Lyr Req: song from 'Devil's Bridge'?

Subject: song from 'Devil's Bridge'?
From:
Date: 12 Aug 02 - 01:32 AM

Found this legend. Anyone able to place the song snippet that's part of the story?

Kevin

The 'Devils Bridge.'

Ralph Calvert, a shoemaker at Thorpe, went twice a year to Fountains Abbey with a sack of sandals to sell to the monks, spending a night at the monastery and returning the next day. One night he dreamed that the devil had caught him and was shoving him into the sack. Ralph''s own screams woke him just as the devil was tying the strings. Next day, laughing off the dream, he set off for home. Reaching Gill Ford, where the Grassington road crossed the river, he found it swollen with recent rains, and had to take off his boots and socks in order to paddle across. Sitting on a stone on the far side to tie his laces he sang to himself, ''As he was riding along the highway, Old Nick came unto him and thus he did say, Sing link-a-doom, hey-down, ho-down, derry'' and a voice added, ''Tol lol derol, darel dol, dol dol, derry.'' The Devil himself. ''How far is it to Grassington?'' he asked. ''Too far without something to eat,'' said Ralph, and, producing the fine eel pie the monks had given him, fell to eating as if unconcerned. The devil was so impressed by Ralph''s boldness that he wanted to impress in his turn, and began to boast of his powers. Promptly, Ralph said, ''You take the credit for many a strong bridge in other parts of the country. Make one here, and I''ll believe you.'' ''In three days,'' said the devil, and was gone. Three days later there was a bridge at Gill Ford, which ever since has been known as 'Devil''s Bridge.'

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: song from 'Devil's Bridge'?
From:
Date: 12 Aug 02 - 01:39 AM

The Devil's Bridge Yorkshire, England The highway between Pateley Bridge and Grassington crosses, in the parish of Burnsall, the deep dell in which runs the small river Dibb, or Dibble, by a bridge known in legend as the Devil's Bridge. It might reasonably be supposed that Deep-Dell Bridge, or Dibble Bridge, was the correct and desirable designation, but legend and local tradition will by no means have it so, and account for the less pleasant name in the following manner.

In the days when Fountain's Abbey was in its prime, a shoemaker and small tenant of part of the abbey lands, named Ralph Calvert, resided at Thorp-sub-Montem, and journeyed twice a year along this road to pay his rent to the abbot, dispose of the fruits of his six months' handiwork, and return the shoes entrusted to him on his previous visit for repair, and bring back with him, on his return, a bag well filled with others that needed his attention.

The night before setting out on one of these occasions, he had a fearful dream, in which he struggled with the devil, who, in this wild, rocky ravine, amid unpleasant surroundings, endeavored to thrust Ralph into a bag, similar to the one in which he carried his stock-in-trade. This he and his wife feared boded no good. In the morning, however, he started on his journey, and duly reached the abbey, assisted at the service, did his business with the abbot and brethren, and then started, with his well filled bag, on his return homewards.

When he arrived near home, in the deep ravine, where on previous occasions he had found but a small brook which he could easily ford, he now found a mountain torrent, through which he only with difficulty and some danger made his way. Having accomplished the passage, he sat down to rest and to dry his wetted garments. As he sat and contemplated the place, he could not but recall how exactly it corresponded with the spot seen in his dream, and at which the author of evil had tried to bag him. Dwelling on this brought anything but pleasant thoughts, and to drive them away, and to divert his mind, he struck up a familiar song, in which the name of the enemy finds frequent mention, and the refrain of which was:

Sing luck-a-down, heigh down, Ho, down derry. He was unaware of any presence but his own. But, to his alarm, another voice than his added a further line:

Tol lol derol, darel dol, dolde derry. Ralph thought of his dream. Then he fancied he saw the shadow of a man on the road. Then from a projecting corner of a rock he heard a voice reading over a list of delinquents in the neighborhood, with whom he must remonstrate -- Ralph's own name among the rest. Not to be caught eavesdropping, Ralph feigned sleep. But after a time was aroused by the stranger, and a long conversation ensued, the upshot of which was, after they had entered into a compact of friendship, that Satan informed the shoemaker who he was and inquired of the alarmed man if there was anything that he could do for him.

Ralph looked at the swollen torrent and thought of the danger he had lately incurred in crossing it, and of his future journeys that way to the abbey. And then he said, "I have heard that you are an able architect. I should wish you to build a bridge across this stream. I know you can do it."

At nightfall Ralph reached his home at Thorpe, and related his adventure to his wife, and added, "In spite of all that is said against him, the Evil One is an honest gentleman, and I have made him promise to build a bridge at the Gill Ford on the road to Pateley. If he fulfils his promise, St. Crispin bless him."

The news of Ralph's adventure and of the promise soon spread among the neighbors, and he had no small amount of village chaff and ridicule to meet before the eventful Saturday -- the fourth day -- arrived. At last it came.

Accompanied by thirty or forty of the villagers, Ralph made his way to the dell, where, on arrival, picture their astonishment at the sight! Lo, a beautiful and substantial bridge spanned the abyss! Surveyor, and mason, and priest pronounced it to be perfect. The latter sprinkled it with holy water, caused a cross to be placed at each approach to it, and then declared it to be safe for all Christian people to use. So it remained until the Puritan Minister of Pateley, in the time of the Commonwealth, discerning the story to be a Popish legend, caused the protecting crosses to be removed as idolatrous.

After that time, neither the original builder nor any other person seems to have thought fit to keep the bridge in "good and tenantable" repair, and in time it fell into so disreputable and dangerous a condition, that the liberal and almost magic-working native of the parish -- Sir William Craven, Lord Mayor of London in the reign of the 1st James -- took the matter in hand and built upon the old foundations a more terrestrial, but not less substantial and enduring, structure.

Still men call it the Devil's Bridge.

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Source: Thomas Parkinson, Yorkshire Legends and Traditions, as Told by Her Ancient Chroniclers, Her Poets, and Journalists (London: Elliot Stock, 1888), pp. 121-124.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: song from 'Devil's Bridge'?
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 12 Aug 02 - 02:14 AM

There is a Devil's Bridge in Kirkby Lonsdale, Cumbria, as well, and it has a suitable legend attached to it. Click here. And while you're at it, click here to search for other legends about numerous other "Devil's Bridges."