MODERN APPLE LORE. 6 1 
each half being rubbed on the warts, they are placed together and buried in secrecy. As the apple 
decays away, so too should the warts disappear. 
Bishop Bale writing in 1538 mentions the following charm among others: 
“ For the Coughe, take Judas Eare 
With the parynge of a Peare, 
And drynke them without feare, 
If ye will have a remedy.” 
(Brand—by Hazlitt, III., 252.) 
The apple is also supposed to have other magical uses in a medical sense, but the practice and belief 
in them is more Continental than British, and need not be further alluded to. 
The apple customs which have thus been detailed, are passing away with endless variations. 
These could not have been further entered into without wearisome repetition and confusion. 
Already it cannot be said for this account of them, as Mr. Barham somewhere says of himself in the 
“ Ingoldsby Legends ” : 
“ I am just in the order, which some folks—though why 
I am sure I can’t tell you—would call Apple-pie.” 
but it is hoped nevertheless that the Club may like the dish that is presented to them. 
The plain country life of former days is itself passing away. The habits of the people are 
rapidly changing with the alterations and improvements of the age. The penny-a-week school; the 
penny postage ; the penny newspaper ; and the penny-a-mile railway train ; have turned the thoughts 
of the people, their pleasures and enjoyments, into other channels, and have almost done away with 
the isolation of the country villages. Children’s amusements are more thoughtfully and happily 
provided for, by school-entertainments and summer pic-nics. The village Wake is lost in the club- 
feast of the district, the pleasure fair of the nearest town, and the excursions offered so cheaply by 
railway companies ; and thus in the greater excitements of the world at large, the simple customs and 
observances of the country villages are rapidly passing from disuse into oblivion. 
Henry G. Bull, M.D. 
