THE GOLDEN CALF ON THE TRUNDLE: Brewer, A Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1870), 351, 761; W.D. Parish, A Dictionary of Sussex Dialect (1875), 35, s.v. ‘devil’; E.C. Curwen, SAC LXX (1929), 34; L.N. Candlin, WSG 2.3.1967; the Viking version, L.T. Crosbie, SCM I (1926/7), 534–5.
OTHER HILL TREASURES: At Clayton, L.V. Grinsell, SAC LXXV (1934), 238, and L.N. Candlin, WSG 2.3.1967; at Pulborough Mount, C. Latham, Folk-Lore Record I (1878), 16, and M.M. Aldridge, SCM XVIII (1944), 306; at Chanctonbury and Mount Caburn (the knight), L.N. Candlin, ibid.; at Mount Caburn (the coffin), E.C. Curwen, SAC LXX (1929), 34; at Firle Beacon, A.H. Allcroft, Earthworks of England, 679; at Wilmington, J.P. Emslie, Folklore XXVI (1915), 163.
CISSBURY: C. Latham, Folk-Lore Record I (1878), 16–17.
TORBERY: H.C. Gordon, The History of Harting (1877), 18; L.N. Candlin, WSG 2.3.1967.
CHIDDINGLY PLACE: M.A. Lower, SAC XIV (1862), 226.
2. GIANTS AND BOGEYMEN, pages 25–30
THE LONG MAN OF WILMINGTON: First documented in a drawing of 1710, see J.H. Farrant, SAC CXXXI (1993), 129–38. For general discussion, see J.B. Sidgwick, SCM XIII (1939), 408–20, and M. Marples, White Horses and Other Hill-Figures (1949), 180–203; for the war-god theory, see C. Hawkes, Antiquity XXXIX (1965), 27–30; for folk-legends about the figure, J.P. Emslie, Folk-Lore XXVI (1915), 162–4; A. Beckett, SCM X (1936), 703; J.B. Sidgwick, op. cit., 413.
LOST HILL FIGURES: T.C. Lethbridge, personal communication, 1963; J.P. Emslie, op. cit., 165; A.H. Allcroft, Downland Pathways (1924), 67; D. Harrison, Along the South Downs (1958), 73.
GILL: A.L. Fox, Archaeologia XLVI (1881), 426; J. Bellingham, SCM XXVII (1953), 423–7.
BEVIS OF HAMPTON: The Gentleman’s Magazine I (1833), 68; M.A. Lower, SAC IV (1851), 31–6; F.H. Arnold, SAC XXXIX (1894), 214.
BOGEYMEN: Napoleon, E.L. Nourse, SCM XII (1938), 769, and L.N. Candlin, personal communication, 1971; the Danes, Helena Hall, in W.D. Parish, A Dictionary … Enlarged, Augmented, and Illustrated (1957), 29; the Man in the Moon and the Devil, L.N. Candlin, SCM XXI (1946), 315–16, both threats having been commonly used by her grandmother.
SPRING-HEELED JACK: Helena Hall, op. cit., 129; L.N. Candlin, SCM XVII (1943), with additional details given orally in 1971; her informant was her mother, and one of the boys her uncle. For a similar tale at Felpham, see G. Young, The Cottage in the Fields (1945), 237–8.
CANNIBAL OGRES: M.A. Lower, SAC XIII (1861), 220–1; E. Shoosmith, SCM III (1929), 238–42; additional details concerning Sir Goddard, A. Hare, Sussex (1896), and D. MacLean, SCM V (1931), 451, 488–92; J. Donne, SCM XXI (1947), 88–90.
3. DRAGONS OF LAND AND WATER, pages 31–9
ST LEONARD AND THE DRAGON: M.A. Lower, SAC XIII (1861), 223–5; Canon Tatham, SCM V (1931), 661–4; according to the latter, the lilies of the valley are more often said to spring from the dragon’s blood than from the saint’s, but other writers take the opposite view.
THE SERPENT IN ST LEONARDS FOREST: The 1614 pamphlet is printed in full in E.V Lucas, Highways and Byways of Sussex (1904); see also M.A. Lower, ibid.; and S. Kaye-Smith, The Weald of Kent and Sussex (1953), 113–14.
BELIEFS ABOUT SNAKES: M.A. Lower, ibid.; C. Latham, Folk-Lore Record I (1878), 9, 12, 15–17; W.D. Parish, A Dictionary of Sussex Dialect (1875), p. 14, s.v. ‘arder’; the cut snake or worm will not die till sunset, A. Sawyer, SCM IX (1935), 264, and childhood recollections of L.N. Candlin and myself; kill adder for victory, C. Latham, ibid., 9, and G. Haskins, SCM V (1931), 122–3; the caduceus at East Grinstead, personal communication from L.N. Candlin, 1972.
BIGNOR HILL DRAGON: F.J. Bulstrode, SCM III (1929), 552.
KNUCKER-HOLES: Notes and Queries (1855), 1st series xii 501; Helena Hall, in W.D. Parish, A Dictionary … Expanded,Augmented, and Illustrated (1957), 71; bottomless pool at Lancing, E.O.H., SCM XI (1937), 475; Knucker Hole at Angmering, personal communication from L.N. Candlin, 1972, from an informant at Lyminster; ponds reaching Australia, Amy Sawyer, SCM IX (1935), 264; swallow-holes, W. Whitacker, The Water Supply of Sussex (1911), 147.
WATER-HORSE AT RYE: L. Grant, A Chronicle of Rye (1927), 154.
THE KNUCKER OF LYMINSTER: The version with a knight as hero is given by S. Evershed, SAC XVIII (1866), 180–3, by Canon Tatham, SCM V (1931), 661–4, and (in a very over-dressed version) by A. Beckett, The Wonderful Weald (1911), 395–402. The version with Jim Pulk as hero was kindly communicated to me (1971) by Miss Rosemary Anne Sissons, who heard it as a child in Lyminster in the 1930s, from a gardener, John Bishop. The version with Jim Puttock as hero is by C.G. Joiner, SCM III (1929), 845–6, from an account by an anonymous hedger from Toddington working at Lyminster. The setting of this version is in and around Arundel, a mile and a half north-west of Lyminster; Wick and Toddington are a mile or so south of Lyminster. Probably, despite the hedger’s insistence that Puttock was from Wick, this version originated in Arundel – indeed the hedger himself remarked ‘Some people says he was an Arundel man, but that ain’t true.’ Recent oral variants come from people living in Lyminster, or with relatives living there: about the dragon, February 1977, January 1981, August 1993; about the pool, December 1975, February 1983.
4. GRAVES AND GHOSTS, pages 40–9
BLACK DOGS, SPINNING WOMEN, SPINNING CALF: M.A. Lower, SAC XIII (1861), 226.
GRAVES: The Miller’s Tomb: oral traditions common in and around Worthing since the 1920s, or probably earlier, and still current; numerous local press items about the vandalism of November 1982; Southern Weekly Advertiser and Lewes Journal, 6 May 1793; Worthing Archaeological Society Newsletter, June 1983. Toat Tower: information from a member of East Preston Young Wives’ Group, 1972, whose mother came from Pulborough. Jack Fuller’s grave, Brightling: F. John, SCM II (1928), 442–3; W.A. Bagley, SCM XI (1937), 172. Rye grave: B.S. Buckle, Funeral Customs: Their Origin and Development (1926), 24.
CROSSROADS AND GIBBETS: R. Thurston Hopkins, Sussex Rendezvous (n.d.; c. 1938?), 216–17; Tony Wales, A Treasury of Sussex Folklore (2000), 42–3, 73; Roundstone pub, Evening Argus, 9 July 1976, and personal observation. Jack Upperton’s gibbet, Chris Hare, Good Old, Bad Old Days (2001), 20–3.
PREHISTORIC MOUNDS: A.H. Allcroft, Downland Pathways (1924), 9–10; H.D. Gordon, SAC XXVIII (1878), 112; L.V. Grinsell, SAC LXXV (1934), 238.
KINGLEY VALE: A.S. Cooke, Off the Beaten Track in Sussex (1911), 180–1; L.V. Grinsell, SAC LXXV (1934), 238–9; F. Venables, SCM XI (1937), 284; C. Woodford, Sussex Ways and Byways (1968), 86.
HISTORICAL PERSONS: At Chanctonbury, J. Simpson, Folklore LXXX (1969), 128–30; at Battle, B. Willard, Sussex (1965), 187–8; at Bramber and Winchelsea, P. Underwood, A Gazetteer of British Ghosts (1971), 38–9, 248; at Hooe, J. Hallam, Haunted Inns of England (1972), 195; at Poling, D. Harrison, Along the South Downs (1958), 234.
ST LEONARDS FOREST: H. Dudley, History and Antiquities of Horsham (1836), 45–6; M.A. Lower, op. cit., 222–3.
WARBLETON PRIORY: A. Hare, Sussex (1896), 96; J. Donne, SCM XXI (1947), 89.
TURKEY COCK LANE, RYE: A.T. Saville, Ancient Rye (1891), 25–6.
JARVIS BROOK ROAD, CROWBOROUGH: B. Firmin, An Illustrated Guide to Crowborough (1890), 141–2.
DAME SERGISON’S GHOST: M. Wright, Cuckfield:An Old Sussex Town (1971), 110.
GHOSTLY DOGS: At Alfriston, see F. Pagden, History of Alfriston (1895), 53; A. Beckett, The Spirit of the Downs (1909), 215–19. Dog ghosts visible to other dogs, C. Latham, Folk-Lore Record I (1878), 17. Black Dog Hill, Ditchling, personal communication from Miss Theo Brown, 1971, from an informant in Ditchling, 1960.
‘WISH HOUNDS’: B. Wills, Shepherds of Sussex (1938), 100; on Ditchling Beacon, SCM VII (1933), 756; at Fairlight Cove, M. Thorpe, SCM XXVII (1953), 176–8.
THE DRUMMER OF HURSTMONCEUX: W.E.A. Axon, Bygone Sussex (1897), 199–200; E.V. Lucas, Highways and Byways of Sussex (1904), 337.
SMUGGLERS AT EDBURTON: N.P. Blaker, Reminiscences (1906), 27.
THE PHANTOM HITCH-HIKER: From an oral informant in Worthi
ng, 1971.
5. THE FAIRIES, pages 50–7
THE SWEATING FAIRIES: M. Thorpe, SCM XXVIII (1954), 527–35; M.A. Lower, Contributions to Literature (1854), 161–3; W.D. Parish, A Dictionary of Sussex Dialect (1875), 41, s.v. ‘farises’; C. Latham, Folk-Lore Record I (1878), 28–9. A. Beckett, The Spirit of the Downs (1909), 283, gives yet another version, in which a farmer says to the fairy, ‘If you sweat for an ear, what would you do for a sheaf?’
THE BROKEN PEEL: M.A. Lower, Contributions to Literature (1854), 158–61.
MASTER DOBBS: A. Beckett, The Spirit of the Downs (1909), 283; L.N. Candlin, SCM XVII (1943), 96–7; H. Hall, in W.D. Parish, A Dictionary … Expanded, Augmented and Illustrated (1957), 31, s.v. ‘Dobbs’. The butter-churning charm is given by C. Latham, Folk-Lore Record I (1878), 28, and by A. Beckett, op. cit., 283.
FAIRIES LEAVE COINS: For maids, L.N. Candlin, SCM XVII (1943), 96–7; for children, J. Simpson, personal recollection c. 1937 and oral information from Worthing schoolgirls, 1965, 1972.
SITES ASSOCIATED WITH FAIRIES: Tarberry Hill, H.D. Gordon, A History of Harting (1877), 19; Cissbury, Nancy Price, Pagan’s Progress (1954), 93; Pulborough Mount, C. Latham, op. cit., 28; Harrow Hill, A.A. Evans, SCM VIII (1934), 432–4, on information from an old woman, who had had the tale from people ‘before her time’.
RAISING FAIRIES: L.N. Candlin, SCM XVII (1943), 96–7; I.M. Stenning, SCM XXVI (1952), 430, from her nurse’s childhood memories.
THE FAIRIES AND THE PIG: C. Latham, op. cit., 27.
6. THE DEVIL, pages 58–65
DEVIL SHUNS SUSSEX: B. Firmin, An Illustrated Guide to Crowborough (1890), 131.
PLACE-NAMES: See Ordnance Survey maps; also, for the Devil’s Bog, A.H. Gregory, Mid-Sussex Through the Ages (1938), 14; for the Devil’s Road, J. Middleton, SCM XXIII (1949), 282; for the Devil’s Book, A.H. Allcroft, Downland Pathways (1924), 24.
THE DEVIL’S JUMPS: L.N. Candlin, personal communication, 1971.
TORBERY (TARBERRY) HILL: H.D. Gordon, The History of Harting (1877), 17; the story is still current (L.N. Candlin, personal communication, 1971).
THE DEVIL’S DYKE: This very well-known legend seems to have been first mentioned in a late eighteenth-century poem by William Hamper, and has been repeated in many guide-books from the 1830s onwards. The subsidiary details about hill formations I have taken from H. Belloc, The Four Men (1912), ch. 2, and an oral version printed in K.M. Briggs, A Dictionary of British Folktales, Part B (1971), I, 89–90. For the ox-steddles, see A.H. Allcroft, SNQ I (1926), 65–70. The details about the Isle of Wight and the Surrey Devil’s Punchbowl were respectively given to L.N. Candlin by a member of Poynings Women’s Institute in 1968 and to J. Simpson by an informant at East Preston in 1972.
DEVIL’S CHIMNEY: Information from a former resident of Eastbourne, 27.3.1976.
MAYFIELD: E.V. Lucas, Highways and Byways in Sussex (1904), 334; K.M. Briggs, Pale Hecate’s Team (1964), 230; for St Dunstan’s Bridge, see M.A. Lower, SAC XIII (1861), 221–2; for the Roaring Spring, A. Hare, Sussex (1896), 101; for Tongdean, B. Willard, Sussex (1965), 93. The story about the horseshoes was told to L.N. Candlin in 1957 by a WI member at Mayfield.
BLACKBERRIES: C. Latham, Folk-Lore Record I (1878), 14; L.N. Candlin, SCM XXI (1947), 315–16.
NUTTING: M.A. Lower, SAC XIII (1861), 222; C. Latham, op. cit.; L.N. Candlin, op. cit.; for the Tilehurst Woods story, T. Geering, Our Parish (1884), 145–8.
RAISING THE DEVIL: At the Devil’s Humps, D. Harrison, Along the South Downs (1958), 262–3; at the Kingston tree, W.M.H. Luxton, SCM XXIII (1949), 102, and L.N. Candlin, personal communication, 1971; at the Unitarian Chapel, I.M. Stenning, SCM XXVII (1953), 72–6; at Heathfield, G.L. Hall, SCM XXIX (1955), 27–8, on information dating from his mother’s childhood; at Broadwater, told to J. Simpson by Worthing informants, 1968 and 1971.
CHANCTONBURY RING: A. Beckett, The Spirit of the Downs (1909), 131; for modern oral variants, see J. Simpson, Folklore LXXX (1969), 122–31; letter in the Worthing Gazette, 4.2.1980; further oral information in 1979, 1980, 1982, 1987.
THE CROWBOROUGH WIZARD: B. Firmin, An Illustrated Guide to Crowborough (1890), 162.
MIKE MILLS’ RACE: SCM XV (1941), 154–6; oral informant in 2001.
CHARMS AGAINST THE DEVIL: L.N. Candlin, SCM XVIII (1944), 261–2.
7. WITCHES, pages 66–76
WITCH TRIALS: C. L’Estrange Ewen, Witch Hunting and Witch Trials (1929); his Sussex material is summarised in James Sharpe, Instruments of Darkness (1996), 110–11.
THE HUNTED HARE: At East Harting, H.D. Gordon, A History of Harting (1877), 216; at Ditchling, Amy Sawyer, SCM IX (1935), 264; at Duddleswell, B. Firmin, Illustrated Guide to Crowborough (1890), 149; in various unnamed villages, S.E. Robinson, SCM IX (1935), 58–60; K. Harmer, SCM XI (1937), 451–2; M.M. Banks, Folk-Lore LII (1941), 74–5; I.M. Stenning, SCM XXVI (1952), 427–8, SNQ IV (1933), 186–7.
OTHER TRANSFORMATION TALES: S.E. Robinson, ‘Tom Reed: A Man and his Lore’, SCM IX (1935), 58–60; M. Fletcher-Jones, SCM V (1931), 516. Tom Reed told his stories to S.E. Robinson in 1915 or thereabouts. See also L.N. Candlin, SCM XVII (1943), 96–7; and, for a tale with a natural explanation, L.E. Brown, All About Bury (1948), 212; and G. Aitchison, SNQ IV (1936), 186–7.
THE WITCH AND THE WAGON: M.A. Lower, SAC XIII (1861), 219; at Ditchling, Amy Sawyer, SCM IX (1935), 264; at Plumpton, P.H. Lulham, SCM XIII (1939), 36; at Stedham, J. Knight, SCM XIII (1939), 725; on the Surrey border, M.M. Banks, Folk-Lore LII (1941), 75; at the Sussex Pad, Lancing, S.H. Toms, SCM IX (1935), 332; ‘Old Mother Venus’, S.E. Robinson, SCM IX (1935), 58–60; the witch and the Rector, A.R. Milton, SCM XVII (1943), 47–9.
HOLED STONES: A collection of these and other charms against witches, made by S.H. Toms, is kept among the reserve collections of Brighton Museum.
HORSES HAG-RIDDEN: K. Harmer, SCM XI (1937), 451–2; neither the name of the informant nor that of the farm concerned is given. See also C. Latham, Folk-Lore Record I (1878), 24; A.H. Randell, SCM IX (1935), 129–30; M.M. Banks, Folk-Lore LII (1941), 75.
PIGTAIL BRIDGER: B. Firmin, An Illustrated Guide to Crowborough (1890), 154–6.
THE WITCHES OF HARTING: H.D. Gordon, A History of Harting (1877), 217.
COUNTER-SPELLS: At Crowborough, B. Firmin, op. cit., 151–3; as described by Tom Reed, S.E. Robinson, SCM IX (1935), 58–9; by the bottle of pins, C. Latham, Folk-Lore Record I (1878), 25–6; by a hot poker, M. Beaumont, SCM XXVII (1953), 458, and B. Firmin, op. cit., 150–1; by scratching, A.R. Milton, SCM XVII (1943), 47–9, and C. Latham, op. cit., 23–4.
AVOIDING WITCHES’ SPELLS: S.E. Robinson, SCM IX (1935), 58–60; A.R. Milton, SCM XVII (1943), 47–9; I.M. Stennmg, SCM XXVII (1953), 31.
DYING WITCHES: B. Firmin, op. cit., 146–7, 153–4; S.E. Robinson, SCM IX (1935), 59–60 (about ‘Old Mother Venus’); about Nanny Smart, A.H. Gregory, Mid- Sussex Through the Ages (1938), 138 (from correspondence in a newspaper in 1895).
SOCIAL POSITION OF WITCHES: At Hailsham, T. Geering, Our Parish (1884), 11–12; in an unnamed village, I.M. Stenning, SCM XXVI (1952), 247–8, with reference to the childhood of the writer’s nurse; in Worthing, oral information from an eighteen-year-old girl, June 1973. At Hurstpierpoint, A.H. Gregory, op. cit., loc. cit.; at Hastings, H. Cousins, Hastings of Bygone Days and the Present (1911), 272; the witch and the plums, M.M. Banks, Folk-Lore LII (1941), 74; the death of ‘Betsey Shadlow’ (a pseudonym, since the woman’s daughter was still alive in 1943), A.R. Milton, SCM XVII (1943), 47–9.
CLAPHAM WOODS: The initial reports are in the Worthing Herald, 2 and 9 May 1975. The fullest account of the allegations is in Toyne Newton, Charles Walker and Alan Brown, The Demonic Connection (1987); counter-arguments will be found in Chris Hare, ‘The Clapham Woods Mystery’, Worthing Review, 9 May 1987, 18–19, and Jacqueline Simpson, ‘Hecate in the Primrose Wood: The Propagation of a Rumour’, Contemporary Legend IV (1994), 91–118. There are numerous brief references in the local press and sharp argument
in the correspondence columns of the Worthing Herald in August, September and October 1993.
8. HEALING CHARMS AND MAGIC CURES, pages 77–86
Recently, a whole book has been written on this subject: Andrew Allen, A Dictionary of Sussex Folk Medicine (1995); the author’s medical expertise enables him not only to describe but to evaluate traditional cures. There are substantial entries on ague, charlatans, cobwebs, elecampane, gibbets, king’s evil, livestock remedies, mandrakes, mould, scurvy, slugs, smallpox, snails, toadeaters, vipers and warts. Among older writers, the fullest discussion is on pp. 35–50 of C. Latham’s article in Folk-Lore Record I (1878). Other sources used are T.W. Horsefield, History and Antiquities of Lewes (1824), II, 253–4 (silver ring for fits); W.D. Parish, A Dictionary of Sussex Dialect (1875), 15, s.v. ‘axey’ (ague cure by charm and by spider); J. Coker Egerton, Sussex Folk and Sussex Ways (1884), 107–9 (ague transferred to aspen and goitre to snake, and potato for rheumatism); A. Beckett, The Wonderful Weald (1911), 273–4 (spider for ague); Anon., SCM I (1927), 453 (mandrake); ‘Wayfarer’, SCM II (1928), 186 (red flannel, red silk, potato for rheumatism, horseradish for headache, frog for TB); G. Haskins, SCM V (1931), 122 (posthumous child to cure thrush, bread from ‘John and Joan’ for whooping-cough, rooted bramble for boils, split ash for hernia); Anon., SCM IX (1935), 177, 194 (mummified hand, heart and pins); E. Austen, SCM IX (1935), 596 (adder’s oil); Anon, SCM IX (1935), 331–2 (woodlice for dropsy, whelps and worms for wounds, skulls for epilepsy, bones for rheumatism, mice for diabetes and whooping-cough); Anon., SCM X (1936), 122 (sheep for TB); W. Steele, SCM X (1936), 514 (adder’s oil); Anon., SCM XIII (1939), 237–9 (rabbit’s brains for teething, mice for whooping-cough, rooted bramble for fits); P.H. Lulham, SCM XIII (1939), 55–8 (‘wise woman’ and diphtheria); L.N. Candlin, SCM XVI (1942), 53 (hanged man’s touch, snake for goitre); I.M. Stenning, SCM XXVI (1952), 427 (ague tied to tree); G.N. Slyfield, SCM XXVI (1952), 447 (thorn-tree at Portslade); M. Beaumont, SCM XXVII (1953), 458 (mice for bed-wetting); C. Woodford, Portrait of Sussex (1972), 202–3 (mice for whooping-cough, snail for warts, holed stone for scraping disease away). The use of holed stones against nightmares and the account of Janet Steer, the ‘wise woman’ of Lewes, were personally communicated to me by Miss Candlin, whose mother (born 1870) was treated for warts in her childhood by Janet Steer.
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