By J. U. Poivell, M.A. 273 



reflected in the comparative comfort of which the objects found in 

 the settlements show traces.^ 



The original settlements, which no doubt in some cases go back 

 to Neolithic times, were on the spurs of the hills ; the later are 

 in the bottoms, as may be seen at Imber, Chitterne, Elston, and 

 Hill Deverell. The sliifting of the population from the hills to 

 the valleys was gradual. The people descended as the valleys 

 were reclaimed from marsh and wood and brought under cultiva- 

 tion ; that is, as tillage gradually succeeded pasturage, and the 

 Neolithic herdsman became the Bronze Age farmer. But, when 

 spring came the shepherds still drove their flocks to the hills for 

 summer pasturage. 



There is an interesting custom at Wishford, still kept up, which 

 appears to preserve the memory of this. An oak bough is cut 

 annually, formerly at Whitsuntide, but since the Kestoration on 

 May 29th, and hauled down into the village. It is there decked 

 with ribbons and hung from the Church tower, and the day is 

 kept as a revel. It is now a symbol to the villagers of the right 

 to get dead wood from Groveley ; but formerly pasture rights also 

 existed. But there is a deeper meaning in it. We get a glimpse 

 not only into early life, but into primitive religion. For we find 

 in Russia, Bohemia, Sweden, and in other parts of the Continent 

 the customs of cutting down a tree and bringing it home. 



" All over Eussia every village and every town is turned, a little before 

 Whitsuntide, into a sort of garden. Everywhere along the streets the young 

 birch trees stand in rows, every house and every room is adorned with 

 boughs ; even the engines upon the railway are for the time decked with 

 green leaves." * 



It is connected with the idea of a tree-spirit possessed of a 

 beneficent influence upon the growing crops. The religious nature 

 of the ceremony is seen in the original custom of " going in a dance 

 to the Cathedral Church of our Blessed Lady in Sarum on Whit 

 Tuesday," as is stated in the original document of the " Sum of 

 the ancient customs." This is preserved in the parish chest of 



' Wilts Arch. Mag., xxv., 284. 

 - Ralston, quoted by Frazer, Golden Bough, I., 201. 



