British Popular Customs, Present And Past - free ebook by T. F. (Thomas Firminger) Thiselton-Dyer

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British Popular Customs, Present And Past

T. F. (Thomas Firminger) Thiselton-Dyer

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BRITISH POPULAR CUSTOMS PRESENT AND PAST

BRITISH POPULAR CUSTOMS PRESENT AND PAST

GEORGE BELL AND SONS, LTD. LONDON: PORTUGAL ST., KINGSWAY CAMBRIDGE: DEIGHTON, BELL AND CO. NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN CO. BOMBAY: A. H. WHEELER AND CO. BRITISH POPULAR CUSTOMS PRESENT AND PAST ILLUSTRATING THE SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC MANNERS OF THE PEOPLE ARRANGED ACCORDING TO THE CALENDAR OF THE YEAR BY THE REV. T. F. THISELTON DYER, M.A. PEMBROKE COLLEGE, OXON. LONDON G. BELL AND SONS, LIMITED 1911 LONDON G. BELL AND SONS, LIMITED 1911 [ Reprinted from Stereotype plates. ]...

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PREFACE.

PREFACE.

In presenting the following pages to the Public I do not lay claim to any originality, my object simply having been to collect together, into a readable and condensed form, from various sources within my reach, accounts of Customs which, if not already obsolete, are quickly becoming so. With regard to the general plan of the book, it speaks for itself. It should, however, be stated that the movable feasts are placed under the earliest days on which they can fall. In conclusion, I would only add

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Buckinghamshire.

Buckinghamshire.

It appears from a MS. in the British Museum ( Status Scholæ Etonensis , A.D. 1560, MS. Brit. Mus. Donat. 4843, fol. 423), that the boys of Eton School used, on the day of the Circumcision, to play for little New Year’s gifts before and after supper; and that boys had a custom on that day, for good luck’s sake, of making verses, and sending them to the provost, masters, &amp;c., as also of presenting them to each other....

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Cumberland and Westmoreland.

Cumberland and Westmoreland.

Early in the morning the common people assemble together, carrying stangs and baskets. Any inhabitant, stranger, or whoever joins not this ruffian tribe in sacrificing to their favourite saint-day, if unfortunate enough to be met by any of the band, is immediately mounted across the stang (if a woman, she is basketed), and carried shoulder high to the nearest public house, where the payment of sixpence immediately liberates the prisoner. None, though ever so industriously inclined, are permitted

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Essex.

Essex.

Formerly the bailiffs of Maldon sent on the first day of the year, to the king’s vice-admiral of Essex a present of oysters and wild fowl. Sir John Bramston notices the arrival of the gift on New Year’s Day (March 26), 1688, in his Autobiography , printed for the Camden Society in 1845....

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Herefordshire.

Herefordshire.

At Bromyard and its neighbourhood, as twelve o’clock on the 31st of December draws near, and the last of the Christmas carols are heard without doors, and a pleasurable excitement is playing on the faces of the family around the last Christmas log within, a rush is made to the nearest spring of water, and whoever is fortunate enough to first bring in the “cream of the well,” as it is termed, and those who first taste of it, have “prospect of good luck through the forthcoming year.” Also, in the

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Lancashire.

Lancashire.

Should a female, or a light-haired male, be the first to enter a house on the morning of New Year’s Day, it is supposed to bring bad luck for the whole of the year then commencing. Various precautions are taken to prevent this misfortune: hence many male persons with black or dark hair are in the habit of going from house to house, on that day, to take the New Year in; for which they are treated with liquor, and presented with a small gratuity. So far is the apprehension carried, that some famil

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Isle of Man.

Isle of Man.

On this day an old custom, says Train in his History of the Isle of Man (1845, vol. ii. p. 115), is observed called the quaaltagh . In almost every parish throughout the island, a party of young men go from house to house singing the following rhyme: When these lines are repeated at the door, the whole party are invited into the house to partake of the best the family can afford. On these occasions a person of dark complexion always enters first, as a light-haired male or female is deemed unluck

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Northumberland.

Northumberland.

The following extract, relating to Newcastle-on-Tyne, is taken from the North of England Advertiser of January 4th, 1873: The children on New Year’s morn are busy begging their New Year’s gifts, saying, “Old Year out, New Year in; please give us my New Year’s gift;” or “A merry Christmas and a happy New Year;” followed by the usual appeal for a present. The first-foot is an important personage. If he should be a dark man, it is a sign of good luck; if a light one not so lucky; but alas! if a wom

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Nottinghamshire.

Nottinghamshire.

In this county it is considered unlucky to remove anything from a house until something has been brought in, and therefore, early in the morning, each member of the family carries some trifling thing in. In the neighbourhood of Newark, this rhyme is sung: Jour. of Arch. Assoc. 1853, vol. viii. p. 231. Brand, in his Pop. Antiq. (1849, vol. i. p. 15), alludes to this custom as existing in Lincoln and its neighbourhood. The rhyme he quotes is slightly different from the above:...

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Oxfordshire.

Oxfordshire.

Pointer, in his Oxoniensis Academia (1749, p. 71), alludes to a custom, observed at Brasenose College, Oxford, of the Bachelors of Arts and Undergraduates belonging to the college going in a body on New Year’s Day to their Principal, and each presenting him with an epistle by way of a New Year’s gift, wishing him a happy New Year. We learn from the same writer, that it was formerly the practice at Queen’s College to give a needle and thread to the Fellows, being a rebus on their founder’s name,

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Staffordshire.

Staffordshire.

A grotesque manorial custom is described as being kept up in the reign of Charles II., in connection with Hilton. There existed in that house a hollow brass image, about a foot high, representing a man kneeling in an indecorous position. It was known all over the country as Jack of Hilton. There were two apertures; one very small at the mouth, another about two-thirds of an inch in diameter at the back, and the interior would hold rather more than four pints of water, which, says Plot ( History

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Sussex.

Sussex.

At Hastings, apples, nuts, oranges, &amp;c., as well as money, are thrown out of the windows to be scrambled for by the fisher-boys and men. The custom is not kept up with the spirit of former days....

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Warwickshire.

Warwickshire.

In the city of Coventry a sort of cake known by the name of God-cakes is sent. They are used by all classes, and vary in price from a halfpenny to one pound. They are invariably made in a triangular shape, an inch thick, and filled with a kind of mincemeat. So general is the use of them on the first day of the New Year, that the cheaper sorts are hawked about the streets as hot cross buns are on Good Friday in London. This custom seems peculiar to Coventry.— N. &amp; Q. 2nd S. vol. ii. p. 22

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Worcestershire.

Worcestershire.

A belief exists in this county, that if the carol singer who first comes to the door on New Year’s morning be admitted at the front door, conducted through the house, and let out at the back the inmates will have good luck during the year.— N. &amp; Q. 2nd S. vol. iii. p. 313....

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Yorkshire.

Yorkshire.

The following quaint account of a whimsical custom formerly observed on New Year’s Day is taken from Blount’s Fragmenta Antiquitatis , 1815, p. 555: Near Hutton Conyers there is a large common, called Hutton Conyers Moor, whereof William Aislabie, Esq., of Studley Royal (lord of the Manor of Hutton Conyers), is lord of the soil, and on which there is a large coney-warren belonging to the lord. The occupiers of messuages and cottages within the several towns of Hutton Conyers, Baldersby, Rainton,

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SCOTLAND.

SCOTLAND.

In the Memoirs of Lord Langdale by Sir T. D. Hardy, 1852, vol. i. p. 55, occurs the following: “Being in Scotland, I ought to tell you of Scotch customs; and really they have a charming one on this occasion (i.e. New Year’s Day). Whether it is meant as a farewell ceremony to the old one, or an introduction to the New Year, I can’t tell; but on the 31st of December, almost everybody has a party, either to dine or sup. The company, almost entirely consisting of young people, wait together till twe

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SCOTLAND.

SCOTLAND.

The first Monday of the year is a great holiday among the peasantry of Scotland and children generally, as being the day peculiarly devoted in that country to the giving and receiving of presents. It is on this account called Handsel Monday , handsel being in Scotland the equivalent of a Christmas-box, but more especially implying a gift at the commencement of a season or the induing of some new garment. The young people visit their seniors in expectation of tips (the word , but not the action ,

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Devonshire.

Devonshire.

At Kingsbridge and Salcombe it was formerly customary for the ciderist, attended by his workmen with a large can or pitcher of cider, guns charged with powder, &amp;c., to repair to the orchard, and there at the foot of one of the best-bearing apple-trees, drink the following toast three times repeated, discharging the fire-arms in conclusion: The pitcher being emptied, they returned to the house, the doors of which they were certain to find bolted by the females; who, however bad the weathe

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Gloucestershire.

Gloucestershire.

In the parish of Pauntley, and the surrounding neighbourhood, the servants of each farmer formerly assembled together in one of the fields that had been sown with wheat. At the end of twelve lands, they made twelve fires in a row with straw, around one of which, much larger than the rest, they drank a cheerful glass of cider to their master’s health, and success to the future harvest; then, returning home, they feasted on cakes soaked in cider, which they claimed as a reward for their past labou

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Herefordshire.

Herefordshire.

At the approach of the evening, the farmers with their friends and servants meet together, and about six o’clock walk out to a field where wheat is growing. In the highest part of the ground, twelve small fires and one large one, are lighted up. [6] The attendants, headed by the master of the family, pledge the company in old cider, which circulates freely on these occasions. A circle is formed round the large fire, when a general shout and hallooing takes place, which you hear answered from all

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Staffordshire.

Staffordshire.

According to Blount the inhabitants of this county at one time made a fire on the eve of the Epiphany, in memory of the blazing star that conducted the three Magi to the manger at Bethlehem....

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Yorkshire.

Yorkshire.

In the neighbourhood of Leeds, families formerly invited their relations, friends, and neighbours to their houses, for the purpose of playing at cards, and partaking of a supper of which mince pies were an indispensable ingredient. After supper was over the wassail-cup or wassail-bowl was brought in, of which every one partook, by taking with a spoon out of the ale a roasted apple and eating it, and then drinking the healths of the company out of the bowl, wishing them a merry Christmas, and a h

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IRELAND.

IRELAND.

In Ireland “on Twelve Eve in Christmas, they use to set up as high as they can a sieve of oats, and in it a dozen of candles set round, and in the centre one larger, all lighted. This in memory of our Saviour and his Apostles, light of the world.”—Sir Henry Piers’ Description of the County of Westmeath , 1682, in Vallancey’s Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis , vol. i. No. 1, p. 124. Jan. 6. ] TWELFTH DAY. THE EPIPHANY. In its character as a popular festival, Twelfth Day stands only inferior to Chr

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Cumberland.

Cumberland.

In Cumberland, and other northern parts of England, on Twelfth Night, which finishes the Christmas holidays, the rustics meet together in a large room. They begin dancing at seven o’clock, and finish at twelve, when they sit down to lobscouse and ponsondie ; the former is made of beef, potatoes, and onions, fried together; and in ponsondie we recognise the wassail or waes-hael of ale, boiled with sugar and nutmeg, into which are put roasted apples; the anciently admired lambs’-wool. The feast is

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Derbyshire.

Derbyshire.

The morris-dancers who go about from village to village about Twelfth Day, have their fool, their Maid Marian (generally a man dressed in woman’s clothes, and called “the fool’s wife,”) and sometimes the hobby-horse; they are dressed up in ribbons and tinsel, but the bells are usually discarded.— Jour. of Arch. Assoc. 1852, vol. vii. p. 201....

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Dorsetshire.

Dorsetshire.

The rector of Piddle Hinton gives away on Old Christmas Day a pound of bread, a pint of ale, and a mince pie, to every poor person in the parish. This distribution is regularly made by the rector to upwards of three hundred persons.—Edwards, Old English Customs and Charities , 1842, p. 6....

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Lincolnshire.

Lincolnshire.

Anciently the Mowbrays had great possessions in and about the Isle of Axholme, and a seat, at which they principally resided, and were considered the greatest folks in that part of the country. It so happened that on Old Christmas Day, while a young lady (the daughter of the then Mowbray) was riding over the Meeres to the church by an old road (at that time the principal one across the village) a gale of wind blew off her hood. Twelve farming men who were working in the fields saw the occurrence

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Middlesex.

Middlesex.

In London on Twelfth Night, in former days, boys assembled round the inviting shops of the pastrycooks, and dexterously nailed the coat-tails of spectators who ventured near enough to the bottoms of the window frames, or pinned them strongly together by their clothes. Sometimes eight or ten persons found themselves thus connected. The dexterity and force of the nail-driving was so quick and sure that a single blow seldom failed of doing the business effectually.—Withdrawal of the nail without a

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Isle of Man.

Isle of Man.

In this island there is not a barn unoccupied on the whole twelve days after Christmas, every parish hiring fiddlers at the public charge. On Twelfth Day the fiddler lays his head in the lap of some one of the wenches, and the mainstyr fiddler asks who such a maid, or such a maid, naming all the girls one after another, shall marry, to which he answers according to his own whim, or agreeable to the intimacies he has taken notice of during the time of merriment, and whatever he says is absolutely

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Somersetshire.

Somersetshire.

A friend of mine, says Mr. C. W. Bingham in N. &amp; Q. ( 3rd S. vol. ix. p. 33), met a girl on Old Christmas Day, in a village of North Somerset, who told him that she was going to see the Christmas thorn in blossom. He accompanied her to an orchard, where he found a tree, propagated from the celebrated Glastonbury thorn, and gathered from it several sprigs in blossom. Afterwards the girl’s mother informed him that it had been formerly the custom for the youth of both sexes to assemble unde

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Staffordshire.

Staffordshire.

At Paget’s Bromley a curious custom went out in the seventeenth century. A man came along the village with a mock horse fastened to him, with which he danced, at the same time making a snapping noise with a bow and arrow. He was attended by half a dozen fellow-villagers, wearing mock deers’ heads, and displaying the arms of the several landlords of the town. This party danced the Hays , and other country dances, to music, amidst the sympathy and applause of the multitude. There was also a huge p

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Westmoreland.

Westmoreland.

Twelfth Night, or Holly Night, was formerly celebrated at Brough, by carrying through the town a holly-tree with torches attached to its branches. The procession set out at 8 o’clock in the evening preceded by music, and stopped at the town-bridge, and again at the cross, where it was greeted each time with shouts of applause. Many of the inhabitants carried lighted branches as flambeaux; and rockets, squibs, &amp;c., were discharged on the joyful occasion. After the tree had been carried ab

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WALES.

WALES.

In some parts of Pembrokeshire, the following practice is observed. A wren is secured in a small house made of wood, with door and windows, the latter glazed. Pieces of ribbon of various colours are fixed to the ridge of the roof outside. Sometimes several wrens are brought in the same cage, and oftentimes a stable-lantern, decorated as above mentioned, serves for the wren’s-house. The proprietors of this establishment go round to the principal houses in their neighbourhood: where, accompanying

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Jan. 7.] ST. DISTAFF’S DAY.—ROCK DAY.

Jan. 7.] ST. DISTAFF’S DAY.—ROCK DAY.

Jan. 7. ] ST. DISTAFF’S DAY.—ROCK DAY. The day after Twelfth Day was called Rock Day [8] and St. Distaff’s Day, because on that day women resumed their spinning, which had been interrupted by the sports of Christmas; for our ancestors, it seems, returned to their work in a very leisurely manner. From Herrick’s Hesperides (p. 374) we learn that the men, in boisterous merriment, burned the women’s flax, and that they in retaliation dashed pails of water upon the men: Med. Ævi Kalend. vol. i. p. 13

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Cambridgeshire.

Cambridgeshire.

Plough Monday is observed at Cambridge by parties going about the town variously dressed in ribbons, etc.; some with a female among them, some with a man in women’s clothes, some with a plough: they dance and collect money which is afterwards spent in a feast.— Time’s Telescope , 1816, p. 3....

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Derbyshire.

Derbyshire.

On Plough Monday the “Plough bullocks” are occasionally seen; they consist of a number of young men from various farmhouses, who are dressed up in ribbons, their shirts (for they wear no coats or waistcoats) literally covered with rosettes of various colours and their hats bound with ribbons, and decorated with every kind of ornament that comes in their way; these young men yoke themselves to a plough, which they draw about, preceded by a band of music, from house to house, collecting money. The

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Huntingdonshire.

Huntingdonshire.

Plough Monday is observed in this county. The mummers are called “Plough-Witchers,” and their ceremony, “Plough-Witching.”— N. &amp; Q. 2nd S. vol. ix. p. 381....

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Leicestershire.

Leicestershire.

Macaulay ( History of Claybrook , 1791, p. 128,) says: On Plough Monday I have taken notice of an annual display of morris-dancers at Claybrook, who come from the neighbouring villages of Sapcote and Sharnford....

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Lincolnshire.

Lincolnshire.

A correspondent of the Book of Days , vol. i. p. 94, giving the following interesting account as to how Plough Monday was, in days gone by, celebrated in the county, says:—Rude though it was, the Plough procession threw a life into the dreary scenery of winter, as it came winding along the quiet rutted lanes, on its way from one village to another; for the ploughmen from many a surrounding hamlet and lonely farmhouse united in the celebration of Plough Monday. It was nothing unusual for at least

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Norfolk.

Norfolk.

Hone’s Year Book , p. 29, gives a quotation from a Briefe Relation , &amp;c., 1646, wherein the writer says, that the Monday after Twelfth Day is called “Plowlick Monday” by the husbandmen in Norfolk, “because on that day they doe first begin to plough.”...

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Northamptonshire.

Northamptonshire.

In the northern and eastern parts of the county Plough Monday is more noticed than in the neighbourhood of Northampton. The pageant varies in different places; sometimes five persons precede the plough, which is drawn by a number of boys with their faces blackened and reddled. Formerly, when the pageant was of a more important character than now, the plough was drawn by oxen decorated with ribbons. The one who walks first in the procession is styled the Master, and is grotesquely attired, having

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Yorkshire.

Yorkshire.

On the Monday after Twelfth Day, says Clarkson ( Hist. of Richmond , 1821, p. 293), a number of young men from the country, yoked to a plough, drag it about the streets, begging money, in allusion to the labours of the plough having ceased in that severe weather. In like manner the watermen in London, when the Thames is covered with ice in hard frosts, haul a boat about the streets, to show that they are deprived of the means of earning their livelihood....

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Oxfordshire.

Oxfordshire.

Jan. 10. ] Oxfordshire. Pointer, in his Oxoniensis Academia (1749, p. 96), alludes to a practice observed at St. John’s and Corpus Christi Colleges, Oxford, of having a speech spoken on this day, in laudem Laudi Archiepiscopi ....

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SCOTLAND.

SCOTLAND.

Jan. 12. ] SCOTLAND. This day is observed by the people of Halkirk, as New Year’s Day, a time when servants are too apt to spend their hard-earned penny in drink and other equally useless purposes.— Stat. Acc. of Scotland , 1845, vol. xv. p. 75....

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Jan. 13.] ST. HILARY’S DAY.

Jan. 13.] ST. HILARY’S DAY.

Jan. 13. ] ST. HILARY’S DAY. St. Hilary is memorable in the annals of Richmond, in the county of York, as on the anniversary of his festival the mayor is chosen for the ensuing year, which causes it to be observed as a jubilee-day among the friends, and those concerned in corporation matters. St. Hilary likewise gives name to one of the four seasons of the year when the courts of justice are opened.—Clarkson’s Hist. of Richmond , 1821, p. 293. Jan. 14. ] MALLARD NIGHT....

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Oxfordshire.

Oxfordshire.

This day was formerly celebrated in All Souls College, Oxford, in commemoration of the discovery of a very large mallard or drake in a drain, when digging for the foundation of the college; and though this observance no longer exists, yet on one of the college “gaudies” there is sung in memory of the occurrence a very old song called “The swapping, swapping mallard.” “THE MERRY OLD SONG OF THE ALL SOULS MALLARD. [9] The allusion to King Edward is surely an anachronism, as King Henry VI. was reig

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Jan. 17.] SEPTUAGESIMA.

Jan. 17.] SEPTUAGESIMA.

Jan. 17. ] SEPTUAGESIMA. Septuagesima occurs between this day and February the 22nd, according as the Paschal full moon falls. It was formerly distinguished by a strange ceremony, denominated the Funeral of Alleluia . On the Saturday of Septuagesima, at nones, the choristers assembled in the great vestiary of the cathedral, and there arranged the ceremony. Having finished the last benedicamus , they advanced with crosses, torches, holy waters, and incense, carrying a turf in the manner of a coff

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SCOTLAND.

SCOTLAND.

Formerly on the eve of St. Agnes’ Day the following custom was, and perchance still is observed in the northern parts of Scotland by the mountain peasantry. A number of young lads and lasses meeting together on the eve of St. Agnes, at the hour of twelve, went one by one to a certain cornfield, and threw in some grain, after which they pronounced the following rhyme: The prayer was granted by their favourite saint, and the shadow of the destined bride or bridegroom was seen in a mirror on this v

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Jan. 21.] ST. AGNES’ DAY.

Jan. 21.] ST. AGNES’ DAY.

Jan. 21. ] ST. AGNES’ DAY. Since the Reformation, St. Agnes has by degrees lost her consequence in this country as superstition has subsided; though our rural virgins in the north are yet said to practise some singular rites, in keeping “what they call St. Agnes’ Fast, for the purpose of discovering their future husbands.”— Clavis Calendaria , Brady, 1815, vol. i. p. 170. See Mother Bunch’s Closet Newly Broke Open , 1825 (?). Anatomy of Melancholy , Burton, 1660, p. 538. Jan. 24. ] ST. PAUL’S EV

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Cornwall.

Cornwall.

The first red-letter day in the Tinner’s Calendar is St. Paul’s Pitcher-day, or the Eve of Paul’s Tide. It is marked by a very curious and inexplicable custom, not only among tin-streamers, but also in the mixed mining and agricultural town and neighbourhood of Bodmin, and among the seafaring population of Padstow. The tinner’s mode of observing it is as follows:—On the day before the Feast of St. Paul, a water-pitcher is set up at a convenient distance, and pelted with stones until entirely dem

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St. Paul’s Cathedral.

St. Paul’s Cathedral.

—One of the strangest of the old ceremonies in which the clergy of St. Paul’s Cathedral used to figure was that which was performed twice a year, namely, on the day of the Conversion, and on that of the Commemoration of St. Paul. On the former of these festivals a fat buck, and on the latter a fat doe, was presented to the church by the family of Baud, in consideration of some lands which they held of the Dean and Chapter at West Lee in Essex. The original agreement made with Sir William Le Baud

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Jan. 31.] EXECUTION OF CHARLES I.

Jan. 31.] EXECUTION OF CHARLES I.

Jan. 31. ] EXECUTION OF CHARLES I. The anniversary of the execution of King Charles I. was formerly celebrated, and a special form of prayer made use of, which was removed from the Prayer Book by an Act of Parliament (22 Vict. c. 2, March 25, 1859). The following extract is taken from the Courier , of the 30th of January, 1826: “This being the anniversary of King Charles’ Martyrdom (in 1649), the Royal Exchange gates were shut till twelve o’clock, when they were opened for public business.” Ther

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Isle of Man.

Isle of Man.

Jan. 31. ] Isle of Man. On the eve of the 1st of February a festival was formerly kept, called in the Manks language Laa’l Breeshey , in honour of the Irish lady who went over to the Isle of Man to receive the veil from St. Maughold. The custom was to gather a bundle of green rushes, and standing with them in the hand on the threshold of the door, to invite the holy Saint Bridget to come and lodge with them that night. In the Manks language, the invitation ran thus:—“Brede, Brede, tar gys my thi

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Nottinghamshire.

Nottinghamshire.

The following extract from the Newark Advertiser of Feb. 2nd. 1870, describes a custom that existed for a long time at Newark: “For many years past the last day in January has been observed in Newark as a raffling day for oranges in the market-place. On Monday last application was made to Mr. Superintendent Riddell, at the Post Office, as to whether the practice would be allowed this year as usual. He advised them to apply to the sitting magistrates, and upon doing so Mr. Wallis (deputy clerk) r

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Oxfordshire.

Oxfordshire.

By the common people, the Saturday preceding Shrove Tuesday is called Egg Saturday. This name is employed as a date by Anthony à Wood: “One hundred and ninety-two bachelors to determine this Lent, but twenty-three or thereabouts were not presented on Egg Saturday.”— Med. Ævi Kalend. vol. i. p. 158. Lives of Leland, Hearne, and Wood , 1772, vol. ii. p. 297. Feb. 1. ] CANDLEMAS EVE. On Candlemas Eve was kindled the yule-brand , which was allowed to burn till sunset, when it was quenched and carefu

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Nottinghamshire.

Nottinghamshire.

It was at one time customary, in the villages bordering on the Trent, to decorate not only churches but houses with branches of box, and to light up a number of candles in the evening, as being the last day of Christmas rejoicings. “On Candlemas Day throw candles away” is a popular proverb for the following day.— Jour. Arch. Assoc. 1853, vol. viii. p. 231. Feb. 2. ] CANDLEMAS DAY. This day, the festival of the “Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary,” is sometimes called Christ’s Presentation ,

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Dorsetshire.

Dorsetshire.

Formerly at Lyme Regis the wood-ashes of the family being sold throughout the year as they were made, the person who purchased them annually sent a present on this day of a large candle. When night came, this candle was lighted, and, assisted by its illumination, the inmates regaled themselves with cheering draughts of ale, and sippings of punch, or some other animating beverage, until the candle had burnt out. The coming of the Candlemas Candle was looked forward to by the young ones as an even

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Yorkshire.

Yorkshire.

Formerly at Ripon, on the Sunday before Candlemas Day, the collegiate church was illuminated with candles.— Gent. Mag. 1790, vol. lx. p. 719....

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SCOTLAND.

SCOTLAND.

At grammar schools it is, or was, an universal custom for the children attending schools to make small presents of money to their teachers. The master sits at his desk or table, exchanging for the moment his usual authoritative look for one of bland civility, and each child goes up in turn and lays his offering down before him, the sum being generally proportioned to the abilities of the parent. Sixpence and a shilling are the usual sums in most schools, but some give half, and whole crowns, and

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Western Isles of Scotland.

Western Isles of Scotland.

As Candlemas Day comes round, the mistress and servants of each family taking a sheaf of oats, dress it up in woman’s apparel, and after putting it in a large basket, beside which a wooden club is placed, they cry three times, “Briid is come! Briid is welcome!” This they do just before going to bed, and as soon as they rise in the morning, they look among the ashes, expecting to see the impression of Briid’s club there, which if they do, they reckon it a true presage of a good crop and prosperou

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Buckinghamshire.

Buckinghamshire.

At Eton it was the custom for the scholars to write verses either in praise or dispraise of Father Bacchus, poets being considered as immediately under his protection. He was therefore sung on this occasion in all kinds of metres, and the verses of the boys of the seventh and sixth, and some of the fifth forms, were affixed to the inner doors of the college. Verses are still written and put up on this day, but the young poets are not confined to the subject of writing eulogiums on the God of Win

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Cornwall.

Cornwall.

On the day termed Hall’ Monday, which precedes Shrove Tuesday, about the dusk of the evening it is the custom for boys, and in some cases for those who are above the age of boys, to prowl about the streets with short clubs, and to knock loudly at every door, running off to escape detection on the slightest sign of a motion within. If, however, no attention be excited, and especially if any article be discovered negligently exposed, or carelessly guarded, then the things are carried away; and on

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Devonshire.

Devonshire.

In the neighbourhood of Bridestow, Okehampton, the children go round to the different houses in the parish on the Monday before Shrove Tuesday, generally by twos and threes, and chant the following verses, by way of extracting from the inmates sundry contributions of eggs, flour, butter, halfpence, &amp;c., to furnish out the Tuesday’s feast: The above is the most popular version, and the one indigenous to the place; but there is another set, which was introduced some years ago by a late sch

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Candles offered to St. Blaze.

Candles offered to St. Blaze.

—In honour of St. Blaze there formerly were offered to him candles, which after receiving benediction were considered holy, and became highly serviceable to all pious uses. Clavis Calendaria , Brady, 1812. vol. i. p. 299. Beauties of England and Wales , Brayley and Britton, 1809, vol. ii. p. 418. Shrove Tuesday derives its distinctive epithet in English, from the custom of the people in applying to the priest to shrive them, or hear their confessions, before entering on the great fast of Lent th

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Cock-Fighting.

Cock-Fighting.

—Cock-fighting was a very general amusement up to the end of the last century. It entered into the occupations of the old and young. Schools had their cockfights. Travellers agreed with coachmen that they were to wait a night if there was a cock-fight in any town through which they passed. A battle between two cocks had five guineas staked upon it. Fifty guineas, about the year 1760, depended upon the main or odd battle. This made the decision of a “long-main” at cock-fighting an important matte

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Throwing at Cocks.

Throwing at Cocks.

—In days not very long gone by, the inhuman sport of throwing at cocks was practised at Shrovetide, and nowhere was it more certain to be seen than at the grammar-schools. The poor animal was tied to a stake by a short cord, and the unthinking men and boys who were to throw at it took their station at the distance of about twenty yards. Where the cock belonged to some one disposed to make it a matter of business, twopence was paid for three shies at it, the missile used being a broomstick. The s

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Shying at Leaden Cocks.

Shying at Leaden Cocks.

—This was probably in imitation of the barbarous custom already described of “shying” or throwing at the living animal. The “cock” was a representation of a bird or beast, a man, a horse, or some device, with a stand projecting on all sides, but principally behind the figure. These were made of lead cast in moulds. They were shyed at with dumps from a small distance agreed upon by the parties, generally regulated by the size or weight of the dump, and the value of the cock. If the thrower overse

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Shy for Shy.

Shy for Shy.

—This was played at by two boys, each having a cock placed at a certain distance, generally at about four or five feet asunder, the players standing behind their cocks, and throwing alternately; a bit of stone or wood was generally used to throw with; the cock was won by him who knocked it down. Corks and dumps were exposed for sale on the butchers’ shambles on a small board and were the perquisites of the apprentices who made them; and many a pewter plate, and many an ale-house pot, were melted

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Threshing the Hen

Threshing the Hen

was a custom formerly practised on this day. The following account taken from Tusser Redivivus , 1710 (8vo. June, p. 15), is curious. “The hen,” says the writer, “is hung at a fellow’s back, who also has some horse-bells about him, the rest of the fellows are blinded, and have boughs in their hands, with which they chase this fellow and his hen about some large court or small enclosure. The fellow with his hen and bells shifting as well as he can, they follow the sound, and sometimes hit him and

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Buckinghamshire.

Buckinghamshire.

At Eaton, on Shrove Tuesday, as soon as ever the clock strikes nine, all the boys in the school cry ΤΩ ΒΑΚΧΩ, ΤΩ ΒΑΚΧΩ, ΤΩ ΒΑΚΧΩ, as loud they can yell, and stamp and knock with their sticks; and then they doe all runne out of the schoole.— Aubrey MS. , A.D. 1686, Brit. Mus. A MS. in the British Museum already alluded to ( Status Scholæ Etonensis , A.D. 1560, MS. Brit. Mus. Donat. 4843 fol. 423) mentions a custom of the boys of Eton school being allowed to play from eight o’clock for the whole d

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Cheshire.

Cheshire.

Pennant, in his Journey from Chester to London , tells us of a place at Chester without the walls, called the Rood-Eye, where the lusty youth in former days exercised themselves in manly sports of the age: in archery, running, leaping, and wrestling, in mock fights and gallant romantic triumphs. A standard was the prize of emulation. In a pamphlet also, entitled, Certayne Collection of Anchiante Times, concerninge the Anchiante and Famous Cittie of Chester , published in Lysons’ Magna Britannia

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Cornwall.

Cornwall.

It was customary at one time to tie fowls to stakes, and set them as marks for boys to kill with bats.—Hitchins, History of Cornwall , 1824, vol. i. p. 723....

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Cumberland.

Cumberland.

Formerly the scholars of the free school of Bromfield, about the beginning of Lent, or, in the more expressive phraseology of the country, at Fasting’s Even, used to bar out the master , i.e., to depose and exclude him from his school, and keep him out for three days. During the period of this expulsion, the doors of the citadel, the school, were strongly barricaded within; and the boys, who defended it like a besieged city, were armed in general with bore-tree or elder pop-guns. The master mean

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Derbyshire.

Derbyshire.

Formerly the inhabitants of Derby had a foot-ball match between the parishes of All Saints and St. Peter’s; the conflicting parties being strengthened by volunteers from the other parishes, and from the surrounding country. The bells of the different churches rang their merry peals on the morning, and gave rise to the following jingle on the five parishes of All Saints’, St. Peter’s, St. Werburgh’s, St. Alkmund’s, and St. Michael’s: The goal of All Saints’ was the water-wheel of the nun’s mill,

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Devonshire.

Devonshire.

In the south-eastern part of Devon the children at this season of the year visit people’s houses, singing: N. &amp; Q. 1st S. vol. xi. p. 244. At Tavistock, the following lines are sung by the children at the houses of the principal inhabitants: N. &amp; Q. 4th S. vol. v. p. 380....

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Dorsetshire and Wiltshire.

Dorsetshire and Wiltshire.

In these, if not in other counties, a practice called Lent Crocking is observed. The boys go about in small parties visiting the various houses, headed by a leader, who goes up and knocks at the door, leaving his followers behind him, armed with a good stock of potsherds—the collected relics of the washing-pans, jugs, dishes, and plates, that have become the victims of concussion in the hands of unlucky or careless housewives for the past year. When the door is opened, the hero—who is, perhaps,

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Hampshire.

Hampshire.

At Basingstoke, and in some other parts of this county, the boys and girls go to the houses of the well-to-do classes in little companies, and, knocking at the door, repeat the following rhyme: They then knock again, and repeat both knocks and verses until they receive something. The line in brackets is not said in Basingstoke and several other places.— N. &amp; Q. 1st S. vol. xii. p. 100....

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Hertfordshire.

Hertfordshire.

At Baldock, Shrove Tuesday is long anticipated by the children, who designate it Dough-Nut-Day; it being usual to make a good store of small cakes fried in hog’s lard, placed over the fire in a brass skillet, called dough-nuts, with which the young people are plentifully regaled.—Brand, Pop. Antiq. , 1849, vol. i. p. 83. At Hoddesdon, in the same county, the old curfew-bell, which was anciently rung in that town for the extinction and relighting of “all fire and candle-light,” still exists, and

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Huntingdonshire.

Huntingdonshire.

Formerly there prevailed in this county a custom called cock-running , which, though not quite so cruel as cock-throwing , was not much inferior to it. A cock was procured, and its wings were cut: the runners paid so much a head, and with their hands tied behind them ran after it, and the person who caught it in his mouth, and carried it to a certain place or goal, had the right of claiming the bird as his own. In this race there was much excitement, and not a little squabbling, and the one who

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Kent.

Kent.

At All Saints’, Maidstone, the ancient custom of ringing a bell at mid-day on Shrove Tuesday is observed, and is known as the “Fritter-Bell.”— Gent. Mag. 1868, 4th S. vol. v. p. 761....

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Lancashire.

Lancashire.

Part of the income of the head-master and usher of the grammar-school at Lancaster arises from a gratuity called a cock-penny, paid at Shrovetide by the scholars, who are sons of freemen; of this money the head-master has seven-twelfths, the usher five-twelfths. It is also paid at the schools at Hawkshead and Clithero, in Lancashire; and formerly was paid, also at Burnley, and at Whiteham and Millom, in Cumberland, near Bootle.—Brand, Pop. Antiq. , 1849, vol. i. p. 72. The tossing of pancakes (a

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Leicestershire.

Leicestershire.

In the Newark, says Throsby ( History of Leicester 1791, p. 356), on Shrove Tuesday is held the annual fair, chiefly for the amusement of the young. Formerly, there was practised in its full extent the barbarous custom of throwing at cocks, but now the amusement is confined to the purchase of oranges, ginger-bread, &amp;c., and to a custom known by the name of “ Whipping-Toms ;” a practice no doubt instituted by the dwellers in the Newark to drive away the rabble, after a certain hour, from

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Isle of Man.

Isle of Man.

On this occasion it was formerly customary for the Manks to have Sollaghyn or Crowdy for dinner, instead of for breakfast, as at other times; and for supper, flesh meat, with a large pudding and pancakes; hence the Manks proverb: Train, History of the Isle of Man , 1845, vol. ii. p. 117....

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Middlesex.

Middlesex.

At Westminster School, London, the following is observed to this day. At 11 o’clock A.M. a verger of the Abbey, in his gown, bearing a silver bâton, emerges from the college kitchen, followed by the cook of the school, in his white apron, jacket, and cap, and carrying a pancake. On arriving at the school-room door, he announces himself, ‘The Cook;’ and having entered the school-room, he advances to the bar which separates the upper school from the lower one, twirls the pancake in the pan, and th

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Norfolk.

Norfolk.

It is customary at Norwich to eat a small bun called cocque’els—cook-eels—coquilles (the name being spelt indifferently), which is continued throughout the season of Lent. Forby, in his Vocabulary of East Anglia , calls this production “a sort of cross-bun,” but no cross is placed upon it, though its composition is not dissimilar. He derives the word from coquille in allusion to their being fashioned like an escallop, in which sense he is borne out by Cotgrave, who has “ pain coquillé , a fashio

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Northamptonshire.

Northamptonshire.

In many parts of this county the church bell is rung about noon, as the signal for preparing pancakes. At Daventry the bell which is rung on this occasion is muffled on one side with leather, or buffed , as it is termed, and obtains the name of Pan-burn-bell . Jingling rhymes in connection with this day are repeated by the peasantry, varying in different districts. The following are the most current: That the bells of the churches of Northampton used also to be rung on this day may be inferred f

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Northumberland.

Northumberland.

Formerly at Alnwick the waits belonging to the town used to come playing to the Castle every year on Shrove Tuesday at two o’clock P.M. , when a foot-ball was thrown over the Castle walls to the populace.—Brand, Pop. Antiq. , 1849, vol i. p. 92....

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Nottinghamshire.

Nottinghamshire.

At Aspley Old Hall, in days gone by, butter and lard, fire and frying-pans were provided for all the poor families of Wollaston, Trowell, and Cossall, who chose to come and eat their pancakes at this mansion. The only conditions attached to the feast were, that no quarrelling should take place, and that each wife and mother should fry for her own family, and that when the cake needed turning in the pan, the act should be performed by tossing it in the air and catching it again in the pan with th

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Oxfordshire.

Oxfordshire.

In this county children go about singing the following rhyme, begging at the same time for half-pence: At Islip in the same county this version is used: Brand, Pop. Antiq. , 1849, vol. i. p. 88....

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Islands of Scilly.

Islands of Scilly.

The boys celebrate the evening of this day by throwing stones against the doors of the dwellers’ houses: a privilege which they claim from time immemorial. The terms demanded by them are pancakes or money to capitulate. Some of the older sort, exceeding the bounds of this whimsical practice, in the dusk of the evening, set a bolted door or window-shutter at liberty, by battering in a breach with large pieces of rock stones, which sometimes causes work for the surgeon, as well as for the smith, g

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Shropshire.

Shropshire.

In The History and Antiquities of Ludlow , 1822 (pp. 188-189), occurs the following account of a custom formerly observed on this day: “The corporation provide a rope, three inches in thickness, and in length thirty-six yards, which is given out at one of the windows of the Market-House as the clock strikes four, when a large body of the inhabitants divided into two parties—one contending for Castle Street and Broad Street wards, and the other for Old Street and Corve Street wards—commence an ar

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Somersetshire.

Somersetshire.

An odd practice seems to prevail in some parts of Somersetshire, and also in Devonshire and Dorsetshire on Shrove Tuesday, which is locally nick-named Sharp Tuesday . The youngsters go about after dusk, and throw stones against people’s doors, by what is considered by them an indefeasible right. They at the same time sing in chorus: Brand, Pop. Antiq. (Ed. Hazlitt), 1870, vol. i. p. 48....

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Staffordshire.

Staffordshire.

In this county Shrove Tuesday goes by the name of Goodish Tuesday.— N. &amp; Q. 2nd S. vol. v. p. 209....

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Suffolk.

Suffolk.

At Bury St. Edmund’s on Shrove Tuesday, Easter Monday, and the Whitsuntide festivals, twelve old women side off for a game at trap-and-ball, which is kept up with the greatest spirit and vigour until sunset. Afterwards they retire to their homes, where and close the day with apportioned mirth and merriment.— Every Day Book , vol. i. p. 430....

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Surrey.

Surrey.

The following is taken from the Times of March 7th, 1862: “Shrove Tuesday was observed, as in days of yore, at Dorking, [15] first by a perambulation of the streets by the foot-ball retinue, composed of grotesquely-dressed persons, to the sounds of music, and in the afternoon by the kicking of the ball up and down the principal thoroughfares of the town. The usual number of men and boys joined in the sport, and played, especially towards the end of the game, with a roughness extremely dangerous

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Isle of Wight.

Isle of Wight.

At Brighstone parties of young boys, girls, and very small children parade the village, singing the following words: N. &amp; Q. 1st S. vol. xi. p. 239. N. &amp; Q. 1st S. vol. xi. p. 239. [16] For a more detailed account of the Isle of Wight Shrovers, see Halliwell’s Popular Rhymes , 1849, p. 246....

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Yorkshire.

Yorkshire.

A correspondent of N. &amp; Q. 2nd S. vol. v. p. 391, says that all the apprentices in the town of Hedon whose indentures terminate before the return of the day assemble in the belfry of the church at eleven o’clock, and in turn toll the tenor bell for an hour, at the sound of which all the housewives in the parish commence frying pancakes. The sexton, who is present receives a small fee from each lad. At Scarborough on the morning of Shrove Tuesday hawkers parade the streets with barrows lo

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WALES.

WALES.

Formerly it was customary to take such hens as had not laid eggs before Shrove Tuesday, and to thrash them to death, as being no longer of any use. The same custom also prevailed in some parts of Cornwall.—Brand, Pop. Antiq. 1849, vol. i. p. 81; Book of Days , vol. i. p. 238. At Harding, in Flintshire, the lord of the manor, attended by his bailiff, formerly provided a foot-ball, and after throwing it down in a field near the church (called thence foot-ball field ) the young and old assembled to

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SCOTLAND.

SCOTLAND.

Fastren’s E’en is celebrated annually, after the Border fashion, in the month of February, the day being fixed by the following antiquated couplet: is mentioned by Sir F. M. Eden ( State of the Poor , 1797, vol. i. p. 498) as a never-failing dinner on Shrove Tuesday, with all ranks of people in Scotland, as pancakes are in England; and that a ring is put into the basin or porringer of the unmarried folks, to the finder of which by fair means it was an omen of marriage before the rest of the eate

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IRELAND.

IRELAND.

At Kilrush in the county of Clare, this is the greatest day in the year for weddings, and consequently the Roman Catholic priests are generally occupied in the celebration of matrimony from sunrise till midnight. The general fee on this occasion is two guineas and a half; and many thoughtless couples, under the age of sixteen, pay it with cheerfulness when they have not another penny in their possession. Those who do not marry on this day must wait until Easter Monday on account of the interveni

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Essex.

Essex.

At Felstead the churchwardens distribute, as the gift of Lord Rich, seven barrels of white herrings and three barrels and a half of red on Ash Wednesday, and the six following Sundays, to ninety-two poor householders of the parish, selected by the churchwardens, in shares of eight white herrings and four red a piece. A list is kept of the persons receiving this donation, and they continue to receive it during their lives, unless they misconduct themselves or enter the workhouse.— Old English Cus

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Norfolk.

Norfolk.

P. Le Neve Foster, Esq., who in 1835 held the rectorial tithes of the parish of Great Witchingham, under a lease from the warden and fellows of New College, Oxford, was bound by a covenant contained therein, to provide and distribute to and amongst the poor inhabitants and parishioners, two seams of peas, containing in all sixteen bushels. The practice has been to give to every person who happens to be in the parish on Ash Wednesday, whether rich or poor, one quart of peas each.— Old English Cus

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SCAMBLING DAYS.

SCAMBLING DAYS.

The days so called were Mondays and Saturdays in Lent, when no regular meals were provided, and the members of our great families scambled. In the old household-book of the fifth Earl of Northumberland there is a particular section appointing the order of service for these days, and so regulating the licentious contentions of them. Shakespeare, in his play of Henry V. (act v. scene 2), makes King Henry say: “If ever thou be’st mine, Kate, I get thee with scambling , and thou must therefore needs

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Gloucestershire.

Gloucestershire.

Feb. 5. ] Gloucestershire. In Smith’s MS. Lives of the Lords of Berkeley , in the possession of the Earl of Berkeley (p. 49), we read that on the anniversary of the founder of St. Augustine’s, Bristol, i.e., Sir Robert Fitzharding, on the 5th of February, “at that monastery there shall be one hundred poore men refreshed in a dole made unto them in this forme: Every man of them hath a chanon’s loaf of bread, called a myche (a kind of bread), and three hearings therewith. There shall be doaled als

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Yorkshire.

Yorkshire.

In Leeds and the neighbourhood they eat a sort of pancake on the Thursday following Shrove Tuesday, which in that part they call Fruttors (Fritters) Thursday. The Leeds fritter, it is said in the Dialect of Leeds , 1862, p. 307, is about one-fourth the size of a pancake, thicker, and has an abundance of currants in it. Feb. 8. ] CHALK SUNDAY....

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IRELAND.

IRELAND.

In the west of Ireland nine-tenths of the marriages that take place among the peasantry are celebrated the week before Lent, and particularly on Shrove Tuesday, on which day the Roman Catholic priests have hard work to get through all their duties. On the first Sunday in Lent it is usual for the girls slyly to chalk the coats of those young men who have allowed the preceding festival to pass without having made their choice of a partner; and “illigible” young men strut about with affected uncons

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Oxfordshire.

Oxfordshire.

This festival was formerly observed at Oxford. The following extract is taken from The Lives of Leland, Hearne, and Wood (1772. vol. ii. p. 312): Friday, the burghers or citizens of Oxford appeared in their full number on St. Scholastica’s Day at St. Mary’s. Alderman Wright, their oracle, told them that if they did not appear there might be some hole picked in their charter, as there was now endeavouring to be done in that of the city of London; he told them moreover that, though it was a popish

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Derbyshire.

Derbyshire.

At Ashborne the following custom is observed on Valentine’s Eve. When a young woman wishes to divine who her future husband is to be, she goes into the churchyard at midnight, and as the clock strikes twelve commences running round the church, repeating without intermission: Having thus performed the circuit of the church twelve times without stopping, the figure of her lover is supposed to appear and follow her.— Jour. Arch. Assoc. 1852, vol. vii. p. 209....

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Devonshire.

Devonshire.

The peasants and others believe that if they go to the porch of a church, waiting there till half-past twelve o’clock on the Eve of St. Valentine’s day, with some hempseed in his or her hand, and at the time above-named, then proceed homewards, scattering the seed on either side, repeating these lines: his or her true love will be seen behind raking up the seed just sown, in a winding-sheet.— N. &amp; Q. 1st S. vol. v. p. 55....

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Norfolk.

Norfolk.

As soon as it is dark, packages may be seen being carried about in a most mysterious way; and as soon as the coast seems clear, the parcel is laid on the doorstep, the bell rung, and the bearer runs away. Inside the house is all on the qui vive , and the moment the bell is heard, all the little folks (and the old ones too, sometimes) rush to the door, and seize the parcel and scrutinize the direction most anxiously, and see whether it is for papa or mamma, or one of the youngsters. The parcels c

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Cambridgeshire.

Cambridgeshire.

In the village of Duxford and other adjoining parishes the custom of “valentining” is still in feeble existence. The children go in a body round to the parsonage and the farm-houses, singing: They start about 9 A.M. on their expedition, which must be finished by noon; otherwise their singing is not acknowledged in any way. In some few cases the donor gives each child a halfpenny, others throw from their doors the coppers they feel disposed to part with amongst the little band of choristers, whic

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Derbyshire.

Derbyshire.

The following customs, which have nearly died out, were very prevalent about fifty or sixty years ago: —Each young woman in the house would procure several slips of paper, and write upon them the names of the young men she knew, or those she had a preference for. The slips when ready were put into a boot or shoe (a man’s), or else into a hat, and shaken up. Each lassie then put in her hand and drew a slip, which she read and retained until every one had drawn. The slips were then put back and th

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Herefordshire.

Herefordshire.

In many parts the poor and middling classes of children assemble together in some part of the town or village where they live, and proceed in a body to the house of the chief personage of the place, who, on their arrival, throws them wreaths and true lovers’ knots from the window, with which they adorn themselves. Two or three of the girls then select one of the youngest among them (generally a boy), whom they deck out more gaily than the rest, and placing him at their head, march forward, singi

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Kent.

Kent.

The following extract is taken from the Gentleman’s Magazine , 1779, vol. xlix. p. 137: “Being on a visit in a little obscure village in Kent, I found an odd kind of sport going forward: the girls, from eighteen to five or six years old, were assembled in a crowd, and burning an uncouth effigy, which they called an holly-boy , and which it seems they had stolen from the boys, and in another part of the village the boys were assembled together, and burning what they called an ivy-girl , which the

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Norfolk.

Norfolk.

Independent of the homage paid to St. Valentine on this day at Lynn, it is in other respects a red-letter day amongst all classes of its inhabitants, being the commencement of its great annual mart. This mart was granted by a charter of Henry VIII. in the twenty-seventh year of his reign, “to begin on the day next after the feast of the purification of the blessed Virgin Mary, and to continue six days next following.” Since the alteration of the style, in 1752, it has been proclaimed on Valentin

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Northamptonshire.

Northamptonshire.

In this county children go from house to house, on the morning of St. Valentine’s Day, soliciting small gratuities. The children of the villages go in parties, sometimes in considerable numbers, repeating at each house the following salutations, which vary in different districts: [18] [18] See History and Antiquities of Weston Favell (1827, p. 6). Brand in his Pop. Antiq. mentions this custom as existing in Oxfordshire.—1849, vol. i. p. 60. It was formerly customary for young people to catch the

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Nottinghamshire.

Nottinghamshire.

Drawing lots or billets for Valentines is a custom observed in the neighbourhood of Mansfield, where a few young men and maidens meet together, and having put each their own name on a slip of paper, they are all placed together in a hat or basket, and drawn in regular rotation. Should a young man draw a girl’s name, and she his, it is considered ominous, and not unfrequently ends in real love and a wedding.— Jour. of the Arch. Assoc. 1853, vol. viii. p. 231....

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Oxfordshire.

Oxfordshire.

In this county the following rhymes were used: Also The Antiquary , 1873, vol. iii. p. 107; Brand, Pop. Antiq. 1849, vol. i. p. 60....

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Yorkshire.

Yorkshire.

“On Valentine’s Day,” says Clarkson ( Hist. of Richmond , 1821, p. 293), “the ceremony of drawing lots called Valentines is seldom omitted. The names of a select number of one sex with an equal number of the other are put into a vessel, and every one draws a name, which is called their Valentine; and which is looked upon as a good omen of their being afterwards united.” March. 1. ] ST. DAVID’S DAY. Various attempts have been made to account for the custom of wearing the leek. Owen, in his Cambri

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Middlesex.

Middlesex.

St. David’s Day is observed in London, says Hampson ( Med. Ævi Kalend. vol. i. p. 168), by the Charitable Society of Ancient Britons, who were established in 1714, in behalf of the Welsh Charity School in Gray’s Inn Road. On this occasion each man wears an artificial leek in his hat....

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Oxfordshire.

Oxfordshire.

On St. David’s Day at Jesus College, Oxford, an immense silver gilt bowl, containing ten gallons, which was presented to the College by Sir Watkin Williams Wynne in 1732, is filled with “swig,” and handed round to those who are invited to sit at the festive and hospitable board.—Hone’s Year Book , 1838, p. 265....

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WALES.

WALES.

At Tenby one of the benefit clubs marched through the town bearing the leek in their hats. In the evening a ball took place, at which artificial leeks were worn by both sexes.—Mason, Tales and Traditions of Tenby , 1858, p. 19. March 1. ] SIMNEL SUNDAY. Simnel Sunday is better known as Mid-Lent or Mothering Sunday, and was so called because large cakes called Simnels were made on this day. Bailey in his Dictionary (fol. 1764, by Scott,) says, Simnel is probably derived from the Latin Simila , fi

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Mothering Sunday.

Mothering Sunday.

—In many parts of England it was formerly customary for servants, apprentices, and others to carry presents to their parents on this day. This practice was called Going a-Mothering, and originated in the offerings made on this day at the mother-church. In the Gent. Mag. (vol. liv. p. 98) a correspondent tells us that whilst he was an apprentice the custom was to visit his mother on Mid-Lent Sunday (thence called Mothering Sunday) for a regale of excellent furmety. [21] [21] Furmenty, Furmity, or

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Lancashire.

Lancashire.

Fig-pies, or, as they are called in this country, “fag-pies,” are, or were, eaten on a Sunday in Lent, thence known as Fag-pie Sunday.— N. &amp; Q. 2nd S. vol. i. p. 322....

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Staffordshire.

Staffordshire.

Fig-pie Wake is kept in the parish of Draycot-in-the-Moors and in the neighbouring villages on Mid-Lent Sunday. The fig-pies are made of dry figs, sugar, treacle, spice, etc.; they are rather too luscious for those who are not “to the manner born.” But yet on this Sunday, the friends of the parishioners come to visit them, and to eat their fig-pies.— N. &amp; Q. 2nd S. vol, i. p. 227....

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Berkshire and Hampshire.

Berkshire and Hampshire.

The first Monday in March being the time when shoemakers in the country cease from working by candle-light, it used to be customary for them to meet together in the evening for the purpose of wetting the block . On these occasions the master either provided a supper for his men, or made them a present of money or drink; the rest of the expense was defrayed by subscriptions among themselves, and sometimes by donations from customers. After the supper was ended, the block candlestick was placed in

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Cornwall.

Cornwall.

The first Friday in March is so called from lide , Anglo-Saxon for March. This day is marked by a serio-comic custom of sending a young lad on the highest mound or hillock of the work, and allowing him to sleep there as long as he can; the length of his siesta being the measure of the afternoon nap for the tinners throughout the ensuing twelve months. The weather which usually characterizes Friday in Lide is, it need scarcely be said, not very conducive to prolonged sleep. In Saxon times laboure

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SCOTLAND.

SCOTLAND.

March 3. ] SCOTLAND. Sinclair, in his Statistical Account of Scotland (1795, vol. xvi. p. 460), says, “At Sandwick the people do no work on the third day of March, in commemoration of the day on which the church of Sandwick was consecrated; and, as the church was dedicated to St. Peter, they also abstain from working for themselves on St. Peter’s day (29th June), but they will work for another person who employs them.” March 5. ] ST. PIRAN’S DAY....

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Cornwall.

Cornwall.

The tinners observe this day, says Hitchins in his History of Cornwall (1844, vol. i. p. 725), as a holiday, which they call St. Piran’s Day. This, by a custom established from time immemorial, sanctions a suspension from all labour, because St. Piran is supposed to have communicated some important information relative to the tin manufacture. March 8. ] CARE SUNDAY. This day, the ancient Passion Sunday , is the fifth Sunday after Shrove Tuesday. The word Care , which is also applied to Christmas

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Cambridgeshire.

Cambridgeshire.

In several villages in the vicinity of Wisbeach, in the Isle of Ely, the fifth Sunday in Lent has been, time immemorial, commemorated by the name of Whirlin Sunday , when cakes are made by almost every family, and are called, from the day, Whirlin Cakes .— Gent. Mag. 1789, vol. lix. p. 491....

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Yorkshire.

Yorkshire.

The rustics go to the public-house of the village, and spend each their Carling-groat , i.e., that sum in drink, for the Carlings are provided for them gratis; and a popular notion prevails that those who do not do this will be unsuccessful in their pursuits for the following year.—Brand, Pop. Antiq. , 1849, vol. i. p. 114....

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Oxfordshire.

Oxfordshire.

March 10. ] Oxfordshire. William Handy, by will dated the 10th of March, 1622, bequeathed to the parish of St. Giles’, Oxford, £40, upon condition that, upon the 10th of March for ever, in the morning, about 5 o’clock, they should ring one peal with all the bells, and about 8 or 9 o’clock should go to service, and read all the service, with the Litany and the Communion, as it is commanded to be read in the cathedral church, and after that to have a sermon, and in it to give God thanks for His gr

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Nottinghamshire.

Nottinghamshire.

March 11. ] Nottinghamshire. Formerly, there lived at Newark one Hercules Clay, a tradesman of considerable eminence, and an alderman of the borough of Newark. During the siege, in the night of the 11th of March 1643, he dreamed three times that his house was on fire; on the third warning he arose much alarmed, awoke the whole of his family, and caused them to quit the premises, though at that time all appeared to be in perfect safety. Soon afterwards, however, a bomb from a battery of the Parli

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IRELAND.

IRELAND.

The feast of St. Gregory the Great, 12th of March, was formerly observed as a holiday, and one of festivity in all the rural schools in the baronies of Forth and Baigy (the Strongbonian Colony), in the county of Wexford. The manner was this: the children, for some days previous, brought contributions, according to the means and liberality of their parents, consisting of money, bread, butter, cream, &amp;c., and delivered them to the teacher. On the morning of the joyous day, the children rep

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SCOTLAND.

SCOTLAND.

On the Saturday before Palm Sunday the boys belonging to the grammar-school at Lanark, according to ancient usage, used to parade the streets with a palm, or its substitute, a large tree of the willow kind, ( Salix caprea ), in blossom, ornamented with daffodils, mezereon, and box-tree. This day was called Palm Saturday, and supposed to be a popish relic of very ancient standing.— Stat. Acc. of Scotland , Sinclair, 1795, vol. xv. p. 45. March 15. ] PALM SUNDAY. Palm Sunday receives its English a

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Cornwall.

Cornwall.

In former days persons resorted to “Our Lady of Nantswell” with a palm cross in one hand and an offering in the other. The offering fell to the priest’s share: the cross was thrown into the well, and if it swam was regarded as an omen that the person who threw it would outlive the year; if however it sank, a short ensuing death was foreboded.—Carew, Survey of Cornwall , 1811....

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Derbyshire.

Derbyshire.

On Palm Sunday morning, the boys go into the fields and gather branches of the willow; these are carried about during the day, and in some churches it is customary to use them for decoration.— Jour. of Arch. Assoc. , 1852, vol. vii. p. 204....

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Herefordshire.

Herefordshire.

The return of Palm Sunday has, from time immemorial, been observed at Hentland Church in a peculiar manner. The minister and congregation receive from the churchwardens a cake or bun, and, in former times, a cup of beer also. This is consumed within the church, and is supposed to imply a desire on the part of those who partake of it to forgive and forget all animosities, and thus prepare themselves for the festival of Easter.— N. &amp; Q. 3rd S. vol. vii. p. 275....

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Hertfordshire.

Hertfordshire.

Hone, in his Year Book (1838, p. 1593), states that at Kempton it has long been a custom for the inhabitants to eat figs on this day, there termed Fig Sunday , where it is also usual for them to keep wassel, and make merry with their friends....

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Lincolnshire.

Lincolnshire.

A curious and quaint custom existed for very many years at Caistor Church, in Lincolnshire, on Palm Sunday, connected with a tenure of property; and in the particulars of sale, circulated in 1845, is the following account of it: “This estate is held subject to the performance, on Palm Sunday in every year, of the ceremony of cracking a whip in Caistor Church, in the said county of Lincoln, which has been regularly and duly performed on Palm Sunday, from time immemorial, in the following manner:

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Northamptonshire.

Northamptonshire.

It is the universal custom, with both rich and poor, to eat figs on this day. On the Saturday previous, the market at Northampton is abundantly supplied with figs, and there are more purchased at this time than throughout the rest of the year; even the charity children, in some places, are regaled with them. No conjecture is offered as to the origin or purpose of this singular custom. May it not have some reference to Christ’s desiring to eat figs the day after his triumphant entrance into Jerus

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Oxfordshire.

Oxfordshire.

In some parts of this country figs are eaten on Palm Sunday, which is in consequence called Fig Sunday. [25] — N. &amp; Q. 2nd S. vol. i. p. 227. [25] See Mid-Lent Sunday ....

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Surrey.

Surrey.

From time immemorial a fair, or wake, has been held in the churchyard of Crowhurst on Palm Sunday. Formerly, excesses were frequently committed on the occasion through the sale of liquors; but of late years the fair has been conducted with great decorum.—Brayley, Topographical History of Surrey , 1841, iv. p. 132....

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Wiltshire.

Wiltshire.

On St. Martin’s Hill, near Marlborough, at which there is an ancient camp more than thirty acres in extent, Palm Sunday is kept; and persons in great numbers used to assemble there, each carrying a hazel-nut bough with the catkins hanging from it.— N. &amp; Q. 2nd S. v. p. 447....

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Yorkshire.

Yorkshire.

In Yorkshire and the northern counties Palm Sunday is a day of great diversion, young and old amusing themselves with sprigs of willow, or in manufacturing palm-crosses, which are stuck up or suspended in houses. In the afternoon and evening a number of impudent girls and young men sally forth and assault all unprotected females whom they meet out of doors, seizing their shoes, and compelling them to redeem them with money. These disgraceful scenes are continued until Monday morning, when the gi

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WALES.

WALES.

In South Wales Palm Sunday goes by the name of Flowering Sunday, from the custom of persons assembling in the churchyards, and spreading fresh flowers upon the graves of friends and relatives.— Times , 13th April, 1868, p. 7....

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Lancashire.

Lancashire.

March 16. ] Lancashire. A rural celebration used to be held at Poulton-in-the-Fylds on the Monday before Good Friday, by young men, under the name of “Jolly Lads,” who visited such houses as were likely to afford good entertainments, and excited mirth by their grotesque habits and discordant noises. This was evidently borrowed from the practice of the pace or pask eggers , of other parts of the county, merely preceding instead of following Easter.—Baines, Hist. of Lancashire , 1836, vol. iv. p.

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Oxfordshire.

Oxfordshire.

Aubrey, in MS. Lansd., 231, gives the following: It is the custom for the boys and girls in country schools in several parts of Oxfordshire, at their breaking up in the week before Easter, to go in a gang from house to house, with little clacks of wood, and when they come to any door, there they fall a-beating their clacks, and singing this song: They expect from every house some eggs, or a piece of bacon, which they carry baskets to receive, and feast upon at the week’s end. At first coming to

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Buckinghamshire.

Buckinghamshire.

In the Illustrated London News of 22nd March, 1862, p. 285, is the following paragraph: “Lord Langford, as the highest Irish nobleman in Eton School, presented, on St. Patrick’s Day, the beautifully-embroidered badges, in silver, of St. Patrick, to the head master, the Rev. E. Balston, and the lower master, the Rev. W. Carter, which were worn by the reverend gentlemen during the day. About twenty-four of the Irish noblemen and gentlemen in the school were invited to a grand breakfast with the he

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IRELAND.

IRELAND.

The shamrock is worn in all parts of Ireland on this day. Old women, with plenteous supplies of trefoil, may be heard in every direction, crying “Buy my shamrock, green shamrocks;” and children have “Patrick’s crosses” pinned to their sleeves. This custom is supposed to have taken its origin from the fact that when St. Patrick was preaching the doctrine of the Trinity he made use of this plant, bearing three leaves upon one stem, as a symbol of the great mystery. [26] [26] Mr. Jones in his Histo

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IRELAND.

IRELAND.

The day after St. Patrick’s Day is “Sheelah’s Day,” or the festival in honour of Sheelah. Its observers are not so anxious to determine who “Sheelah” was as they are earnest in her celebration. Some say she was “Patrick’s wife,” others that she was “Patrick’s mother,” while all agree that her immortal memory is to be maintained by potations of whisky. The shamrock worn on St. Patrick’s Day should be worn also on Sheelah’s Day, and on the latter night be drowned in the last glass. Yet it frequent

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Middlesex.

Middlesex.

Robert Halliday, by his will, dated 6th May, 1491, gave estates in the parish of St. Leonard, Eastcheap, London, the rents to be applied to various purposes, and, amongst others, five shillings to the churchwardens yearly, either to make an entertainment among such persons of the said parish of St. Clement, who should be at variance with each other, in the week preceding Easter, to induce such persons to beget brotherly love amongst them; or if none should be found in the said parish, then to ma

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Northumberland.

Northumberland.

The Thursday before Easter is called Bloody Thursday by some of the inhabitants of this and the neighbouring county of Yorkshire.— N. &amp; Q. 1st S. vol. x. p. 87; 4th S. vol. v. p. 595. March 20. ] GOOD FRIDAY. The term Good Friday is erroneously said to be peculiar to the English Church; but it is certainly an adoption of the old German Gute Freytag , which may have been a corruption of Gottes Freytag , God’s Friday, so called on the same principle that Easter Day in England was at one pe

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Bedfordshire.

Bedfordshire.

A yearly contribution is made of one quarter of wheat, one quarter of barley, and one quarter of beans, by the proprietor of the great tithes of the parish of Eaton Bray, to be distributed among the poor of the parish on Good Friday. The great tithes of Eaton Bray are vested in the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge, by whose lessee the quantity of grain above specified is regularly supplied; the whole of which is distributed on Good Friday by the churchwardens and overseers, among

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Berkshire.

Berkshire.

John Blagrave, by will dated 30th June, 1611, devised to Joseph Blagrave and his heirs a mansion-house in Swallowfield, and all his lands and messuages in Swallowfield, Eversley, and Reading, on condition that they should yearly, for ever, upon Good Friday, between the hours of six and nine in the morning, pay 10 l. , in a new purse of leather, to the mayor and burgesses, to the intent that they should provide that the same should yearly be bestowed in the forenoon of the same day in the followi

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Devonshire—Dorsetshire.

Devonshire—Dorsetshire.

In some parishes in these counties the clerk carries round to every house a few white cakes as an Easter offering; these cakes, which are about the eighth of an inch thick, and of two sizes—the larger being seven or eight inches, the smaller about five in diameter—have a mingled bitter and sweet taste. In return for these cakes, which are always distributed after Divine service on Good Friday, the clerk receives a gratuity according to the circumstances or generosity of the householder.— Book of

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Essex.

Essex.

In the centre of Waltham Church, and suspended from the ceiling, there formerly was a large and handsome brass chandelier, which had thirty-six candles, and used to be lighted up only on the evening of Good Friday, when the church was thronged with persons from the surrounding parishes for miles, who were chiefly attracted by the singing of the parish choir, at that time deservedly in repute. The chandelier was removed in effecting the restoration of the church.—Maynard, History of Waltham Abbey

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Lancashire.

Lancashire.

The practice of eating fig-sue is prevalent in North Lancashire on Good Friday. It is a mixture consisting of ale, sliced figs, bread, and nutmeg for seasoning, boiled together, and eaten hot like soup.— N. &amp; Q. 3rd S. vol. p. 221. If an unlucky fellow is caught with his lady-love on this day in Lancashire, he is followed home by a band of musicians playing on pokers, tongs, pan-lids, etc., unless he can get rid of his tormentors by giving them money to drink with.— N. &amp; Q. 1st S

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Lincolnshire.

Lincolnshire.

In Glentham Church there is a tomb with a figure known as Molly Grime . Formerly this figure was regularly washed every Good Friday by seven old maids of Glentham, with water brought from Newell Well, each receiving a shilling for her trouble, in consequence of an old bequest connected with some property in that district. About 1832 the custom was discontinued.— Old English Customs and Charities , 1842, p. 100....

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Isle of Man.

Isle of Man.

Good Friday is in some instances superstitiously regarded in the Isle of Man. No iron of any kind must be put into the fire on that day, and even the tongs are laid aside, lest any person should unfortunately forget this custom and stir the fire with them; by way of a substitute a stick of the rowan tree is used. To avoid also the necessity of hanging the griddle over the fire, lest the iron of it should come in contact with a spark of flame, a large hammock or soddog is made, with three corners

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Middlesex.

Middlesex.

It was for a considerable period customary on Good Friday for a sermon to be preached in the afternoon at St. Paul’s Cross, [28] London, the subject generally being Christ’s Passion. The Lord Mayor and Aldermen usually attended. [28] Respecting the age of St. Paul’s Cross, Stow declares himself ignorant. Dugdale, however, records, on the authority of Ingulphus, that its prototype, a cross of stone, was erected on the same spot, A.D. 870, to induce the passers-by to offer prayers for certain monk

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Oxfordshire.

Oxfordshire.

Formerly, at Brazen-nose College, Oxford, the scholars had almonds, raisins, and figs for dinner on Good Friday, as appears by a receipt of thirty shillings, paid by the butler of the College, for “eleven pounds of almonds, thirty-five pounds of raisins, and thirteen pounds of figs, serv’d into Brazen-nose College, March 28th, 1662.”—Pointer’s Oxoniensis Academia , 1749, p. 71....

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Surrey.

Surrey.

A custom, the origin of which is lost in the obscurity of time, prevails in the neighbourhood of Guildford of making a pilgrimage to St. Martha’s (or Martyr’s) Hill on Good Friday. Thither from all the country side youths and maidens, old folks and children, betake themselves, and gathered together on one of the most beautiful spots in Surrey, in full sight of an old Norman Church which crowns the green summit of the hill, beguile the time with music and dancing. Whatever the origin of this pilg

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Sussex.

Sussex.

At Brighton, on this day, the children in the back streets bring up ropes from the beach. One stands on the pavement on one side, and one on the other, while one skips in the middle of the street. Sometimes a pair (a boy and a girl) skip together, and sometimes a great fat bathing-woman will take her place, and skip as merrily as the grandsire danced in Goldsmith’s Traveller . They call the day “Long Rope Day.” This was done as lately as 1863.— N. &amp; Q. 3rd S. vol. iii. p. 444....

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Worcestershire.

Worcestershire.

The parish church at Leigh is decked on this day with “funereal yew.” The same custom exists also at Belbroughton in the same county.— N. &amp; Q. 2nd S. vol. i. p. 267....

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Yorkshire.

Yorkshire.

In East Yorkshire it was customary to keep a hot-cross-bun from one Good Friday to the next, as it was reputed not to turn mouldy, and to protect the house from fire. Presents of eggs and buns are made on this day.— N. &amp; Q. 4th S. vol. v. p. 595....

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WALES.

WALES.

At Tenby, as late as the end of the last century, the old people were in the habit of walking barefooted to the church—a custom continued from times prior to the Reformation. Returning home from church they regaled themselves with hot-cross-buns, and having tied a certain number in a bag, they hung them up in the kitchen, where they remained till the next Good Friday for medicinal purposes, the belief being that persons labouring under any disease had only to eat of a bun to be cured. About this

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IRELAND.

IRELAND.

In the midland districts of Ireland, viz., the province of Connaught, on Good Friday, it is a common practice with the lower orders of Irish Catholics to prevent their children having any sustenance, even to those at the breast, from twelve o’clock on the previous night to the same hour on Friday, and the fathers and mothers will only take a small piece of dry bread and a draught of water during the day. It is a common sight to see along the roads between the different market towns, numbers of w

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Cumberland, etc.

Cumberland, etc.

In Cumberland and Westmoreland, and other parts of the north of England, boys beg, on Easter Eve, eggs to play with, and beggars ask for them to eat. These eggs are hardened by boiling, and tinged with the juice of herbs, broom-flowers, &amp;c. The eggs being thus prepared, the boys go out and play with them in the fields; rolling them up and down like bowls upon the ground, or throwing them up like balls into the air.—Brand, Pop. Antiq. 1849, vol. i. p. 172....

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Dorsetshire.

Dorsetshire.

During the last century it was customary in this county, on Easter Eve, for the boys to form a procession bearing rough torches, and a small black flag, chanting the following lines: This custom was no doubt a relic of the Popish ceremony formerly in vogue at this season.—Brand, Pop. Antiq. , 1849, vol. i. p. 160....

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Middlesex.

Middlesex.

Brayley in his Londiniana (1829, vol. ii. p. 207) mentions a custom of the sheriffs, attended by the Lord Mayor, going through the streets on Easter Eve, to collect charity for the prisoners in the city prisons....

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Yorkshire.

Yorkshire.

In East Yorkshire young folks go to the nearest market-town to buy some small article of dress or personal ornament, to wear for the first time on Easter Sunday, as otherwise they believe that birds—notably rooks or “crakes”—will spoil their clothes.— N. &amp; Q. 4th S. vol. v. p. 595. In allusion to the custom of wearing new clothes on Easter Day Poor Robin says:...

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IRELAND.

IRELAND.

The day before Easter Day is in some parts called “Holy Saturday.” On the evening of this day, in the middle parts of Ireland, great preparations are made for the finishing of Lent. Many a fat hen and dainty piece of bacon is put into the pot, by the cotter’s wife, about eight or nine o’clock, and woe be to the person who should taste it before the cock crows. At twelve is heard the clapping of hands, and the joyous laugh, mixed with an Irish phrase which signifies “out with the Lent.” All is me

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Cornwall.

Cornwall.

A very singular custom prevailed at Lostwithiel on Easter Sunday. The freeholders of the town and manor having assembled together, either in person or by their deputies, one among them, each in his turn, gaily attired and gallantly mounted, with a sceptre in his hand, a crown on his head, and a sword borne before him, and respectfully attended by all the rest on horseback, rode through the principal street in solemn state to the church. At the churchyard stile the curate, or other minister, appr

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Cumberland.

Cumberland.

At one time it was customary to send reciprocal presents of eggs at Easter to the children of families respectively betwixt whom any intimacy existed. For some weeks preceding Good Friday the price of eggs advanced considerably, from the great demand occasioned by this custom. The principal modes adopted to prepare the eggs for presentation were the following:—The eggs being immersed in hot water for a few moments, the end of a common tallow-candle was made use of to inscribe the names of indivi

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Derbyshire.

Derbyshire.

On Easter Sunday the old custom of sugar-cupping at the dripping-torr, near Tideswell, is observed; when the young people assemble at the torr, each provided with a cup and a small quantity of sugar or honey, and having caught the required quantity of water, and mixed the sugar with it, drink it, repeating a doggerel verse. [31] — Jour. of the Arch. Assoc. 1852, vol. vii. p. 204. [31] It is also a general belief in this county that unless a person puts on some new article of dress he will be inj

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Kent.

Kent.

Hasted, in his History of Kent (1798, vol. vii. p. 138), states that, in the parish of Biddenden there is an endowment of old but unknown date for making a distribution of cakes among the poor every Easter Day in the afternoon. The source of the benefaction consists in twenty acres of land, in five parcels, commonly called the Bread and Cheese Lands. Practically, in Mr. Hasted’s time, six hundred cakes were thus disposed of, being given to persons who attended service, while two hundred and seve

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Middlesex.

Middlesex.

According to Lysons’ Environs of London (1795, vol. iii. p. 603) there was an ancient custom at Twickenham of dividing two great cakes in the Church upon Easter Day, among the young people; but it being looked upon as a superstitious relic, it was ordered by Parliament, 1645, that the parishioners should forbear this custom, and, instead thereof, buy loaves of bread for the poor of the parish with the money that should have bought the cakes. It appears that the sum of £1 per annum is still charg

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Norfolk.

Norfolk.

In this county it is customary to eat baked custards at Easter, and cheesecakes at Whitsuntide.— N. &amp; Q. 3rd S. vol. i. p. 248....

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Oxfordshire.

Oxfordshire.

At University College, Oxford, on this day, the representation of a tree, dressed with evergreens and flowers, is placed on a turf close to the buttery, and every member there resident, as he leaves the Hall after dinner, chops at the tree with a cleaver. The College cook stands by holding a plate, in which the Master deposits half a guinea, each Fellow five shillings and sixpence. This custom is called “chopping at the tree.”— N. &amp; Q. 1st S. vol. ix. p. 468. On Easter Day the rector of

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Yorkshire.

Yorkshire.

It was customary in this country, for the young men in the villages to take off the young girls’ buckles, and, on the Easter Monday, the young men’s shoes and buckles were taken off by the young women. On the Wednesday they were redeemed by little pecuniary forfeits, out of which an entertainment called a Tansey Cake , was provided, and the jollity concluded with dancing. At Ripon, where this custom also prevailed, it is reported that no traveller could pass the town without being stopped, and,

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WALES.

WALES.

Easter Day is generally kept in Wales as the Sunday, that is, with much and becoming respect to the sacredness of the day. It is also marked by somewhat better cheer, as a festival, of which lamb is considered as a proper constitutional part. In some places, however, after morning prayer, vestiges of the sundry sports and pastimes remain. It is thought necessary to put on some new portion of dress at Easter and unlucky to omit doing so, were it but a new pair of gloves or a ribbon. This idea is

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IRELAND.

IRELAND.

The solemnity of Easter (says Bishop Kennett) was anciently observed in Ireland with so great superstition that they thought it lawful to steal all the year, to hoard up provisions against this festival time.—Kennett MS . In some parts of Ireland at Easter a cake, with a garland of meadow flowers, is elevated upon a circular board upon a pike, apples being stuck upon pegs around the garland. Men and women then dance round, and they who hold out longest win the prize. [33] — Time’s Telescope , 18

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Buckinghamshire.

Buckinghamshire.

In the Parliamentary Returns of 1786 a donor of the name of Randell is stated to have given by deed, in 1597, five quarters of wheat and money to the poor of Edlesborough. Forty-nine bushels of wheat were yearly sent by Lady Bridgewater to the mill to be ground in respect of this charity. They were ground, and the flour baked at her expense; the bread was made up in four-pound loaves, which were given away by the parish officers on Easter Monday to all the poor of the parish, in shares varying a

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Cheshire.

Cheshire.

Pasch eggs are begged at the farmhouses; the children sing a short song, asking for— These eggs are in some parts of the county boiled in vinegar, and otherwise ornamented, and hung up in the houses until another year. In some cottages as many as a score may be seen hanging. The custom of lifting is also observed.— Jour. of Arch. Assoc. , 1850, vol. v. p. 253. In a pamphlet entitled Certayne Collections of Anchiante Times, concerning the Anchiante and Famous Cittie of Chester , already referred

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Derbyshire.

Derbyshire.

During a visit to the little village of Castleton, says a correspondent of N. &amp; Q. ( 4th S. vol. v. p. 595), I noticed every child without exception had a bottle of elecampane —the younger ones having one tied round their necks—all sucking away at this curious compound of Spanish juice, sugar, and water with great assiduity. I was informed by a very old man that the custom had always obtained at Castleton on this day as long as he could remember. The custom of lifting was practised in so

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Essex.

Essex.

Easter Monday was formerly appropriated to the grand “Epping Hunt.” So far back as the year 1226, King Henry III. confirmed to the citizens of London free-warren , or liberty to hunt a circuit about their city, in the warren of Staines, &amp;c.; and in ancient times, the Lord Mayor, aldermen, and corporation, attended by a due number of the constituents, are said to have availed themselves of this right of chase “in solemn guise.” But years ago, the “Epping Hunt” lost the Lord Mayor and his

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Herefordshire.

Herefordshire.

At this season, in the neighbourhood of Ross, the rustics have a custom called corn-showing . Parties are made to pick out cockle from the wheat. Before they set out they take with them, cake, cider, and a yard of toasted cheese. The first person who picks the cockle from the wheat has the first kiss of the maid and the first slice of the cake. This custom, doubtless, takes its origin from the Roman as appears from the following line of Ovid ( Fasti , i. 691):— —Fosbroke, Ariconensia or Archæolo

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Kent.

Kent.

At this season young people go out holiday-making in public-houses, to eat pudding-pies , and this practice is called going a pudding-pieing . The pudding-pies are from the size of a teacup to that of a small tea-saucer. They are flat, like pastrycooks’ cheesecakes, made with a raised crust to hold a small quantity of custard, with currants lightly sprinkled on the surface. Pudding-pies and cherry-beer usually go together at these feasts.—Hone’s Year Book , 1838, p. 361....

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Lancashire.

Lancashire.

In Lancashire, and in Cheshire, Staffordshire, and Warwickshire, and perhaps in other counties, the ridiculous custom of ‘lifting’ or ‘heaving’ is practised. On Easter Monday the men lift the women, and on Easter Tuesday the women lift or heave the men. The process is performed by two lusty men or women joining their hands across each other’s wrists, then, making the person to be heaved sit down on their arms, they lift him up aloft two or three times, and often carry him several yards along a s

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Middlesex.—London.

Middlesex.—London.

In the Easter holidays the young men, says Fitzstephen (in his tract entitled ‘ Descriptio Nobilissimæ Civitatis Londoniæ ,’ circa 1174), counterfeit a fight on the water: a pole is set up in the midst of the river, with a target strongly fastened to it, and a young man standing in the fore part of a boat, which is prepared to be carried on by the flowing of the tide, endeavours to strike the target in his passage. If he succeeds so as to break his lance, and yet preserve his footing, his aim is

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Northumberland.

Northumberland.

Formerly, at Easter and Whitsuntide, the mayor, aldermen, and sheriff of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, with a great number of the burgesses, went yearly to the Forth, or Little Mall of the town, with the mace, sword, and cap of maintenance carried before them, and patronised the playing at hand-ball, dancing, and other amusements, and sometimes joined in the ball-play, and at others joined hands with the ladies.— Every Day Book , vol. i. p. 430....

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Nottinghamshire.

Nottinghamshire.

Deering, in his Historical Account of Nottingham (1751, p. 125), says:—By a custom time beyond memory, the mayor and aldermen of Nottingham and their wives have been used on Monday in Easter week, morning prayer ended, to march from the town to St. Anne’s Well, having the town waits to play before them, and attended by all the clothing, i.e., such as have been sheriffs, and ever after wear scarlet gowns, together with the officers of the town, and many other burgesses and gentlemen, such as wish

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Warwickshire.

Warwickshire.

Easter Monday and Tuesday, says a correspondent of Brand’s Pop. Antiq. (1849, vol. i. p. 183), were known by the name of heaving-days , because, on the former day, it was customary for the men to heave and kiss the women, and on the latter for the women to retaliate upon the men. The women’s heaving-day was the most amusing. Many a time have I passed along the streets inhabited by the lower orders of people, and seen parties of jolly matrons assembled round tables on which stood a foaming tankar

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Worcestershire.

Worcestershire.

At sunset upon Easter Monday, and at no other period throughout the year, a game is played by the children of Evesham called “thread-my-needle.” From the season of this observance, as well as the cry of the players while elevating their arms arch-wise, which now is: it is probable, says May in his Hist. of Evesham (1845, p. 319), that the custom originally had reference to the great festival of the church and the triumphant language of the Psalmist, applied to the event commemorated at this peri

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WALES.

WALES.

In North Wales, says Pennant, the custom of heaving upon Monday and Tuesday in Easter week is preserved; and on Monday the young men go about the town and country, from house to house, with a fiddle playing before them, to heave the women. On the Tuesday the women heave the men. At Tenby Easter Monday was always devoted to merry-making; the neighbouring villages (Gumfreston especially) were visited, when some amused themselves with the barbarous sport of cock-fighting, while others frequented th

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SCOTLAND. Berwick-upon-Tweed.

SCOTLAND. Berwick-upon-Tweed.

It is pleasurable, says Fuller in his History of Berwick-upon-Tweed (1799, p. 445), to see what a great number of lovely and finely-dressed children make their appearance on Easter Monday, which is known in this neighbourhood as the Children’s Day. Being attended by a multitude of servants, they parade and run about for many hours, amusing themselves in a variety of ways. This charming group is joined more or less by the parents of the children, who, together with such as are attracted by curios

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IRELAND.

IRELAND.

In the County of Antrim this day is observed by several thousands of the working classes of the town and vicinity of Belfast resorting to the Cave-hill, about three miles distant, where the day is spent in dancing, jumping, running, climbing the rugged rocks, and drinking. Here many a rude brawl takes place, many return home with black eyes, and in some cases with broken bones. Indeed it is with them the greatest holiday of the year, and to not a few it furnishes laughable treats to talk about t

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Middlesex.

Middlesex.

Every Easter Tuesday, in pursuance of an ancient custom, the boys of Christ’s Hospital, London, pay a visit to the Mansion House, and receive from the Lord Mayor the customary Easter gifts. On reaching the Mansion House, they march into the Egyptian Hall, and on passing the Lord Mayor, receive a gratuity in coins fresh from the mint. To the fifteen Grecians a guinea each is given; nine probationers, half-a-guinea; forty-eight monitors, half-a-crown; and the ordinary scholars, one shilling each.

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Northumberland.

Northumberland.

Holly-bussing, says a writer in the Newcastle Express (April 16th, 1857), is a vernacular expression for a very ancient custom celebrated at Netherwitton, the origin of which is unknown. On Easter Tuesday the lads and lasses of the village and vicinity meet, and, accompanied by the parish clerk, who plays an excellent fiddle, the inspiring strains of which put mirth and mettle in their heels, proceed to the wood to get holly; with which some decorate a stone cross that stands in the village whil

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Hertfordshire.

Hertfordshire.

At St. Alban’s certain buns called “Pope Ladies” are sold on Lady Day, their origin being attributed by some to the following story:—A noble lady and her attendants were travelling on the road to St. Alban’s (the great North road passes through this town), when they were benighted and lost their way. Lights in the clock-tower at the top of the hill enabled them at length to reach the monastery in safety, and the lady in gratitude gave a sum of money to provide an annual distribution on Lady Day

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Lancashire.

Lancashire.

The gyst-ale, or guising-feast, was an annual festival of the town of Ashton-under-Lyne. It appears from the rental of Sir John de Assheton, compiled A.D. 1422, that twenty shillings were paid to him as lord of the manor for the privilege of holding this feast by its then conductors. The persons named in the roll as having paid 3 s. 4 d. each are:—“Margret, that was the wife of Hobbe the Kynges (of misrule); Hobbe Adamson; Roger the Baxter; Robert Somayster; Jenkyn of the Wode; and Thomas of Cur

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Norfolk.

Norfolk.

On a table of benefactions in the Church at Oxburgh it is stated that Sir Henry Bedingfield paid at Lady Day annually £2 for lands belonging to the township of Oxburgh; that this was called walk money , and was given to the poor.— Old English Customs and Charities , p. 124....

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Isle of Thanet.

Isle of Thanet.

Evelyn in his Diary , under the date of March 25th, 1672 (Bohn’s Edition, 1859, vol. ii. p. 78), says: “Observing almost every tall tree to have a weather-cock on the top bough, and some trees half-a-dozen, I learned that on a certain holiday the farmers feast their servants, at which solemnity they set up these cocks as a kind of triumph.”...

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IRELAND.

IRELAND.

At Kilmacteige, Co. of Sligo, the Lady Days are observed with most scrupulous attention, that is to say, so far as abstaining from all kind of daily labour, or following any trade or calling, although their sanctity does not operate on their minds so as to induce them to refrain from sports and pastimes, cursing or swearing, or frequenting tippling-houses and drinking to excess.—Mason, Stat. Acc. of Ireland , 1814-19, vol ii. p. 864. March 29. ] LOW SUNDAY. The Octave or first Sunday after Easte

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WALES.

WALES.

Fenton in his Tour through Pembrokeshire (1811, p. 495) alludes to the game of Knappan as being played at Pwlldu, in the parish of Penbedw, on low Easter-day. He says the knappan was a ball of some hard wood, of such a size as a man might hold in his hand, and was boiled in tallow to make it slippery. The players at this game were very numerous, frequently amounting to a thousand or fifteen hundred people, parish against parish, hundred against hundred, and sometimes county against county. When

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Hampshire.

Hampshire.

In this county the following rhyme is said after twelve o’clock:— N. &amp; Q. 1st S. vol. xii. p. 100....

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Middlesex.

Middlesex.

In connection with the ancient custom of making “April fools” on the 1st of April, the following hoax was practised on the London public on the 1st April, 1860. Some days previous thousands of persons received a neatly printed and official-looking card, with a seal marked by an inverted sixpence at one of the angles. It was to this effect:—“Tower of London. Admit the Bearer and Friend to view the Annual Ceremony of washing the White Lions on Sunday April 1st, 1860. Admitted at the White Gate. It

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SCOTLAND.

SCOTLAND.

The Scotch have a custom of Hunting the Gowk, as it is termed. This is done by sending silly people upon fools’ errands from place to place by means of a letter, in which is written:— Brand, Pop. Antiq. 1849, vol. i. p. 140....

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April 3.] ST. RICHARD’S DAY.

April 3.] ST. RICHARD’S DAY.

April 3. ] ST. RICHARD’S DAY. Aubrey, in MS. Lansd. 231, says: “This custome is yearly observed at Droitwich, in Worcestershire, where, on the day of St. Richard, they keep holyday, and dresse the well with green boughs and flowers. One yeare in the Presbyterian time it was discontinued in the civil warres, and after that the springe shranke up or dried up for some time; so afterwards they revived their annual custom, notwithstanding the power of the parliament and soldiers, and the salt water r

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Berkshire.

Berkshire.

Some singular Hocktide customs observed at Hungerford are thus described in the Standard of April 14th, 1874:—These customs are connected with the Charter for holding by the Commons the rights of fishing, shooting, and pasturage of cattle on the lands and property bequeathed to the town by John O’Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. The proceedings commenced on Friday evening with a supper, at which the fare was macaroni, Welsh rare-bits, watercress, salad, and punch. To-day—John O’Gaunt’s Day—known in the

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Worcestershire.

Worcestershire.

April 20. ] Worcestershire. The 20th of April is the great fair-day of Tenbury, and there is a belief in the county that the cuckoo is never heard till Tenbury fair-day, or after Pershore fair-day, which is the 26th of June. [35] — N. &amp; Q. 2nd S. vol. i. p. 429. [35] Formerly there prevailed a singular custom peculiar to the county of Shropshire, called the “cuckoo-ale,” which was celebrated in the month of May, and sometimes near the latter end of April. As soon as the first cuckoo had

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Berkshire.

Berkshire.

The following is a curious account of the expenses for decorating a figure of St. George on this day, taken from Coates’s History of Reading , p. 221: “ Charge of Saynt George. “First payd for iij caffes-skynes, and ij horse-skynnes, iij s. vj d. “Payd for makeying the loft that Saynt George standeth upon, vj d. “Payd for ij plonks for the same loft, viij d. “Payd for iiij pesses of clowt lether, ij s. ij d. “Payd for makeyng the yron that the hors resteth upon, vj d. “Payd for makeyng of Saynt

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Cheshire.

Cheshire.

In a pamphlet entitled Certayne Collections of Anchiante Times, concerninge the Anchante and Famous Cittie of Chester (already alluded to ) and published in Lysons’ Magna Britannia , 1810, vol. ii. pt. ii. pp. 588-590, is the following account of races at one time annually held at Chester on St. George’s Day: In A.D. 1609, Mr. William Lester, mercer, being mayor of Chester, one Mr. Robert Amerye, ironmonger, sometime sherife of Chester ( A.D. 1608), he, with the assent of the mayor and cittie, a

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Leicestershire.

Leicestershire.

At Leicester, the “Riding of the George” was one of the principal solemnities of the town. The inhabitants were bound to attend the Mayor, or to “ride against the king,” as it is expressed, or for “riding the George” or for any other thing to the pleasure of the Mayor and worship of the town. St. George’s horse, harnessed, used to stand at the end of St. George’s Chapel, in St. Martin’s Church, Leicester.—Fosbroke, Dict. of Antiq....

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IRELAND.

IRELAND.

St. George’s Day was at one time celebrated at Dublin with high veneration. In the Chain-book of the city of Dublin are several entries to that purpose: “Item 1. It was ordered in maintenance of the pageant of St. George, that the Mayor of the foregoing year should find the Emperor and Empress with their train and followers well apparelled and accoutered, that is to say, the Emperor attended with two doctors, and the Empress with two knights, and two maidens richly apparelled to bear up the trai

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Ass-ridlin

Ass-ridlin

is another superstition practised in the northern counties. The ashes being riddled or sifted on the hearth, if any of the family be to die within the year the mark of the shoe, it is supposed, will be impressed on the ashes; and many a mischievous wight has made some of the credulous family miserable by slyly coming down stairs, after the rest have retired to bed, and marking the ashes with the shoe of one of the members.—Jamieson, Etymol. Dict....

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Northamptonshire.

Northamptonshire.

On St. Mark’s Eve it is customary in this county for young maidens to make the dumb-cake , a mystical ceremony which has lost its origin. The number of the party never exceeds three; they meet in silence to make the cake, and as soon as the clock strikes twelve, they each break a portion off to eat, and when done they walk up to bed backwards without speaking a word, for if one speaks the spell is broken. Those that are to be married see the likeness of their sweethearts hurrying after them, as

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Yorkshire.

Yorkshire.

In Yorkshire it is usual for the common people to sit and watch in the church-porch from eleven o’clock at night until one in the morning. In the third year, for this must be done thrice, it is supposed that they will see the ghosts of all those who are to die the next year pass into the church. When any one sickens, who is thought to have been seen in this manner, it is presently whispered about that he will not recover, for that such a one who has watched St. Mark’s Eve, says so. The superstit

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Northumberland.

Northumberland.

St. Mark’s Day is observed at Alnwick by a ridiculous custom in connection with the admission of freemen of the common, alleged to have reference to a visit paid by King John to Alnwick. It is said that this monarch, when attempting to ride across Alnwick Moor, then called the Forest of Aidon, fell with his horse into a bog or morass where he stuck so fast that he was with great difficulty pulled out by some of his attendants. Incensed against the inhabitants of that town for not keeping the roa

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Staffordshire.

Staffordshire.

At the fairs held in Wednesbury on the 25th of April and 23rd of July (old style) a custom prevailed for many years called “Walking the Fair.” The ceremonies connected with it were conducted in the following manner: On the morning of the fair the beadle appeared in the market-place dressed for the occasion, and wearing as badges of his office a bell, a long pike, &amp;c. To him assembled a number of the principal inhabitants of the parish, often with a band of music. They then marched in pro

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Bedfordshire.

Bedfordshire.

A certain estate in Husborne Crawley has to pay 4 l. on Rogation Day, once in seven years, to defray the expenses of perambulating, and keeping up the boundaries of the parish.— Old English Customs and Charities , p. 116....

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Dorsetshire.

Dorsetshire.

On Monday in Rogation week was formerly held in the town of Shaftesbury or Shaston a festival called the Bezant, a festival so ancient that no authentic record of its origin exists. The borough of Shaftesbury stands upon the brow of a lofty hill, and until lately, owing to its situation, was so deficient in water that its inhabitants were indebted for a supply of this necessary article of life to the little hamlet of Enmore Green, which lies in the valley below. From two or three wells or tanks,

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Kent.

Kent.

In Rogation week, about Keston and Wickham, a number of young men meet together and with a most hideous noise run into the orchards, and, encircling each tree, pronounce these words: For this incantation the confused rabble expect a gratuity in money, or drink, which is no less welcome; but if they are disappointed of both, they with great solemnity anathematize the owners and trees with altogether as insignificant a curse. It seems highly probable that this custom has arisen from the ancient on

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Oxfordshire.

Oxfordshire.

At Stanlake, says Plot, the minister of the parish, in his procession in Rogation Week, reads the Gospel at a barrel’s head, in the cellar of the Chequer Inn, in that town, where, according to some, there was formerly a hermitage, according to others a cross, at which they read a Gospel in former times; over which the house, and particularly the cellar, being built, they are forced to continue the custom.— History of Oxfordshire , 1705, p. 207....

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Staffordshire.

Staffordshire.

Among the local customs which formerly prevailed at Wolverhampton may be noticed that which was popularly called “Processioning.” Many of the older inhabitants can well remember when the sacrist, resident prebendaries, and members of the choir assembled at morning prayers on Monday and Tuesday in Rogation Week, with the charity children bearing long poles clothed with all kinds of flowers then in season, and which were afterwards carried through the streets of the town with much solemnity, the c

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Yorkshire.

Yorkshire.

The following extract is taken from the Whitby Gazette of May 28th 1870:— The Penny Hedge. —The formality of planting the penny hedge in the bed of the River Esk, on Ascension Eve, was performed on Wednesday last by Mr. Isaac Herbert, who has for fifty years discharged this onerous duty. The “nine stakes,” “the nine strout-stowers,” and the “nine gedders” have all been once more duly “planted.” The ceremony was witnessed by a number of ladies and gentlemen, and that highly important functionary,

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Buckinghamshire.

Buckinghamshire.

In the parish of Edgcott there was about an acre of land, let at 3 l. a year, called “Gang Monday land,” which was left to the parish officers to provide cakes and beer for those who took part in the annual perambulation of the parish. At Clifton Reynes, in the same county, a bequest of land for a similar purpose directs that one small loaf, a piece of cheese, and a pint of ale should be given to every married person, and half a pint of ale to every unmarried person resident in Clifton, when the

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Cheshire.

Cheshire.

Pennant, in his Tour from Chester to London (1811, p. 40), tells us that on Ascension Day the old inhabitants of Nantwich piously sang a hymn of thanksgiving for the blessing of the Brine. A very ancient pit, called the Old Brine, was also held in great veneration, and till within these few years was annually on this festival decked with flowers and garlands, and was encircled by a jovial band of young people, celebrating the day with song and dance. Aubrey (in MS. Lansd. 231) says, in Cheshire,

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Derbyshire.

Derbyshire.

One of the prettiest customs of the county of Derby is that of well-dressing on Holy Thursday or Ascension Day at Tissington, near Dovedale. In the village are five springs or wells, and these are decorated with flowers, arranged in the most beautiful devices. Boards are cut into arches, pediments, pinnacles, and other ornamental forms, and are covered with moist clay to the thickness of about half-an-inch; the flowers are cut off their stems and impressed into the clay as closely together as po

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Devonshire.

Devonshire.

A correspondent of the Gent. Mag. (1787, vol. lvii, p. 718), says: It is the custom in many villages in the neighbourhood of Exeter “to hail the Lamb,” upon Ascension morn. That the figure of a lamb actually appears in the east upon this morning is the popular persuasion; and so deeply is it rooted, that it has frequently resisted (even in intelligent minds) the force of the strongest argument. At Exeter, says Heath in his Account of the Islands of Scilly (1750, p. 128), the boys have a custom o

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Essex.

Essex.

The Oyster Fishery has always formed a valuable part of the privileges and trading property of the town of Colchester. Richard I. granted to the burgesses the fishery of the River Colne, from the North Bridge as far as Westnesse; and this grant was confirmed to them by subsequent charters, especially that of Edward IV. This fishery includes not merely the plain course of the Colne, but all the creeks, &amp;c., with which it communicates: that is to say, the entire Colne Water , as it is comm

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Lancashire.

Lancashire.

Under the name of Richardson’s Charity, a distribution takes place at Ince on the feast of the Ascension, of five loads of oatmeal, each load weighing two hundred and forty pounds. Three loads are given to the poor of the township of Ince, one to the poor of Abram, and the other to the poor of Hindley.— Old English Customs and Charities , p. 36....

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Middlesex.

Middlesex.

In St. Magnus and other city churches in London, the clergy are presented with ribbons, cakes, and silk staylaces.— N. &amp; Q. 1st S. vol. ix. p. 9....

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Northamptonshire.

Northamptonshire.

It is customary to go in triennial processions on Holy Thursday, to perambulate the parishes and beat the boundaries, for the purpose of marking and retaining possession ; hence the ceremony is called possessioning . The parochial authorities are accompanied by other inhabitants and a number of boys, to whom it is customary to distribute buns, &amp;c., in order to impress it upon their memory should the boundaries at any future period be disputed.—Baker, Glossary of Northamptonshire Words an

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Northumberland.

Northumberland.

On Ascension Day, says Mackenzie in his History of Newcastle (1827, vol. ii. p. 744), every year the mayor and burgesses of Newcastle survey the boundaries of the River Tyne. This annual festive expedition starts at the Mansion-House Quay, and proceeds to or near the place in the sea called Sparhawk, and returns up the river to the utmost limits of the Corporation at Hedivin Streams. They are accompanied by the brethren of the Trinity House and the River Jury in their barges. Brockett mentions t

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Nottinghamshire.

Nottinghamshire.

In Rogation week the bounds of many of the parishes are still beaten with as much pomp by the beadle as ever; and it is believed that if an egg which is laid on Ascension Day be placed in the roof of a house, the building will be preserved from fire and other calamities.— Jour. of Arch. Assoc. , 1853, vol. viii. p. 233....

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Oxfordshire.

Oxfordshire.

At Oxford the little crosses cut in the stones of buildings to denote the division of the parishes are whitened with chalk. Great numbers of boys, with peeled willow rods in their hands, accompany the minister in the procession.—Brand, Pop. Antiq. 1849, vol. i. p. 200. Aubrey, in his Remains of Gentilism and Judaism , says: “The fellows of New College have, time out of mind, every Holy Thursday, betwixt the hours of eight and nine, goune to the hospital called Bart’lemews neer Oxford, when they

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Staffordshire.

Staffordshire.

Formerly, at Lichfield, the clergyman of the parish, accompanied by the churchwardens and sidesmen and followed by a concourse of children bearing green boughs, repaired to different reservoirs of water and there read the gospel for the day, after which they were regaled with cakes and ale; during the ceremony the door of every house was decorated with an elm bough. This custom was founded on one of the early institutions of Christianity, that of blessing the springs and wells.— Account of Lichf

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Suffolk.

Suffolk.

By his will, proved in December 1527, John Cole of Thelnetham, directed that a certain farm-rent should be applied yearly to the purpose of providing “a bushell and halffe of malte to be browne, and a bushell of whete to be baked to fynde a drinkinge upon Ascension Even everlastinge for ye parishe of Thelnetham to drinke at the Cross of Trappetes .”...

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Worcestershire.

Worcestershire.

At Evesham it is customary for the master-gardeners to give their work-people a treat of baked peas, both white and grey (and pork), every year on Holy Thursday.—Brand, Pop. Antiq. 1849, vol. i. p. 208. An old Roman kalendar, cited by Brand ( Pop. Antiq. 1849, vol. i. p. 216), says that on the 30th of April boys go to seek the May-trees (Maii arbores a pueris exquiruntur), and in Dryden’s time this early observance of May seems to have been customary; one of his heroines Med. Ævi Kalend. vol. i.

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Cornwall.

Cornwall.

At Penzance a number of young men and women assemble together at a public-house, and sit up till the clock strikes twelve, when they go round the town with violins, drums, and other instruments, and by sound of music call upon others to join them. As soon as the party is formed, they proceed to different farm-houses within four or five miles of the neighbourhood, where they are expected as regularly as May morning comes; and they there partake of a beverage called junket, made of raw milk and re

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Devonshire.

Devonshire.

On the last day of April, the proprietor of every flower-garden in the neighbourhood of Torquay receives visits from a great number of girls, who solicit “some flowers for the May-dolls.” This is usually complied with, and at no great cost, as flowers are commonly very abundant. Soon after nine o’clock on May-day, or the day following when that falls on Sunday, the same young folk call at every house, and stop everyone they meet, to show their May-dolls, collecting, at the same time, such small

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Huntingdonshire.

Huntingdonshire.

At Great Gransden on the evening or night preceding May-day, the young men (farmers’ servants) go and cut the May or hawthorn boughs, which they bring home in bundles, and leave some at almost every house, according to the numbers of young persons in it, singing what they call The Night Song . On the evening of May-day, and the following evenings, they go round to every house where they left a bough, and sing the May Song . One is dressed with a shirt over his other clothes, and decorated with r

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Lancashire.

Lancashire.

The evening before May-day is termed “Mischief Night” by the young people of Burnley and the surrounding district, when all kinds of mischief are perpetrated. Formerly shop-keepers’ sign-boards were exchanged: “John Smith, Grocer,” finding his name and vocation changed, by the sign over his door, to “Thomas Jones, Tailor,” and vice versâ ; but the police have put an end to these practical jokes. Young men and women, however, still continue to play each other tricks by placing branches of trees,

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Lincolnshire.

Lincolnshire.

Oliver in his Monumental Antiquities of Great Grimsby (1825, p. 39), speaking of Holm Hill and Abbey Hill, two of the seven hills on which the British town of Grym-by was situated, says they were united by an artificial bank, called the Ket Bank , in connection with which he relates the following curious ceremony:— The great female divinity of the British Druids was Ket, or Ceridwen; a personification of the Ark of Noah; the famous Keto of Antiquity, or, in other words Ceres, the patroness of th

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Isle of Man.

Isle of Man.

On May Eve, the juvenile branches of nearly every family in the Isle of Man, used to gather primroses, and strew them before the doors of their dwellings, in order to prevent the entrance of fairies on that night. It was quite a novel sight to a stranger to the custom to see this delicate flower plentifully arranged at the door of every house he might pass, particularly in the towns on the night in question or early on the following morning. This custom is now abandoned: indeed, it was continued

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Oxfordshire.

Oxfordshire.

“At Woodstock,” says Aubrey, “they every May Eve goe into the parke and fetch away a number of hawthorne trees, which they set about their dores: ’tis pity that they make such a destruction of so fine a tree.”...

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WALES.

WALES.

At Tenby the inhabitants went out in troops, bearing in their hands boughs of thorn in full blossom, which were bedecked with other flowers, and then stuck outside the windows of the houses. Maypoles were reared up in different parts of the town, decorated with flowers, coloured papers, and bunches of variegated ribbon.—Mason’s Tales and Traditions of Ireland , 1858, p. 21....

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IRELAND.

IRELAND.

The following custom of the Irish is described in a MS. of the sixteenth century, and seems to have been of Pagan origin: “Upon Maie Eve they will drive their cattell upon their neighbour’s corne, to eate the same up; they were wont to begin from the vast, and this principally upon the English churl. Unlesse they do so upon Maie daie, the witch hath power upon their cattell all the yere following.”— N. &amp; Q. 1st S. vol. vii. p. 81. Sir Henry Piers, in his Account of Westmeath , 1682, says

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Going a-Maying.

Going a-Maying.

—Bourne ( Antiquitates Vulgares , chap. xxv.) describes this custom as it existed in his time:—On the calends, or first of May, commonly called May-day, the juvenile part of both sexes are wont to rise a little after midnight and walk to some neighbouring wood, accompanied with music and blowing of horns, where they break down branches from the trees, and adorn themselves with nosegays and crowns of flowers; when this is done they return with their booty homewards, about the rising of the sun, a

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May-dew.

May-dew.

—This was held of singular virtue in former times, and thus in the Morning Post of 2nd May, 1791, we are told that the day before, being the First of May, according to annual and superstitious custom, a number of persons went into the fields and bathed their faces with the dew on the grass, under the idea that it would render them beautiful. Pepys on a certain day in May makes this entry in his Diary : “My wife away, down with Jane and W. Hewer to Woolwich, in order to a little ayre and to lie t

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May-games.

May-games.

—When Christianity, says Soane ( Curiosities of Literature , p. 230), found its way into Britain, the same mode would seem to have been adopted in regard to the May-games by the wise liberality of the first missionaries that we see them employing in so many other cases. Conceding to the prejudices of the people, they did not attempt to root out long established characters, but invested them with another character as bees close in with wax the noxious substance they are unable to remove. Thus in

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Morris-dance.

Morris-dance.

—It is supposed to be of Moorish origin, and to be derived to us from Spain. Hence its name. The principal characters of it generally were Robin Hood, Maid Marian, Scarlet, Stokesley, Little John, the Hobby Horse, the Bavian or Fool, Tom the Piper with his pipe and tabor, the Dragon, of which we have no mention before 1585. The number of characters varied much at different times and places. See Brand’s Pop. Antiq. 1849, vol. i. pp. 247-270, and Book of Days , vol i. pp. 630-633....

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Maypoles.

Maypoles.

—The earliest representation of an English maypole is that published in the Variorum Shakespeare, and depicted on a window at Betley in Staffordshire, then the property of Mr. Tollet, and which he was disposed to think as old as the time of Henry VIII. The pole is planted in a mound of earth, and has affixed to it St. George’s red-cross banner, and a white pennon or streamer with a forked end. The shaft of the pole is painted in a diagonal line of black colour upon a yellow ground, a characteris

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Chimney-sweepers.

Chimney-sweepers.

—How or when the chimney-sweepers contrived to intrude their sooty persons into the company of the gay and graceful Flora upon her high festival does not appear. It is certain, however, that in London they have long observed the early days of May as an established holiday, on which occasion they parade the streets in parties, fantastically tricked out in tawdry finery, enriched with strips of gilt and various coloured papers, &amp;c. With their faces chalked, and their shovels and brushes in

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Milkmaid’s Dance.

Milkmaid’s Dance.

—On the first day of May, says a writer in the Spectator (vol. v.), “the ruddy milkmaid exerts herself in a most sprightly manner under a pyramid of silver tankards, and, like the virgin Tarpeia, oppressed by the costly ornaments which her benefactors lay upon her.” These decorations of silver cups, tankards, and salvers were borrowed for the purpose, and hung round the milk-pails, with the addition of flowers and ribbons, which the maidens carried upon their heads when they went to the houses o

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May-gosling.

May-gosling.

—A writer in the Gent. Mag. (1791, vol. lxi. p. 327) says a May-gosling, on the 1st of May, is made with as much eagerness in the north of England as an April noddy (noodle) or fool on the 1st of April. “U. P. K. spells May-goslings” is an expression used by boys at play as an insult to the losing party. U. P. K. is up-pick , that is, up with your pin or peg, the mark of the goal. An additional punishment was thus: the winner made a hole in the ground with his heel, into which a peg about three

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Berkshire.

Berkshire.

At Abingdon the children and young people formerly went about in groups on May morning, singing the following carol:— N. &amp; Q. 4th S. vol. iii. p. 401. N. &amp; Q. 4th S. vol. iii. p. 401....

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Buckinghamshire.

Buckinghamshire.

In a MS. in the British Museum entitled Status Scholæ Etonensis , A.D. 1560, it is stated that on the day of St. Philip and St. James, if it be fair weather, and the master grants leave, those boys who choose it may rise at four o’clock, to gather May-branches, if they can do it without wetting their feet; and that on that day they adorn the windows of the bed-chambers with green leaves, and the houses are perfumed with fragrant herbs....

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Cambridgeshire.

Cambridgeshire.

Some derive May from Maia, the mother of Mercury, to whom they offered sacrifices on the first day of it; and this seems to explain the custom which prevails on this day at Cambridge of children having a figure dressed in a grotesque manner, called a May-lady , before which they set a table having on it wine, &amp;c. They also beg money of passengers, which is considered as an offering to the Maulkin ; for their plea to obtain it is “Pray remember the poor May-lady.” Perhaps the garlands, fo

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Cheshire.

Cheshire.

In this county the young men formerly celebrated May-day by placing large bidden boughs over the doors of the houses where the young women resided to whom they paid their addresses; and an alder bough was often placed over the door of a scold.—Lysons’ Magna Britannia , 1810, vol. ii. pt. ii. p. 462. Maypoles are also erected, and danced round in some villages with as much avidity as ever.— Jour. of Arch. Assoc. , 1850, vol. v. p. 254. Washington Irving in his Sketch Book says, I shall never forg

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Cornwall.

Cornwall.

In Cornwall this day is hailed by the juveniles as “dipping-day.” On May-morning the children go out into the country and fetch home the flowering branches of the white-thorn, or boughs of the narrow-leaved elm, which has just put forth its leaves, both of which are called “May.” At a later hour all the boys of the village sally forth with their bucket, can, and syringe, or other instrument, and avail themselves of a licence which the season confers “to dip” or well nigh drown, without regard to

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Derbyshire.

Derbyshire.

Maypoles are to be seen in some of the village-greens still standing, and adorned with garlands on May-day. On this morning, too, the young village women go out about sunrise for the purpose of washing their faces in the May-dew, and return in the full hope of having their complexions improved by the process.— Jour. of Arch. Assoc. , 1852, vol. vii. p. 206....

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Devonshire.

Devonshire.

At the village of Holne, situated on one of the spurs of Dartmoor, is a field of about two acres, the property of the parish, and called the Ploy (play) Field. In the centre of this stands a granite pillar (Menhir) six or seven feet high. On May-morning before daybreak the young men of the village used to assemble there, and then proceed to the moor, where they selected a ram lamb (doubtless with the consent of the owner), and after running it down, brought it in triumph to the Ploy Field, faste

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Essex.

Essex.

At Saffron-Walden, and in the village of Debden, an old May-day song (almost identical with that given under Berkshire , which see ) is sung by the little girls, who go about in parties, carrying garlands from door to door. The garlands which the girls carry are sometimes large and handsome, and a doll is usually placed in the middle, dressed in white, according to certain traditional regulations.— Illustrated London News , June 6th, 1857, p. 553....

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Gloucestershire.

Gloucestershire.

In the village of Randwick, hard by the Stroud cloth-mills, at the appointed daybreak, three cheeses were carried upon a litter, festooned and garlanded with blossoms, down to the churchyard, and rolled thrice mystically round the sacred building; being subsequently carried back in the same way upon the litter in triumphal procession, to be cut up on the village-green and distributed piecemeal among the bystanders.— Household Words , 1859, vol. xix. p. 515. In this county the children sing the f

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Hampshire.

Hampshire.

In the village of Burley, one of the most beautiful villages of the New Forest, a maypole is erected, a fête is given to the school-children, and a May-queen is chosen by lot; a floral crown surmounts the pole, and garlands of flowers hang about the shaft....

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Hertfordshire.

Hertfordshire.

At Baldock, in former times, the peasantry were accustomed to make a “my-lord-and-my-lady” in effigy on the first of May. These figures were constructed of rags, pasteboard, old masks, canvas, straw, &amp;c., and were dressed up in the holiday habiliments of their fabricators—“my lady” in the best gown’d, apron, kerchief, and mob cap of the dame, and “my lord” in the Sunday gear of her master. The tiring finished, “the pair” were seated on chairs or joint-stools, placed outside the cottage-d

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Huntingdonshire.

Huntingdonshire.

In the village of Glatton, May-day is observed by the election of Queen of the May, and the making of the garland. The garland is of a pyramidal shape, and in this respect resembles the old milk-maid’s garland; it is composed of crown-imperials, tulips, anemones, cowslips, kingcups, daffodils, meadow-orchis, wallflowers, primroses, lilacs, laburnums, and as many roses and bright flowers as the season may have produced. These, with the addition of green boughs, are made into a huge pyramidal nose

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Kent.

Kent.

Sir Dudley Diggs, by his will, dated 1638, left the yearly sum of £20 to be paid to two young men and two maids, who on May 19th yearly should run a tye at Old Wives Lees in Chilham and prevail; the money to be paid out of the profits of the land of this part of the manor of Selgrave, which escheated to him after the death of Lady Clive. These lands, being in three pieces, lie in the parishes of Preston and Faversham, and contain about forty acres, all commonly called the Running Lands . Two you

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Lancashire.

Lancashire.

In most places it is customary for each driver of a team to decorate his horses with gaudy ribbons on May-day. In Liverpool and Birkenhead, however, where some thousands of men are employed as carters, this May-day dressing has grown into a most imposing institution. Every driver of a team in and around the docks appears to enter into rivalry with his neighbours, and the consequence is that most of the horses are gaily dressed and expensively decorated. The drivers put on their new suits, covere

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Lincolnshire.

Lincolnshire.

Formerly it was customary in some parts of this county to change servants on May-day.— Time’s Telescope , 1823, p. 118. A peculiar rustic ceremony used annually to be observed at Horncastle towards the close of the last century. On the morning of May-day, when the young people of the neighbourhood assembled to partake in the amusements which ushered in the festival of the month, a train of youths collected themselves at a place called the May-bank . From thence with wands enwreathed with cowslip

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Isle of Man.

Isle of Man.

May Day is ushered in with blowing of horns on the mountains, and with a ceremony which, says Waldron, has something in the design of it pretty enough. In almost all the great parishes they choose from among the daughters of the most wealthy farmers a young maid for the Queen of May . She is dressed in the gayest and best manner they can, and is attended by about twenty others, who are called maids of honour. She has also a young man, who is her captain, and has under his command a good number o

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Middlesex.

Middlesex.

London boasted several maypoles before the days of Puritanism. Many parishes vied with each other in the height and adornment of their own. One famed pole stood in Basing Lane, near St. Paul’s Cathedral, and was in the time of Stow kept in the hostelry called Gerard’s Hall. “In the high-roofed hall of this house,” says he, “sometime stood a large fir pole, which reached to the roof thereof—a pole of forty feet long and fifteen inches about, fabled to be the justing staff of Gerard the Giant.” A

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Northamptonshire.

Northamptonshire.

On the morning of May-day the girls from the neighbouring villages of Kingsthorpe, &amp;c., bring into Northampton their garlands, which they exhibit from house to house (to show, as the inhabitants say, what flowers are in season), and usually receive a trifle from each house. The skeleton of the garland is formed of two hoops of osier or hazel crossing each other at right angles, affixed to a staff about five feet long, by which it is carried; the hoops are twined with flowers and ribbons

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Northumberland

Northumberland

The young people of both sexes go out early in the morning to gather the flowering thorn and the dew off the grass, which they bring home with music and acclamations; and having dressed a pole on the town-green with garlands, dance around it. A syllabub is also prepared for the May-feast, which is made of warm milk from the cow, sweet cakes, and wine; and a kind of divination is practised by fishing with a ladle for a wedding-ring which is dropped into it for the purpose of prognosticating who s

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Nottinghamshire.

Nottinghamshire.

The May-day customs observed in this county are in many respects similar to those of other counties, but Nottinghamshire has the honour of being the parent of most of the happy sports which characterise this joyous period of the year, from the fact of most of the May-day games having had their origin in the world famous Robin Hood, whose existence and renown are so intimately connected with this district. His connection with “Merry Sherwood” and the Sheriff of Nottingham have been universal them

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Oxfordshire.

Oxfordshire.

Previous to the Reformation a requiem mass is said to have been performed every May-morning at an early hour on the top of Magdalen tower, Oxford, for the repose of the soul of Henry VII., who had honoured that college with a visit in 1486-7. The choristers continue to execute in the same place, at five o’clock in the morning of the same day, certain pieces of choir-music, for which service the rectory of Slimbridge in Gloucestershire pays the yearly sum of £10. The ceremony has encouraged the n

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Shropshire.

Shropshire.

It has been usual for the people in this neighbourhood to assemble on the Wrekin hill on the Sunday after May-day, and the three successive Sundays, to drink a health “to all friends round the Wrekin;” but as on this annual festival various scenes of drunkenness and licentiousness were frequently exhibited, its celebration has of late been very properly discouraged by the magistracy, and is going deservedly to decay.— Every Day Book , vol. ii. p. 599....

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Somersetshire.

Somersetshire.

At Minehead May-day is observed by the celebration of a custom called “Hobby-horsing.” A number of young men, mostly fishermen and sailors, having previously made some grotesque figures of light stuff, rudely resembling men and horses with long tails, sufficiently large to cover and disguise the persons who are to carry them, assemble together and perambulate the town and neighbourhood, performing a variety of antics, to the great amusement of the children and young persons. They never fail to p

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Staffordshire.

Staffordshire.

At Uttoxeter groups of children carry garlands of flowers about the town. The garlands consist of two hoops, one passing through the other, which give the appearance of four half circles, and they are decorated with flowers and evergreens and surmounted with a bunch of flowers as a sort of crown, and in the centre of the hoops is a pendent orange and flowers. Mostly one or more of the children carry a little pole or stick, with a collection of flowers tied together at one end, and carried vertic

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Suffolk.

Suffolk.

Formerly in this county it was the custom in most farm-houses for any servant who could bring in a branch of hawthorn in full blossom to receive a dish of cream for breakfast. To this practice the following rhyme apparently alludes:— Brand, Pop. Antiq. 1849, vol. i. p. 229....

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Surrey.

Surrey.

In the parish of St. Thomas, Southwark, says Allen ( History of Surrey and Sussex , 1829, vol. i. p. 261), there was an ancient custom for the principal inhabitants to meet and dine together annually on the first of May. This was called the “May-feast.” The gentleman who presided on the occasion was called the steward. At the meeting in 1698, Mr. John Panther, being in that office, proposed to make a collection for binding out as apprentices the children of poor persons having a legal settlement

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Sussex.

Sussex.

In very early times May-day was celebrated with great spirit in the town of Rye; young people going out at sunrise and returning with large boughs and branches of trees, with which they adorned the fronts of the houses. About three hundred years ago the Corporation possessed certain woodlands, called the common woods, whither the people used to go and cut the boughs, until at length they did so much damage that the practice was prohibited. A few years ago here and there a solitary may-bough grac

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Westmoreland.

Westmoreland.

At a village called Temple Sowerby it is customary for a number of persons to assemble together on the green, and there propose a certain number as candidates for contesting the various prizes then produced, which consist of a grindstone as the head prize; a hone, or whetstone for a razor, as the second; and whetstones of an inferior description for those who can only reach a state of mediocrity in “the noble art of lying!” The people are the judges. Each candidate in rotation commences a story

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Worcestershire.

Worcestershire.

The dance round the Maypole is kept up, says Cuthbert Bede ( N. &amp; Q. 1st S. vol. x. p. 92), at the village of Clent, near Hagley....

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WALES.

WALES.

About a fortnight previous to May-day the question among the lads and lasses is, “Who will turn out to dance in the summer this year?” From that time the names of the performers are buzzed in the village, and rumour proclaims them throughout the surrounding neighbourhood. Nor is it asked with less interest, “Who will carry the garland?” and “Who will be the Cadi?” About nine days or a week previous to the festival a collection is made of the gayest ribbons that can be procured. During this time,

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SCOTLAND.

SCOTLAND.

In some parts of Scotland, says Pennant, there is a rural sacrifice on May-day. A cross is cut on some sticks, each of which is dipped in pottage, and the Thursday before Easter one of these is placed over the sheep-cote, the stable, or the cow-house. On the first of May they are carried to the hill, where the rites are celebrated, all decked with wild flowers, and after the feast is over replaced over the spots they were taken from. This was originally styled Clonau-Beltein , or the split branc

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IRELAND.

IRELAND.

In the south-eastern parts of Ireland (and no doubt all over the island) a custom used to prevail—perhaps so still—on May-day, when the young people of both sexes, and many old people too, collected in districts and localities, and selected the handsomest girl, of from eighteen to twenty-one years of age, as queen of the district for twelve months. She was then crowned with wild flowers; and feasting, dancing, and rural sports were closed by a grand procession in the evening. The duties of her m

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Yorkshire.

Yorkshire.

From the following passage in Atkinson’s Cleveland Glossary (p. 417), it would appear that this is known in that district as St. Helen’s Day; although the feast, properly so called, is held on August 18th (which see). The transfer seems to have originated in the fact that the Invention (or Discovery) of the Cross was due to St. Helen, who was thus connected with the feast kept on May 3rd under that title. At Cleveland, Yorkshire, the 2nd of May, St. Helen’s Day, is Rowan-tree day, or Rowan-tree

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SCOTLAND.

SCOTLAND.

On May 2nd, the eve of the Invention of the Holy Cross, it is customary in Aberdeenshire to form crosses of twigs of the rowan-tree and to place them over the doors and windows as a protection against evil spirits.— N. &amp; Q. 3rd S. vol. ii. p. 483....

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The Highlands.

The Highlands.

May 3. ] The Highlands. Pennant, in his Tour in Scotland (1790, vol. i. p. 111) says that a Highlander never begins anything of consequence on the day of the week on which the 3rd of May falls, which he styles La Sheachanna na bleanagh , or the dismal day. May 8. ] APPARITION OF ST. MICHAEL....

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Cornwall.

Cornwall.

The most remarkable observance of antiquity remaining in this county is the “Furry festival” which has been celebrated from time immemorial on the 8th of May. At Helston the day used to be ushered in very early in the morning by the music of drums and kettles, and other pleasant sounds, the accompaniments of a song:— It was a general holiday: so strict, indeed, used the observance of this jubilee to be held that if any person chanced to be found at work, he was instantly seized, set astride on a

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Whitsun Ale.

Whitsun Ale.

—Ale was so prevalent a drink amongst us in old times, as to become a part of the name of various festal meetings, as Leet-ale, Lamb-ale, Bride-ale (bridal), and, as we see, Whitsun-ale. It was the custom of our ancestors to have parochial meetings every Whitsuntide, usually in some barn near the church, consisting of a kind of picnic, as each parishioner brought what victuals he could spare. The ale, which had been brewed pretty strong for the occasion, was sold by the churchwardens, and from i

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Cornwall.

Cornwall.

Whitsuntide is observed at Polperro by a custom of the young people going in droves into the country to partake of milk and cream.— N. &amp; Q. 1st S. vol. xii. p. 298. Carew in his Survey of Cornwall (p. 68), speaking of the church ale, says that “two young men of the parish are yerely chosen by their last foregoers to be wardens, who, dividing the task, make collection among the parishioners of whatsoever provision it pleaseth them voluntarily to bestow. This they employ in brewing, baking

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Cumberland.

Cumberland.

At this season, and also at Martinmas, are held hirings for farmers’ servants. Those who offer their services stand in a body in the market-place, and to distinguish themselves hold a bit of straw or green branch in their mouths. When the market is over the girls begin to file off, and gently pace the streets with a view of gaining admirers, while the young men, with similar designs, follow them, and, having eyed the lasses, each picks up a sweetheart, whom they conduct to a dancing-room, and tr

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Essex.

Essex.

Heybridge Church, near Maldon, was formerly strewn with rushes, and round the pews, in holes made apparently for the purpose, were placed small twigs just budding.— N. &amp; Q. 2nd S. vol. i. p. 471....

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Gloucestershire.

Gloucestershire.

At St. Briavels, after divine service, formerly, pieces of bread and cheese were distributed to the congregation at church. To defray the expenses, every householder in the parish paid a penny to the churchwardens, and this was said to be for the liberty of cutting and taking the wood in Hudnalls. According to tradition, the privilege was obtained of some Earl of Hereford, then lord of the Forest of Dean, at the instance of his lady, upon the same hard terms that Lady Godiva obtained the privile

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Hampshire.

Hampshire.

At Monk Sherborne, near Basingstoke, both the Priory and parish churches were decorated with birch on Whitsunday.— N. &amp; Q. 4th S. vol. ii. p. 190....

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Herefordshire.

Herefordshire.

On Whitsunday, says a correspondent of N. &amp; Q. ( 4th S. vol. i. p. 551), I was in the church of King’s Pion, near Hereford, and was struck with what seemed to me a novel style of church decoration. Every pew corner and “point of vantage” was ornamented with a sprig of birch, the light green leaves of which contrasted well with the sombreness of the woodwork. No other flower or foliage was to be seen in the church....

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Northamptonshire.

Northamptonshire.

Miss Baker ( Glossary of Northamptonshire Words , 1854, vol. ii. p. 433) describes the celebration of a Whitsun-ale early in the present century in a barn at King’s Sutton, fitted up for the entertainment, in which the lord, as the principal, carried a mace made of silk, finely plaited with ribbons, and filled with spices and perfumes for such of the company to smell as desired it; six morris dancers were among the performers. In a Whitsun-ale, last kept at Greatworth in 1785, the fool, in a mot

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Northumberland.

Northumberland.

An unchartered Whitsun Tryste Fair is still held annually on Whitsunbank Hill, near Wooler.— N. &amp; Q. 5th S. vol. i. p. 402....

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Oxfordshire.

Oxfordshire.

A custom formerly prevailed amongst the people of Burford to hunt deer in Wychwood Forest. An original letter, in the possession of the corporation, dated 1593, directs the inhabitants to forbear the hunting for that year, on account of the plague that was then raging, and states an order that should be given to the keepers of the forest, to deliver to the bailiffs two bucks in lieu of the hunting; which privilege, was not, however, to be prejudiced in future by its remittance on that occasion.—

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Somersetshire.

Somersetshire.

Collinson, in his History of Somersetshire (vol. iii. p. 620), speaking of Yatton, says that, “John Lane of this parish, gentleman, left half an acre of ground, called the Groves, to the poor for ever, reserving a quantity of the grass for the strewing church on Whitsunday.”...

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IRELAND.

IRELAND.

The Irish kept the feast of Whitsuntide with milk food, as among the Hebrews; and a breakfast composed of cake, bread, and a liquor made by hot water poured on wheaten bran.— Every Day Book , vol. i. p. 685. At Holy Island, as regularly as the season of Whitsuntide comes, a concourse of people is assembled to perform penance. They make two hundred and eighty rounds, the circumference of some being a mile, others half a mile, till they are gradually diminished to a circuit of the church of St. Ma

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Cheshire.

Cheshire.

The Whitsun Mysteries were acted at Chester, seven or eight on each day during the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in Whitsun week. The drapers, for instance, exhibited the “Creation;” the tanners took the “Fall of Lucifer;” the water-carriers of the Dee reproduced the “Deluge;” the cooks had the “Harrowing of Hell.” The performers were carried from one station to another by means of a movable scaffold, a huge and ponderous machine mounted on wheels, gaily decorated with flags, and divided into tw

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Derbyshire.

Derbyshire.

Derby having for many centuries been celebrated for its ale, which Camden says was made here in such perfection, that wine must be very good to deserve a preference, and Fuller remarks, “Never was the wine of Falernum better known to the Romans than the canary of Derby is to the English,” it is not a matter of surprise to find some remnants of the Whitsun-ales in the neighbourhood. In a manuscript in the Bodleian Library is a record of the Whitsun-ales at Elvaston and Ockbrook, from which it app

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Hampshire.

Hampshire.

At St. Mary’s College, Winchester, the Dulce Domum is sung on the evening preceding the Whitsun holidays; the masters, scholars, and choristers, attended by a band of music, walk in procession round the courts of the College, singing it.—Brand, Pop. Antiq. , 1849, vol. i. p. 452. See Gent. Mag. , 1811, vol. lxxxi. p. 503....

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Lancashire.

Lancashire.

A correspondent of the Gent. Mag. (1783, vol. liii. p. 578) says there seems to be a trace of the descent of the Holy Ghost on the heads of the Apostles in what passes at Whitsuntide Fair, in some parts of Lancashire, where one person holds a stick over the head of another, whilst a third, unperceived, strikes the stick, and thus gives a smart blow to the first....

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Leicestershire.

Leicestershire.

A fair used to be held on Whitsun Monday at Hinckley, when the millers from various parts of the country walked in procession dressed in ribbons, with what they called the King of the Millers at their head. A writer (in 1787) describing one of these fairs says: To the old ceremony of riding millers, many improvements were made upon a more extensive and significant plan: several personages introduced that bore allusions to the manufacture, and were connected with the place. Old Hugo Baron de Gren

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Northamptonshire.

Northamptonshire.

At Corby near Rockingham, every twentieth year, the inhabitants assemble at an early hour, and stop up all roads and bye-ways in the parish, and demand a certain toll of every person, gentle or simple, who may have occasion to pass through the village on that day. In case of non-compliance a stout pole is produced, and the nonconformist is placed thereon, in a riding attitude, carried through the village, and taken to the parish stocks and imprisoned until the authorities choose to grant a dismi

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Oxfordshire.

Oxfordshire.

Until within the last century, a custom prevailed in the parish of Ensham, by which the towns-people were allowed on Whitsun Monday to cut down and carry away as much timber as could be drawn by men’s hands into the Abbey yard, the churchwardens previously marking out such timber by giving the first chop; so much as they could carry out again, notwithstanding the opposition of the servants of the Abbey to prevent it, they were to keep for the reparation of the church. By this service they held t

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Shropshire.

Shropshire.

An old custom, called the “Boy’s Bailiff,” formerly prevailed at Wenlock, in Whitsun week. It consisted of a man who wore a hair-cloth gown, and was called the bailiff, a recorder, justices, and other municipal officers. There were a large retinue of men and boys mounted on horseback, begirt with wooden swords, which they carried on their right sides, so that they were obliged to draw their swords out with their left hands. They used to call at the gentlemen’s houses in the franchise, where they

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Staffordshire.

Staffordshire.

The Court of Array, or view of men and arms, was held on Whitsun Monday in the vicinity of Lichfield, called Greenhill, where every householder failing to answer his name when called from the dozeners’ list was fined a penny. The origin of this singular ceremony is unknown; it existed long before the charters of incorporation, and may perhaps be the remains of the commissions of array issued in the time of Henry V., who ordered every man to keep in his possession arms and armour, according to hi

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WALES.

WALES.

At Tenby a women’s benefit club walked in procession to church with band and banners before them and bunches of flowers in their hands. After the service they dined, and wound up the evening by dancing.—Mason’s Tales and Traditions of Tenby , 1858, p. 23. May 12. ] WHITSUN TUESDAY....

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Bedfordshire.

Bedfordshire.

At Biddenham there is an ancient customary donation of a quantity of malt, made at Whitsuntide by the proprietor of Kempston Mill, near the parish. The malt is always delivered to the overseers of the poor for the time being, and brewed by them into ale, which is distributed among all the poor inhabitants of Biddenham on Whit Tuesday.— Old English Customs and Charities , 1842, p. 65....

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Buckinghamshire.

Buckinghamshire.

The Eton Montem was a long celebrated and time-honoured ceremony peculiar to Eton, and said to have been coeval with the foundation of the college, and was observed biennially but latterly triennially down to the year 1844, when it was totally abolished. It was a procession of the scholars dressed either in military or fancy costume, to a small mount on the south side of the Bath Road (supposed to be a British or Saxon barrow), where they exacted money for salt, as the phrase was, from all perso

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Cumberland.

Cumberland.

The ten principal estates in the parish of Hesket were formerly called Red Spears , from the titles of the owners, obtained from the curious tenure of riding through the town of Penrith on every Whitsun Tuesday, brandishing their spears. These Red-Spear Knights seem to have been regarded as sureties to the sheriff for the peaceable behaviour of the inhabitants.—Britton and Brayley, Beauties of England and Wales , 1802, vol. iii. p. 171....

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Middlesex.

Middlesex.

On the evening of Whitsun Tuesday, a sermon is annually preached in the ancient church of St. James, Mitre Court, Aldgate, London, from a text having special reference to flowers. This is popularly called the “Flower sermon.”— Kalendar of the English Church , 1865, p. 74. On this day is delivered in St. Leonard’s Church, Shoreditch, a “Botanical sermon”—the Fairchild Lecture,—for which purpose funds were left by Thomas Fairchild, who died in 1729. It was formerly the custom of the President and

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SCOTLAND.

SCOTLAND.

The custom of “riding the marches” existed at Lanark, and took place annually on the day after Whitsun Fair, by the magistrates and burgesses, known by the name of the Langemark or Landsmark Day, from the Saxon langemark . [60] —Sinclair’s Stat. Acc. of Scotland , 1795, vol. xv. p. 45. [60] See Riding the Marches , p. 307 ....

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May 14.] COTESWOLD GAMES.

May 14.] COTESWOLD GAMES.

May 14. ] COTESWOLD GAMES. The vicinity of Chipping Campden was the theatre of the Coteswold Games, which, in the reign of James I. and his unfortunate successor, were celebrated in this part of England. They were instituted by a public-spirited attorney of Burton-on-the-Heath, in Warwickshire, named Robert Dover, and like the Olympic games of the ancients, consisted of most kinds of manly exercises. The victors were rewarded by prizes, distributed by the institutor, who, arrayed in a discarded

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Norfolk.

Norfolk.

May 16. ] Norfolk. In the parish of Rockland, annually on the 16th of May, a sort of country fair is held, called by the villagers the “Guild,” and which is evidently a relic of the Guild of St. John the Baptist, held here in St. Peter’s Church before the Reformation. On this occasion a mayor of the Guild is elected, and he is chaired about the three parishes of Rockland, and gathers largess, which is afterwards spent in a frolic. There is another antique custom connected with the guild which ye

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Surrey.

Surrey.

About the middle of May there is an annual migration of young eels up the Thames at Kingston. They appear in shoals, giving to the margin of the river an appearance not altogether agreeable; but their origin and destination are alike matter of conjecture. It is reasonably supposed that these swarms migrate from the lakes in Richmond Park, where immense numbers are annually bred, and that they descend the rivers, stocking the creeks and streams for some miles above the town. There is generally a

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Lincolnshire.

Lincolnshire.

The parish of Clee possesses a right of cutting rushes from a piece of land, called “Bescars,” for the purpose of strewing the floor of the church every Trinity Sunday. A small quantity of grass is annually cut to preserve this right.—Edwards, Old English Customs and Charities , p. 217....

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Northumberland.

Northumberland.

The following extract is taken from the Newcastle Daily Journal of June 17th, 1867:— Yesterday being Trinity Sunday, in pursuance of a time-honoured custom, the Master, Deputy-Master, and Brethren of the Ancient and Honourable Corporation of the Trinity House attended officially in All Saints’ Parish Church, Newcastle. A noteworthy relic of the past in connection with the service was the performance on the organ (on the entrance and exit of the Master and Brethren) of the national air, ‘Rule Bri

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Wiltshire.

Wiltshire.

Aubrey, in his Miscellanies (1714, p. 49), speaking of Newnton, says: “Upon every Trinity Sunday, the parishioners being come to the door of the hayward’s house, the door was struck thrice in honour of the Holy Trinity; they then entered. The bell was rung; after which, silence being ordered, they read their prayers aforesaid. Then was a ghirland of flowers (about the year 1660 one was killed striving to take away the ghirland) made upon an hoop, brought forth by a maid of the town upon her neck

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WALES.

WALES.

A very ancient custom is observed on Trinity Sunday in Carnarvonshire: the offerings of calves and lambs which happen to be born with the Nod Beuno , or mark of St. Beuno—a certain natural mark in the ear,—have not yet entirely ceased. They are brought to church (but formerly to the monastery [62] ) of Clynnok Vaur on Trinity Sunday, and delivered to the churchwardens, who sell and account for them, depositing the money in a great chest, called Cyff St. Beuno , made of one oak, and secured with

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Hampshire.

Hampshire.

An annual fair is held on Trinity Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday at Southampton. It is opened by the Mayor and bailiffs, with much ceremony, on the preceding Saturday afternoon. The Mayor erects a pole with a large glove fixed to the top of it, near the miller’s house; and the bailiff then takes possession of the fair, as chief magistrate in its precinct during the fair, and invites the Mayor and his suite to a collation in his tent. He appoints a guard of halberdiers who keep the peace by day,

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Kent.

Kent.

Deptford Fair originated in trifling pastimes for persons who assembled to see the Master and Brethren of the Trinity House, on their annual visit to the Trinity House, at Deptford. First there were juggling matches; then came a booth or two; afterwards a few shows.— Every Day Book , vol. i. p. 724....

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Oxfordshire.

Oxfordshire.

At Kidlington, says Blount ( Jocular Tenures , Beckwith’s edition, p. 281), the custom is that on Monday after Whitsun week there is a fat live lamb provided; and the maids of the town, having their thumbs tied behind them, run after it, and she that with her mouth takes and holds the lamb, is declared Lady of the Lamb , which being dressed, with the skin hanging on, is carried on a long pole before the lady and her companions to the green, attended with music, and a Morisco dance of men, and an

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May 20.] CORPUS CHRISTI EVE.

May 20.] CORPUS CHRISTI EVE.

May 20. ] CORPUS CHRISTI EVE. In North Wales, at Llanasaph, there is a custom of strewing green herbs and flowers at the doors of houses on Corpus Christi Eve.—Pennant’s Manuscript quoted by Brand, Pop. Antiq. 1849, vol. i. p. 297. At Caerwis on Thursday after Trinity Sunday, which they call Dudd Son Duw , or Dydd Gwyl Duw , on the Eve before, they strew a sort of fern before their doors, called red yn mair —Pennant’s MS. May 21. ] CORPUS CHRISTI DAY. Corpus Christi Day is held on the Thursday a

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Norfolk.

Norfolk.

At one time on Corpus Christi Day the crafts or companies of Norwich walked in procession from the common hall, by Cutter Row, and round the market to the hall again. Each company had its banner, on which was painted its patron or guardian saint.—See History of Norwich , 1768, vol. i. p. 175....

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Northumberland.

Northumberland.

The earliest mention of the religious ceremony of Corpus Christi play and procession in Newcastle-upon-Tyne occurs in the Ordinary of the Coopers’ Company, dated January 20th, 1426; though the great popularity of these exhibitions at York and other places must have induced the clergy, merchants, and incorporated traders of that town, to adopt them long before this time. There can be but little doubt that the several trades strove to outvie each other in the splendour of their exhibitions. The Co

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Yorkshire.

Yorkshire.

The play of Corpus Christi was acted in the City of York till the twenty-sixth year of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, 1584. It consisted of a solemn procession, in remembrance of the Sacrament of the Body of Christ; the symbolic representation being borne in a shrine. Every trade in the city was obliged to furnish a pageant at its own expense, and join the procession, and each individual had to personify some particular passage in the Old or New Testament, and to repeat some poetry on the occasion. Th

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IRELAND.

IRELAND.

Corpus Christi Day was formerly celebrated at Dublin with high veneration. In the Chain-book of the City of Dublin are several entries to that purpose. We are told that there was a grand procession, in which the glovers were to represent Adam and Eve, with an angel bearing a sword before them. The corrisees (perhaps curriers) were to represent Cain and Abel, with an altar and their offering. Mariners and vintners, Noah and the persons in his Ark, apparelled in the habit of carpenters and salmon-

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May 22.] COVENTRY SHOW FAIR.

May 22.] COVENTRY SHOW FAIR.

May 22. ] COVENTRY SHOW FAIR. This celebrated fair, says Brand ( Pop. Antiq. 1849, vol. i. p. 286), commences upon Friday in Trinity week, and lasts for eight days. The charter for it was granted by Henry III. in 1218, at the instigation of Randle, Earl of Chester. For many years it was one of the chief marts in the kingdom, and was celebrated for the show designated the Procession of Lady Godiva, of which Brand has given a long account....

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May 25.] THE SHREWSBURY SHOW.

May 25.] THE SHREWSBURY SHOW.

May 25. ] THE SHREWSBURY SHOW. In the Book of Days (vol. i. pp. 704-708) will be found an interesting and amusing account of the Shrewsbury Show, which appears, from the records of the reign of Henry VI., to have been held time out of mind on the second Monday after Trinity Sunday....

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SCOTLAND.

SCOTLAND.

The 25th of May, as the Whitsunday term (old style), is a great day in Scotland, being that on which, for the most part, people change their residences. The Scotch generally lease their houses by the year, and are thus at every twelve-month’s end able to shift their place of abode. Accordingly, every Candlemas a Scotch family gets an opportunity of considering whether it will, in the language of the country, sit or flit. The landlord or his agent calls to learn the decision on this point; and if

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Cornwall.

Cornwall.

At Looe, as well as in other districts of East Cornwall, the usage of wearing an oaken leaf on the 29th of May was enforced by spitting at, or “cobbing,” the offender.— Once a Week , September 24th, 1870....

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Derbyshire.

Derbyshire.

On the 29th of May branches of young oak are gathered and put up over the doors of many houses, and a small sprig of the same tree is commonly worn in the button-hole.— Jour. of Arch. Assoc. , 1852, vol. viii. p. 206....

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Devonshire.

Devonshire.

In the vicinity of Starcross the children celebrate this anniversary by carrying about what they call May babies, i.e., little dolls, carefully and neatly dressed, decked with flowers, and laid in boxes somewhat resembling coffins, though such resemblance is not, apparently, the intention of the artists.— N. &amp; Q. 2nd S. vol. ii. p. 405. In the Every Day Book (1826, vol. i. p. 718) occurs the following:— At Tiverton, on the 29th of May, it is customary for a number of young men, dressed i

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Durham.

Durham.

Mr. Cuthbert Carlton, of Durham, gives in the Durham Chronicle , of November 29th, 1872, the following account of a curious custom called “Push Penny.” He says: “This custom, which has been discontinued nearly a quarter of a century, is thus referred to in the Derbyshire Times of Saturday last:—‘There is a custom which has been upheld from time immemorial by the Dean and Chapter of Durham on three days in the year—30th of January, 29th of May, and 5th of November, the anniversary of King Charles

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Hampshire.

Hampshire.

The working men of Basingstoke and other towns in Hampshire arise early on the 29th of May to gather slips of oak with the galls on; these they put in their hats or anywhere about their persons. They also hang pieces to the knockers, latches, or other parts of the house-doors of the wealthy, who take them in to place in their halls, &amp;c. After breakfast these men go round to such houses for beer, &amp;c. Should they not receive anything the following verses should be said: but fear of

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Middlesex.

Middlesex.

It was the custom, some years ago, to decorate the monument of Richard Penderell (in the churchyard of St. Giles-in-the-Fields, London), on the 29th of May, with oak branches; but in proportion to the decay of popularity in kings, this practice has declined.—Canfield, Portraits, Memoirs, and Characters of Remarkable Persons , 1794, p. 186....

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Northamptonshire.

Northamptonshire.

Formerly all the principal families in the town of Northampton placed a large branch of oak over the door of their houses, or in their balconies, in remembrance of the restoration of Charles II. The oak-boughs are gradually disappearing, but the corporate body still goes in procession to All Saints Church, accompanied by the boys and girls of the different charity schools, each of them having a sprig of oak, with a gilt oak-apple placed in the front of their dress; and should the season be unpro

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Northumberland.

Northumberland.

At one time the boys at Newcastle-upon-Tyne had a taunting rhyme, with which they used to insult such persons as they met on this day who had not oak-leaves in their hats: There was a retort courteous by others, who contemptuously wore plane-tree leaves: Brand, Pop. Antiq. 1849, vol. i. p. 274....

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Nottinghamshire.

Nottinghamshire.

On Royal Oak Day branches of that tree are carried in procession, and decorate many of the signs of public houses in Nottingham and elsewhere.— Jour. of the Arch. Assoc. , 1853, vol. viii. p. 234. On this day the Notts juveniles not only wear the usual piece of oak-twig, but each young loyalist is armed with a nettle, with which instrument of torture are coerced those unfortunates who are unprovided with “royal oak,” as it is called. Some who are unable to procure it endeavour to avoid the penal

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Worcestershire.

Worcestershire.

In some parts of this county a garland, similar to the May-day one, is taken about on the 29th of May.— N. &amp; Q. 1st S. vol. x. p. 92. At Upton-upon-Severn oak-apple day is anxiously looked forward to by old and young. Early in the morning ropes are stretched across the street, upon which are hung garlands, composed of all such flowers as are in bloom. The garlands are also ornamented with coloured ribbons and handkerchiefs, and all the tea-spoons which can be collected are hung in the mi

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SCOTLAND.

SCOTLAND.

—The practice of Riding the Marches, says a writer in the Stat. Acc. of Scotland (1845, vol. iii. p. 399), is observed in the parish of Hawick, Roxburghshire. This ancient ceremonial takes place on the last Friday of May (old style), and is considered one of the most important days of the year. The honour of carrying the standard of the town devolves upon the cornet, a young man previously elected for the purpose; and he and the magistrates of the town on horseback, and a large body of the inhab

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PAIGNTON FAIR.

PAIGNTON FAIR.

June. ] PAIGNTON FAIR. Devonshire. A correspondent of N. &amp; Q. ( 1st S. vol. viii. p. 66) quotes from an old newspaper (June 7th, 1809) the following account of Paignton Fair, held at Exeter. At this fair, says the writer, the ancient custom of drawing through the town a plum-pudding of immense size, and afterwards of distributing it to the populace, was revived on Tuesday last. The ingredients which composed this enormous pudding were—four hundred pounds of flour, one hundred and seventy

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SCOTLAND.

SCOTLAND.

A solemn festival in the Scotch Metropolis is ordained by the Statutes of George Heriot’s Hospital (cap. ii.) in the following words: “But especially upon the first Monday in June, every year, shall be kept a solemn commemoration and thanksgiving unto God, in this form which followeth: In the morning, about eight of the clock of that day, the lord provost, all the ministers, magistrates, and ordinary Council of the city of Edinburgh, shall assemble themselves in the Committee-chamber of the said

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Wiltshire.

Wiltshire.

June 1. ] Wiltshire. Lord Viscount Palmerston, in 1734, by deed, gave for thrashers of Charlton about an acre of land in Rushall Field, the rent whereof was to be applied annually to give them a dinner wherewith to commemorate Stephen Duck the poet, who was originally a thrasher of Charlton. The parish of Rushall was afterwards inclosed, and by the award date, 12th January, 1804, a piece of arable land, measuring one acre and fifteen poles, was awarded in a different part of Rushall Field. The l

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IRELAND.

IRELAND.

June 9. ] IRELAND. The titular saint of this parish is Columbkill. The 9th of June is his festival day, and formerly on this day many of the inhabitants drove down their cattle to the beach, and swam them in that part of the sea into which runs the water of St. Columb’s Well— Mason’s Stat. Acc. of Ireland , 1814, vol. i. p. 185. June 11. ] ST. BARNABAS’ DAY. On the feast of St. Barnabas it seems to have been usual to decorate some churches with garlands of flowers. Brand (1849, vol. i. 293) quot

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Cumberland.

Cumberland.

Hesket, an extensive parish in this county, is noted for the singular circumstance of the Court of Inglewood Forest (in the precincts of which it is wholly included) being held in it annually, on St. Barnabas’ Day, in the open air. The suitors assemble by the highway-side, at a place only marked by an ancient thorn, where the annual dues to the lord of the forest, compositions for improvements, &amp;c., are paid; and a jury for the whole jurisdiction chosen from among the inhabitants of twen

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June 15.] ST. VITUS’ DAY.

June 15.] ST. VITUS’ DAY.

June 15. ] ST. VITUS’ DAY. On St. Vitus’ Day, says Hazlitt (Brand’s Pop. Antiq. 1870, vol. i. p. 166), the Skinners’ Company, accompanied by girls strewing herbs in their path, and by Bluecoat boys placed by their patronage on the foundation of Christ’s Hospital, march in procession from Dowgate Hill, where their hall is, to St. Antholin’s Church, in Watling Street, to hear service. [66] The sermon, says Hampson (in his Med. Ævi Kalend. vol. i. p. 296), for which the chaplain (who is usually a m

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Buckinghamshire.

Buckinghamshire.

The Status Scholæ Etonensis , A.D. 1560 (MS. Addit. Brit. Mus. 4843), says:—“In hac vigilia moris erat (quamdiu stetit) pueris, ornare lectos variis rerum variarum picturis, et carmina de vita rebusque gestis Joannis Baptistæ et præcursoris componere: et pulchre exscripta affigere clinopodiis lectorum, eruditis legenda.”...

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Cheshire.

Cheshire.

The annual setting of the watch on St. John’s Eve, in the city of Chester, was an affair of great moment. By an ordinance of the mayor, aldermen, and common councilmen, of that corporation, dated in the year 1564, and preserved among the Harleian MSS. in the British Museum, a pageant which is expressly said to be “according to ancient custom,” is ordained to consist of four giants, one unicorn, one dromedary, one camel, one luce, one dragon, and six hobby-horses, with other figures. By another M

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Cornwall.

Cornwall.

In Cornwall the festival fires, called bonfires, are kindled on the eve of St. John the Baptist and St. Peter’s Day; and Midsummer is thence in the Cornish tongue called “Goluan,” which signifies both light and rejoicing. At these fires the Cornish attend with lighted torches, tarred and pitched at the end, and make their perambulations round their fires, and go from village to village, carrying their torches before them; and this is certainly the remains of the Druid superstition, for “faces pr

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Cumberland.

Cumberland.

Hutchinson ( Hist. of Cumberland , vol. i. p. 177), speaking of the parish of Cumwhitton, says: They hold the wake on the Eve of St. John, with lighting fires, dancing, &amp;c....

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Lancashire.

Lancashire.

The custom of making large fires on the Eve of St. John’s Day is annually observed by numbers of the Irish people in Liverpool. Contributions in either fuel or money to purchase it with are collected from house to house. The fuel consists of coal, wood, or in fact anything that will burn: the fire-places are then built up and lighted after dark.— N. &amp; Q. 3rd S. vol. xii. p. 42....

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Isle of Man.

Isle of Man.

Formerly the inhabitants lighted fires to the windward side of every field, so that the smoke might pass over the corn; they folded their cattle and carried blazing furze or gorse around them several times; they gathered bawan fealoin or mugwort as a preventive against the influence of witchcraft; and it was on this occasion they bore green meadow grass up to the top of Barule in payment of rent to Mannan-beg-mac-y-heir.—Train, History of Isle of Man , 1845, vol. ii. p. 120....

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Middlesex.

Middlesex.

The date of the first establishment of a regular watch or guard for the City of London is uncertain. Stow assures us it has been instituted “time out of mind;” and we have, as early as the 39th Henry VI., the following entries: “Payde to iiij men to wacche w t the Mayre and to goo w t him a nyghtes, xvj d. ” “Payde in expenses for goyng about w t the Mayre in the town in the wacche, iiij d. ” The watch for the ensuing year was always appointed with much pomp and ceremony on the vigil of St. John

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Northumberland.

Northumberland.

In the ordinary of the Company of Cooks at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1575, quoted by Brand ( Pop. Antiq. 1849, vol. i. p. 318), is the following clause:—“And alsoe that the said fellowship of Cookes, shall yearelie of theire owne cost and charge mainteigne and keep the bonefires, according to the auntient custome of the said towne on the Sand-hill; that is to say, one bone-fire on the even of the Feast of the Nativitie of St. John Baptist, commonly called Midsomer Even, and the other on the even of t

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Nottinghamshire.

Nottinghamshire.

Deering, in his Nottinghamia Vetus et Nova (1751, p. 123), quoting from an old authority, gives the following curious account of the watch once held at Nottingham. He says: “Every inhabitant of any ability sets forth a man, as well voluntaries as those who are charged with arms, with such munition as they have; some pikes, some muskets, calivers, or other guns; some partisans, or halberts; and such as have armour send their servants in their armour. The number of these are yearly about two hundr

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Oxfordshire.

Oxfordshire.

About the year 750, says Plott, a battle was fought near Burford, perhaps on the place still called Battle-Edge, west of the town, towards Upton, between Cuthred or Cuthbert, a tributary king of the West Saxons, and Ethelbald, king of Mercia, whose insupportable exactions the former king not being able to endure, he came into the field against Ethelbald, met and overthrew him there, winning his banner, whereon was depicted a golden dragon; in memory of which victory, the custom of making a drago

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Worcestershire.

Worcestershire.

A very curious practice is observed on Midsummer Eve at Kidderminster, arising from the testamentary dispositions of two individuals once resident there. A farthing loaf is given to every person born in Church Street, Kidderminster, who chooses to claim it. The bequest is of very ancient standing, and the farthing loaf, at the time of its date, was far different to what it is now-a-days. The day is called Farthing Loaf Day, and the bakers’ shops are amply provided with these diminutives, as it i

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Yorkshire.

Yorkshire.

On Midsummer Eve, at Ripon, in former days, every housekeeper, who in the course of the year had changed his residence into a new neighbourhood, spread a table before his door in the street with bread, cheese, and ale for those who chose to resort to it. The guests, after staying awhile, if the master was liberally disposed, were invited to supper, and the evening was concluded with mirth and good humour.— Every Day Book , vol. ii. p. 866....

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WALES.

WALES.

Bingley, in his Tour Round North Wales (1800, vol. ii. p. 237), says: On the Eve of St. John the Baptist they fix sprigs of the plant called St. John’s-wort over their doors, and sometimes over their windows, in order to purify their houses, and by that means drive away all fiends and evil spirits....

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SCOTLAND.

SCOTLAND.

The Eve of St. John is a great day among the mason-lodges of Scotland. What happens with them at Melrose may be considered as a fair example of the whole. Immediately after the election of office-bearers for the year ensuing, the brethren walk in procession three times round the Cross, and afterwards dine together under the presidency of the newly-elected grand master. About six in the evening the members again turn out, and form into line two abreast, each bearing a lighted flambeau, and decora

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IRELAND.

IRELAND.

The following extract is taken from the Liverpool Mercury , June 29th, 1867:— The old pagan fire-worship still survives in Ireland, though nominally in honour of St. John. On Sunday night bonfires were observed throughout nearly every county in the province of Leinster. In Kilkenny, fires blazed on every hillside at intervals of about a mile. There were very many in the Queen’s county, also in Kildare and Wexford. The effect in the rich sunset appeared to travellers very grand. The people assemb

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Buckinghamshire.

Buckinghamshire.

The Status Scholæ Etonensis , A.D. 1560 (MS. Addit. Brit. Mus. 4813), says: “ Mense Junii , in Festo Natalis D. Johannis post matutinas preces, dum consuetudo floruit accedebant omnes scholastici ad rogum extructum in orientali regione templi, ubi reverenter a symphoniacis cantatis tribus Antiphonis, et pueris in ordine stantibus venitur ad merendam.”...

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Cambridgeshire.

Cambridgeshire.

On a common called Midsummer Green, in the parish of Barnwell, an annual fair is held, commencing on Midsummer Day, and continuing for a fortnight. This fair is supposed to have originated with the assemblages of children at this place on the eve of St. John the Baptist’s Day, whose yearly gatherings being attended by a considerable concourse of people, attracted the notice of some pedlars, who began to dispose of their merchandise on this spot as early as the reign of Henry I. The articles brou

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Cheshire.

Cheshire.

In former times there was a privilege of licensing the minstrels, peculiar to the ancient family of Dutton. The original grant came from Earl Randal Blundeville to Roger Lacy, constable of Chester; and his son, John Lacy, assigned the privilege to the family of Dutton. The anniversary of this solemnity was constantly celebrated on the festival of St. John the Baptist by a regular procession of all the minstrels to the church of this tutelary saint in the city of Chester. But after having been co

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Cornwall.

Cornwall.

Hitchins, in his History of Cornwall (1824, vol. i. p. 717), says: Midsummer Day is considered as a high holiday, on which either a pole is erected, decorated with garlands, or some flags displayed, to denote the sanctity of the time. This custom has prevailed from time immemorial, of which it is scarcely possible to trace the origin....

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Devonshire.

Devonshire.

Lynton revel begins on the first Sunday after Midsummer Day. It formerly lasted a week. As in the days before the Reformation, revels until lately began on a Sunday in Lynton and Lynmouth, a barrel of beer having been placed near the church gate in readiness for the people coming out of church, who partook of a glass and a cake, called revel cake, made with dark flour, currants, and carraway seeds. Wrestling formed a chief feature in the amusements, and large sums were raised by subscription to

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Isle of Man.

Isle of Man.

On this day a tent is erected on the summit of the Tynwald Hill (called also Cronk-y-Keeillown, i.e., St. John’s Church Hill, a mound said to have been originally brought from each of the seventeen parishes of the island), and preparations are made for the reception of the officers of state, according to ancient custom. Early in the morning the Governor proceeds from Castletown under a military escort to St. John’s Chapel, situated a few hundred yards to the eastward of the Tynwald Hill. Here he

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Middlesex.

Middlesex.

“There is this solemn and charitable custom in y e Ch. of St. Mary-Hill, London. On the next Sunday after Midsummer Day, every year, the fellowship of the Porters of y e City of London, time out of mind, come to this church in y e morning, and whilst the Psalms are reading, they group two and two towards the rails of y e Communion table, where are set two basons; and there they make their offering, and so return to the body of y e Church again. After then the inhabitants of y e parish and their

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Northamptonshire.

Northamptonshire.

It was the custom to strew the church of Middleton Chenduit, in summer, with hay gathered from six or seven swaths in Ash Meadow, which were given for this purpose. In the winter the rector found straw.—Bridges’s History of Northamptonshire , 1791, vol. i. p. 187....

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Northumberland.

Northumberland.

It is customary on this day to dress out stools with a cushion of flowers. A layer of clay is placed on the stool, and therein is stuck, with great regularity, an arrangement of all kinds of flowers, so close as to form a beautiful cushion. These are exhibited at the doors of houses in the villages, and at the ends of streets and cross lanes of larger towns, where the attendants beg money from passengers to enable them to have an evening fête and dancing. This custom is evidently derived from th

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Oxfordshire.

Oxfordshire.

The following notice of a curious custom, formerly observed at Magdalen College, Oxford, is taken from the Life of Bishop Horne , by the Rev. William Jones (Works, vol. xii. p. 131):—“A letter of July the 25th, 1755, informed me that Mr. Horne, according to an established custom at Magdalen College, in Oxford, had begun to preach before the University, on the day of St. John the Baptist. For the preaching of this annual sermon, a permanent pulpit of stone is inserted into a corner of the first q

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Somersetshire.

Somersetshire.

Collinson, in his History of the County of Somerset (1791, vol. iii. p. 586), gives an account of a custom that was celebrated on the Saturday before old Midsummer Day in the parishes of Congresbury and Puxton, at two large pieces of common land, called East and West Dolemoors. These, he says, were divided into single acres, each bearing a peculiar and different mark cut on the turf, such as a horn, four oxen and a mare, two oxen and a mare, pole-axe, cross, dung-fork, oven, duck’s nest, hand re

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Wiltshire.

Wiltshire.

At Chiltern there is a sport widely practised by the boys, which they call “egg-hopping.” At the commencement of summer the lads forage the woods in quest of birds’ eggs. These, when found, they place on the road at distances apart in proportion to the rarity or abundance of the species of egg. The hopper is then blindfolded, and he endeavours to break as many as he can in a certain number of jumps. The universality of the game, and the existence of various superstitions, combined with their ref

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Yorkshire.

Yorkshire.

Old Midsummer Day, says Cole ( History of Scalby , 1829, p. 44), is, at Scalby, a kind of gala time, when the sports, as they are termed, take place, consisting of the most rustic description of amusements, such as donkey-racing, &amp;c., and when booths are erected for the accommodation of the several visitors, and the village presents a motley fair-like appearance....

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IRELAND.

IRELAND.

A pilgrimage to the source of the River Lee is one frequently performed by two very different classes of persons—the superstitious and the curious; the first led by a traditional sanctity attached to the place, the latter by the reputed sublimity of its scenery, and a desire of witnessing the religious assemblies and ceremonies of the peasantry. The scenery of Gougaun lake is bold and rugged, surrounded by rocky and barren mountains; in its centre is a small and solitary island, connected with t

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Yorkshire.

Yorkshire.

June 25. ] Yorkshire. In the village of Micklefield, about ten miles east of Leeds, it is the custom on the second day of the feast, (June 25th) for about twelve of the villagers, [73] dressed, in their best garb, and wearing a white apron à l’épicier , to carry a large basket (generally a clothes-basket) to each farm-house in the village, the occupier of which seems to consider it his bounden duty to give them a good supply of confectionery of some kind to take away with them, and ale ad libitu

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Buckinghamshire.

Buckinghamshire.

It appears from the Status Scholæ Etonensis ( A.D. 1560) that the Eton boys had a great bonfire annually on the east side of the church on St. Peter’s Day, as well as on that of St. John Baptist....

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Kent.

Kent.

The stranger who chances to attend Divine service in Farnborough parish church on the Sunday next after the feast of St. Peter, has his attention arrested by the floor of the porch being strewed with reeds. By an abstract of the will of George Dalton, Gent., of Farnborough, dated December 3rd, 1556, set forth on a mural tablet in the interior of the church, he learns that this gentleman settled a perpetual annuity of 13 s. 4 d. chargeable upon his lands at Tuppendence: 10 s. to the preacher of a

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Northamptonshire.

Northamptonshire.

Cole, in his History of Weston Favell (1829, p. 58), says:—The feast follows St. Peter’s Day. The amusements and sports of the week consist of dinner and tea parties formed from the adjacent towns, which meetings are frequently concluded with a ball, indeed a dance at the inns on the few first days of the feast is indispensable. Games at bowls and quoits are pursued with great dexterity and interest by the more athletic visitants, and in the evening the place presents a motley, fair-like appeara

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Northumberland.

Northumberland.

Formerly, says Brand ( Pop. Antiq. 1849, vol. i. p. 337), on the evening of St. Peter’s Day, the inhabitants of this county carried firebrands about the fields of their respective parishes. They made encroachments on these occasions upon the bonfires of the neighbouring towns, of which they took away some of the ashes by force; this they called “carrying off the flower (probably the flour) of the wake.”...

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Yorkshire.

Yorkshire.

In an old account of Gisborough, in Cleveland, and the adjoining coast, printed in the Antiquarian Repertory (1808, vol. iii. p. 304) from an ancient MS. in the Cotton Library (marked Julius F. C., fol. 455), speaking of the fishermen, it is stated that “Upon St. Peter’s Daye they invite their friends and kinsfolk to a festyvall kept after their fashion with a free hearte, and noe shew of niggardnesse; that daye their boates are dressed curiously for the shewe, their mastes are painted, and cert

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SCOTLAND.

SCOTLAND.

In Sinclair’s Stat. Acc. of Scotland (1792, vol. iii. p. 105) we are told that at Loudoun, in Ayrshire, the custom still retains among the herds and young people to kindle fires in the high grounds, in honour of Beltan. Beltan was anciently the time of this solemnity. It is kept on St. Peter’s day. July. ] COMMENCEMENT DAY....

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Cambridgeshire.

Cambridgeshire.

In the University of Cambridge, the first Tuesday in July is usually the Commencement Day. The Commencement Sunday is the Sunday immediately before the Commencement Day. It is a commemoration day. On Commencement Sunday, the Vice-Chancellor invites to dinner all noblemen, the three Regius Professors, and their sons and the public orator.—Adam Wall, Ceremonies observed in the Senate House of the University of Cambridge , 1798, p. 76....

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Huntingdonshire.

Huntingdonshire.

At Old Weston a piece of green sward belongs by custom to the parish clerk for the time being, subject to the condition of the land being mown immediately before Weston feast, which occurs in July, and the cutting thereof being strewed on the church floor previously to Divine service on the feast Sunday, and continuing there during Divine service.—Edwards, Old English Customs and Charities , p. 220....

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Lancashire.

Lancashire.

At Altcar the parish church is dedicated to St. Michael, and, in accordance with a very old custom, a rush-bearing takes place in July.—See Med. Ævi Kalend. vol. i. p. 341....

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Northumberland.

Northumberland.

In the History of Alnwick (1822, pp. 241-244) the following account is given of an ancient custom celebrated on the proclamation of the fair held in July. On the Sunday evening preceding the fair, the representatives of the adjacent townships that owe suit and service to his Grace the Duke of Northumberland, and the constables of Alnwick, with several of the freeholders and tradesmen, attend at the castle, where they are freely regaled. The steward of the Court, and the bailiff with their attend

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SCOTLAND.

SCOTLAND.

The Leith Races take place either in the month of July or August. As they were under the patronage of the magistrates of Edinburgh, it was usual for one of the city officers to walk in procession every morning during the week from the Council Chamber down to Leith, bearing aloft a silk purse, gaily decorated with ribbons, styled the City Purse, on the end of a pole, accompanied by the town-guard drummer, who, being stationed in the rear of this dignitary, continued beating a tattoo at his heels

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IRELAND.

IRELAND.

July 1. ] IRELAND. Mason, in his Stat. Acc. of Ireland (1814, vol. ii. p. 528), says that the great holiday in Seagoe is on the first of July (Old Style), being the anniversary of the battle of the Boyne. A procession takes place, the whole population wear orange lilies, and the day is spent in festivity....

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Leicestershire.

Leicestershire.

July 5. ] Leicestershire. At Glenfield, the parish clerk, in accordance with an old custom, strews the church with new hay on the first Sunday after the 5th of July.—Edwards, Old English Customs and Charities , p. 219. July 7. ] ST. THOMAS À BECKET’S DAY....

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Cornwall.

Cornwall.

The festival called Bodmin Riding was kept on Sunday and Monday after St. Thomas à Becket’s Day (July 7th). A puncheon of beer having been brewed in the preceding October, and bottled in anticipation of the time, two or more young men who were entrusted with the chief management of the affair, and who represented the “wardens,” went round the town attended by a band of drums and fifes, or other instruments. The crier saluted each house with, “To the people of this house a prosperous morning, lon

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Kent.

Kent.

Becket’s Fair, says Hasted in his History of Canterbury (1801, vol. i. p. 104), was held on the feast of St. Thomas à Becket, and was so called from this day being the anniversary of the Archbishop’s translation from his tomb to his shrine, and as such was fixed for this purpose, as a means of gathering together a greater multitude for the celebration of this solemn day....

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Northamptonshire.

Northamptonshire.

In some parts of this county the Sunday after St. Thomas à Becket’s Day goes by the name of Relic Sunday.— Time’s Telescope , 1822, p. 192....

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Staffordshire.

Staffordshire.

July 9. ] Staffordshire. There existed at one time, at Wolverhampton, an annual procession, on July 9th (the eve of the great fair), of men in antique armour, preceded by musicians playing the “fair tune,” and followed by the steward of the Deanery Manor, the peace-officers, and many of the principal inhabitants. Tradition says the ceremony originated at the time when Wolverhampton was a great emporium of wool, and resorted to by merchants of the staple from all parts of England. The necessity o

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IRELAND.

IRELAND.

July 12. ] IRELAND. At Maghera, County Down, on the 12th of July, the anniversary of the battle of Aughrim, the Orangemen assemble, walk in their insignia, and dine together.—Mason, Stat. Acc. of Ireland , 1844, vol. i. p. 594. July 15. ] ST. SWITHIN’S DAY. St. Swithin was Chancellor of the Exchequer in the time of King Ethelbert, and the great patron saint of the cathedral and city of Winchester. In some church-books there are entries of gatherings of “Saint Swithine’s farthyngs” on this day. T

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Surrey.

Surrey.

In the Churchwardens’ accounts of the parish of Horley, under the years 1505-6, is the following entry, which implies a gathering on this saint’s day:— “Itm. Saintt Swithine farthyngs the said 2 yeres, 30 s. 8 d. ”...

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Yorkshire.

Yorkshire.

Sports were at one time annually celebrated at Cloughton on Saturday evening after the 15th July.—Cole, Historical Sketches of Scalby, Burniston, and Cloughton , 1829, p. 63. July 17. ] ST. KENELM’S DAY....

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Worcestershire.

Worcestershire.

At Clent, in the parish of Hales Owen, a fair was formerly held in a field in which St. Kenelm’s Chapel is situated. It is, says Brand, of very ancient date, and probably arose from the gathering together of persons to visit the shrine of St. Kenelm on the feast of the saint, 17th of July. On the Sunday after this fair, St. Kenelm’s wake was held, at which a curious custom was practised, called “Crabbing the Parson,” the origin of which is said to have arisen on this wise:—“Long, long ago, an in

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Cambridgeshire.

Cambridgeshire.

On the feast of St. Margaret in 1511, the Miracle Play of the Holy Martyr St. George was acted on a stage in an open field at Bassingborne in Cambridgeshire, at which there were a minstrel and three waits hired from Cambridge, with a property-man and a painter. The following extract from an old churchwarden’s book belonging to the parish of Bassingborne, gives the various subscriptions and expenses connected with it:— Memorandum:—Received at the play held on St. Margaret’s day, A.D. MDXI., in Ba

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Norfolk.

Norfolk.

To the west of Wereham Church, Norfolk, a well, called St. Margaret’s, was much frequented in the times of Popery. Here, on St. Margaret’s Day, the people regaled themselves with ale and cakes, music and dancing. Alms were given, and offerings and vows made, at sainted wells of this kind.— Excursions in the County of Norfolk , 1829, vol. ii. p. 145. July 22. ] ST. BRIDGET’S EVE....

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IRELAND.

IRELAND.

On St. Bridget’s Eve every farmer’s wife in Ireland makes a cake, called Bairinbreac ; the neighbours are invited, the madder of ale and the pipe go round, and the evening concludes with mirth and festivity.—Col. Vallancey, Essay on the Antiquity of the Irish Language , 1772, p. 21; see Fosbroke’s Encyclopædia of Antiquities , 1840, p. 657. July 25. ] ST. JAMES’S DAY. It is customary in London to begin eating oysters on St. James’s Day, and in the course of the few days following upon their intr

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Kent.

Kent.

The rector of Cliff distributes at his parsonage-house, on St. James’s day, annually, a mutton pie and a loaf to as many as choose to demand it; the expense amounts to about £15 per annum....

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Lancashire.

Lancashire.

It was customary at one time for the Corporation of Liverpool to give an annual public dinner, in the Exchange, to two or three hundred of the principal inhabitants, on the 25th July and 11th November, the days of the commencement of the Liverpool fairs, which were considered as days of festivity by all ranks of the community. On these days the mayor, bailiffs, and burgesses, in their gowns, went in procession with a band of music, from the Exchange to the middle of Dale Street, where they passe

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Berkshire.

Berkshire.

The first Monday after St. Anne’s Day, July 26th, a feast is held at Newbury, the principal dishes being bacon and beans. In the course of the day a procession takes place; a cabbage is stuck on a pole, and carried instead of a mace, accompanied by similar substitutes for other emblems of civic dignity.— Every Day Book , vol. ii. p. 1045....

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July 29.] ST. OLAVE’S DAY.

July 29.] ST. OLAVE’S DAY.

July 29. ] ST. OLAVE’S DAY. Strype in his Ecclesiastical Memorials (1822, vol. iii. pt. ii. p. 11), says: “On the 29th July, 1557, being St. Olave’s Day, was the church holiday in Silver Street, the parish church whereof was dedicated to that saint. And at eight of the clock at night began a stage play of a goodly matter (relating, it is like, to that saint), that continued unto twelve at midnight, and then they made an end with good song.”...

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August.] SWAN-UPPING.

August.] SWAN-UPPING.

August. ] SWAN-UPPING. Formerly the members of the Corporation of London, in gaily-decorated barges, went up the Thames annually in August, for the purpose of nicking or marking, and counting their swans. They used to land off Barnes Elms, and partake of a collation. This yearly progress was commonly but incorrectly called “swan-hopping:” the correct designation is shown by the ancient statutes to be “swan-upping,” the swans being taken up and nicked, or marked. A “swan-with-two-nicks” indicated

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Devonshire.

Devonshire.

The charter for Exeter Lammas Fair is perpetuated by a glove of immense size, stuffed and carried through the city on a very long pole, decorated with ribbons, flowers, &amp;c., and attended with music, parish beadles, and the nobility. It is afterwards placed on the top of the Guildhall, and then the fair commences; on the taking down of the glove the fair terminates.— Every Day Book , vol. ii. p. 1059....

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Isle of Man.

Isle of Man.

The first Sunday in August is called, by the Manks peasantry, yn chied doonaght a ouyr . On that day they crowd in great numbers to the tops of the highest hills, in the north to the summit of Snafeld, and in the south to the top of Barule. Others visit the sanative wells of the island, which are held in the highest estimation. The veneration with which the Pagan deities were regarded having been transferred along with their fanes and fountains to Christian saints, sanctified and sanative wells

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Middlesex.

Middlesex.

Lammas Day is noted in London for an annual rowing match on the Thames, instituted by Thomas Doggett, [76] an actor of celebrity, in honour of the accession of George I. to the throne of England. Doggett was so warmly attached to the Brunswick family that Sir Richard Steele termed him “a Whig up to the head and ears.” In the year after George I. came to the throne, Doggett gave a waterman’s coat and silver badge, to be rowed for by six watermen on the 1st of August. This he not only continued ti

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Sussex.

Sussex.

The following curious custom once existed at Eastbourne. On the three first Sundays in August a public breakfast, says Royer ( History of Eastbourne , 1787, p. 126), is given at the parsonage-house by the tenants of the great tythes to the farmers and their servants, each farmer being entitled to send two servants for every waggon that he keeps. So that if a farmer have five waggons to do his necessary business he may send ten servants, and so on in proportion for a less or greater number. The f

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Yorkshire.

Yorkshire.

Hutton in his Trip to Coatham (1810, p. 63), says the great annual feast at Coatham in his time was celebrated on the first Sunday after Lammas Day, old style, and called St. Wilfrid’s Feast, kept in commemoration of the prelate’s return from exile. On the evening before the feast commenced, the effigy of this favourite of the people, having been previously conveyed some miles out of the town, made his public entry as returning after a long absence, being met by crowds of people, who, with shout

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SCOTLAND.

SCOTLAND.

What appears as a relic of the ancient Pagan festival of the Gule of August, was practised in Lothian till about the middle of the eighteenth century. The herdsmen within a certain district, towards the beginning of summer, associated themselves into bands, sometimes to the number of a hundred or more. Each of these communities agreed to build a tower in some conspicuous place, near the centre of their district, which was to serve as the place of their rendezvous on Lammas Day. This tower was us

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Buckinghamshire.

Buckinghamshire.

Aug. 2. ] Buckinghamshire. Hunting the ram was a very ancient custom observed at Eton, but is now abolished. Lipscomb, in his History of Buckinghamshire (1847, vol. iv. p. 467), thus describes it:— The college had an ancient claim upon its butcher to provide a ram on the Election Saturday, to be hunted by the scholars; but the animal having upon one occasion been so pressed as to swim across the Thames, it ran into Windsor Market, with the boys after it, and much mischief was caused by this unex

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Aug. 4.] APPRENTICES’ FEAST.

Aug. 4.] APPRENTICES’ FEAST.

Aug. 4. ] APPRENTICES’ FEAST. The City apprentices, about the time of Charles II., had an annual feast. On one occasion Charles II. sent them a brace of bucks for dinner at Saddlers’ Hall, where several of his courtiers dined with them, and his natural son, the duke of Grafton, officiated as one of the stewards.—Noorthouck, History of London , 1773, p. 248. Aug. 5. ] ST. OSWALD’S DAY...

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Lancashire.

Lancashire.

Dr. Whitaker ( History of Richmond , vol. ii. p. 293) quotes a manuscript description of a rush-bearing observed at Warton, on St. Oswald’s Day, or the Sunday nearest to it—he being the patron of the church. “The vain custom,” says the writer, “of dancing, excessive drinking, &amp;c., having been many years laid aside, the inhabitants and strangers spend that day in duly attending the service of the church and making good cheer, within the rules of sobriety, in private houses; and the next i

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Cumberland.

Cumberland.

On the first day of a fair held annually in Muncaster, called Ravenglass Fair, the lord’s steward was attended by the serjeant of the borough of Egremont with the insignia called the Bow of Egremont, the foresters with their bows and horns, and all the tenants of the forest of Copeland, whose special service was to attend the lord and his representatives at Ravenglass Fair, and abide there during its continuance. On the third day, at noon, the officers and tenants of the forest departed, after p

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Middlesex.

Middlesex.

Aug. 5. ] Middlesex. Formerly a silver arrow used annually to be shot for by the scholars of the Free School at Harrow. The following extract is taken from the Gent. Mag. , 1731, vol. i., p. 351:— Thursday, August 5th, according to an ancient custom, a silver arrow, value £3, was shot for at the butts on Harrow-on-the-Hill, by six youths of the Free School, in archery habits, and won by a son of Captain Brown, commander of an East Indiaman. This diversion was the gift of John Lyon, Esq., founder

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Surrey.

Surrey.

Henry VI., in the eighteenth year of his reign (1440), granted to John de Harmondesnorth, Abbot of Chertsey, the right to hold a fair on St. Anne’s Day, July 26th, old style; but this is now held in the town on the 6th of August, and called “Black Cherry Fair,” from the abundance of that fruit sold there.—Brayley, History of Surrey , 1841, vol. ii. p. 191. Aug. 15. ] ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN MARY. This was formerly a great festival; and it was customary to implore blessings upon herbs, plants, r

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Staffordshire.

Staffordshire.

The following abridged account of the Minstrels’ Festival at Tutbury, celebrated at this season, is taken from The Book of Days , vol. i. p. 224:— During the time of the Dukes of Lancaster the little town of Tutbury was so enlivened by the noble hospitality they kept up, and the great concourse of people who gathered there, that some regulations became necessary for keeping them in order; more especially those disorderly favourites of both the high and low, the wandering jugglers or minstrels, w

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Aug. 16.] ST. ROCHE’S DAY.

Aug. 16.] ST. ROCHE’S DAY.

Aug. 16. ] ST. ROCHE’S DAY. This day was anciently kept like a wake, or general harvest-home, with dances in the churchyard in the evening.—Fosbrooke, Dict. Antiq....

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Aug. 18.] ST. HELEN’S DAY.

Aug. 18.] ST. HELEN’S DAY.

Aug. 18. ] ST. HELEN’S DAY. This saint gives name to numerous wells in the north of England. Dr. Kuerden, in the middle of the seventeenth century, describing one in the parish of Brindle, says: “To it the vulgar neighbouring people of the Red Letter do much resort with pretended devotion, on each year upon St. Ellin’s Day, where and when, out of a foolish ceremony, they offer, or throw into the well, pins, which, there being left, may be seen a long time after by any visitor of that fountain.”

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Lincolnshire.

Lincolnshire.

In the morning a number of maidens, clad in their best attire, went in procession to a small chapel, situated in the parish of Dorrington, and strewed its floor with rushes, from whence they proceeded to a piece of land called the “Play-Garths,” where they were joined by most of the inhabitants of the place, who passed the remainder of the day in rural sports, such as foot-ball, wrestling and other athletic exercises, with dancing, &amp;c.— History of County of Lincoln , 1834, vol. ii. p. 25

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Yorkshire.

Yorkshire.

Dr. Johnston, quoted by Hampson ( Med. Ævi Kalend. vol. i. p. 342), has preserved an account of a pageant exhibited at Dent on the rush-bearing (St. Bartholomew’s Day) after the Restoration, in which, among other characters, Oliver and Bradshaw, Rebellion and War, were represented, all decked by times with vizardes on, and strange deformities; and Bradshaw had his tongue run through with a red hot iron, and Rebellion was hanged on a gibbet in the market-place. Then came Peace and Plenty, and Dia

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Lancashire.

Lancashire.

Concerning this curious custom, Britton, in his Lancashire (1818, p. 109), gives the following account:— It is a sort of public carnival or jubilee , and is held every twenty years, as appears by the records of the corporation. The last confirmation was by Charles II., in 1684, since which time it has been regularly held, in the first of Anne, ninth of George I., sixteenth of George II., and second, twenty-second, and again in the forty-second year of George III., the only monarch, except Queen

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Lancashire.

Lancashire.

An annual festival used to be held at Eccles, of great antiquity, as old probably as the first erection of the church, called Eccles Wake, celebrated on the first Sunday in September, and was continued during the three succeeding days, and consisted of feasting upon a kind of local confectionery, called “Eccles Cakes,” and ale, with various sports. The following was the programme on such an occasion: “ Eccles Wake. —On Monday morning, at eleven o’clock the sports will commence (the sports of Sun

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Norfolk.

Norfolk.

At Diss, it is customary for the juvenile populace, on the Thursday before the third Friday in September (on which latter day a fair and session for hiring servants are held), to mark and disfigure each other’s dresses with white chalk, pleading a prescriptive right to be mischievous on “Chalk-Back Day.”— N. &amp; Q. 1st. S. vol iv. p. 501....

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IRELAND.

IRELAND.

The following extract is taken from the Leeds Mercury , September 8th, 1863:—The triennial ceremony of “throwing the dart” in Cork Harbour was performed on Thursday afternoon by the mayor of that city. This is one of those quaint ceremonials by which, in olden time, municipal boundaries were preserved and corporate rights asserted. A similar civic pageant called “riding the fringes” (franchises) was formerly held by the lord mayor and corporation of Dublin, in which, after riding round the inlan

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Durham.

Durham.

An offering of a stag was at one time annually made on St. Cuthbert’s Day, in September, by the Nevilles of Raby. On one occasion, however, Lord Neville claimed that himself, and as many as he might bring with him, should be feasted by the Prior upon the occasion. To this the Prior demurred, as a thing that had never been before claimed as of right, and as being a most expensive and onerous burden, for the trains of the great nobility of that day were numerous in the extreme. The result was that

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Lincolnshire.

Lincolnshire.

An old tradition existing within the town of Grimsby asserts that every burgess at his admission to the freedom of the borough anciently presented to the mayor a boar’s head, or an equivalent in money when the animal could not be procured. The lord, too, of the adjacent manor of Bradley, it seems, was obliged by his tenure to keep a supply of these animals in his wood for the entertainment of the mayor and burgesses, and an annual hunting match was officially proclaimed on some particular day af

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Hampshire.

Hampshire.

Sept 12. ] Hampshire. A fair used to be celebrated at Winchester on the 12th of September, and was by far the greatest fair in the kingdom. The mayor resigned the keys of the four gates to a magistrate appointed by the bishop, and collectors were stationed on all the roads. Merchants resorted to it from distant parts of Europe, and it formed a temporary city; each street being appropriated to different commodities.— Historical and Descriptive Guide to Winchester , 1829, p. 86. Sept. 14. ] HOLY-R

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Buckinghamshire.

Buckinghamshire.

It appears from the MS. Status Scholæ Etonensis , 1560, already quoted, that, in the month of September, “on a certain day,” most probably the 14th, the boys of Eton School were to have a play-day, in order to go out and gather nuts, a portion of which, when they returned, they were to make presents of to the different masters. Before leave, however, was granted for their excursion, they were required to write verses on the fruitfulness of autumn, the deadly cold, &amp;c., of the coming wint

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Surrey.

Surrey.

At Chertsey a fair is held on Holy-Rood Day (Old Style), and goes by the name of “Onion Fair,” from the quantity of this esculent brought for sale.—Brayley, History of Surrey , 1841, vol. ii. p. 191....

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Sept. 21.] ST. MATTHEW’S DAY.

Sept. 21.] ST. MATTHEW’S DAY.

Sept. 21. ] ST. MATTHEW’S DAY. In Brayley’s Londiniana (1829, vol. ii. p. 30) is the following extract from the MS. copy of the journal of Richard Hoare, Esq., during the year of his shrievalty, 1740-41:— Monday, September 21st (1741), being St. Matthew’s Day, waited on my lord mayor to the great hall in Christ’s Hospital, where we were met by several of the presidents and governors of the other hospitals within the city, and being seated at the upper end the children passed two and two, whom we

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Bedfordshire.

Bedfordshire.

Sept. 22. ] Bedfordshire. On this day, at Biddenham, shortly before noon, a little procession of villagers convey a white rabbit decorated with scarlet ribbons through the village, singing a hymn in honour of St. Agatha. This ceremony is said to date from the year of the first Crusade. All the unmarried young women who meet the procession extend the first two fingers of the left hand, pointing towards the rabbit, and say— The Penny Post , November 1870....

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Sept. 24.] SCALDING THURSDAY.

Sept. 24.] SCALDING THURSDAY.

Sept. 24. ] SCALDING THURSDAY. In Laud’s diary occurs the following: “[1635] Sept. 24th, Scalding Thursday.” This was probably a homely term for the day of preparation for that high-day Michaelmas, when the victim goose was scalded, plucked, and hung—a week’s hanging is the rule for a goose.— N. &amp; Q. 3rd S. , vol. iv. p. 441. Sept. 28. ] MICHAELMAS EVE....

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Surrey.

Surrey.

A curious custom once existed at Kingston, viz., that of the congregation cracking nuts during the performance of divine service on the Sunday next before the eve of St. Michael’s Day: hence the phrase, “Crack-Nut Sunday.” This custom is considered by some to have had originally some connection with the choosing of the bailiff and other members of the corporate body on St. Michael’s Day, and of the usual civic feast attending that proceeding. It would seem, however, from the following passage in

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IRELAND.

IRELAND.

The last Sunday of summer has been, heretofore, a day of great importance with the Irish, as upon it they first tried the new potato, and formed an opinion as to the prospects of the future harvest. The day was always called, in the west in particular, “Garlic Sunday,” perhaps a corruption of Garland Sunday.— N. &amp; Q. 1st. S. vol. ix. p. 34. Sept. 29. ] MICHAELMAS DAY. At this season village maidens, in the west of England, go up and down the hedges gathering crab apples, which they carry

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Michaelmas Goose.

Michaelmas Goose.

—It was long a prevalent notion that the practice of eating goose on Michaelmas Day arose from the circumstance that Queen Elizabeth received the news of the defeat of the Spanish Armada whilst partaking of a goose on that anniversary. This, however, is disproved by the fact that, so far back as the tenth year of Edward IV. (1470), one John de la Hay was bound, amongst other services, to render to William Barnaby, lord of Lastres, in Herefordshire, for a parcel of the demesne lands, “xx d and on

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Berkshire.

Berkshire.

It appears from a tablet in the church at Great Coxwell, that the Rev. David Collier charged certain lands in the hamlet of Little Coxwell with the payment of eight bushels of barley yearly, on the 29th of September, for teaching the poor children of this parish to read, write, and cast accounts, for three years, when they were to be succeeded by two others to be taught for the same term, and so on successively for ever, and he empowered the vicar and churchwardens, or the major part of them (th

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Cornwall.

Cornwall.

The manor of Roscarrock, the Roscaret of Domesday, situated near Endellion, was held in the time of Edward the Confessor by Alvin, and at the time of the Domesday survey by Nigel under the Earl of Moriton. A substantial house has been constructed on the site of the old mansion. Roscarrock pays a modus of £9 in lieu of tithes; this modus was anciently paid, according to established custom, in the church porch before sunrise on the morning of Michaelmas Day.— Parochial History of County of Cornwal

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Essex.

Essex.

The Lawless Court is kept, says Morant ( History of Essex 1768, vol. i. p. 272), at King’s-hill, about half a mile north-east of Rochford Church, in the yard of a house once belonging to .... Crips, Gent., and afterwards to Robert Hackshaw, of London, merchant, and to Mr. John Buckle. Here the tenants kneel, and do their homage. The time is the Wednesday morning next after Michaelmas Day, upon the first cock-crowing, without any kind of light but such as the heavens will afford. The steward of t

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Gloucestershire.

Gloucestershire.

The custom of hanging out bushes of ivy, boughs of trees, or bunches of flowers at private houses as a sign that good cheer may be had within, prevails in the city of Gloucester at the fair held at Michaelmas, called Barton Fair from the locality.— N. &amp; Q. 1st S. vol. ix. p. 113....

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Hertfordshire.

Hertfordshire.

In Brand’s Pop. Antiq. (1849, vol. i. p. 372) is the following account of a curious septennial custom observed at Bishop Stortford and in the adjacent neighbourhood on old Michaelmas Day, taken from a London newspaper of the 18th of October, 1787:— On the morning of this day, called Ganging Day, a great number of young men assemble in the fields where a very active fellow is nominated the leader. This person they are bound to follow, who, for the sake of diversion, generally chooses the route th

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Nottinghamshire.

Nottinghamshire.

A correspondent of Book of Days (vol ii. p. 393) gives the following account of the ceremonies formerly connected with the election of the mayor at Nottingham. On the day the new mayor assumed office (September 29), he, the old mayor, the aldermen, and councillors, all marched in procession to St. Mary’s Church, where divine service was said. After service the whole body went into the vestry, where the old mayor seated himself in an elbow chair, at a table covered with black cloth, in the middle

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Sussex.

Sussex.

At Chichester, Sloe Fair was always proclaimed under the Canon Gate by the bishop’s steward eight days before the eve of St. Faith the Virgin, during which time the jurisdiction of the mayor ceased, and the bishop had power to collect, and did by his agent collect, the tolls of the market and fair. An instance is recorded (1702) in the annals of the corporation of the bishop claiming the keys of the city during the Piepowder Court. The bishop’s claim arose from a grant made as early as Henry I.—

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WESTERN ISLES OF SCOTLAND.

WESTERN ISLES OF SCOTLAND.

Martin, in his Account of the Western Isles of Scotland , (1703, p. 79), speaking of the island Lingay, says that the inhabitants are much addicted to riding, the plainness of the country disposing both men and horses to it. They observe an anniversary cavalcade on Michaelmas Day, and then all ranks of both sexes appear on horseback. The place for this rendezvous is a large piece of firm sandy ground on the sea-shore, and there they have horse racing for small prizes for which they contend eager

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IRELAND.

IRELAND.

In Ireland, this season is celebrated by the making of the Michaelmas cake. A lady’s ring is mixed in the dough, and, when the cake is baked it is cut into sections and distributed to the unmarried people at table, and the person who gets the slice with the ring “is sure to be married before next Michaelmas.”— N. &amp; Q. 3rd S. vol. ix. p. 520. Oct. 2. ] GOOSE FAIR....

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Nottingham.

Nottingham.

The origin of this fair arose from the large quantities of geese which were driven up from the fens of Lincolnshire for sale at this fair, which is on the 2nd of October, when geese are just in season. Persons now living can remember seeing fifteen or twenty thousand geese in the market-place, each flock attended by a gooseherd with a crook, which he dexterously threw round the neck of any goose, and brought it out for inspection by the customer. A street on the Lincolnshire side of the town is

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Lancashire.

Lancashire.

At Great Crosby, a suburban village about seven miles from Liverpool, early in October, every year there is held a local festival, which is called the “Goose Fair.” The feast takes place when the harvest is gathered in about that part of the country, and so it forms a sort of “harvest-home” gathering for the agriculturists of the neighbourhood. It is said also that, at this particular period, geese are finer and fatter after feeding on the stubble-fields than at any other time. Curious to say, h

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Oct. 6.] ST. FAITH’S DAY.

Oct. 6.] ST. FAITH’S DAY.

Oct. 6. ] ST. FAITH’S DAY. On this day a very curious custom is observed in the North of England. A cake of flour, spring-water, salt, and sugar must be made by three maidens or three widows, and each must have an equal share in the composition. It is then baked before the fire in a Dutch-oven, and, all the while it is doing, silence must be strictly observed, and the cake must be turned nine times, or three times to each person. When it is thoroughly done it is divided into three parts. Each on

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Dorsetshire.

Dorsetshire.

Oct. 10. ] Dorsetshire. Pack Monday Fair is held at Sherborne on the first Monday after the 10th of October, and is ushered in, says Hutchins ( Hist. of Dorset , 1774), by the ringing of the great bell at a very early hour in the morning, and by the boys and young men perambulating the streets with cows’ horns. Tradition asserts that this fair originated at the termination of the building of the church, when the people who had been employed about it packed up their tools, and held a fair or wake

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Kent.

Kent.

A fair was formerly held yearly on the 10th of October, in the precincts of the ville of Christ Church, and was usually called Jack and Joan Fair, from its being esteemed a statute fair for the hiring of servants of both sexes, for which purpose it continued till the second Saturday or market-day had passed.—Hasted’s History of Kent , 1799, vol. iv. p. 424....

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Lancashire.

Lancashire.

About the year 1760, it was customary with the burgesses of Liverpool on the annual election of a mayor to have a bear baited. This event took place on the 10th of October, and the demonstrations of rejoicing continued for several days. The animal was first baited at the White Cross, at the top of Chapel Street, and was then led in triumph to the exchange, where the conflict was renewed. A repetition of the same brutal cruelties was likewise exhibited in Derby Street, and the diversion was concl

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Yorkshire.

Yorkshire.

Formerly, there existed in Hull a custom of whipping all the dogs that were found running about the streets on the 10th of October, [78] and at one time so common was the practice, that every little urchin considered it his duty to prepare a whip for any unlucky dog that might be seen in the street on that day. [78] See St. Luke’s Day . Tradition assigns the following origin to the custom:—Previous to the suppression of monasteries in Hull, it was the custom for the monks to provide liberally fo

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Kent.

Kent.

At Charlton, a fair was held on this day, and was characterized by several curious peculiarities. Every booth in the fair had its horns conspicuous in the front. Rams’ horns were an article abundantly represented for sale, even the gingerbread was marked by a gilt pair of horns. It seemed an inexplicable mystery how horns and Charlton Fair had become associated in this manner, till an antiquary at length threw a light upon it by pointing out that a horned ox is the recognised mediæval symbol of

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Yorkshire.

Yorkshire.

Drake, in his Eboracum (1736, p. 218), says that a fair was always kept in Micklegate, on St. Luke’s Day, for all sorts of small wares. It was commonly called Dish Fair from the great quantity of wooden dishes, ladles, &amp;c., brought to it. An old custom was observed at this fair, of bearing a wooden ladle in a sling on two stangs about it, carried by four sturdy labourers, and each labourer was supported by another. This, without doubt, was a ridicule on the meanness of the wares brought

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Gloucestershire.

Gloucestershire.

Oct. 21. ] Gloucestershire. Richard Aldridge gave the interest of 200 l. , Three per Cent. Consols, that the dividend should, for ever, be disposed of as follows:—1 l. 1 s. to the vicar of the parish of St. Nicholas for performing morning service annually in the parish church on the 21st of October, and preaching a sermon in commemoration of the glorious victory obtained by Lord Nelson over the combined fleets of France and Spain off Cape Trafalgar, on the 21st of October 1805; 10 s. 6 d. equall

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Northumberland.

Northumberland.

In the town of Hexham, the following custom is, or was, at one time observed:—The shoemakers of the town meet and dine by previous arrangements at some tavern; a King Crispin, queen, prince, and princess, elected from members of their fraternity of families, being present. They afterwards form in grand procession (the ladies and their attendants excepted), and parade the streets with banners, music, &amp;c., the royal party and suite gaily dressed in character. In the evening they reassemble

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Sussex.

Sussex.

In the parishes of Cuckfield and Hurst-a-point, St. Crispin’s Day is kept with much rejoicing. The boys go round asking for money in the name of St. Crispin, bonfires are lighted, and it passes off very much in the same way as the 5th of November. It appears from an inscription on a monument to one of the ancient family of Bunell, in the parish church of Cuckfield, that a Sir John Bunell attended Henry V. to France in the year 1415, with one ship, twenty men-at-arms, and forty archers, and it is

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WALES.

WALES.

At Tenby an effigy was made and hung on some elevated and prominent place (the steeple for instance) on the previous night. On the morning of the Saint’s day it was cut down and carried about the town, a will being read in doggrel verse, purporting to be the last testament of the Saint, in pursuance of which the several articles of dress were distributed to the different shoemakers. At length nothing remained of the image but the padding, which was kicked about by the crowd. As a sort of revenge

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Staffordshire.

Staffordshire.

This day used to be observed at Burton-on-Trent. On it was held a sale of cheese, and a variety of sports and pastimes took place.—Pitt, Topographical History of Staffordshire , 1817, p. 45....

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Buckinghamshire.

Buckinghamshire.

Oct. 30. ] Buckinghamshire. The manor of Chetwode—a small village about five miles from Buckingham—has been the property of the Chetwode family from Saxon times. Though of small extent, it is the paramount manor of a liberty or district, embracing several other manors and villages, which are required to do suit and service at the Court-Leet held at Chetwode every three years. The lord of Chetwode manor has also the right to levy a yearly tax, called the “Rhyne Toll,” on all cattle found within t

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Cornwall.

Cornwall.

The ancient custom of providing children with a large apple on Allhallows Eve is still observed to a great extent at St. Ives. “Allan Day,” as it is termed, is the day of days to hundreds of children who would deem it a great misfortune were they to go to bed on Allan night without the time honoured allan apple to hide beneath their pillows. A large quantity of apples are thus disposed of, the sale of which is dignified by the term Allan Market.—Hunt’s Romances of the West of England , 1871, p.

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Lancashire.

Lancashire.

In Lancashire, says Hampson ( Med. Ævi Kalend. vol. i. p. 365), it was formerly believed that witches assembled on this night to do “their deeds without a name,” at their general rendezvous in the forest of Pendle, a ruined and desolate farmhouse, denominated the Malkin Tower , from the awful purposes to which it was devoted. This superstition led to a ceremony called lating , or perhaps leeting the witches . It was believed that, if a lighted candle were carried about the fells or hills from el

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Isle of Man.

Isle of Man.

This festival, called by the islanders Sauin , was formerly observed in the Isle of Man by kindling of fires with all the accompanying ceremonies, to prevent the baneful influence of fairies and witches. The island was perambulated at night by young men who stuck up at the door of every dwelling-house, a rhyme in Manks, beginning: On Hollantide Eve, boys go round the town shouting out a doggrel, of which the following is an extract: For some peculiar reason, potatoes, parsnips, and fish, pounded

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Middlesex.

Middlesex.

In the reign of Charles I., the young gentlemen of the Middle Temple were accustomed at All Hallow Tide, which they considered the beginning of Christmas, to associate themselves for the festive objects connected with the season. In 1629 they chose Bulstrode Whitelocke as Master of the Revels, and used to meet every evening at St. Dunstan’s Tavern, in a large new room, called “The Oracle of Apollo,” each man bringing friends with him at his own pleasure. It was a kind of mock parliament, where v

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Nottinghamshire.

Nottinghamshire.

If a girl had two lovers, and wished to know which would be the most constant, she procured two brown apple pippins, and sticking one on each cheek (after having named them from her lovers) while she repeated this couplet: patiently awaited until one fell off, when the unfortunate swain whose name it bore was instantly discarded as being unfaithful. It is to this custom that Gay has thus alluded: Jour. of Arch. Assoc. 1853, vol. iii. p. 286....

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Yorkshire.

Yorkshire.

At Ripon, the women make a cake for every one in the family, whence this eve is by them called cake-night .— Gent. Mag. 1790, vol. lx. p. 719....

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WALES.

WALES.

In North Wales there is a custom upon All Saints’ Eve of making a great fire called Coel Coeth , when every family for about an hour in the night, makes a great bonfire in the most conspicuous place near the house, and when the fire is almost extinguished every one throws a white stone into the ashes, having first marked it; then having said their prayers turning round the fire, they go to bed. In the morning, as soon as they are up, they come and search out the stones, and if any one of them is

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SCOTLAND.

SCOTLAND.

Burns, in his notes upon Halloween, gives the following interesting account of the superstitious customs practised by the Scottish peasantry: 1. The first ceremony of Halloween is pulling each a stock or plant of kail. They must go out hand in hand, with eyes shut, and pull the first they meet with; its being big or little, straight or crooked, is prophetic of the size and shape of the grand object of all their spells—the husband or wife. If any yird , or earth stick to the root, that is tocher

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IRELAND.

IRELAND.

At this season the peasants assemble with sticks and clubs, and go from house to house collecting money, bread-cake, butter, &amp;c., for the feast, repeating verses in honour of the solemnity, and demanding the inhabitants to lay aside the fatted calf and to bring forth the black sheep. [81] The women are employed in making the griddle cake and candles; these last are sent from house to house in the vicinity, and are lighted up on the next day before which they pray, or are supposed to pray

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Derbyshire.

Derbyshire.

Nov. ] Derbyshire. At Duffield, a curious remnant of the right of hunting wild animals is still observed—this is called the “squirrel hunt.” The young men of the village assemble together on the Wakes Monday, each provided with a horn, a pan, or something capable of making a noise, and proceed to Keddleston Park, where, with shouting and the discordant noise of the instruments, they frighten the poor little squirrels, until they drop from the trees. Several having been thus captured the hunters

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Cheshire.

Cheshire.

On All Souls’ Eve, both children and grown-up people go from door to door, a-souling, i.e., begging for soul cakes, or anything else they can get. In some districts they perform a kind of play as well, but in all instances the following, or a similar song, is sung:— Jour. of the Arch. Assoc. 1850, vol. v. p. 252. Jour. of the Arch. Assoc. 1850, vol. v. p. 252. In the parish of Lymm it is customary, for a week or ten days before the 5th of November, for the skeleton of a horse’s head, dressed up

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Lancashire.

Lancashire.

At Great Marton, there was formerly a sort of procession of young people from house to house, at each of which they recited psalms, and, in return, received presents of cakes, whence the custom was called Psalm-caking .— Med. Ævi Kalend. 1841, vol. i. p. 375....

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Middlesex.

Middlesex.

At a pension held at Gray’s Inn in Michaelmas Term, 21 Henry VIII., there was an order made that all the fellows of this house who should be present upon any Saturday at supper, betwixt the feasts of All Saints and the Purification of our Lady, or upon any other day at dinner or supper, when there are revels , should not depart out of the hall until the said revels were ended, upon the penalty of 12 d. In 4 Edward VI. (17 Nov.), it was also ordered, that thenceforth there should be no comedies,

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Monmouthshire.

Monmouthshire.

In this county, says Hone, Year Book (p. 1288), a custom prevails among the lower classes of begging bread for the souls of the departed on All Saints’ Day; the bread thus distributed is called dole bread....

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Shropshire.

Shropshire.

It is customary, says a correspondent of N. &amp; Q. ( 1st S. vol. iv. p. 381) for the village children to go round to all their neighbours Souling , collecting contributions, and singing the following doggrel:— The soul-cake referred to is a sort of bun, which at one time it was an almost general custom for persons to make, to give to one another on this day....

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Staffordshire.

Staffordshire.

Tollett, in his Variorum Shakspeare ( The Two Gentlemen of Verona , ii. 2, note) says, On All Saints’ Day the poor people in Staffordshire, and perhaps in other country places, go from parish to parish a-souling , as they call it, i.e. begging and puling (or singing small, as Bailey’s Dictionary explains puling) for soul-cakes, or any good thing to make them merry.” Brand, Pop. Antiq. (1849, vol. i. p. 393), gives the following lines as sung on the occasion:...

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Western Isles of Scotland.

Western Isles of Scotland.

In St. Kilda, the inhabitants used to make a large cake in the form of a triangle furrowed round, all of which was eaten the same night.—Martin’s Western Isles of Scotland , 1716, p. 287. From the same authority we learn that the inhabitants of Lewis had an ancient custom of sacrificing to the sea-god called Shony. The inhabitants round the island came to the church of St. Mulvay, each man having his provisions with him. Every family furnished a peck of malt, which was brewed into ale. One of th

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IRELAND.

IRELAND.

A correspondent of N. &amp; Q. ( 3rd S. vol. i. p. 446) mentions a custom at Wexford, [82] of lighting candles (more or less) in every window in the house, on the night of the vigil of All Souls, and when travelling along a country road where farmhouses and cottages are numerous, the effect is quite picturesque on a dark November eve. [82] This custom extends over the whole of Ireland, and is common in some parts of the Continent. Nov. 2. ] ALL SOULS’ DAY. All Souls’ Day is set apart by the

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Cheshire.

Cheshire.

From All Souls’ Day to Christmas Day, Old Hob is carried about; this consists of a horse’s head enveloped in a sheet, taken from door to door, accompanied by the singing of doggerel-begging rhymes.— Jour. of Arch. Assoc. 1850, vol. v. p. 253....

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Derbyshire.

Derbyshire.

Formerly, at the village of Findern, the boys and girls used to go every year in the evening of All Souls’ Day to the adjoining common, and light up a number of small fires among the furze growing there, which they called Tindles .— Gent. Mag. 1784, vol. iv. p. 836....

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Herefordshire.

Herefordshire.

In this county and also in Lancashire it was in days gone by usual for the wealthy to dispense oaten cakes, called soul-mass cakes , to the poor, who upon receiving them repeated the following couplet in acknowledgment: See Brand, Pop. Antiq. 1849, vol. i. p. 392....

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Shropshire.

Shropshire.

In this county the inhabitants set on a board a high heap of small cakes, called soul-cakes, of which they offer one to every person who comes to the house on this day, and there is an old rhyme, which seems to have been sung by the family and guests: Kennett’s Collections , MS. Bibl. Lansdown , No. 1039, vol. 105, p. 12. The same custom is mentioned, and with very little variation, by Aubrey in the Remains of Gentilisme ; see N. &amp; Q. 4th S. vol. x. pp. 409, 525....

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WALES.

WALES.

The people of North Wales have a custom of distributing soul-cakes on All Souls’ Day, at the receiving of which the poor people pray to God to bless the next crop of wheat.— Pennant....

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SCOTLAND.

SCOTLAND.

In the county of Aberdeen on All Souls’ Day, baked cakes of a particular sort are given away to those who may chance to visit the house where they are made. The cakes are called “dirge-loaf.”— N. &amp; Q. 3rd S. vol. ii. p. 483. Nov. 5. ] GUNPOWDER PLOT. The 5th of November is not observed by the populace with nearly so much festive diversion as in former times. Originally, the burning of Guy Fawkes in effigy was a ceremony much in vogue, especially among the lower classes, but it is now con

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Derbyshire.

Derbyshire.

The rhyme formerly sung in many parts of this county is as below: Long Ago , 1873, vol. i. p. 338. Long Ago , 1873, vol. i. p. 338....

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Lincolnshire.

Lincolnshire.

In this county the following quaint rhyme was sung on the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot: Long Ago , 1873, vol. i. p. 338....

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Middlesex.

Middlesex.

It is stated in the register at Harlington, under the date of 1683, that half an acre of land was given by some person, whose name has been forgotten, for the benefit of the bell-ringers of the parish, to provide them with a leg of pork for ringing on the 5th of November. It is called the Pork Acre. The ground is let by the parish officers at 50 s. a year, which is paid by them to the bell-ringer.—Edwards, Old English Customs and Charities , 1842, p. 27....

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Northamptonshire.

Northamptonshire.

The following is the rhyme formerly sung in this county: Long Ago , 1873, vol. i. p. 338. Long Ago , 1873, vol. i. p. 338....

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Nottinghamshire.

Nottinghamshire.

At Clifton the following rhyme is sung: Long Ago , 1873, vol. i. p. 338....

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Oxfordshire.

Oxfordshire.

This is the Oxfordshire song chanted by the boys when collecting sticks for the bonfire, and it is considered quite lawful to appropriate any old wood they can lay their hands on after the recitation of these lines. If it happen that a crusty chuff prevents them, the threatening finale is too often fulfilled. The operation is called going a-progging . In some places they shout, previously to the burning of the effigy of Guy Fawkes, Halliwell’s Pop. Rhymes , 1849, pp. 253, 554. Formerly, it was t

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Sussex.

Sussex.

At Lewes on the 5th of November in each year, a great torchlight procession, composed of men dressed up in fantastic garbs, and with blackened faces, and dragging blazing tar barrels after them, parade the high street, while an enormous bonfire is lighted, into which, when at its highest, various effigies are cast. The day’s festivities not unfrequently terminate in a general uproar and scene of confusion. See Lewes Times , November 13th, 1856....

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Westmoreland.

Westmoreland.

The following doggerel is sung in this county: N. &amp; Q. 4th S. vol. vii. p. 32. N. &amp; Q. 4th S. vol. vii. p. 32....

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Wiltshire.

Wiltshire.

At Marlborough the rustics have the following peculiar custom at their bonfires. They form themselves into a ring of some dozen or more round the bonfire, and follow each other round it, holding thick club-sticks over their shoulders; while a few others, standing at distances outside this moving ring with the same sort of sticks, beat those which the men hold over their shoulders, as they pass round in succession, all shouting and screaming loudly. This might last half an hour at a time, and be

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Yorkshire.

Yorkshire.

A very old custom prevails in the West Riding of Yorkshire, of preparing, against the anniversary of Gunpowder Plot, a kind of oatmeal gingerbread, if it may be so called, and of religiously partaking of the same on this day and subsequently. The local name of the delicacy is Parkin and it is usually seen in the form of massive loaves, substantial cakes, or bannocks.— N. &amp; Q. 2nd S. vol. iv. p. 368. Blount, in his Fragmenta Antiquitatis (Beckwith, 1815, p. 565), gives the following accou

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Essex.

Essex.

Every tenant of the Manor of Writtell, upon St. Leonard’s Day, pays to the lord for everything under a year old a halfpenny, for every yearling pig a penny, and for every hog above a year old twopence, for the privilege of pawnage in the lord’s woods: and this payment is called Avage or Avisage.—Blount’s Law Dictionary , 1717....

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Worcestershire.

Worcestershire.

A list of holy days published at Worcester, in 1240, ordains St. Leonard’s festival to be kept a half holy day, enjoins the hearing of mass, and prohibits all labour except that of the plough.— Every Day Book , vol. ii. p. 1382....

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Nov 9.] LORD MAYOR’S DAY.

Nov 9.] LORD MAYOR’S DAY.

Nov 9. ] LORD MAYOR’S DAY. The office of Chief Magistrate of London was held for life till about 1214, nor was it until more than a hundred years afterwards that the title of Lord was given to the Mayor. This arose in the time of Richard II., on occasion of Walworth, the Mayor of the day, basely murdering Wat Tyler in Smithfield. That which in later days has been called the Lord Mayor’s Show was but a degenerate copy of the old Pageant or Triumph , which assumed a variety of forms at different t

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Salt Silver.

Salt Silver.

—In the glossary to Kennett’s Parochial Antiquities (p. 496) is the following:—“Salt Silver.— One penny paid at the Feast of St. Martin , by the servile tenants to their lord, as a commutation for the service of carrying their lord’s salt from market to his larder.”...

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Buckinghamshire.

Buckinghamshire.

There is a house in Fenny Stratford, called St. Martin’s house, in the wall of which is a stone bearing the following inscription:— “This house was settled on the parish officers of this town, for the annual observance of St. Martin’s Day.”—“Anno Domini 1752.” The house is let at 5 l. 4 s. per annum, and the rent, after defraying the expense of repairs, is laid out in giving an entertainment to the inhabitants of the town.—Edwards, Old English Customs and Charities , 1842, p. 59....

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Cambridgeshire.

Cambridgeshire.

Within the manor of Whitlesea there is a custom for the inhabitants to choose, on the Sunday next after the feast of St. Martin, two persons called storers, to oversee the public business, and likewise to provide a common bull, in consideration whereof they enjoy a certain pasture called Bull Grass; and the major part of the freeholders and copyholders at a meeting grant the grass every year to any person who will take it, to have the same from Lady-day till the corn is carried out of Coatsfield

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Cumberland.

Cumberland.

Thomas Williamson, by will, dated 14th December, 1674, gave the sum of 20 l. to be laid out in land to be bestowed upon poor people born within St. John’s Chapelry or Castlerigg, in mutton or veal, at Martinmas yearly, when flesh might be thought cheapest, to be by them pickled or hung up and dried, that they might have something to keep them within doors upon stormy days.—Edwards, Old English Customs and Charities , 1842, p. 63....

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Warwickshire.

Warwickshire.

Dugdale, in his Antiquities of Warwickshire (1730, vol. i. p. 4), says:—There is a certain rent due unto the lord of the Hundred of Knightlow, called Wroth money or Warth money or Swarff penny, probably the same with Ward penny. This rent must be paid every Martinmas Day, in the morning, at Knightlow Cross, before the sun riseth: the party paying it must go thrice about the cross, and say “The Wrath money,” and then lay it in the hole of the said cross before good witness, for if it be not duly

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Yorkshire.

Yorkshire.

In the North Riding of Yorkshire it is customary for a party of singers, mostly consisting of women, to begin at the feast of St. Martin a kind of peregrination round the neighbouring villages, carrying with them a small waxen image of our Saviour adorned with box and other evergreens, and singing at the same time a hymn which, though rustic and uncouth, is nevertheless replete with the sacred story of the Nativity. The custom is yearly continued till Christmas Eve, when the feasting, or as they

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IRELAND.

IRELAND.

At St. Peter’s, Athlone, every family of a village, says Mason, in his Stat. Acc. of Ireland (1819, vol. iii. p. 75), kills an animal of some kind or other: those who are rich kill a cow or a sheep, others a goose or a turkey; while those who are poor and cannot procure an animal of greater value, kill a hen or a cock, and sprinkle the threshold with the blood, and do the same in the four corners of the house, and this ceremonious performance is done to exclude every kind of evil spirit from the

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The Stamford Bull Running.

The Stamford Bull Running.

—From time immemorial down to a late period this day was annually celebrated at the town of Stamford, in Lincolnshire, by a rough sport called bull-running. Butcher, in his Survey of Stamford (1717, pp. 76, 77), alluding to this custom, says:—“The butchers of the town at their own charge provide the bull, and place him over-night in a stable or barn belonging to the alderman. The next morning proclamation is made by the common bell-man of the town that each one shut up his shop-door and gate, an

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Nov. 14.] St. ERCONWALD’S DAY.

Nov. 14.] St. ERCONWALD’S DAY.

Nov. 14. ] St. ERCONWALD’S DAY. Strype, in his Ecclesiastical Memorials (1822, vol. iii. pt. i. p. 322), says:—“It was commanded, that every priest in the diocese of London should go to St. Paul’s in procession in copes on St. Erconwald’s Day.” [November 14th, 1554]....

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Nov. 17.] QUEEN ELIZABETH’S ACCESSION.

Nov. 17.] QUEEN ELIZABETH’S ACCESSION.

Nov. 17. ] QUEEN ELIZABETH’S ACCESSION. Queen Elizabeth’s accession was long observed as a Protestant festival, and with the society of the Temple, the Exchequer, Christ’s Hospital, Westminster, and Merchant Taylors’ Schools, is, says Timbs, kept as a holiday. The Pope in effigy, in a chair of state, with the devil, a real person, behind him, caressing him, &amp;c., was formerly paraded in procession on this day in the streets of London, and afterwards thrown into a bonfire. In Queen Anne’s

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Cambridgeshire.

Cambridgeshire.

The bakers of Cambridge hold an annual supper on St. Clement’s Day, which supper is called the “Baker’s Clem.”— N. &amp; Q. 3rd S. vol. iv. p. 492....

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Kent.

Kent.

In Every Day Book (1826, vol. i. p. 1501) is the following account of an annual ceremony formerly celebrated on the evening of St. Clement’s Day, by the blacksmiths’ apprentices of the dockyard at Woolwich:— One of the senior apprentices being chosen to serve as Old Clem (so called by them), is attired in a great coat, having his head covered with an oakum wig, face masked, and a long white beard; thus attired, he seats himself in a large wooden chair, chiefly covered with a sort of stuff called

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Staffordshire.

Staffordshire.

On the feast of St. Clement, a custom exists in Staffordshire for the children to go round to the various houses in the village to which they belong singing the following doggerel: N. &amp; Q. 1st. S. vol. viii. p. 618. N. &amp; Q. 1st. S. vol. viii. p. 618. The following rhyme is also sung: Ibid. 3rd. S . vol. iv. p. 492; See Oliver’s History of Collegiate Church of Wolverhampton , 1836, p. 16....

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WALES.

WALES.

At Tenby, on St. Clement’s Day, it was customary for the owners of fishing-boats to give a supper of roast goose and rice pudding to their crews.—Mason’s Tales and Traditions of Tenby , 1858, p. 27....

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Nov. 24.] ST. CATHERINE’S EVE.

Nov. 24.] ST. CATHERINE’S EVE.

Nov. 24. ] ST. CATHERINE’S EVE. In Strype’s Ecclesiastical Memorials (1822, vol. iii. pt. ii. p. 507) is the following notice of this festival: “The 24th (1556) being St. Katharine’s Day (or rather Eve), at six of the clock at night St. Katharine went about the battlements of St. Paul’s Church accompanied with fine singing and great lights; this was St. Katharine’s procession.” Nov. 25. ] ST. CATHERINE’S DAY....

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Buckinghamshire.

Buckinghamshire.

On Cattern Day the lace makers hold merry-makings, and eat a sort of cakes called “wigs” [85] and drink ale. Tradition says it is in remembrance of Queen Catherine, who, when the trade was dull, burnt all her lace, and ordered new to be made. The ladies of the court could not but follow her example, and the consequence was a great briskness in the manufacture.— N. &amp; Q. 3rd S. vol. i. p. 387. [85] Cakes called “wigs” were very commonly sold in the Midland counties some years ago, and they

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Cambridgeshire.

Cambridgeshire.

A paragraph in the Cambridge Chronicle (December 8th, 1860) alludes to the custom of the carpenters of Chatteris, in the Isle of Ely, observing the feast of their patron Saint, St. Catherine, by dining together, &amp;c....

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Kent.

Kent.

The following extract is taken from N. &amp; Q. ( 2nd S. vol. v. p. 47):—On Wednesday (the 25th) night last the towns of Chatham, Rochester, and Brompton exhibited considerable excitement in consequence of a torchlight procession appearing in the streets, headed by a band of fifes and drums. Notwithstanding the late hour (eleven o’clock) a large number of persons of both sexes, accompanied the party. The demonstration was got up by the rope-makers of the dockyard, to celebrate the anniversar

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Northamptonshire.

Northamptonshire.

At one time it was customary, at Peterborough, till the introduction of the new poor laws, for the female children belonging to the workhouse, attended by the master, to go in procession round the city on St. Catherine’s Day. They were all attired in white, and decorated with various coloured ribbons, principally scarlet; the tallest girl was selected to represent the Queen, and was adorned with a crown and sceptre. The procession stopped at the houses of the principal inhabitants, and they sang

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Isle of Thanet.

Isle of Thanet.

On St. Catherine’s Day in the Isle of Thanet, the carters place a small figure on a wheel on the front of their cart sheds.— N. &amp; Q. 2nd S. vol. v. p. 235....

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Worcestershire.

Worcestershire.

In this county the children go round to the farmhouses collecting apples and beer for a festival, and sing the following lines: The Chapter of Worcester have a practice of preparing a rich bowl of wine and spices, called the “Cathern bowl,” for the inhabitants of the college upon this day.—Halliwell’s Popular Rhymes , 1849, p. 238; see N. &amp; Q. 2nd S. vol. iv. pp. 495, 496. Nov. 30. ] ST. ANDREW’S DAY. The commencement of the ecclesiastical year is regulated by the feast of St. Andrew, th

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Kent.

Kent.

Hasted, in his History of Kent (vol. ii. p. 757), speaking of the parish of Eastling, says that, on St. Andrew’s Day, there is a yearly diversion called squirrel-hunting in this and the neighbouring parishes, when the labourers and lower kind of people, assembling together, form a lawless rabble, and being accoutred with guns, poles, clubs and other such weapons, spend the greater part of the day in parading through the woods and grounds, with loud shoutings, and under pretence of demolishing th

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Middlesex.

Middlesex.

Strype, in his Ecclesiastical Memorials (1822, vol. iii. pt. ii. p. 21), says:—“The 30th November [1557] being St. Andre w’s Day, was a procession at Paul’s, and a priest of every parish attending, each in his cope, and a goodly sermon preached, and after that, the procession, with salve festa dies .”...

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Northamptonshire.

Northamptonshire.

Tander and Tandrew are the names given to the festival of St. Andrew, of which they are corruptions. The anniversary of this saint is, or rather was, kept by the lacemakers as a day of festivity and merry-making; but since the use of pillow-lace has in a great measure given place to that of the loom, this holiday has been less and less observed. The day in former times was one of unbridled licence: village “scholards” barred out their master; the lace schools were deserted; and drinking and feas

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Sussex.

Sussex.

A correspondent of the Athenæum (No. 993) says that the custom of squirrel-hunting was at one time kept up in this county, but, in consequence of the inclosure of the coppices and the more strict observance of the game, it has wholly dropped....

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SCOTLAND.

SCOTLAND.

In Scotland this day is called Andrys Day, Androiss Mess, and Andermess. Singed sheep’s heads are borne in the procession before the Scots in London on St. Andrew’s Day.—Brand’s Pop. Antiq. 1849, vol. i. p. 415....

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STIR UP SUNDAY.

STIR UP SUNDAY.

The 25th Sunday after Trinity is called by the schoolboys “Stir Up Sunday,” from the collect used on that day; and they repeat the following lines without considering their irreverent application: Brand’s Pop. Antiq. 1859, vol. i. p. 414; See Times , November 25th, 1863....

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Advent Bells.

Advent Bells.

—Advent bells are rung in many parishes throughout various parts of England during the month of December. A correspondent of N. &amp; Q. ( 1st S. vol. i. p. 21) says that, in his neighbourhood—on the western borders of Berks—he has heard their merry peals break gladsomely upon the dark stillness of the cold evening from many a steeple round....

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Isle of Man.

Isle of Man.

Train, in his History of the Isle of Man (1845, vol. ii. p. 127), says, that the fiddlers go round from house to house, in the latter part of the night for two or three weeks before Christmas, playing a tune called the Andisop . On their way they stop before particular houses, wish the inmates individually “good morning,” call the hour, then report the state of the weather, and after playing an air, move on to the next halting-place....

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Cornwall.

Cornwall.

The Second Thursday before Christmas Day is a festival observed by the tinners of the district of Blackmore, and known as “Picrous Day.” It is said to be the feast of the discovery of tin by a man named Picrous. It is not at present marked by any distinctive ceremonies, but it is the occasion of a merry-making, and the owner of the tin stream contributes a shilling a man towards it. Mr. T. Q. Couch says his first impression was that the day took its name from the circumstance of a pie forming th

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Dec. 5.] ST. NICHOLAS’ EVE.

Dec. 5.] ST. NICHOLAS’ EVE.

Dec. 5. ] ST. NICHOLAS’ EVE. Strype, in his Ecclesiastical Memorials (1822, vol. iii. part. i. p. 326), says:—“On the 5th December [1554], the which was St. Nicholas’ Eve, at evensong time, came a commandment that St. Nicholas should not go abroad nor about. But, notwithstanding, it seems, so much were the citizens taken with the mock St. Nicholas, that is, a boy-bishop, that there went about three St. Nicholases in divers parishes, as in St. Andrew’s Holborn and St. Nicolas Olave’s in Bread Str

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The Boy-Bishop.

The Boy-Bishop.

St. Nicholas was deemed the patron of children in general, but much more particularly of all schoolboys, amongst whom the 6th of December (the saint’s festival) used to be a very great holiday for more than one reason. In those bygone times all little boys either sang or served about the altar at church; and the first thing they did upon the eve of their patron’s festival was to elect from among themselves, in every parish church, cathedral, and nobleman’s chapel, a bishop and his officials, or,

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Dec. 8.] CONCEPTION OF VIRGIN MARY.

Dec. 8.] CONCEPTION OF VIRGIN MARY.

Dec. 8. ] CONCEPTION OF VIRGIN MARY. Strype, in his Ecclesiastical Memorials (1822, vol. iii. part 1. p. 327), says:—“The 8th December (1554), being the day of the Conception of our Blessed Lady, was a goodly procession at the Savoy by the Spaniards, the priest carrying the Sacrament between his hands, and one deacon carrying a censer censing, and another the holy-water stock, and a number of friars and priests singing; and every man and woman, knights also and gentlemen, bearing green tapers bu

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SCOTLAND.

SCOTLAND.

His day is still celebrated at Kilbarchan by a fair, held on the 1st of December, Old Style, (13th December, New Style.) This rustic festival is alluded to in the Laird of Beltrees’ poem on the life and death of the famous piper of Kilbarchan, Habbie Simpson: Chambers’s Pop. Rhymes of Scotland , 1870, p. 391....

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Dec. 14.] ST. TIBBA’S DAY.

Dec. 14.] ST. TIBBA’S DAY.

Dec. 14. ] ST. TIBBA’S DAY. This day was formerly celebrated in Rutlandshire by fowlers and falconers, who regarded the saint as their peculiar patroness. Camden mentions the town of Rihall as particularly addicted to this superstitious observance, [86] and the passage, which is strongly expressed, was ordered to be expunged from his Britannia by the Index Expurgationis , printed at Madrid in 1612 by Louis Sanchez.— Med. Ævi Kalend. vol. i. p. 82. [86] Rihall, ubi cum majores nostros ita fascina

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SCOTLAND.

SCOTLAND.

At Sandwick, in the Orkneys, it is usual for every family to kill a sow, whence this day is called Sow Day. This custom probably has some reference to the heathen worship of the sun, to which, among the northern nations, the male of this animal was sacred.—Sinclair, Stat. Acc. of Scotland , 1793, vol. xvi. p. 460; Med. Ævi Kalend. vol. i. p. 82. Dec. 21. ] ST. THOMAS’ DAY. In some parts of the country St. Thomas’ Day is observed by a custom called Going a Gooding . [87] The poor people go round

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Bedfordshire.

Bedfordshire.

An ancient annual payment of 5 l. out of an estate at Biddenham, formerly belonging to the family of Boteler, and now the property of Lord Viscount Hampden, is regularly paid on St. Thomas’s Day to the overseers of the poor for the purchase of a bull, which is killed, and the flesh thereof given amongst the poor persons of the parish. For many years past the annual fund, being insufficient to purchase a bull, the deficiency has been made good out of other charities belonging to the parish. It wa

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Berkshire.

Berkshire.

The cruel practice of bull-baiting was continued annually on St. Thomas’s Day, in the market place of the town of Wokingham so lately as 1821. In 1822, upon the passing of the Act against cruelty to animals, the corporation resolved on abolishing the custom. The alderman (as the chief magistrate is called there) went with his officers in procession, and solemnly pulled up the bull-ring, which had from time immemorial been fixed in the market-place. The bull-baiting at Wokingham was regarded with

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Cheshire.

Cheshire.

The poor people go from farm to farm “a-thomasin,” and generally carry with them a bag and a can, into which meal, flour, and corn, are put. Begging on this day is universal in this and the neighbouring counties.— Jour. of the Arch. Assoc. 1850, vol. v. p. 253....

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Dorsetshire.

Dorsetshire.

At the village of Thornton, near Sherborne, a custom prevails amongst the tenants of the manor, of depositing five shillings in a hole in a certain tombstone in the churchyard, which precludes the lord of the manor from taking the tithe of hay during the year. This must be done before twelve o’clock on St. Thomas’s Day, or the privilege is void.— Med. Ævi Kalend. 1842, vol. i. p. 83. There was a custom very generally practised in some parts of this county, and which may even now be practised. A

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Herefordshire.

Herefordshire.

St. Thomas’s Day is called by the poor inhabitants of this county “Mumping Day;” and the custom of going from house to house asking for contributions, is termed going a-mumping ....

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Hertfordshire.

Hertfordshire.

Small pyramids, says Fosbroke ( Encyclopædia of Antiquities , 1840, p. 661), formed of gilt evergreens, apples, and nuts, are carried about at this time in Hertfordshire for presents....

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Isle of Man.

Isle of Man.

Formerly, it was customary for the people to go to the mountains to catch deer and sheep for Christmas, and in the evening always to kindle a large fire on the top of every fingan or cliff. Hence, at the time of casting peats, every one laid aside a large one, saying: “Faaid mooar moayney son oie’l fingan,” that is, “A large turf for Fingan’s Eve.”—Train, History of Isle of Man , 1845, vol. ii. p. 124; Cregeen’s Manks Dictionary , p. 67....

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Nottinghamshire.

Nottinghamshire.

Samuel Higgs, by his will, bearing date 11th May, 1820 (as appears from the church tablet), gave 50 l. to the vicar and churchwardens of the parish of Farnsfield, and directed that the interest should be given every year on the 21st of December, in equal proportions, to the poor men and women who could repeat the Lord’s prayer, the creed, and the ten commandments, before the vicar or other such person as he should appoint to hear them. The interest is applied according to the donor’s orders, and

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Oxfordshire.

Oxfordshire.

At Tainton, a quarter of barley is provided annually, at the expense of Lord Dynevor, the lord of the manor, and made into loaves called “cobbs.” These were formerly given away in Tainton church to such of the poor children of Burford as attended. A sermon was preached on St. Thomas’s Day, 6 s. 8 d. being paid out of Lord Dynevor’s estate to the preacher. The children, however, made so much riot and disturbance in the church, that, about the year 1809, it was thought better to distribute the cob

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Staffordshire.

Staffordshire.

In many parts of this county not only the old women and widows, but representatives from every poor family in the parish, go round for alms. The clergyman is expected to give one shilling to each person, and consequently the celebration of the day is attended with no small expense. Some of the parishioners give alms in money, others in kind. Thus, for example, some of the farmers give corn, which the millers grind gratis. In some places the money collected is given to the clergyman and churchwar

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Sussex.

Sussex.

A sum of 15 l. was placed in the Arundel Savings-Bank in the year 1824, the interest of which is distributed on St. Thomas’s Day. It is said that this money was found, many years since, on the person of a beggar, who died by the road-side; and the interest of it has always been appropriated by the parish officers for the use of the poor.—Edwards, Old English Customs and Charities , 1842, p. 129....

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Warwickshire.

Warwickshire.

In this county it is customary for the poor people to visit the farm-houses to beg contributions of corn. This is called going a-corning ....

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Worcestershire.

Worcestershire.

At Harvington the following rhyme is sung: N. &amp; Q. 1st S. vol. viii. p. 617....

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Yorkshire.

Yorkshire.

Drake, in his Eboracum (1736, p. 217), gives the following account of a custom that once existed at York on St. Thomas’s Day, which he says he obtained from a manuscript that fell into his hands. “William the Conqueror, in the third year of his reign (on St. Thomas’s Day), laid siege to the city of York, but finding himself unable, either by policy or strength, to gain it, raised the siege, which he had no sooner done, but by accident he met with two fryers at a place called Skelton, not far fro

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WALES.

WALES.

William Rogers, by will, June 1806, gave to the minister and churchwardens of Nevern, Pembrokeshire, and their successors, 800 l. , Three per Cent. Consols, to be transferred by his executors within six months after his decease; and it was his will that the dividends should be laid out annually, one moiety thereof in good beef, the other moiety thereof in good barley, the same to be distributed on every St. Thoma s’s Day in each year, by the minister and churchwardens, to and among the poor of t

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Cheshire.

Cheshire.

In Chester, and its neighbourhood, numerous singers parade the streets and are hospitably entertained with meat and drink at the various houses where they call.—See Book of Days , vol. ii. p. 736....

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Cornwall.

Cornwall.

On Christmas Eve, in former days, says Hunt ( Romances of the West of England , 1871, p. 349), the small people, or the spiggans, would meet at the bottom of the deepest mines, and have a midnight mass. In this county the yule log is called “the mock.”...

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Derbyshire.

Derbyshire.

In some parts the village choir meet in the church on Christmas Eve, and there wait until midnight, when they proceed from house to house, invariably accompanied by a small keg of ale, singing “Christians awake;” and during the Christmas season they again visit the principal houses in the place, and having played and sung for the evening, and partaken of the Christmas cheer, are presented with a sum of money.— Jour. of the Arch. Assoc. 1852, vol. vii. p. 208....

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Devonshire.

Devonshire.

The ashton faggot is burned in Devonshire on Christmas Eve. The faggot is composed entirely of ash timber, and the separate sticks or branches are securely bound together with ash bands. The faggot is made as large as can conveniently be burned in the fire-place, or rather upon the floor, grates not being in use. A numerous company is generally assembled to spend the evening in games and amusements, the diversions being heightened when the faggot blazes on the hearth, as a quart of cyder is cons

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Gloucestershire.

Gloucestershire.

It appears by the benefaction table in the church of Ruardean, that the Rev. Mr. Anthony Sterry, vicar of Lidney, gave by deed, in the fortieth year of Queen Elizabeth, five shillings per annum, payable out of an estate called the Glasp, in this parish, for ringing a peal on Christmas Eve, about midnight, for two hours, in commemoration of the Nativity.— Old English Customs and Charities , 1842, p. 6....

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Hampshire.

Hampshire.

In the neighbourhood of the New Forest the following lines are sung on the wassailing of the trees: Christmas in the Olden Time , London, 1839....

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Herefordshire.

Herefordshire.

In the Gent. Mag. (vol. xc. pt. i. p. 33) is the following account of a custom that formerly existed at Tretyre on Christmas Eve. The writer says:—They make a cake, poke a stick through it, fasten it upon the horn of an ox, and say certain words, begging a good crop of corn for the master. The men and boys attending the oxen, range themselves around. If the ox throws the cake behind, it belongs to the men, if before, to the boys. They take with them a wooden bottle of cyder and drink it, repeati

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Kent.

Kent.

Hasted ( History of Kent , vol. iii. p. 380) says there was a singular custom used of long time by the fishermen of Folkestone. They chose eight of their largest and best whitings out of every boat when they came home from the fishery and sold them apart from the rest, and out of the money arising from them they made a feast every Christmas Eve which they called a “Rumbald.” The master of each boat provided this feast for his own company. These whitings, which are of a very large size, and are s

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Isle of Man.

Isle of Man.

Waldron, in his Description of the Isle of Man (1859, p. 125) says that on Christmas Eve every one leaves off work, and rambles about till the bells begin to ring at midnight. Lord Teignmouth ( Sketches of the Coast of Scotland and the Isle of Man , vol. ii. p. 264) states that they then all flock to the churches, bearing the largest candle they can procure. The churches are decorated with holly, and the service, in commemoration of the birth of our Saviour is called Oiel Verry .—See Train’s His

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Norfolk.

Norfolk.

In some parts of Norfolk libations of spiced ale used to be sprinkled on orchards and meadows.— Book of Days , vol. ii. p. 736....

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Northamptonshire.

Northamptonshire.

On Christmas Eve, 1815, says Cole ( History of Ecton , 1825), the musicians of Ecton, accompanied by the vocalists of the church, revived the custom of going round the village at midnight and singing a carol at the principal houses....

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Nottinghamshire.

Nottinghamshire.

At Nottingham, on Christmas Eve, as well as in many other of the villages, it is customary to toast apples on a string until they drop into a bowl of hot spiced ale, which is placed to receive them; this, from the softness of the beverage is called “lamb’s-wool.”...

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Oxfordshire.

Oxfordshire.

Pointer, in his Oxoniensis Academia (1749, p. 20), says that, at Merton College, Oxford, the fellows meet together in the Hall on Christmas Eve and other solemn times to sing a psalm and drink a grace-cup to one another (called Poculum Charitatis ), wishing one another help and happiness. These grace-cups they drink to one another every day after dinner and supper, wishing one another peace and good neighbourhood....

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Sussex.

Sussex.

At Chailey, the following doggerel is sung at the wassailing of the apple trees: N. &amp; Q. 1st S. vol. v. p. 293. [90] See Eve of Epiphany , p. 21 ....

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Warwickshire.

Warwickshire.

A correspondent of the Gent. Mag. (1795, vol. lxv. p. 110) thus describes an amusement practised on Christmas Eve at Aston Hall, down to the end of last century. As soon as supper is over a table is set in the hall. On it is placed a brown loaf, with twenty silver threepences stuck on the top of it, a tankard of ale, with pipes and tobacco, and the two oldest servants have chairs behind it to sit as judges if they please. The steward brings the servants, both men and women, by one at a time, cov

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Yorkshire.

Yorkshire.

There is in Yorkshire a custom, which has been by the country people more or less revived, ever since the alteration in the style and calendar, namely, of watching, on the midnight of the new and old Christmas Eve, by beehives, to determine upon the right Christmas from the humming noise which they suppose the bees will make when the birth of our Saviour took place.— Gent. Mag. 1811, vol. lxxxi. part. i. p. 424. Christmas Eve in Yorkshire, says a writer in Time’s Telescope (1822, p. 298), is cel

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IRELAND.

IRELAND.

A correspondent of N. &amp; Q. ( 3rd S. vol. viii. p. 495) says that, in the south-east of Ireland on Christmas Eve, people hardly go to bed at all, and the first who announces the crowing of the cock, if a male, is rewarded with a cup of tea, in which is mixed a glass of spirits; if a female, with the tea only, but as a substitute for the whisky she is saluted with half-a-dozen of kisses. Dec. 25. ] CHRISTMAS DAY. St. Chrysostom informs us that, in the primitive times, Christmas and Epiphan

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Under the Commonwealth.

Under the Commonwealth.

—In the Diary of John Evelyn (1859, vol. i. p. 297), under the date of the 25th of December, occurs the following:— “Christmas Day. No sermon anywhere, no church being permitted to be open, so observed it at home.” Again, under the same date in 1654 (p. 341), the statement is renewed: “Christmas Day. No churches or public assembly. I was fain to pass the devotions of that Blessed Day with my family at home.” Alluding to the observance of Christmas Day in 1657, the same writer says:— “I went to L

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Boar’s Head.

Boar’s Head.

—Aubrey, in a MS. dated 1678, says: “Before the last civil wars, in gentlemen’s houses at Christmas, the first diet that was brought to table was a boar’s head with a lemon in his mouth.”...

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Christmas Book.

Christmas Book.

—A book in which people were accustomed to keep an account of the Christmas presents they received.—Nares’ Glossary (Halliwell and Wright), 1857, vol. i. p. 11....

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Bustard.

Bustard.

—The bustard, says Timbs ( Something for Everybody , 1861, p. 148), has almost disappeared; but within memory it might be seen in the Christmas larders of large inns....

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Christmas Candles.

Christmas Candles.

—Those were candles of an uncommon size, and the name has descended to the small candles which children light up at this season. Hampson ( Med. Ævi Kalend. vol. i. p. 109), alluding to the custom, says, in some places candles are made of a particular kind, because the candle that is lighted on Christmas Day must be so large as to burn from the time of its ignition to the close of the day, otherwise it will portend evil to the family for the ensuing year. The poor were wont to present the rich wi

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Christmas Carols.

Christmas Carols.

—The Christmas carol (said to be derived from cantare to sing, and rola , an interjection of joy) is of very ancient date. Bishop Taylor observes that the ‘Gloria in Excelsis,’ the well-known hymn sung by the angels to the shepherds at our Lord’s Nativity, was the earliest Christmas carol. In the early ages of the Church bishops were accustomed to sing these sacred canticles among their clergy. The oldest printed collections in England are those of Wynkyn de Worde, 1521, and of Kele soon after.

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Decorations.

Decorations.

—Tradition, says Phillips in his Sylva Florifera (1823, vol. i. p. 281), asserts that the first Christian church in Britain was built of boughs, and that this plan was adopted as more likely to attract the notice of the people because the heathens built their temples in that manner, probably to imitate the temples of Saturn which were always under the oak. The great feast of Saturn was held in December, and as the oaks of this country were then without leaves, the priests obliged the people to b

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Game Pies.

Game Pies.

—These were formerly made at the season of Christmas. In the books of the Salters’ Company, London, is the following— “Receipt. Fit to make a moost choyce paaste of gamys to be eten at ye Feste of Chrystmasse” (17th Richard II A.D. 1394). A pie so made by the company’s cook in 1836 was found excellent. It consisted of a pheasant, hare, and a capon; two partridges, two pigeons, and two rabbits; all boned and put into paste in the shape of a bird, with the livers and hearts, two mutton kidneys, fo

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Mince Pies.

Mince Pies.

—These were popular under the name of “mutton pies” so early as 1596: Book of Days , vol. ii. p. 755. They were also known as Shred and Christmas pies. Thus, in Sheppard’s Epigrams (1651, p. 121), we find the following:— “No matter for plomb-porridge or Shrid pies;” and Herrick, alluding to the custom of setting a watch upon the pies the night before Christmas, says: Brand ( Pop. Antiq. 1849, vol. i. p. 527), quoting from an old tract, printed about the time of Elizabeth, or James I., says they

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Mistletoe.

Mistletoe.

—At what period mistletoe came to be recognised as a Christmas evergreen, is not by any means certain. We have Christmas carols in praise of holly and ivy of even earlier date than the fifteenth century, but allusion to mistletoe can scarcely be found for two centuries later, or before the time of Herrick. Coles, too, in his Knowledge of Plants , 1656, says of mistletoe, “it is carried many miles to set up in houses about Christmas-time, when it is adorned with a white glistening berry.” In the

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Lord of Misrule.

Lord of Misrule.

—His office was to preside over the festivities of Christmas, and his duties consisted in directing the various revels of the season. In some great families, and occasionally at Court, he was also called the Abbot of Misrule , corresponding with the French Abbé de Liesse , a word which implies merriment. Stow, in his Survey of London , alluding to this whimsical custom says:—“In the feast of Christmas there was in the king’s house, wheresoever he lodged, a Lord of Misrule, or master of merry dis

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Mummers.

Mummers.

—These were amusements derived from the Saturnalia, and so called from the Danish Mumme , or Dutch Momme , disguise in a mask. Christmas was the grand scene of mumming, and some mummers were disguised like bears, others like unicorns, bringing presents. Those who could not procure masks rubbed their faces with soot, or painted them. In the Christmas mummeries the chief aim was to surprise by the oddity of the masques and singularity and splendour of the dresses. Everything was out of nature and

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Pantomime.

Pantomime.

—The Christmas pantomime or harlequinade is, in its present shape, essentially a British entertainment, and was first introduced into this country by a dancing master of Shrewsbury named Weaver in 1702. One of his pantomimes, entitled The Loves of Mars and Venus , met with great success. The arrival, in the year 1717, in London of a troupe of French pantomimists with performing dogs, gave an impetus to this kind of drama, which was further developed in 1758 by the arrival of the Grimaldi family,

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Plum-Porridge.

Plum-Porridge.

—This, says Misson, was a “sort of soup with plumbs, which is not at all inferior to the pye.” Dr. Rimbault says, was not this the same as plum-pudding ? Pudding was formerly used in the sense of stuffing or force-meat, as we now say black-puddings. Porridge, on the other hand, was used in the sense of our pudding. Thus Shakspeare talks of “porridge after meat,” meaning pudding after meat.— N. &amp; Q. 2nd S. vol. xii. p. 489....

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Snapdragon.

Snapdragon.

—A very favourite pastime at this season. Although so prevalent in England, it is almost unknown in Scotland.—See Book of Days , vol. ii. p. 738. A writer in the Pantalogia (1813, vol. x.) thus describes this sport:—It is a kind of play, in which brandy is set on fire, and raisins thrown into it, which those who are unused to the sport are afraid to take out, but which may be safely snatched by a quick motion and put blazing into the mouth, which being closed, the fire is at once extinguished. A

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Christmas Sports.

Christmas Sports.

—Among the various games and sports of an olden Christmas, says Dr. Rimbault, were card-playing, chess, and draughts, jack-pudding in the hall; fiddlers and musicians, who were regaled with a black-jack of beer and a Christmas pie; also singing the wassail, scrambling for nuts, cakes, and apples; dancing round standards decorated with evergreens in the streets; the famous old hobby-horse, hunting owls and squirrels, the fool plough, hot cockles, and the game of hoodman-blind.— N. &amp; Q. 2n

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Christmas Tree.

Christmas Tree.

—Various suggestions have been made as to the origin of the Christmas tree. Mr. Timbs, in his Something for Everybody (1861, p. 127), suggests its being traceable to the ancient Egyptians and their palm-tree, which produces a branch every month, and therefore held to be emblematical of the year. The Germans may be said to claim it as peculiar to themselves, as being indicative of their attachment to Christianity; they identify it with the apostolic labours of St. Maternus, one of the earliest, i

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The Vessel-Cup.

The Vessel-Cup.

—There is a very pretty custom, now nearly obsolete, of bearing the “vessel,” or, more properly the wassail-cup, at Christmas. This consists of a box containing two dolls, dressed up to represent the Virgin and the Infant Christ, decorated with ribbons and surrounded by flowers and apples; the box has usually a glass lid, is covered over by a white napkin, and carried from door to door on the arms of a woman; on the top, or in the box, a china bason is placed, and the bearer on reaching a house,

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Turkey.

Turkey.

—The turkey has graced the Christmas table from the date of its introduction into England, about the year 1524. Tusser mentions the bird as forming part of the Christmas fare in 1587:...

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Waits.

Waits.

—Musicians who play by night for two or three weeks before Christmas, terminating their performances generally on Christmas Eve. It is uncertain, says a correspondent of Book of Days (vol ii. p. 742), whether the term Waits denoted originally musical instruments, a particular kind of music, or the persons who played under certain special circumstances. There is evidence in support of all these views. At one time the name of waits was given to minstrels attached to the king’s court, whose duty it

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Yule-clog or Yule-log.

Yule-clog or Yule-log.

—This was generally lighted on Christmas Eve, and was, says Soane, as large as the hearth would admit of, or the means of the rejoicers could supply; and, in some of the northern counties of England, so long as the log lasted, the servants were entitled to ale at their meals. At one time custom prescribed that it should be lighted with a brand of the last year’s block, which had been carefully put by and preserved for that purpose, as we find it recorded by Herrick: [91] To Teend is to kindle, o

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Berkshire.

Berkshire.

At Cumnor the parishioners, who paid vicarial tithes, claimed a custom of being entertained at the vicarage, on the afternoon of Christmas Day, with four bushels of malt brewed into ale and beer, two bushels of wheat made into bread, and half a hundred weight of cheese. The remainder was given to the poor the next morning after divine service.—Lysons’ Magna Britannia , 1813, vol. i. pt. ii. p. 271....

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Buckinghamshire.

Buckinghamshire.

By the will of John Popple, dated the 12th of March, 1830, 4 l. yearly is to be paid unto the vicar, churchwardens, and overseers of the poor of the parish of Burnham, to provide for the poor people who should be residing in the poorhouse, a dinner, with a proper quantity of good ale and likewise with tobacco and snuff.— Old English Customs and Charities , 1842, p. 4. Up to about 1813, a bull and boar, a sack of wheat, and a sack of malt were given away to the poor by the lord of the manor of Pr

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Cambridgeshire.

Cambridgeshire.

At Clare Hall, in Cambridge, a collar of brawn is always provided for the Fellows’ table on Christmas Day, which comes up every day during the twelve days and then makes another and last appearance on Candlemas Day. A sprig of ivy with berries is stuck in the centre of the top; the berries are first dipped in flour, probably to represent the hoar frost.— Time’s Telescope , 1863, p. 338....

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Cornwall.

Cornwall.

Hitchins, in his History of Cornwall (1824, vol. i. p. 718), gives the following account of the Christmas plays, which at one time were performed in this county at Christmas. He says, the lads who engage in these theatrical representations appear fantastically dressed, decorated with ribbons and painted paper, with wooden swords, and all the equipage necessary to support the several characters they assume. To entertain their auditors, they learn to repeat a barbarous jargon, in the form of a dra

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Cumberland.

Cumberland.

In this county, and in all the great towns in the North of England, about a week before Christmas, what are called Honey-Fairs are held, in which dancing forms the leading amusement.— Time’s Telescope , 1824, p. 297....

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Derbyshire.

Derbyshire.

Christmas festivities are well observed in Derbyshire; mummers or guisers go from house to house, and perform a play of St. George. They are dressed up in character and decorated with ribbands, tinsel, and other finery, and on being admitted into the house commence their performance by St. George announcing himself by beginning his oration: A champion is soon found in the person of Slasher, who accepts the challenge. St. George then replies in a neat speech, when they sing, shake hands, and figh

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Dorsetshire.

Dorsetshire.

It appears that in some parts of this county the mummers still go round at Christmas-tide, performing a species of play.—See N. &amp; Q. 5th S. vol. ii. p. 505....

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Essex.

Essex.

On Christmas day at Hornchurch the lessee of the tithes, which belong to New College, Oxford, supplies, says Hone, ( Every Day Book , 1827, vol. ii. p. 1649), a boar’s head dressed and garnished with bayleaves, &amp;c. In the afternoon it is carried in procession into the mill-field adjoining the churchyard, where it is wrestled for and afterwards feasted upon at one of the public-houses by the rustic conqueror and his friends with all the merriment peculiar to the season. The following appe

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Gloucestershire.

Gloucestershire.

It was formerly the custom of the city of Gloucester to present to the Sovereign at Christmas a lamprey-pie with a raised crust. The custom is of great antiquity, and as Henry I., of lamprey-loving celebrity, frequently held his Court during Christmas at Gloucester, it may have originated in his time. In 1530 the Prior of Lanthony at Gloucester sent “cheese, carp, and baked lampreys” to Henry VIII. at Windsor, for which the bearer received twenty shillings.—Tighe and Davis, Annals of Windsor , p

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Herefordshire.

Herefordshire.

In this county, and also in Worcestershire, it is considered very unlucky for new shoes or tanned leather to be received into the house during the Christmas week or on New Year’s Day.—See N. &amp; Q. 5th S. vol. iii. p. 7....

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Kent.

Kent.

At one time the festivities of Christmas were commenced at Ramsgate by a curious musical procession. The following account is taken from Busby’s Concert Room and Orchestra Anecdotes (1825, vol. i. p. 73):— A party of young people procure the head of a dead horse, which is affixed to a pole about four feet in length, a string is tied to the lower jaw, a horsecloth is then attached to the whole, under which one of the party gets, and by frequently pulling the string keeps up a loud snapping noise,

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Lancashire.

Lancashire.

The following description of primitive manners in the houses of the gentry at Christmas is extracted by Baines ( Hist. of Lancashire , vol. iii. p. 294) from a family manuscript of the Cunliffes, of Wycoller, in Lancashire, and refers to an age antecedent to the wars of the Parliament:—“At Wycoller-Hall the family usually kept open house the twelve days at Christmas. Their entertainment was a large hall of curious ashler wood, a long table, plenty of furmerty , like new milk, in a morning, made

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Isle of Man.

Isle of Man.

Train, in his History of the Isle of Man (1845, vol. ii. p. 127), says:—The Christmas festival is introduced by young persons perambulating the various towns and villages in the evenings, fantastically dressed, and armed with swords, calling as they proceed, “Who wants to see the White Boys act?” When their services are engaged they, like the Scotch guisards or Quhite boys of Yule , perform a rude drama, in which St. George, Prince Valentine, King of Egypt, Sambo, and the Doctor are the dramatis

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Middlesex.

Middlesex.

Malcolm, in his Anecdotes of the Manners and Customs of London (1811, p. 259), speaking of Christmas Day, says:—“It was a day of grand difference in the judgment of some, and in the City of London some opened their shops, but to stop mutinying they were shut up again; yet do very few understand what the difference is that is now embraced in the judgments of those who desire the reformation from Popish innovation, but to give such further satisfaction herein, it is the opinion of these that it is

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Norfolk.

Norfolk.

At Yarmouth before the Reformation it was a custom for the prior and monks, and afterwards for the dean and chapter, or the farmer of their parsonage, to provide a breakfast for the inhabitants of the town every year on Christmas Day, which custom continued till the 21st of Elizabeth, when, on account of a grievous plague which carried off two thousand of the inhabitants in one year, and on consideration of the ruinous condition of the parsonage-house, it was agreed that Thomas Osborne, who was

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Northamptonshire.

Northamptonshire.

Cole, in his History of Weston Favell (1827, p. 60), says Christmas Day is ushered in by the ringing of the bells of the church, precisely at twelve o’clock, called the midnight peal, till which time many of the inhabitants sit round the jovial fire, whence at twelve o’clock they emerge into the midnight air to listen to the peals of the bells of the neighbouring churches....

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Northumberland.

Northumberland.

In Alnwick a custom existed of giving sweetmeats to children at Christmas time, called Yule Babies, in commemoration of our Saviour’s nativity.— History of Alnwick , 1822, p. 262....

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Nottinghamshire.

Nottinghamshire.

The inhabitants of North Clifton were formerly ferry free. In consequence, the ferryman and his dog were indulged with a dinner each at the vicar’s at Christmas. The ferryman also on that day received of the inhabitants a prime loaf of bread.— N. &amp; Q. 5th S. vol. ii. p. 509. Near Raleigh there is a valley said to have been caused by an earthquake several hundred years ago, which swallowed up a whole village, together with the church. Formerly, it was the custom of the people to assemble

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Oxfordshire.

Oxfordshire.

In the buttery of St. John’s College, Oxford, an ancient candle socket of stone still remains, ornamented with the figure of the Holy Lamb. It was formerly used to burn the Christmas candle in, on the high table at supper during the twelve nights of this festival.—Brand, Pop. Antiq. 1849, vol. i. p. 467. It was formerly a custom for the butcher of Merton College, about Christmas time, to invite the scholars to a treat at his house, when he used to provide a bull for the steward to knock down wit

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Scilly Isles.

Scilly Isles.

Troutbeck, in his State of the Scilly Isles (1796, p. 172), gives the following account of how Christmas was celebrated in his time. The young people, he says, exercise a sort of gallantry among themselves, which they call goose-dancing, when the maidens are dressed up for young men and the young men for maidens. In the day time they dance about the streets in masquerade, vieing with each other who can appear the most uncouth. In the evenings they visit their neighbours in companies, where they

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Somersetshire.

Somersetshire.

At West Hatch the reeve or bailiff to the manor provided at the lord’s expense a feast on Christmas Day, and distributed to each householder a loaf of bread, a pound and a half of beef, and the like quantity of pork, undressed, and the same evening treated them with a supper.—Collinson, History of County of Somerset , 1791, vol. ii. p. 186. The following lines are sung at the Christmas mummings in this county: Brand, Pop. Antiq. 1849, vol. i. p. 466....

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Staffordshire.

Staffordshire.

In Shaw’s History of Staffordshire (1798-1801) is mentioned a custom formerly prevalent in the parish of Great Barr, for the rector on every Christmas Day to give to each person, great and small, of his parish that came to his house, so much bread, beef, mustard, and vinegar as they could eat. Latterly, however, money was given instead. Plot, in his Natural History of Staffordshire (1686, p. 434), gives the following account of a jocular custom celebrated in olden times at Bromley Abbots. He say

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Suffolk.

Suffolk.

Brand ( Pop. Antiq. 1849, vol. i. p. 489) alludes to a custom practised in the neighbourhood of Bury St. Edmunds among the young men, of hunting owls and squirrels on Christmas Day. In 1358, at Hawstead, the customary tenants paid their lord at Christmas a small rent, called offering silver . Eleven of them paid in all xviij d. In 1386 the Christmas offerings made by the master for his domestics amounted to xiiij d. for seven servants.—Cullum, History of Hawstead , 1813, pp. 13-14....

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Westmoreland.

Westmoreland.

At Kendal, if a man be found at work in Christmas week his fellow-tradesmen lay violent hands on him, and carry him on a pole to the ale-house, where he is to treat them.—Southey’s Common Place Book , 1851, 4th series, p. 354....

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Worcestershire.

Worcestershire.

At Bewdley it was the custom for the bellman to go round on Christmas morning, ringing his bell in several parts of the town, and singing the following doggerel, first saying, “Good morning, masters and mistresses all, I wish you all a merry Christmas”: Kidderminster Shuttle , Dec. 2nd, 1871. At Yardley such of the poor as are excluded from partaking of certain doles on account of receiving regular weekly relief, are allowed one shilling each out of a general charity fund at Christmas, under the

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Yorkshire.

Yorkshire.

Blount tells us that, in Yorkshire and other northern parts, after sermon or service on Christmas Day, the people will, even in the churches, cry “ Ule! Ule! ” as a token of rejoicing; and the common sort run about the streets singing: See Brand, Pop. Antiq. 1849, vol. i. pp. 476-477. One never-failing remnant of the olden time observed in this county, says Soane ( Curiosities of Literature ), was the cheese , which had been especially made and preserved for the season. It was produced with much

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WALES.

WALES.

A custom prevails in Wales of carrying about at Christmas time a horse’s skull dressed up with ribbons, and supported on a pole by a man who is concealed under a large white cloth. There is a contrivance for opening and shutting the jaws, and the figure pursues and bites everybody it can lay hold of, and does not release them except on payment of a fine. It is generally accompanied by some men dressed up in a grotesque manner, who, on reaching a house, sing some extempore verses requesting admit

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SCOTLAND.

SCOTLAND.

In some parts of Scotland, he who first opens the door on Yule Day expects to prosper more than any other member of the family during the future year because, as the vulgar express it, “He lets in yule.” On opening the door, it is customary with some to place in the doorway a table or chair covered with a clean cloth; and, according to their own language, to “set on it bread and cheese to yule.” Early in the morning, as soon as any one of the family gets out of bed, a new besom is set behind the

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IRELAND.

IRELAND.

At Culdaff, previous to Christmas, it is customary with the labouring classes to raffle for mutton, when a sufficient number can subscribe to defray the cost of a sheep. During the Christmas holidays they amuse themselves with a game of kamman, which consists in impelling a wooden ball with a crooked stick to a given point, while an adversary endeavours to drive it in a contrary direction.—Mason, Stat. Acc. of Ireland , 1814, vol. ii. p. 160. Dec. 26. ] ST. STEPHEN’S DAY. For some unexplained re

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Bedfordshire.

Bedfordshire.

In Bedfordshire there formerly existed a custom of the poor begging the broken victuals the day after Christmas Day.— Time’s Telescope , 1822, p. 298....

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Buckinghamshire.

Buckinghamshire.

It is stated in the Parliamentary Returns in 1786, that some land, then let at 12 l. per annum, was given by Sir Hugh Kite for the poor of the parish of Clifton Reynes. It appears from a book, in the custody of the minister, dated 1821, compiled by an antiquary for a history of the county, that the rector holds a close of pasture-ground called Kites, which had been formerly given to support a lamp burning in the church of Clifton Reynes, but which was subject to a charge of finding one small loa

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Cambridgeshire.

Cambridgeshire.

St. Stephen’s Day was formerly observed at Cambridge. Slicer, a character in the old play of the Ordinary says, This, says the annotator, was called St. Stephen’s pudding; it used formerly to be provided at St. John’s College, Cambridge, uniformly on St. Stephen’s Day.—Dodsley’s Old Plays , 1721, vol. x. p. 229; Med. Ævi Kalend. vol. i. p. 119....

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Isle of Man.

Isle of Man.

Hunting the wren has been a pastime in the Isle of Man from time immemorial. In Waldron’s time it was observed on the 24th of December, though afterwards it was observed on St. Stephen’s Day. This singular ceremony is founded on a tradition that, in former times, a fairy of uncommon beauty exerted such undue influence over the male population, that she, at various times, induced, by her sweet voice, numbers to follow her footsteps, till by degrees she led them into the sea where they perished. T

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Norfolk.

Norfolk.

It is an old custom in the town of East Dereham, to ring a muffled peal from the church tower on the morning of St. Stephen’s Day.— N. &amp; Q. 3rd S. vol. iii. p. 69....

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Oxfordshire.

Oxfordshire.

The three vicars of Bampton, give beef and beer on the morning of St. Stephen’s Day to those who choose to partake of it. This is called St. Stephen’s breakfast.—Southey’s Common Place Book , 4th S. 1851, p. 395....

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Yorkshire.

Yorkshire.

A correspondent of the Gent. Mag. (1811, vol. lxxxi. pt. i. p. 423) says, that in the North Riding of Yorkshire on the feast of St. Stephen large goose pies are made, all of which they distribute among their needy neighbours, except one, which is carefully laid up, and not tasted till the Purification of the Virgin, called Candlemas. On this day, also, six youths, clad in white and bedecked with ribbands, with swords in their hands, travel from one village to another, performing the “sword dance

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WALES.

WALES.

On St. Stephen’s Day, everybody is privileged to whip another person’s legs with holly, and this is often reciprocally done till the blood streams down.—Southey’s Common Place Book (1851, 4th S. p. 365). In Mason’s Tales and Traditions of Tenby (1858, p. 5) this custom is alluded to as being celebrated at that place....

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IRELAND.

IRELAND.

On the anniversary of St. Stephen it is customary for groups of young villagers to bear about a holly-bush adorned with ribbons, and having many wrens depending from it. This is carried from house to house with some ceremony, the “wren-boys” chanting several verses, the burthen of which may be collected from the following lines of their song: A small piece of money is usually bestowed on them, and the evening concludes in merry-making with the money thus collected.—Croker, Researches in the Sout

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Gloucestershire.

Gloucestershire.

At Woodchester a muffled peal is rung on this day.— Kalendar of the English Church , 1866, p. 194....

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Northamptonshire.

Northamptonshire.

In Northamptonshire this festival was called “Dyzemas Day.” Miss Baker, in her Glossary of Northamptonshire Words (1854, vol. i. p. 207), says she was told by a sexagenarian on the southern side of the county that, within his remembrance, this day was kept as sacred as the Sabbath, and it was considered particularly unlucky to commence any undertaking, or even to wash, on the same day of the week throughout the year on which the anniversary of this day last fell, and it was commonly said, “What

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Somersetshire.

Somersetshire.

From time immemorial a muffled peal has been rung on this festival at Leigh-upon-Mendip. At Wells, also, on this day, the bells of the cathedral ring out a muffled peal in commemoration of the martyrdom of the Innocents.— Kalendar of the Church of England , 1866, p. 194....

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Worcestershire.

Worcestershire.

At Norton, near Evesham, it is customary, says a correspondent of N. &amp; Q. ( 1st S. vol. viii. p. 617), to ring first a muffled peal for the slaughter of the Holy Innocents, and then an unmuffled peal of joy for the deliverance of the Infant Christ....

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IRELAND.

IRELAND.

Holy Innocents’ Day is with the Irish “the cross day of the year,” which they call in their own tongue “La crosta na bliana,” or sometimes “Diar daoin darg,” the latter phrase signifying “blood Thursday.” On this day the Irish housewife will not warp thread, or permit it to be warped; and the Irish say that anything begun on this day must have an unlucky ending. The following legend regarding the day is current in the county of Clare:— Between the parishes of Quin and Tulla in this county is a l

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Cornwall.

Cornwall.

New Year’s Day and Eve are holidays with the miners. It has been said they refuse to work on these days from superstitious reasons.—Hunt’s Romances of the West of England , 1871, p. 350....

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Cumberland.

Cumberland.

At Muncaster, on the eve of the new year, the children used to go from house to house singing a ditty which craves the bounty “they were wont to have in old King Edward’s days.” No tradition exists as to the origin of this custom. The donation was twopence or a pie at every house.—Hutchinson, History of Cumberland , 1794, vol. i. p. 570, note ....

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Derbyshire.

Derbyshire.

On New Year’s Eve a cold possett, as it is called, made of milk, ale, eggs, currants, and spice, is prepared, and in it is placed the wedding-ring of the hostess; each of the party takes out a ladle full, and in doing so takes every precaution to fish up the ring, as it is believed that whoever is fortunate enough to “catch” the ring will be married before the year is out. On the same night it is customary in some districts to throw open all the doors of the house just before midnight, and to wa

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Gloucestershire.

Gloucestershire.

On New Year’s Eve the wassailers go about carrying with them a large bowl, dressed up with garlands and ribbons, and repeat the following song: See Dixon’s Ancient Poems , 1846, p. 199. See Dixon’s Ancient Poems , 1846, p. 199....

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Isle of Man.

Isle of Man.

In many of the upland cottages it is customary for the housewife, after raking the fire for the night, and just before stepping into bed, to spread the ashes smooth over the floor with the tongs in the hope of finding in it, next morning, the tract of a foot; should the toes of this ominous print point towards the door, then it is believed a member of the family will die in the course of that year; but should the heel of the fairy foot point in that direction, then it is firmly believed that the

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Nottinghamshire.

Nottinghamshire.

Of the New Year’s customs observed in this county the wassail was until recently observed to a considerable extent. This friendly custom was observed by the young women of the village, who accustomed themselves to go about from door to door on New Year’s Eve, neatly dressed for the occasion, and bearing a bowl richly decorated with evergreens and ribbands, and filled with a compound of ale, roasted apples, and toast, and seasoned with nutmeg and sugar. The bowl was offered to the inmates with th

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Oxfordshire.

Oxfordshire.

It is a custom at Merton College, says Pointer, in his Oxoniensis Academia (1749, p. 24), on the last night in the year (called Scrutiny Night), for the college servants, all in a body, to make their appearance in the hall before the warden and fellows (after supper), and there to deliver up the keys, so that if they have committed any great crime in the year their keys are taken away, and consequently their places, otherwise they are of course delivered to them again. At the opening of the scru

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Isle of Wight.

Isle of Wight.

At Yarmouth the following doggerel is sung at the season of the new year: Halliwell’s Popular Rhymes , 1849, p. 236....

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Yorkshire.

Yorkshire.

At Bradford it is the practice of men and women, dressed in strange costumes, with blackened faces, and besoms in hand, to enter houses on New Year’s Eve so as to “sweep out the old year.”— N. &amp; Q. 5th S. vol. i. p. 383....

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SCOTLAND.

SCOTLAND.

Hogmanay is the universal popular name in Scotland for the last day of the year. It is a day of high festival among young and old—but particularly the young, who do not regard any of the rest of the Daft Days with half so much interest. It is still customary, in retired and primitive towns, for the children of the poorer class of people to get themselves on that morning swaddled in a great sheet, doubled up in front, so as to form a vast pocket, and then to go along the streets in little bands,

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IRELAND.

IRELAND.

On the last night of the year a cake is thrown against the outside door of each house by the head of the family, which ceremony is said to keep out hunger during the ensuing one.—Croker, Researches in the South of Ireland , 1824, p. 233. A correspondent of N. &amp; Q. ( 5th S. vol. iii. p. 7) says, on New Year’s Day about the suburbs at the County Down side of Belfast, the boys run about carrying little twisted wisps of straw, which they offer to persons whom they meet, or throw into their h

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AN ALPHABETICAL LIST OF BOOKS CONTAINED IN BOHN’S LIBRARIES.

AN ALPHABETICAL LIST OF BOOKS CONTAINED IN BOHN’S LIBRARIES.

Detailed Catalogue, arranged according to the various Libraries, will be sent on application. ADDISON’S Works. With the Notes of Bishop Hurd, Portrait, and 8 Plates of Medals and Coins. Edited by H. G. Bohn. 6 vols. 3 s. 6 d. each. ÆSCHYLUS, The Dramas of. Translated into English Verse by Anna Swanwick. 4th Edition, revised. 5 s. —— The Tragedies of. Newly translated from a revised text by Walter Headlam, Litt.D., and C. E. S. Headlam, M.A. 3 s. 6 d. —— The Tragedies of. Translated into Prose by

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THE YORK LIBRARY

THE YORK LIBRARY

A NEW SERIES OF REPRINTS ON THIN PAPER. With specially designed title-pages, binding, and end-papers. Fcap. 8vo. in cloth, 2s. net; In leather, 3s. net. ‘The York Library is noticeable by reason of the wisdom and intelligence displayed in the choice of unhackneyed classics.... A most attractive series of reprints.... The size and style of the volumes are exactly what they should be.’— Bookman. The following volumes are now ready : CHARLOTTE BRONTË’S JANE EYRE. BURNEY’S EVELINA. Edited, with an I

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MASTERS OF LITERATURE

MASTERS OF LITERATURE

Crown 8vo. with portrait, 3s. 6d. net each. This Series represents an attempt to include in a portable form the finest passages of our prose masters, with some apparatus for the intensive study of what is, by the consent of the specialists, the particular author’s very best. The selection of passages has been entrusted to the best contemporary guides, who are also critics of the first rank, and have the necessary power of popular exposition. The editors have also been asked to adjust their intro

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BELL’S HANDBOOKS OF THE GREAT MASTERS IN PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.

BELL’S HANDBOOKS OF THE GREAT MASTERS IN PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.

Edited by G. C. WILLIAMSON, Litt.D. NEW AND CHEAPER REISSUE. Post 8vo. With 40 Illustrations and Photogravure Frontispiece. 3 s. 6 d. net each. The following Volumes have been issued : BOTTICELLI. By A. Streeter . 2nd Edition. BRUNELLESCHI. By Leader Scott . CORREGGIO. By Selwyn Brinton , M.A. 2nd Edition. CARLO CRIVELLI. By G. McNeil Rushforth , M.A. 2nd Edition. DELLA ROBBIA. By the Marchesa Burlamacchi . 2nd Edition. ANDREA DEL SARTO. By H. Guinness . 2nd Edition. DONATELLO. By Hope Rea . 2nd

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THE ALDINE EDITION OF THE BRITISH POETS.

THE ALDINE EDITION OF THE BRITISH POETS.

‘This excellent edition of the English classics, with their complete texts and scholarly introductions, are something very different from the cheap volumes of extracts which are just now so much too common.’— St. James’s Gazette. ‘An excellent series. Small, handy, and complete.’— Saturday Review. Blake. Edited by W. M. Rossetti. Burns. Edited by Q. A. Aitken. 3 vols. Butler. Edited by B. B. Johnson. 2 vols. Campbell. Edited by His Son-in-law, the Rev. A. W. Hill. With Memoir by W. Allingham. Ch

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THE ALL-ENGLAND SERIES. HANDBOOKS OF ATHLETIC GAMES.

THE ALL-ENGLAND SERIES. HANDBOOKS OF ATHLETIC GAMES.

‘The best instruction on games and sports by the best authorities, at the lowest prices.’— Oxford Magazine. Small 8vo. cloth, Illustrated. Price 1s. each. Cricket. By Fred C. Holland . Cricket. By the Hon. and Rev. E. Lyttelton . Croquet. By Lieut.-Col. the Hon. H. C. Needham . Lawn Tennis. By H. W. W. Wilberforce . With a Chapter for Ladies, by Mrs. Hillyard . Tennis and Rackets and Fives. By Julian Marshall , Major J. Spens , and Rev. J. A. Arnan Tait . Golf. By H. S. C. Everard . Double vol.

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THE CLUB SERIES OF CARD AND TABLE GAMES.

THE CLUB SERIES OF CARD AND TABLE GAMES.

‘No well-regulated club or country house should be without this useful series of books.’— Globe. Small 8vo. cloth, Illustrated. Price 1 s. each. Bridge. By ‘ Templar .’ Six-handed Bridge. By Hubert Stuart . 6 d. Whist By Dr. Wm. Pole , F.R.S. Solo Whist. By Robert F. Green . Billiards. By Major-Gen. A. W. Drayson , F.R.A.S. With a Preface by W. J. Peall. Hints on Billiards. By J. P. Buchanan . Double vol. 2 s. Chess. By Robert F. Green . The Two-Move Chess Problem. By B. G. Laws . Chess Openings

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BELL’S CATHEDRAL SERIES.

BELL’S CATHEDRAL SERIES.

Profusely Illustrated, cloth, crown 8vo 1s. 6d. net each. ENGLISH CATHEDRALS. An Itinerary and Description. Compiled by James G. Gilchrist , A.M., M.D. Revised and edited with an Introduction on Cathedral Architecture by the Rev. T. Perkins , M.A., F.R.A.S. 2nd Edition, revised. Uniform with above Series. Now ready. 1s. 6d. net each. BATH ABBEY, MALMESBURY ABBEY, and BRADFORD-ON-AVON CHURCH. By the Rev. T. Perkins , M.A. BEVERLEY MINSTER. By Charles Hiatt . 2nd Edition. THE CHURCHES OF COVENTRY.

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WEBSTER’S NEW INTERNATIONAL DICTIONARY.

WEBSTER’S NEW INTERNATIONAL DICTIONARY.

M essrs. Bell have pleasure in announcing an entirely new edition of Webster’s International Dictionary. The fruit of ten years’ work on the part of the large staff of Editors and Contributors is represented in this edition, which is in no sense a mere revision of ‘The International,’ but exceeds that book—in convenience, quantity, and quality—as much as it surpassed the ‘Unabridged.’ Points of the New International. 400,000 WORDS AND PHRASES DEFINED. Half this number in old International. 2700

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