122 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[May 1, 1897. 



Second, the faint, dusty areas that can just be discerned, 

 especially in the south of Dr. Gill's photograph, and which 

 might easily be conceived to be mere defects of the original 

 negative or of its reproduction, are seen to be real nebu- 

 losity. 



Third, there is a real correspondence between the con- 

 volutions of the nebula and the arrangement of the stars. 

 This is seen iu the way in which stars border the edges of 

 the nebular rifts, and iu which several " dark lanes,' and 

 the Unes of stars which border and define them, radiate 

 from the nebula, and conform themselves at starting to its 

 outlines. 



Lastly, we find other lines of stars and " dark lanes " 

 which are not thus associated with the nebula. More 

 than one crosses it without either affecting the nebula or 

 being affected by it ; in particular one may be noticed 

 which runs from east to west, just south of the " keyhole " 

 nebula, and which passes right across the northern part of 

 the southern nebula. Then, again, other " lanes " may be 

 noted running their course north or south of the nebula, 

 and bearing no relation to it. Clearly we have at least 

 two independent structures here, at different distances 

 from us, and simply brought into association by their 

 projection in the line of sight. Probably both are Galactic, 

 and we here see superposed two folds of the Galaxy, the 

 real Mitgard snake that embraces the universe. Whether 

 the nebula is in the nearer or the further fold we cannot 

 yet determine. 



THE SUPERSTITIONS OF SHAKESPEARE'S 

 GREENWOOD. 



By George Morley, Author of " Leafij ]\'tinrickshire," etc. 



IF it is remarkable — and I think it is — that the dialect 

 form of speech now in vogue in rural Warwickshire 

 should have survived for a period of between three 

 and four hundred years, it is also noteworthy that 

 the superstitions should have existed for a like term, 

 and should still survive in some of their most famous 

 forms at the end of the nineteenth century, in an age 

 which plumes itself upon its civilization and enlightenment. 

 This is the more remarkable bearing the fact in mind 

 that Warwickshire is the central coimty of England, open 

 to all the influences of modern civilization, and in many 

 seasons of the year simply overrun with visitors, who may 

 be supposed to bring with them the new ideas, the new 

 fancies, and the new language of a new people. 



The survival of superstition is, 1 think, to be traced to 

 the original woodiness of " leafy Warwickshire," which 

 made it a dark land in which Nature could play her many 

 moods both night and day ; and these would, no doubt, 

 operate strongly upon the minds of the simple, almost 

 primeval, woodlanders with an energetic and perhaps a 

 fatal effect ; because people who are cut off', as it were, 

 from all civilizing influences are more prone than towns- 

 people to regard the movements of natural life as evidences 

 of the supernatural, and to associate with an invisible and 

 evil agency the simple workings of the laws of Nature. 

 Yet the curious fact remains that the most famous sur- 

 vivals of superstition in Warwickshire have occurred in 

 the Vale of the Red Horse, which lies in the Feldon, or 

 " open country," south of the Avon ; whereas the wood- 

 land, which embraces the ancient Forest of Arden, is on 

 the north of the river ; and although superstition in many 

 forms is rife there to-day, the more celebrated cases are 

 indigenous to the soil of the south, growing out of 

 Shakespeare's own immediate neighbourhood, and are 

 perhaps to be traced to the proximity of the RoUright 



Stones, on and around which so much superstition con- 

 tinues to cling. 



What I may call the gentler forms of superstitious 

 feeling are common to both woodland and Feldon. The 

 forester, the ploughman, the milk boy, the field girl, the 

 housewife, and indeed all peasants of whatever age, con- 

 dition, or calling, will turn their money — if they have any ; 

 if not they will borrow two halfpence for the occasion — 

 " for luck " at hearing the first note of the cuckoo. The 

 waggoner, returning home to his cottage in a combe on a 

 summer evening after a hard day's work, would feel un- 

 easy in mind if owe magpie instead of two flew over his 

 head. He would persuade himself that sorrow was in 

 store for him. In his simple country jargon — ■ 



" One mag))ie means sorrow ; two mirth ; 

 Three a wedding ; four a birth." 



So when he saw the one magpie — the fateful one — he 

 would cross himself or raise his hat to it, to prevent the 

 " bad luck " which would otherwise follow. 



Such forms of superstition as these, and many others to 

 which I shall presently allude, are peculiar to the peasants 

 in all the villages and hamlets of Warwickshire ; so far, 

 however, as an intimate knowledge of the life of the peasants 

 has enabled me to discover, it is only in the Vale of the 

 Red Horse, and more especially in the immediate vicinity 

 of the villages of Kineton, Tysoe, and Long Compton, where 

 superstition, amounting to an unslayablebelief in witchcraft, 

 has existed in an acute form during the past twenty years, 

 and stm survives in spite of the march of education. 



Perhaps the surroundings of the village of Long 

 Compton have something to do with the survival there 

 to this day of a staunch belief iu witchcraft. It is just on 

 the southern border-lineof "leafy Warwickshire," is planted 

 in a gentle hollow, and is quite close to the King Stone of 

 the Rollrights. The community, too, is extremely small, 

 and is practically untouched by the enlightening influences 

 of modern progress. 



In September, 1875, there were in the opinion of James 

 Heywood, a dweller in the locality, no less than sixteen 

 witches in the village of Long Compton. The man was 

 not singular in his opinion ; many others shared the same 

 extraordinary belief, though they were more passive in 

 their actions than Heywood. In the same village there 

 had lived from her birth to the age of eighty a woman of 

 the peasant class named Ann Tennant. By some means 

 the poor old lady had drawn upon her the unwelcome 

 attentions of certain villagers, who, led by the modern 

 Warwickshire witch-hunter, .James Heywood, and fiUed 

 with the superstition of the neighbourhood, became 

 firmly convinced that she had the evil eye and was a 

 " proper witch." 



No doubt the man, ignorant boor though he was, had 

 imbibed some knowledge of witches and of the manner of 

 testing them. It is clear, indeed, that he had determined 

 to test, or rather to kill. Dame Tennant, for, chancing to 

 meet her out one day gathering sticks for the coming 

 winter, he stabbed her with a pitchfork, and so severely 

 that the wound proved fatal, and the poor victim of deeply- 

 seated superstition died almost immediately. 



How surely the cloud of superstitious belief had fallen 

 upon the mind of this man was shown in the defence he 

 made for the murder he had committed. " If you knows," 

 he said, " the number o' people who lies i'our churchyard, 

 who, if it had not been for them [the witches] , would be 

 alive now, you would be surprised. Her [the deceased] 

 wis a proper witch." His mind was thickly overlaid with 

 supernaturalism. He saw witches everywhere — in every- 

 thing. When water was brought to him in the police 

 cell he roundly declared that there were witches in it. 



