More About Markets and Fairs

There have been various posts about the markets and fairs of Angus on this blog (listed at the bottom of this piece).  The last of which tried to map out the year by listing those events of this type which happened in each locality.  However dates of fairs and markets were fluid over the course of decades and centuries and the size and form of markets also grew in the 16^th and 17^th centuries.  Dundee’s market in this period had to shift locations, as the burgh records notes, because of congestion from:

all cramers, chepmen and merchants - baith neighbours and strangers handling merchandise and small cramerie wares - whause to stand in the mercat with tents and crames, come to the kirkyard, on the south side of Our Lady Kirk, and big their stands and tents there . . .

   The resurgence of crime in Victorian Dundee was strongly linked with fairs and markets. In 1862 a group of some 40 ratepayers complained about the lawlessness of these markets. The Bishop of Brechin, Alexander Forbes, also highlighted the degeneracy of the events and advocated the banning of street amusements in Dundee, something which had already happened in Glasgow. He highlighted the dangers of drunkenness and prostitution on impressionable young people attending fairs and markets.

The Rood Fair, Montrose

There was fierce competition between merchants over having the prime spot or pitch, as noted by the 18^th century Montrose poet David Morison in his note to his poem ‘The Rood Fair’ (published in Montrose, Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, 1790):

It was the custom in Montrose till within these few years past, for travelling merchants convene on the street, or in some convenient place, the day before the fair; after arranging themselves three men deep, each exerting his whole strength, by pushing against one another, for the choice of their place (the weakest always got the worst).  But that foolish custom is now laid aside, and in its place is substituted the drawing of tickets.

   A few stanzas of his poem give some idea about the atmosphere of the fair, which had its roots in medieval times, as it was before the 19^th century:

Was there in Scotland even see

Sic fairin' an' sic' rantin',

Sin' Allan's Christ's-kirk on the green,

A tale he weel might vaunt on,

'Till in Mon'ross there did convene,

A core baith blyth an' wanton,

When lads an' lasses neat an' clean,

Came to the Rood Fair jauntin

                    Fu' blyth that day.

Lat's view the day before th Fair;

When chapman-lads do trot in,

And on the causeway pushin' fair,

To birze out the Red Rotten;

Wi' back to side they push, they swear,

While gauments far are shot in

To keep their place, till dirt besmear,

And rotten eggs play shot in

                     Their lugs that day.

Mercantile Skulduggery at Fairs and Markets

Herbert Maxwell's history of Dundee gives a fair amount of coverage of the humdrum detail regulating the burgh's fairs and markets, but also some interesting material about disorder, crookedness and occasional violence.  Here he explains that the authorities had to be watchful about stolen produce being peddled in the town: 

In the border land between the highlands and lowlands, within passes difficult of access, and almost beyond the jurisdiction of law, there were convenient haunts for cattle lifters, who often stole with impunity, and were able to dispose of their spoil in neighbouring borrows-towns. This nefarious traffic had been carried on in Dundee.

  

 [October 5, 1562]:  'It is notourlie knawn that diverse persons in the country and to landward, theftously steal sheep, kye, and oxen, and bring the bouks  [carcasses] thereof to sell in the market, and for concealing and colouring their theft, leave behind them at hame the skins, hides, and heads thereof, so that the marks of the samin can nocht be knawn, and the awners thereof restorit to their awn.'

The Council resolved to suppress this, and for remedy they 'ordanit that na person bringing flesh to sell, presume fra this day furth to bring ony bulks of sheep, kye, or oxen without the samin have with them and ilk ane of them the skin, hide, and head presentit also, under the pain of confiscation of all flesh brocht be them wanting the skins and heads.' Objection had likewise been made to keeping cattle alive in the town; and it was enacted  'that sheep shall not be transportit furth, but be slain and presentit to the public market ;" and again, that no one "shall buy ony sheep or cattle coming alive, but shall lat the awner slay the samen' and sell them 'to the king's lieges'—the purpose of this being to secure the animals for the use of the town by rendering them incapable of being driven off elsewhere. [The History of Old Dundee, Dundee, 1884, p. 55.]

   Five years after that ruling there was an ordinance in Dundee banning the selling of birds at market devoid of head, feet and feathers.  'Naked' fowls might often be unidentifiable and were often feared to be stolen.

Violence At The Dundee Fairs

  The right of the hereditary constables of Dundee - the Scrymgeours - to have jurisdiction over Dundee's fairs was frequently disputed.  But the fact of frequent disorder at the events was another factor which argued that some authority had to be maintained.  Whether the Scrymgeours misused their influence, or were thought to do so, is also open to question.  Four brothers from Tealing named Maxwell were at Dundee fair in August 1580 when they allegedly witnessed their cousin Walter Arnot being assaulted by the uncle of the constable, James Scrymgeour.  They rescued Walter but were challenged to surrender him to the authorities several days later, which suggests that he was being accused of some criminal activity.

 The ancient St James’ Fair at Forfar used to last for ten days, from 20^th to the 30^th of July, but had dwindled to a single day by the late Victorian period.  There must have been a history of disorder at this mercantile gathering also, for in 1652 a warrant was issued empowering the magistrate of Forfar ‘to arme with halberts twenty-foure men during the time of the faire, for keeping the peace, and collecting the customs thereof.’

 

Competition and Trade at Brechin

  Roger Leitch has looked at the struggles of the smaller burghs, such as Brechin, to maintain their markets in the face of competition both from other markets and from itinerant merchants such as packmen who were able to undercut the traditional traders at the established markets.*  Brechin’s economy was noted as declining in the 1680s and even several decades earlier native merchants complained to the council about what they regarded as illegal competition from chapmen ‘who retail and buy all sorts of staple goods such as lint

hemp iron tobacco salt serp and yarn, whereby they detain the country people from coming into the burgh to buy such commodities from us . . .'

   Remoteness from ports and competition from the Laird of Edzell’s weekly market at the St Lawrence Fair in the Mearns also damaged livelihoods in the town.  There was also an illegal market nearby every week near the North Water Bridge, in the parish of Dun. 

(*  'Here chapman billies tak their stand: a pilot study of Scottish chapmen, packmen and pedlars’, Proceedings of the  Society of Antiquaries of  Scotland, 120 (1990), 173-188.)

Previous Posts on Fairs and Markets

The Angus Calendar: Revised List of Fairs and Markets

The Angus Calendar: Fairs and Markets, Part One

Fairs and Markets, Part Two

 Latter Day Angus Fairs and Markets  (from the Arbroath Directory, 1926)

Fairs and Markets in 1846
(from the Angus and Mearns Directory)

Inchbraoch - The Holy Island of Montrose

   Among the demonstrable early Christian sites in Angus there are some which are more prominent than others, which is not to say that this was always the case.  The most famous sites are arguably those which continued to have religious significance in the centuries after their establishment.  Among these we may include Brechin, St Vigeans, Monifieth, and Restenneth. Places like St Vigeans are literally more visible because of the quantity of monumental remains from the early medieval period.

   The criteria for establishing which place was suitable as a religious centre was likely never hard and fast.  Different places became holy places or habitations of Christian monks for a variety of reasons.  The traditional belief that many, if not most, early Christian sites were nothing more than pagan holy places rebranded by the sign of the cross is untenable.  But there are certain aspects of places which did seem to make them suitable as religious power centres. Sites  which were on the boundaries of political regions, or on border areas, were sometimes chosen by early holy men, mindful that they could thereby be at the fulcrum of two sets of tribes or regional authorities. (In Ireland, such places may have been designated as places where cairde, peace treaties, were enacted.) In our area the major example may be Meigle, the Perthshire parish which – to this day – juts like an isthmus into Angus, and which was likely a major Pictish religious and temporal power centre.  Another place may be Dargie/Invergowrie, straddling the later Angus-Perthshire border, a boundary perhaps representing the divide between Pictish provinces or regions.

   One tactic favoured by some wily early medieval churchmen was to inveigle the local warlord into gifting them their stronghold, which could be afterwards converted into a church or a monastery.  The primary example of this in Angus might be Kirkbuddo (Carbuddo), which was allegedly founded by the Irish St Buite in the 5^th century.  (The story of its foundation can be read here.) Again, there are other examples of secular power centres being transformed into churches in Britain.

   Christian foundations such as St Vigeans and  Logie in Dundee were made on prominent sites, hillocks which were prominent local landmarks, and possibly in these cases had ritual and pagan significance of some sort before the coming of the new religion.  Other places, such as Restenneth were islands (or near islands), which again may have had a spiritual significance connected with belief and landscape.

   In this latter category is Inchbrayock, or Inchbraoch, south of Montrose.  Also known as Rossie Island*, this is a site of some obvious importance in the early medieval period. Separated by two channels of the South Esk, this unassuming place was a tidal island until the 1970s, access by foot being possible from the south side to Ferryden at low tide. The north channel facing Montrose was wider and served by a suspension bridge (replaced by a concrete bridge in 1930).  On the Ferryden side there was a stone bridge. Even in the Dark Ages this low lying island must have been, topographically speaking, nondescript.  What made it special, apart?

* Alternative names/spellings for the same place include Inchbrioch and Insula Sancti Bricchi. In the 13th century Registrum of Aberbrothoc the island is called Inchebrioc and Innis sancta brioc.

The Church, Churchyard and The Saint

   The name of the place is possibly the key to its religious beginnings, but it is doubtful whether this puzzle can now be resolved. The clerical author of the Old Statistical Account of the parish in the late 18th century suggested that Inchbrayock means 'Island of Trouts,' but most modern authorities agree that the name means 'Island of St Brioc', and that this saint is the Celtic British churchman of the 5th-6th century who was born in what became Cardiganshire and emigrated to Brittany, via Cornwall. The parish of St Breock in the latter remembers him, as does the town of St Brieuc in Brittany, where he settled. A disciple of the better known St Germanus of Auxerre, it is a mystery why he should be especially remembered on the eastern coast of Pictland. Archibald Scott, however, equates the Brioc of eastern Scotland with another man, also known as St Brigh, associated with Kingennie in Angus and other places (The Pictish Nation, p. 215).

Inchbraoch from the south

   His other major commemoration in Scotland is as patron of the church of Rothesay on the island of Bute. 'St Brock's Fair' on Bute also honoured the saint and was held on the first Wednesday in May. 'Brux Day Fair,' was held in the 16th century on the island of Cumbrae. The only other remembrance of him seems to be in Dunrod, Kircudbrightshire, whose church was dedicated both to St Mary and St Brioc. The saint's day, in Scotland, was 1st May. The rarity of dedications to this southern saint and the fact that he was commemorated here is interesting.  Suggestions that the place may remember an even more shadowy Irish saint with a similar name are questionable.

   The ancient church on Inchbrayock stood on the south-east side of the island, on a slight mound or eminence which was possibly artificial. The church is recorded as being dedicated in 1243, though it could have been in existence long before this date. It was in ruins by the year 1573 and was demolished some time before 1684. Ochterlonie's Account of the Shire of Forfar, close to the latter date notes:

The river (South Esk) makes ane island betwixt Montrose and Ferredene, where the kirk in old stood, and the whole parish is designed from the island, and is still the buriall place of the parish. They always wait the low water, and carries over their dead then, being almost dry on the south syd when it is low water.

   The ancientness and sanctity of the island seems to be warranted by several accounts: its association with an ancient saint, the elevated position of its church, and the continuance of burial on the island after the church was removed. A further point in favour of its uniqueness are the three Pictish stones found on the island, discussed below. There is another indication of early sancity. Thomas Clancy Owen notes that the Angus name Annatbank must relate to Inchbrayock. The element annaid means 'ancient or prior [church] foundation' and is recognised as a name which is indicative of very early Christian activity. He states: 'it [Annatbank] being an eroded sand bank, can be understood merely as a bank which had fishing or collecting rights belonging to the local andod, Inchbrayock.'

   As mentioned, the chapel on the island was ruinous by the late 16th century.  In fact, the Protestant Superintendent of Angus and the Mearns, John Erskine of Dun (1509-1591), a local man, was accused by some of  physically demolishing the chapel of the island, a charge which he firmly rebutted in a response to the General Assembly of the kirk:

Hearing in my absence that a complaint was given upon me alleging that I had destroyed . . .the kirk of Inchbrayock and joined it to the kirk of Maritoun, I . . . declare to your wisdomes my part in that cause. I never did destroy a parish kirk but would have the reparation of all. As to that kirk ... I, in my visitation, finding it spoiled and broken, did request that the parishioners repair to the kirk of Maritoun, being near them, until their own kirk was bigged, the which I wish  to be done shortly and what is in me lyeth to further the same shall not be omitted. This is the truth . . . and if it be found otherwise I shall build the kirk at my own expenses. If your wisdomes think any fault herein, I am subdued, and shall obey your godly judgement. 

   We have no reason to disbelieve such a scrupulous individual as Erskine, though one reason why he, or other Protestants, would have done away with the kirk here might have been due to its association with ritual or idolatry in some form.  The fact that there was a complaint in the first place shows the regard which locals held the site in.  The medieval church probably stood where the remains of the later vault now lies, but there is no very early medieval architecture on site.

The Pictish Sculptured Stones - the Samson Connection

   Three Pictish stones haves been found at Inchbrayock, one of which is now lost.  Inchbrayock No. 1 is the largest stone and the most complete.  This stone was found in the kirkyard on the island (grid reference NO 709568) and first described by Patrick Chalmers in Ancient Sculptured Monuments of the County of Angus (1849).  Now in Montrose Museum, where it was brought to in 1859, this cross slab may be 9th or 10th century, a dating based partly on the fact that there are few Pictish symbols on the stone.  The exception seems to be the  possible 'double disc' Pictish symbol on the top-left hand of one side.  Similarities to earlier Northumbrian art have been postulated. The figures on this same side, at the bottom, may feature Samson attacking his enemy with a jaw bone  (on the left).  The reference would be to the passage in Judges, chapter 15, 15-16:

And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith.

And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men.

   The particular significance of this biblical passage in this setting is unknown. The strange figure on the bottom right of this side may represent the Virgin Mary with the infant Jesus.  On the top of this side is a hunting scene, familiar from many other Pictish slabs.

   The presence of the biblical hero has given this stone its alternative informal name The Samson Stone.  The link with Samson is conjectured to continue on the other side, with a small figure who is having his hair pulled by a larger figure to his right, supposed by some to represent Delilah.

   But the Samson link is by no means unanimously agreed.   Pictish expert Isabel Henderson commented in The Art of the Picts (2004, p. 143) that:  'With...uncertainty, the dregs of a Samson cycle may be perhaps be seen on the front and back of  cross-slab from Inchbrayock.'  The figure supposed to be Delilah has what appears to be an animal's head, which would not only case doubt on her as a biblical character, but also summons thoughts of similarities to other figures on Pictish stones elsewhere which have human bodies but heads belonging to different creatures.

Inchbrayock  No. 1, front and rear.

    Inchbrayock No. 2 was found near the site of the other stone in 1857 while a grave was being dug.  It was also given to Montrose Museum.The front of this incomplete stone displays the upper section of a cross, with each corner holding a symbol which may represent St John the Evangelist.  The rear shows a hunting scene.

Inchbrayock No. 2

   Inchbrayock No. 3, another broken stone, survives only in a photograph and has gone missing since the early 20th century.  It also shows a hunting scene.  It was discovered in 1884 and may in fact represent a detached part of  Inchbrayock No. 2.

Inchbrayock No. 3

The Parish History

   The island and the adjoining part of the mainland formed up the medieval  parish of Inchbraoch, which was joined with the adjacent parish of St Skeoch  (St Skae, or Dunninald) to form Craig parish in 1618. (Inchbrayock was subsequently joined to Montrose parish.) The proximity of the dedication to St Skeoch obviously merits further examination.  The original church dedicated to Skeoch stood on the cliffs.  The historian of the county, Alexander Warden, describes it as follows:

The Kirk of S. Skeoch, Disciple, stood upon a cliff on the coast, some distance to the south of the debouchere of the South Esk. There is still a small graveyard called the Chapel of St Skay, but there are now almost no ruins of any buildings to be seen on the spot. It is a picturesque place, and  interments are still made there whensoever occasion arises. manse, which stood on an adjoining field, is still discernible. [Angus or Forfarshire, volume 3.]

   This saint too is something of a mystery.  Some have equated him with one of the numerous holy men called Eochaid.  Mackinlay (in Influence of  the Pre-Reformation Church on Scottish Place-Names, p. 26) believes that it is significant that this east cost proximity of dedications to St Brioc/St Skeoch is echoed on the west coast island of Bute, where 'there is a Skeoch in Rothesay, and...St Brock Fair...'  

   Significantly or not, the chapel of St Skeoch belonged to the ancient priory of Restenneth near Forfar.  Warden also refers to two ancient chapels in the vicinity, attached to the church of Inchbrayock:

the Chapels of S. Mary and S. Fergus.  Of the latter nothing is known, but the former stood a little to the south of Scurdyness Lighthouse, and close by the ocean. The site is now the burying place of the families of Scott and Renny, who were formerly proprietors of lands in the parish.

   Fergus was an early saint venerated in Angus.  His name occurs on the Drosten Stone at St Vigeans and he was the patron of Glamis parish.

   According to the writer Andrew Jervise:

Inchbrioch, which was a mensal church of the diocese of St. Andrews, was dedicated by Bishop David in 1243, and with its two chapels (possibly S. Mary's and S. Fergus'), is rated at 30 merks in the Taxation of 1275. The first recorded rector of S. Braoch is Sir John of Cadiou, who on 21st Sept., 1328, witnessed a confirmation charter by Robert the Bruce of Walter of Shakloc's gift to Henry of Inieny of the third part of the lands of Inieny. [Epitaphs and Inscriptions, vol. 2, p. 387.]

In Conclusion

   Without archaeological exploration it is impossible to say what the scale of the early religious site was at Inchbraoch - was it a full monastery or a secular site with some religious presence, for instance?  Does the persistence of the use of the burial place on the island, long after the chapel disappeared, signify that it had associations akin to a place of pilgrimage? 

   The associations of the saint Brioc give no clue as to why he should have special association with this place in Scotland: his traditions are the bland, standard miraculous fare of saints' lives. If the stones found on the island point to a possible 9th-10th century religious settlement, was there an earlier establishment connected with the 5th-6th century saint?  Charles Thomas advises that there was an 'extension of monasticism from Ireland to western Scotland in the later sixth century, and to the Western and Northern Isles in the seventh'  (The Early Christian Archaeology of North Britain, p. 35), which may give some context for the foundation period. No extensive work has been done to compare early Christian foundations in eastern Scotland, to my knowledge.  The emphatic use of the saint's name here echoes the local cult site of St Vigeans to the south (and further away Pictish foundations such as St Andrews), and may hint that relics belonging to this saint were honoured at a foundation here.

   I have pointed out the possible coincidence that Bute, an island on the other side of Scotland, has a dedication to St Brioc.  If we look for 'holy' islands on the east coast of Scotland these are truly few and far between.  One thinks first of Inchcolm, dedicated to Columba, in the Firth of Forth, but the early history of this place is likewise unknown. 

   Still, the similarity of this island in its landscape to other sacred islands such as Iona has been pointed out by  Fanch Bihan-Gallic; and especially its 'border land' position:

Inchbraoch is a double border: it is the island standing between Montrose and the fishing village of Ferryden, but also the island closing the Basin of Montrose, thus marking the transition between the river Esk and the North Sea.

   It is unlikely that we will ever know the full story of the holy island.  But the fact that there have been no explorations of excavations of religious sites in southern Pictland possibly gives impetus to excavation here.  The riches discovered at the hitherto unknown northern Pictish monastery at Portmahomack signposts the possibility of further discoveries in southern Pictland.

Some Sources and Further Reading Suggestions

A Calendar of Scottish Saints, Dom Michael Barrett (2nd edn, Fort Augustus, 1919).

Ancient Church Dedications in Scotland, Non Scriptural Dedications, James Murray Mackinlay (Edinburgh, 1914).

Angus or Forfarshire, Alexander Warden, 5 vols. (Dundee, 1880-1885).

'Annat in Scotland and the origins of the parish,' Thomas Clancy Owen, The Innes Review, vol. 46, No 2 (Autumn 1995) pp. 91-115.

The Early Christian Archaeology of North Britain, Charles Thomas (Oxford, 1971).

Epitaphs and Inscriptions from Burial Grounds and Old Buildings in the North East of Scotland (2 vols., Edinburgh, 1879).

Influence of  the Pre-Reformation Church on Scottish Place-Names, James Murray Mackinlay (Edinburgh and London, 1904).

'Pictish Art,' Robert B. K. Stevenson, in The Problem of the Picts, ed. F.T. Wainwright, pp. 97-128 (London, 1955; rep. Perth, 1980).

'The parishes of medieval Scotland,' Ian B. Cowan, Scottish Record Society, vol. 93 (1967).

The Pictish Nation, Its People and Its Church, Archibald B. Scott (Edinburgh and London, 1918). 

http://www.ancientpages.com/2019/01/21/inchbrayock-stone-pictish-samson-stone-carved-with-biblical-symbols-and-scenes/

https://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=7154

https://saintsplaces.gla.ac.uk/place.php?id=591

http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/36229/details/inchbraoch+braoch+road+church/  

https://canmore.org.uk/site/36229/inchbraoch-braoch-road-church

Eileanan-Cladha anns an Alba, Burial-Islands in Scotland, Fanch Bihan-Gallic,  University of Edinburgh 2015, https://www.academia.edu/35728633/Burial-Islands_in_Scotland

Not Death Again! More Lyke Wake Customs and Tales

   In a previous post I wrote about the historical rituals and customs surrounding death death.  That piece discussed parish mort-cloths (for people who could not afford coffins) and lyke wakes, the long-standing ceremony where community members sat with the deceased in the house until the time of burial.  (That article can be viewed here.)

   As you can't have too much of a good thing, more details about the customs and traditions in this macabre, but unavoidable, aspect of mortality, are hereby provided.

The Lyke Wake and The Dairgie

   One surprising aspect of the lyke wake is the fact that it often involved many local people in a gathering which was marked by frivolity and amusement rather than solemn watchfulness.  My previous article on the subject suggested that the event was attended mostly by close friends of the deceased, usually older members of the community.  But the evidence presented below shows that young people in the area often made up most of the members at a lyke wake and they were far from dour in their behaviour.

   The following quote is from a writer who called himself Taodunus and appeared in The Scots Magazine as 'Customs and Superstitions of the Scottish Peasantry, at Births and Burials,'  (volume 83, 1819, pp. 219-224):

Until of late years, it was not only common, but admitted of few exceptions, for a great number of persons to assemble together at night in the house where the corpse lay, and there hold the lykewake.  The party consisted generally of young people of both sexes, where every species of rustic amusement, except singing and dancing, was entered into with avidity.  Rural sports and games were adopted, and generally so contrived, as to produce forfeits, which gave a good pretext for tousling and kissing the lasses.  The company was regaled with bread and cheese, beer and a dram; and the mirthful hilarity of the party was generally as unlike the occasion of their meeting as it is almost possible to conceive.  A new squad assembled next evening, and the same scenes were repeated nightly until the corpse was interred.

   When a boy about fifteen, I recollect being of being one among twenty at a lykewake, and so excellent were the sports, and so keenly did they engross the attention, that I and one or two more attended two successive nights, without having had any sleep through the intermediate day.   I conceive this fact as sufficiently illustrative of what was generally going on upon these occasions.  The house was so often so full, that there were not seats for the company; and I have seen the bed-side where the corpse lay uncoffined occupied by two or three, from the want of other accommodation.  An old friend of mine related to me a whimsical anecdote that occurred at a lykewake where he was present.

     The company being short of sitting room, two young fellows were seated on the front of the bed, where the corpse was stretched; according to the fashion of the times, one of the young men had a leathern belt about his waist, buckled over his jacket; his companion, an arch wag, recollecting that the deceased had a crooked figure, slily and gently lifted up the dead man’s hand, and fastened the crooked finger in his companion’s belt; then rising with an air of indifference, he walked to the door, from which, with counterfeited emotion he called to the company that a house on the village was on fire; all got up attempting to rush out; among the rest the man on the bed-side also arose, but felt himself suddenly pulled back, and as he supposed by the dead person behind him: so powerful was the impression, that he fell backwards  across the bed in a swoon, from which he was with much difficulty recovered.

   He later gives details of  customs which used to prevail both before and after the actual funeral:

Very absurd customs of feasting on these occasions formerly prevailed.  On the evening before the funeral, a number of the neighbours, male and female, were invited to the 'coffining;' and immediately after the funeral, the same females and others concerned assembled to what is still termed the dairgie, probably a corruption of dirge, although the rites observed are very dissimilar...

   Among those in the better ranks, such as respectable farmers and tradesmen, the company are all seated in the barn, where they partake of a good dinner, and sit for an hour or two after, drinking toddy, sometimes wine.  Formerly it was nothing uncommon for the company to get very tipsy, before rising from the table, but the practice of dinners is wearing out, or, when they do take place, the guests, with a decorum more suited to the occasion, rise very soon after. 

Different Practices in Dundee and Arbroath

   Taodunus remarks on the sombre clothes at Arbroath funerals and the serving of drams (or a choice of drinks at more affluent houses) at the house of the deceased. Crowds of two hundred or more were not unusual.  He disapproved of the Dundonian custom of mourners appearing in their work clothes - 'weavers in their dirty linen jackets, and shoemakers with their greasy aprons' - and notes that people are seldom invited into the house.  Poverty of the industrial workers is ascribed to the latter custom.

General Superstitions and Customs Around Death

   Taodunum also gives some interesting living superstitions concerning the passing of life, one of two of which may be unique:

At death, many freits [superstitions] are still observed, some of which are strange enough.  When a person is dying, no one in the house, of whatever age, is allowed to sleep, - for this I have heard no reason, farther than it was unlucky.  Ir is also believed, that, when a person dies unseen, they who first discover them will die in a similar manner.  When one expires, the clock is immediately stopped and the dial-plate covered with a towel; mirrors are also covered in a similar manner.  All the cats belonging to the house are caught, and put in immediate confinement.  The reason given for this is, that they would endeavour, if possible, to pass over the corpse, and the first that they crossed after would be deprived of sight.

   When the body is dressed and laid out, a Bible is often put below its head, while a plate with salt, and another with a piece of green turn, is placed on the breast.  It is also a common practice in some quarters of this country, should the corpse be conveyed to the church-yard in a cart, for some one immediately after the coffin is put upon the cart, to say, 'Now, what is that horse and cart worth?'  I have been at some pains to learn what was meant by this, but never could receive any other reply but that it was the custom.  Among the lower classes, the female relatives crowd about the door when the corpse is carrying out, and frequently give most audible vent to their grief; sometimes the widow will insist upon carrying her deceased husband's head part of the way to the grave.  The husband always walks to the church-yard and lays in his wife's head.

    

The Deadly Joke Which Went Fatally Wrong

   Taodunum also gives a story from the 18th century which concerns the schoolmaster of Monifieth, Mr William Craighead.  This shorter version of the tale  below, however, is by the Rev Charles Rogers, from his book Scotland, Social and Domestic, Memorials of Life and Manners in North Britain  (London, 1869, pp. 121-2):

In some of the outlying districts the proceedings of the latewake culminated in a festival, at the chesting of the corpse. This took place on the night preceding the funeral, the festivity being known as the dargies or dirgies. The occasion was often attended with boisterous levity and merry-making. When the apartment became crowded, some of the company would seat themselves in front of the bed in which the corpse lay uncoffined. On such occasions the company looked upon the remains of mortality without feelings other than those which would prompt the merry laugh or excite the ill-timed jest.

   Persons whose education might have led society to expect becoming behaviour at their hands, indulged in practical jesting at the lykewake. About the close of the last century a dargies was held in the parish of Monifieth, Forfarshire. A large gathering took place in the chamber of the deceased. Among the number was Mr. William Craighead, the parish schoolmaster, a man of some literary attainments, and author of a popular system of arithmetic. There had been much romping and giggling on the part of the female portion of the watchers, and Mr. Craighead unwisely judged that an alarm which he planned with a confederate would check the evil. Having induced the watchers to leave the apartment for a little, he hastily removed the corpse into the barn, while his confederate lay down in the bed, habited in the dead man's shroud.  it had been arranged that on a renewal of the merriment he should rise up to startle the company.  the gaiety had some time been resumed, when Mr Craighead, surprised that his confederate gave no sign, opened the shroud and found that he was dead.  The impressive event put a perpetual stop to the improper merriment of the dargies in that district of the Lowlands.

   This tale had much currency in the Victorian era (something to do with their obsessive morbidity) and I published a previous version of this tale from Catherine Crowe's The Night Side of Nature (1848)  in a previous article.  (It can he read here).

One of Monifieth's old kirks

A Tales of Two Museums: The Angus Folk Museum and Glenesk Retreat & Folk Museum

A rather plaintive, short piece regarding two museums in the county.  The Angus Folk Museum in Glamis has been permanently closed for a number of years due to the condition of the building in which it is housed.  The Glenesk Retreat and Folk Museum is also closed for restructuring, but it will return as an attraction for visitors. 

   The Glenesk Folk Museum at the Retreat was set up in 1955 by Miss Greta Michie, a local farmer's daughter and school teacher, based on Scandinavian folk museums she had visited in Norway. The Retreat (which was a former hunting lodge of the Earls of Dalhousie) houses an extremely large collection of artefacts, some of which are now on display in the museum. In 2004 a community purchase and subsequent major refurbishment of circa £800,000 took place.  One room inside shows a rural Victorian parlour, with all the furnishings of the period, from harmonium, bonny china plates, plus tapestries.

Greta Michie

   There is, inside the museum a large spinning wheel, extraordinarily more than 300 years old, which allegedly belonged to a lady named Jessie Cattanach who had the distinction of being more than  feet in height, nearly a giantess in her day.  You can also see a 17th century box bed and a large collection of old children's and adult's clothes.  There are many thousands of objects in storage on site, many of which will be shown to the public when the displays change in the future.

The Retreat in the 1970s

   The Angus Folk Museum was also instituted by the efforts of one remarkable woman, Jean, Lady Maitland, who was inspired by the Highland Folk Museum, Am Fasadh, and wanted to emulate something which would cover Angus and Strathmore.  She first set up a collection in Rescobie manse and opened to the public in September 1953.  It moved to its more permanent home in an old cottage in Kirk Wynd in Glamis in 1957 and there it remained till the present.  Additions were made to the buildings in the 1970s, which was also the decade when the National Trust for Scotland took over its ownership.   

   The buildings here date back to the late 18th century, but sadly they have become dilapidated, leading the museum to permanently close.  The National trust for Scotland have advised they hope to find alternative premises for the fine collection and one hopes it will not be too long before an announcement to this effect is made.  

Other museums are available (and open) in Angus.

*** 2021 Update. The National Trust for Scotland have announced that a refurbishment to the House of Dun near Montrose will include much of the material (and more) which was formerly housed in the Angus Folk Museum at Glamis.

The Laird of Balmachie's Wife - A Fairy Story and Other Fairy Traditions

Fairy tales set in Angus are unfortunately quite rare, but I came across the following one recently. This was printed in Folk-Lore and Legends, Scotland, published by W. W. Gibbings, London, 1889, but is sourced from an earlier published work (detailed below):

In the olden times, when it was the fashion for gentlemen to wear swords, the Laird of Balmachie went one day to Dundee, leaving his wife at home ill in bed. Riding home in the twilight, he had occasion to leave the high road, and when crossing between some little romantic knolls, called the Curhills, in the neighbourhood of Carlungy, he encountered a troop of fairies supporting a kind of litter, upon which some person seemed to be borne. Being a man of dauntless courage, and, as he said, impelled by some internal impulse, he pushed his horse close to the litter, drew his sword, laid it across the vehicle, and in a firm tone exclaimed 'In the name of God, release your captive.'

   The tiny troop immediately disappeared, dropping the litter on the ground. The laird dismounted, and found that it contained his own wife, dressed in her bedclothes. Wrapping his coat around her, he placed her on the horse before him, and, having only a short distance to ride, arrived safely at home. Placing her in another room, under the care of an attentive friend, he immediately went to the chamber where he had left his wife in the morning, and there to all appearance she still lay, very sick of a fever. She was fretful, discontented, and complained much of having been neglected in his absence, at all of which the laird affected great concern, and pretending much sympathy, insisted
upon her rising to have her bed made. She said that she was unable to rise, but her husband was peremptory, and having ordered a large wood fire to warm the room, he lifted the impostor from the bed, and bearing her across the floor as if to a chair, which had been previously prepared, he threw her on the fire, from which she bounced like a sky-rocket, and went through the ceiling, and out at the roof of the house, leaving a hole among the slates. 

   He then brought in his own wife, a little recovered from her alarm, who said, that sometime after sunset, the nurse having left her for the purpose of preparing a little candle, a multitude of elves came in at the window, thronging like bees from a hive. They filled the room, and having lifted her from the bed carried her through the window, after which she recollected nothing further, till she saw her husband standing over her on the Cur-hills, at the back of  Carlungy. The hole in the roof, by which the female fairy made her escape, was mended, but could never be kept in repair, as a tempest of wind happened always once a year, which uncovered that particular spot, without injuring any other part of the roof.

   The setting of this story is quite significant.  The Cur Hills were a series of mounds in the parish of Monikie, described in the following fashion by the Rev. William Maule in the 1791 Old Statistical Account:

Near the 8th milestone, E. from Dundee, there is a ridge of small hills, called the Cur-hills, where within these 14 years several stone coffins have been found.  In the vicinity of the same place, were found upward of 6 feet below the surface of the earth, several trees, oak, fir and birch.  There were also found urns, covered with broad stones, below which were ashes, supposed to have been human bodies reduced to that state by burning.  To the south of the Cur-hills were found several heads of deer, and horns of a very large size, among marl, about 9 feet below the surface.

   This was evidently regarded locally as an unusual, possibly an uncanny place.  In the 1940s an earth house or weem (also called a souterrain) was found here, at Carlungie.  This souterrain (designated Carlungie I) is in an area rich with archaeological finds.  Its setting is described in The Souterrains of Southern Scotland, F. T. Wainwright (1963, p. 149), where the Cur Hills is described as the most southerly  of 'two long mounds of fluvio-glacial sand and gravel.'  Was the subterranean structure known about before (and subsequently forgotten)?  Such mysterious underground tunnels were the subject of whispered associations elsewhere - notable in the Barns of Airlie (which will be the subject of a following article).

   The story of 'The Laird of Balmachie's Wife' first appeared, I think, in an article in The Scots Magazine titled 'Customs and Superstitions of the Scottish Peasantry, at Births and Burials,' by a resident of the Carse of Gowrie who called himself Taodunus, but who was originally a native of the Monikie area (volume 83, 1819, pp. 219-224).

   As well as the fairy story he gives traditions about funerals which I have included in another post and some other fairy and associated traditions he received from a female source who also gave him the Balmachie tale.

Respecting the kidnapping of children, the same creditable old woman told me, that, upon one occasion, when she was a hafflin' cummer, about sixteen years of age, she was left with the charge of an unchristened wean during the night; while watching, she was seized with a supernatural drowsiness, and dropt asleep; something tapped her on the shoulder, which awaked her, and looking up she saw a wee woman clad in green, rocking the cradle with her foot, and very busy untying the child, which she had nearly accomplished, when Janet, in great affright, exclaimed, 'Lord preserve us!' upon which her unwelcome visitor immediately disappeared.   My narrator was reckoned a respectable woman, and was never known to be guilty of wilful falsehood.

   Kidnapping by fairies is a common feature in British fairy tales, with the victim often replaced by a 'stock', as in the first tale.  Interesting too that these fairies or elves conform to the latter-day description of them as very diminutive folk, when in previous centuries they had appeared often as full sized.

'The Beauty of Ballumbie' -

Fairy Kidnapping or Infanticide?

   Another darker tale was related to Taodunum:

Janet told also of a beautiful girl, with a skin so purely while and transparent, that her veins apepared through it like silver streams, and her cheeks like 'the bonnie blushing rose leaf.'  She was famed all over the country under the appellation of 'the Beauty of Ballumbie'...

   The girl became pregnant and delivered a baby boy when she was 15, which prompted her maiden aunt to expel her from her some.  So the girl took her child and went to live in a nearby hovel.  One day she was not seen in the neighbourhood, so her neighbours gained entry to the bothy through a hold in the roof, 'for there was no window that would admit them'.

When within, they found the door barred on the inside; the infant dead in bed, with the appearance of having been strangled; no mother there, and her clothes lying by her bed-side, as if she had put them off upon going to sleep.  Strange and various were the conjectures about her most extraordinary disappearance.  One party maintained that she had become insane, murdered her child, and made her escape by the roof; for, from the construction of the windows, and the door being fastened on the inside, all egress any other way was impossible.  Another, and by far the most numerous party, most firmly believed that she had been carried to Fairyland,a s it was known that she had taken no clothes with her, and had never been heard of, dead or alive.

   Extraordinarily, the girl reappeared after 7 years, 'late of an evening'.  She said that she and her child were carried away through the air to the back of the hill of Duntrune, where:

as they passed, there was light in the house of Duntrune, and some of the fairies expressed a fear of being discovered by a lady, who, it seems, had power over them; but another answered, that Puck had given one of the maids a colic, and the lady was attending her in a low room on the other side of the house.  That they then entered the hill, and came to a grand palace, the particulars of which she was not at liberty to describe.  That she continued to nurse the boy, whom she still imagined her own, and sing that time nursed other six to the King and Queen of Fairyland; the milk never having left her breast until about a month before her return, when she understood, from overhearing a private conversation, that she would have no more milk till she was again a mother.  

Duntrune House

   The fairies agreed to send her back to the mortal world, in the hope she would again get pregnant so they could use her wet-nurse services once more.  In tradition, fairies often had difficulties nursing their own offspring and had to utilise unwilling humans.

   While in the other world the girl had received a gift of very fine scented ointment to be used to anoint the eyes of her nurslings, under the instruction never to let it touch her own eyes, for it would make ordinary humans blind.  But eventually she applied the salve to her eyes and it hurt excessively, but she did not go blind.  Instead, it gave her supernatural vision and the power to see fairies walking through the world.  

She had lived thus, courted and caressed, always 'wooed but never won,' and many a time saw the fairies mingling in the affairs of men, when one day happening to be in a fair, she met King Oberon in a juggler's booth.  Less upon her guard than usual, she asked him how he did, and was proceeding to inquire upon her infant charge [she believed her real son was still in Fairyland]...when Oberon asked her how she knew him, as he did not think she could have seen him.  She unthinkingly replied, that she saw him with her left eye.  Upon which he blew something like dust into it,  and blasted its sight for ever.  The hapless girl returned from the fair, with one eye minus, and her future views of Fairyland and its inhabitants for ever lost. Her face was much disfigured, and, no longer an object of admiration, she was neglected by the one sex, and shunned by the other; grief and disappointment soon furrowed her cheeks; she became grey-haired at thirty, and died soon after with all the external marks of old age. 

   Why Oberon was in the juggler's tent, we shall never know.