A Custom in the MakingAuthor(s): Violet AlfordSource: Folklore, Vol. 53, No. 3 (Sep., 1942), pp. 164-165Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Folklore Enterprises, Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1257818 .

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164 Collectanea claimed that they had never seen the creature before, and did not know the farmer had such a queer dog. She described it to me as dark and shaggy, and not quite like an ordinary dog. It was only after some time that both girls remembered the long-ago stories of the farmer's son who was a werewolf, and both, rather apprehensively, came to the conclusion that they had seen the lobishomem.

VIOLET ALFORD

A CUSTOM IN THE MAKING

A NEW Oxford custom has arisen which already boasts four years of life and which may harden into an established tradition. It concerns Univer- sity and City equally, for both are eager to give an hour once a year to honour the poet of citizens and scholars. A few minutes before mid-day on the birthday of Shakespeare which is St. George's Day, the Patron Saint of England, a sober little procession marches out from the Town Hall, the University Mace and the City Mace carried at its head. The Mayor and the Vice-Chancellor walk first, Aldermen and Councillors, University Dignitaries, and, this year, American Officers from the U.S.A. Hospital near-by, making pleasant splashes of blue amongst the scarlet and black. The procession arrived at the house in the Cornmarket now

occupied by a Lyons' restaurant on the ground floor, and by the English Speaking Union on the first floor. I have been shown a print of the house before the original facade was destroyed about Ioo years ago, and a very good Tudor

facade it was, rising to four storeys, with wooden pilasters

and decoration under the then receding first floor. The Maces adroitly negociated the steep stairs, the company went up to the second floor and turned into the Painted Room-one of the new sights of Oxford. The tenant, Mr. E. W. Attwood, himself discovered the designs beneath

many layers of ancient wallpaper and canvas. The chimney brickwork dates from about 1350, the large letters IHS on the chimney-breast seem to be about a hundred years later. A richly coloured design of interlacing arabesques covers the adjacent wall and the whole of the north wall, finished with a white band painted with flowers and fruit along the

skirting, and a frieze of lettering between the main design and the ceiling. This proves to be pious mottoes, and very pleasant lettering it is. The whole wears that gracious appearance of freehand which knows no stencils. The painting was done about 1550 and remained visible till

1630, when fashions changed and the occupiers felt obliged to cover up their patterned walls. The whole effect is red and yellow, gay and com-

fortable, without any of the depressing atmosphere so often felt in ancient rooms. This was the Crown Tavern, rented by the Davenant family, and here William Shakespeare made a habit of lying a night or two to break his yearly journey between London and Stratford. The house was then in the possession of New College, having been bought by William of Wykeham in 1395. It is now under the care of the Oxford Preservation Trust and belongs to the City. Here then members of City and Univer-

sity meet once a year, and in the gay old room drink to the memory

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Collectanea 165 -in sack and malmsey I am informed-of the famous guest it so often housed.

VIOLET ALFORD

For dates here given I am indebted to a pamphlet, The Painted Room at Oxford, by Helen FitzRandolph, M.A.

A MEDIEVAL TALISMAN FROM SWAINSWICK, BATH

THE writer possesses an inscribed strip of silver which is unfortunately broken in two. It is preserved in a small cardboard box on which is written :

" Antiquring-found in excavating at Upper Swainswick, near the church, 1858. From Willm Tipper to P. C. Sheppard, Esq., as a token of friendship."

William Tipper was the rural postman, and the donee was the writer's maternal grandfather, of Bathampton Manor, Bath. The writer has no particulars of the discovery of the relic other than the foregoing note.

Although described in the note as an " antique ring," the strip does not appear to have ever formed a ring. It measures 39" x A " x ", and weighs 12 oz. (troy). Each end is turned down, probably for attachment to some larger object. To whatever use the strip was put, it cannot be doubted that its magical inscription gave it the value of a charm or talisman.

Mr. A. B. Tonnochy of the Department of British and Mediaeval Antiquities, British Museum, has been kind enough to decipher, and furnish notes (given below) on the inscription or " legend," which is in Gothic lettering. It reads:

---•--- M- -l

106v-l A "n I '"-av.. - •• j - Fb- "

ANANIZAPTA TETRAGRAMATON AGLA IETE(?) TEBAL IETAM (?)

The word ananizapta (anamizapta) was used as a charm against epilepsy, or the falling sickness, and also against drunkeness. It is often associated, as here, with Tetragramaton, a name of God, and Agla, an acrostic from the initial letters of the Hebrew for " Thou art mighty for everlasting, 0 Lord."

These wbrds are common on rings, brooches, and other personal orna- ments of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, but may also be found on other things. Tebal occurs in a manuscript in a charm against toothache. The other two words, Mr. Tonnochy states, are doubtful, and rather different from those usually found.

Swainswick is a village on the Gloucester Road, about three miles N.E. of Bath. The name is spelt Swayneswyke, Swanswick, and Swainswick ; but the last is now the most usual. The derivation of the name is un- certain. Some connect it with the myth of Bladud and his pigs, suggest- ing that it is a corruption of Swineswick while others would derive it

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