2°<» S. IX. April 7. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



259 



SUFFOLK FOLK LORE. 



A few days since a friend put into my hands 

 The History of Stowmarket, by the Rev. A. G. H. 

 Hollingsworth, M.A., the Vicar, small 4to., Ips- 

 wich, 1844, pp. xii. 248. At the end of the book, 

 in Appendix No. 6., a series of notices of local 

 folk-lore are collected together. If they have 

 never been transferred to " N. & Q.," and I do 

 not remember to have seen them in its pages, they 

 well deserve a place amongst your stores of 

 similar traditions. I have therefore extracted 

 them : and in sending them to you, I feel it only 

 right to say a word in commendation of the work 

 from which they are taken. Local histories such 

 as these, written by persons who have ready 

 access to original documents, and patience to ex- 

 tract from them the grains of gold concealed in 

 the bushels of sand, cannot fail to be interesting 

 and useful to the archasologist. I trust that Mr. 

 Hollingsworth will not think me guilty of petty 

 larceny in transferring his curious notes to your 

 pages : — 



"I. Witches. 



" 1. An old woman named Wix was reputed a witch. 

 She was drowned at night in crossing the river near the 

 mill, and when found her body was swimming on the 

 top of the water, which was thought a good confirma- 

 tion of the suspicions. 



" 2. An old woman used to frequent Stow, and she wa3 

 a witch. If as she was walking any person went after her 

 and drove a nail into the print-mark which her foot left 

 in the dust, she then could not move a step further until 

 it was extracted. The same effects followed from driving 

 a knife well into the ground through the footprint. 



" 3. The most famous man in these parts as a wizard was 

 old Winter of Ipswich. My Father [Sexton loquitur"] 

 was in early life apprentice to him, and after that was 

 servant to Major Wbyte, who lived in Stow-upland at 

 Sheepgate Hall. A farmer lost some blocks of wood from 

 his yard, and consulted Winter about the thief. By mu- 

 tual arrangement Winter spent the night at the farmer's 

 house, and set the latter to watch, telling him not to 

 speak to any one he saw. About twelve a labourer living 

 near came into the woodyard and hoisted a block on 

 his shoulder. He left the yard and entered the meadow, 

 out of which lay a style into his own garden. But when 

 he got into the field he could neither find the style nor 

 leave the field. And round and round the field he had 

 to march with the heavy block on his shoulder, af- 

 frighted, yet not able to stop walking, until ready to die 

 with exhaustion, the farmer and Winter watching him 

 fioin the window, until from pure compassion Winter 

 went up to him, spoke, dissolved the charm, and relieved 

 him from his load. (Sexton.) 



" II. Fairies. 



" 1. The whole of the Hundred is remarkable for fairy 

 stories, ghost adventures, and other marvellous legends. 



" Fairies frequented several houses in Tavern Street 

 about 80 to 100 years since. They never nppeared as 

 long as anyone was about. People used to lie hid to see 

 them, and some have seen them. One in particular by a 

 wood-stack up near the brick-yard ; there was a large 

 company of them dancing, singing, and playing music 

 together. They are very small people, quite little crea- 

 tures, and very merry. But as soon as they saw any- 



body, they all vanished away. In the houses, after they 

 had fled, on going up stairs, sparks of fire as bright as 

 stars used to appear under the feet of the persons who 

 disturbed them. (Old Parish Clerk.) 



" 2. Neighbour S. is a brother [sister?] of old B. the 

 sexton. He died at 82 ; she is now near 80. Her father 

 was a leather breeches-maker; and her mother having 

 had a baby (either herself or her sister, she forgets 

 which), was lying asleep some weeks after her confine- 

 ment in bed with her husband, and the infant by her 

 side. She woke in the night — it was dimmish light — 

 and missed the babe. Uttering an exclamation of fear, 

 lest the fairies (or feriers) should have taken the child, 

 she jumped out of bed, and there, sure enough, a num- 

 ber of tie little sandy things had got the baby at the 

 foot of the bed, and were undressing it. They fled away 

 through a hole in the floor, laughing as if they shrieked"; 

 and snatching up her child, on examination she found 

 that they had laid all the pins head to head as they took 

 them out of the dress. For months afterwards she al- 

 waj'S slept with the child between herself and husband, 

 and used carefully to pin it by its bed-clothes to the pil- 

 low and sheets that it might not be snatched hastily 

 away. This happened in the old house which stood 

 where the new one now stands, on the south side of the 

 vicarage gate. 



"3. A woman, as she heard tell, had a child changed, 

 and one, a poor thing, left in its place ; but she was very 

 kind to it, and every morning on getting up she found a 

 small piece of money in her pocket. My informant 

 firmly believes in their existence, and wonders how it is 

 that of late years no such things have been seen. 



"4. Omehouse. A man was ploughing in a field, a 

 fairy quite small and sandy- coloured came to him and 

 asked him to mend his peel (a flat iron with a handle to 

 take bread out of an oven). The ploughman soon put a 

 new handle to it, and soon after a smoking hot cake 

 made its appearance in the furrow near him, which he 

 ate with infinite relish. 



" 5. A fairyman came to a woman in the parish and 

 asked her to attend his wife at her lying-in. She did so, 

 and went to fairyland, and afterwards came home none 

 the worse for her trip. But one Thursday, at the market 

 in Stow, she saw the fairyman in a butcher's shop helping 

 himself to some beef. On this she goes up and spoke to 

 him. Whereupon much surprised, he bids her say no- 

 thing about it, and inquires with which eye she could see 

 him, for when in fairyland he had rubbed one of her eyes 

 with some ointment. On pointing to the gifted eye, he 

 blew into it, and from that time she could never see a 

 fairy again. 



" 6. The house in which A. W. now lives was the 

 scene of fairy visits and ofiiciousness. A man lived there 

 about 100 years since.who was visited constantly by a fairy 

 (or ferrier, or ferisher). They used his cottage for their 

 meetings. They cannot abide dirt or slovenliness, so as 

 it was kept tidy and clean they cut and brought faggots 

 for the good man, and filled his oven with nice dry wood 

 every night. They also left a shilling for him under the 

 leg of a chair. And a fairy often came to him and warned 

 him not to tell any one of it, for if he did, the shilling, wood, 

 and fairies would never come to him again. Unluckily for 

 him he did tell his good luck, and then his little friends 

 were never seen by him more. The fairy wore yellow 

 satin shoes, was clothed with a green long coat, girt 

 about by a golden belt, and had sandy hair and com- 

 plexion. 



" 7. Stowmarket, 1842. — S., living for 30 years in 

 the cottages in the hop ground on the Bary road, coming 

 home one night 20 years since, in the meadow now a hop 

 ground, not far from three ashen trees, in very bright 



