ARTS AND CRAFTS ON DARTMOOR IN THE YEAR

WHEN QUEEN VICTORIA WAS CROWNED.

Being notes on the narrative of Mrs. Elizabeth Bidder, daughter of William and Johanna Lillicrap, of the parish of Sheepstor.

BY J. PHILLIPS.

(Read at Torquay, July, 1893.)

"IN the year when King William was alive and dead," as the old chroniclers would have it, "I lived," said Mrs. Bidder, "with my father and mother in the cot-house on Ringmore Down, and I was the eldest 'maiden' of the family," upon whom therefore devolved many onerous duties, with which the younger children might not be trusted; though from their recital they appear to have sat lightly, and, in short, to have been enjoyable employments.

The good mother was one of the "bettermore" sort, and saw that her children had the best schooling within reach. The eldest boy was sent to the free school at "Waketon" (Walkhampton), three or four miles distant, where he got fine schooling, and a suit of clothes every year; and when he left, a suit of Sunday clothes, a Bible and Prayer-book, the other children being sent to Meavy, for "to Shepstor" there was only a very small dame's school; and folks were not very clear about the learning of the mistress, who, though she could read Jerusalem, was said to pull up over Mesopotamia and Constantinople. We hear much nowadays of the trouble to get parents to send their children to the free Board Schools. One of my friends was carried daily (and attendance was not then compulsory) on her mother's back when quite small from Brisworthy to Meavy and home again, and she and the other little maids had to show up their handicraft work to "madame" at the Vicarage, who looked to it that each one was good at her needles, whether for sewing or knitting.

One of the earliest employments of the children, was

gathering the wool left by the sheep on the furze bushes of the Moor and the brimbles in the brakes. "Woolgathering" was not looked upon with the same favour as blackberry picking, when the bitterness of a nasty scratch was quickly compensated by a sweet. The wool thus gathered was cleaned, carded, and spun into good worsted yarn, and the Lillicrap family having attained to much skill, used to spin for less skilful neighbours, or those who had no wheel. A mixture of the wool from black sheep gave grey worsted, and the scales from the blacksmith's forge at Meavy, with a little logwood as a dye, gave shades of brown. Of course everybody could knit, and use up the worsted for their own domestic purposes. Weaving was not common on this side of Dartmoor, but was much practised on the eastern side, where in villages and hamlets the people made the cloth for their own clothing.. But for roughing it on the Moor warm waterproof coats were made by using a sheep's skin, the wool on the inside, and arms stitched on where the fore legs came through. And warm caps of rabbit skin were common, with lappets coming over the ears. A rhyme was sung by the boys about a Moor-man named Trewin, who generally appeared in coat and leggings of 'ship-skin'

"Old Harry-to-win,

No breeches to wear,
He stole a ram's skin
To make a new pair.

The skinny side out,

And the woolly side in,

And thus doth go the old Harry-to-win."

However uncouth this may sound, it will be hard to beat these garments by any modern contrivance, either for warmth or protection from rain and weather.

The straw bonnets and hats of the household were all home-made. The mother and younger children gleaned after the harvest, and while the wheat went to the mill the straw or reed was sorted and cut into lengths from knot to knot, and scraped and straightened out upon boards, and was then plaited and made up into hats and bonnets. In the Lillicrap household more were made than the family required. Parson Abbott to Meavy yearly bought a hat for 2s. 6d., but only 1s. 6d. was charged to other folks.

Of course all requirements in the way of mats, kneelers, bee-hives, and the like were home-made, of either straw or rushes, and a regular trade was done in rushes, which, being

half stripped, were used for the wick of rushlights; and "in our house," added Mrs. Bidder, "we used to make mould candles, and sell them to all the farms around."

Nor was this the only advantage of living near the moor; for during the summer the father or men of the household cut the year's supply of fuel-turf and fags-and the women and children "tended them" till they were fit to "save" and stack for winter use. And connected with firing were the sulphur matches that were used with the tinder-boxes, into which light was struck with steel and flint; but in the Moor cottages they were chiefly articles of commerce, for the peat fires were rarely, if ever, allowed to go out.

An implement of husbandry that has now died out was in use in the Lillicrap family. Having the run of certain rocky brakes, where the plough, drawn by oxen or horses, could not be used, the hand plough was successfully introduced, and all the household gave a hand to work the ground, that yielded good store of barley, potatoes, &c.; nor was there one of the lads who by his home training, though subsequently becoming artizans, could not at any time turn his hand to hedging and ditching, reaping or mowing. These various farming and gardening operations yielded suitable leavings, which went far to form the bacon, fowls, eggs, &c., both for sale and home consumption; and for luxuries, they were to be had by the exercise of a little enjoyable employment. Blackberries, whortleberries, and sloes abounded, and with elderberries made excellent wines, besides being applied to various other uses, and sent to market. Then these particular friends of mine grew their own tea-i.e., special herbs that yielded a refreshing beverage; for tea of Cathay was deemed a great delicacy, bought only by the half ounce, for use on grand occasions. Bees were largely kept, the honey and wax yielding merchantable commodities, and the bye products excellent metheglim for high days and holidays.

Well might my old friends reflect on the freedom and independence and happiness of such a life, wherein they were all accustomed to turn their hands to any useful thing in their own behalf. No fear if a blizzard came round, of starvation, because the penny duff man and the butcher could not get within measurable distance of you. Supplies of barley meal, bacon, potatoes were in the house, while the year's fuel was at the door.

I have thus far taken no note of many productive delights, on which it may not be prudent to dwell, or minutely to consider, but in which arts and crafts played a

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prominent part. The first in devising "springels" and fabricating nets, the second in their application, the art and the craft unitedly yielding toothsome blackbird, snipe or rabbit, with

"Here and there a lusty trout

And here and there a grayling."

Time forbids, if other circumstances do not, or one might dwell with deep interest on the arts and crafts practised chiefly during the hours of darkness, or when the moon and stars being favourable it became

"Our delight in the shining night,
In the seasons of the year.'

That went so far to make up the pleasurable excitements of the moorland life-finest cognac delivered at the cottage door twice weekly (by a rag and bone man and a donkeycart), at 1s. per pint; and tobacco, whether for mastication or for smoking, such as the degenerate sons of toil to-day don't even dream of; and silk dresses for the squire's and the parson's lady, such as no shop in Devonshire can boast.

But all the arts and crafts of the period did not tend to money making, quite otherwise with some. Music had its charms, delivered weekly from the west gallery of the parish church, and on other occasions in the village hostelry and on the village green.

In Sheepstor the assembly-room was reached by winding stone stairs. "Jan Northmoor's" old fiddle gave forth the music, though I am credibly informed that art and craft of a high order was needed to get any music at all out of the instrument, for, added another of my friends, "there never wadn't no moosic in 'un, and there bain't none now." Both fiddler and fiddle survive to this day, the first having witnessed the erection of the French prisons "to Princetown," and the arrival of the prisoners. While the young people danced Jan Northmoor played and sang, the whole company joining in the choruses; but as the night wore on, and the familiar ballads were all used up, the genius of the fiddler was stirred, and he composed as he went along, making hits and sallies on the company whirling around him, these sinking into the memory of those most concerned; remnants and catches still survive.

This same Jan Northmore carries the credit of being the humane protector of the goose that laid thirteen eggs in

geese

the pulpit of Sheepstor Church, and through his intercession with the parson, whom he induced to "praich the sarment from the disk these wance," hatched out thirteen chicken." But this same worthy subsequently got into trouble; for suddenly waking up one sultry Sunday afternoon at the close of Parson Patey's sermon, and reaching eagerly over the reading-desk, he called "Shilling on the red cock!" followed by an awe-stricken "Amen," as the realities of his position dawned upon him. But as a matter of strict fact Jan Northmore was not the parish clerk, he was only his deputy, for the real clerk-by some irregularity that was winked at-lived at Cadleigh, in the parish of Cornwood, so that my old friend's action was less regular even than that of another deputy clerk, in a parish on the eastern border of the Moor, who, doing duty in a chapel of ease, signed some official document, as "Parish Clerk," then with a view to strict accuracy wrote "I b'aint the rale clerk, I'm only he wot say's Amen top Sindays."

Nor are we behind Jan Northmore, with practice of the art of music, for one of my young craftsmen-Albert Elliott, of Kingskerswell-trained under the "new order" of village life, has written a very musical little pastoral symphony, with the parts for each instrument in the village band, in which he plays the second cornet.

Much skill or "craft" was needed, to successfully play the game of skittles that the village maidens of the country-side were encouraged to perform, on Trinity Tuesday, at Meavy Oak. They were set round in a "race," and took turns of three balls each, the one that made the highest score got the highest prize, which might be a gown, or bonnet, or cap, &c., the entrance of 3d. or under being paid for every maiden by her young man. The skittles were followed by a substantial tea; then dancing to Jan Northmoor's fiddle, during which the men refreshed themselves with grogs or beer-cider being too common a drink for these occasions-their partners taking shrub."

Much of interest and romance concerning the employments and pastimes of the borderland of Dartmoor during the first half of this century might be collected, and their source and origin traced, both of those practised by the children, and those practised by their elders, many combining the useful with the entertaining, e.g., the "sweeling" fires in the early spring, and which if too far out in the moor to carry a live peat, could only be started after a vigorous and exciting struggle with the tinder box. The "drift driving" in the fall