HERTFORDSHIRE.

They who buy a house in Hertfordshire,
Pay three years' purchase for the air.

KENT.

Sutton for mutton,
Kirkby for beef,

South Darne for gingerbread,

Dartford for a thief.

When England wrings

Thanet sings.

English lord, German count, and French marquis,
A yeomen of Kent is worth them all three.

Deal, Dover, and Harwich,

The Devil gave his daughter in marriage;
And, by a codicil to his will,

He added Helvoet and the Brill.

LANCASHIRE.

Proud Preston,

Poor people,

High church,

And low steeple.

If Liverpool's Good Mayor should ever be,
Made father in his year of mayoraltee;
Then shall be given, by the townmen free,
A silver cradle for his fair ladye.*

LEICESTERSHIRE.

Mountsorrel he mounted at,

Rodelyt he rode by,

Onelept he leaped o'er,

At Birstall he burst his gall,

And Belgrave he was buried at.

LINCOLN.

York was, London is, but Lincoln shall be
The greatest city of all the three.

Though Boston be a proud town,
Skirbeck compasseth it round.

Well is the man

"Twixt Trent and Witham.

*Mr. Thomas Littledale, the Mavor in 1852, was the last who received the present connected with this legendary custom.

+ Now Rothley.

Now Wanlip.

Northap rise and Grayingham fall,
Kirton yet shall be greater than all.

Luddington poor people,

Built a brick church to a stone steeple.

NORFOLK.

Gimmingham and Tremmingham,
Knapton and Trunch,
North'repps and South'repps,
Lie all in a bunch.

NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.

Dodington dovecot, Wilby hen,

Irthlingborough ploughboys, and Wellingborough men.

NORTHUMBERLAND,

Rothbury for goats' milk,

And the Cheviots for mutton;
Cheswick for its cheese and bread,
And Tynemouth for a glutton.

Harnham was headless, Bradford breadless,

And Shaftoe pick'd at the craw;
Capheaton was a wee bonny place,
But Wallington bang'd them a.

NOTTINGHAMSHIRE.

Eaton and Taton, and Bramcote o' th' hill,
Beggarly Beeston, and lousy Chilwell;
Waterside Wilford, hey little Lenton!
Oh, fine Nottingham! Colwich and Snenton.

OXFORDSHIRE.

Stow on the Wold (Would)
Where the wind blows cold.

SOMERSETSHIRE.

Sutton Long, Sutton Long,

At every door a lump of dung:

Some two; some three;

It's the dirtiest place that ever you see.

STAFFORDSHIRE.

Wotton under Weaver,

Where God came never;

Being very lonely and out of the way.

Stanton on the stones,

Where the Devil broke his bones.

SURREY.

Sutton for good mutton,
Cheam for juicy beef;
Croydon for a pretty girl,

And Mitcham for a thief.

WARWICKSHIRE.

Piping Tebworth, Dancing Marston,
Haunted Hillbro', Hungry Crafton,
Dudging Exhall, Papist Wicksford,
Beggarly Broom, and Drunken Bedford.

WESTMINSTER ABBEY. SCONE STONE.

Except old saws be vain,

And wits of wizards blind,

The Scots in place must reign

Where they this stone shall find.

YORKSHIRE.

There are three little villages on the Yorkshire bank of the Humber, called High Paul, Low Paul, and Old Paul Town. Upon these three there exists the following couplet :

High Paul, and Low Paul, and old Paul Town,
There is ne'er a maid married in all Paul Town.

The explanation is, that the church lies at about half a mile's distance from the three villages.

Pendle, Ingleborough, and Penigent,

Are the three highest hills between Scotland and Trent.

Or, which is more common among the poor :

Pendle, Penigent, and Ingleborough,

Are the three highest hills all England thorough.

If Brayton-bargh, and Hambleton-hough, and Burton-bream,
Were all in thy belly, it would never be team [full].

When Rosberry Toppinge wears a cap,
Let Cleveland then beware of clap.

When Dighton is pull'd down,

Hull shall become a greater down.

Cleveland in the clay,

Bring in two soles, and carries one away.

When Sheffield-park is plough'd and sown,

Then little England hold thine own.

MISCELLANEOUS COUNTIES.

Cornwall squab-pie, and Devon whitepot brings,
And Leicester beans and bacon, fit for kings.

Ramsey, the rich of gold and of fee;
Thorney, the flower of the fen country.
Crowland, so courteous of meat and of drink;
Peterborough the proud, as all men do think.
And Sawtrey, by the way, that old abbaye
Gave more alms in one day than all they.

WITCHCRAFT, SUPERSTITION, SURGERY, CRANIOLOGY,
CLASSICAL TERMS, &c.

WITCHES AND WITCHCRAFT.

Magic was formerly studied by most persons. It was employed in ligatures to cure diseases; and the Visigoths used to steal the Sarcophagi of the dead for this purpose. But the application of magic was endless. There were two kinds which obtained notice in this country: one, that of scientific sorcery, derived from the Arabians in Spain, and consisting of judicial astrology, divination by horoscopes, cups, glasses, mirrors, swords, &c.; and the other, witchcraft of northern origin, implying direct communication with fiends. Augury formed part of the science of our AngloSaxon witches; and it is expressly denominated the old augury. The Sabbath of Witches was supposed to be a nocturnal assembly on a Saturday, in which the devil was said to appear in the shape of a goat, about whom they made several dances, and performed magical ceremonies. They had their caldrons, into which they cast various ingredients, at the same time telling and making hideous noises:

"Round about the caldron go;
In the poison'd entrails throw,—
Toad that under the cold stone,
Days and nights has thirty-one,
Swelter'd venom, sleeping got,

Boil thou first i' the charmed pot!"

In order to prepare themselves for this meeting, they took several soporific drugs; after which they were fancied to fly up the chimney, and to be spirited and carried through the air, riding on a switch, to their Sabbath assemblies. The property of conveyance was communicated to broomsticks, by rubbing them with a peculiar ointment. A cat,

("Thrice the brinded cat hath mewed,")

an animal highly revered by the Egyptians and Romans, was a sine qua non, and Knighton mentions persons accused of keeping devils in the shape of cats. They had particular instruments which they used in their arts, in cure of the headache, &c. The Anglo-Saxon witches practised the ancient augury; they even retained the ancient art of divination, by cutting up victims.

We find, that if a lover could not obtain his fair object, he caused her to be bewitched; that witches were brought out to enchant the engines of besiegers; that favour was supposed to be granted by witchcraft; that the practice was firmly supposed to be the cause of extraordinary actions, and made the subject of accusation from malice. In fact, the clergy made it a means of intimidating and governing the laity, in the manner of the Inquisition, by charging enemies with it, and so excommunicating them, and endangering their lives and property.

We see horseshoes, owls, hawks, &c., nailed on doors. This was one Roman method of preventing witchcraft. Brand mentions various other modes. The trial by immersion was an abuse of the cold water system. The right hand was tied to the left foot, and the left hand to the right foot. If they swam, they were strongly suspected, and exposed to the stronger trial. It would be utterly impossible, in a limited work like this, to give the contents of the two large quartos forming the "Popular Antiquities;" this article, therefore, with some particular superstitions which will follow it, must suffice.

DEATH WATCH.

Among the popular superstitions, which the illumination of modern times has not been able to obliterate, the dread of the Death-watch may be considered as one of the most predominant, and still continues to disturb the habitations of rural tranquillity with absurd apprehensions. It is chiefly in the advanced state of spring that this little animal (for it is nothing more) commences its rounds, which is no other than the call or signal by which the male and female are led to each other, and which may be considered as analogous to the call of birds, though not owing to the voice of the insect, but to its beating on any hard substance with the shield or forepart of its head. The prevailing number of distinct strokes which it beats is from seven to nine, or eleven, which very circumstance may still add in some degree to the ominous character it bears among the vulgar. These sounds or beats, which are given in pretty quick succession, are repeated at uncertain intervals, and in old houses, where the insects are numerous, may be heard almost at any hour of the day, especially if the weather be warm.

The insect is so nearly of the colour resembling decayed wood, that it may for a considerable time elude the search of an