Year: 1879

A writer in the Pail Hall Gazette, who
has lately been making tour of rural
England, writes of the superstitions OF
the hamlets as follows:


In most large rural parishes in Eng
| land there is at least one small hamlet
mile or two distant from the main vii
lage. A few houses and cottages stand
loosely scattered about the fields, no two
OF them together-so separated, indeed,
by hedges, meadows and copses, as hard
~ 10 be called even a hamlet. The COM
munlcation with hevillage is maintained
by long, winding, narrow lane; but
foot passengers follow shorter path
across the fields, which in winter is sure
to be ankle deep in mud by the gate-ways
and stiles. The lane at the same time
is crossed by a torrent, which may spreau
out to thirty yards wide in the hollow
shallow at tie ed ges, but swift and deep
in the middle. If you wait couple Of
hours it will subslde, as the farmers low
er down the brook pull up their matches
to let the flood pass If you are in a
hurry, you must climb up into the
| doublemound beside the lane and force
your way along it between the thorns
and stoles till you reach the channel
through which the current is rushing.
Accross that an old tree trunk will prob
ably lie, and by grasping bough as a
handraii it is possible TO get over. But
either way, by lane or footpath, you are
sure to get what the countey folk call
''watdha!t." So that in winter the
hamlet is practically isolated; for even
IN moderately good weather the
lane is an inch or two deep in finely
puddled adhesive mud It was so shad-
ed by elms and thick hedges that the
dirt requires a length of time to dry,
while the passage Of hundreds of sheep
tread and puddle it as only sheep can.
In summer the place is lovely; but then
the inhabitants are one and all busy in
the fields, and have little time for social
intercourse or for travel into the next
parish. It is ten to one if YOU knock at
a cottage door you will find it locked :
If, indeed, you get so far as that, pad
lock being often on the garden-gate. Be-
ing so isolated and apart from the cur
rent of modern life and manners, the
hamlet folks retain something of the old
fashioned way of thinking. They do
not believe their own superstitions with
the implicit credence of yore, but they
have not quite forgotten them. 1 have
known women, for instance, who serious
ly asserted that such and such ar aged
person had magic book, which con-
tanned spells and enabled her to foresee
some kinds of coming events. The in
huence OF the moon-so firm an article
OF faith among their forefathers--is not
altogether overlooked; and they watch
tor the new moon carefully. If the cres-
cent slopes it will be wet weather.
But if the horns of the cres-
cent touch, or nearly, vertical line
it stands upright--then it will be fine
Something, too, must be allowed for the
degree OF sharpness or definition of the
crescent, which reveals the state of the
atmosphere. Aud the cottage astrologer
has whole table of the quarters, aspects
and so on, and lays much stress upon the
day and the hour Of the change; indeed,
1t IS very complicated business to un-
derstand the moon. The belief in the
power OF some persons to 'srule the plan
cts" is profound; SO profound that neither
ridlcule, argument nor authority will
shake it in the minds of
the hamlet girls, and it abides by
them even when they are placed amid
the disseminating realities of town life.
When "in service" they buy dreambooks.
and consult fortune-tellers. To ''rule the