July 2018 - hoaroak

16
July

#SheepBite

It is said that Eskimos have a hundred words for snow. Exmoor shepherds may have had as many for sheep.

Some will have been in common use in Scotland and some on Exmoor, others used elsewhere in the country. It would be intriguing to know, when the Scottish shepherds brought their #SheepBite words with them, whether any of these new terms became adopted by the Exmoor farmers.

Many #SheepBite words can still be heard on the moor today. If you farm with sheep we’d love to know which ones you still use and what they mean.

Over the coming months we plan to add more and more – why not tell us which ones are your favourites and why you like them?

With thanks to Norah Solesbury for supplying many of the words used by Scottish shepherds.

#Husk or Hooze

A troublesome cough in lambs caused by lungworms most commonly during wet autumn months. Death is caused by anaemia and exhaustion, sometimes after many weeks of illness. When coughing, the lamb with expel large numbers of the parasites into their pasture where they can live for many months and infecting others grazing there. Shepherds used a mix of turpentine and milk with variable results. Husk in older sheep was caused by a different worm, not apparent before butchering. Now, regular worming of sheep prevents the disease.

#Braxy

Often just referred to as the Sickness, Braxy was once a common disease amongst hill sheep, usually affecting younger animals. It may have been the cause of many deaths during the winter months brought on by them eating frozen grass or root crops. With few signs of illness before death, the carcass decays more rapidly than is usual; despite this the meat was often eaten without ill effect to human or dog. Nowadays, sheep are vaccinated against it (see #Drench, below)

#Drench

Nothing to do with the shepherds getting wet! A drench is a liquid medicine given either as a preventative measure or as a cure.

#Drenching Horn (or, nowadays, Gun)

In the days before drenching (dosing) guns were invented, sheep drenches were given via drenching horns made from a sheep’s horn which had been cut lengthways to form a type of shallow spoon. The drenching gun resembles a large metal syringe with a tube which is inserted far into the sheep’s mouth. By this means a prescribed amount of the drench is released down the sheep’s throat.

#Fluke (Liver Fluke)

A parasitic flatworm that completes its life cycle within sheep causing liver damage and in severe cases, sudden death from haemorrhage. Most commonly found in wetter areas as the host is a minute mud snail and, as a consequence is normally more problematic in especially wet years – such as those of 1860-61 and 1879-1880 when over three million sheep died nationally. However, fluke can be transferred to drier pasture by infected animals. Now treated by drugs; in the past, herbal remedies may have been used with varying degrees of success. A cautionary note: watercress should not be gathered from fluke infested streams as they can infect humans when ingested.

#Buist (or Keel or Bust)

Pronounced ‘Bist’: to mark a sheep’s fleece with paint. One of the oldest forms of sheep identification. This would often be with the farmer’s initials and each farm would have its own colour. After shearing, of course, the sheep would need to be rebuisted. The image shows Exmoor Horn sheep belonging to the late Dick French of Brendon Barton, one of the closest farms to Hoar Oak Cottage. The initials A F were his father’s, the + usually denotes a glebe (or tithe) farm

#Buisting Iron

The marking iron used to apply paint to a fleece, sometimes individual letters, sometimes with the ‘complete’ branding mark; attached to a metal shank. There would often be a smaller iron for lambs. Occasionally they would be made from wood as shown in the photo below

#Keel Pot

The pot holding the paint (or paint/tar mix) into which the buisting iron would be dipped. Often sheep were marked with just a daub of paint using a wooden stick (‘keel’ or ‘paddle’)

#Hogg (or Hogget)

From August/September in the year of birth until the next summer when the fleece is sheared (clipped) off, the sheep is a ‘hogg’ (Scotland) or hogget (parts of England/Wales). Does Exmoor say hogg or hogget?

#Wethers (or Wedder Hoggs)

Tup (male) lambs which have been castrated and are being fattened for the market. If kept beyond the stage when they are lambs they become known as ‘wedder hoggs’

#Stell

Stells are open, circular pens – usually made from stone that sheep can wander into freely in bad weather. Still commonly seen in Scotland, Scottish shepherd Robert Tait Little brought his knowledge of them to Exmoor. Click here to find out about the one built at Hoar Oak Cottage

#Lamb

When does a lamb stop being a lamb? Young sheep born in Spring are known as lambs until their first August when they become #hoggs (or #hoggets)

Posted by Bette Baldwin

Education & Schooling Exmoor Songs & Singing Uncategorized

8
July

1881 – A Fishy Tale Sung for Mr Codd!

The Barbrook school registers have given us a valuable insight into the lives of North Devon children including some that lived at Hoar Oak Cottage. Their education was frequently interrupted by the needs of the farming calendar, by illness or by inclement weather. These stories can be read on two earlier blogs: The School Teacher Speaks Out and Advice on Education From a Shepherd’s Wife, 1876.

The register also logs the frequent visits from the school inspectors and one entry dated Tuesday October 11th 1881 tells of the inspection made by H F Codd, Esq. “Three songs were sung by the children viz: 1 The graves of a household 2. Rejoice Rejoice and 3 Dear mother said a little fish.”

The titles of these songs are intriguing. The first sounds terribly sad, the second rather like a hymn and the third appears to be ungrammatical. In an endeavour to try and find out a bit more the Friends contacted Cynthia Sartin, Honorary Librarian at Halsway Manor – the National Centre for the Folk Arts – in Crowcombe, Somerset which holds a large collection of traditional folk music, songs, dance and folklore in its Kennedy Grant Library.

The Graves of a Household comes from a book of poems by Felicia Hemans (1793-1835) entitled Records of Woman: With Other, published in 1828 by William Blackwood of Edinburgh and London. Cynthia has found the words of the poem, which had clearly been set to music in order for the little children of Barbrook school to be singing it to Mr. Codd the School Inspector. They are such sad words but probably reflect the experience of many families whose grown children left home to try their luck in far flung lands and rarely, if ever, returned home to their ‘fond mother’. The words are as follows:
They grew in beauty, side by side,
They fill’d one home with glee;–
Their graves are sever’d, far and wide,
By mount, and stream, and sea.
.
The same fond mother bent at night
O’er each fair sleeping brow;
She had each folded flower in sight,–
Where are those dreamers now?
.
One, midst the forests of the west,
By a dark stream is laid,–
The Indian knows his place of rest,
Far in the cedar shade.
.
The sea, the blue lone sea, hath one,
He lies where pearls lie deep;
He was the lov’d of all, yet none
O’er his low bed may weep.
.
One sleeps where southern vines are drest
Above the noble slain:
He wrapt his colours round his breast,
On a blood-red field of Spain.
.
And one–o’er her the myrtle showers
Its leaves, by soft winds fann’d;
She faded midst Italian flowers,–
The last of that bright band.
.
And parted thus they rest, who play’d
Beneath the same green tree;
Whose voices mingled as they pray’d
Around one parent knee!
.
They that with smiles lit up the hall,
And cheer’d with song the hearth,–
Alas! for love, if thou wert all,
And nought beyond, oh earth!
.
Click here for the digital link to where information and details of this song can be found.

Cynthia felt that the second song recorded, Rejoice Rejoice, was very likely to be a hymn and, as there are many hymns which have those words in their title, it could be one of any number of potential hymns. It is therefore difficult to be sure exactly of the words but we do hope that, for the children, this was a rather jollier song to sing than The Graves of a Household.

Finally, Dear Mother Said A Little Fish is an extraordinary title for a children’s song but, once again, Cynthia found it to be another Victorian poem which had been set to music for children to sing. The actual title of the poem is The Little Fish That Would Not Do As It Was Bid and this full title gives a clue that it is likely to be another woeful and moralistic tale used to teach a child an important message. Cynthia found it in Rhymes for the Nursery by Jane Taylor publsihed in 1831. It can also be found in a new Project Gutenberg EBook of Aunt Kitty’s Stories, by various authors, follow this link.

We are extremely grateful to Paul James, the Chief Executive of Halsway Manor for passing our enquiry to Cynthia Sartin, and to her for her quick response and providing such interesting information. If you would like to find out about the National Centre for the Folk Arts at Halsway Manor and their wonderful programme of activities click here for more information.

If you would like to find out more about Barbrook Mill School and Inspector Codd’s inspection reports there are many old records held in the North Devon Record Office in Barnstaple. For example, have a look at Mr. H.F. Codd, H.M.I., Education … North Devon Record Office: Annual reports of Inspector Reference: 3445A-1/PE 6 1876 – 1899

Posted by Bette Baldwin