Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/90

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74
Collectanea.


Errata in Former Paper. — In the original paper, under Fig. 77 (Pl. V.), read "N. S. de las Angustias" instead of "S. Angustias."

In the last paragraph of the notes on Spanish Votive Offerings, the statement as to the purpose of the small silver objects there referred to is incorrect. These objects are not offerings made before the granting of a request for intercession ; each is a symbol (escudo, i.e. scutcheon) of the Virgin of a certain locality, and is to be worn upon the special dress assumed in certain cases in the fulfilment of a vow made to that form of the Virgin.

W. L. Hildburgh.

Oxfordshire Village Folklore (1840-1900).

I am writing this account of old customs, charms, and superstitions from recollections of what I have myself seen and heard in the village of Long Handborough, and of what I have been told by my mother, who was a native of the neighbouring village of Barnard Gate and whose memory would go back to about 1840. The few notes from other sources I have carefully distinguished. As I have tried to make a full record of the local folklore known to me, naturally many items appear in it which are very familiar in other places, but the repetition seems necessary for the sake of completeness. As so much of my material is widely spread, no attempt has been made to note the numerous parallels in other counties.

Long Handborough is about three miles from Woodstock, and about eight and a half miles from Oxford. It is usually called Handborough ('Amborough in dialect), except when it is necessary to distinguish it from Church Handborough, which is about a mile distant.

The inhabitants of the villages in Oxfordshire consisted of the 'gentlefolk,' the 'respectable people,' and the 'poor folk.' The word 'respectable' did not apply in any sense to the conduct of those persons, but only to their social position. The 'gentlefolk' were usually the squire, if there was one, the clergyman, and