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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2012
In proposing to give some notice of Staffordshire Clogg Almanacs, it will be fitting to begin with Dr. Robert Plot, the Natural Historian of the county. Not that I intend to follow him in his description of them, which is the fullest and best that has ever appeared. This would be unnecessary. But references and allusions to Plot must be frequent. That the Almanacs bore the name appropriating them to Staffordshire in his day, is evidenced by the title to the fine plate to the History (tab. xxxv.), dedicated to his patron “the worshipfull Elias Ashmole,” which is, “The Clog or Staffordshire Perpetuall Almanack.” There is another proof that they were called Staffordshire Almanacs at an early period, and thus, as it were, restricted to this county, for calling my attention to which I am indebted to A. W. Franks, Esq. the late Director of this Society. One of these calendars, now in the British Museum, belonged to the original collection of Sir Hans Sloane, which was purchased at his death. It is entered in Sir Hans Sloane's own manuscript catalogue, which appears to have been made as curiosities fell into his hands, as “A Runic or Staffordshire Almanack.” The entry occurs towards the middle of the catalogue, and no doubt the Clogg was in the possession of Sir Hans many years before the close of his very lengthened life, in 1753.
page 454 note a The Natural History of Staffordshire, by Robert Plot, LL.D. 1686. p. 419.
page 454 note b It may be desirable in this note to mention the examples of Clogg Almanacs that have come to my knowledge. Not that this list can be considered to be complete. Their perishable nature explains the rarity of such objects.
1. The one which was formerly in the museum of Mr. Richard Greene, Apothecary, of Lichfield, the first to form a museum in the county of Stafford. This gentleman was a relative and a correspondent of Dr. Samuel Johnson, who on one occasion visited his museum, when he made the remark: “Sir, I should as soon have thought of building a man-of-war as of collecting such a museum.” Mr. Greene's portrait, from an old copper-plate, is given in Dr. Stebbing Shaw's “History and Antiquities of Staffordshire,” vol. i. pl. xxx. surrounded with curious objects indicative of his collection, as well as a view of the interior of the museum itself in pl. xxxii. This Clogg was in Mr. Greene's Catalogue called “A Runic Almanac,” a misnomer (not peculiar to this catalogue only), as there are no Runes upon it; it is engraved on a quadrangular oaken staff, and is without date. At Mr. Greene's death it passed into the museum of Dr. Richard Wright of Lichfield, afterwards into the possession of Mr. G. T. Lomax, and is now exhibited in the public museum of that city, being lent for exhibition by its present owner. It has been carefully engraved in the Anastatic Drawing Society's Volume for 1860, where it is briefly described by Miss F. M. Gresley; and more at length by Rev. J. M. Gresley, in the “Transactions of the Leicestershire Architectural and Archæological Society,” vol. i. p. 410.
2. One in the Bateman Museum, at Lomberdale House, Derbyshire; also on a squared oaken staff, and bearing the certainly original date, 1626. It was bought at the sale of the collection of Mr. Thomas Barritt, of Manchester.
3. The “Finch Clogg” of oak, in Chetham's Library, Manchester.
4. The “Moss Clogg,” also of oak, in the same library, bearing the date 1589.
5–8. Four in the British Museum, one of which is that derived from the collection of Sir Hans Sloane, and two of the others are from the Harleian Collection. They are all engraved on squared staves of wood, are without dates, have no handles, except one which has a very small one, and are of different sizes, the longest being 16 inches, the shortest 6½ inches long. One of them has the signs of the Zodiac upon it. The shortest may be looked upon as a pocket Clogg.
9. One in the collection of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire.
10. One in the possession of Rev. John Smith Doxey, Rochdale. This is the one derived from Wirksworth, which can be traced for one hundred years or more in the family of the owner, although its use was not known.
11. One in the collection of St. John's College, Cambridge. It is 16 inches long, and made upon a stout squared block of the wood of an English fruit-tree, probably pear tree. The large Clogg at the British Museum and this are so much alike that they may be supposed to have been made by the same hands. They are distinguished for being of the same size, being well executed, for each having a magnificent harp for St. David's day, and an equally magnificent rake on the 11th of June, for the commencement of hay-time, and for both containing a long reclined notch, representing the bough of a tree, on the 2nd of March, St. Ceadda's day. This indicates the mode of life of St. Chad, who was a hermit, and dwelt in the woods near Lichfield. He is retained in the English Calendar, and an ancient church in that city is dedicated to him. In this Cambridge example the first day of each month is distinguished in a particular manner, by having a little pin-hole at the bottom of the notch for the day ; probably these holes may have originally held brass pins, as in other examples, which have dropped out.
12–15. Four in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. One, which is 18 inches long, is made on a squared staff of box-wood, has a handle, and is without date. The three others are small ones, also of squared box-wood, and are of that kind mentioned by Plot to carry in the pocket. The largest is but 6 inches in length, the shortest 5 only.
It is deserving of note that the most famous, and perhaps most beautiful Staffordshire Clogg, that which is engraved by Plot in his tab. xxxv. and has been so often copied in this country, and even abroad, like the very remarkable ones engraved by Olaf Worm, is lost. This Clogg, although Plot in describing it employs the terms “the squared stick,” was, I am persuaded, of brass, and was almost certainly that which was sent him by “the most ingenious Charles Cotton of Beresford, Esq.” I consider it to be represented of the full size.
16. One in the Bodleian Library, which is made upon a squared block of wood, durable, heavy, and without grain, most likely of a fruit-tree. It is about 22 inches long, including the handle, which is round and a little more than 4 inches in length. The 1st of January is distinguished by a circle; there is no emblem for the 5th of November; and the 2nd of March is marked by the bough of a tree, the symbol of St. Chad.
17. One in my own possession, which bears a date difficult to decipher. I read it 1653. This was purchased at the sale of the Bradbury Collection at Manchester, in 1865. It is a very large and fine example, carved on a squared block of oak. It is represented on Plate XXL, the diagram of the four faces being drawn to a scale half that of the original. The symbols upon it will be described presently.
page 457 note a Some such mode of recording the passage of time is, without doubt, used by the least civilized races of men. I was once told by a Makooah, whese name was “Tatooah,” a Portuguese slave from the eastern side of South Africa, on the Mozambique Coast, that he remembered, when a boy in his father's hut, it was the custom of the family to make a knot upon a string hung up in the hut every morning when they arose, to distinguish the day and to mark its distance from the new moon, which is a season of great importance in the simple events of a Negro's life.
The rude piece of sandstone of pentagonal form, figured below, was found some years ago in an ancient British barrow in the North Riding of Yorkshire. By alluding to it in this place I do not for a moment intend to put the Ancient Britons on a level with the uncivilized Makooahs. Upon this stone a tolerably regular oblong square, or paralellogram, has been grooved; then six lines have been indented the long way of the quadrangle, so as to divide it into seven equal portions. Lastly, three transverse grooves have been engraved crossing the previous seven spaces, thus dividing the quadrangular surface into twenty-eight paralellogramatic elevations or spaces, each of about the same size. This carving might be supposed to be designed for an Ancient British Almanac, if we could perceive the way in which it was used. It has indeed been suggested that this pattern might have formed a mould for casting a bronze instrument with twenty-eight equal spaces in it. We know that the Ancient Britons had a Lunar Calendar which must have occupied much attention in the regulation of their festivals. (Crania Britannica, p. 115.) The sixth day of the new moon, “dies sexta Lunæ” (Pliny, lib. xvi. § 95), was a sacred day, from which they dated the commencement of their months, years, and secula of thirty years. It is not known that they divided their lunar month into four septenary periods or weeks; still, it is most likely that the later Britens would have learned this mode of dividing time from the Romans, who are said to have used it at the beginning of the third century. It cannot be regarded as at all probable that the Britons used no means to mark the days intervening between one new moon and another, and the inference that this carved stone had some connection with the lunar month is not improbable.
page 459 note a “From the very oldest times, the Northman had his own perpetual calendar, carved with runes and other marks, commonly upon a flat board, or upon a stick or staff. It was therefore usually called Runestaff or Primstaff, from the word prim, which means the same as what in Catholic Calendars is called the golden number. We sometimes find employed for this purpose thin slips or leaves of wood or bone, and more lately parchment-leaves which folded up like a book. Not seldom these marks were inscribed on weapons, tools, furniture, and ornaments—for instance on the lance-staff, axe-shaft, and slight boxes, &c.” (Frithiofs Saga, translated by George Stephens, Stockholm, 1839.) In this translation is inserted a “description of Ingeborg's arm-ring,” mentioned in the poem, by Bror. Emil Hildebrand, now the Royal Antiquarian of Sweden, who gives a short account of Runic Calendars, with an engraving of a beautiful design made by his predecessor in office, Professor J. G. Liljegren, to show the probable form of a heathen Runestaff.
The Rose so brightly blooming there—
She hight was Ingeborg the Fair.
page 460 note a Di un Calendario Runico della Pontificia Università di Bologna. 1841. Quarto. Con tavole viii.
page 461 note a It should be recollected that this calendar does not belong to a pure Rune district ; and it may be regarded as in some measure transitional, standing between Runic and Gothic letters.
page 462 note a There is no instance known of a Runic Calendar inscribed with Anglo-Saxon Runes.
page 463 note a This calendar is engraved in the “Gentleman's Magazine” for 1812. Supp. lxxxii. Part i. p. 625. It has a number of “mark-days,” distinguished by crosses and various other symbols. The communication upon this small Runic Almanac is introduced by a quotation from a work entitled a “View of the Russian Empire during the Reign of Catherine the Second, and to the close of the Eighteenth Century.” The author of this book was William Tooke, F.R.S. “The boors of Asel make a calendar for themselves. For this purpose, as they cannot write, they have from time immemorial made choice of certain signs, which they mark in an artless manner on seven narrow flat sticks tied together by a thong passed through a hole at the upper end of each. More properly the inscription is on thirteen sides; on each side is a month consisting of 28 days. By this calendar they know at once every week-day, every immoveable festival, and every day that is memorable among them by any superstitious rites, for each has its own peculiar sign.” (Vol. i. p. 181.) The writer then adds that the islanders adopt the practice of the Hebrews, by beginning their books where we end them, and read from right to left. In fact, the Runes on the example figured in the magazine are of the retrograde type which will subsequently be noticed, though corrupt in some of the forms. The correspondent who communicated this quotation mentions an interesting fact, that these Runic Calendars, engraved upon slender leaves of wood, were at that period used in the neighbouring isles of Runö and Maon, and they still continue to be used in remote provinces.
page 464 note a Olaf Worm gives a wood-cut of another beautiful example of a small Runic Calendar in this book form. It was made on nine square leaves of box, and adorned with fine figures, just like that at Bologna.
page 466 note a Upon the Staffordshire Cloggs the place for the rake, emblematic of haytime, is earlier, namely, on the 11th of June, as is very conspicuous upon the large Clogg of the British Museum; which shows that this enamelled Runic Calendar was fitted for a more northern clime, in fact, that it is a Scandinavian example.
page 468 note a By an inadvertence, the January-July side of the staff has been represented in plate XXI. beneath the July-January side. The former side is indicated by the capital A carved on it.
page 469 note a There is an engraving of a portion of a Runic Calendar in the Archæologia, vol. I. p. 183, appended to Mr. Samuel Gale's Dissertation upon the Horn of Ulphus, preserved in York Minster. It presents the Runes of the days from the 20th of December to the 14th of January. From the 21st of December, or St. Thomas's day, to the 6th of January, or Twelfth day, they are marked by horns standing upright, Christmas day being distinguished by two, one inclining each way, to indicate the great festivities of the day. And on the 13th of January the horn is reversed, unequivocally signifying the finishing of the Christmas ale. St. Thomas's day is sometimes marked upon the Cloggs with the emblem of a barrel, to denote the brewing of the Yule ale, and Twelfth day is at times equally expressively indicated by an empty barrel.
page 470 note b The name of “mark-days” appears to have been first attached to certain days of the year indicative of the seasons, or the coming state of the weather, and the signs of the prosperity of the year, before they were appropriated to the Christian saints, which, in fact, was an adaptation or accommodation of the priests. According to ancient laws of the church these were obliged to “cut out staves,” that is, to send out through their districts staves of message, in the shape of crosses, in good time previously to every festival, and they were responsible for its due notification. An old Norwegian law propounds, “if any feast be wrongly notified, the priest shall either run or ride in the direction of the messenger and try to overtake or stop him, so that people do not eat or work at a prohibited time.”
Another Messedag Staff, of exactly the same oval ring-like form, a Norwegian example, is delineated on both sides in a little Norwegian Almanac for 1848 (Norsk Folke-Kalender for 1848. Christiania). This publication, which is similar to the English “Companion to the Almanac,” contains valuable essays upon almanac subjects by eminent men. The figures alluded to are given in illustration of an excellent communication, entitled “Om vore Forfædres ældste Tidsregning, Primstaven og Mærkedagene,” or “Upon our forefathers' oldest mode of reckoning time, Primstaves and Mark-days,” written by the late Professor P. A. Munch. This latter Messedag Almanac bears a date on the winter side in Arabic numerals, 1651, and, on the other side, the initials of the owner B. H. S. Besides which, on the outer edge of the ring of wood, there is an inscription to this effect: “Here may we learn the season of the year and the Roman holydays, their name and time of year.”
There is a good deal of illustration of Runic Calendars in J. G. Liljegren's Run-Lära (Stockholm, 1832), in the xiith Section, p 194, with figures given in Pl. viii.
[Since this paper was read the Paris Exhibition of 1867 has taken place. In the department devoted to the “Histoire du Travail,” there were exhibited above a dozen Primstaves or Runic Calendars, from both Stockholm and Copenhagen. The dates upon these Runic Calendars ranged between 1636 and 1714. One of these, of which Mr. Franks procured rubbings, is deserving of notice, as furnishing a new intermediate type. It is a wooden ring almanack of large size, being twenty-three inches long by five inches across at the widest part of the oval. It is carved both with Runes for the days of the week and the usual symbols for the mark-days.]
page 472 note a There is a little work which bears reference to Runic Calendars, in which mention is made of the daily and ordinary employment of one of these instruments by a Norwegian farmer during this century. Mr. Wolff, the author, says, “Un de mes amis en Norwège m'assura qu'il rencontra un jour un fermier dans le Gulbrandsdahl, ou vallée de Guldbrand, qui faisait régulièrement usage d'un de ces calendriers pour ses occupations journalières, et quoiqu'il eût un almanach chez lui, il donna la préférence à son vieux Rimstok qu'il connaissait depuis long-tems presque par cœur, ainsi que les lettres runiques.” (Runakefli, Le Runic Rimstok, ou Calendrier Runique, &c. Par Jens Wolff. Paris, 1820. p. 37.) That portion of this little volume, which refers to the Runic Calendars, contains two large engravings of the two sides of a Rimstock which was presented to the author at Trondheim, on the other side of the Dovrefield, by a friend who had a collection of antiquities. This Runakefli (in Islandic, baculus literis inscriptus, claviculus runicus) receives full illustration from Mr. Wolff. Besides the succession of rows of Runes and symbols running through each half-year, the calendar presents an oblong compartment, which Mr. Wolff entitles “Signes du Zodiaque.” This contains four lines of Runes, zodaical symbols, &c. for each half-year. But below these there is a line of characters unnoticed and unexplained by Mr. Wolff, which has nothing to do with the zodiac. It is occasionally seen upon Runic Calendars, and presents our Scandinavian predecessors in a very pleasing light. It consists of a series of crosses and upright lines, arranged in a particular order for a game, which has been named after St. Peter, in Swedish “Sankt Päders Lek.” Those who have spent their early youth in one of the Danish districts of England, as in the neighbourhood of York, do not need to be told what laking is (to lake, to play. Leka, Sw. Lacan, A.-S. ludere). [See Worsaae's “Danes and Norwegians in England,” &c. p. 84.]
The story is that St. Peter, when at sea, was in such danger of being shipwrecked from a storm, that it became necessary to throw a part of the passengers and crew overboard, in order to lighten the ship, and save the lives of the rest. There were thirty persons in the whole, one half Christians and the other half Jews. St. Peter, with the object of saving the former, arranged the whole in a row so cleverly, that, by taking every ninth man, all the Christians, distinguished by crosses, were saved, and the Jews alone drowned.
page 473 note a “The Rune-Staff has gradually undergone many changes, in consequence of attempts having been made partly to arrange it after the New Style, and partly to make it more accordant with modern reckonings. Its use was commonly known up to the commencement of the 16th Century, but was supplanted by degrees by the annual and therefore more convenient Almanacks. Notwithstanding this, familiarity with its signs was long regarded as so important, that King Karl XL by a Royal Letter, dated July 5, 1684, issued at the request of the College of Antiquities, ordered that all such persons as exhibited the greatest skill in carving Rune-staves, and instructing the common people in their use, thus persuading them again to adopt them in general, should enjoy freedom from all payments or taxes to his Majesty and the Crown. They are now preserved as mere antiquarian curiosities, and, with the exception, perhaps, of some distant province where the peasantry may still be capable of understanding them, their explanation has fallen within the limits of antiquarian research.”—Hildebrand, Frithiofs Saga, p. xlvi. This statement of a learned northern antiquary and polite gentleman agrees closely with what is written in the text.
page 475 note a In the large British Museum specimen, the notches of the first quarter of the year end on the 25th of March, and those for the second quarter on the 24th of June. When we reach the third quarter the terminal notch is correct for the 30th of September. In the Cambridge example the quarters are equally irregular.
page 478 note a On the 20th of June, 1864, a curious Runic Calendar was exhibited before this Society. The exhibition is announced in the Archæologia, vol. XXXI. p. 483, as “a Runic Almanac, or Staffordshire Clogg book.” This calendar belongs to Mr. William Crafter, of Gravesend. It was purchased more than fifty years ago at the sale of General Harris's collection of antiquities at Canterbury. By the politeness of its owner, who himself never considered it a Clogg, I am permitted to exhibit it again. The calendar is carefully sculptured on eleven short thin staves of wood, less than five inches in length. This wood is box. A leathern thong threaded through the two holes in each leaf fastens the whole together, and allows the leaves to be opened like those of an old-fashioned pamphlet. This calendar, in its mode of construction; exactly resembles that at Bologna. The leaves are numbered at the ends from one to eleven. It is strictly a pocket almanac. The first of January is marked by a large cross, with a radiation above it, and, as usual in the Runic Calendars, the week commences with Fé, for Monday. In the same manner, as to confounding the two classes of instruments, Mr. John Harland, F.S.A. designates his memoir in “The Reliquary” upon Staffordshire Cloggs, “On Clog Almanacks, or Rune-Stocks.”