Fascinating read about the King’s Evil by Andrew Taylor
Here is a post on the King’s Evil, that I forgot to post yesterday.
Aries & Noses
We have just entered Aries. Now according to astrology, Aries is associated with health issues of the face. This, according to ‘Skin and Astrology Signs‘ is because of the “level of heat in their bodies”. So Arians tend to have problems such as “flushing, heat rashes, skin eruptions, and rosacea”. They suggest using chilled cucumber for the eyes and forehead, and using beauty products with soothing aloe vera in them.
Charles Kightly, in his Perpetual Almanac enjoins us to ‘Observe the features of the face which are ruled by Aries and seek cures for ills of the nose’.
The first example, Kightly gives is from an 18th Century publication which explains how to understand people by studying their noses:
Nose round with a sharpness at the end signifies one to be wavering of mind; the nose wholly crooked, to be sure unshamefaced and unstable; crooked like an eagle’s beak, to be bold. The nose flat, to be lecherous and hasty in wrath; the nostrils large, to be ireful.’
The Shepherd’s Prognostication 1729
A Fungous Nose & the King’s Evil
The second rather revolting tale is from John Aubrey.
Arise Evans had a fungous Nose and said, it was revealed to him, that the king’s hand would cure him At the first coming of Charles II into St James Park he kissed the king’s hand and rubbed his nose with it: which disturbed the king, but cured him.
People believed that Scrofula, could be cured by touching the Monarch. Tuberculous cervical lymphadenitis was, thus, known as the King’s Evil. So, the King or Queen would make herself, very reluctantly, available for his sick public to touch her.
Scofula and the King’s Touch
Sketch of Dr Johnson from a portrait.
Dr Samuel Johnson suffered from Scofula and received the “royal touch” from Queen Anne on 30 March 1712 at St James’s Palace. He was given a ribbon, which he wore around his neck for the rest of his life. But it did not cure the disease, and he had to have an operation.
It took place in the winter, between Michaelmas and Easter, when cold weather provoked the disease. The lucky few who were allowed the Touch, would be touched or stroked by the King or Queen on the face or neck. Then a special gold coin, touched by the Monarch, was put around their neck. Readings from the bible and prayer finished the ceremony. Before Queen Elizabeth, the Touch was said to cure many diseases such as Rheumatism, convulsions, fever and blindness, but after it was reserved for Scrofula.
Who Started touching for the King’s Evil?
It was only the French and the English who believed the King’s touch could cure people. The French claimed it began with Philip 1 in the 11th Century. The English claimed Edward the Confessor as the first. But this was denied by the French who claimed that the French King of England, Henry 1 introduced it to the English. The practice lasted until George 1 who resolutely refused to have anything to do with it.
For more on the King’s Evil have a look at this blogpost. Or read the book pictured at the top of the post.
St Piran’s Oratory at Trézilidé, Finistère (wikipedia)
This year March 5th was Ash Wednesday. So I did not have time to repost my Lide – March 5th post. Here it is:
The Cornish named the first Friday in March ‘Friday in Lide’. March is named after the Roman War God Mars, whose Month it was. But in England it had, until recent times, a dialect name which survived in the South west of England. This was ‘Lide’. The name was still used in the 17th Century, and then survived into the 19th Century only in Cornwall, which had a proverb.
‘Ducks won’t lay till they’ve drunk Lide water’.
Daffodils were called Lide-lillies. Eleanor Parker, who is a Lecturer in Medieval Literature at Brasenose College, Oxford, wrote an interesting article in History Today. She called March the loudest month of the year. The early English names for March were Hlyda or Lide monath meaning stormy or loud month. Other names include Hraed monath (rugged month) and Lentmonath (month of lent).
March brings breezes loud and shrill, Stirs the dancing daffodil. ~Sara Coleridge (1802–1852), “The Months,” Pretty Lessons In Verse, For Good Children; With Some Lessons in Latin, In Easy Rhyme, 1834
There are many references to the changeable weather in March. Sometimes lovely spring days, and at others raging storms, and frosts. Parker quotes a proverb which says that March comes in:
‘like a lion and goes out like a lamb’.
Lide 5th was a holiday for Miners, probably because it was St Piran’s Day. Very little is clear about St Piran. But he is thought to have been an Irish Missionary who founded an Abbey in Cornwall in the 5th Century. His legend says he was tied to a millstone by the Irish, who rolled the stone over a cliff. The sea was stormy, but calmed as soon as he fell into it. He floated on his stone to Perranzabuloe in Cornwall. Here he landed and got his first converts: a badger, a fox, and a bear. Then, he founded the Abbey of Llanpirran.
He is said to have reintroduced smelting to Cornwall, hence his attribution as patron Saint of Miners. Piran was martyred by Theodoric or Tador, King of Cornwall in 480. His bones scattered in reliquaries in the South West and in Brittany. He is the patron saint of Cornwall, so the week before the 5th of March is known as Pirrantide. And there are events and parades to commemorate him. People dress in black white and gold, carrying daffodils and walk across the dunes to St Piran’s Cross.
Ash Wednesday this year is late and on 5th March. It is the First Day of Lent, the solemn time which runs up to Easter, and is symbolic of Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness.
In Anglo Saxon the name for the season of Spring was ‘lencthen’. It is thought to derive from the idea of the lengthening days. Lighting up time has just increased to 6pm here in London. So strictly, Lent means Spring. The Romance languages use the term used for Lent which derives from the Latin ‘Quadragesima’ which means the 40 days of Fast. Spanish (Cuaresma), French (Carême), and Italian Quaresima). For Germans it is the fasting time: fastenzeit. In England, Lent became a specialised word for the fast period. And Spring took over as the name of the season.
A time of fasting? Maybe once upon a time. But when I was young, it was 40 days when you were supposed to give something up. Smoking, or drinking, or chocolate. An idea taken up by a new generation, as, for example, Dry January? A time of reflection? No, never did that.
Ash Wednesday is named after the ashes smeared on the heads of worshippers to remind us that we are dust. I’ve never seen this done either. However, my footballing Vicar friend Andrew missed our Wednesday Game so that he could mark foreheads with ash crosses. The ashes were traditionally made from palms used for Palm Sunday decorations, which is indeed what Andrew did. Look here to see my post on Palm Sunday.
On the subject of dust here are lyrics by Joni Mitchell.
We are stardust We are golden And we’ve got to get ourselves Back to the garden
Woodstock by Joni Mitchell
!970’s Live performance by Joni Mitchell of Woodstock
40 Days
We all know that there are 40 days in Lent, except there are not. Its 46 this year. This is pointed out by Tim Harford who presents a BBC radio programme called ‘More or Less’. It is a programe about statistics, or more widely about Fact Checking statistics in the news. This week’s episode was about the 40 days and claims about the US had spent much more than Europe on the defence of the Ukrainians. (No, that was Fake News, Europe and America spent about the same amount.) Anyway, back to Lent. Take away the Sundays was one answer proposed but, my mathmatics tells me this still leaves 42. The answer Tim Harford came up with is that 40 days just means a long time.
So it is the length of time of Lent, but also:
The duration of the Great Flood The time Moses was on Mt Sinai The time the Israelites spy on Canaan Goliath trails Saul Elijah Walks Jesus in the Desert The time from Resurrection to Ascension
In other words, a long time to be doing any one thing. As Hartford says, it’s like our word ‘umpteenth’. For example, ‘Kevin this is the umpteenth time I’ve told you to tidy your bedroom’. So my mother said to me as she threw my clothes out of the window.
This year, March 4th is Shrove Tuesday, the end of the Carnival. Etymology-on line says the origins of the term Carnival are:
1540s, “time of merrymaking before Lent,” from French carnaval, from Italian carnevale “Shrove Tuesday,” from older Italian forms such as Milanese *carnelevale, Old Pisan carnelevare “to remove meat,” literally “raising flesh,” from Latin caro “flesh” (originally “a piece of flesh,” from PIE root *sker- (1) “to cut”) + levare “lighten, raise, remove” (from PIE root *legwh- “not heavy, having little weight”).
Folk etymology has it from Medieval Latin carne vale ” ‘flesh, farewell!’ ” Attested from 1590s in the figurative sense of “feasting or revelry in general.” The meaning “a circus or amusement fair” is attested by 1926 in American English.Related entries & more
Pancake Day is another name for Shrove Tuesday. It is the day we eat up all our surplus food. Then on Ash Wednesday we must begin our lenten fast and turn out mind to repentance. Pancake Day, in the UK, is celebrated with a simple pancake with lemon and sugar. Here is a recipe from the BBC. On the other hand Shrove Tuesday can be a day of excess before the 40 days of restraint. Shrovetide was normally three days from the Sunday before Lent to Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. (Here is my post on Ash Wednesday).
Mardi Gras
In France, it’s called Mardi Gras which means Fatty Tuesday, in Italy Martedi Grasso. In New Orleans it stretches from Twelfth Night to Shrove Tuesday. But as we saw, in my post on Fat or Lardy Thursday‘ the Carnival period might be up to a week. In most other places it is oneto three days. In Anglo-Saxon times there was ‘Cheese Week’, ‘Butter Week’, ‘Cheesefare Sunday’ and ‘Collop Monday’, preceeding Ash Wednesday.
Shrove Tuesday the Day to be Shriven
Shrove Tuesday is the day we should be ‘shriven’ which means to make confession. The Church has been leading up to Easter since Advent – before Christmas. (See more on Advent Sunday here). Easter is the date of the conception and, also, the date of the execution and apotheosis of Jesus Christ. So the pious should confess their sins, then undertake their lenten fast before entering the Holy Week purged and sin-free.
In the Anglo-Saxon Church, there was a custom called ‘locking the Alleluia.’ The Church stopped using the word Alleluia from 70 days before Easter. Alleluia represented the return from exile in Babylon. So, with the approach of the death of Christ it was not felt appropriate to be celebratory.
The sombre nature of this block of time was highlighted by Ælfric of Eynsham (c. 955 – c. 1010).
Now a pure and holy time draws near, in which we should atone for our neglect. Every Christian, therefore, should come to his confession and confess his hidden sins, and make amends according to the guidance of his teachers; and let everyone encourage each other to do good by good example.
Ælfric, Catholic Homilies Text Ed. Peter Clemoes quoted in ‘Winters in the World’ Eleanor Parker
Time for Football!
Shrove Tuesday was the traditional time for football games in the days before football had any rules to speak of. It was a wild game. Teams tried to get a bladder from one end of town to the other, or one side of a field to the other. In Chester, the Shrove Tuesday football game was held on the Roodee island. It was so rowdy that the Mayor created the Chester Races specifically to provide a more sedate alterative to the violence of the ‘beautiful game.’
Here is a youtube video of Shrovetide Football.
Royal Asbourne Shrove Tueday Football
In London, Henry Fitzstephen who was a biographer of Thomas Becket and is writing about Shrove Tuesday Games inLondon in the late 12th Century:
‘Every year also at Shrove Tuesday, that we may begin with children’s sport, seeing we all have been children, the school boys do bring cocks of the game to their master, and all the forenoon they delight themselves in cockfighting. After dinner all the youths go into the fields to play at the ball. The scholars of every school have their ball, or baston in their hands. The ancient and wealthy men of the City come forth on horseback to see the sport of the young men and to take part of the pleasure in beholding their agility.’
Pancake Race
I have just found a video of the pancake race at the Guildhall Yard in the City of London. It is an inter-livery company pancake race competition. The competitors, representing the medieval Guilds, have to run across the Guildhall while holding a frying pan and pancake. There is a zone where they have to toss the pancake. There is also a novelty costume race. Here is a youtube video of the 2023 race.
Pancake Day/Shrove Tuesday Pancake Race
First published on February 21st, 2023 republished on February 13th 2024, and March 4th 2025
This post commemorates the death of John Evelyn. It should have been published yesterday, but I had to publish my post on Fat Thursday. Being a moveable feast, it moved to February 27th this year. You will find more about Evelyn below. But first, I must report back on my success or failure of the Lardy Cake I cooked to celebrate Gioverdi Grasso.
lardy cake being madeLady Cake overcooked!Slice of Lardy Cake
Ok, so my first error was to forget to put the sugar in! Secondly, I was distracted so did not put the timer on, so it was a little overcooked, but not disastrously. I also used Wholemeal flour rather than Strong White flour, which Paul Hollywood suggested. I’ve had about 4 slices, last night and this morning. Verdict: Quite Good. But buy it from a shop next time. Don’t apply to appear on Bake-off. Its ok, if you sprinkle a little sugar on. Next slice I might try some jam. It is more like a fruit bread than a lardy cake. I have now washed the utensils 4 times, and they are still covered in lard! But at least it’s less fat ingested.
Back to John Evelyn
27th February, 1661. Ash Wednesday. Preached before the King the Bishop of London (Dr. Sheldon) on Matthew xviii. 25, concerning charity and forgiveness.
John Evelyn is, with Pepys and Wren, one of the great figures of 17th Century London. Unlike Pepys he was an avowed Royalist who hated Oliver Cromwell and all he stood for. He went into exile with his King and gives a great description of Paris (see below). Dr Sheldon, the Bishop of London mentioned above, went on to become Archbishop of Canterbury. He was a friend of Wren’s Father, and commissioned Wren to build the Sheldonian Theatre, in Oxford.
Like Pepys, John Evelyn was a diarist and a writer. And they, like Wren, were alumni of the Royal Society, one of the great scientific societies. John Evelyn was a founding fellow. It was innovative in that it employed an experimenter. He was Robert Hooke – one of the great early Scientists, who also worked with Wren rebuilding London after the Great Fire. The Royal Society encouraged scientists to experiment, write up, and submit their theories to for peer review. This is the foundation of Western Science, and a bedrock of the Enlightenment.
Frontispiece of ‘the History of the Royal-Society of London by Thomas Sprat. John Evelyn was a founder member
Evelyn the Writer.
Evelyn has a place in my history because, in the 1980’s I worked. with Paul Herbert, on a project to create an interactive history of London. It was financed by Warner Brothers, and in cooperation with the short-lived ‘BBC Interactive TV Unit’. One part of it was a Literary Tour of London. And this is where I came across John Evelyn using several of the quotations on this page.
Evelyn was a prolific traveller and a polymath. He wrote on the need to improve London’s architecture and air in Fumifugium (or The Inconveniencie of the Aer and Smoak of London Dissipated).
Here is an extract from his Furmifugium.
‘That this Glorious and Antient City, which from Wood might be rendred Brick, and (like another Rome) from Brick made Stone and Marble; which commands the Proud Ocean to the Indies, and reaches to the farthest Antipodes, should wrap her stately head in Clowds of Smoake and Sulphur, so full of Stink and Darknesse, I deplore with just Indignation.
That the Buildings should be compos’d of such a Congestion of mishapen and extravagant Houses; That the Streets should be so narrow and incommodious in the very Center, and busiest places of Intercourse: That there should be so ill and uneasie a form of Paving under foot, so troublesome and malicious a disposure of the Spouts and Gutters overhead, are particulars worthy of Reproof and Reformation; because it is hereby rendred a Labyrinth in its principal passages, and a continual Wet-day after the Storm is over. ‘
And he was an expert on trees. Author of: Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-Trees (1664). He lived at Sayes Court in Depford near Greenwich, which he ill-advisedly rented to Peter the Great of Russia. Letting to Peter was a lot-like inviting a 1960s Rock Band to trash your mansion.
John Evelyn the Exile
Here is a taste of Evelyn’s time as an Exile. It is a short extract from a long entry on the splendid Palaces in and around Paris.
27th February, 1644. Accompanied with some English gentlemen, we took horse to see St. Germains-en-Laye, a stately country house of the King, some five leagues from Paris. By the way, we alighted at St. Cloud, where, on an eminence near the river, the Archbishop of Paris has a garden, for the house is not very considerable, rarely watered and furnished with fountains, statues,[and groves; the walks are very fair; the fountain of Laocoon is in a large square pool, throwing the water near forty feet high, and having about it a multitude of statues and basins, and is a surprising object. But nothing is more esteemed than the cascade falling from the great steps into the lowest and longest walk from the Mount Parnassus, which consists of a grotto, or shell-house, on the summit of the hill, wherein are divers waterworks and contrivances to wet the spectators; this is covered with a fair cupola, the walls painted with the Muses, and statues placed thick about it, whereof some are antique and good. In the upper walks are two perspectives, seeming to enlarge the alleys, and in this garden are many other ingenious contrivances.
When Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660, this was Evelyn’s reaction:
May 29th 1660:
This day came in his Majestie Charles the 2d to London after a sad, and long exile… this was also his birthday, and with a Triumph of above 20,000 horse and foote, brandishing their swords and shouting with unexpressable joy; the wayes strawed with flowers, the bells ringing, the streets hung with Tapisry, fountains running with wine: ‘
‘The mayor, Aldermen, all the companies in their liveries, chaines of gold, banners, Lords and nobles, cloth of Silver, gold and velvet every body clad in, the windows and balconies all set with Ladys, Trumpetes, Musik, and myriads of people … All this without one drop of bloud …it was the Lords doing…
Fornacalia was a corn festival that took place around February 7th to the 17th. Romans were assigned days to celebrate (see below) but the last day, today, was reserved for those fools who did not know their proper day.
Pliny the Elder says it was King Numa Pompilius (753-673 BC), who established Fornacalia, The Feast of Ovens. Fornacalia celebrated Fornax who was the Goddess of the Oven – specifically the grain oven for drying grain. The word for oven is also Fornax, from which we probably derive our word furnace.
The Annona
Rome had a population of one million people, and keeping them fed was a difficult task. So the celebration of Fornacalia was an important feast designed to protect Rome’s all important grain supply. The Imperial Government took on the responsibility of providing the grain in a system called the Annona. and provided the Citizens with free bread. The Italian Annona brought much of its grain from Egypt.
Londinium & the Annona
Dominic Perring in his recent book on Roman London (Londinium in the Roman Empire) speculates that the fluctuating fortunes of London was dependent upon the routing of a northern Annona through Londinium. When the Emperor was engaged with the North Western Empire London thrived, when he wasn’t interested it declined.
Organising the Fornaclia and the Curio Maximus
The Festivals in Rome were organised by the Curio Maximus who was a priest who supervised the curiae. In Rome the citizens were arranged, originally, into the 3 ancient tribes of Rome (founded in the 8th Century BC). The Tribes were supposed to represent the ancient ethnic groups. These were the Ramnes the Latin population, the Tities the Sabines, and the Luceres the Etruscans. The tribes were then divided into 10 curiae each. So there were 30 curiae.
Each Roman was supposed to be assigned to one of the curiae, which had a religious, social and voting function. The name may come from ‘co-viria – a gathering of men’. The members of the curiae were known as curiales. Each curiae had their own priest, or curio, and assistant priest ‘flamen curialis‘. And they organised the religious ceremonies of the curiae. They met in a meeting place called the curia.
So the Curio Maximus would declare when a festival was to be held, and get the curiae to organise the celebrations at the curia. I hope you are still with me! They would choose a date, for example for the Fornacalia, between about the 7th Feb and the 17th of February. And the citizens would go to their curia where there would be a ceremonial roasting of the grain, and baking into bread which would be in honour of the Goddess Fornax.
Ovid & the Feast of Fools
Ovid, who wrote his almanac poem on the Roman festivals (Fasti), reveals many of these details. He points out that many people didn’t know which curiae they were in. So they would celebrate on the last day of the Festival, which, therefore, became known as the Feast of Fools.
Learn too why this day is called the Feast of Fools. The reason for it is trivial but fitting. The earth of old was farmed by ignorant men: Fierce wars weakened their powerful bodies. There was more glory in the sword than the plough: And the neglected farm brought its owner little return. Yet the ancients sowed corn, corn they reaped, Offering the first fruits of the corn harvest to Ceres. Taught by practice they parched it in the flames, And incurred many losses through their own mistakes. Sometimes they’d sweep up burnt ash and not corn, Sometimes the flames took their huts themselves: The oven was made a goddess, Fornax: the farmers Pleased with her, prayed she’d regulate the grain’s heat. Now the Curio Maximus, in a set form of words, declares The shifting date of the Fornacalia, the Feast of Ovens: And round the Forum hang many tablets, On which every ward displays its particular sign. Foolish people don’t know which is their ward, So they hold the feast on the last possible day.
Book II: February 17 From: Fasti, Book 2. Translated by A.S Kline and available here
Someone told me that the Roman word for the person who looked after a furnace was the fornicator. And as heat was a ’cause’ of lust, fornicators well, they fornicated.
However, others derive the word from the word Fornix, which is an arch. And arches, it was said, was where the Brothels were, hence fornicator. Not sure I’m going with that idea that Brothels were always under arches. But have a look at the online etymology dictionary’s definition which might help you make up your mind:
from Late Latin fornicationem (nominative fornicatio), noun of action from past-participle stem of fornicari “to fornicate,” from Latin fornix (genitive fornicis) “brothel” (Juvenal, Horace), originally “arch, vaulted chamber, a vaulted opening, a covered way,” probably an extension, based on appearance, from a source akin to fornus “brick oven of arched or domed shape” (from PIE root *gwher- “to heat, warm”). Strictly, “voluntary sex between an unmarried man and an unmarried woman;” extended in the Bible to adultery. The sense extension in Latin is perhaps because Roman prostitutes commonly solicited from under the arches of certain buildings.
As you can see it’s a big old mix-up of arches, brothels, brick ovens, all quite unconvincing, so I’m sticking with my over-heated stoker theory.
I wanted to find something about the winter as experienced in World War 1. Why? Because I watched a very moving film about World War 1 by Derek Jarman called ‘War Requiem’. It put images to the music by Benjamin Britten. I also listened to a radio piece on ‘Spring Offensives’ to give a long view on what was happening in Ukraine. And below I talk about the offensive near St Eloi.Trenches
I found this war poem which vividly sets a winter war scene:
Searchlight F. S. Flint
There has been no sound of guns, No roar of exploding bombs; But the darkness has an edge That grits the nerves of the sleeper.
He awakens; Nothing disturbs the stillness, Save perhaps the light, slow flap, Once only, of the curtain Dim in the darkness.
Yet there is something else That drags him from his bed; And he stands in the darkness With his feet cold against the floor And the cold air round his ankles. He does not know why, But he goes to the window and sees A beam of light, miles high, Dividing the night into two before him, Still, stark and throbbing.
The houses and gardens beneath Lie under the snow Quiet and tinged with purple.
There has been no sound of guns, No roar of exploding bombs; Only that watchfulness hidden among the snow-covered houses, And that great beam thrusting back into heaven The light taken from it.
Trenches at St Eloi
My search also showed that, on this day in 1915, the British retook trenches at St Eloi. St Eloi was just behind the Southern edge of the Ypres Salient, a bulge of allied territory surrounded on three sides by German forces and the site of the five battles of Ypres. Fighting continued here from 1914 through into 1918 when the Germans were finally pushed out of the Salient.
World War I destruction in Ypres (wikipedia)
St Eloi struck a bell as St Eloy, is mentioned in the Canterbury Tales as he was a very popular saint in the medieval period. The Saint was also responsible for converting Flanders to Christianity in the 7th Century. Properly called St. Eligius he is the patron saint of horses and cattle, farriers, blacksmiths, metalworkers, goldsmiths. And also of mechanics in general (including the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, forerunners of whom fought at Ypres).
According to legend Eligius was having trouble shoeing a horse, which he thought was possessed. So he cut the horse’s leg off, re-shoed the amputated leg and then reattached the leg back on the horse. The horse trotted off none the worse for the experience. St Eloy was noted for refusing to swear an oath, and it is ironic that the Prioress swears, according to Chaucer, by St Eloy. His Saint’s Day is 1 December.
Saint Apollonia. Woodcut. Saint of Toothache Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark. She is shown with forceps and extracted tooth and the martyr’s palm.
The 9th of February is St Apollonia’s Day. She was martyred at Alexandria in 249 AD during the persecution of Emperor Decius. She was attacked during an anti-Christian riot and struck around the face knocking her teeth out. Then, she was taken to a bonfire and told they would throw her in if she did not renounce her faith. So, without waiting, she spoke a prayer and walked into the fire. This information is recorded in a near-contemporary letter from St Dionysius of Alexandria. This is rare well documented martyrdom. Because her teeth were knocked out she is, therefore, Saint of Toothache.
Cloves for Toothache
I can remember my Grandmother prescribing cloves for me when I had toothache. And this was, and is, a common remedy. In my case, we would keep a clove or two in the mouth close to the site of the pain. According to Natural Ways to Sooth an Toothache cloves contain
‘Eugenol, a natural form of anaesthetic and antiseptic that helps get rid of germs. Eugenol is still used in dental materials today’
Dr John Hall, Shakespeare’s son-in-law, tended to use a pill to soothe sore gums. He also used an oil from a wood called ‘Ol. Lig. Heraclei’ which may be oil from the Bay Tree. (‘John Hall and his Patients’ by Joan Lane). Most of his tooth cases seem to be sore gums. This suggests to me Dr John Hall did not generally do dental work.
Death by Toothache
To get a tooth drawn you could go to a Barber Surgeon, a Blacksmiths or specialist Tooth Drawer. It would be terrifyingly painful. Probably only done when the pain was unbearable. Just think what a premium you would pay for a really competent drawer? The drawers would probably not have any formal training, but the skills would be passed on by the drawer to his apprentice or assistant. ‘Teeth’ was a common cause of death – most likely from infection or an abscess.
List of causes of death, London during the plague of 1665. Teeth killed 11 people
Magic and Toothache
John Aubrey, an erudite and educated 17th Century writer, reports on the use of Magick for tooth care. When he relates these unlikely cures he often provides information that the person who told him the story is worthy of belief. So he seems to give some credence to the efficacy of these magical ‘cures’. But, judge for yourself; this is what he wrote:
To Cure the Tooth-ach.
Take a new Nail, and make the Gum bleed with it, and then drive it into an Oak. This did Cure William Neal, Sir William Neal’s Son, a very stout Gentleman, when he was almost Mad with the Pain, and had a mind to have Pistoll’d himself.
To Cure the Tooth-ach, out of Mr. Ashmole’s Manuscript Writ with his own Hand.
Mars, hur, abursa, aburse. Iesu Christ for Marys sake, Take away this Tooth-ach.
Write the words, Three times; and as you say the Words, let the Party burn one Paper, then another, and then the last.
He says, he saw it experimented, and the Party immediately Cured
May, Williams and Bishop at the Old Bailey accused of murder in pursuit of bodysnatching
Teeth and the Body-Snatchers
In 1832, in London Bishop, Williams and May were accused of bodysnatching. After killing the Italian Boy ( wonderful book by Sarah Wise ‘The Italian Boy‘) they jemmied out his teeth. Then, took the teeth to a South London Dentist. with whom they bargained for a good price. (They used the term ‘cheapened’ – I cheap, you cheap, we are cheapening: meaning to barter). The dentist wanted to use the dead boy’s teeth for false teeth for his patients. If memory serves, he paid £1 for them.
The teeth were used as evidence in the trial of the murderers. When the trial was over and the accused punished, the dentist asked for the teeth back! Two of the murderers were hanged but the third freed for turning King’s Evidence. Thereafter, the teeth were released back to the Dentist. He promptly put them in the window of his surgery as an advert for his professional skills!
Earlier, one of the Borough Boys Resurrectionist gang (based in Southwark, London) toured the battlefields of the Peninsular Wars collecting teeth. He made a substantial sum selling them to dentists as false teeth. They became known as Waterloo Teeth.
When I first wrote this in I added ‘How things have changed!’ But in recent years there have been reports of people undertaking their own dental work, if they cannot get access to an NHS dentist. Effectively, it seems that the Conservative Government was allowing dentistry to slip out of the NHS just like it did with eye health. For a study in what has happened to Dentistry in the UK in recent years, please look at this report here.
First written February 2023, revised February 2024, 2025
The 15th Century French llustration, above, shows February as a time to cut firewood, dress warmly and stay by the fire. Food on the table is a nutritious pie and the fish are there to remind us it is the month of Pisces. In the other roundel is the other February star sign the Water Carrier, Aquarius.
Star signs of February
Pisces From the zodiac from kalendar of shepherds
The poem above is a reference to Candlemas’s celebration of the presentation of the child Jesus at the Temple. The paragraph below gives a summary of February. It ends with the idea that runs through the Kalendar. There are twelve apostles, twelve days of Christmas, twelve months in the year. So, there are twelve blocks of six years in a person’s allotted 72 years of life. So February is linked to the second block of 6 years in a human life, ages 6 to 12. In January, the Kalendar suggests the essential uselessness of 0-6 year old children. While here, for February, it allows that from 6-12 years old children are beginning to ‘serve and learn’.
Below, is the text for February. This gives a rural view of life in winter. It ends with the line that February:
‘is the poor man’s pick-purse, the miser’s cut-throat, the enemy to pleasure and the time of patience.’
February in the Kalendar of Shepherds
About the Kalendar of Shepherds.
The Kalendar was printed in 1493 in Paris and provided ‘Devices for the 12 Months.’ The version I’m using is a modern (1908) reconstruction of it. It uses wood cuts from the original 15th Century version and adds various texts from 16th and 17th Century sources. (Couplets by Tusser ‘Five Hundred Parts of Good Husbandrie 1599. Text descriptions of the month from Nicholas Breton’s ‘Fantasticks of 1626. This provides an interesting view of what was going on in the countryside every month.
Hesiod, in his Works and Daya describes February as a merciless cold, windy time.
Avoid the month Lenaeon, (February) wretched days, all of them fit to skin an ox, and the frosts which are cruel when Boreas blows over the earth. He blows across horse-breeding Thrace upon the wide sea and stirs it up, while earth and the forest howl. On many a high-leafed oak and thick pine he falls and brings them to the bounteous earth in mountain glens: then all the immense wood roars and the beasts shudder and put their tails between their legs, even those whose hide is covered with fur; for with his bitter blast he blows even through them, although they are shaggy-breasted. He goes even through an ox’s hide; it does not stop him. Also he blows through the goat’s fine hair. But through the fleeces of sheep, because their wool is abundant, the keen wind Boreas pierces not at all; but it makes the old man curved as a wheel. And it does not blow through the tender maiden who stays indoors with her dear mother, unlearned as yet in the works of golden Aphrodite, and who washes her soft body and anoints herself with oil and lies down in an inner room within the house, on a winter’s day when the Boneless One (an Octopus or a cuttle?) gnaws his foot in his fireless house and wretched home; for the sun shows him no pastures to make for, but goes to and fro over the land and city of dusky men,3 and shines more sluggishly upon the whole race of the Hellenes. Then the horned and unhorned denizens of the wood,] with teeth chattering pitifully, flee through the copses and glades, and all, as they seek shelter, have this one care, to gain thick coverts or some hollow rock. Then, like the Three-legged One (an old man with a stick) whose back is broken and whose head looks down upon the ground, like him, I say, they wander to escape the white snow.
This page is about the discovery of evidence for an Ice age Lunar Calendar. The alignment of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments shows that there was a calendar of the year in use. At Stonehenge, there are suggestions that the alignments to Midsummer and Midwinter Solstices stretch further back into the Mesolithic period. (For more about Stonehenge see my post)
But in 2023, evidence of a Palaeolithic Calendar was discovered by an ‘amateur’. Furniture maker Ben Bacon studied markings in cave paintings at Lascaux, Altamira and other caves.
Sketch of 23,000 year old cave painting, below the head of the animal are 4 dots which are thought to be lunar months of the mating season
He collaborated with Professors at UCL and Durham. They interpreted markings showing the use of an Ice age Lunar Calendar to mark the mating season of particular animals. A Y shaped mark he interpreted as meaning ‘giving birth’. The number of dots or dashes drawn by or in the outline of the creature coincided with their mating season. They determined this by studying the mating season of modern animals.
1437 – Workmen discovered a giant Mallard which inaugurated ‘Mallard Day’ at All Souls, College, Oxford. It must have been remarkably big as they celebrated with an annual torchlit duck hunt on the nearby River Thames. It has been relegated to a once-a-century event. Now they only sing the song:
Griffin, Bustard, Turkey, Capon, Let other hungry mortals gape on, And on the bones their stomach fall hard, But let All Souls men have their Mallard. Oh! by the blood of King Edward. Oh! by the blood of King Edward. It was a whopping, whopping mallard.
Therefore, let us sing and dance a galliard, To the remembrance of the mallard. And as the mallard dives in pool, Let us dabble, dive and duck in bowl. Oh! by the blood of King Edward. Oh! by the blood of King Edward. It was a whopping, whopping mallard
