Category: Farming history

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January & Rabbiting January 19th

January from Nicholas Breton’s ‘Fantasticks 1626 from the Kalendar of Shepherds (digitised by Internet Archive)

The Kalendar of Shepherds was printed in 1493 in Paris and provided ‘Devices for the 12 Months.’ I use a modern (1908) reconstruction of it using wood cuts from the original French and adding various text from English 16th and 17th Century sources. The text of the month (as shown above) is provided from a 17th Century source. It gives an interesting view of the countryside in January. To see the full Kalendar, look here:

Nicholas Breton, the writer of the text above, concludes that January:

‘is a time of little comfort, the rich man’s charge, and the poore man’s misery.’

The rich man is burdened by having to help out all the poor people who depending upon him to get through the shortages of winter. The image for January shows that January is best spent indoors by a roaring fire, eating pies.

January from the Kalendar of Shepherds 15th Century French

The Kalendar introduces a ‘conceit’ which is that the year mirrors our lives, and we can forecast what will happen in our lives by looking at the months.

Kalendar of Shepherds January text
Kalendar of Shepherds, January text

So our lives, which are of 72 years, can be divided into 12 ages of man, each of 6 years. So, January represents the first 6 years of a person’s life. And as you can see, that during these first 6 years, the child is ‘without witte, strength, or cunning, and may do nothing that profiteth‘. As the year changes every month, so, ‘a man change himself twelve times in his life’. At three times 6 (18 or March) a child becomes a man, and 6 times 6 (36 or June) man is at his best and highest. And at 12 times 6 (72 or December) man is at the end of his allotted span.

Shakespeare numbered the Ages of Man as seven, in the great speech of Jacques in ‘As You Like it’ I dealt with this and other Ages of the World in my post:

Greater Cycles & the Ages of Man December 19th

January & Rabbits

Bereton tells us that, in January, the ‘coney is so ferreted that she cannot keep in her borough’. To put that is modern speech, ‘the rabbit is so hunted with the aid of ferrets that she cannot keep in her burrow’. The London Illustrated Almanac of 1873 chose the Rabbit as its wild animal of the month.

London Illustrated Almanac of 1873
January from London Illustrated Almanac of 1873

To have luck for a month, you are supposed to say ‘Rabbit, Rabbit’. No less a person than FD Roosevelt used to say this. No one knows why. Rabbit’s feet are lucky too. I remember some of my friends had them in our Surrey village in the early 60s. Some of Dad’s nieghbours kept ferrets, and I remember dead Rabbits hanging from walls. The history.com website gives an idea, possibly exaggerated view, of the merits of the feet which depended upon how they were collected:

“A 1908 British account reports rabbits’ feet imported from America being advertised as ‘the left hind foot of a rabbit killed in a country churchyard at midnight, during the dark of the moon, on Friday the 13th of the month, by a cross-eyed, left-handed, red-headed bow-legged Negro riding a white horse,’

https://www.history.com/news/

As to why, no one really knows. But Pliny the Elder in 71AD reported that cutting off the foot of a live hare could cure gout. There are European traditions of rabbit and other animal’s feet amulets curing all sorts of ailments. There are associations with witches, who could shape-shift into a rabbit. So a rabbit’s foot would be witchy and therefore powerful. In March, I reported on the Hare, and their, similar, associations with witches:

As Mad as a March Hare March 28th

Rabbit, Rabbit

For lovers of Music, Chas and Dave’s hit song ‘Rabbit’ has a chorus of ‘Rabbit, Rabbit’.According to the Cockney’s singers (they do love a Knee’s Up) it comes from the Cockney Rhyming Slang expression: Rabbit and Pork. This means ‘Talk’ because it rhymes with ‘Talk’. To hear the song, its gestation and Royal connections, click here.

Now, I must stop rabbiting on. Time to get things done.

First, published in 2023, revised in January 2024, 2025

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Lambing January 18th

Hermes the ram-bearer near Roman 1st BCE copy of 5th Greek statue
Hermes the ram-bearer, Roman 1st BCE copy of 5th Greek statue

Lambing

If a lamb be born sick and weak, the Shepherd shall fold it in his cloak, blow into the mouth of it and then, drawing the Dam’s dog, shall squirt milk into the mouth of it. If an Ewe grow unnatural, and will not take her Lamb after she has yeaned it, you shall take a little of the Clean of the Ewe (which is the bed in which the Lamb lay) and force the Ewe to eat it, or at least chew it in her mouth and she will fall to love a Lamb naturally. But if an Ewe have cast her Lamb, and you would have her take to another Ewe’s Lamb, you shall take the Lamb which is dead, and with it rub and daub the live Lamb all over, and so put it to the Ewe, and she will take to it as naturally as if it were her own.

Gervase Markham, ‘Cheap and Good Husbandry’ 1613 (quoted in the Perpetual Almanac by Charles Kightly).

All about Lambing

Lambing can begin in the second part of Janauary in the south-west of the UK. But it gets progressively later as you travel north. Itinerant shearers, now often from New Zealand, travel the country shearing sheep. They will begin in the south and then progress north.

March and April are peak lambing time in the UK. But the season runs from February to April. Some farmers even lamb before Christmas (and it is not unknown to lamb in November). If ewes are tupped in October, they will lamb in March. www.nationalsheep.org.uk

The country expression is ‘in with a bang and out with the fool’ which suggests an ideal time to tup, is November 5th, on Fireworks Night. So that the lambs will be born, 5 months later, around the 1st of April.

A litter is normally one or two but occasionally more. Ewe’s get fed depending on how many lambs they will be having.

Thomas Hardy & the Reddle Man

In the ‘Return of the Native’, Thomas Hardy has a character called Diggory Venn, he is a reddle man. He travels the country in a little pony and trap selling reddle. This is a red ochre dye with which shepherds mark their flock. Part of the plot is about the reluctance of women to marry a man whose red, reddle-stained face, makes him look like a devil.

The reddle is used to mark sheep, particularly before lambing. The ram is given a collar or girdle with a marker full of reddle in it. When he mounts the ewe, she will have a red mark on her back. When she has been tupped twice, she will have two red marks on her back. She will then be taken out of the field, to encourage the ram to impregnate the others. Reddle and other dyes can be used to mark lambs chosen for slaughter, or dipping, or weighing etc

(Tup is a country verb: I tup. You tup. We are tupping etc., and means what happens when the ram ‘covers’ the ewe)..

For more on Thomas Hardy see my posts:

Hardy’s Henge
The End of Hardy;s Tree

And about the Mayor of Casterbridge:
Wife selling
Failed Weather Forecasting
And the most popular of all my posts: The Skimmity Ride

On This Day!

1779 – Peter Mark Roget, physician, scholar, thesaurus creator was born, brought into this world, popped out, brought forth, sprogged, engendered, begat

2025 – Wassail Day at the Village Orchard Dulwich

London Wildlife Trust Wassail Day Website landing page
London Wildlife Trust Wassail Day Website landing page

Run by the London Wild Life Trust. The web site says:

Celebrate Wassail Day with us on Saturday 18th January.

London Wildlife Trust welcomes the local community to awaken the apple trees to ensure a good harvest of fruit in autumn in a traditional Wassailing event.

Activities on the day will include apple inspired crafts, bird feeders, warming bread on the fire (weather permitting), pinning toast to trees (this apparently helps with a good harvest!) and more! 

First, published Jan 2023, republished Jan 2024, 2025

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Plough Monday January 13th

Medieval scene showing a man plouging with the plough pulled by a bullock from Les_Très_Riches_Heures_du_duc_de_Berry
Detail from LesTrès Riches Heures du Duc de Berry

Two posts today because it is also Plough Monday., the date to go back to work.

Bob Cratchet was back to work by Boxing Day. Some of us are back to work on 27th or 28th December. But increasing numbers holiday until the first weekend in January. It’s beginning to look medieval. Medieval society had even longer off. Distaff day was the day that women traditionally went back to work and Plough Monday was the men’s turn. Plough Monday was not just a normal day of work though. Particularly in the North, it was celebrated with a procession of ‘plough boys’. They used a decorated plough and team, known as ‘Fool Plough’. Mumming, sword dancing and foolery propelled people back to work.

Here is a lovely recipe for a ‘Norfolk Plough Pudding‘ brought to my attention by Sue Walker. The author is Karen Burn Jones who talks about her Grandmother’s plough pudding recipe. This is a great winter warmer being made of sausage meat and bacon. Norfolk also had traditions for Plough Monday. It was the day when the plough was blessed and the plough boys (Plough Jacks, Plough Bullocks or Plough Stots) performed “Molly Dances” . They did this partly to make up their income they had lost when the ground was too icy to plough.

The Christmas/Mid Winter break went on for some until Candlemas in early February. In Jane Austen’s day the school boys had a 6 week holiday at Christmas. This much distressed Mary Musgrove in ‘Persuasion’, Chapter 18. She complains bitterly of children being left with her during the long winter holiday. But as the letter was written on 1st February, I will leave the joy of that great FOMO letter until then.

The Wolf Moon and Mars

Not only is this Plough Monday but it is the first full moon of the year. At 5,27pm on January 13th the Wolf Moon rises and just below it to the left, at 7.30 UTC you will see the Red Planet Mars.

Wolf Moon is a nickname and a recent introduction to mainstream culture. It was borrowed from Native Americans as wolves howl at the moon at this time of the year. So can the wonder of the moon counter the reality of wintery bleakness following the joys of Christmas and the hopes of the New Year?

Full moon Socialising

In Jane Austen’s time, winter socialising depended upon the moon. Generally, people would schedule balls and dinner parties on nights when the moon was bright. This would make the journey, on days before street lighting, safer. This is one reason why Almanacs were so ubiquitous, as they listed the rising and setting of the Moon.

page from Old Moore's Almanac
Page from 2022’s Old Moore’s Almanac showing the ‘Moon in London’

First Published 2023, revised 2024 and Wolf Moon added in 2025

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Weather Lore: ‘If on January 12th the sun shine, it foreshows much wind.’

Abney Park cemetary in winter
Winter at Abney Park Cemetery photo by Harriet Salisbury

Or so says the Shepherd’s Almanac for 1676. Until the 12th Night we were predicting that the weather on each of the 12 days will match the month of the same number. But having past Twelfth Night we have to find turn to other methods of weather lore.

Weather lore seems convinced of the undesirability of a warm January

‘January warm, the Lord have mercy’.

‘January commits the fault and May bears the blame.’

‘If Birds begin to Whistle in January, frosts to come’

‘When gnats swarm in January, the peasant become a beggar’

Most of the sayings about January quoted in Richard Inwards ‘Weather Lore’ first published in 1893, have this as their main focus. And the contrary (cold January good growing season) also generally holds:

‘When oak trees bend with snow in January, good crops may be expected.’

‘A cold January, a feverish February, a dusty March, a weeping April , and a windy May presage a good year and gay.’

The Weather according to Animals

So much for long range forecasts. Let’s see how Weather Lore helps us use animals to determine whether it will rain today.

‘If animals crowd together, rain will follow.’

‘When dogs eat grass it will be rainy‘

‘When a cat sneezes, it is a sign of rain‘

‘If young horses do rub their backs against the ground, if is a sign of great drops of rain to follow.’

The only weather lore repeated in my family was ‘Cows sitting down means it will rain.’ (And of course ‘red sky at night, shepherd’s delight’ etc).

Meteorology Office on weather lore.

A survey by the Met Office in 2017 found that a surprisingly large number of people (75%) use ‘folklore’ to predict weather and 55% think they are useful methods of predictions. Here is a quote from their post.

  • Red sky at night, shepherd’s delight – used by 70% of UK adults – CORRECT
  • It can be too cold to snow – used by 49% – PROBABLY NOT IN THE UK
  • Cows lie down when it is about to rain – used by 44% – NOT CORRECT
  • Pine cones open up when good weather is coming – used by 26% CORRECT
  • If it rains on St Swithin’s day, it will rain on each of the next 40 days – used by 22% Not Correct. In factt since records began in 1861, there has never been a record of 40 dry or 40 wet days following St Swithin’s Day

Met Office 2017 do-cows-really-lie-down-when-its-about-to-rain and BBC Newsround

For more folk forecasting read my post on St Swithin’s Day

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How to Keep Apples & if the frost be very extreame January 9th

Gervase Markham the English Husbandman. Project Gutenberg
Gervase Markham the English Husbandman. Project Gutenberg

Gervase Markham was born in 1568, in Nottinghamshire, and was a prolific writer. Today, prompted by the Perpetual Almanac by Charles Kightly, I am looking through Markham’s eyes at Apples. Apples were an important source of joy as well as nutrition through a cold winter, as fresh produce became unavailable.

Markham wrote detailed books for use by the householders, the Husbands and the Housewives. And with the coming of frost, the survival of food in your food store might depend upon reading Markham’s books. When the frosts hit, as they are now doing in the UK, you had to look after your store of apples. They were an important sweet food source over the winter.

For the women, he wrote the English Housewife, published in 1615. Here is his recipe for Apple Tart.

For the Housewife How to Make Apple-tart

Take apples and peel them and slice them thin from the core into a pan with white wine, good store of sugar, cinnamon and rosewater, and so boil it all shall it be thick. Then cool it and strain it, and beat it very well together with a spoon, and then put it into your coffin or crust and bake it. It carrieth with the colour red.

Gervais Markham, the English Housewife 1683 version (quoted by Charles Kightly).

For the Husband, How to Keep Apples in Frost

Lots of apples in a pile Photo by sydney Rae on Unsplash
Photo by sydney Rae on Unsplash

For the men, he wrote the English Husbandsman, published in 1613 and ‘Printed by T. S. for Iohn Browne, and are to be sould at his shop in Saint Dunstanes Church-yard.’ This is the St Dunstan’s in Fleet Street, I think (near Sweeney Todds, the Barbers.) The book is available on Project Gutenberg (Gervase Markham the English Husbandman. Project Gutenberg).

So to the frost – Markham ends his extensive piece on the best way to store apples as follows:

To keepe Fruit in frost. If the frost be very extreame, and you feare the indangering your fruit, it is good to couer them somewhat thicke with fine hay, or else to lay them couered all ouer either in Barley-chaffe, or dry Salte: as for the laying them in chests of Iuniper, or Cipresse, it is but a toy, and not worth the practise: if you hang Apples in nettes within the ayre of the fire it will kéepe them long, but they will be dry and withered, and will loose their best rellish.

I remember my Grandmother would store her excess apples from the tree, wrapped in paper and stored in cupboards in the pantry or outbuilding. They were often wrinkled but always delicious, and I think were Russets, which remain my favourite apple.

At the bottom of the piece, I include the rest of Markham’s advice for storing apples. To summarise it: Don’t store them near the ground. Place them on shelves ordered by variety based on which variety lasts longest. So at the back will be the long-lived species such as Russets and Pippins, to eat as spring approaches. The front the ones you need to eat now such as the ‘Costard, Pome-water, Quéene-Apple‘ varieties.

Marocco, Pocahontas and the Rhino – performing at the Bell Savage

Markham wrote many books, including one on the famous performing horse Marocco. He starred in shows at the Bell Savage, just outside Ludgate in the City of London. The horse would whinny in triumph with the naming of an English King. But snort with derision with the naming of a Pope. He could also count and add up. He was rumoured to have been burnt at the stake as a witch in Edinburgh. But this does not appear to be true. Also, appearing at the Bell Savage in the 17th Century was a Rhinoceros, other prodigies and Pocahontas.

How to Keep Apples extended version

For a more modern text on what to do with excess apples from your tree, have a look here. However, do read on to get an insight into life and the varieties of Apples that were eaten in the 17th Century.

The place where you shall lay your fruit must neither be too open, nor too close, yet rather close then open, it must by no meanes be low vpon the ground, nor in any place of moistnesse: for moisture bréedes fustinesse, and such naughty smells easily enter into the fruit, and taint the rellish thereof, yet if you haue no other place but some low cellar to lay your fruit in, then you shall raise shelues round about, the nearest not within two foote of the ground, and lay your Apples thereupon, hauing them first lyned, either with swéet Rye-straw, Wheate-straw, or dry ferne: as these vndermost roomes are not the best, so are the vppermost, if they be vnséeld, the worst of all other, because both the sunne, winde, and weather, peircing through the tiles, doth annoy and hurt the fruit: the best roome then is a well séeld chamber, whose windowes may be shut and made close at pleasure, euer obseruing with straw to defend the fruit from any moist stone wall, or dusty mudde wall, both which are dangerous annoyances.

The seperating of Fruit. Now for the seperating of your fruit, you shall lay those nearest hand, which are first to be spent, as those which will last but till Alhallontide, as the Cisling, Wibourne, and such like, by themselues: those which will last till Christmas, as the Costard, Pome-water, Quéene-Apple, and such like: those which will last till Candlemas, as the Pome-de-roy, Goose-Apple, and such like, and those which will last all the yéere, as the Pippin, Duzin, Russetting, Peare-maine, and such like, euery one in his seuerall place, & in such order that you may passe from bed to bed to clense or cast forth those which be rotten or putrefied at your pleasure, which with all diligence you must doe, because those which are tainted will soone poyson the other, and therefore it is necessary as soone as you sée any of them tainted, not onely to cull them out, but also to looke vpon all the rest, and deuide them into thrée parts, laying the soundest by themselues, those which are least tainted by themselues, and those which are most tainted by themselues, and so to vse them all to your best benefit.

Turning your Fruit

Now for the turning of your longest lasting fruit, you shall know that about the latter end of December is the best time to beginne, if you haue both got and kept them in such sort as is before sayd, and not mixt fruit of more  earely ripening amongst them: the second time you shall turne them, shall be about the end of February, and so consequently once euery month, till Penticost, for as the yéere time increaseth in heate so fruit growes more apt to rot: after Whitsontide you shall turne them once euery fortnight, alwayes in your turning making your heapes thinner and thinner; but if the weather be frosty then stirre not your fruit at all, neither when the thaw is, for then the fruit being moist may by no meanes be touched: also in wet weather fruit will be a little dankish, so that then it must be forborne also, and therefore when any such moistnesse hapneth, it is good to open your windowes and let the ayre dry your fruit before it be turned: you may open your windowe any time of the yéere in open weather, as long as the sunne is vpon the skye, but not after, except in March onely, at what time the ayre and winde is so sharpe that it tainteth and riuelleth all sorts of fruits whatsoeuer.

Gervase Markham the English Husbandman Project Gutenberg

January 9th 2024, revised 2025

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Hangover Cures & Bacchus – January 1st

Marble statue of Bacchus from the Temple of Mithras London. The inscription reads ‘hominibus vagis vitam’ Translation … (give) life to men who wander.

On the eighth day of Christmas
my true love sent to me:
8 Maids a Milking; 7 Swans a Swimming; 6 Geese a Laying
5 Golden Rings
4 Calling Birds; 3 French Hens; 2 Turtle Doves
and a Partridge in a Pear Tree

Closing Time

The 8th day, New Years Day, is the day of the Throbbing Head. In ‘Closing Time’ Leonard Cohen wrote about drinking to excess. I like to think he refers to Christmas and New Year’s Day:

‘And the whole damn place goes crazy twice
And it’s once for the devil and it’s once for Christ
But the boss don’t like these dizzy heights
We’re busted in the blinding lights of closing time.

Trouble is the song mentions summer. Oh well. You can enjoy the official video on YouTube below:

Hangover Cure

So what you need is a hangover cure. Nature provides many plants that can soothe headaches. And in the midst of the season of excess, let’s start with a hangover cure.

Common ivy Photo by Zuriel Galindo from unsplash

Ivy and Bacchus

Ivy, ‘is a plant of Bacchus’…. ‘the berries taken before one be set to drink hard, preserve from drunkenness…. and if one hath got a surfeit by drinking of wine, the speediest cure is to drink a draft of the same wine, wherein a handful of ivy leaves (being first bruised) have been boiled.’

Culpeper Herbal 1653 quoted in ‘the Perpetual Almanac’ by Charles Kightly

The image of Bacchus, at the top of the post, is from a fascinating article by the Museum of London on wine making in Roman Britain. Bacchus is often shown with an ivy crown around his head as Romans were wont to wear them to fend of hangovers.

Skullache, and Willow,

Crack Willow Trees on the Oxford Canal, August 2021

One of the best documented folk hangover cure is willow bark. It could be used for headaches, earaches and toothaches. Here is a record of how simple it was to use:

‘I am nearly 70 years old and was born and bred in Norfolk… My father, if he had a ‘skullache’ as he called it, would often chew a new growth willow twig, like a cigarette in the mouth.’

‘A Dictionary of Plant Lore by Roy Vickery (Pg 401)

In the 19th Century, Willow was found to contain salicylic acid from which aspirin was derived. As a child I remember chewing liquorice sticks in a similar way. However, we chewed, supposedly for the pleasure and the sweetness not for the medicinal virtues of the plant.

Country Weather

January 1st’s weather on the 8th Day of Christmas was warm and wet all day. So, according to Gervase Markham, the 8th Month, August, will be similarly warm and drenched. (source: ‘The English Husbandman’ of 1635.)

On this Day

It was the Day of Nymphs in Greece dedicated to Artemis, Andromeda, Ariadne, Ceres. (according to the Goddess Book of Days by Diane Stein.)

First Published in 2024, republished in 2025

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Collect your Holly & Ivy December 18th

Picture of Christmas greenery on a gift box
by Tjana Drndarski-via unsplash

So, the old Sun is dying, and if the Sun keeps going down we are all going to die. To keep our anxiety to a minimum with all of nature seeming to be dying or hibernating, evergreens are a symbol of a promise/proof that life will continue through the dark days. So, with its bright-green leaves and its luminous berries, Holly is the ideal evergreen for the Solstice. And as the prickles symbolise Christ’s Crown of Thorns, and the berries the red blood of Jesus, the symbolism works, too, for Christians.

‘Ivy’ says Culpeper in his Herbal of 1653, says its winter-ripening berries are useful to drink before you ‘set to drink hard’ because it will ‘preserve from drunkenness’. And, moreover, the leaves (bruised and boiled) and dropped into the same wine you had a ‘surfeit’ of the night before provides the ‘speediest cure’. (The Perpetual Almanac of Charles Kightly)

Henry Mayhew (editor of Punch) in his ‘London Labour and London Poor’ (1851–62) talks of Christmasing for Laurel, Ivy, Holly, and Mistletoe. He calculated that 250,000 branches of Holly were purchased from street coster mongers every Christmas. He says that every housekeeper will expend something from 2d to 1s 6d, while the poor buy a pennyworth or halfpennyworth each. He says that every room will have the cheery decoration of holly. St Pauls Cathedral would take 50 to a 100 shillings worth.

He also calculates that 100,000 plum puddings are eaten. Mistletoe he believes is less often used than it used to be, and he hopes that ‘No Popery’ campaigners will not attack Christmassing again.

Hot plum pudding seller from Sam Syntax Cries of London 1820s from the Gentle Author Spitalfields Life web site
Hot plum pudding seller from Sam Syntax Cries of London, 1820s
from the Gentle Author Spitalfields Life website

Culpeper on Ivy (1814 edition):

It is so well known to every child almost, to grow in woods upon the trees, and upon the stone walls of churches, houses, &c. and sometimes to grow alone of itself, though but seldom.

Time. It flowers not until July, and the berries are not ripe until Christmas, when they have felt Winter frosts.

Government and virtues. It is under the dominion of Saturn. A pugil of the flowers, which may be about a dram, (saith Dioscorides) drank twice a day in red wine, helps the lask, and bloody flux. It is an enemy to the nerves and sinews, being much taken inwardly, out very helpful to them, being outwardly applied. Pliny saith, the yellow berries are good against the jaundice; and taken before one be set to drink hard, preserves from drunkenness, and helps those that spit blood; and that the white berries being taken inwardly, or applied outwardly, kills the worms in the belly. The berries are a singular remedy to prevent the plague, as also to free them from it that have got it, by drinking the berries thereof made into a powder, for two or three days together. They being taken in wine, do certainly help to break the stone, provoke urine, and women’s courses. The fresh leaves of Ivy, boiled in vinegar, and applied warm to the sides of those that are troubled with the spleen, ache, or stitch in the sides, do give much ease. The same applied with some Rosewater, and oil of Roses, to the temples and forehead, eases the head-ache, though it be of long continuance. The fresh leaves boiled in wine, and old filthy ulcers hard to be cured washed therewith, do wonderfully help to cleanse them. It also quickly heals green wounds, and is effectual to heal all burnings and scaldings, and all kinds of exulcerations coming thereby, or by salt phlegm or humours in other parts of the body. The juice of the berries or leaves snuffed up into the nose, purges the head and brain of thin rheum that makes defluxions into the eyes and nose, and curing the ulcers and stench therein; the same dropped into the ears helps the old and running sores of them; those that are troubled with the spleen shall find much ease by continual drinking out of a cup made of Ivy, so as the drink may stand some small time therein before it be drank. Cato saith, That wine put into such a cup, will soak through it, by reason of the antipathy that is between them.

There seems to be a very great antipathy between wine and Ivy; for if one hath got a surfeit by drinking of wine, his speediest cure is to drink a draught of the same wine wherein a handful of Ivy leaves, being first bruised, have been boiled.

Happy Eponalia

Roman Horse from Bunwell, Norfolk. Illustration by Sue Walker.

In 2021 I posted about Eponalia for the 18th Dec but I have now added it here and this is what I said:

I’ve been too busy working on my Jane Austen and Christmas Virtual Tour (I have just done that again this year) to post over the last few days. And I have, therefore, shamelessly stolen this post off my Facebook friend Sue Walker, who is a talented archaeological illustrator, artist and a very good photographer.

She wrote: ‘the 18th December is the festival of the Celtic goddess Epona, the protector of horses, she was adopted by the Romans and became a favourite with the cavalry. This finely sculpted bronze horse with a head dress and symbol on its chest is 37mm high – found in Bunwell #Norfolk #Archaeology’

https://www.complete-herbal.com/culpepper/ivy.htm

First published on December 17th 2022, Revised and republished December 2023

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Grecian Winter – Hesiod’s Works & Days December 15th

Abney Park cemetary in winter
Abney Park cemetery in winter photo by Harriet Salsibury

Hesiod is a contemporary of Homer, and therefore one of the first European poets, one of the first commentators on Greek life, thought, religion, mythology, farming and time keeping. ‘Works and Days’ is his Farmers Almanac and therefore long overdue an appearance on my Almanac of the Past.

Hesiod’s poems also introduce the idea of the epoch, past glorious epochs of Gold and Bronze with a further descent to his own epoch which was of the base metal age of Iron. In the 19th Century, European antiquarians, imbued with a humanist belief in Progress, developed the idea of Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages, an almost direct opposite of Hesiod’s, downhill-all-the-way to the present idea.

Hesiod also brings in early references to Prometheus and Pandora, two of the great myths of the flaws of humanity.

This is what he says of Winter. It is from a translation by Christopher Kelk, available to download here (I have added line breaks after full stops, just for ease of reading.)

…. you should make
A detour during winter when the cold
Keeps men from work, for then a busy man
May serve his house. Let hardship not take hold,
Nor helplessness, through cruel winter’s span,
Nor rub your swollen foot with scrawny hand.

An idle man will often, while in vain
He hopes, lacking a living from his land,
Consider crime. A needy man will gain
Nothing from hope while sitting in the street
And gossiping, no livelihood in sight.

Say to your slaves in the midsummer heat:
“There won’t always be summer, shining bright –
Build barns.” Lenaion’s evil days, which gall
The oxen, guard yourself against. Beware
Of hoar-frosts, too, which bring distress to all
When the North Wind blows, which blasts upon the air
In horse-rich Thrace and rouses the broad sea,
Making the earth and woods resound with wails.

He falls on many a lofty-leafed oak-tree
And on thick pines along the mountain-vales
And fecund earth, the vast woods bellowing.
The wild beasts, tails between their legs, all shake.

Although their shaggy hair is covering
Their hides, yet still the cold will always make
Their way straight through the hairiest beast.

Straight through
An ox’s hide the North Wind blows and drills
Through long-haired goats. His strength, though, cannot do
Great harm to sheep who keep away all chills
With ample fleece. He makes old men stoop low
But soft-skinned maids he never will go through –
They stay indoors, who as yet do not know
Gold Aphrodite’s work, a comfort to
Their darling mothers, and their tender skin
They wash and smear with oil in winter’s space
And slumber in a bedroom far within
The house, when in his cold and dreadful place
The Boneless gnaws his foot (the sun won’t show
Him pastures but rotate around the land
Of black men and for all the Greeks is slow
To brighten).

That’s the time the hornèd and
The unhorned beasts of the wood flee to the brush,
Teeth all a-chatter, with one thought in mind –
To find some thick-packed shelter, p’raps a bush
Or hollow rock. Like one with head inclined
Towards the ground, spine shattered, with a stick
To hold him up, they wander as they try
To circumvent the snow.

As I ordain,
Shelter your body, too, when snow is nigh –
A fleecy coat and, reaching to the floor,
A tunic. Both the warp and woof must you
Entwine but of the woof there must be more
Than of the warp. Don this, for, if you do,
Your hair stays still, not shaking everywhere.

Be stoutly shod with ox-hide boots which you
Must line with felt. In winter have a care
To sew two young kids’ hides to the sinew
Of an ox to keep the downpour from your back,
A knit cap for your head to keep your ears
From getting wet.

It’s freezing at the crack
Of dawn, which from the starry sky appears
When Boreas drops down: then is there spread
A fruitful mist upon the land which falls
Upon the blessed fields and which is fed
By endless rivers, raised on high by squalls.

Sometimes it rains at evening, then again,
When the thickly-compressed clouds are animated
By Thracian Boreas, it blows hard. Then
It is the time, having anticipated
All this, to finish and go home lest you
Should be enwrapped by some dark cloud, heaven-sent,
Your flesh all wet, your clothing drenched right through.

This is the harshest month, both violent
And harsh to beast and man – so you have need
To be alert. Give to your men more fare
Than usual but halve your oxen’s feed.
The helpful nights are long, and so take care.

Keep at this till the year’s end when the days
And nights are equal and a diverse crop

Keep at this till the year’s end when the days
And nights are equal and a diverse crop
Springs from our mother earth and winter’s phase
Is two months old and from pure Ocean’s top
Arcturus rises, shining, at twilight.

Hesiod’s Works and Days: Translation Christopher Kelk

Acturus is not seen in winter, and in the Northern Hemisphere its rising (50 days after the winter solstice) and has always been associated with the advent of spring.

Boreas was the winged God of the North wind, which bore down from the cold Mountains of Thrace (north of Macedonia). One of his daughters, Khione, was the Goddess of Snow. Lenaion was associated with January one of the festivals of Dionysus, and a theatrical season in Athens particularly for comedy.

Roman Bust of Hesiod (Wikipedia photo by Yair Hakla) Neues Museum

First published 15th December 2022, republished December 2023, 2024

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Robin Redbreast – the Oak King of the New Sun December 9th

Photo by Donald Healy on Unsplash of a robin on a tree branch with red berries
Photo by Donald Healy on Unsplash

Robins brought water to relieve tormented souls in Hell and. so, got their breasts scorched; their breasts were stained with Jesus’ blood; they fanned, with their wings, the flames of a fire to keep baby Jesus warm and got scorched. All these associations with Jesus make their association with Christmas and Christmas cards perfect sense.

They are the Celtic Oak King of the New Sun. The Robin is the son of the Wren. The Wren is the bird of the Old Sun, and the Robin kills his father, so the New Sun takes over from the Old Sun at the Winter Solstice. With the birth of the new Sun, the blood of the father stains the Robin’s breast. In Celtic Folklore, Robins are said to shelter in Holly trees. Robins appear when loved ones are near. If a Robin comes into your house, a death will follow.

Perhaps this gives a context for Shakespeare’s mention of a robin (ruddock he called it) which he grants the power of censure. in Cymberline. Innogen has been found dead, and amidst the floral tributes mentioned is the following:.:

the ruddock would with charitable bill (Oh bill sore shaming those rich-left-heirs, that let their Father’s lie without a Monument)

(Cymbeline, Act 4 scene 2)

They are one of the few birds to be seen all year round, and they sing all year too, but with different songs for autumn and spring. Robins sing from concealed spaces in trees or bushes. They are the first to sing in the morning, the last to stop at night, and can be triggered by street lights turning on. A Robin can sing all the notes on the scale and can sing for half an hour without repeating a melody.

They eat worms, seeds, fruits, insects and other invertebrates. Robins are aggressively territorial, and are our favourite birds. (RSPB)

On this Day

1554 – the same day at after-noon was a bear bitten on the Bank side, and broke loose and in running away he caught a serving man by the calf of the leg, and bit a great piece away and after by the ‘hokyl-bone’ witihin 3 days after he died.

Henry Machyn’s Diary quoted in ‘A London Year’ complied by Travis Elborough & Nick Rennison (my translation from 16th Century English – I think hokyl-bone might be holbourne, or holborn as we now call it.)

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‘There’s Rosemary, that’s for Remembrance’ December 7th

Flowering Rosemary
Flowering Rosemary in the author’s garden

According to the Perpetual Almanac by Charles Kightly, this is the time when Robins are much to be seen singing their winter song, and when it is time to protect plants, particularly Rosemary, against winter frosts.

In December, rosemary flowers with a delicate blue flower. Rosemary was one of the most important plants, metaphorically and medically. Mrs Grieve, in her ‘Modern Herbal’ says it is used in medicine for illnesses of the brain and was thought to strengthen the memory. And as rosemary helps the memory, they are symbolically/metaphorically associated with friendship, love, worship and mourning. A branch of Rosemary was given as a gift to wedding guests, so they would remember the love shown at the ceremony. It was also entwined in the Bride’s wreath;

Shakespeare uses Rosemary in his plant lore in Hamlet.

OPHELIA: There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance.
Pray you, love, remember. And there is pansies, that’s
for thoughts.

LAERTES: A document in madness:
thoughts and remembrance fitted.

OPHELIA: There’s fennel for you, and columbines.
There’s rue for you, and here’s some for me.
We may call it herb of grace o’ Sundays.
O, you must wear your rue with a difference.

There’s a daisy. I would give you some violets,
but they withered all when my father died. They
say ‘a made a good end.

(sings) For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy.

Ham IV.v.176

Rue is the herb of grace and has the sense of ‘regret’. Pansies are also for remembrance, and their heart shaped flowers are for love and affection. Fennel represents infidelity and Columbines insincerity or flattery. Daisies are for innocence. Violets are associated with death, particularly of the young. As to how Orphelia means them all to be understood is not entirely clear, particularly Fennel and Columbine. Some think they are directed towards Claudius and/or Gertrude.

https://study.com/learn/lesson/flower-symbolism-hamlet-william-shakespeare-overview-examples.html

Being evergreen, Rosemary was associated with religion and everlasting life, and called the rose of the Virgin Mary. Lying on a bed of rosemary, the Virgin’s cloak was said to have been dyed blue, and Mary is mostly depicted in a blue cloak in Renaissance paintings. And so Rosemary is especially important for Christmas. At Christmas, it was used to bedeck the house and used at funerals to remember the dead.

The Virgin Mary Googled.

Its strong aroma means it was used as an incense and also used in magic spells

Thomas More let rosemary ‘runne all over my garden walls’ because bees love it and as sacred to remembrance, therefore to friendship.

Rosemary flowering in december
Rosemary flowering in December

I mostly use Rosemary for the very rare occasions when I cook lamb, but it is much more versatile than that, or so the SpruceEats website tells me:

‘Rosemary is used as a seasoning in various dishes, such as soups, casseroles, salads, and stews. Use rosemary with chicken and other poultry, game, lamb, pork, steaks, and fish, especially oily fish. It also goes well with grains, mushrooms, onions, peas, potatoes, and spinach. ‘

https://www.thespruceeats.com/all-about-rosemary-3050513

On this Day

1917- End of the Battle of Cambrai in which Tanks were first used. The tanks had initial success when over 400 hundred of them were used by the British on the first day of the battle. Because the British Army did not precede the attack with the usual artillery barrage, the attack was a complete surprise and the British penetrated deep into the German Lines. But the army had too few troops to exploit the breakthrough and by early December the Germans had mostly recaptured the territory the tanks had won. So the battle was indecisive, but successfully showed the role of the tank in future battles. Casualties amounted to about 45,000 on each side.

1941 – Pearl Harbour bombed. The Japanese attack killed more than 2,300 U.S. military personnel were killed,. Another 1,100 at least were wounded, and eight battleships were damaged or destroyed. On December 8th, Congress approved Roosevelt’s request for a declaration of war on Japan. In the Senate, the vote was 82 – 0 and 388–1 in the House. On 11 December 1941. Germany declared war on the US, in line with the Tripartite Pact between the two countries and Italy. Later that same day, the US declared war on Germany, with no dissenters from the vote.

First published Dec 7th 2023, revised 2024