The Gallows Curse (80 page)

    For
anyone interested in finding out more about the fascinating and unique history
of Yarmouth, the town now has some wonderful museums which have been installed
in the old fish smokehouses.

    
Bub
— An old Lincolnshire and East Anglian dialect word for an unfledged bird or an
inexperienced person.

    
Cog-ships
- were the cargo ships of Europe in the Middle Ages, sailing across the Baltic
and the North Sea up as far as Norway. These ships would have been familiar
sights in the English Channel and round the coast of Northern Europe and in all
the ports. The term
cog
comes from the construction of the vessel, which
has square beams of wood protruding from the sides of the hull to enhance its
strength. A cog-ship had a single mast with a square sail of about 200sq m or
2050sq ft. There was a raised platform in the stern, which resembled the turret
of a castle, from which arrows could be fired to defend the ship, should the
need arise. Poisonous gases which built up in the stagnant bilge water in the
hold meant it was frequently too dangerous for the crew to sleep below deck
when off duty, so they often slept on deck beneath the castle, which provided
some protection from wind and rain. From sunken vessels found preserved in the
mud, the typical length of a cog-ship was about 24m or 75 ft in length with a
mast around 25m or 80ft high.

    
Daul
— Dialect word meaning
to weary, to wear out
or
to exhaust.
'Dauled'
means worn out, tired and limp.

    
Dung
drag
- A three-pronged rake with the metal prongs or tines set at right
angles to the long wooden handle. Compass, a mixture of animal dung and soiled
straw, was taken out to fields in a cart. A man known as Sir Wag walked behind
the cart using the dung drag to pull down the compass on to the field. The long
handle ensured he did not get covered in the smelly manure as he raked it down.

    Eena,
deena
, etc. — Many country people,
right up to last century, counted in multiples of four or eight when counting
livestock or produce. Some say it is because we have four fingers, other have
suggested it is easy to pick out four sheep at a glance without counting them
individually. Pebbles, beans or notches on a stick would be used to keep track
of how many fours had been counted. There has been much speculation as to the
origins of the names of the numbers, which vary widely from district to
district, but they may be vestiges of older tribal languages which survived
long after the language itself ceased to be used.

    
Frestelles
— A musical instrument which looked like panpipes.

    Green
Mist Babies
- A rural expression
meaning a baby born in springtime, when the fields and trees appear to be
covered with a bright green mist as seeds begin to germinate and buds break
open. Babies carried over winter and born in spring were likely to be of low
birthweight because of the lack of fresh meat, eggs and vegetables in the
mother's diet. Many were stillborn or died within hours, but those that
survived the birth had the good warm days of spring and summer when the
mother's milk was richer to build up strength before winter. In contrast,
autumn babies were often bigger when born, but frequently sickened and died
during that first winter.

    
Herbal
- Some readers may query the inclusion of insects, animals and minerals in the
Mandrake's Herbal.
But in the Middle Ages, and indeed even as late as
Culpeper (1616—1654), herbals included remedies and cures made from all kinds
of things including animals, birds, reptiles, insects, stones, gems and animal
excrement, in addition to the herbs and plants we would expect t6 find in a
modern herbal.

    
Hurdy-gurdy
- We think of it as a relatively modern musical instrument, but in fact it was
well known in the Middle Ages. It was rested on the knee and played by turning
a wheel. Buttons were pressed down on to the strings to produce the notes.
Before the twelfth century two people were required to play it, but later
designs meant that it could be played by a single musician.

    
Leet
of Mancroft
- Norwich was initially divided into four administrative
districts known as
leets,
which reflected the Anglo- Saxon development
of the town. Most of the properties belonging to Jews were recorded in the
Mancroft area immediately to the west of the castle, to which the Jews could
flee for protection in times of trouble. This area also contained many of the
markets where they did most of their trade. There was a synagogue in Mancroft,
but this was not a ghetto, because some Jews lived outside this area, and
equally Christians also lived in Mancroft, some of whom may even have rented
houses from the Jews.

    
Nocturns
— One of the daily Catholic Church services. Nocturns was the medieval name for
the office of
Matins,
which, up to the eleventh century, was known as
vigiliae
or
vigils.
The service of Nocturns originally began at
midnight, except for those living under Benedict's rule who celebrated it at
the eighth hour of the night — 2 a.m. The name Nocturns comes from the
individual unit (a nocturn) which made up the service. Each nocturn consisted
of three psalms, the paternoster and the prayer known as the Absolutio,
followed by three lessons and a benediction. The number of nocturns or
sequences recited in each service varied according to the religious
significance of the particular day. On Sundays and feast days three Nocturns
were recited in succession, together with other prayers and hymns.

    
Pike
in Galentyne
- Pike and lampreys were boiled in ale or vinegar, and spices
including pepper, ginger and cloves. The ale or vinegar helped to break down
the fine bones. The flesh was removed from the coarser bones, then it was
pressed back into a fish shape. The pike was either served cold covered with a
hot sauce, or hot with a cold sauce such as
sauce vert.
A hot galentyne
sauce was thick and strongly flavoured, more like a relish or condiment than a
modern sauce. A typical galentyne consisted of rye breadcrumbs, sweetened white
wine, vinegar, oil, onion, cinnamon, pepper and — rather strangely -
sandalwood.

    
Ravel
bread
- The poorest-quality bread. The best was
wheaten bread
which
generally only the rich could afford. Next came
cheat bread,
made of
second-quality wheat and generally adulterated with other flours. Cheat bread
was usually the bread given as alms to the needy. Worst was
ravel bread
,
made from poorest-quality flour mixed with anything people had to hand such as
bran, beans, peas, oats, rye, barley or bulrush roots. This was often baked as
flat bread in the embers of the fire, or cut into small round discs and fried
in lard in a heavy iron pan.

    
Talbot
— As well as being a Christian name, a talbot was also the name for the 'Norman
hound', so called because the dogs were thought to have been brought to England
by the Normans. It was larger than the modern greyhound, more like a
bloodhound, and it was one of a category of dogs known as 'running hounds'
which track their quarry by scent and can pursue a stag or boar from dawn to
dusk without giving up or becoming tired.

    
Toft
- Old English from the Norse
Topt.
A toft was a small area of land,
often surrounding a croft or cottage on which the family grew the vegetables,
fruit and herbs they needed to feed themselves. Animals would also be kept on
the toft, including bees, poultry and at certain times of the year pigs and a
milking goat or cow, when they were not out at pasture. In good years, surplus
produce was taken to the market to sell or exchanged for other things the
family needed.

    Rows
— Yarmouth was originally a settlement built on a
sandbank at the mouth of three rivers that formed Breydon Water: the Bure,

    Yare
and Waveney. The sandbank was first colonized by fishermen who built dwellings
in narrow parallel strips, to allow the houses to be on higher ground while
giving each strip direct access to the sea. This also minimized the effects of
flooding. One hundred and forty-five rows were established by the Middle Ages
and were densely populated until they were largely destroyed by bombing in the
Second World War. The houses in these rows later consisted of one lower room
and one upper, and the rows were so narrow it was possible for a man to walk
down the middle and touch the walls on either side with outstretched arms.

    
Sappers
- When laying siege to a city, miners or sappers would try to tunnel under the
outer walls of the castle or city and lay fires beneath the stones. This,
together with the boulders thrown by the siege engines pounding on the walls
above, would help to weaken the defensive walls, causing them to collapse. The
sapper's work was highly dangerous, for not only was there the risk of the
tunnels caving in with the men still inside, but frequently the defenders of
the castle would burrow outwards to attack the sappers, and vicious
hand-to-hand fighting would take place in the darkness of the narrow tunnels.

    
Solar
— Initially meant any room above ground level. (Derived from the French
sol,
meaning floor, and
solive,
meaning beam.) In the Middle Ages,
the solar came to be a common name for the Great Chamber. It was the private
living and sleeping quarters of the family who owned the hall. Their servants
and retinue would sleep below in the Great Hall. The solar often had a separate
staircase and entrance to that of the Great Hall and a wooden partition could
be erected at one end of the room to form a private bedchamber, which would have
been important if several adult generations of the family had to share the
solar.

    
Thorn
apple
— (Not to be confused with the herb of the same name,
Datura
stramonium
, a powerful narcotic.) The use of an apple studded with twelve
thorns or pins as a summoning charm was widely used by those who had the
'gift'. One incident was recorded in Warwickshire as recently as 1929, when a
woman demonstrated her powers by using the apple to summon her sister who lived
10 miles away. The sister arrived, even though it was snowing, claiming she had
been drawn to come by some force she could not resist.

    
Undercroft
- A basement or cellar under a hall or house used mainly for storage. Often the
undercroft was built on the ground floor, rather than below ground, though
surviving examples are sometimes now below ground level because the surface
levels of streets have risen. The undercroft could be completely enclosed with
walls, but was frequently left open on one or more sides to allow carts and
wagons to be drawn inside to load and unload. The Great Hall was often built as
the upper storey over an undercroft, supported by pillars and arches.

    
Werecat
— Medieval people believed humans could turn themselves into werebeasts that
were half human, half animal, including wolves, cats, foxes, crocodiles and
tigers. There were two kinds of werebeast: involuntary and voluntary. If you
had lived a wicked life, or were cursed, you might be turned into one of these
creatures. But men could also
choose
to become werebeasts. There were
many ways of doing this: by using ointments or spells, invoking demons or using
mandrakes, by drinking the water from the footprint of the animal you wanted to
become or by wearing the pelt of the chosen animal as a girdle around the
waist. In this way you would gain the power to turn yourself into a half
man—half beast, with a savage desire to hurt and kill.

    
Wolf's
head
— A term for an outlaw, or a fugitive from justice. Once a man or
woman was declared a wolf's head, any citizen was entitled to hunt them down
and take them captive or kill them. In fact they had a duty to do so if they
discovered their whereabouts. And, like the wolf itself, if a citizen could
prove that the fugitive was dead, usually by bringing the corpse or head to the
local sheriff, they could claim a bounty or reward.

    
Yellow
Skeggs
— A common English name for the Yellow Iris
(Iris pseudacorus
),
otherwise known as fleur-de-lis.
Skeggs
is Anglo- Saxon in origin, from
segg,
meaning a small sword, in reference to the leaf shape. In the sixth
century Clovis I of France was able to escape the Goths when he noticed a patch
of yellow iris growing in the middle of the River Rhine indicating shallow
water. In gratitude he took the fleur-de-lis as his emblem. In the twelfth
century Louis VII of France adopted it as his emblem during the Crusades. The
English called the French soldiers 'flowers', a derogatory nickname which seems
to be a reference to the French emblem, the fleur-de-lis, hence Yellow Skeggs.