Читать книгу A Book of Britain: The Lore, Landscape and Heritage of a Treasured Countryside - Johnny Scott - Страница 50

Holly was revered for the same reason as miseltoe-bearingyew; it was an evergreen and the fact that a crop of bright berries appeared to coincide with the winter solstice could only suggest deeply mythical connections. Furthermore, to add to the mystique, holly most commonly grows in the understorey of oak woodlands, and where few plants can survive the overhang of a mature tree, holly can be found gleefully growing in scrubby clumps around the base of big oaks. Uniquely to Britain, there were once forests of pure holly in Scotland, as it had long been an essential element in pagan winter solstice festivals, which were the most prolonged and widespread celebrations honouring the unconquered Sun. The first recorded usage was by the Romans, who used it for decoration at Saturnalia. This festival was held in mid-December, and was a time of uninhibited celebrations. Houses and streets were decorated with holly, ivy and other evergreens, and ‘Strenae’ twigs of evergreens – laurel or holly – to which were fastened sweetmeats, were a popular gift. The Celts believed holly had the power to ward off evil spirits and to protect houses from lightning, a superstition that persisted for many centuries. Holly trees and hedges were planted around houses in some parts of the country for their evil-deterring properties, and door frames were sometimes made of holly as a protection against lightning.

THE CELTS BELIEVED HOLLY HAD THE POWER TO WARD OFF EVIL SPIRITS AND TO PROTECT HOUSES FROM LIGHTNING, A SUPERSTITION THAT PERSISTED FOR MANY CENTURIES. HOLLY TREES AND HEDGES WERE PLANTED AROUND HOUSES IN SOME PARTS OF THE COUNTRY FOR THEIR EVIL-DETERRING PROPERTIES.

The belief that plants with red berries – holly and rowan – were a defence against a malign presence was particularly strong in Scotland. The Gaelic name for holly, Chuillin, appears across the country from Cruach-doire-cuilean on Mull, where the Mc Leans of Duart adopted holly as their clan badge, to Loch a’ Chuillin in Ross-shire in the north; the town of Cullen in Banffshire may also have derived its name from a local holly wood. In old Scottish myths, the Cailleach, a hag representing winter, was said to be born each year at the beginning of November. She spent her time stalking the earth during the winter time, smiting the ground with her staff to harden it and kill off growth, and calling down the snow. On May-Eve, the turning point of the Celtic year from winter to summer, she threw her staff under a holly tree and turned into a stone. The holly tree was sacred to her, and keeping a holly bough, complete with leaves and berries, in the house was believed to placate her and protect the occupants from an unwelcome visit. After the Battle of Dunbar in 1650, when Cromwell defeated the Scottish army commanded by Lord Newark, 5,000 prisoners were force-marched under appalling conditions to Norfolk to drain the fens. The 1,400 Scotsmen who survived the starvation and ill-treatment on the journey south were said to have stuck twigs of holly around the hovels they lived in on the marshes, as protection against any evil fen spirits.

As with several other native trees believed to have protective properties, there were taboos against cutting down a whole tree. Hollies were frequently left uncut in hedges when these were trimmed, and in 1861 the 8th Duke of Argyll even had a prospective road at Inveraray rerouted, to avoid disturbing a particularly venerable old tree. Taking boughs for decoration, however, and coppicing trees to provide winter fodder, was considered acceptable. Holly leaves proved to be particularly nutritious as winter feed for livestock, and some farmers even installed grinders to make the pricklier leaves more palatable. Folklore suggested that the wood had a mystical control over animals, especially horses, and coachmen traditionally had whips made from coppiced holly, which accounted for hundreds of thousands of holly stems during the great era of carriage driving in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.