CORRESPONDENCE.

THE PEDLAR OF SWAFFHAM.

I have read in the June number of Folk-Lore the review by Mr. Andrew Lang of Mr. Gomme's recent book on Folklore as an Historical Science. While it displays many of the piquant end delightful characteristics of Mr. Lang's writing I hardly think it does justice to the keen critical power, the wide knowledge, and the fertility of suggestion displayed in the work. On one point, however, I am heartily in agreement with the reviewer, namely, his opening remark that "discussion clears matters up, and that criticism is really a form of collaboration." With this in mind I venture to offer a few observations on Mr. Gomme's treatment of the tale of the Pedlar of Swaffham. It is a mere detail, and if the conclusion I am about to controvert be rejected the general argument of the book will be in no way affected. The utmost that can then be said is that some other story would have formed a better illustration of the possibilities which a due consideration of the contents of tradition may evolve.

All the British variants of the story of the Pedlar of Swaffham represent the hero to have been directed by his dream to London Bridge as the place where he was to hear good news. London Bridge is also mentioned in other traditions, English and Welsh. Moreover, it appears in a Breton story not belonging to the Pedlar cycle, where the hero disputes with another man which was more beautiful, London Bridge or the grace of God. He bets all his possessions on the latter, and by the

award of the first person they meet loses them. Then he makes his way to London Bridge to see it for himself, and there hears something which finally obtains him the hand of an emperor's daughter. A story in the Heimskringla also mentions London Bridge. A cripple directed to St. Olaf's Church for healing meets on London Bridge a mysterious stranger who shews him the way to the church. Mr. Gomme claims that these traditions prove that London Bridge, first built by the Romans, had produced a profound impression on the minds of the natives of Britain prior to the emigration to Brittany, as well as on the minds of the raiding Norsemen centuries later.

Taking the Norsemen first, it will be observed that the mention of the bridge is merely incidental. To a man coming to London from France, as the tale represents, London Bridge would be the entrance to the city; and it is there (surely the most natural place) that he meets the stranger who conducts him to the church. All the other stories to which Mr. Gomme refers were recorded centuries later than this. The earliest recorded version of the Pedlar of Swaffham is by Sir William Dugdale in a letter to Sir Roger Twysden under date 29th Jan., 1652-3. The Welsh tales (which do not belong to the same cycle, though they do relate to buried treasure) were not recorded before the middle of the last century. The Breton story is later still.

Now with great submission I think this is rather a sandy foundation for Mr. Gomme's conclusion. It may be conceded that London Bridge had acquired a reputation as a remarkable work, and one of the wonders of the capital, in all sorts of out of the way places. But it is far too large an assumption that it must have been before the flight of the British emigrants at the time of the Anglo-Saxon invasion to their new home in Brittany. There was plenty of time and plenty of opportunity for much later tidings of the wonder to travel to remote places and become fixed in the mind of the folk before any of the tales were recorded. I am not unmindful of the tenacity of tradition, nor do I forget that the date of the record is by no means the terminus a quo from which the date of the tradition itself is to be reckoned. The stories, however, are, in the form

at least in which they have descended to us, all of them late. None of them, save perhaps the song "London Bridge is broken down," could have arisen in a condition of society where hostility and bloodshed were rife, and travel and commerce were unknown or uncommon and unsafe. In a sense it is true that, as Mr. Gomme points out, legends of buried treasure belong to the period of conquest and fighting. But in this form they point to a period when the conquest and fighting had long been done, when peace had been re-established in such prestige that people could safely trade and journey and if good luck attended them recover the treasure buried by others long ages before.

There are still further considerations. The tale of the Pedlar of Swaffham is common all over central Europe as far north as Denmark and as far south as Sicily. It even appears in the Arabian Nights, the Masnavi I Ma'navi and other Oriental compilations. The relations of these variants to one another and to the British variants have not yet been fully investigated. But it is quite clear that they all arose in much the same state of society; and it is important to note that nearly all the European variants mention a bridge-sometimes one bridge, sometimes another, according to the country where the tale is told-as the place where the good news is to be communicated or the treasure heard of. Before we can draw any certain inferences from the mention in the British tales of London Bridge, we must know why a bridge at all was selected as the scene. There is nothing of the sort in the Oriental versions, and the remarkable agreement of the European tales on this detail points to a common source for them all. If, when the tale came to England, probably-nay, certainly-long after the Anglo-Saxon settlement, a bridge had to be found as the scene, many reasons may be suggested for choosing London Bridge, without going back to the days of the Romans for its renown.

The Lambeth window cannot upon the evidence be connected with the story. It did indeed agree with the stone figure at Swaffham in representing a pedlar with his pack and dog. But so far as local tradition goes, it was intended simply to commemorate a benefaction to the parish by a pedlar called Dog Smith. Dog Smith was an historical character who lived in

ong before his death, but sace show. No tale ada Saam has been I should be observed, us both at Swaffham and at

earance in the story.

ratons I cannot think that Mr. adducing the tale of the Pediar

anything of the stage of civilizacus when the Romans first built London ression made by the bridge upon their

E. SIDNEY HARTLAND.

OPENING WINDOWS FOR THE DEAD.

a ex the above subject, referred to in Folk-Lore, March, cogatively recent occurrence of the practice is cited

of 4th September, 1863, copied from the Bridgech, by Mr. P. H. Chavasse in Advice to a Mother Lamazement of for Children, in connection with the Cay of ventilation in scarlatina. As the book may be out of ...ve the extract.

Cross Superstition.-In one of the streets of Taunton there cakes a man and his wife who have the care of a child. This vid was attacked with scarlatina, and to all appearance death vox Mevitable A jury of matrons was, as it were, empanelled,

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to prevent the child dying hard' all the doors in the house, the drawers, all the boxes, all the cupboards were thrown ave open, the keys taken out, and the body of the child placed get a beam, whereby a sure, certain, and easy passage into uity could be secured. Watchers held their vigils throughout se weary night, and in the morning the child, to the surprise of did not die, and is now gradually recovering."

Sce Mr. Gomme's tull discussion of the matter, Antiquary, vol. x. p. 202.

Last year I heard of shutting windows, after death, from a Cambridge woman sixty years old. She did not know why it was done. W. INNES Pocock.

THAR-CAKE.

At the December meeting (1905) I exhibited a so-called TharCake, a species of Parken, that a Lancashire lady had sent me. The exhibit elicited a deal of correspondence, and I now beg to communicate, what I consider to be, the most important facts I have been able to collect.

The lady (Miss Berry of Oldham, Lancashire), who sent me the cake confirms what she previously stated, viz., that the cake is generally made for, and eaten on, November 5th. According to local authorities this date coincides with an old feast in honour of the Scandinavian God Thor; for this something may be said. (seq.). The same kind of cake is made in Yorkshire, but is called York Parken.

Mrs. Gomme suggested I should publish the recipe-Voila!!

Finely ground flour, 2 lbs.; granulated sugar, 2 tablespoonfuls; ground ginger, oz.; baking powder (evidently a modern innovation), 1 teaspoonful; candied peel, cut fine, 2 oz.; sweet almonds, chopped, 1 oz.; Kiel butter, 5 oz.

Rub the ingredients well together, and then mix with a teacupful of milk and as much Scotch treacle as will make it lightly stiff. Bake in greased tin in a slow oven. My correspondent says many of the ingredients are modern innovations, and the very old people in her neighbourhood say that nothing but oatmeal, butter, and treacle should be used.

Mr. H. Jewett calls my attention to the fact that it is customary in Lancashire to make and eat toffee on the 5th November, but Miss Berry says that toffee is always looked on as a sort of supernumerary adjunct, not a necessity for the day's repast. Mr. Jewitt quoting from Dr. Tille's Yule-tide and Christmas

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