326 On Wiltshire Traditions, Charms and Superstitions. 



within the limits of the boroug-h of Devizes. A labourer, being 

 confined to his bed with a rather sharp attack of pleurisy, was visited 

 by the parish doctor, who, together with other remedies, said he 

 would send a blister, which should be at once applied to the patient^s 

 chest. On the following day, wlien the medical gentleman visited 

 his patient, he was met at the door by the sick man^s wife, who, 

 with great glee, expressed her admiriation at the eflPects of the blister, 

 which had done wonders ; and said that her husband was in con- 

 sequence much the better. The doctor of course expressed his satis- 

 faction, but when he came to examine the sick man, he was surprised 

 to find no trace of a blister, and on enquiring how that was, the wife 

 with great readiness explained, " You see. Sir, he had''nt got no 

 chest, but he's got a good-sized box in the corner, and we clapped 

 en on that : " and there, sure enough, on a deal box, was the blister 

 which had worked such a magic cure, to the no small merriment of 

 the doctor. 



After this authentic anecdote, I fancy I shall hear remarks of a 

 disparaging character, as regards the shrewdness of the Wiltshire 

 labourer ; and I dare say the word " Moonraker " may be mentioned, 

 without much reverence for the term : and 1 should like to say a few 

 words here on this epithet, as applied to Wiltshiremen, because it is 

 (I believe) very greatly misunderstood. Everybody in the county 

 indeed knows the generally-received origin of the name, how the 

 labourers of a certain parish in this county were surprised on a 

 moonlight night, as they were raking in a pond ; and when in 

 answer to the enquiry what they were searching for, they answered 

 that they were trying to get the moon out of the pond, which they 

 took for a good North Wiltshire cheese, they were ridiculed in no 

 measured terms, and were thought the most simple and credulous of 

 dullards. But the laugh was not altogether against them, neither 

 were our Wiltshire " Moonrakers " so simple as they seemed : for 

 when their questioners had gone off in a merry mood at their sim- 

 plicity, these shrewd (if not very honest) men raked out of the pond 

 many a keg of smuggled spirits, which had been hidden there ; for 

 this was in reality their occupation on that moonlit night. And if 

 the trade of the smuggler seems to any somewhat an unlikely one 



