Regarding The Bridge

How old is this tradition regarding the Bridge

? Longfellow wrote an identical story in The Golden Legend about the Devil's Bridge in Switzerland after his tour of Europe in 1826. The poet of Yorkshire descent was born in America in 1802. He may have been told the Westmorland legend when a child and later have attached the story to a Swiss bridge. Or is the Devil's name attached to all bridges over gorges which are difficult to span? Certainly the Devil's bridge in the Mynach Glen, Cardiganshire, has a rocky setting and an almost identical legend.

A third Devil's bridge crosses the Hellgill Beck at Hellgill Fosse in the dale of Mallerstang near Kirkby Stephen. The legend of the Devil as a bridge builder is, however, world wide. Machell, in 1692, stayed in Kirkby Londsale and gives a full account of the town, including the bridge, which he refers to as Kirkby Bridge. Since he does not name it as the Devil's nor recount the legend, perhaps we may conclude that this was first recorded in print in 1780, with other 'devil's lore' by the Rev. John Hutton. The present bridge is considered to be of late fifteenth or early sixteenth century date. The Devil also has a Cumbrian Mustard Mill at Stenkbridge near Kirkby Stephen where an underground stream causes a rumbling sound.

The Devil frequently used witches as his agents. The story connected with the Witches Bull Pot on Casterton Fell, an awesome pothole, seems to have been forgotten. It is a fairly late name, which bears testimony that belief in witchcraft is a long lived tradition. Even as late as the early years of this century Miss E. M. Ward describes how a Langdale farmer and his wife were both convinced they had been cursed. The wife felt 'as though she had a black rope round her neck'. When a gypsy called at the farm she declared she could get rid of curses. The farmer, who said the women 'had some witchery about her' agreed to pay her price ten pounds. Later, repenting of his bargain, he had to go to law to regain his money, thereby doubtless earning another curse.

Another Cumbrian witch whose strangely worded epitaph acknowledges her unholy allegiance was Margaret Teasdale, who is buried in Over Denton churchyard. Gruesome relics, found in her . house after her death proved her practice of Black Magic. A cupboard, which opened into a secret stairway, contained the skeleton of a child and the bones of a hand. Young children and the dead hand of a murderer were considered essential for certain practices in Black Magic; the hand, known as the Hand of Glory, was believed to have special powers, but only after it had been subjected to certain rites. Sir Walter Scott and Southey both introduce the Hand into their writings. Indeed, it was from accounts about this same Margaret Teasdale that Scott drew his character of Tib Mumps, mistress of Mumps Ha', in Guy Mannering.

Her life was undoubtedly lawless and the Hand suggests it was used in thieving activities, for it was believed by thieves to possess the power of inducing sleep. The rites to which a murderer's dead hand was subjected are described by Douster Swivel, the German adventurer in Scott's The Antiquary.

by: Adrian Vultur

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