Essex - the witch hunting county - is especially rich in traditions, legends, dialect and stories that have been handed down through the ages. It is these traditions that are gathered together in this volume and whose origins and meanings are explored to create a sense of how the customs of the past have influenced the ways of the present. This fully illustrated study of folklore rediscovers those traditions that have either vanished, been ignored or hidden away. There are tales of dragons and warriors, literary folk and legendary folk, but always at the heart of Essex folklore are the traditional beliefs, stories, events and customs of the common people. Daily life itself contained numerous beliefs and maxims, omens and superstitions, as well as being full of music, dance and song.

Deluxe Edition: Limited to 196 hand-numbered copies, full gilt-blocked goatskin, special endpapers, silk ribbon bookmarker, with slipcase. Fine condition New....This substantial work expounds the sorcerous ethos and praxes of the Crooked Path ritual system. Its contents include a cycle of ten extensive Mystery-rites, each accompanied by adjunctive solitary rituals and detailed commentaries. Additional texts relate the intricacies of Sabbatic ritualization, as well as an extensive body of stellar lore and ritual.

This fascinating book is the first volume in a projected cultural history of the United States, from the earliest English settlements to our own time. It is a history of American folkways as they have changed through time, and it argues a thesis about the importance for the United States of having been British in its cultural origins. While most people in the United States today have no British ancestors, they have assimilated regional cultures which were created by British colonists, even while preserving ethnic identities at the same time. In this sense, nearly all Americans are "Albion's Seed," no matter what their ethnicity may be. The concluding section of this remarkable book explores the ways that regional cultures have continued to dominate national politics from 1789 to 1988, and still help to shape attitudes toward education, government, gender, and violence, on which differences between American regions are greater than between European nations.

This vintage book contains a fascinating and insightful chronicle of American life in the reign of the Georges. Full of interesting historical information and unique insights, this text will be considerable utility to readers and students with an interest in the courageous Englishmen sea-voyagers of the seventeenth century. Together, they faced great danger and death in the search for free homes in the wilderness. The chapters of this book include: 'The Land and the People', 'Town and Country', 'Colonial Houses', 'Habiliments and Habits', 'Everyday Needs and Divisions', 'The Intellectual Life', 'The Cure of Souls', 'The Problem of Labor', 'Colonial Travel', and more. We are republishing this antiquarian volume now complete with a specially commissioned new biography of the author.