Folklore of Lincolnshire Read Free Page B

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    The church keyhole at Dorrington, through which one can observe the Devil playing marbles across the floor at night.
    There is another Devil’s Pulpit in Hemswell – a slab of rock that juts out above the natural spring. At the bottom of the hill here there is another stone which, legend states, children used to visit. They would apparently stick little pins into the holes in the rock, run round and round it very fast, then put their ears to the stone, and allegedly hear the Devil talking. One can understand this practice when observing the stone, as it is an unusual spherical shape.
    The most well-known story of the Devil in Lincolnshire has to be connected to Lincoln Cathedral. A carving of him, peering over a witch’s shoulder, can be seen high upon the side of the cathedral. This image gives credence to the old saying, ‘He looks as the Devil over Lincoln’. 5 This particular phrase, used when one is jealous or has malicious intent, is said to derive from the displeasure of the Devil when the cathedral was built:
    The Devil is the map of malice, and his envy, as God’s mercy, is over all his works. It grieves him whatever is given to God, crying out with that flesh devil, ‘Ut quid hæc perditio’ (what needs this waste?). On which account he is supposed to have overlooked this church, when first finished with a torve and tetric countenance, as maligning men’s costly devotion, and that they should be so expensive in God’s service. 6
    So annoyed was he at the completion of the building that legend states he decided to pay it a visit with his two little imp friends and have some fun.
    I’ll blow up the chapter, and blow up the Dean;
    The canons I’ll cannon right over the screen;
    I’ll blow up the singers, bass tenor and boy;
    And the blower himself shall a blowing enjoy;

    The Devil’s Pulpit or Chair, situated on private land at the bottom of Beckhill Road, Tealby

    The Devil’s Pulpit in Hemswell. Across a field and up a hill from Brook Street, this juts out of the cliff face, above three small springs.

    Spherical rock just below the Devil’s Pulpit stone at Hemswell. A spring runs out around the rock.

    The Lincoln Imp, located in Lincoln Cathedral’s Angel Choir, high up on the last but one column.
    The organist, too, shall right speedily find
    That I’ll go one better in raising the wind;
    I’ll blow out the windows, and blow out the lights,
    Tear vestments to tatters, put ritual to rights! 7
    The imps entered the cathedral and began to cause chaos, tearing down tapestries, knocking over pews, pushing the bishop around and generally being very unpleasant and unruly – until an angel appeared and ordered them to stop. Of course they did not stop but carried on with their havoc until the angel had no choice but to make them stop. Just as one imp was throwing a rock at the angel, he was suddenly turned to stone in his tracks. The other, horrified, escaped and left the cathedral well alone but the petrified imp still stays in the cathedral as a reminder that the Devil should not toy with God’s work!
    For the tiniest angel, with amethyst eyes
    And hair spun like gold, ‘fore the alter did rise,
    Pronouncing these words in a dignified tone
    ‘O impious Imp, be ye turned to stone!’
    The petrified imp has become something of an attraction now, with tourists clamouring to get a glimpse of his cross-legged pose and wicked grin, peering down from his high place in the Angel Choir at the east end of the cathedral.
    The Devil must have been a regular visitor to the cathedral, as there is a legend connected to the tomb of St Hugh. The belief was that when you closed your eyes to pray, you were in danger of the Devil coming up behind you, unseen, and so when you knelt to pray at St Hugh’s shrine there was a shallow dip containing salt which you could take and throw over your left shoulder to blind his approach! This may have been the origin of the superstition that if one spills some salt