Chapter X.

STREETS.

THERE are Street Meadow and Street Leasow, in Wolverley; Moors (otherwise Mours) Street, in Hales Owen; Green Street, and Green Street Meadow, in Kempsey; Green Street, Nether Street, and Little Street, in Hallow; Green Street, and Hunningham Street*, in Harvington; Salter Street Ground, in Inkberrow; The Leys, next Rock Street, in Chaseley; Wood Street, in Bushley; "The Streets," in Bromsgrove parish; Street Hill Tillage, in Claines; Green Street, in Wickhamford; Eagle Street, in Beoley. Pieces called Lower Street Leasow, and Upper Street Leasow, in the Foreign of Kidderminster; Upper Street, and Upper Street Sling, in Doderhill; Street Bank, in Shelsley Beauchamp; Street Orchard, in Grimley; Street-end Meadow, in Alvechurch; Rye Street, in Birt's Morton; Green Street, in Alfrick and Lulsley; Street and Salt Street, in the Anglo-Saxon boundaries of Wolverton;-all in Worcestershire.

Streets-end, in Much Marcle; Streets-end Orchard, Streetend Meadow, and Street-end Garden, in Ullingswick, in Herefordshire.

King Street, near Berrington, not far from Shrewsbury, in Shropshire.

Streets Brook Coppice and Meadow, and Shirley Street Meadow, in Solihull, Co. Warwick.

* See p. 340, referring to Heming's" Cartulary."

Chapter XI.

SITES OF ANCIENT VINEYARDS.

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As the name Vineyard" occurs in almost every parish in the county (a few of which have previously been noticed), it would be curious to ascertain when vines were first planted in England, and how long they were continued.

As the name sometimes occurs in the neighbourhood of the camps, and in the lines of the ancient roads, perhaps they were first introduced by the Romans; but, if so, it must have been during the latter part of their dominion here; for, Tacitus in speaking of the temperature and happy situation of Britain, says, there is nothing deficient in it but the olive and the vine, which only grow in hotter countries 4."

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Dr. Nash, in Vol. i. of his "History," p. 307, in speaking of a place called The Vines, in Droitwich, says, "Suetonius tells us that Domitian forbade the planting of any new vineyards, and destroyed at least half of the old ones in every province. The liberty of growing vines was restored by Probus, and I believe the Britons began to plant them about the year 280. Bede, who finished his "History" in 731, describing Britain, says, they grew vines in sundry places; and, Richard of Cirencester, who died about 1400, makes the same observation. Perhaps their cultivation was neglected, when the inhabitants found they could purchase better flavoured wines at a low price from France, or employ their lands to more advantage by raising grain §.

* See Stoke Bliss, p. 258, and Whitbourne, p. 213.

+ See "Britannia Antiqua," by Aylett Sammes, published 1676, p. 5. Several Roman relics have been found there.-See pp. 98 to 102.

§ See Mr. Pegge's dissertation in the first volume of the " Archæologia," p. 321. Several autiquaries consider that the places called Vineyards refer to apple or other fruit orchards, and not to the vine; but see before, pp. 98 to 102.

And in Vol. ii., "Corrections and Additions," p. 24, the Doctor says, "In William of Malmsbury's description of Thorney Abbey (De gestis pontificum,' L. 4, p. 163, ed. Savil), there is a passage which seems plainly to prove that vines, for making wine, were planted in England;" and " Camden says, one of the four wonders of Ely was a vinea."

The Doctor also refers to various ancient documents relative to vineyards in Ripple, temp. Henry II.; Fladbury, temp. circa Henry III.; in Leigh, temp. circa Edward I.; and also in Sedgbarrow and Elmley Castle.

It is said that the sides of Towbury Hill, in Gloucestershire, were formerly covered with vines.

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There also is a hill by Evesham called Vineyard Hill, planted by Walter, the first Norman Abbot, which is noticed in "Domesday," as the New Vineyard:"-" Et vinea novella ibi."-Survey of Abbey land at Hampton, in "Domesday Book*." There are Vine Hill, and the Vineyards, in Dodenham; The Vinne, Vinne Orchard, Big Vinne, Little Vinne, and Great Viney, in Abberley; Vineyard, in Stoke Bliss; The Vineyard, in Powick; The Vineyard, in Lower Mitton, in the parish of Kidderminster; and also in a great many other places in the county.

* See May's "History of Evesham," second edition, 1845, pp. 18, 84.

Chapter XII.

FOLK-LORE.

ON THE IGNIS FATUUS, OR WILL-O-THE-WISP, AND THE FAIRIES.

THE following chapter was published as a separate pamphlet, in 1846, and is here reprinted with various additions.

From the county of Worcester might be gleaned much more of the ancient folk-lore than is here presented to the reader, the researches of the Author having been chiefly directed to the particular legends in reference to the ignis fatuus, and the tiny inhabitants of fairyland.

In and near Worcestershire there are many fields and other places distinguished by the names of Hoberdy," "Hob," Puck," "Jack," and "Will." The origin of such appellations is, doubtless, mainly to be sought in the popular fairy mythology; and, in investigating the subject, the Author has collected many curious legends of the folk-lore, more particularly those that relate to, or may be explained by the natural phenomenon of the ignis fatuus. These it is his present intention to lay before the reader.

The following particulars of the ignis fatuus were published by me in the Worcester newspapers, of January 1840.

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In the year 1835, I gave an account of a great many facts which I collected, and which are published in my pamphlet on the

Old Red Sandstone of Worcestershire and Herefordshire,' relative to that remarkable and interesting phenomenon called the ignis fatuus, or Will-o'-the-Wisp, but I never had the pleasure of seeing it myself until the night of the 31st of December, 1839, in two meadows and a stubble field on the south side of Brook House,

situated about a mile from Powick village, near the Upton road. I had for several nights before been on the look out there for it, but was told by the inhabitants of the house that previously to that night it was too cold. I noticed it from one of the upper windows intermittingly for about half an hour, between ten and eleven o'clock, at the distance of from one to two hundred yards off me. Sometimes it was only like a flash in the pan on the ground; at other times it rose up several feet and fell to the earth, and became extinguished; and many times it proceeded horizontally from fifty to one hundred yards with an undulating motion, like the flight of the green woodpecker, and about as rapid; and once or twice it proceeded with considerable rapidity, in a straight line upon or close to the ground.

"The light of this ignis fatuus, or rather of these ignes fatui, was very clear and strong, much bluer than that of a candle, and very like that of an electric spark, and some of them looked larger and as bright as the star Sirius; of course, they look dim when seen in ground fogs, but there was not any fog on the night in question; there was, however, a muggy closeness in the atmosphere, and at the same time a considerable breeze from the south-west. Those Will-o'-the-Wisps which shot horizontally invariably proceeded before the wind towards the north-east.

"On the day before, namely, the 30th of December, there was a white frost in the morning; but as the sun rose behind a mantle of very red and beautifully stratified clouds, it rained heavily (as we anticipated) in the evening; and from that circumstance I conjectured that I should see the phenomenon in question on the next night, agreeably to all the evidence I had before collected upon the subject.

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On the night of the 1st of January, 1840, I saw only a few flashes on the ground at the same place; but on the next night (the wind still blowing from the south-west), I not only saw several ignes fatui rise up occasionally in the same locality many feet high, and fall again to the ground, but at about eight o'clock two very beautiful ones rose together a little more than one hundred yards from me, and about fifty yards apart from each other. The one ascended several yards high, and then fell in a curve to the