“Howls of derisive laughter Bruce!”
Now I know I know I did say a while back that I would no longer be comenting on the Pagan Network follies but seriously, it has taken a new bizarre twist that renders it just too funny and just goes to show the sort of calibre that is behind the “Anti George” Campaign for me to leave it go without comment..
Now just two days ago Bill put in another post which I thought, (upon reading) really said the last that had to be said. In fact I rang him up and said that beyond that what else had not been said? If the information on George Pickingill were a length of string with knots in it, they have now all been counted, categorised and indeed undone for the audience … where else is there to go once the end is reached?
Well the answer is, (as always) that it really depends on how much attention the audience is paying … and indeed how intelligent they are .. and of course whether or not they are squatting down behind the door with their hands over their ears and saying: “LA LA LA I CANNOT HEAR YOU LA LA LA!!!”
Poor wee tackers .. some of them are just so damn cute .. and so damn clueless.
I might’ve known that dear ol Amber would be first into the fray but I could NOT have imagined that her post would be so damn .. well just weird actually. Now you see I know for a fact tat she can research when she wants to, and she does HAVE a brain, (albeit hidden behind rudeness and a false sense of importance) but when I see this last post it puzzles me because it is so off kilter I wonder if someone who has just hacked into the forums hasn’t used her moniker to post.
Let me show you what I mean. I will reprint in here what she says and demonstrate, piece by piece. Mine is teh blue, the quotes are in green and Ambers is in red.
Re: George Pickingill's nine covens
« Reply #364 on: Yesterday at 13:20:37 »
could it be that the locals where actually so fearful of George, and when the reporters came, they wanted to help George by portraying him as a nice "old daddy" man, so that George would think better of these locals and therefore won't bother them ?
Since you are not from these shores I will forgive you that remark, but lets make one thing clear, At the time of the reporters visit even the most remote English villages were not populated by ignorant peasants, most residents would have been educated to a reasonable degree and will have traveled far beyond the boundaries of their village, only a few older residents such as Old George may have still been illiterate. Quite frankly the idea of an elderly man terrorising an entire village , even if was know as a cunning folk, is as laughable as every other claim about him
Now this quote that she is responding to was not by Bill. It was by some poster named “The Exile”. I assume it is a He so I will use that pronoun.
Now the first thing is this. When *I* read a post by someone on English Witchcraft written by someone calling themselves “the Exile” I assume they are not currently in their place of birth. As I don’t know anything else I really have to leave it at that. I don’t know where they were born so I would not presume to say “As you are not from these shores” – I likewise wouldn’t say it as it is pompous bollocks but let us keep to the point.
I further would not assume that he must mean that all English Villagers were some sort of dumbed down parody, nor that they were stupid because they were illiterate or blinkered or the victims of enforced parochialism. These all seem to have sprung from Amber’s imagination as all the Exile suggested was that people who worried about how they may be treated may present that person to outsiders in a positive light in the hopes of the subject smiling “upon them”. That I believe is more than fair comment and to be honest we all see it everyday don’t we?
It is an interesting point to note here that she is directly suggesting that virtually all of them were well and far traveled. This is a point she will not be too sure about as the post continues but we will leave it there for the moment.
She continues to weave in that he was illiterate as if that were proven but that is unsurprising because were he not all her other assumptions would fall apart. The idea of an elderly man terrorizing a small village of people in the 1820’s is laughable to her so let us look at that for a second.
Why should we consider it so?
Canewdon was not a big place and there were not a lot of people. What populace there were was steeped in various myths and legends and one of the prime scare tales involved witches. Indeed Canewdon was right in “Witch Country” and the tales suggest that at one stage even the Vicar’s wife was one! There were witches in the village surrounds and everyone knew it. There were gypsies coming through and they were connected to the witches. What chance had the average person got against those kind of odds? Why is it at all laughable to think that one suspected of being a witch and having the power of life and death would be avoided and if that were unavoidable, mollified in whatever way necessary?
Frankly anyone who has ever lived in a small town would understand this. They would further understand that whether or not the average townsman could read is by the by. At one stage of my childhood I lived in a small town, let me tell you about it.
It was a small place off the highway with three shops, a fire station (a shed with equipment in it) a quarry and a school. It actually had four shops if you count the pub and it could be argued that it had five if you wished to count the fact that the Garage could be considered to have sold things and thereby would be a “shop”. In this small town most could read and write and there was even a certain amount of outside contact in that most had televisions, radios and telephones. It should be remembered though that when I say telephones they were crank turned and the local exchange lady would connect you to any number you wished upon request and when later an electronic exchange was mooted to be placed on the main street, many of the townspeople were afraid that they would get “the cancer” from it being so close to them.
In that town there was a house up the road from the school and in it lived an old man. His house was a typical old style haunted house and much run down. We thought he must be a witch and always scuttled past looking down after school because he would often be seen standing in the front yard glaring out at us. Truth be told he was probably out there making sure none of the kids lobbed rocks at his house but that is years of experience talking. At the age of five, he was a witch and could easily snatch a kid and that would be the end of you. I know nothing of him save to say that I remember my mother stating that there was an old man who had been seen following children about and so to keep on the lookout and not to go anywhere near any old people I didn’t know.
In a town that small where everyone knows everyone eventually it doesn’t take much imagination to make a rough guess at who no one likes, who everyone thought suspicious etc. I never remember anyone referring to him by name though everyone else had one.
Now the facts here are one of childhood imagination working over time but also of locals saying: “Now best just keep out of his way and be done with it”. The two together made for a few nightmares I remember.
Also in that small town came Gypsies. I remember being drilled when it was heard they were on the way. I was not to talk to anyone I did not know, not to go anywhere, to offer anything or accept anything. This is in a town with one main street!! The grocers put stuff up the front of the counters specifically so that the gypsies would take it and not anything expensive and this was repeated in the other shops. All political niceties aside, at this time, locks were used and strangers were regarded with suspicion because “can’t trust ‘em none of ‘em”.
These I stress were not stupid bumpkins, not illiterate, not stupid and many had been to the big smoke and some even “gone O.S!” but still there were tensions at high with the slightest disturbance. I dpon’t recall hearing any adults talking about witches, though there were one or two that “were strange” .. hell in those days the fears were perverts and “Smiths that used to be Schmidts”. Forget the reds, many in this town were still leery of “Ze Germans” who could “goose step their way in” at any moment. Those are actual quotes by the way in case you were wondering.
My point here is that this was Queensland in the late ‘70’s! I find it in no way difficult given a certain tweaking of circumstance to rather vividly understand the way the locals of Canewdon’s yester year DID think and act. It does not take much imagination – but then again I suppose I do not have smug pseudo intellectualism to screen myself behind.
It is in no way difficult for me to believe that a small village could be leery of a particular person and figure that keeping them onside is the best route to take – hell we had a man who used to sleep in his car for fear of the wife and everyone knew not to speak to her before a certain time or suffer the consequences – and she was not a gypsy or a witch!
It should also be said here that this angle is often over played for effect. More than likely there was a time when he did “razz the town” and give them “the fear”. Over time this fades to just keeping out of his way and humoring him on account of his temper, his supposed abilities (“which I don’t believe – but I don’t want to know for sure!!” – we have all heard this said of people!) and his connections to what was at the time considered as organized crime is today. Sure he would have his occasional petitioners who no doubt thought good or ill of him depending on how their requests were met but at the end of the day when most of the village says “Keep away because he is dangerous” that is how he would be seen. It is this fact of human nature that leads to him being called a “Cuning Man” or a “Witch” depending on the humour of who you spoke to. In many ways I think of it like a rural English version of the way prominent Yakuza members are treated in their respective prefectures today in Japan.
If nothing else, if we are to consider it laughable that people were THAT afraid of Witches .. then how DO we explain the rise of the “Cunning Folk as Witch Fighters” in the first place?? The purely societal view based in the education standards of the time simply doesn’t “cut it” in either case if we consider the scenarios carefully.
The few villagers who had actually known "Old George" spoke of "Gypsy George".
Where in the name of Hades did this come from? In all the years I have been reading about Old George until recently I had never heard the slightest hint that he was of Rom heritage. Even if he had then the Rom of East Anglia were all Christian, (albeit with a Romany twist), the stories of Old George working with Romany witches is just another thread that has been added to the myth.Recent posts have simply added to the contradiction that surround the myth. It is possible that Old George had family in Norfolk, my own is spread throughout East Anglia and it is possible that he traveled to Norfolk, if he did how did he manage it? In many reports George is said to have told reporters that he had never seen a train or traveled in a car, in fact one reporter supposedly gave him his first ever car ride. Victorian times were the great days of train travel, the idea of anybody traveling from south Essex to Norfolk by anything but train is as ludicrous as everything else on this thread. If it is true, then how did he travel among the nine covens, by foot? Bearing in mind he was a farm labourer whose employer would have expected a six day week dawn to dusk work from him
Ok now here we get into real madness territory. There are lots of problems here and I will deal with them in turn. They are as follows:
Where does the idea of George as a Rom come from?
Now it is interesting that Amber always presents as a wide and critically read academic. So she wants to know where it came from because in all her years of reading about it she has never heard it before. So this is a fair question let’s answer it.
Charles Lefebure says it. C Witness to Witchcraft (Ace Books USA 1970) The Pickingill Papers says it, The Pickingill Website says it and indeed it has even been stated here on the Pagan Network Boards in this very thread no less than five times I can remember off hand!!
Now just in case you may be thinking that I am being a bit “sarcarstick” here. Let me point out that it was also pointed out no less than two posts before Ambers. I shall quote: “I was in Canewdon a full decade before Eric Maple. The few villagers who had actually known "Old George" spoke of "Gypsy George".”
It is edifying to me to note the thoroughness of Amber’s attention to detail. Just for the record, when I first heard of Old George he was descried to me as an old Gypsy Witch and that is years before I met Bill. From day dot talking to Bill there was no secret that George was of Rom extraction. If this is somehow a “hidden” facet of Old George it must have been very effective as I have never spotted it!
Given that Amber has never heard it before, I think it would also be a fair question to ask what she has been reading about old George?
The Rom of East Anglia were all Christian
Well now this is just so silly I am not sure I can actually think of anything to say in response. As to how this means that Old George was not from the Rom and was not a witch .. well your guess is probably as good as mine.
I wonder if this also means per se that all the Rom witches out there are somehow magically nullified? Hmmm food for thought in a “Jenny Craig” sort of way ..
Old George could have had relatives in Norfolk but how would he have gotten there if not by train or car?
Well now to begin with it is suggested that this area is where he came from and to which he may have returned from time to time. This is not impossible as he was a Rom Horse dealer. So it can not be suggested that I am dodging the question (even in the face of the attractiveness of righting this off a stupid and unworthy of response; he did come from there after all and so out of completeness I will deal with it) might I suggest some sort of clever combination of by foot, by horse, by carriage … possibly even part of the way by Barge or boat?
Amber cleverly tries to assert by implication that Old George was the one interviewed as the famous “Oldest Man in England” in total ignorance or refutation of the earlier post on that very issue by Bill. The problem is that it is suggested that these two can’t be the same so it is all rubbish whereas we assert that it probably wasn’t him so how to explain the disparity? You can see … probably … right there the difference in academic approach and thereby the different conclusions I suspect! Lol
If it is true, then how did he travel among the nine covens, by foot?
Well as the closest thing Old George had to running nine covens was perhaps the existence of nine witches in the area so ... yes ... but all sarcasm aside, let us look at this carefully.
Here we see Amber’s inexperience showing through – and again her total lack of attention. I shall now put this as simply as I can to save further confusion.
Old George Pickingill did NOT run Nine Covens, much less at the same time.
Old George Pickingill did initiate Nine Females.
These Nine, (upon satisfying his requirements) were released to do as they wished.
These most certainly did form covens of their own.
There was NO requirement for him to have had ANYTHING further to do with them.
The idea of him hotfooting it from coven to coven only makes sense in a neopagan wiccan sort of way with him officiating. Were this the case it would have been literally impossible AND WHAT IS MORE THIS WAS CLEARLY OUTLINED AS BILL’S FIRST POST ON THE PAGAN NETWORK BOARDS!!!
Again, it is edifying to note the thoroughness of Amber’s research.
Bearing in mind he was a farm labourer whose employer would have expected a six day week dawn to dusk work from him
Here we come to the crux of Amber’s stance.
Allow me to poke simple holes right on through it.
First, that has in no way been proven beyond doubt, indeed that very fact had just been established in the thread when Amber burst back into it.
Second, no where do I see stories of a YOUNG George terrorizing the village – only an OLD George. Back in the day you worked till you could work no more. When young you were in the fields, when you were too old you weren’t – surely I can’t put that any simpler? You also had heaps of kids to help support you in your elderly years. In that time however you’d have time on your hands. Looking at the census (IF we say that is him in there) we see an elderly man living in a small house with children who were learning to read and write.
So much for the illiterate man in the fields all day.
Besides of which – he was a ROM HOSE DEALER FROM NORFOLK!
As that is the case all this continued assertion from Amber Lady really just seems a bit pitiful. It is yet another ploy from the Wilson stable of: “If I say something often enough people will believe it”.
I wonder if that will work for me too?
He was a ROM HOSE DEALER FROM NORFOLK!
He was a ROM HOSE DEALER FROM NORFOLK!
He was a ROM HOSE DEALER FROM NORFOLK!
He was a ROM HOSE DEALER FROM NORFOLK!
*Shakes Head*
You really have to wonder about some people don't you?
Now just two days ago Bill put in another post which I thought, (upon reading) really said the last that had to be said. In fact I rang him up and said that beyond that what else had not been said? If the information on George Pickingill were a length of string with knots in it, they have now all been counted, categorised and indeed undone for the audience … where else is there to go once the end is reached?
Well the answer is, (as always) that it really depends on how much attention the audience is paying … and indeed how intelligent they are .. and of course whether or not they are squatting down behind the door with their hands over their ears and saying: “LA LA LA I CANNOT HEAR YOU LA LA LA!!!”
Poor wee tackers .. some of them are just so damn cute .. and so damn clueless.
I might’ve known that dear ol Amber would be first into the fray but I could NOT have imagined that her post would be so damn .. well just weird actually. Now you see I know for a fact tat she can research when she wants to, and she does HAVE a brain, (albeit hidden behind rudeness and a false sense of importance) but when I see this last post it puzzles me because it is so off kilter I wonder if someone who has just hacked into the forums hasn’t used her moniker to post.
Let me show you what I mean. I will reprint in here what she says and demonstrate, piece by piece. Mine is teh blue, the quotes are in green and Ambers is in red.
Re: George Pickingill's nine covens
« Reply #364 on: Yesterday at 13:20:37 »
could it be that the locals where actually so fearful of George, and when the reporters came, they wanted to help George by portraying him as a nice "old daddy" man, so that George would think better of these locals and therefore won't bother them ?
Since you are not from these shores I will forgive you that remark, but lets make one thing clear, At the time of the reporters visit even the most remote English villages were not populated by ignorant peasants, most residents would have been educated to a reasonable degree and will have traveled far beyond the boundaries of their village, only a few older residents such as Old George may have still been illiterate. Quite frankly the idea of an elderly man terrorising an entire village , even if was know as a cunning folk, is as laughable as every other claim about him
Now this quote that she is responding to was not by Bill. It was by some poster named “The Exile”. I assume it is a He so I will use that pronoun.
Now the first thing is this. When *I* read a post by someone on English Witchcraft written by someone calling themselves “the Exile” I assume they are not currently in their place of birth. As I don’t know anything else I really have to leave it at that. I don’t know where they were born so I would not presume to say “As you are not from these shores” – I likewise wouldn’t say it as it is pompous bollocks but let us keep to the point.
I further would not assume that he must mean that all English Villagers were some sort of dumbed down parody, nor that they were stupid because they were illiterate or blinkered or the victims of enforced parochialism. These all seem to have sprung from Amber’s imagination as all the Exile suggested was that people who worried about how they may be treated may present that person to outsiders in a positive light in the hopes of the subject smiling “upon them”. That I believe is more than fair comment and to be honest we all see it everyday don’t we?
It is an interesting point to note here that she is directly suggesting that virtually all of them were well and far traveled. This is a point she will not be too sure about as the post continues but we will leave it there for the moment.
She continues to weave in that he was illiterate as if that were proven but that is unsurprising because were he not all her other assumptions would fall apart. The idea of an elderly man terrorizing a small village of people in the 1820’s is laughable to her so let us look at that for a second.
Why should we consider it so?
Canewdon was not a big place and there were not a lot of people. What populace there were was steeped in various myths and legends and one of the prime scare tales involved witches. Indeed Canewdon was right in “Witch Country” and the tales suggest that at one stage even the Vicar’s wife was one! There were witches in the village surrounds and everyone knew it. There were gypsies coming through and they were connected to the witches. What chance had the average person got against those kind of odds? Why is it at all laughable to think that one suspected of being a witch and having the power of life and death would be avoided and if that were unavoidable, mollified in whatever way necessary?
Frankly anyone who has ever lived in a small town would understand this. They would further understand that whether or not the average townsman could read is by the by. At one stage of my childhood I lived in a small town, let me tell you about it.
It was a small place off the highway with three shops, a fire station (a shed with equipment in it) a quarry and a school. It actually had four shops if you count the pub and it could be argued that it had five if you wished to count the fact that the Garage could be considered to have sold things and thereby would be a “shop”. In this small town most could read and write and there was even a certain amount of outside contact in that most had televisions, radios and telephones. It should be remembered though that when I say telephones they were crank turned and the local exchange lady would connect you to any number you wished upon request and when later an electronic exchange was mooted to be placed on the main street, many of the townspeople were afraid that they would get “the cancer” from it being so close to them.
In that town there was a house up the road from the school and in it lived an old man. His house was a typical old style haunted house and much run down. We thought he must be a witch and always scuttled past looking down after school because he would often be seen standing in the front yard glaring out at us. Truth be told he was probably out there making sure none of the kids lobbed rocks at his house but that is years of experience talking. At the age of five, he was a witch and could easily snatch a kid and that would be the end of you. I know nothing of him save to say that I remember my mother stating that there was an old man who had been seen following children about and so to keep on the lookout and not to go anywhere near any old people I didn’t know.
In a town that small where everyone knows everyone eventually it doesn’t take much imagination to make a rough guess at who no one likes, who everyone thought suspicious etc. I never remember anyone referring to him by name though everyone else had one.
Now the facts here are one of childhood imagination working over time but also of locals saying: “Now best just keep out of his way and be done with it”. The two together made for a few nightmares I remember.
Also in that small town came Gypsies. I remember being drilled when it was heard they were on the way. I was not to talk to anyone I did not know, not to go anywhere, to offer anything or accept anything. This is in a town with one main street!! The grocers put stuff up the front of the counters specifically so that the gypsies would take it and not anything expensive and this was repeated in the other shops. All political niceties aside, at this time, locks were used and strangers were regarded with suspicion because “can’t trust ‘em none of ‘em”.
These I stress were not stupid bumpkins, not illiterate, not stupid and many had been to the big smoke and some even “gone O.S!” but still there were tensions at high with the slightest disturbance. I dpon’t recall hearing any adults talking about witches, though there were one or two that “were strange” .. hell in those days the fears were perverts and “Smiths that used to be Schmidts”. Forget the reds, many in this town were still leery of “Ze Germans” who could “goose step their way in” at any moment. Those are actual quotes by the way in case you were wondering.
My point here is that this was Queensland in the late ‘70’s! I find it in no way difficult given a certain tweaking of circumstance to rather vividly understand the way the locals of Canewdon’s yester year DID think and act. It does not take much imagination – but then again I suppose I do not have smug pseudo intellectualism to screen myself behind.
It is in no way difficult for me to believe that a small village could be leery of a particular person and figure that keeping them onside is the best route to take – hell we had a man who used to sleep in his car for fear of the wife and everyone knew not to speak to her before a certain time or suffer the consequences – and she was not a gypsy or a witch!
It should also be said here that this angle is often over played for effect. More than likely there was a time when he did “razz the town” and give them “the fear”. Over time this fades to just keeping out of his way and humoring him on account of his temper, his supposed abilities (“which I don’t believe – but I don’t want to know for sure!!” – we have all heard this said of people!) and his connections to what was at the time considered as organized crime is today. Sure he would have his occasional petitioners who no doubt thought good or ill of him depending on how their requests were met but at the end of the day when most of the village says “Keep away because he is dangerous” that is how he would be seen. It is this fact of human nature that leads to him being called a “Cuning Man” or a “Witch” depending on the humour of who you spoke to. In many ways I think of it like a rural English version of the way prominent Yakuza members are treated in their respective prefectures today in Japan.
If nothing else, if we are to consider it laughable that people were THAT afraid of Witches .. then how DO we explain the rise of the “Cunning Folk as Witch Fighters” in the first place?? The purely societal view based in the education standards of the time simply doesn’t “cut it” in either case if we consider the scenarios carefully.
The few villagers who had actually known "Old George" spoke of "Gypsy George".
Where in the name of Hades did this come from? In all the years I have been reading about Old George until recently I had never heard the slightest hint that he was of Rom heritage. Even if he had then the Rom of East Anglia were all Christian, (albeit with a Romany twist), the stories of Old George working with Romany witches is just another thread that has been added to the myth.Recent posts have simply added to the contradiction that surround the myth. It is possible that Old George had family in Norfolk, my own is spread throughout East Anglia and it is possible that he traveled to Norfolk, if he did how did he manage it? In many reports George is said to have told reporters that he had never seen a train or traveled in a car, in fact one reporter supposedly gave him his first ever car ride. Victorian times were the great days of train travel, the idea of anybody traveling from south Essex to Norfolk by anything but train is as ludicrous as everything else on this thread. If it is true, then how did he travel among the nine covens, by foot? Bearing in mind he was a farm labourer whose employer would have expected a six day week dawn to dusk work from him
Ok now here we get into real madness territory. There are lots of problems here and I will deal with them in turn. They are as follows:
Where in the name of Hades did this (George as Rom) come from? In all the years I have been reading about Old George until recently I had never heard the slightest hint that he was of Rom heritage.
..the Rom of East Anglia were all Christian, (albeit with a Romany twist)
It is possible that Old George had family in Norfolk, my own is spread throughout East Anglia and it is possible that he traveled to Norfolk, if he did how did he manage it? In many reports George is said to have told reporters that he had never seen a train or traveled in a car, in fact one reporter supposedly gave him his first ever car
ride.
If it is true, then how did he travel among the nine covens, by foot?
Bearing in mind he was a farm labourer whose employer would have expected a six day week dawn to dusk work from him
Where does the idea of George as a Rom come from?
Now it is interesting that Amber always presents as a wide and critically read academic. So she wants to know where it came from because in all her years of reading about it she has never heard it before. So this is a fair question let’s answer it.
Charles Lefebure says it. C Witness to Witchcraft (Ace Books USA 1970) The Pickingill Papers says it, The Pickingill Website says it and indeed it has even been stated here on the Pagan Network Boards in this very thread no less than five times I can remember off hand!!
Now just in case you may be thinking that I am being a bit “sarcarstick” here. Let me point out that it was also pointed out no less than two posts before Ambers. I shall quote: “I was in Canewdon a full decade before Eric Maple. The few villagers who had actually known "Old George" spoke of "Gypsy George".”
It is edifying to me to note the thoroughness of Amber’s attention to detail. Just for the record, when I first heard of Old George he was descried to me as an old Gypsy Witch and that is years before I met Bill. From day dot talking to Bill there was no secret that George was of Rom extraction. If this is somehow a “hidden” facet of Old George it must have been very effective as I have never spotted it!
Given that Amber has never heard it before, I think it would also be a fair question to ask what she has been reading about old George?
The Rom of East Anglia were all Christian
Well now this is just so silly I am not sure I can actually think of anything to say in response. As to how this means that Old George was not from the Rom and was not a witch .. well your guess is probably as good as mine.
I wonder if this also means per se that all the Rom witches out there are somehow magically nullified? Hmmm food for thought in a “Jenny Craig” sort of way ..
Old George could have had relatives in Norfolk but how would he have gotten there if not by train or car?
Well now to begin with it is suggested that this area is where he came from and to which he may have returned from time to time. This is not impossible as he was a Rom Horse dealer. So it can not be suggested that I am dodging the question (even in the face of the attractiveness of righting this off a stupid and unworthy of response; he did come from there after all and so out of completeness I will deal with it) might I suggest some sort of clever combination of by foot, by horse, by carriage … possibly even part of the way by Barge or boat?
Amber cleverly tries to assert by implication that Old George was the one interviewed as the famous “Oldest Man in England” in total ignorance or refutation of the earlier post on that very issue by Bill. The problem is that it is suggested that these two can’t be the same so it is all rubbish whereas we assert that it probably wasn’t him so how to explain the disparity? You can see … probably … right there the difference in academic approach and thereby the different conclusions I suspect! Lol
If it is true, then how did he travel among the nine covens, by foot?
Well as the closest thing Old George had to running nine covens was perhaps the existence of nine witches in the area so ... yes ... but all sarcasm aside, let us look at this carefully.
Here we see Amber’s inexperience showing through – and again her total lack of attention. I shall now put this as simply as I can to save further confusion.
Old George Pickingill did NOT run Nine Covens, much less at the same time.
Old George Pickingill did initiate Nine Females.
These Nine, (upon satisfying his requirements) were released to do as they wished.
These most certainly did form covens of their own.
There was NO requirement for him to have had ANYTHING further to do with them.
The idea of him hotfooting it from coven to coven only makes sense in a neopagan wiccan sort of way with him officiating. Were this the case it would have been literally impossible AND WHAT IS MORE THIS WAS CLEARLY OUTLINED AS BILL’S FIRST POST ON THE PAGAN NETWORK BOARDS!!!
Again, it is edifying to note the thoroughness of Amber’s research.
Bearing in mind he was a farm labourer whose employer would have expected a six day week dawn to dusk work from him
Here we come to the crux of Amber’s stance.
Allow me to poke simple holes right on through it.
First, that has in no way been proven beyond doubt, indeed that very fact had just been established in the thread when Amber burst back into it.
Second, no where do I see stories of a YOUNG George terrorizing the village – only an OLD George. Back in the day you worked till you could work no more. When young you were in the fields, when you were too old you weren’t – surely I can’t put that any simpler? You also had heaps of kids to help support you in your elderly years. In that time however you’d have time on your hands. Looking at the census (IF we say that is him in there) we see an elderly man living in a small house with children who were learning to read and write.
So much for the illiterate man in the fields all day.
Besides of which – he was a ROM HOSE DEALER FROM NORFOLK!
As that is the case all this continued assertion from Amber Lady really just seems a bit pitiful. It is yet another ploy from the Wilson stable of: “If I say something often enough people will believe it”.
I wonder if that will work for me too?
He was a ROM HOSE DEALER FROM NORFOLK!
He was a ROM HOSE DEALER FROM NORFOLK!
He was a ROM HOSE DEALER FROM NORFOLK!
He was a ROM HOSE DEALER FROM NORFOLK!
*Shakes Head*
You really have to wonder about some people don't you?
posted by BissekArt at 3:02 pm
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