A VERY ENGLISH WITCH
Michael Howard
In 1967 the late Cottie Burland, who worked for the British Museum for many years, wrote a book called The Magical Arts. In it he published a pencil or charcoal drawing of the god Pan and credited it to an artist called Monica English. Ten years later the present writer attended a talk given by Burland at the annual Quest Conference and he mentioned this artist again. The details he provided about her were fascinating to say the least.
Burland said he had personally known Monica English when she had been a member of Gerald Gardner’s coven at Brickett Wood in the early 1960s. However, interesting as this was, it was only half the story for English also belonged to an ‘old’ coven in Norfolk and Burland went on to describe this group. He said they used very little ritual as such and met in each other’s houses to dance and raise power. The (male) leader of the group stood in the centre of the circle to project or direct the power raised. Their last ‘Master’ was a Roman Catholic [sic] who had died a few years before. After the dance the participants had ‘cakes and wine’ to ground themselves. Other members of the coven, Burland related, included “poor farming folk” who wanted nothing to do with other witches and kept themselves to themselves. This faction were allegedly quite annoyed that English had gone off and joined Gardner’s coven because they did not regard him as a “real witch”. Burland made the rather wild claim that the tradition followed by the Norfolk coven had originated in Saxon times and had been practised in an unbroken line in the area since then.
One interesting fact mentioned by Burland in his talk was that the coven used a grey goose feather as a symbol and for passing messages. In a book called Tales of the Fens a folklorist records a story told to him by a local called William Barrett in October 1963. This story had in turn been told to Barratt by a man called Chafer Legge in 1900 and it concerns the symbol of the grey goose feather and the Civil War in the 17th century. According to this ripping yarn, in ancient times the native Fenmen banded together to form a secret society called the Order or Brotherhood of the Grey Goose Feathers. By its tradition if a brother was in distress or needed help and sent another a grey goose feather the other brethren were bound to rally around to his aid.
When King Charles I was forced to flee from his temporary court at Oxford he took refuge at Snow Hill at Farnham just outside Downham Market. He then decided to rejoin his troops in Cambridgeshire and employed a local innkeeper called Porter as a guide. Allegedly Porter initiated the king into the Brotherhood and promised that all the other brethren would help him. During their journey to Huntingdon the two men were stopped by two Roundhead soldiers. When Porter casually produced his grey feather the two men, who were locals and members of the Order, waved the travellers on. Eventually, as we know, King Charles was captured and taken to London for trial and execution. On the night before his death it is said he sent a messenger to General Cromwell with the grey goose feather. The king knew the military dictator was a Fenman and would be aware of its significance, in fact he may even have belonged to the Brotherhood himself. Cromwell indeed recognised what it meant and it is said he sat staring at the feather on his desk for hours. However, as history tells us, the general ignored the king’s request for help and Charles I went to the scaffold the next morning.
Nothing more was said about Monica English until the publication in 1998 of Lois Bourne’s autobiography Dancing with Witches (Robert Hale). Bourne had been a leading member of the Brickett Wood coven in the late 1950s and knew English. She describes her as ‘the aristocratic witch’ and calls her ‘Margo’ in the book. She says English was aged about forty in 1959 and had honey coloured, wavy hair, grey-green cat’s eyes, long tapering fingers and a cultivated voice. She also ‘exuded a strong sexual attraction’ and the male members of the coven (if you will excuse the obvious pun!), including Gardner, were fascinated by her. When she danced skyclad with the coven in the ‘witch’s cottage’ at Brickett Wood and made wild vocal calls, Bourne says owls from miles away came to gather on the roof and answer her. Strange shapes and shadows also appeared in the circle in response to her calls. She used to just laugh about these events and say it was “real witchcraft”.
Bourne’s version of Monica English’s Norfolk coven is slightly different from the Cottie Burland one and she makes the group sound very grand and Country Life. English used to give Bourne a lift home as it was on her way. After one of the meetings she confided in her that she was a member of a traditional East Anglian coven with ‘an unbroken tradition of over two hundred years’. She said this group had become concerned over Gardner’s publicity and were fearful it would bring the Old Craft out of the shadows and expose it. English had therefore joined Brickett Wood to find out what was going on and to discover if it was a real threat. Bourne was eventually invited to visit her at the old manor house in a small Norfolk village where she lived with her husband. At the back of the house were stables and kennels for a pack of hounds, as English’s husband was the master of the local hunt.
Bourne confirms that English and Cottie Burland had become firm friends and the three met socially. English invited Bourne to become a member of the Norfolk coven, telling her that she would learn little at Brickett Wood because Gardner’s teachings were “the shadow and that he did not possess the substance.” At first Bourne declined, but after Gardner died in February 1964 she finally took up the invitation and was initiated at Samhain of that year. English was the magistra (mistress) of the coven and was assisted by a friend called Bertram (probably not his real name) who was the magister and a wealthy businessman. Although they were the primo facto leaders and organisers of the coven, the real rulers were a man in his seventies and a woman in her sixties known as the ‘Lord’ and ‘Lady’ who presided over the meets.
Although Bourne says the coven had over thirty members, not everyone attended each meet, although they were expected to convene at the four Grand Sabbats. Bourne states the coven was geared towards the celebration of the agricultural year and, while the Goddess was acknowledged, it was the Horned God who it was believed had the ultimate power. This fact is significant and suggests that it may indeed have been a genuine ‘robed coven’ following a Old Craft tradition of some antiquity. Meets were held, weather permitting, in the grounds of a large country house or in a barn on land owned by one of the members. Rituals inside were presided over by the ‘Lord’ and ‘Lady’ sitting on a raised platform overlooking the circle. The ‘Lady’ wore a shimmering silver robe tied with a plaited belt of the same material and long silver earrings. Unlike the Dionysian rites at Brickett Wood, the rituals of the old Norfolk coven were mostly conducted in silence with a lot of meditation. Bourne was told: “Silence is the ultimate and final initiation. The Gods are silent; everything comes out of silence. The true experience of bliss is without words.”
Monica English was quite a sophisticate and a prominent person in the area both socially and as a professional artist. In a 1960s catalogue of East Anglian artists she is described as ‘ a painter of two worlds. One of these was a world of myth and legend peopled with the gods, warriors and ghosts of the past, and springs from her study of anthropology, folklore and primitive religions. The other world is the rural reality of landscape and animals, particularly horses, whose beauty and pride of movement fascinates her.’ The catalogue entry goes on to say that English was self-trained and had mounted seventeen exhibitions, including three at London art galleries. Other exhibitions were planned for galleries in Norwich. She had also appeared on television discussing her artwork and it had been reviewed in provincial and national newspapers and magazines. It says she had her own gallery at home, which was open to the public. An address in a small Norfolk village was given. Her hobbies were listed as gardening, horse riding and collecting gramophone records of folk music from all over the world. She was married with one son. There is no mention of witchcraft.
While it has been long rumoured that several Old Craft people infiltrated the Brickett Wood coven for various purposes Monica English is one of the few to be identified. Apparently her legacy lives on today. In an interview with Verdelet magazine (# 5 Spring Equinox 2002), Lois Bourne reveals she is still in contact with the old Norfolk coven. She says: “ The people I knew have died and their offspring are now active, the power, according to them, passes through the family line.”