290 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[Oct. 13. 1855. 



and career will be found in Harris's Edition of 

 Ware, and in McGee's Irish Writers of the Seven- 

 teenth Century. AVilliam O'Connor. 

 30. Upper Montague St., Montague Square. 



WILL O THE WISP. 



(Vol. xii., p. 167.) 



I have often seen this, although it is every day be- 

 coming more rare from the extension of drainage. 

 The first I saw was in a fenny bog called " Quy 

 Bottom," a few miles from Cambridge, on the 

 Newmarket road. I have seen them since, both 

 in-Norfolk and Suffolk. Probably W. might pro- 

 cure a sight of one if he would inquire of some 

 rustic where they most frequently occur. But 

 for this purpose he must know the vernacular 

 name in the district in which he lives. In Herts 

 they are called " hob o' lanterns," or " hobby- 

 lanterns." Along the valley of the Waveney 

 they are called " Syleham lamps," from a village 

 in Suffolk named Syleham, where formerly they 

 were common, although now destroyed by good 

 drainage. In Norfolk they are called "lantern- 

 men," and it is popularly believed that if a man 

 with a lighted lantern goes. near one, the enraged 

 " lanternraan " will knock him down and burst 

 his lantern to pieces. More than one labourer, 

 whose truthfulness I have no reason to question, 

 has assured me that such a thing has happened to 

 himself. Query, Can the lighted lantern have 

 ignited the gas, and caused an explosion, which 

 has startled the rustic and burst his lantern ? I 

 have generally seen them at the end of October 

 and beginning of November, probably because the 

 marsh vegetation is then beginning to decay. But 

 I find in my diary that I saw one on the second 

 day of March, 1844. 



I do not think that any one could be led astray 

 by a Will o' the Wisp. Its appearance is so i>e- 

 culiar, and its movements so fantastic, that I 

 cannot imagine it to be mistaken for a light in a 

 house, or a lantern carried by a man. In Norfolk 

 a person who has lost his way, and cannot find a 

 gate or stile, with the situation of which he ought 

 ■to be familiar, and is in fact utterly bewildered, is 

 said to be " ledwilled." A common remedy with 

 .rustics, in such a case, is to turn the left stocking 

 wrong side outwards, and then to renew the 

 search. Forby, and after him Halliwell, derive 

 this phrase "ledwilled" from being led by Will 

 o' the Wisp. But I am inclined to suggest a 

 different origin for it. There is an obsolete ad- 

 jective " wille," given by Halliwell and Jamieson, 

 signifying lost in doubt : " wille of wone," at a 

 loss for a habitation ; " wille of rede," without ad- 

 vice. Jamieson compares it with Su. G., will, 

 Isl. vill-a, error ; Isl. vill-az, to lead astray. He 



No. 311.] 



has also, " Wilsum, in a wandering state, implying 

 the ideas of dreariness and ignorance of one's 

 way." This, in Old English, seems to have been 

 ivilful. For, in the Bobin Hood ballad (Percy's 

 Reliques'), Sir Guy of Gisborne says : 



" ' I am wilful of my way,' quo' the yeman, 

 * And of my morning tyde.' 

 ' I'll lead thee through the wood,' sayd Bobin, 

 ' Good fellow, I'll be thy guide.' " 



This word, like the Scotch wilsum, seems to 

 answer completely to the Norfolk " ledwilled," 

 which thus would mean "wille of leading, at a 

 loss to guide oneself." In the notes to Canto iv. 

 of The Lady of the Lake, Scott quotes from Jamie- 

 son's translation of the Kcempe Viser : 



" Up, will of rede, the husbande stood, 

 Wi' heart fu' sad and sair," &c. 



To which he appends the following glossarial 

 note : 



" Will of rede, bewildered in thought ; in the Danish 

 original utVcZroadap'e, Lat. inops consilii ; Gr. ajropui'." 



" This expression," he adds, " is obsolete in the 

 Danish as well as in English." If, however, my 

 conjectural etymology be correct, it is not obso- 

 lete in the Norfolk dialect. E. G. R. 



KOUNDLES IN OLD MANSIONS. 



(Vol. xi., pp. 159. 213. 267. 448.) 



The following inscriptions are copied from 

 articles of this kind at Bradfield Combust Hall, 

 Suffolk, formerly the seat of that venerable and 

 distinguished gentleman, the late Arthur Young, 

 Esq., author of various works on agriculture. 

 They are formed of beech, in an ornamented 

 style, and contain in the centre of each a figure 

 of the character delineated, most of them being 

 somewhat grotesque in appearance. It is sup- 

 posed that they are upwards of two centuries old. 



" The Bacheler. 



How many thinges as yet are deare alike to me, 

 The feild, y horse, y" dog, love, armes, or libertie. 

 I have no wife as yet, whome I may call myne owne, 

 I have no children yet that by my name are knowne ; 

 Yet if I married were, I would not wish to thrive, 

 If that I could not tame y« veriest shrew alive. 



" The Married Man. 



I only am y® man among all married men, 



That do not wish the priest, to be unlinckt again ; 



And though my shoo did wring I would not make my 



mone. 

 Nor thincke my neighbor's chance more happy than mine 



owne : 

 Yet court I not my wife, but yield observance due, 

 Being neither fond nor crosse, jealous nor untrue. 



« The Mayd. 



I marriadg would forsweare, but y' I heare men tell, 

 That shee y* dies a maide must leade an ape in hell ; 



