{"id":4162,"date":"2024-04-12T08:30:11","date_gmt":"2024-04-12T08:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/?p=4162"},"modified":"2024-04-04T14:57:48","modified_gmt":"2024-04-04T14:57:48","slug":"the-frog-blog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/2024\/04\/12\/the-frog-blog\/","title":{"rendered":"The Frog Blog"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to our latest blog, The Frog Blog, where we are celebrating all things relating to our amphibian friends in Dorset!<\/p>\n

The idea for this blog actually began with the discovery of a \u2018Toad Fair\u2019 that was held in Lydlinch in the mid-19th<\/sup> century, but \u2018The Toad Blog\u2019 didn\u2019t have quite the same ring to it.<\/p>\n

In volume 23 of the Somerset & Dorset Notes & Queries<\/em>, published in 1942, F. C. Cross described how \u201cIn Lydlinch about 100 years ago lived a man known as \u2018Dr.\u2019 Buckland, renowned locally for his cure of The King\u2019s Evil. The treatment was only carried out in the spring, and consisted of tearing a leg off a living toad and hanging it still quivering, round the patient\u2019s neck. This was said to \u2018turn his blood\u2019 and cure him.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The fair was described in detail in an article in the Poole and Dorset Herald on 23rd<\/sup> September 1875. An anonymous writer, in response to a question about whether \u2018toad doctors\u2019 were still to be found in deepest Dorset, described Dr Buckland, whom he assures readers was not a \u201crambling quack\u201d<\/em>, but \u201ca worthy householder of [the] parish\u201d<\/em>, whose fairs attracted people from far and wide.<\/p>\n

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A similar description of the \u2018Toad Fair\u2019 appears in The Life of William Barnes<\/em> by Mrs Baxter, published in 1887, where it is said that a quack who lived at Lydlinch professed to cure the king\u2019s evil by means of a toad sewn up in a small bag and worn around the neck (although it was only considered beneficial in the beginning of May during a certain phase of the moon).<\/p>\n

A bit of research revealed that there was indeed a Dr Buckland living in Lydlinch in the mid-19th<\/sup> century. He was a local man, described as a \u2018surgeon\u2019 on the 1841 census, although by 1861 \u2018unqualified\u2019 had been added to this description, and by 1871 it was revised to \u2018herbal doctor\u2019.<\/p>\n

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Dr Buckland certainly wasn\u2019t the first person to profess the medicinal and magical properties of toads. For centuries, toads have been associated with witchcraft and sorcery, and their use as medicine has been documented in various cultures around the world. As far back as the first century A.D., Pliny described how the bone of the \u2018bramble frog\u2019, <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cattached to the patient in a piece of fresh lambskin, has the repute of assuaging quartan [malaria] and other fevers, and of checking amorous propensities\u201d.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Similarly, Roman physician, Pedanius Dioscorides, prescribed cooked frogs \u201cin salt and oil as an antidote for the poison of serpents.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

A quick look at John Udal\u2019s Dorsetshire Folklore<\/em>, first published in 1922, reveals that there were many popular beliefs about the powers \u2013 both good and bad \u2013 of toads held by the people of Dorset as well. For example:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever you see a toad you should always spit or throw a stone at it, in order to ward off any evil effects which the sight of it might otherwise cause. The idea here of spitting as a preventative of ill may have something to do with the power the toad is said to possess of spitting its \u201cswelter\u2019d venom\u201d at those who happen to annoy it.\u201d <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Dorset is also blessed with some toad-and-frog-related place names, suggesting that toads weren\u2019t in short supply in the county, despite Dr Buckland\u2019s propensity to tear their legs off! The following examples are detailed in A.D. Mills\u2019 Dorset Place-Names<\/em>:<\/p>\n