Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/440

 420 Collectanea.

had settled at Romney, and taken to smuggling. His smuggled goods were seized and he was made debtor to the King for a large amount, and as he was unable to pay, he and his whole family were lodged in the Fleet. When they came out they returned to their native place, Berkshire.

Old Matthews and his wife are great herbalists, and send nume- rous medicinal herbs to their daughter in London, who disposes of them to a herb-doctor. They have implicit faith in their con- coctions, some of which are : tansy-tea for rheumatism, marsh mallow poultices for wounds, and white lily root ointment for gatherings. But the two herbs by which they set most store are wood-sage and horehound, which seem capable of curing almost anything indiscriminately. When they were asked to tell of cures for warts, they shook their heads ; they had never heard of them — that was impossible. Warts were described. "Oh, werts." Of course they knew of cures for " werts." Cutting slits in a stick of elder, or making holes according to the number of warts in walnut leaves, and burying them secretly or putting them down a well. When the leaves had decayed the warts disappeared. The steam from the inside of an oven is also declared to be a cure.

For a good many years of his life Matthews was a shepherd, and he tells many amusing stories of sheep-stealing. For a long time a ghostly procession was seen in his part of the country, and the inhabitants were continually scared by it. One night a man said he " did not care for ghosteses," and he was determined to investigate the matter. Taking a huge bludgeon he lay in wait for the procession. When it appeared he rushed into the middle of it, flourishing his bludgeon on all sides. The bearers of the bier fled, leaving the corpse in the road. It proved to be the corpse of a sheep. The bearers were sheep-stealers.

A friend of old Matthews in his shepherding days had seen a "corpse," by which seems to be meant a ghost. The man's dog had gone through a hedge, and was making a noise, as he thought chasing a rabbit. He leaned over the hedge to see, " and there sure enuf wur the corpse."

Matthews was coming home from work late one night, when he heard a cart or carriage coming behind him. It had come so close to him that he heard the gravel scrunching under the wheels ; hut he could see nothing.