havering, she rewarded the turnbroches with sixteen-pence.

Dogs as well as men performed the task of turning the spit from an early period, and old-time literature includes many references to the subject.

Doctor Caius, the founder of the college at Cambridge bearing his name, is the earliest English writer on the dog. "There is," wrote Caius, "comprehended under the curs of the coa.r.s.est kind, a certain dog in kitchen service excellent. For when any meat is to be roasted they go into a wheel, where they, turning about with the weight of their bodies, so diligently look to their business, that no drudge nor scullion can do the feat more cunningly, whom the popular sort hereupon term turnspits."

We have seen several pictures of dogs turning the spit, and an interesting example appears in a work ent.i.tled "Remarks on a Tour in North and South Wales," published in 1800. The dog is engaged in his by no means pleasant work. "Newcastle, near Carmarthen," says the author, "is a pleasant village. At a decent inn here a dog is employed as turnspit. Great care is taken that this animal does not observe the cook approach the larder; if he does, he immediately hides himself for the remainder of the day, and the guest must be contented with more humble fare than intended."

Mr. Jesse, a popular writer on rural subjects, was a keen observer of old-time customs and inst.i.tutions, and the best account of the turnspit that has come under our notice is from his pen. "How well do I remember, in the days of my youth," says Mr. Jesse, "watching the operations of a turnspit at the house of a worthy old Welsh clergyman in Worcesters.h.i.+re, who taught me to read. He was a good man, wore a bushy wig, black worsted stockings, and large plaited buckles in his shoes. As he had several boarders as well as day scholars, his two turnspits had plenty to do. They were long-bodied, crook-legged, and ugly dogs, with a suspicious, unhappy look about them, as if they were weary of the task they had to do, and expected every moment to be seized upon to do it. Cooks in those days, as they are said to be at present, were very cross, and if the poor animal, wearied with having a larger joint than usual to turn, stopped for a moment, the voice of the cook might be heard rating him in no very gentle terms. When we consider that a large, solid piece of beef would take at least three hours before it was properly roasted, we may form some idea of the task a dog had to perform in turning a wheel during that time. A pointer has pleasure in finding game, the terrior worries rats with eagerness and delight, and the bull-dog even attacks bulls with the greatest energy, while the poor turnspit performs his task with compulsion, like a culprit on a treadmill, subject to scolding or beating if he stops a moment to rest his weary limbs, and is then kicked about the kitchen when the task is over."

The mode of teaching the dog its duties is described in a book of anecdotes published at Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1809. It was more summary than humane. The dog was put in the wheel, and a burning coal with him; he could not stop without burning his legs, and so was kept upon the full gallop. These dogs were by no means fond of their profession. It was indeed hard work to run in a wheel for two or three hours, turning a piece of meat twice their own weight.

In the same work two more anecdotes bearing on this theme also find a place, and are worth reproducing. "Some years ago," we are told, "a party of young men, at Bath, hired the chairmen on a Sat.u.r.day night to steal all the turnspits in the town, and lock them up till the following evening.

Accordingly, on Sunday, when everybody has roast meat for dinner, all the cooks were to be seen in the streets, 'Pray have you seen our Chloe?' asks one. 'Why,' replies the other, 'I was coming to ask if you had seen our Pompey.' Up came a third, while they were talking, to inquire for her Toby. And there was no roast meat in Bath that day. It is told of these dogs in this city, that one Sunday, when they had as usual followed their mistresses to church, the lesson for the day happened to be that chapter in Ezekiel, wherein the self-moving chariots are described. When first the word wheel was p.r.o.nounced, all the curs p.r.i.c.ked up their ears in alarm; at the second wheel they set up a doleful howl. When the dreadful word was uttered a third time, every one of them scampered out of church, as fast as he could, with his tail between his legs."

Allusions to this subject may be found in some of the poets of the olden time, more especially in those of a political character. Pitt, in his _Art of Preaching_, has the following on a man who speaks much, but to little purpose:--

"His arguments in silly circles run, Still round and round, and end where they begun.

So the poor turnspit, as the wheel runs round, The more he gains, the more he loses ground."

A Gossip about the Goose.

The goose figures largely in the history, the legends, and the proverbial lore of our own and other lands. In ancient Egypt it was an object of adoration in the temple and an article of diet on the table. The Egyptians mainly took beef and goose flesh as their animal food, and it has been suggested that they expected to obtain physical power from the beef and mental vigour from the goose. To support this theory, it has been shown that other nations have eaten the flesh of wolves and drunk the blood of lions, hoping thereby to become fierce and courageous. Some other nations have refused to partake of the hare and the deer on account of the timidity of these animals, fearing lest by eating their flesh they should also partake of their characteristic fearfulness and timidity.

Pliny thought very highly of the goose, saying "that one might almost be tempted to think these creatures have an appreciation of wisdom, for it is said that one of them was a constant companion of the peripatetic philosopher Lacydes, and would never leave him, either in public or when at the bath, by night or by day."

The cackling of the goose saved Rome. According to a very old story, the guards of the city were asleep, and the enemy taking advantage of this, were making their way through a weak part of the fortifications, expecting to take the city by surprise. The wakeful geese hearing them, at once commenced cackling, and their noise awoke the Romans, who soon made short work of their foes. This circ.u.mstance greatly increased the grat.i.tude of the Roman citizens for the goose.

We gather from the quaint words of an old chronicler a probable solution of the familiar phrase, "To cook one's goose." "The kyng of Swedland"--so runs the ancient record--"coming to a towne of his enemyes with very little company, his enemyes, to slyghte his forces, did hang out a goose for him to shoote; but perceiving before nyghte that these fewe soldiers had invaded and sette their chief houlds on fire, they demanded of him what his intent was, to whom he replyed, 'To cook your goose'."

In the days when the bow and arrow were the chief weapons of warfare, it was customary for the sheriffs of the counties where geese were reared to gather sufficient quant.i.ties of feathers to wing the arrows of the English army. Some of the old ballads contain references to winging the arrow with goose feathers. A familiar instance is the following:

"'Bend all your bows,' said Robin Hood; 'And with the gray goose wing, Such sport now show as you would do In the presence of the king'."

To check the exportation of feathers, a heavy export duty was put upon them.

The goose frequently figures in English tenures. In a poem by Gascoigne, published in 1575, there is an allusion to rent-day gifts, which appear to have been general in the olden time:

"And when the tenants come to pay their quarter's rent, They bring some fowle at Midsummer, a dish of fish in Lent, At Christma.s.se a capon, and at Michaelma.s.se a goose."

A strange manorial custom was kept up at Hilton in the days of Charles II.

An image of bra.s.s, known as Jack of Hilton, was kept there. "In the mouth," we are told, "was a little hole just large enough to admit the head of a pin; water was poured in by a hole in the back, which was afterwards stopped up." The figure was then set on the fire; and during the time it was blowing off steam, the lord of the manor of Essington was obliged to bring a goose to Hilton and drive it three times round the hall-fire. He next delivered the goose to the cook; and when dressed, he carried it to the table and received in return a dish of meat for his own mess.

In bygone times, Lincolns.h.i.+re was a great place for breeding geese; and its extensive bogs, marshes, and swamps were well adopted for the purpose.

The drainage and cultivation of the land have done away with the haunts suitable for the goose; but in a great measure Lincolns.h.i.+re has lost its reputation for its geese. Frequently in the time when geese were largely bred, one farmer would have a thousand breeding-geese, and they would multiply some sevenfold every year, so that he would have under his care annually, some eight thousand geese. He had to be careful that they did not wander from the particular district where they had a right to allow them to feed, for they were regarded as trespa.s.sers, and the owner could not get stray geese back unless he paid a fine of twopence for each offender.

Within the last fifty years it was a common occurrence to see on sale in the market-place at Nottingham at the Goose Fair from fifteen to twenty thousand geese, which had been brought from the fens of Lincolns.h.i.+re. A street on the Lincolns.h.i.+re side of the town is called Goosegate.

The origin of the custom of eating a goose at Michaelmas is lost in the shadows of the dim historic past. According to one legend, Saint Martin was tormented with a goose, which he killed and ate. He died after eating it; and ever since, Christians have, as a matter of duty, on the saint's day sacrificed the goose. We have seen from the preceding quotation from Gascoigne that the goose formed a popular Michaelmas dish from an early period.

It is a common saying, "The older the goose the harder to pluck," when old men are unwilling to part with their money. The barbarous practice of plucking live geese for the sake of their quills gave rise to the saying.

It was usual to pluck live geese about five times a year. Quills for pens were much in request before the introduction of steel pens. One London house, it is stated, sold annually six million quill pens. A professional pen-cutter could turn out about twelve hundred daily.

Considerable economy was exercised in the use of quill pens. Leo Allatius, after writing forty years with one pen, lost it, and it is said he mourned for it as for a friend. William Hutton wrote the history of his family with one pen, which he wore down to the stump. He put it aside, accompanied by the following lines:

THIS PEN.

"As a choice relic I'll keep thee, Who saved my ancestors and me.

For seven long weeks you daily wrought Till into light our lives you brought, And every falsehood you avoided While by the hand of Hutton guided."

June 3, 1779.

In conclusion, it may be stated that Philemon Holland, the celebrated translator, wrote one of his books with a single pen, and recorded in rhyme the feat as follows:

"With one sole pen I wrote this book, Made of a gray goose quill; A pen it was when I it took, A pen I leave it still."