I first drew attention to this performance in 1896 (Folk-Lore, vol. vii., p. 382), and at once a comparison was made between it and the Buffalo Dances of the North American Indians, and the suggestion was advanced that it must have had a magical import, and have been primarily intended to secure success in hunting. I myself supposed that it was a mock hunt, probably instituted to commemorate some right of the chase, some privilege of annual hunting in the preserves of the lord of the manor, or the like. I was wrong. But, before giving you the evidence lately brought to light, I must say something about the locality itself. The parish consists of two townships, Abbot’s Bromley itself, and Bromley Hurst (or wood), together with the extra-parochial liberty of Bagot’s Bromley.[1] It lies a little to the north of the Trent on the banks of its tributary the Blythe, hemmed in on the further side by Needwood Forest. There is no trace of any pre-Saxon, or rather pre-Anglian occupation, and the name Bromley, the broomy ley, or pasture, seems to indicate that the Anglian settlers of the seventh century, or thereabouts, found it an open space covered with nothing higher than brushwood. (The oaks of Needwood were famous; some still remain.) We first hear of the place in 1002, in the midst of the worst time of the Danish invasions. In that year Wulfric, surnamed Spot, Ealdorman of Mercia, gave it to his new foundation of the Benedictine Abbey of Burton-on-Trent. Up to that time it must, like most of the surrounding district, have formed part of the posses-
- ↑ Bagot’s Bromley is first mentioned in the twelfth century, when it was already the property of the lineal ancestor of Lord Bagot, the present owner. It contains a woodland tract of some 1200 acres, called Bagot’s Park, probably already enclosed from Needwood Forest in the same century and preserving its natural features untouched. In it are some wonderful old oaks, (among them the Beggar’s Oak, under which tradition says any beggar has a right to a night’s lodging), a herd of deer, and a herd of wild goats, on the preservation of which the existence of the Bagot family is popularly supposed to depend. They are said to have been given by King John to the Bagot of his day.
