MARGARET BAKER: FOLKLORE AND CUSTOMS OF RURAL ENGLAND   Published 1974

This isn't a review, which needs time. Just notes I made years ago. I was prompted by James Laffrey talking of Hallowe'en, which, he says, has been corrupted by Jews from serious ancestor acknowledgement or worship.
- Looks like original research at first sight; but the large bibliography shows this isn't so.
- No index, and contents tiresomely jumbled; hence the following, which might be helpful in looking up topics of interest
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INDEX:-
[1] DOMESTIC AND CHURCH
[2] TIMES OF YEAR - festivals etc. sorted into month order
[3] MEDICAL
[4] OTHER
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[1] DOMESTIC AND CHURCH
Barns, Ricks 50
Bees At Home 72
Bell Ringing, Belfry, 'dumb' peals, 'gatherum' bell etc 164, 165
Birds: robins and wrens to be kept alive 59
Burial of dog in churchyard first, as 'devil gets first' (cp Breton story) 150
Burials: eccentric, upside down, with goods, of witches, sun direction 150-1
Cattle And Magic 34
Church House 158
Church Customs, Tithes, Tithe Dinners, Barns Etc 155
Church Bells 163
Church Charities 161
Churchyards, Burials, The Devil, Flowers 163
Church Yews 167
Cradle 133
Dairy 48
Dole Loaves 151
Fire, Hearth 62
Flowershows, Competitions; Garlands, Plants, Flowers 81, 121, 125, 141, 160
Foundation Sacrifice in Churches; in house protection 165, 54, 57
Funeral, Feast; Virgins 150, 153
Gardens, Cottage Gardens 76,81
Graves and reverence etc 148, 166
Green man, Jack in the Green 116
Harvest 25
Herbs & Beliefs About Them 79
Hiring Fairs 127
Holly 86
Horses And Magic 39
House Protection 54
Household Fairies 70
Housework, Washing 60
Iron, Magic, Reverence For; horseshoes; blacksmiths and bleeding 55, 179-180
Kitchen Lore 64
Love, Courting, Marriage 137
Magic 16
Married Life 146
Maypoles 114-115
Moons Phases And Planting 78
Morris Dancers 122
Mummers, Pace-eggers, Soul-cakers, Sword-dancers 91
Orchard 46
Ploughing 17
Posset 144
Poultry Yard 74
Punishments by villagers, 'rough music', for adulterers etc 146
Rogationtide, Walking Parish Boundaries 158
Sheep, Pigs 42
Silver, Lockerby [now Lockerbie?] water 37
Sin-Eater, who on a death takes the sins of the dead person, in grave chapter
Sowing 19
Suicides 167
Thresholds, Steps, Cleaning Steps, and Brides 145
Tomb, scrapings from stone, as sheep cure 166
Urine 80
Wakes 156-7
Walking boundaries etc
Wands, Magic 167
Weather 21
Wedding Ceremonies 137-146
Weeds 24
Wells, well dressing 159
Wife selling, straw halter etc, good points as well as bad 147
Witches wands, bottles, models, Bellarmines, pipkin, sacrifice, bones 55,115
Yew trees, preserving them, and magic Chap on graves

[2] TIMES OF YEAR
01.05, 5 Jan, Twelfth Day 96
01.06, 6 Jan, Plough Monday 96
01.07, 7 Jan, St Distaffs Day 96
02, Candlemas, St Valentine's Day, 77
03.12, 12 March, St Gregory's Day
03.17, 17 March, St Patrick's Day & Potatoes
04, Good Friday, 76, 79
04, April 113
04, Easter 77, 109
04, April, Palm Sunday And Double Plants 77
04, Lent 98
04, Mothering Sunday, Simnel Cakes 108
04, Shrove Tuesday 98
04, Collop Monday 98
05, Whitsun 122
05, May Day, Beltane 114
05, Ashendon Feast Day 77
05.29, 29 May, Royal Oak Day 124
06.21, 21 June, Midsummer; and fires 77, 124, 125
07, Feast Sunday, July 159 (More on feasts 156ff)
07, July, Hay Strewing 159
08.01, 1 Aug, Lammas, The Fairs 126
08.05, 5 Aug, St Oswalds Day 159
09, September, 159
10.31, 31 Oct, Hallowe'en 129
11, November, Saints, 129
12.21, St Thomas Day 21 Dec, Wassail 89
12.21, St Thomas Day, Winter Solstice
12.25, Christmas, Yule 83
12.26, 26 Dec St Stephens Day, Start Of Year 94

[3] MEDICAL:
Adder Bites 175
Aphrodisiac 181
Blacksmiths 179
Boils 181
Burns 172
Cobwebs 179
Coughs. Colds 175
Cures 169
Dog Bites 181
Epilepsy 173
Eye Lotions 174
Forefinger, Poison Finger 171
Foxglove 169
Goitre 182
Jaundice 180
Malaria 172
Measles, Whooping Cough 176
Moonbeams 171
Onions 171
Rheumatism, Arthritis 173
Sacramental Bread And Wine as ingredients 169
TB, Chest Diseases 178
Toothache 180
Warts 182

[4] OTHER
The Anatomy of Abuses, 1583: Puritan book sex, maypole 'stinking ydol' 114
Philosophical Transactions, 1772: whipping crops with elder twigs 80
Pennsylvania Dutch whipping peach trees Good Friday 80
Liar Competitions 117

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Uploaded 21 Nov 2021 by Rae West