Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 7, 1896.djvu/409

 Rh stone cottages, but there is still something noticeable about the people. My friend and coadjutor, Miss Keary, and myself visited the place in the summer of 1893, and were taken to see the school, where we were struck with the almost family likeness among the children. They had acorn-shaped heads, very gracefully set on their shoulders, oval faces, brown ruddy complexions, dark eyes, and hair in shades of auburn, the colour of autumn leaves. The men, too, whom we saw about, struck us as taller than the average Staffordshire men. We were informed that the Saracen tradition was supposed to relate only to persons of the name of Bayley, of whom there are many in the place, and we were taken to visit one of them distinguished by the name of "Mr. Bayley the auctioneer," though his principal occupation seemed to be that of a small farmer. Yes, he said, in answer to our questions, he believed his ancestors were undoubtedly Turks. They were brought over by the lord of Knypersley Castle, who made them Bailiffs of Biddulph, hence their surname, and gave them a piece of ground, still called Bayley's Hill, where they lived in tents (a curious detail!). All the Bayleys in the place were descended from these people, though they might not now consider themselves related to each other. (I suppose the rest of the inhabitants were considered to be descended from them in the female line.) We then went to see an old Mrs. Bayley, born a Bayley, of much humbler degree. She lived in a little whitewashed cottage on the side of Bayley's Hill, but she denied all knowledge of the history of her family, and was only intent on telling us that of her pigs. By way of excuse for what she seemed to think the folly of our enquiries, we quoted the head of the name as our authority, but were met with scorn. "Mr. Bayley th' auctioneer said that, did he? I reckon he learnt it wi' auctioneerin'!" and we came away baffled. It has always been my experience that local and family traditions are not kept up among the poorest classes.