here are many a tale or two about the devil’s visits to our county. It seems the good folk of Herefordshire are worthy of his attention, there are many a good soul that he would like to capture. Our tale this week takes us to Longtown, to the biggest farm in the area. It was a busy time for the farm owner, there were many tasks to get done, the seasons were changing, his crop needed harvesting but one of his best labourers had fallen ill. As he was wondering what he was going to do, out of nowhere appeared a dishevelled man called John asking if there was any work available. He was not a local, in fact no-one had seen him before, but he implored the farmer to give him work. Seeing this as an opportunity to fix his problems the farmer agreed but firmly told his new farm hand, “I’ll have you know that I won’t tolerate any shirking!”
To the farmer’s surprise and relief John turned out to be a really hard worker. He could thresh a sheaf of corn with one stroke of his flail, build a stack faster than any other man and carry a load that would normally take six men to move. He never seemed to tire either. John intrigued the farmer so he decided to work alongside him one day to get to know him better. It was a busy hot day and the farmer was engaged in throwing the sheaves from the stack while John threshed them. The farmer was impressed at the speed with which John was threshing the sheaves, but even more amazing was the fact that John seemed unaffected by the summer’s heat. Trying to figure out why the farmer could only deduce that he had given John the easier of the jobs and decided to swap tasks with him. But too his shock and before he knew it John had buried him beneath the sheaves. The farmer just could not keep pace with him.
At home that evening the farmer pondered the day. How could it be that he a very fit man could not keep up with John, something wasn’t right. The next day the farmer visited a wise man in the village, he needed some advice. The farmer recounted his experiences and his concerns asking the wise man for his opinion. The wise man with a knowing look in his eyes shook his head and said, “I’m sure I know who your labourer is, it can be none other than the devil.”
The farmer was shocked, he hadn’t anticipated that response. He immediately asked the wise man how he could rid himself of this stranger who indeed might be the devil himself. The wise man responded, “What you need to do is give him a task that he cannot do, it doesn’t matter what it is. The Devil is proud and won’t be beaten by any task. he will soon pack his bags and go.”
Over the next few weeks the farmer kept coming up with unusual and difficult tasks for John to do but each time he did so John completed them with ease and perfection. The farmer had asked John to count the number of grains of corn threshed from a whole stack, fill a barrel with water using a sieve and mow a field which he had spiked with iron railings. It would seem that no task was too difficult. In desperation to rid himself of John the farmer told his story to a passing gypsy woman. After much thought she responded, “Take one of your wife’s curly hairs from her head and tell him to hammer it straight on the blacksmith’s anvil.”
The farmer did as the gypsy had said and set John about the task. Hours and hours of furious hammering passed and then came a deafening silence. Not sure what he was going to find the farmer made his way into the blacksmith’s shed to find it empty with the curly hair still on the anvil. He ran outside to see where John had gone and there in the distance he could be seen leaving the village. A relief swept over the farmer, it had worked. The farmer’s soul was saved but it didn’t stop him wondering who the next poor victim might be.
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