Thomas Firminger Thiselton Dyer

“ In early life Anthony Aufrere showed a great aptitude for learning foreign languages, and among the works he translated was 'A Tribute to the Memory of Ulric von Hütten, from the German of Goethe,' 1789, in the preface to which he pays a graceful tribute to the memory of one who took, he says, 'so distinguished and so useful a part' in the reformation. ”

“ Hence the Feux Follet, as it is called, is a source of terror, and its weird appearance is much dreaded by old and young; many stories being told of the injury done to unwary travelers by its wicked knavery.
Again, a Danish tradition affirms that Jack-o'-lanterns are the spirits of unrighteous men, who by a false glimmer seek to mislead the wayfarer and to decoy him into bogs and moors. The best safeguard against them, when they appear, is to turn one's cap inside out. One should never point at them, as they will come if pointed at. ”

“ In some districts of North Germany the villagers say that if one whistles in the evening it makes the angels weep. Speaking, however, of ladies in connection with whistling, it is a widespread superstition that it is at all times unlucky for them to whistle, which, according to one legend, originated in the circumstance that, while the nails for our Lord's cross were being forged, a woman stood by and whistled. ”

“ There is a physical advantage in whistling which should excuse it against all the canons of propriety or 'good form.' It is often remarked that the average girl is so narrow-chested, and in that respect compares so unfavorably with her brother, which may be due in some measure to the habit of whistling which every boy acquires." An eminent medical authority says: "All the men whose business it is to try the wind-instruments made at the various factories before sending them off for sale are, without exception, free from pulmonary affections. ”

“ Indeed, few subjects have given rise to a greater variety of popular every-day sayings than whistling. Thus the expression, to "pay for one's whistle"—a favorite phrase with George Eliot—means to gratify one's fancy. Again, a thing worthy of notice is said in common parlance to be "worth the whistle"; the reference obviously being to the ordinary way of calling up a dog. Heywood, for instance, in one of is proverbs, says, "It is a poor dog that is not worth the whistling." Shakespeare, too, makes Goneril say to Albany, in "King Lear" (Act iv, scene 2) :
"I have been worth the whistle." ”

“ ALLEN, ANTHONY (d. 1754) , lawyer and antiquary, was born at Great Hadham, Hertfordshire, towards the close of the seventeenth century. He was educated at Eton, and went thence to King's College, Cambridge, where he took his B.A. degree in 1707, and his M.A. in 1711. He was afterwards called to the bar, and by the influence of Arthur Onslow, speaker of the House of Commons, became a master in chancery. A few years later he was made an alderman of the corporation of Guildford, and a county magistrate. He died 11 April 1754, and was buried in the Temple church. ”

“ The Russians in the Ukraine tell a queer story about a whistling robber of olden times, who evidently was a person of gigantic proportions, for he was in the habit of sitting on nine oak-trees at once. One of the nicknames given to him was "Nightingale," on account of his extraordinary whistling powers. Should an unwary traveler come across his path, he would whistle so melodiously that his victim would quickly faint away, whereupon he stepped forward and killed him outright. ”

“ As the action of blowing wind-instruments is the same as that of whistling, the effects should be the same. Whistling has been popularly styled the "devil's music," the reason, in all probability, being that, when persons are up to anything wrong and likely to be caught, they assume an air of indifference by whistling. ”

“ These letters contain much curious correspondence between the ancestors of the Lockhart family and the confidential supporters of the Pretender, previous to and during the rebellions of 1715 and 1745, the publication of which was delayed for more than half a century, in order that every one concerned in it might be dead before it became public property. ”

“ The good man, runs the story, was so terribly frightened, that, forgetting all his kind intentions, he took to his heels and ran home as fast as his legs could take him. In Lusatia, where the same superstition prevails, these fires are supposed to be quite harmless, and the souls of the unbaptized children to be relieved from their destined wanderings so soon as any pious hand throws a handful of consecrated ground after them. ”

“ AUFRERE, ANTHONY (1756–1833) , antiquary, of Old Foulsham Hall, Norfolk, born in 1756, was the eldest son of Anthony Aufrere, of Hoveton Hall, Norfolk, who died in 1814. His mother was Anna, only daughter of John Norris, of Witton, in the same county, and sister to John Norris, founder of the Norrisian professorship at Cambridge. ”

“ The following passage from a modern writer [11] proves, too, that in some places the idea of Puck as a delusive fairy haunting the woods and fields is not yet extinct: "The peasants in certain districts of Worcestershire say that they are sometimes what they call 'Poake-ledden,' that is, they are occasionally waylaid in the night by a mischievous sprite whom they call Poake, who leads them into ditches, bogs, pools, and other such scrapes, often sets up a loud laugh, and leaves them, quite bewildered, in the lurch." ”

“ BARTLETT, BENJAMIN (1714–1787) , numismatical and topographical writer, was of an old-established quaker family at Bradford, Yorkshire, where his father was an apothecary, having for his apprentice the afterwards celebrated Dr. Fothergill. At an early age Bartlett showed a great aptitude for antiquarian pursuits, and leaving Bradford, he removed to London, where he set up an apothecary's business for himself in Red Lion Street. This, however, he was eventually obliged to relinquish on account of failing health, resigning it to his partner, Mr. French. ”

“ IN whatever way regarded, either as a graceful accomplishment or as the spontaneous expression of light-heartedness, whistling has in our own and foreign countries generally attracted considerable attention. Why it should have been invested with so much superstitious awe it is difficult to say, but it is a curious fact that the same antipathy which it arouses among certain classes of our own countrymen is found existing in the most distant parts of the earth, where, as yet, civilization has made little or imperceptible progress. ”

“ As may be imagined, the jokes to which this fresh wonder of creation gave rise were unlimited; and Thackeray was in the habit of relating an amusing story of his own experience in connection with it. It appears that he was one day in the shop when an American came in to see this startling freak of nature; after hearing the talented niollusk go through its usual performance, he walked contemptuously out, remarking at the same time that "it was nothing to an oyster he knew of in Massachusetts, which whistled 'Yankee Doodle' right through, and followed its master about the house like a dog." ”

“ BICKERSTAFF, WILLIAM (1728–1789) , antiquary, was born at Leicester 17 July 1728, where he was appointed undermaster of the Lower Free Grammar School 30 Jan. 1749-50. He took orders in December 1770, being successively curate at most of the churches at Leicester, and also at Great Wigston and Ayleston, two villages in the neighbourhood. He died suddenly at his lodgings in Leicester on 26 Jan. ”

“ Thus he who in his lifetime has been guilty of such a crime is believed to have no peace or rest in his grave after death, but to rise every midnight, and, with a lantern in his hand, to proceed to the spot where in days gone by the landmark had stood which he had fraudulently removed. ”

“ BIGLAND, RALPH (1711–1784) , Garter king-of-arms, was born at Kendal in Westmoreland in 1711, his father being Richard Bigland, the descendant of an old family originally from Bigland in Lancashire. He was appointed head of the College of Arms in 1780, after passing through all the minor offices. He had been elected Bluemantle in 1757, Somerset and registrar 1763, Norroy king-of-arms May 1773, Clarenceux August 1774; but he enjoyed his elevation as Garter king-of-arms only a few years, dying 27 March 1784 at the age of seventy-three, in St. ”

“ Edmund's Hall, Oxford, in Easter term 1671, where, after taking his degree, he was made tutor, and subsequently appointed vice-principal. At Whitsuntide 1680 he took holy orders, and in 1683 was elected one of the masters of the schools. ”

“ Some maintain that the whistler's mouth is not to be purified for forty days; while, according to the explanation of others, Satan touching a man's body causes him to produce, what they consider, an offensive sound. [2] The natives of the Tonga Islands, Polynesia, hold it to be wrong to whistle, as this act is thought to be disrespectful to God. [3] In Iceland, the villagers have the same objection to whistling, and so far do they carry their superstitious dread of it that "if one swings about him a stick, whip, wand, or aught that makes a whistling sound, he scares from him the Holy Ghost" ”

“ A Brittany piece of folk-lore is that the "Porte-brandon" appears in the form of a child bearing a torch, which he turns round like a burning wheel—occasionally setting fire to the villages which from some inexplicable cause are suddenly wrapped in flames. ”

“ Franklin says the "ambitious who dance attendant on court, the miser who gives this world and the next for gold, the libertine who ruins his health for pleasure, the girl who marries a brute for money, all in the long run pay too much for their whistle." ”

“ Wood found from any one person was from Mr. Andrew Allam; this ingenious person helping him very much in the notitia of divers modern authors, whilst Mr. Wood was day and night drudging in those more ancient.’ Among his other chief contributions to literature may be mentioned the short biographical notice prefixed to Dr. Cosin's ‘Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ Politeis in tabulas digesta,’ Oxon. 1684, fol., and a preliminary account, with additions and corrections, of a work entitled ‘Some Plain Discourses on the Lord's Supper, &c., written by Dr. ”

“ Indeed, it would seem that in past centuries whatever phenomena were of an apparently illusive or hostile character were regarded by primitive science as specially designed to work pain or evil, even although, by way of treacherous bait, they might possess, the most attractive qualities. ”