The Noontide Hag in Luton! January 10, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern , trackback
Walter Scott refers, in one of his poems, to ‘the noontide hag’, a creature he explains in a note as ‘a tall, emaciated, gigantic female figure, is supposed, in particular, to haunt the district of Knoidart’ and ‘which, contrary to the general rule of ghostly creatures, appeared in the full blaze of noon.’ Quite how the bogey of Knoidart got from deepest Scotland to provincial Luton in Bedfordshire is a nice question, but consider this unusual story from 1848:
This very rare species of ghost [the noontide Hag], which is mentioned by Scott in his Lady of the Lake, appeared the other day in Luton church, to a boy. It appears that after the morning prayers one of the workhouse boys was left behind to move the forms, used by the children, from the church into a large side chapel, to get into which he had to mount two or three steps. As he was moving one form, and had got one step, he could move it no further—he pulled—no go!—pulled again—still stuck fast!—turned round, and, a figure in white was sitting on the end of the form: down he went in a swoon, without further preface or examination. On coming to himself, the apparition was gone. This is curious, as proving a fact not to be found either in the notes of the great Wizard of the North [Sir Walter], replete as they are with curious ghost stories, nor yet in Reginald Scott’s demonology and witchcraft, nor in the talented papers on Popular Superstition, which have lately appeared in Blackwood; to wit, that the noontide hag has the attribute of weight, denied to other spirits, and hitherto thought to belong only to matter in contradistinction spirit; fortunately, the Luton clergymen are not given to Puseyism [radical high anglicans], or perhaps the Lutonians might be astonished by seeing the spirit laid with ‘candle, bell, and book.’ It is be hoped this unwelcome visitor may seat herself on the form when in use in the aisle in service time, perhaps—man being bold when in numbers— someone may lay hands on her, and after this proof of her corporeal presence, she will not very well get away without an explanation. Hert Merc, 18 Nov 1848, 3
The implication is clearly that the ghost is a man in a white sheet, and so, indeed, it probably was: Beach has given many other such examples on this site. But is it really true that ghosts have no ‘weight’, surely there are other instances where supernatural visitors are supposed to have been heavy. And, forgive this blogger’s immense ignorance, but what is meant here by a ‘form’? drbeachcombing AT yahoo DOT com Amateur dramatics?
10 Jan 2016: Clothos explains, with reference to the OED that a form is a ‘backless bench or pew’. So there. Thanks Clothos!
