The Swaffham Tinker
Dreamed 1454? (certainly before 1474) by John Chapman, a tinker in Swaffham, Norfolk, England;
plus the dream of an oneiroskeptical shopkeeper in London in the same year.
There lived at Swaffham, in Norfolk, an industrious man named John Chapman who worked as a tinker. One night he dreamed that if he took a journey to London, and placed himself on a certain part of London Bridge, he should meet with someone who would reveal a matter of importance to his future prospects.
This dream made a great impression on his mind, and he related it to his wife in the morning. She, however, half laughed and half scolded at him for his folly in paying attention to such idle fancies and told him "You had better get up and go to work." The next night he dreamed the same again, and likewise the third night, when the dream impressed him so much that he determined, in spite of his wife's skepticism and his neighbours' ridicule, to "go to London and see the upshot of it." He arranged for the management of his business during his absence, and set out on foot for London, about ninety miles distant, which he reached late on the third day. After a night's rest, he took his station the next morning on a part of the bridge which corresponded with the description in his dream. There he stood all day, without telling anyone the purpose of his vigil. The next day it was the same--and the third; so that, towards night, both his patience and his confidence in the dream began to be shaken; he inwardly cursed himself for ignoring his wife's advice, and resolved to leave London the next day and make the best of his way home again. |
But he stood his ground till late in the evening; when, just as he was about to leave it, a shop-keeper who had seen him standing doggedly and with anxious looks on the same spot for days, asked him what he was waiting there for. After some hesitation, the tinker told him his errand, without, however, mentioning his place of origin.
The stranger smiled at his simplicity, and advised him to go home, and in future to pay no attention to dreams. "I myself," said he, "dreamed three nights this week, that if I went a hundred miles into the country, to a place called Swaffham, in Norfolk, and dug under an apple-tree in a certain garden on the north side of the town, I should find a box of money; but I have better to do than to run after such idle fancies! No, no my friend, go home and work well at your calling, and there you will find the riches you seek here."The tinker was astonished. This, he doubted not, was the information he sought; but he said nothing further to the stranger than to thank him for his advice, and to declare his resolve to heed it. He went straight to his lodging, and the next day set off for his home, which he reached safe. He said little to his wife on the subject of his journey, but rose early the next morning, and commenced digging on the spot mentioned by the stranger. |
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