Melsh Dick


Melsh Dick is the last survivor of our woodland divinities. His pedigree
reaches back to the satyrs and dryads of Greek mythology; he claims
kinship with the fauns that haunted the groves of leafy Tibur, and he
lorded it in the green woods of merry England when

The woodweele sang and wold not cease,
Sitting upon the spraye,
Soe lowde he wakened Robin Hood
In the greenwood where he lay.

But he has long since fallen upon evil days, and it is only in the most
secluded regions of the Pennines, where vestiges of primeval forest
still remain and where modern civilisation has scarcely penetrated, that
he is to be met with to-day. Melsh is a dialect word for unripe, and the
popular belief is that Melsh Dick keeps guard over unripe nuts; while
"Melsh Dick'll catch thee, lad" was formerly a threat used to frighten
children when they went a-nutting in the hazel-shaws. But we may,
perhaps, take a somewhat wider view of this woodland deity and look upon
him as the tutelary genius of all the young life of the forest--the
callow broods of birds, the litters of foxes and squirrels, and the
sapling oaks, hazels, and birches. There was a time when he was looked
upon as a genial fairy, who would bring Yule-logs to the farmers on
Christmas Eve and direct the woodmen in their tasks of planting and