• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Crotal Bell

... Or the ire of whatever cursed beast that old whistle summons! :nails:

athistlewhistleandillcometoyou.jpg
 
I once showed that famous adaptation to a class of extremely bored Year 10s. Pearls before swine!

They really might have liked it a bit more if it had featured a monster as depicted! :domo:
 
I think I've found out something about the whistle :) I think it's a post Medieval Tudor Decorated Hawking Whistle. I've just been looking at an almost identical one (albeit in better condition than mine) it was found in Wiltshire and sold for £85 at auction. I'd never sell mine but now I'm excited!

I posted this song on the What Music thread, but this video of it suits this thread better.

 
Found my first crotal bell (or half of one) in the Summer on pea stubble together with a thruppenny bit. The bell could have hung around a
sheeps neck to amuse the Shepherd. The crotal bell (or half of one) on the right detected last week must have hung on a bull.
One day maybe I'll find a whole one.

Crotal_2368.jpg
 
Is this a solid casting, or a curled pressing?

I wonder whether this is something as mundane as a casement latch/bolt-head, or actually a Middle Ages jewelry fragment?
Ha.....first thought...a whistle lol
 
I think I've found out something about the whistle :) I think it's a post Medieval Tudor Decorated Hawking Whistle. I've just been looking at an almost identical one (albeit in better condition than mine) it was found in Wiltshire and sold for £85 at auction. I'd never sell mine but now I'm excited!
Now you can be a hawk whisperer
 
'Oh, whistle and I'll come to you, my lad'

I often wondered about the 'my lad' bit.

INT21.
 
Fortunately....I don't have a whistle. Sighs with relief :)
 
I did tell Fruitbat about the board changeover so hopefully she'll be able to wade back into this conversation soon.
 
I often wondered about the 'my lad' bit
You'll be thinking of the M.R. James "Ghost Stories of an Antiquary" story of that name where a bronze whistle is unearthed from a Templar shrine, but the actual title is from the 1793 Burns poem, where it is the ode of the "Lad's" lady-love, and the 'whistle' is to say "the coast is clear"


Whistle, an' I'll come to ye, my lad,
O whistle, an' I'll come to ye, my lad,
Tho' father an' mother an' a' should gae mad,
O whistle, an' I'll come to ye, my lad.


But warily tent when ye come to court me,
And come nae unless the back-yett be a-jee;
Syne up the back-stile, and let naebody see,
And come as ye were na comin' to me,
And come as ye were na comin' to me.
O whistle an' I'll come, &c.


At kirk, or at market, whene'er ye meet me,
Gang by me as tho' that ye car'd na a flie;
But steal me a blink o' your bonnie black e'e,
Yet look as ye were na lookin' to me,
Yet look as ye were na lookin' to me.
O whistle an' I'll come, &c.


Aye vow and protest that ye care na for me,
And whiles ye may lightly my beauty a-wee;
But court na anither, tho' jokin' ye be,
For fear that she wile your fancy frae me,
For fear that she wile your fancy frae me.
O whistle an' I'll come, &c.


Most of the Lallans Scots should be comprehensible to many English speakers (esp Northerners) but if you're in any doubt 'back-yett be a-jee' means "back gate be ajar" (ie left open as signal). And "Syne up the back-stile" is exactly the same as the colloquial English 'shin-up' (as in drainpipes/walls....or stiles).

I'm now wondering if I've actually ever heard (seen, or used) the term "shin-up" at any point, previously, since last century.
 
Back
Top