Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 27, 1916.djvu/267

 EXAMPLES OF FOLK MEMORY FROM STAFFORDSHIRE.

BY SAMBROOKE A. H. BURNE, M.A., BARRISTER-AT-LAW.

(Read at Meeting, 21st June, 1916.)

supposes that there is by now a fairly general assent among folklorists as regards the existence of a more than ordinary power of memory among certain (using the term relatively) unlettered classes of society. This can be tested over and over again by anyone who is in touch with the farm-labourer class. What is still a matter of controversy may be termed the credibility of the traditional matter which the memory of the folk provides. Is it to be classed as "the drivelling of antiquated crones" (this classification is somewhere about half-a-century old) or as historical material worthy the attention of the serious student?

The following examples collected quite casually in Staffordshire may be considered relevant to what is undoubtedly matter of controversy. I could have added other cases, but they have already appeared in print:

I. The first example comes from Needwood Forest and relates to the curious parochial geography of the old forest area. Prior to the enclosure in 1801 something like twenty townships intercommoned in the forest. As a result of the enclosure this common land was divided among five parishes, not in compact areas but in patchwork fashion, here a piece and there a piece. It well illustrates the anomalous condition of things that the Derbyshire parish of Scropton obtained several small patches of old