• DOI:10.1080/0015587052000337734
• Corpus ID: 161902483

Reviews of FolkLore Scholarship: “Whyler Pystry”: A Breviate of the Life and Folklore-collecting Practices of William Henry Paynter (1901–76) of Callington, Cornwall

@article{Semmens2005ReviewsOF,
  title={Reviews of FolkLore Scholarship: “Whyler Pystry”: A Breviate of the Life and Folklore-collecting Practices of William Henry Paynter (1901–76) of Callington, Cornwall},
  author={Jason Semmens},
  journal={Folklore},
  year={2005},
  volume={116},
  pages={75 - 94}
}

• J. Semmens
• Published 1 April 2005
• History
• Folklore

William Henry Paynter (1901–76) was active as a folklore collector in Cornwall during the 1920s and 193076s. He specialised in collecting witch beliefs at a time when folk concepts of illness as arising from ill-wishing and of its cure by cunning-folk were fast disappearing. Today, he is largely forgotten as a folklore collector and his publications are little known or read. This paper focuses on his folklore collecting and related activities and on his attitudes to witch beliefs and charmers. An annotated bibliography of his writings on Cornish folklore is also presented.