328 On Wiltshire Traditions, Charms and Superstitions. 



diminutive loaf of bread, no larger than a small apple, suspended 

 from the ceiling*. On asking its intention, I found a great reluctance 

 to enter on the subject, but at length the woman of the house told 

 me that " it was said if a loaf baked on Good Friday were hung up 

 in the cottage, it would ensure that light bread should be baked all 

 the year through ; there, she did'nt know as it would come true, 

 but as she happened to bake last Good Friday, she thought she^d 

 try it." On my enquiry as to the result she said " her bread had 

 been light and good ever since/'' which would have been a more 

 satisfactory conclusion to those who adhere to such traditions, if she 

 had not added, " but then to be sure my bread always had been so 

 before." 



As I have given a receipt for light bread, it is only right that I 

 should follow it up in this, (the heart of the North Wilts dairies) 

 with a valuable piece of advice about cheese, which I heartily com- 

 mend to the attention of all whom it may concern : at all events it 

 has the merit of considerable antiquity, and bears strong internal 

 evidence that it is of genuine Wiltshire origin. 



" If you'll have a good cheese, and have'n old, 

 You must turn 'n seven times before he's cold." * 



I have yet another Wiltshire proverb, of at least equal antiquity, 

 and of (I should suppose) about equal value; the day of whose 

 merit is at least, I think, gone by. 



" Ere Christmas be passed, let your horse be let blood, 

 For many a purpose it doth him much good : 

 The day of St. Stephen old fathers did use, 

 If that do mislike thee, some other day choose." 



But to return from weighty proverbs to empty superstitions. 

 There is scarcely any subject about which our people are more super- 

 stious than about bees : these are, in very many cases, the only live 

 creatures they keep, so to them they confide their joys and sorrows, 

 going out to whisper to them immediate intelligence of a birth, a 

 death, or a wedding in the family. Moreover, observing their 

 wonderful sagacity, they regard them with something akin to awe, 

 and nothing will persuade them to do what the bees would not 



• Aubrey's Natural History of Wilts, p. 105. 



