Hypnogoria: Hypnogoria Halloween Advent Calendar - Door 21

Blog post dated 21st October 2010 from history_jetsam.blogspot.com, retrieved from the Wayback Machine

There are many myths and misconceptions about the celebration of Hallowe’en, and one of the most recent is that it is some sort of US import. However this has no real historical foundation, and even the most famous American Hallowe’en tradition of trick or treating is in fact a transatlantic incarnation of a tradition found all over the British Isles, for centuries known various as “going a-souling”, “guising” or simply “penny for Hallowe’en”. Even the term, “trick or treat” is first recorded in Canada!

In fact you may be surprised to know that it was the Victorians who invented a good many popular Hallowe’en traditions. Originally the holiday began as a collection of various regional folk traditions, however it was the popularity of Robert Burns’ poem Halloween, published in 1786 that brought the holiday into mainstream popular culture. And the first Hallowe’en parties, as we would recognise them, grew of out gatherings for readings of the Burns verse on October 31st. While at first these parties tended to concentrate on the various romantic rites and charms - with Hallowe’en night being said to be a time to divine one's future love life, over time the now familiar spooky theme began to dominate.

And while going house to house with masks and lanterns remained very much a rural custom, the Victorians did perfect the Hallowe’en party. You may be surprised to learn that it was they that started the tradition of decorating the exterior of our houses and gardens with bats, witches, black cats and ghosts. Parties were often fancy dress with popular themes being witchcraft, ghosts, fairy tales and nursery rhymes. They pioneered having themed food and spooky table dressings. And there were games, often with a spooky theme, and dancing too.

However one element of these Victorian Hallowe’en parties, that has fallen by the wayside in modern times, are the recitations. These were perhaps the Victorian equivalent of screening a horror movie or two, with guests taking turns to tell an eerie tale or recite a suitable poem. Of course, the Burns Halloween poem was a favourite, as was William Wordsworth’s “Love Lies Bleeding” and James Joyce’s short tale “Clay.” However there were also dramatic sketches, often just two are three folks reciting a story together.

And while at first these early Hallowe’en parties were very much intended for courting couples, in the later Victorian era, much like Christmas, celebrations became more family focused. And hence there were several pieces written to be performed by parent and child, or older and younger siblings, with the bulk of the lines going to the more senior of the pair, allowing the smaller children a chance to perform without asking too much of them.

Many of course were somewhat gentle, sentimental even, but the Victorians did have a taste for the macabre. In the days before the novel emerged as a popular platform for stories, early Victorians adored the recounting of bloody murders, with famous cases such as the murder of Maria Martin in the Red Barn in 1827 becoming being the equivalent of a modern blockbuster movie, with numerous pamphlets and stage plays based on it, poems and songs written about it, tourist tours of the locations involved, and even a whole range of merchandise.

Some of these macabre tales still survive now, such as the bizarre crimes of Spring Heeled Jack and Sweeney Todd. Others however have lapsed into obscurity. One such murderer who is now largely forgotten, is the Butcher of Fring. For a time it was the talk of Victorian England, a butcher by the name of William Rhymer practised his trade in a little village called Fring. He bred his own hogs for slaughter which roamed free in the nearby Thistle Forest. However when times were hard he supplemented his income with robbery and murder, ambushing travellers on the forest paths.

Quite how many he slew no one knows, however he was apprehended in early October 1823, and sentenced to death by hanging. However as the date of his execution was October 31st, recitation pieces retelling the bloody tale were perfect for Victorian Hallowe’en gatherings. There was an added spooky appeal added by the fact that according to some of the more lurid versions of the story, it was claimed that he disposed of his victims by grinding them up and making sausages! Somewhat ironically it is thought that these embroidered versions of the now forgotten Butcher of Fring case inspired the later but still well-known tale of Sweeney Todd.

Sadly, no complete texts of the Victorian recitation versions of the Butcher of Fring survive, however we do have a later retelling, from the 1880s, by which point much of the detail has been forgotten, and William Rhymer has metamorphosed into a bogeyman figure. It is a rather ghoulish piece, written as a duologue, with one part intended for a small child. And it goes like this...

Where does the Sausage Flesh Man come from Daddy?

His body is the sweepings from a butcher's floor,

His skin was flayed from a demonic wild boar,

And his heart was born in the dark that creeps under your door...

What does the Sausage Flesh Man do Daddy?

He creeps through the night, his pink skin crinkling,

Surrounded by the smell of his spoiled flesh stinking

And all you will see is his piggy eyes glinting...

What does the Sausage Flesh Man want Daddy?

To catch the unwary is his hungry plan,

To drag you off in the dark if he at all can,

Then fry up your flesh in his big frying pan...