FOLKLORE of SUSSEX
In some parts of Sussex the ladybird is called Bishop Barnaby or the ladybug;
in others, fly-golding, or God Almighty's cow, by which singular name it
is also known in Spanish (Vaca de Dies). Children set the insect on a finger,
and sing:
'Bishop Bishop Barnabee, Tell me when my wedding shall be, If it be tomorrow
day,
Ope your wings and fly away.
When a Sussex damsel says "Oh! do adone," she means you to go
on;
but when she says "Adone-do, " you must leave off immediately.
"Old woman, old woman, will you go a shearing?
Speak a little louder, sir, I'm rather thick of hearing.
Oldwoman, oldwoman, shall I kiss you very sweetly?
I thank you very kindly, sir, I hear you quite completely."
(Old Sussex Rhyme)
There is a mysterious individual, one Laurence, whose influence is supposed
to produce indolence.
"Old Laurence has got hold of me" means "I have got a fit
of idleness."
"If ye've got one you can run;
If ye've got two you may goo;
But if ye've got three You must bide where you be."
(Sussex proverbial advice to a young mother)
The country people say that an adder can never die till sunset. If it
be cut to pieces, the bits will retain their vitality till the sun goes
down. They also say that on the adder's belly will be found the words -"If
I could hear as well as see No man in life could master me."
There is a superstition in the county that if a piece of black crepe is
not put around the beeskep (beehive) after a death in the family, the bees
will die. See 'Telling the Bees'
Another agricultural gem relates that "A swarm in May is worth a
load of hay; a swarm in June is worth a silver spoon; but a swarm in July
is not worth a fly, " for it is then too late for the young colony
to store up a treasure of golden honey before the flowers begin to fade
at the approach of autumn.
The ague, an unspecified complaint, is very prevalent in Sussex. In some
places it is believed that it may be cured by the following charm which,
to be efficacious, must be written on a three-cornered piece of paper and
worn around the neck until it drops off.
"Ague, ague, I thee defy, Three days shiver, Three days shake,
Make me well for Jesus' sake'."
A spider is also considered a useful insect for the cure Ofague. If taken
internally, it should be rolled up in a cobweb and swallowed like a pill.
If applied externally, it Should be placed in a nutshell and hung round
the neck in a bag of black silk. The ague generally hangs about Sussex people
a long time.
"A belief in fairies is by no means extinct in the South Down districts,"
wrote the vicar of Selmeston a hundred years ago, and he quoted a long
story he had been told most seriously, of a carter who had seen the fairies
giving corn at night to the stabled horses in his care. He had noticed how
fat they had been growing, and, "cardinley", hid one night in
the stable to try to find the cause.
"And he hadn't beent here very long, before these here liddle farisees
they crep in, at the sink hole; in they crep, one after another; liddle
tiny bits of chaps they was, and each an'em had a liddle sack of corn on
his back as much as ever he could carry....On they gets, up they clims,and
there they was, just as busy feeding these here horses; and prensley one
says to t'other, he says 'Puck: says he, 'Itwets, do you twet?' And thereupon,
this here carter he jumps up and says, 'Dannel ye,' he says, 'I'll make
ye twet afore I've done wud yel'
But afore he could get anigh 'em they was all gone, every one an'em."
Thereafter the horses went into a decline and the carter, ashamed to be
seen with the unfortunate animals, took himself off and was never seen again.
Even as late as the end of the 19th. century, some Sussex folk firmly
believed that the Devil might be seen going about his unlawful occasions,
and there were many superstitions concerning Old Nick.
One was that on Old Michaelmas Day the Devil throws his club over the
bramble bushes as he marches over the land, making the blackberries unfit
for eating. No Sussex person ever picked the berries after October 11th.
The odd Sussex saying 'as black as the Devil's nutting bag' is associated
with the superstition that it is extremely unwise to gather nuts in autumn
on a Sunday because that is when Old Nick is himself out nutting.
Oak before Ash, Sure to be a splash; Ash before oak In for a soak.
Mackerrel sky - not long dry.
Burn a Sussexman for a fool, but walk wide of his ashes!
Since William rose and Harold fell, There have been Earls of Arundell;
And Earls old Arundell shall have, While rivers flow and forests wave.
Proud Petworth; poor people: High church; crooked steeple.
The people of Fletching Live by snapping and ketching.
Essex full of good housewyfes, Middlesex full of stryves;
Kentshire hoot as fyre, Sowseks full of dirt and myre.
Oh rare Northiam, thou dost far exceed Beckley, Peasmarsh, Udimore and Brede
An inscription on a brass in Selmeston Church commemorates:
'The body of Henry Rogers, A painful preacher in this church Two and thirty
yeeres...
(in fairness to the Rev. gentleman, it should be pointed out that painful
is Sussex dialect for painstaking.)
At Lindfield:
'Long was my pain, great was my grief, Surgeons I'd many but no relief.
I trust through Christ to rise with the just: My leg and thigh was buried
first.'
Local Lore Proverbs and Epitaphy
