124 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[May 1, 1897. 



and other powerful barons : so that the survival of super- 

 stitions in and around this spot is, as I have said, not 

 unnatural. 



Hard by Blacklow Hill there is a tract of waste land 

 called Ganerslie Heath. No peasant will linger there after 

 nightfall, for strange sounds are said to be heard issuing 

 through the thick foliage. At the dread hour of midnight 

 it is averred that dismal bells toll from Blacklow Hill, and 

 as the palfrey upon which Gaveston was led to execution 

 there was richly caparisoned and wore a string of bells 

 roimd its neck, superstition has come to regard this sound 

 as proceeding from the spectre of man and horse, which, 

 daring the past five hundred years, is supposed to have 

 traversed the road from Warwick Castle to the place of 

 execution, just as the gruesome cavalcade did in real life 

 upon that doomed midnight or early morning. 



A curious superstition, which amounts to the firmest 

 belief, surrounds a structure called Littleham Bridge, a 

 lonely spot on the high road between Hampton Lucy and 

 Stratford-on-Avon. Here, on the night of the 4th of 

 November, 1820, Mr. William Hirons, a yeoman of the 

 neighbouring village of Alveston, was set upon and 

 murdered by four ruffians. He was found dead in the 

 morning, with his head resting in a hole, and from that 

 day to this, a period of seventy-five years, every attempt to 

 fill the hole again has, it is said, been inefl'ectual. This is 

 the local belief and affirmation. If the hole is filled with 

 earth at night, it is empty again the next morning. What 

 strange being or power performs this nocturnal act, no man 

 knoweth ; but that it is a foundation of the very deeply rooted 

 superstition can be ascertained by anyone who visits the 

 spot, and inquires about the tragedy and the hole from the 

 inhabitants of the locality. 



The two stories connected with the Ladies Charlotte and 

 Margaret Clopton — both of which must have been known 

 to Shakespeare, the first of which he is thought to have 

 utilized in " Komeo and -Juliet," and the other in 

 " Hamlet " — are of a character so romantic and lamentable 

 that it is no wonder they should have added the phantom 

 touch to the old edifice ; both ladies, indeed, have enjoyed 

 the reputation of having "walked" in spirit about the 

 house and grounds of their home ever since their untimely 

 deaths, more than three hundred years ago. The scene of 

 Charlotte Clopton's tragic story is laid at Stratford-on- 

 Avon Church during the black plague, which greatly 

 decimated the population of the classic town in 15(31, and 

 which, no doubt, was the means of many persons being 

 buried alive in Warwickshire. In his " Visits to Remark- 

 able Mansions," William Howitt alludes to the story in the 

 following words : — " In the time of some epidemic, the 

 sweating sickness or the plague [the black plague], this 

 young girl sickened, and, to all appearances, died. She 

 was buried with fearful haste in the vault at Clopton 

 Chapel, attached to Stratford Church, but the sickness 

 was not stayed. In a few days another of the Cloptons 

 died, and him, too, they bore to the ancestral vault ; but as 

 they descended the gloomy stairs they saw by the torch- 

 light, Charlotte Clopton, in her grave clothes, leaning 

 against the wall ; and when they looked nearer she was 

 indeed dead, but not before, in the agonies of despair and 

 hunger, she had bitten a piece of fiesh from her white 

 round arm. Of course she has ' walked ' ever since." 



If in the case of Charlotte Clopton there are mythical 

 elements which throw doubt on the actuality thereof, it is 

 not so with regard to the mournful fate of Margaret 

 Clopton, whose story Shakespeare has made use of in 

 " Hamlet," the fair Margaret being thought to be the 

 prototype of the gentle Ophelia. This young and beauti- 

 ful lady, having fallen in love with a man of whom her 



I parent. Sir William Clopton, disapproved, and being for- 

 bidden the society of her lover, sought the only method of 

 escape from a painful thraldom which seems open to love- 

 sick maidens. "Too much of water hast thou, poor 

 Ophelia," said the troubled Laertes ; and the same might 

 be said of Margaret Clopton, for, being wrought up to 

 agony point, she drowned herself in a pond in the grounds 

 of Clopton House, which is shewn you to-day, and the 

 legend runs that the fair young lady's spirit still haunts 

 the scene in the silent watches of the night. 



The gentler superstitions of rural Warwickshire, as I 

 called them at the beginning of this article, are many and 

 various, and deal, perhaps, more with outdoor than indoor 

 life, though the preternaturalism of cottage life is very 

 strongly marked. That old superstition connected with 

 the wych elm — of which there are so many in ^\'arwick- 

 shire — seems to be as firmly planted as ever in the minds 

 of the rustics. There is an account current of a gentle- 

 man who a short time ago went to live in a remote part of 

 the country. Having cut down a wych elm, he told some 

 of his workmen that they could have the branches for fire- 

 wood. In the course of a week or two he noticed that none of 

 the wood had been removed, and asked the reason. " Why, 

 mister," was the reply, " we donna want the old 'ooman 

 amongst us, to be sure." Upon questioning them it 

 appeared that it was a general belief that to burn wych 

 elm would bring down the malignant powers. 



Superstitions regarding birds are very extensive in 

 Warwickshire and very steadfastly entertained. The 

 cuckoo during the winter is changed by rustic faith into 

 the sparrowhawk ; the yellowhammer is supposed to drink 

 three drops of the devil's blood each May morning ; and 

 the robin is believed to have scorched its breast with hell 

 fire, near which it had ventured for a beakful of water. 

 There is also another and far more tender superstition 

 attached to the robin which is faithfully held by village folk 

 of religious inclinings ; it is to the effect that the robin 

 crimsoned its breast in administering to the needs of our 

 Saviour when on the cross. 



With this, the prettiest and tenderest of all the super- 

 stitions at present in vogue in Warwickshire, I bring this 

 paper to a conclusion. The subject is one that is sur- 

 rounded with the deepest interest, inasmuch as the bent 

 of rustic feeling in this delightful county towards a belief 

 in the supernatural is, as I have attempted to show, 

 almost as strongly marked to-day, in spite of the wide- 

 reaching influence of civilization and education, as it was 

 in the days of Shakespeare ; though in his tlma the aspect 

 of Warwickshire was more calculated to inspire the mind 

 with eerie feelings than it is now. 



WHY DO YOU PHOTOGRAPH? 



By T. A. GERiLD Strickland, F.E.S. 



WHY do you photograph ? is a question that 

 numbers of amateurs would have a difficulty 

 in answering satisfactorily. Is it to expose 

 quantities of plates on " pretty bits," or on 

 " evenings," or " sunrises," the titles of 

 which would be suitable, in the majority of results, to 

 either print, and no one be any the wiser ■.' Or is it for the 

 pleasure of developing dozens of negatives, of which about 

 ten per cent, are printed ? And even when they are printed, 

 what then ? Have you become an " artist " "? But this is 

 dangerous ground ! I had better say at once that my 

 knowledge of Art twith a capital "A") is very limited, and 

 the vexed question of the " artistic capabilities of photo- 

 graphy " had, therefore, better be avoided. 



