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Custom · Barkway

The cheese-rind cure for mad dogs

When rabies terrified the countryside, Barkway had its own cure: a Latin spell written on cheese rind. Feeding it to the dog was the hard part.

Open on the map: directions, what's there today and read-aloud →

Illustration: The Mad Dog Charm
The legend
Custom

The Mad Dog Charm

Write the Latin charm on cheese rind, then feed it to the mad dog.

Stand where it happened

What's there
The village; no single spot
Legend from
1600s–1800s
Tone
Curious
Folk curesCharms

Before you go

The charm was a belief across the whole parish, so the pin marks Barkway village. There's nothing specific to visit.

  • Barkway village
  • Near High Street, Barkway
  • The pin marks the village; the exact spot isn't recorded.

Coming into Barkway, where villagers swore a scrap of cheese rind with a Latin charm on it could cure a mad dog.

Before Pasteur's vaccine, rabies, or mad dog disease, caused real terror in country districts. In Barkway, an order to muzzle dogs and keep children away from them was issued for a month and then kept extended until June 1886, a heavy burden in a farming parish full of working dogs. The villagers had their own remedy as well. The most effective cure, they insisted, was to write on a small piece of cheese rind a Latin charm addressed to dogs, beginning 'Deibus orebus', and feed it to the animal, assuming it had not already bitten off your hand.

One sourceOnly one written account of this legend has been found so far.

Sources

  1. Herts Memories (Hertfordshire Archives & Local Studies), 'Mad Dog Disease, Barkway'