FANS of the Harry Potter series of novels may recall that the film The Chamber of Secrets featured a gruesome charm of the kind once used in this region. It was known as The Hand of Glory.

Having not seen that film, I do not know how the infamous Hand was depicted in the story but in real life, it was used by burglars and other members of the criminal fraternity as an aid to successful ventures into serious crime.

It was widely believed by criminals and indeed non-criminals that possession of a Hand of Glory caused sleeping people to remain asleep during a burglary in the darkness of the early hours. It also enabled those who were awake to remain awake throughout the venture and so it was a very useful asset to villains, especially those who raided coaching inns in the small hours as travellers and staff slept soundly throughout the raid. One very old belief was that possession of a Hand during a raid enabled the holder to become invisible. An added bonus!

There a few records of the Hand being used but it last featured in at a burglary in Ireland in 1831, and a Hand was obtained in France as late as 1836. It came from the body of a murderer called Lacenaire.

The Hand is recorded in use during a raid at the Spital Inn high on Stainmore between Barnard Castle and Brough in 1797 and another recorded use occurred in this region during November, 1824. That was almost two centuries ago and there are other accounts of the Hand being used in the North; for example, the Danby Hand of Glory is preserved in the Pannett Museum at Whitby and this is believed to be the sole surviving example but I have no accounts of its use.

Before a Hand could be used, however, certain rituals had to be used to make sure it was effective. Of primary importance was that it was a genuine human hand cut from a criminal whose lifeless body hung on a gibbet. This was the only source but it seems either left or right hands were acceptable.

The Hand had then to undergo a curing process which was very similar to the curing of ham. Excess blood was squeezed out before the Hand was submerged for two weeks in a solution of salt, salt petre and pepper, all finely powdered. Next it was dried in a clay bowl or other receptacle, being displayed in bright sunshine but if the winter sunshine was not sufficiently powerful, the necessary heat could be generated by burning vervain and ferns. Vervain is a small plant once thought to have flourished on Calvary, the site of Christ’s crucifixion. This completed the first part of the process.

Once the Hand was thoroughly dry, a candle had to be made so that it could be securely held by the dead fingers. This was made from revolting ingredients such as fat from a human heart, the fat of unborn babies or fat from a hanged corpse. Other ingredients included wax and Lapland sesame, a plant from which oil can be obtained. The wick was made from human hair taken from a hanged corpse.

The would-be burglar would then carry this object on his raids but the candle had to be lit and remain alight during the operation. Once it was burning, it was believed the sleeping victims would remain asleep through-out the raid but to make the charm completely effective, the following words had to be chanted:

Let those who rest more deeply sleep;
Let those awake their vigil keep.
O Hand of Glory, shed thy light
And guide us to our spoils tonight.

As the ghostly light from the candle grew stronger and filled the room, there was a second verse which was:

Flash out thy blaze, oh skeleton hand
And guide the feet of thy trusty band.
Let those who are awake remain awake
And those who are asleep keep asleep.
Once those rituals were complete, the raid could go ahead.

One important belief was that once the candle was firmly alight, the blaze could be extinguished by one of only two methods – by dousing it with either blood or milk. Either would extinguish the flame whereupon it was believed the victims would rouse from their slumbers and the criminals would risk capture.

Some of the favoured targets for burglars during those times were the coaching inns. Passengers often carried money and valuables, and during long journeys would stay overnight at one of the prime coaching inns along the main routes. Such an inn was the Oak Tree, Leeming Lane, a stretch of the Great North Road from Leeming to Boroughbridge.

In November 1824 the weather was atrocious with blizzards and deep snow and many coaches were obliged to find shelter in roadside inns. In this case, the Oak Tree Inn was packed with travellers including some from the Red Rover. Two maids, Peggy Scott and Jenny Brown, had to use make-shift beds hanging from rafters in the kitchen. In the early hours, they were aroused by two men, passengers on the Red Rover who were creeping around in their stocking feet, plotting to rob the wealthiest of the sleeping travellers.

There followed a remarkable story of the bravery and cunning of the two girls once they realised the raiders were using a Hand of Glory. The girls knew the only way to prevent the raid was to extinguish the flame of the candle with milk, and then rouse the household.

The men concealed the candle in a corner cupboard as they went to climb the stairs, but Jenny was so terrified that she collapsed in bed in a deep faint, groaning as she did so. This alerted the criminals and so Peggy alone was left to extinguish the flame and waken the sleepers.

There is no space to include the full tale but the brave girls were successful and the raiders were caught as they fled into the wintery darkness, leaving their precious relic behind.

The grateful travellers organized a collection for the girls but there is no record of what happened to the abandoned Hand of Glory. One part of the tale is that descendants of Peggy Scott still lived in the locality until very recently.

BEES ARE UNSEEN

One of the sights of summer in our garden is the proliferation of garden flowers along with their important visitors, the honey bees.

This year, however, there seems to have been very few honey bees in numbers one associates with these bees and their hives.

Instead, I have witnessed umpteen species of bumble bees.

Prominent among them was Bombus lucorum, a small bumble bee with a distinctive white rump but there was another of very similar appearance called a Bombus hortorum also with a white rump.

It seems that among our bumble bee population there are types known as cuckoo bees which mimic other species. So where have all the honey bees gone?