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  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

[_Reprinted from Stereotype plates._]

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 that I am much indebted to Mr. James
Britten, of the British Museum, for the valuable help and suggestions
which he has given me whilst passing the proof-sheets through the Press.

  T. F. THISELTON DYER.

  _September 15th, 1875._

POPULAR CUSTOMS.

JAN. 1.] NEW YEAR’S DAY.

New Year’s Day has always been a time of general rejoicing and
festivity, its observance being characterised by many a curious custom
and superstitious practice. History tells us how on this day the Druids
were accustomed, with much pomp and ceremony, to distribute branches of
the sacred mistletoe amongst the people; those precious gifts having the
night before been cut from the oak-tree in a forest dedicated to the
gods. Among the Saxons of the northern nations the new year was ushered
in by friendly gifts, and celebrated with such extraordinary festivity
that people actually used to reckon their age by the numbers of annual
merry-makings in which they had participated. Fosbroke, in his
_Encyclopædia of Antiquities_, notices the continuation of the Roman
practice of interchanging gifts during the middle and later ages; a
custom which prevailed especially amongst our kings, queens, and the
nobility. According to Matthew Paris, Henry III., following the
discreditable example of some of the Roman emperors, even extorted them
from his subjects.

In Rymer’s _Fœdera_ (vol. x. p. 387) a list is given of the gifts
received by Henry VI. between Christmas Day and February 4th, 1428,
consisting of sums of 40_s._, 20_s._, 13_s._ 4_d._, 10_s._, 6_s._ 8_d._,
and 3_s._ 4_d._

In the reign of Henry VII. the reception of the New Year’s gifts
presented by the king and queen to each other and by their household
and courtiers, was reduced to a solemn formula.

Agnes Strickland, in her _Lives of the Queens of England_ (1864, vol.
ii. p. 83), quotes the following extract from a MS. of Henry VII.’s
Norroy herald, in possession of Peter Le Neve, Esq.: “On the day of the
New Year, when the king came to his foot-sheet, his usher of his
chamber-door said to him, ‘Sire, here is a New Year’s gift coming from
the queen;’ then the king replied, ‘Let it come in.’ Then the king’s
usher let the queen’s messenger come within the _yate_” (meaning the
gate of the railing which surrounded the royal bed, instances of which
are familiar to the public in the state bedrooms at Hampton Court to
this day, and it is probable that the scene was very similar), “Henry
VII. sitting at the foot of the bed in his dressing-gown, the officers
of his bed-chamber having turned the top sheet smoothly down to the foot
of the bed when the royal personage rose. The queen,[1] in like manner,
sat at her foot-sheet, and received the king’s New Year’s gift within
the gate of her bed-railing. When this formal exchange of presents had
taken place between the king and his consort, they received, seated in
the same manner, the New Year’s gifts of their nobles. ‘And,’ adds the
herald, assuming the first person, ‘I shall report to the queen’s grace
and them that be about her, what rewards are to be given to them that
bring her grace New Year’s gifts, for I trow they are not so good as
those of the king.’”

  [1] Elizabeth of York.

There is in the possession of the Marquis of Bath, Longleat, a
manuscript, which contains a list of moneys given to King Henry VIII. in
the twenty-fourth year of his reign, as New Year’s gifts. They are from
archbishops, bishops, noblemen, doctors, gentlemen, &c. The amount which
the king’s grace complacently pocketed on this occasion was 792_l._
10_s._ 10_d._--_N. &. Q. 4th S._ vol. xi. p. 8.

Honest old Latimer, however, says Hone (_Every Day Book_, 1836, vol. i.
p. 7), instead of presenting Henry VIII. with a purse of gold, put into
the king’s hand a New Testament, with a leaf conspicuously doubled down
at Hebrews xiii. 4, which, on reference, will be found to have been
worthy of all _acceptation_, though not, perhaps, well accepted.

A manuscript roll of the public revenue of the fifth year of Edward VI.
has an entry of rewards given on New Year’s Day to the king, officers,
and servants, amounting to 155_l._ 5_s._, and also of sums given to the
servants of those who presented New Year’s gifts to the king.

During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the custom of presenting New Year’s
gifts to the sovereign was carried to an extravagant height. Indeed, Dr.
Drake is of opinion that the wardrobe and jewelry of Queen Elizabeth
were principally supported by these annual contributions on New Year’s
Day. He cites lists of New Year’s gifts presented to her from the
original rolls published in her “progresses” by Mr. Nichols; and from
these it appears that the presents were made by the great officers of
state, peers and peeresses, bishops, knights and their ladies, gentlemen
and gentlewomen, physicians and apothecaries, and others of lower grade,
down to her Majesty’s dustman. The presents consisted of sums of money,
costly articles of ornament for the queen’s person or apartments,
caskets studded with precious stones, valuable necklaces, bracelets,
gowns, embroidered mantles, smocks, petticoats, looking-glasses, fans,
silk stockings, and a great variety of other articles. The largest sum
given by any of the temporal lords was 20_l._; but the Archbishop of
Canterbury gave 40_l._, the Archbishop of York 30_l._, and the other
spiritual lords, 20_l._ and 10_l._ Dr. Drake says, that although
Elizabeth made returns to the New Year’s gifts, in plate and other
articles, yet she nevertheless took sufficient care that the balance
should be in her own favour.

In the reign of James I. the money gifts seem to have been continued for
some time, but the ornamental articles presented seem to have been few
and of small value. No rolls, nor, indeed, any notices of New Year’s
gifts presented to Charles I. seem to have been preserved, though
probably there were such. The custom, no doubt, ceased entirely during
the Commonwealth, and was never afterwards revived, at least, to any
extent worthy of notice. Mr. Nichols mentions that the last remains of
the custom at court consisted in placing a crown-piece under the plate
of each of the chaplains in waiting on New Year’s Day, and that this
custom had ceased early in the nineteenth century.

The New Year’s gifts, says Chambers (_Book of Days_, vol. i. p. 31),
presented by individuals to each other were suited to sex, rank,
situation, and circumstances. From Bishop Hall’s _Satires_ (1598), it
appears that the usual gift of tenantry in the country to their
landlords was a capon; and Cowley, addressing the same class of society
says:

    “Ye used in the former days to fall
    Prostrate to your landlord in his hall,
    When with low legs, and in an humble guise,
    Ye offer’d up a capon sacrifice
    Unto his worship, at a New Year’s tide.”

Ben Jonson, in his _Christmas Masque_, among other characters introduces
“New Year’s gift in a blue coat, serving-man like, with an orange, and a
sprig of rosemary on his head, his hat full of brooches, with a collar
of gingerbread, his torch-bearer carrying a marchpane, with a bottle of
wine on either arm.” An orange stuck with cloves was a common present,
and is explained by Lupton, who says that the flavour of the wine is
improved, and the wine itself preserved from mouldiness, by an orange or
lemon stuck with cloves being hung within the vessel, so as not to touch
the liquor.

When pins were first invented, and brought into use about the beginning
of the sixteenth century, they were a New Year’s gift very acceptable to
ladies, instead of the wooden skewers which they had hitherto used.
Sometimes, however, in lieu of pins, they received a composition in
money, called _pin money_, an expression which has been extended to a
sum of money secured by a husband on his marriage for the private
expenses of his wife.

Gloves, too, were customary New Year’s gifts. They were far more
expensive than nowadays, and occasionally a sum of money was given
instead, which was called _glove money_.

A hundred years ago, the Poet Laureate not only wrote a New Year’s ode,
by way of salutation to the sovereign and royal family, but those
illustrious personages sat in state at St. James’s, and heard it, as it
was sung by celebrated vocalists, for whom it had been composed by some
expert in music. Now that the Laureate’s song would be worth the
listening to, we have none written especially for the New Year. This
musical festival has ceased to be.--_N. & Q. 4th S._ vol. xi. p. 8.

Latterly, New Year’s Day has been celebrated with but little public
festivity, the only open joyous demonstration being the sound of merry
peals from the church bells, as they ring out the Old and ring in the
New Year.

Many persons make a point of wearing new clothes on this day, and
consider any omission of the kind unlucky. At court it is one of the
twelve _Offering Days_.--_Med. Ævi Kalend._ Hampson, 1841, vol. i. p 33.

In the North of England it is considered unlucky for any inmate to go
out of the house until some one from without has entered it; and the
first foot across the threshold is watched with great anxiety, the good
or bad luck of the house during the year, depending on the first comer
being a man or a woman.--_N. & Q. 2nd S._ vol. xi. p. 244.

Opening the Bible on this day is a superstitious practice observed in
some parts of the country, and much credit is attached to it. It is
usually set about with some little ceremony on the morning, before
breakfast, as it must be performed fasting. The Bible is laid on the
table unopened, and the parties who wish to consult it are then to open
it in succession. They are not at liberty to choose any particular part
of the book, but must open it at random. Wherever this may happen to be,
the inquirer is to place his finger on any chapter contained in the two
open pages, but without any previous perusal or examination. It is
believed that the good or ill fortune, the happiness or the misery, of
the consulting party, during the ensuing year, will be in some way or
other described and foreshown by the contents of the chapter. The custom
is called _dipping_.--_Pop. Antiq._ Brand, 1849, vol. i. p. 20; _N. & Q.
2nd S._ vol. xii. p. 303.

It is customary in some places for persons to carry about decorated
apples, and present them to their friends. The apples have three skewers
of wood stuck into them, so as to form a tripod foundation; and their
sides are ornamented with oat grains, while various evergreens and
berries adorn the top. A raisin is occasionally fastened on each oat
grain, but this is probably an innovation.--_N. & Q. 1st S._ vol. i. p.
214.

In some parts of the county of Nottingham, on the first day of the New
Year, troops of little children might be seen a few years ago, each
bearing an orange, an apple, or a nutmeg, sometimes gilded, and stuck
with cloves or rosemary, which they were carrying to their friends to
ask their blessing; the present thus given was generally carefully
reserved.--_Jour. of the Archæological Association_, 1853, vol. viii. p.
231.

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, &c., as also of presenting them to each other.

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 to follow their respective avocations on that
day.--_Gent. Mag._ 1791, vol. lxi. p. 1169.

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.

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 early hours of the New Year, after a funeral service has been
said over “Old Tom” as the old year is called, at the public-houses and
ale and cider stores, the streets are filled with boys and men, singing
in the loudest tones possible:

    “I wish you a merry Christmas
      And a happy New Year,
    A pocket full of money,
      And a cellar full of beer,
    And a good fat pig
      To serve you all the year.
    Ladies and gentlemen
      Sat (_sic_) by the fire,
    Pity we poor boys
      Out in the mire.”

  _The Antiquary_, 1873, vol. iii. p. 7.

In the neighbourhood of Ross, it is deemed most unfortunate for a woman
to enter the house first, and therefore an inquiry is generally made
whether a male has previously been there. It is customary for the
peasantry to send about on this day a small pyramid, made of leaves,
apples, nuts, &c.--Fosbroke, _Sketches of Ross_, 1822, p. 58.

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
families will not open the door to any one until satisfied by the voice
that he is likely to bring the house a year’s good luck by entering it.

The most kindly and charitable woman in a neighbourhood will strongly
refuse to give any one a light on the morning of New Year’s Day, as most
unlucky to the one who gives it away.--Harland and Wilkinson’s
_Lancashire Folk-Lore_, 1867, p. 214.

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:

    “Again we assemble, a merry New Year
    To wish to each one of the family here,
    Whether man, woman, or girl, or boy,
    That long life, and happiness, all may enjoy,
    May they of potatoes and herrings have plenty,
    With butter and cheese, and each other dainty;
    And may their sleep never, by night or day,
    Disturbed be by even the tooth of a flea;
    Until at the Quaaltagh again we appear,
    To wish you, as now, all a happy New Year.”

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 unlucky to be the first-foot or
_quaaltagh_ on New Year’s morning. The actors of the _quaaltagh_ do not
assume fantastic habiliments like the mummers of England, or the
guisards of Scotland, nor do they, like these rude performers of the
Ancient Mysteries, appear ever to have been attended by minstrels
playing on different kinds of musical instruments.

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 woman, the worst luck will befall the household.
Similar to the first hearing of the cuckoo, it is of the greatest
importance whether or not you have money in your pocket and your
cupboard full on New Year’s Day.

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:

    “Take out, and take in,
    Bad luck is sure to begin;
    But take in and take out.
    Good luck will come about.”

  _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:

    “Take out, then take in,
    Bad luck will begin;
    Take in, then take out,
    Good luck comes in.”

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, Eglesfield, _aiguille_ in French
signifying a needle, and _fil_ a thread (p. 38).

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 of Staffordshire_, 1686, p. 433), ‘when set to a strong fire,
evaporates in the same manner as in an Æolopile, and vents itself at the
mouth in a constant blast, blowing the fire so strongly that it is very
audible, and makes a sensible impression in that part of the fire where
the blast lights.’

The custom was this. An obligation lay upon the lord of the adjacent
manor of Essington, every New Year’s Day, to bring a goose to Hilton,
and drive it three times round the hall-fire, which Jack of Hilton was
all the time blowing by the discharge of his steam. He was then to carry
the bird into the kitchen and deliver it to the cook; and when it was
dressed he was to carry it in a dish to the table of his lord paramount,
the lord of Hilton, receiving in return a dish of meat for his own mess.

An annual payment, called Moseley’s Dole, was formerly made by the
corporation, consisting of a penny a piece to all the inhabitants of
Walsall, and of the adjoining parish of Rushall, which is supposed to
have anciently formed part of that of Walsall.

Three persons were employed to make the distribution, who began on New
Year’s Day, and went through the parishes, giving a penny to each inmate
of every house, whether permanently or accidentally abiding there.

It is stated by Plot (_History of Staffordshire_), that the earliest
mention of this dole is in the 36th Henry VIII., when 7_l._ 10_s._ 9_d._
discharged it. The first trace of it, however, that is found in the
documents of the corporation is in 1632, when its amount was 14_l._
9_s._ 4_d._ The amount increased gradually till 1799, when it was
60_l._, and until the time of its cessation in 1825, it remained yearly
about the same.

There are many traditions respecting the origin of this dole, but they
all concur in attributing it to one Thomas Moseley, from whom an estate
at Bascott in Warwickshire was derived. The donor, in granting this
estate to the Corporation, charged it with the annual payment of nine
marks to the Abbot of Hales Owen, “who should keep one mark for his
labours in distributing the remaining eight marks, at the _obit_ of the
said Thomas Moseley at Walsall, for the souls of the said Thomas and
Margary his wife, and others; and this by the oversight of the Vicar of
Walsall, and of all the chaplains of the Guild of St. John the Baptist,
of the church of Walsall.”

The eight marks above named were no doubt the origin of the dole, and
would, before the Reformation, be amply sufficient to supply a penny a
piece to all the parishioners, or at least to all who repaired to the
church on the obit day, to pray for the donor and his wife--a
superstitious custom which caused the estate to be seized by Henry
VIII., when he suppressed the monasteries.--_History of Staffordshire_,
White, 1857, p. 645; _Old English Customs and Charities_, 1842, p. 55.

SUSSEX.

At Hastings, apples, nuts, oranges, &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.

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. & Q. 2nd S._ vol. ii. p.
229.

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. & Q. 2nd S._ vol. iii. p. 313.

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,
Dishforth, and Hewick, have right of estray for their sheep to certain
limited boundaries on the common, and each township has a shepherd.

The lord’s shepherd has a pre-eminence of tending his sheep on every
part of the common; and wherever he herds the lord’s sheep, the several
other shepherds are to give way to him, and give up their
_hoofing-place_ so long as he pleases to depasture the lord’s sheep
thereon. The lord holds his court the first day in the year, to entitle
those several townships to such right of estray; the shepherd of each
township attends the court, and does fealty, by bringing to the court a
large apple-pie, and a twopenny sweetcake (except the shepherd of
Hewick, who compounds by paying sixteen-pence for all, which is drunk as
after mentioned,) and a wooden spoon; each pie is cut in two, and
divided by the bailiff, one half between the steward, bailiff, and the
tenant of the coney-warren before mentioned, and the other half into six
parts, and divided amongst the six shepherds of the above mentioned six
townships. In the pie brought by the shepherd of Rainton an inner one is
made, filled with prunes. The cakes are divided in the same manner. The
bailiff of the manor provides furmenty and mustard, and delivers to each
shepherd a slice of cheese and a penny roll. The furmenty, well mixed
with mustard, is put into an earthen pot, and placed in a hole in the
ground, in a garth belonging to the bailiff’s house; to which place the
steward of the court, with the bailiff, tenant of the warren, and six
shepherds, adjourn with their respective wooden spoons. The bailiff
provides spoons for the stewards, the tenant of the warren, and himself.
The steward first pays respect to the furmenty, by taking a large
spoonful; the bailiff has the next honour, the tenant of the warren
next, then the shepherd of Hutton Conyers, and afterwards the other
shepherds by regular turns; then each person is served with a glass of
ale (paid for by the sixteen-pence brought by the Hewick shepherd), and
the health of the lord of the manor is drank; then they adjourn back to
the bailiff’s house, and the further business of the court is proceeded
with.

Each pie contains about a peck of flour, is about sixteen or eighteen
inches diameter, and as large as will go into the mouth of an ordinary
oven. The bailiff of the manor measures them with a rule, and takes the
diameter; and if they are not of a sufficient capacity, he threatens to
return them, and fine the town. If they are large enough, he divides
them with a rule and compasses into four equal parts; of which the
steward claims one, the warrener another, and the remainder is divided
amongst the shepherds. In respect to the furmenty, the top of the dish
in which it is put is placed level with the surface of the ground; all
persons present are entitled to eat of it, and those who do not, are not
deemed loyal to the lord. Every shepherd is obliged to eat of it, and
for that purpose is to take a spoon in his pocket to the court; for if
any of them neglect to carry a spoon with him he is to lay him down upon
his belly, and sup the furmenty, with his face to the pot or dish; at
which time it is usual, by way of sport, for some of the bystanders to
dip his face into the furmenty; and sometimes a shepherd, for the sake
of diversion, will purposely leave his spoon at home.

In the North Riding of Yorkshire, those who have not the common
materials for making a fire, generally sit without one on New Year’s
Day; for none of their neighbours, although hospitable at other times,
will suffer them to light a candle at their fires. If they do, it is
believed that one of the family will die within the year.--_Gent. Mag._
1811, vol. lxxxi. p. 424.

Subjoined is all that appears to have survived of the Yorkshire _Hagmena
song_:[2]

    “To-night it is the New Year’s night, to-morrow is the day,
    And we are come for our right and for our ray,
    As we used to do in old King Henry’s day
        Sing fellows, sing, hag man, ha!

    If you go to the bacon-flick, cut me a good bit;
    Cut, cut, and low, beware of your maw;
    Cut, cut, and round, beware of your thumb,
    That me and my merry men may have some.
        Sing fellows, sing, hag-man, ha!

    If you go to the black ark, bring me ten marks;
    Ten marks, ten pound, throw it down upon the ground,
    That me and my merry men may have some.
        Sing fellows, sing, hag-man, ha!”

  Brand’s _Pop. Antiq._ 1870, vol. i. p. 11.

  [2] See ‘New Year’s Eve.’

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 twelve o’clock
strikes, at which time every one begins to move, and they all fall to
work. At what? why, kissing. Each male is successively locked in pure
Platonic embrace with each female; and after this grand ceremony, which
of course creates infinite fun, they separate and go home. This matter
is not at all confined to these, but wherever man meets woman it is the
particular privilege of this hour. The common people think it necessary
to drink what they call _hot-pint_, which consists of strong beer,
whisky, eggs, &c.; a most horrid composition; as bad, or worse than that
infamous mixture called _fig-one_,[3] which the English people drink on
Good Friday.”

  [3] Doubtless a misprint for _fig-sue_. See under Good Friday.

The letter from which this is an extract is signed Henry Beckersteth,
and dated Edinburgh, January 1st, 1802.

Till very few years ago, in Scotland (says a correspondent of Chambers’
_Book of Days_, vol. i. p. 28), the custom of _first-footing_ was
practised on New Year’s morning.

On the approach of twelve o’clock of the last night of the old year, a
_hot-pint_[4] was prepared--that is, a kettle or flagon full of warm,
spiced, and sweetened ale, with an infusion of spirits. When the clock
had struck the knell of the departed year, each member of the family
drank of this mixture, “and good health, and a happy New Year, and many
of them, to all the rest,” with a general hand-shaking, and perhaps a
dance round the table, with the addition of a song to the tune of Hey
tuttie taitie:

    “Weel may we a’ be,
    Ill may we never see.
    Here’s to the king
    And the gude companie!” &c.

  [4] Called also a _het-pint_. _Time’s Telescope_, 1824, p. 3.

The elders of the family would then most probably sally out with the hot
kettle, and bearing also a competent provision of buns and short-bread,
or bread-and-cheese, with the design of visiting their neighbours, and
interchanging with them the same cordial greetings. If they met by the
way another party similarly bent whom they knew, they would stop, and
give and take sips from their respective kettles. Reaching the friend’s
house, they would enter with vociferous good wishes, and soon send the
kettle circulating. If they were the first to enter the house since
twelve o’clock they were deemed as the _first-foot_; and as such it was
most important for luck to the family in the coming year, that they
should make this entry not empty-handed, but with their hands full of
cakes, and bread-and-cheese; of which, on the other hand, civility
demanded that each individual in the house should partake.

To such an extent did this custom prevail in Edinburgh, in the
recollection of persons still living, that according to their account,
the principal streets were more thronged between twelve and one in the
morning than they usually were at mid-day. Much innocent mirth
prevailed, and mutual good feelings were largely promoted. An unlucky
circumstance which took place on the 1st January, 1812, proved the means
of nearly extinguishing the custom. A small party of reckless boys
formed the design of turning the innocent festivities of _first-footing_
to account for purposes of plunder. They kept their counsel well. No
sooner had the people come abroad on the principal thoroughfares of the
Old Town than these youths sallied out in small bands, and commenced the
business which they had undertaken. Their previous agreement was _to
look out for the white neckcloths_, such being the best mark by which
they could distinguish in the dark individuals likely to carry any
property worthy of being taken. A great number of gentlemen were thus
spoiled of their watches and other valuables. The least resistance was
resented by the most brutal maltreatment. A policeman and a young man of
the rank of a clerk in Leith died of the injuries they had received. An
affair so singular, so uncharacteristic of the people among whom it
happened, produced a widespread and lasting feeling of surprise. The
outrage was expiated by the execution of three of the youthful rioters
on the chief scene of their wickedness; but from that time it was
observed that the old custom of going about with the _hot pint_--the
ancient wassail--fell off.

There was in Scotland also a _first-footing_ independent of the
_hot-pint_. It was a time for some youthful friend of the family to
steal to the door, in the hope of meeting there the young maiden of his
fancy, and obtaining the privilege of a kiss as her _first-foot_. Great
was the disappointment on his part, and great the joking among the
family, if, through accident or plan, some half-withered aunt or ancient
grand-dame came to receive him instead of the blooming Jenny.--_Book of
Days_, vol. i. p. 29.

In the south of Scotland, as soon as the clock has struck the midnight
hour, one of a family goes to the well as quickly as possible, and
carefully skims it; this they call getting the scum or ream (cream) of
the well:

    “Twall struck--twa neebour hizzies raise,
      An’ liltin gaed a sad gate;
    The flower o’ the well to our house gaes
      An’ I’ll the bonniest lad get.”

The _flower of the well_ signifies the first pail of water, and the girl
who is so fortunate as to obtain the prize is supposed to have more than
a double chance of obtaining the most accomplished young man in the
parish.--_Med. Ævi Kalend._ vol. i. p. 129.

As soon as the last night of the year sets in, it is the signal with the
Strathdown Highlander for the suspension of his usual employment, and he
directs his attention to more agreeable callings. The men form into
bands, with tethers and axes, and shaping their course to the juniper
bushes, they return home laden with mighty loads, which are arranged
round the fire to dry until morning. A certain discreet person is
despatched to the _dead and living ford_ to draw a pitcher of water in
profound silence, without the vessel touching the ground, lest its
virtue should be destroyed, and on his return all retire to rest. Early
on New Year’s morning the _usque-cashrichd_, or water from the _dead and
living ford_, is drunk, as a potent charm until next New Year’s Day,
against the spells of witchcraft, the malignity of evil eyes, and the
activity of all infernal agency. The qualified Highlander then takes a
large brush, with which he profusely asperses the occupants of all beds;
from whom it is not unusual for him to receive ungrateful remonstrances
against ablution. This ended, and the doors and windows being thoroughly
closed, and all crevices stopped, he kindles piles of the collected
juniper in the different apartments, till the vapour from the burning
branches condenses into opaque clouds, and coughing, sneezing, wheezing,
gasping, and other demonstrations of suffocation ensue. The operator,
aware that the more intense the “smuchdan” the more propitious the
solemnity, disregards these indications, and continues, with streaming
eyes and averted head, to increase the fumigation, until in his own
defence he admits the air to recover the exhausted household and
himself. He then treats the horses, cattle, and other bestial stock in
the town with the same smothering, to keep them from harm throughout the
year. When the gude wife gets up, and having ceased from coughing, has
gained sufficient strength to reach the bottle _dhu_, she administers
its comfort to the relief of the sufferers; laughter takes the place of
complaint, all the family get up, wash their faces, and receive the
visits of their neighbours, who arrive full of congratulations peculiar
to the day. _Mu nase choil orst_, “My Candlemas bond upon you,” is the
customary salutation, and means, in plain words, “You owe me a New
Year’s gift.” A point of great emulation is, who shall salute the other
first, because the one who does so is entitled to a gift from the person
saluted. Breakfast, consisting of all procurable luxuries, is then
served, the neighbours not engaged are invited to partake, and the day
ends in festivity.--_Popular Superstitions of the Highlanders of
Scotland_, Stewart, 1851.

Pennant, in his _Tour in Scotland_ (1790, vol. i. p. 206), says that on
New Year’s Day the Highlanders burn juniper before their cattle.

FORFARSHIRE.

At the commencement of the New Year[5] the opulent burghers of Montrose
begin to feast with their friends, and to go a round of visits, which
takes up the space of many weeks. Upon such occasions, the gravest is
expected to be merry, and to join in a cheerful song.--_Stat. Acc. of
Scotland_, Sinclair, 1793, vol. v. p. 48.

  [5] Also at Christmas.

ORKNEY ISLES.

At Lady, companies of men go to the houses of the rich, and awake the
family by singing the New Year’s song, in full chorus. When the song is
concluded, the family entertain the musicians with ale and bread, and
give them a smoked goose or a piece of beef.--_Stat. Acc. of Scotland_,
1845, vol. xv. p. 142.

At the parishes of Cross, Burness, &c., New Year’s gifts, under the
title of “Christmas presents,” are given to maid-servants by their
masters.--_Stat. Account of Scotland_, Sinclair, 1793, vol. vii. p. 488.

HANDSEL MONDAY.

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_, unknown in the north). Postmen, scavengers, and
deliverers of newspapers look for their little annual guerdons. Among
the rural population, _Auld Handsel Monday_, i.e. Handsel Monday old
style, or the first Monday after the twelfth of the month, is the day
usually held. The farmers used to treat the whole of their servants on
that morning to a liberal breakfast of roast and boiled, with ale,
whisky, and cake, to their utmost contentment, after which the guests
went about seeing their friends for the remainder of the day. It was
also the day on which any disposed for change gave up their places, and
when new servants were engaged. Even now, when most old fashions are
much decayed, _Auld Handsel Monday_ continues to be the holiday of the
year to the class of farm-labourers in Scotland.--_Book of Days_, vol.
i. p. 52.

CO. OF EDINBURGH.

At Currie the annual fair and Old Handsel Monday are the only periodical
holidays for the working classes; on which latter occasion the servants
enjoy the pleasure of returning to the bosom of their families, and
spending the close of the day with their friends. The early part is
generally observed in the less innocent amusement of raffles, and
shooting with fire-arms, which, being often old and rusty, as well as
wielded by inexperienced hands, have occasioned some disagreeable
accidents.--_Stat. Acc. of Scotland_ 1845, vol. i. p. 550.

JAN. 5.] EVE OF THE EPIPHANY.

Formerly itinerant minstrels used to bear a bowl of spiced wine to the
houses of the gentry and others, from whom they expected a hospitable
reception, and calling their bowl a wassail-bowl, they drank wassail to
their entertainers.

In ancient kalendars is an observation on the 5th day of January, the
Vigil of the Epiphany, “Kings created by beans,” and the sixth day is
called “Festival of Kings,” with another remark, that “the ceremony of
electing kings was continued with feasting for many days.”--_Med. Ævi
Kalend._ vol. i. p. 134.

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, &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:

    “Here’s to thee, old apple tree,
    Whence thou may’st bud,
    And whence thou may’st blow!
    And whence thou may’st bear apples enow!
    Hats full! caps full!
    Bushel--bushel-sacks full!
    And my pockets full too! Huzza!”

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 weather might be, were inexorable to all entreaties to open them,
till some one had divined what was on the spit. This was generally not
easily thought of, and if edible was the reward of him who first named
it. The party were then admitted.--_Kingsbridge and Salcombe
Historically Depicted_, 1819, p. 71. Vide _Gent. Mag._ 1791, vol. lxi.
p. 403.

Brand, on the authority of a Cornishman, relates it also as a custom
with the Devonshire people to go after supper into the orchard with a
large milk-pan full of cider, having roasted apples pressed into it. Out
of this each person in company takes what is called a _clome_--i.e.
earthenware--cup, full of liquor, and standing under each of the more
fruitful apple-trees, passing by those that are not good bearers, he
addresses them in the following words:

    “Health to thee, good apple tree,
    Well to bear pocket-fulls, hat-fulls,
    Peck-fulls, bushel bag-fulls;”

and then drinking up part of the contents, he throws the rest, with the
fragments of the roasted apples, at the tree. At each cup, the company
set up a shout.--_Pop. Antiq._ 1849, vol. i. p. 29.

Herrick thus alludes to this custom and the superstition attached to it:

    “Wassail the trees, that they may bear
    You many a plum and many a pear;
    For more or less fruit they will bring,
    As you do give them wassailing.”

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
labours in sowing the grain.--Fosbrooke, _Hist. of Gloucestershire_,
1807, vol. ii. p. 232.

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 the adjacent villages and fields. Sometimes fifty or sixty of these
fires may be seen all at once. This being finished, the company return
home, where the good housewife and her maids are preparing a good
supper. A large cake is always provided, with a hole in the middle.
After supper, the company all attend the bailiff (or head of the oxen)
to the wain-house, where the following particulars are observed: The
master, at the head of his friends, fills the cup (generally with strong
ale), and stands opposite the first or finest of the oxen. He then
pledges him in a curious toast, the company follow his example with all
the other oxen, addressing each by his name. This being finished, the
large cake is produced, and, with much ceremony put on the horn of the
first ox, through the hole above mentioned.

  [6] These fires represented our Lord and the twelve Apostles.

The ox is then tickled, to make him toss his head; if he throw the cake
behind, it is the mistress’s perquisite; if before (in what is termed
the boosy) the bailiff himself claims the prize. The company then return
to the house, the doors of which they find locked, nor will they be
opened until some joyous songs are sung. On their gaining admittance a
scene of mirth ensues, which lasts the greater part of the
night.--_Gent. Mag._ 1791, vol. lxi. p. 116.

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.

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 happy New Year. The festival of Christmas used in this
part of the country to be held for twenty days, and some persons
extended it even to Candlemas.

The ingredients put into the bowl, viz., ale, sugar, nutmeg, and roasted
apples, were usually called _lambs’ wool_, and the night on which it was
drunk was commonly called _Wassail Eve_.--_Gent. Mag._ 1784, vol. liv.
p. 98.

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 Christmas. The leading object held in view is to do honour to “the
three wise men,” or, as they are more generally denominated, “the three
kings.” It is a Christian custom, ancient past memory, and probably
suggested by a paean custom, to indulge in a pleasantry called the
_Election of kings by beans_. Some, however, maintain it to have been
derived from the custom observed by the Roman children, who, at the end
of their saturnalia, drew lots with beans, to see who would be king.

In England in later times, a large cake was made, with a bean or silver
penny inserted, and this was called _Twelfth-cake_. The family and
friends being assembled, the cake was divided by lot, and whoever got
the piece containing the bean was accepted as the king for the day, and
called King of the Bean. It appears also that there was always a queen
as well as a king on Twelfth-Night. A writer, speaking of the
celebration in the South of England in 1774, says: “After tea a cake is
produced with two bowls containing the fortunate chances for the
different sexes. The host fills up the tickets, and the whole company,
except the king and queen, are to be ministers of state, maids of
honour, or ladies of the bed-chamber. Often the host and hostess, more
by design than accident, become king and queen. According to Twelfth Day
law, each party is to support his character till midnight.”

In the sixteenth century it would appear that some peculiar ceremonies
followed the election of the king and queen. Barnaby Googe, in his
paraphrase of the curious poem of Naogeorgus, _The Popish Kingdom_,
1570, states that the king, on being elected, was raised up with great
cries to the ceiling, where with chalk he inscribed crosses on the
rafters to protect the house against evil spirits.--_Book of Days_,
1863, vol. i. p. 62. See also _Every Day Book_, 1827, vol. i. p. 51.

Herrick, the poet of our festivals, has several allusions to the
celebration of this day of our ancestors, as may be seen in the
subjoined poem:

“TWELFE-NIGHT, OR KING AND QUEENE.

      “Now, now the mirth comes
      With the cake full of plums,
    Where beane’s the king of the sport here;
      Besides, we must know,
      The pea also
    Must revell, as queene, in the court here.

      Begin then to chuse
      (This night as ye use)
    Who shall for the present delight here,
      Be a king be the lot,
      And who shall not
    Be Twelfe-day queene for the night here.

      Which knowne, let us make
      Joy-sops with the cake;
    And let not a man then be seene here.
      Who unurg’d will not drinke,
      To the base from the brink,
    A health to the king and queene here.

      Next crowne the bowle full
      With gentle lamb’s-wooll;
    Adde sugar, nutmeg, and ginger,
      With store of ale too;
      And thus ye must doe
    To make the wassaile a swinger.

      Give them to the king
      And queene wassailing;
    And though with ale ye be whet here;
      Yet part ye from hence,
      As free from offence,
    As when ye innocent met here.”

In the last century _Twelfth Night Cards_ represented ministers, maids
of honour, and other attendants of a court, and the characters were to
be supported through the night. John Britton, in his _Autobiography_
tells us “he suggested and wrote a series of Twelfth Night characters,
to be printed on cards, placed in a bag, and drawn out at parties on the
memorable and merry evening of that ancient festival. They were sold in
small packets to pastrycooks, and led the way to a custom which annually
grew to an extensive trade. For the second year my pen-and-ink
characters were accompanied by prints of the different personages by
Cruikshank (father of the inimitable George), all of a comic or
ludicrous kind.” Such characters are still printed.--_Book of Days_,
vol. i. p. 64.

Formerly the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, and the Guilds of London, used to
go to St. Paul’s on Twelfth Day to hear a sermon. This is mentioned as
an old custom in the early part of Queen Elizabeth’s reign.

Twelfth Day and its customs appear to have been observed by royalty
almost from time immemorial. At the English court in the eighth year of
the reign of Edward III., the majestic title of _King of the Bean_ was
conferred upon one of the king’s minstrels, as appears by a _Compotus_
of that date, which states that sixty shillings were given by the king
on the day of the Epiphany to Regan, the trumpeter, and his associates,
the court minstrels, in the name of the king of the bean.--Strutt,
_Sports and Pastimes_, 1801, p. 255.

The grand state of the sovereign on Twelfth Day, and the manner of
keeping festival at court, in the reign of King Henry VII., are set
forth in Le Neve’s MS., called _The Royalle Book_, to the following
effect:

As for Twelfth Day, the king must go crowned in his royal robes, kirtle,
surcoat, his furred hood about his neck, his mantle with a long train,
and his cutlas before him; his armills upon his arms, of gold set full
of rich stones; and no temporal man to touch it but the king himself;
and the squire for the body must bring it to the king in a fair
kerchief, and the king must put them on himself; and he must have his
sceptre in his right hand, and the ball with the cross in the left hand,
and the crown upon his head. And he must offer that day gold, myrrh, and
sense; then must the dean of the chapel send unto the Archbishop of
Canterbury by clerk or priest the king’s offering that day; and then
must the Archbishop give the next benefice that falleth in his gift to
the same messenger. And then the king must change his mantle when he
goeth to meat, and take off his hood and lay it about his neck, and
clasp it before with a great rich ouche; and this must be of the same
colour that he offered in. And the queen in the same form when she is
crowned.

The same day that he goeth crowned he ought to go to matins; to which
array belongeth his kirtle, surcoat, tabard, and his furred hood slyved
over his head, and rolled about his neck; and on his head his cap of
estate, and his sword before him.

At even-song he must go in his kirtle and surcoat, and hood laid about
his shoulders, and clasp the tippet and hood together before his breast
with a great rich ouche, and his hat of estate upon his head.

As for the _void_ on the Twelfth Night, the king and the queen ought to
have it in the hall. And as for the wassail, the steward, the treasurer,
and the controller, shall come for it with their staves in their hands;
the king’s sewer and the queen’s having fair towels about their necks,
and dishes in their hands, such as the king and queen shall eat of; the
king’s carvers and the queen’s shall come after with chargers or dishes,
such as the king or the queen shall eat of, and with towels about their
necks. And no man shall bear anything unless sworn for three months. And
the steward, treasurer, comptroller, and marshall of the hall shall
ordain for all the hall. And, if it be in the great chamber, then shall
the chamberlain and ushers ordain, after the above form; and if there be
a bishop, his own squire, or else the king’s, such as the officers
choose to assign, shall serve him; and so of all the other estates, if
they be dukes or earls; and so of duchesses and countesses. And then
there must come in the ushers of the chamber, with the pile of cups, the
king’s cups and the queen’s, and the bishop’s with the butlers and wine
to the cupboard, and then a squire for the body to bear the cup, and
another for the queen’s cup, such as is sworn for hire.

The singers [of the chapel] may stand at the one side of the hall, and
when the steward cometh in at the hall-door, with the wassail, he must
cry thrice “Wassaile,” &c., and then shall the chapel answer it anon
with a good song, and thus in likewise, if it please the king to keep
the great chamber. And then when the king and queen have done, they will
go into the chamber. And there belongeth for the king, two lights with
the void, and two lights with the cup; and for the queen as
many.--_Antiq. Rep._ 1807, vol. i. p. 328.

On Twelfth Day, 1563, Mary Queen of Scots celebrated the French pastime
of the King of the Bean at Holyrood, but with a queen instead of a king,
as more appropriate, in consideration of herself being a female
sovereign. The lot fell to the real queen’s attendant, Mary Fleming, and
the mistress good-naturedly arrayed the servant in her own robes and
jewels, that she might duly sustain the mimic dignity in the festivities
of the night. The English resident, Randolph, who was in love with Mary
Beton, another of the queen’s maids of honour, wrote in excited terms
about this festival to the Earl of Leicester. “Happy was it,” says he,
“unto this realm, that her reign endured no longer. Two such sights, in
one state, in so good accord, I believe was never seen, as to behold two
worthy queens possess, without envy, one kingdom, both upon a day. I
leave the rest to your lordship to be judged of. My pen staggereth, my
hand faileth, further to write.----The Queen of the Bean was that day in
a gown of cloth of silver; her head, her neck, her shoulders, the rest
of her whole body, so beset with stones, that more in our whole
jewel-house were not to be found. The cheer was great. I never found
myself so happy, nor so well treated, until that it came to the point
that the old Queen (Mary) herself, to show her mighty power, contrary
unto the assurance granted me by the younger Queen (Mary Fleming), drew
me into the dance; which part of the play I could with good will have
spared unto your lordship as much fitter for the purpose.”--_Lives of
the Queens of Scotland_, Strickland, vol. iv. p. 20.

Down to the time of the Civil Wars, the feast of the Epiphany was
observed with great splendour, not only at court, but at the Inns of
Court, and the Universities (where it was an old custom to choose the
king by the bean in a cake), as well as in private mansions and smaller
households. We read, too, of our nobility keeping Twelfth Night by the
diversion of blowing up pasteboard castles; letting claret flow like
blood out of a stag made of paste; the castle bombarded from a
pasteboard ship, with cannon, in the midst of which the company pelted
each other with egg-shells filled with rose-water; and large pies were
made, filled with live frogs, which hopped and flew out upon some
curious person lifting up the lid. Twelfth Night grew to be a court
festival, in which gaming was a costly feature. Evelyn tells us that on
Twelfth Night, 1662, according to custom, His Majesty (Charles II.)
opened the revels of that night by throwing the dice himself in the
privy chamber, where was a table set on purpose, and lost his
100_l._--_Book of Days_, vol. i. p. 63.

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 paid for by subscription; two women are chosen, who with
two wooden bowls placed one within the other, so as to leave an opening
and a space between them, go round to the female part of the society in
succession, and what one puts into the uppermost bowl the attendant
collectress slips into the bowl beneath it. All are expected to
contribute something, but not more than a shilling, and they are best
esteemed who give most. The men choose two from themselves and follow
the same custom, except that as the gentlemen are not supposed to be so
fair in their dealings as the ladies, one of the collectors is furnished
with pen, ink, and paper, to set down the subscription as soon as
received.--_Time’s Telescope_, 1825, p. 13.

In many of the small towns they partake of scalded field-peas, and a
hare or some other kind of game. The peas are brought to table with the
hare, and are scalded in water with the husks on, after which a lump of
butter is put in the middle, and they are picked out as they are eaten.
The supper concludes with a _tharve-cake_, a large, flat, oaten cake,
baked on a girdle, sometimes with plums in it. Dancing and drinking then
occupy the remainder of the evening. Tar barrels are common at all their
festivals, and scarcely a town is without them.--_Ibid._ 1829, p. 11.

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.

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.

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, and ran to gather up the hood, and in such earnest were
they that the lady took so much amusement at the scene she forbade her
own attendants joining in the pursuit. The hood being captured, and
replaced on the lady’s head, she expressed her obligation to the men,
giving them each some money, and promised a piece of land (to be vested
in certain persons in trust) to throw up a hood annually on Old
Christmas Day.[7] She also ordered that the twelve men engaged to
contest the race for the hood should be clothed (_pro temp._) in scarlet
jerkins and velvet caps: the hood to be thrown in the same place as the
one where she lost hers. The custom is yet followed; and though the
Meeres on which she was riding has long ago been brought into a state of
cultivation, and the road through been diverted, yet an old mill stands
in the field where the road passed through, and is pointed out as the
place where the original scene took place, and the hood is usually
thrown up from this mill. There is generally a great concourse of people
from the neighbouring villages who also take part in the proceedings;
and when the hood is thrown up by the chief of the _boggons_, or by the
officials, it becomes the object of the villagers to get the hood to
their own village, by throwing or kicking it, similar to the foot-ball.
The other eleven men, called _boggons_, being stationed at the comers
and sides of the field to prevent, if possible, its being thrown out of
the field; and should it chance to fall into any of their hands it is
“boggoned,” and forthwith returned to the chief, who again throws it up
from the mill as before. Whoever is fortunate enough to get it out of
the field, tries to get it to his village, and usually takes it to the
public house he is accustomed to frequent, and the landlord regales him
with hot ale and rum.

  [7] The quantity of land given by Lady Mowbray was forty acres, known
  by the name of the Hoodlands.

The game usually continues until dusk, and is frequently attended by
broken shins and bruised heads. The next day is occupied by the boggons
going round the villages, singing as waits, who are regaled with hot
furmenty; from some they get coppers given them, and from others a small
measure of wheat, according to the means of the donor. The day after
that they assume the character of plough bullocks, and at a certain part
of West Woodside they “smoke the fool;” that is, straw is collected by
those who like, and piled on a heap, a rope being tied or slung over
the branches of the tree next the pile of straw; the other end of the
rope is fastened round the waist of the “fool,” and he is drawn up, and
fire is put to the straw, the “fool” being swung to and fro through the
smoke, until he is well nigh choked; after which he goes round with his
cap, and collects whatever the spectator thinks proper to give. The
performance is then at an end until the following year. See _N. & Q. 2nd
S._ vol. v. p. 94. Peek’s _History of Axholme_, 1815, vol. i. p. 277.

In the _History of Lincolnshire_ (vol. ii. p. 214) is the following
account of this custom, differing but little from the notice already
given. At Haxey, Old Twelfth Day is devoted to _throwing the hood_, an
amusement, which according to tradition, was instituted by one of the
Mowbrays. A roll of canvas, tightly corded together, from four to six
pounds in weight, is taken to an open field, and contended for by the
rustics. An individual appointed casts it from him, and the first person
who can convey it into the cellars of any public house receives the
reward of one shilling, paid by the plough-bullocks or _boggins_. A new
hood being furnished when the others are carried off, the contest
usually continues till dark. The next day the plough-bullocks or boggins
go round the town collecting alms, and crying “Largess.” They are
dressed like morris-dancers, and are yoked to and drag a small plough.
They have their farmer, and a fool called Billy Buck, dressed like a
harlequin, with whom the boys make sport. The day is concluded by the
bullocks running with the plough round the cross on the green; and the
man that can throw the other down, and convey the plough into the cellar
of a public house, receives one shilling for his agility.--See _N. & Q.
4th S._ vol. ix. p. 158.

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 proper instrument was out of the question, and consequently,
the person nailed was forced either to leave part of his coat as a
cognisance of his attachment, or quit the spot with a hole in it. At
every nailing and pinning shouts of laughter arose from the
perpetrators, yet it often happened to one who turned and smiled at the
duress of another, that he also found himself nailed. Efforts at
extrication increased mirth; nor was the presence of a constable, who
was usually employed to attend and preserve free “ingress, egress, and
regress,” sufficiently awful to deter the offender.--_Every Day Book_,
vol. i. p. 50.

A curious custom of mediæval origin is observed at the Chapel Royal, St.
James’s Palace, on the festival of the Epiphany. After the reading of
the sentence at the offertory, “Let your light so shine before men,”
&c., while the organ plays, two members of her Majesty’s household,
wearing the royal livery, descend from the royal pew and advance to the
altar rails, preceded by the usher, where they present to one of the two
officiating clergymen a red bag, edged with gold lace or braid, which is
received in an offertory basin, and then reverently placed on the altar.
This bag or purse is understood to contain the Queen’s offering of gold,
frankincense, and myrrh, in commemoration of the gifts of the Magi to
the infant Saviour.--_Echo_, Jan. 7th, 1869.

In the _Lady’s Mag._ for 1760, is the following:

Sunday Jan. 6th, being Twelfth Day, and a collar and offering day at St.
James’, his Majesty, preceded by the heralds, pursuivants, &c., and the
knights of the Garter, Thistle, and Bath, in the collars of their
respective orders, went to the Royal Chapel at St. James’, and offered
gold, myrrh, and frankincense, in imitation of the Eastern Magi offering
to our Saviour.

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 depended on as an oracle; and if he happen to couple two
people who have an aversion to each other, tears and vexation succeed
the mirth; this they call “cutting off the fiddler’s head,” for after
this he is dead for a whole year.--Waldron’s _Description of the Isle of
Man_, 1859, p. 156.

SOMERSETSHIRE.

A friend of mine, says Mr. C. W. Bingham in _N. & 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 under the
tree at midnight on Christmas Eve, in order to hear the bursting of the
buds into flower, and she added, “As they comed out, you could hear ’um
_haffer_.”

Jennings, and after him Halliwell, give this word _haffer_ for to
crackle, to patter, to make repeated loud noises.

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
pot of ale with cakes, by general contribution of the village, out of
the very surplus of which “they not only repaired their church, but kept
their poor too; which charges,” quoth Dr. Plot, “are not now, perhaps,
so cheerfully borne.”--Plot’s _Nat. Hist. of Staffordshire_, 1680, p.
434.

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, &c., were
discharged on the joyful occasion. After the tree had been carried
about, and the torches were sufficiently burnt, it was placed in the
middle of the town, when it was again cheered by the surrounding crowd,
and then was thrown among them. The spectators at once divided into two
parties, one of which endeavoured to take the tree to one of the inns,
and the other to a rival inn. The innkeeper whose party triumphed was
expected to treat his partisans liberally.--Hone’s _Table Book_, 1838,
p. 26; _Handbook for the Lakes_, Murray, 1866, p. 113.

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 themselves with some musical instrument, they
announce their arrival by singing the ‘Song of the Wren.’ The wren’s
visit is a source of much amusement to children and servants, and the
wren’s men, or lads, are usually invited to have a draught from the
cellar, and receive a present in money. The ‘Song of the Wren’ is
generally _encored_, and the proprietors very commonly commence high
life below stairs, dancing with the maid-servants, and saluting them
under the kissing bush, where there is one. The following is the ‘Song
of the Wren:’

    “Joy, health, love, and peace,
    Be to you in this place.
    By your leave we will sing,
    Concerning our king:
    Our king is well drest;
    In silks of the best;
    With his ribbons so rare,
    No king can compare.
    In his coach he does ride,
    With a great deal of pride;
    And with four footmen
    To wait upon him.
    We were four at watch,
    And all nigh of a match;
    And with powder and ball
    We fired at his hall.
    We have travell’d many miles,
    Over hedges and stiles,
    To find you this king,
    Which we now to you bring.
    Now Christmas is past,
    Twelfth Day is the last.
    Th’ Old Year bids adieu;
    Great joy to the New.”

It would appear from the ninth line of the song that the wren at one
time used to occupy a coach, or that her house was placed upon
wheels.--_N. & Q. 3rd S._ vol. v. p. 109.

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:

    “Partly work, and partly play
    Ye must on St. Distaff’s Day:
    From the plough soone free your teame,
    Then home and fother them;
    If the maides a spinning goe,
    Burn the flax and fire the tow.

    Bring in pails of water, then
    Let the maides bewash the men;
    Give St. Distaff all the night,
    Then bid Christmas sport good night;
    Then next morning, every one
    To his own vocation.”

  _Med. Ævi Kalend._ vol. i. p. 138.

  [8] See ‘Things not generally known,’ by John Timbs, 1859, pp. 1-6.

PLOUGH MONDAY.

This was the name of a rustic festival, held the first Monday after
Twelfth Day, formerly of great account in England, bearing in its first
aspect, like St. Distaff’s Day, reference to the resumption of labour
after the Christmas holidays. In Catholic times, the ploughmen kept
lights burning before certain images in churches to obtain a blessing on
their work; and they were accustomed on this day to go about in
procession, gathering money for the support of these _plough lights_, as
they were called. The Reformation put out the lights, but it could not
extinguish the festival. The peasantry contrived to go about in
procession, collecting money, though only to be spent in conviviality in
the public-house. It was at no remote date a very gay and rather
pleasant-looking affair. A plough was dressed up with ribbons and other
decorations--the _Fool plough_. Thirty or forty stalwart swains, with
their shirts over their jackets, and their shoulders and hats flaming
with ribbons, dragged it along from house to house, preceded by one in
the dress of an old woman, but much bedizened, bearing the name of
_Bessy_. There was also a fool, in fantastic attire. In some parts of
the country morris-dancers attended the procession; occasionally, too,
some reproduction of the ancient Scandinavian sword-dance added to the
means of persuading money out of the pockets of the lieges.--_Book of
Days_, vol. i. p. 94.

In Tusser’s _Five Hundred Points of Husbandry_, under the account of the
Ploughman’s Feast Days, are the following lines:

    “Plough Munday, next after that twelf-tide is past,
    Bids out with the plough: the worst husband is last.
    If plowman get hatchet or whip to the skrene,
    Maids loseth their cocke, if no water be seen.”

Which are thus explained in _Tusser Redivivus_ (1744, p. 79): “After
Christmas (which formerly, during the twelve days, was a time of very
little work), every gentleman feasted the farmers, and every farmer
their servants and task-men. _Plough Monday_ puts them in mind of their
business. In the morning, the men and the maid-servants strive who shall
show their diligence in rising earliest. If the ploughman can get his
whip, his ploughstaff, hatchet, or anything that he wants in the field,
by the fireside, before the maid hath got her kettle on, then the maid
loseth her shrove-tide cock, and it wholly belongs to the men. Thus did
our forefathers strive to allure youth to their duty, and provided them
with innocent mirth as well as labour. On this Plough Monday they have a
good supper and some strong drink.” See also _Every Day Book_, 1826,
vol. i. p. 71.

In the _British Apollo_ (fol. 1710, ii. 92), to an inquiry why the first
Monday after Twelfth Day is called _Plough Monday_, answer is given:
“Plough Monday is a country phrase, and only used by peasants, because
they generally used to meet together at some neighbourhood over a cup of
ale, and feast themselves, as well as wish themselves a plentiful
harvest from the great corn sown (as they call wheat and rye), as also
to wish a God-speed to the plough as soon as they begin to break the
ground, to sow barley, and other corn, which they at that time make a
holiday to themselves as a finishing stroke after Christmas, which is
their master’s holiday time, as ’prentices in many places make it the
same, appropriated by consent to revel among themselves.”

Formerly the following custom prevailed in the northern counties of
England on Plough Monday. If a ploughman came to the kitchen-hatch, and
could cry, “Cock in the pot,” before the maid could cry “Cock on the
dunghill,” he was entitled to a cock for Shrove Tuesday.--_N. & Q. 2nd
S._ vol. i. p. 386.

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.

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. They are accompanied by the Fool and Bessy; the Fool
being dressed in the skin of a calf, with the tail hanging down behind,
and Bessy generally a young man in female attire. The Fool carries an
inflated bladder tied to the end of a long stick, by way of whip, which
he does not fail to apply pretty soundly to the heads and shoulders of
his team. When anything is given a cry of “Largess!” is raised, and a
dance performed round the plough. If a refusal to their application for
money is made they not unfrequently plough up the pathway, door-stone,
or any other portion of the premises they happen to be near.--_Jour. of
Arch. Assoc. 1852_, vol. vii. p. 202.

HUNTINGDONSHIRE.

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

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.

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 a score of the “sons of the soil” to yoke
themselves with ropes to the plough, having put on clean smock frocks in
honour of the day. There was no limit to the number who joined in the
morris-dance, and were partners with “Bessy,” who carried the money-box;
and all these had ribbons in their hats, and pinned about them wherever
there was room to display a bunch. Many a hardworking country Molly lent
a helping hand in decorating out her Johnny for Plough Monday, and
finished him with an admiring exclamation of “Lawks, John! thou does
look smart, surely.” Some also wore small bunches of corn in their hats,
from which the wheat was soon shaken out by the ungainly jumping which
they called dancing. Occasionally, if the winter was severe, the
procession was joined by threshers carrying their flails, reapers
bearing their sickles, and carters with their long whips, which they
were cracking to add to the noise, while even the smith and the miller
were among the number, for the one sharpened the ploughshares and the
other ground the corn; and Bessy rattled his box, and danced so high
that he showed his worsted stockings and corduroy breeches; and very
often, if there was a thaw, tucked up his gown skirts under his
waistcoat, and shook the bonnet off his head, and disarranged the long
ringlets that ought to have concealed his whiskers. For Bessy is to the
procession of Plough Monday what the leading _figurante_ is to an opera
or ballet, and dances about as gracefully as the hippopotami described
by Dr. Livingstone. But their rough antics were the cause of much
laughter, and rarely do we ever remember hearing any coarse jest that
would call up the angry blush to a modest cheek.

No doubt they were called “plough-bullocks,” through drawing the plough,
as bullocks were formerly used, and are still yoked to the plough in
some parts of the country. The rubbishing verses they recited are not
worth preserving, beyond the line, which graces many a public-house
sign, “God speed the plough.” At the large farmhouse, besides money they
obtained refreshment, and through the quantity of ale they thus drank
during the day managed to get what they called “their load by night.”
Even the poorest cottagers dropped a few pence into Bessy’s box.

But the great event of the day was when they came before some house
which bore signs that the owner was well-to-do in the world, and nothing
was given to them. Bessy rattled his box, and the ploughmen danced,
while the country lads blew the bullocks’ horns, or shouted with all
their might; but if there was still no sign, no coming forth of either
bread-and-cheese or ale, then the word was given, the ploughshare driven
into the ground before the door or window, the whole twenty men yoked
pulling like one, and in a minute or two the ground before the house was
as brown, barren, and ridgy as a newly-ploughed field. But this was
rarely done, for everybody gave something, and were it but little the
men never murmured, though they might talk about the stinginess of the
giver afterwards amongst themselves, more especially if the party was
what they called “well off in the world.” We are not aware that the
ploughmen were ever summoned to answer for such a breach of the law, for
they believe, to use their own expressive language, “they can stand by
it, and no law in the world can touch ’em, ’cause it’s an old charter;”
and we are sure it would spoil their “folly to be wise.”

One of the mummers generally wears a fox’s skin in the form of a hood;
but beyond the laughter the tail that hangs down his back awakens by its
motion as he dances, we are at a loss to find a meaning. Bessy formerly
wore a bullock’s tail behind, under his gown, and which he held in his
hand while dancing, but that appendage has not been worn of late.

NORFOLK.

Hone’s _Year Book_, p. 29, gives a quotation from a _Briefe Relation_,
&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.”

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 on a large wig; two are gaily bedizened in women’s
clothes; and two others have large hunches on their backs, on which is
sewed the knave of hearts. These two are called Red Jacks, or fools.
Each of the five carries a besom, and one of them a box, which he
rattles assiduously among the spectators to obtain their donations,
which are spent at night in conviviality and jollification. In some
instances they plough up the soil in front of the houses of such
persons as refuse their contributions. Before the inclosure of open
fields, there was another custom in connection with the day. When the
ploughman returned from his labours in the evening, the servant-maid
used to meet him with a jug of toast and ale; and if he could succeed in
throwing his plough-hatchet into the house before she reached the door,
he was entitled to a cock to throw at Shrovetide; but if she was able to
present him with the toast and ale first, then she gained the cock. (See
page 38.)--Baker’s _Northamptonshire Words and Phrases_, 1854, ii. 1257.

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.

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_.

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.

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.

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.

    “Griffin, bustard, turkey, capon,
    Let other hungry mortals gape on;
    And on the bones their stomach fall hard,
    But let All Souls’ men have their Mallard.

      Oh! by the blood of King Edward,[9]
      Oh! by the blood of King Edward,
      It was a swapping, swapping Mallard.

    The Romans once admired a gander
    More than they did their chief commander;
    Because he saved, if some don’t fool us,
    The place that’s called th’ ‘_head of Tolus_.’

        Oh! by the blood of King Edward, &c.

    The poets feign Jove turned a swan,
    But let them prove it if they can;
    As for our proof, ’tis not at all hard,
    For it was a swapping, swapping Mallard.

        Oh! by the blood of King Edward, &c.

    Therefore let us sing and dance a galliard,
    To the remembrance of the Mallard;
    And as the Mallard dives in pool,
    Let us dabble, dive, and duck in bowl.

        Oh! by the blood of King Edward,
        Oh! by the blood of King Edward,
        It was a swapping, swapping Mallard.”

  [9] The allusion to King Edward is surely an anachronism, as King
  Henry VI. was reigning at the time of the foundation of the
  college.--_Book of Days_, vol. i. p. 114.

When Pointer wrote his _Oxoniensis Academia_ (1749), he committed a
grave offence by insinuating that this immortalised mallard was no other
than a _goose_. The insinuation produced a reply from Dr. Buckler,
replete with irresistible irony; but Pointer met a partisan in Mr.
Bilson, chaplain of All Souls, who issued a folio sheet entitled
‘Proposals for printing by subscription the History of the Mallardians,’
with the figure of a cat prefixed, said to have been found starved in
the college library.--_Hist. of Co. of Oxford_, 1852, p. 144.

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 coffin, passed through
the choir, and went howling to the cloister as far as the place of
interment; and then having sprinkled the water and censed the place,
returned by the same road.--Fosbroke’s _British Monachism_, 1843, p. 56.

JAN. 20.] ST. AGNES’ EVE.

This night was formerly much venerated by young maidens who wished to
know when and whom they should marry. It was required that on this day
they should not eat, which was called “fasting St. Agnes’ fast.” Keats
has made this custom the subject of one of his poems. The following are
a few stanzas from it:

    “St. Agnes’s Eve! Ah, bitter chill it was!
    The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold;
    The hare limp’d trembling through the frozen grass,
    And silent was the flock in woolly fold.

    They told me how, upon St. Agnes’s Eve
    Young virgins might have visions of delight;
    And soft adorings from their loves receive,
    Upon the honey’d middle of the night,
    If ceremonies due they did aright;
    As supperless to bed they must retire,
    And couch supine their beauties, lilywhite;
    Nor look behind, nor sideways, but require
    Of Heaven, with upward eyes, for all that they desire.

                                Her vespers done,
    Of all its wretched pearls her hair she frees;
    Unclasp’d her warmed jewels one by one;
    Loosens her fragrant bodice; by degrees
    Her rich attire creeps rustling to her knees:
    Half hidden, like a mermaid in sea-weed,
    Pensive awhile she dreams awake, and sees,
    In fancy, fair St. Agnes in her bed,
    But dares not look behind, or all the charm is fled.”

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:

    “Agnes sweet and Agnes fair,
    Hither, hither, now repair;
    Bonny Agnes, let me see
    The lad who is to marry me.”

The prayer was granted by their favourite saint, and the shadow of the
destined bride or bridegroom was seen in a mirror on this very
night.--_Time’s Telescope_, 1832, p. 15.

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 EVE.

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 demolished. The men then leave their work, and
adjourn to a neighbouring ale-house, where a new pitcher bought to
replace the old one is successively filled and emptied, and the evening
is given up to merriment and misrule.

On inquiry whether some dim notion of the origin and meaning of this
custom remained among those who still keep it up, it was found to be
generally held as an ancient festival intended to celebrate the day when
tin was first turned into metal--in fact, the discovery of smelting. It
is the occasion of a revel, in which, as an old streamer observes, there
is an open rebellion against the water-drinking system which is enforced
upon them whilst at work.

The custom of observing _Paul’s Pitcher Night_ is probably
half-forgotten even in Cornwall at the present time, where many of the
ancient provincial usages have been suffered to die out. It was,
however, in full vigour so recently as 1859. The boys of Bodmin parade
the town with broken pitchers, and other earthenware vessels, and into
every house, where the door can be opened, or has been inadvertently
left so, they hurl a “Paul’s pitcher,” exclaiming,

    “Paul’s Eve,
    And here’s a heave.”

According to custom, the first “heave” cannot be objected to; but upon
its repetition the offender, if caught, may be punished.--Brand’s _Pop.
Antiq._ 1870, vol. i. p. 23; _N. & Q. 1st S._ vol. iii. p. 239; _2nd S._
vol. viii. p. 312.

JAN. 25.] ST. PAUL’S DAY.

Strype, in his _Ecclesiastical Memorials_ (1822, vol. iii. part i. p.
331), says: On the 25th of January (1554), being St. Paul’s Day, was a
general procession of St. Paul by every parish, both priests and clerks,
in copes, to the number of an hundred and sixty, singing _Salve festa
dies_, with ninety crosses borne. The procession was through Cheap unto
Leadenhall. And before went two schools; that is, first, all the
children of the Gray Friars, and then those of St. Paul’s school. There
were eight bishops, and the Bishop of London, mitred, bearing the
Sacrament, with many torches burning, and a canopy borne over. And so
about the churchyard, and in at the West door, with the Lord Mayor and
Aldermen, and all the Companies in their best liveries. And within a
while after, the King came, and the Lord Cardinal, and the Prince of
Piemont, and divers lords and knights. At the foot of the steps to the
choir, as the King went up, kneeled the gentlemen lately pardoned,
offering him their service. After mass, they returned to the court to
dinner. And at night bonfires, and great ringing of bells in every
church. And all this joy was for the conversion of the realm.

It was on this day that the husbandmen of old used to make prognostics
of the weather, and of other matters for the whole year, a custom which
Bourne (_Antiquitates Vulgares_, chap. xviii. p. 159) has tried to
unravel.--_New Curiosities of Literature_, Soane, 1847, p. 42.

_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, in 1274, was that he himself should attend in
person with the animals; but some years afterwards it was arranged that
the presentation should be made by a servant, accompanied by a
deputation of part of the family. The priests, however, continued to
perform their part in the show. On the aforesaid days, the buck and doe
were brought by one or more servants at the hour of the procession, and
through the midst thereof, and offered at the high altar of St. Paul’s
Cathedral; after which the persons that brought the buck received of the
Dean and Chapter, by the hands of their chamberlain, twelvepence for
their entertainment; but nothing when they brought the doe. The buck
being brought to the steps of the altar, the Dean and Chapter,
apparelled in copes and proper vestments, with garlands of roses on
their heads, sent the body of the buck to be baked, and had the head and
horns fixed on a pole before the cross in their procession round about
the church, till they issued at the West door, where the keeper that
brought it blowed the death of the buck, and then the horns that were
about the city answered him in like manner; for which they had each of
the Dean and Chapter three and fourpence in money, and their dinner; and
the keeper, during his stay, meat, drink, and lodging, and five
shillings in money at his going away; together with a loaf of bread,
having on it the picture of St. Paul. This custom was continued till the
reign of Elizabeth.--_Beauties of England_, Brayley and Britton, 1803,
vol. v. p. 486.

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.”

There is a story told regarding a Miss Russell, great granddaughter of
Oliver Cromwell, who was waiting-woman to the Princess Amelia, daughter
of George II., to the effect that, while engaged in her duty one 30th of
January, the Prince of Wales came into the room, and sportively said,
“For shame, Miss Russell! why have you not been at church, humbling
yourself with weepings and wailings for the sins on this day committed
by your ancestor?” To which Miss Russell answered, “Sir, for a
descendant of the great Oliver Cromwell, it is humiliation sufficient to
be employed, as I am, in pinning up the tail of your sister!”--Rede’s
_Anecdotes_, 1799, quoted in _Book of Days_, vol. i. p. 192.

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 thie, tar dyn thie ayms
noght. Foshil jee yn dorrys da Brede, as lhig da Brede e heet staigh.”
In English, “Bridget, Bridget, come to my house, come to my house
to-night--open the door for Bridget, and let Bridget come in.” After
these words were repeated, the rushes were strewn on the floor by way of
a carpet or bed for St. Bridget.--Train’s _History of the Isle of Man_,
1845, vol. ii. p. 116.

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) read to them the Act of Parliament, which stated
that they would be liable to three months’ hard labour if they raffled.
The applicants said they believed there was some old charter which gave
them the privilege in Newark for raffling on that day, but they were
told the Act of Parliament made no exceptions, and the magistrates said
they could not give them permission to break the law. On Monday,
therefore, no raffling took place, and we may regard the practice as
finally put an end to, which will be a matter of great satisfaction to
many.--See, _Every Day Book_, vol. ii. p. 161.

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 carefully laid by to _teend_ (i.e.
light) the Christmas clog or log at the next return of the season. Thus
Herrick, _Hesperides_, p. 337, says:

    “Kindle the _Christmas Brand_, and then
      Till sunne-set let it burne;
    Which quencht, then lay it up agen
      Till Christmas next returne.

    Part must be kept wherewith to teend
      The _Christmas Log_ next yeare;
    And where ’tis safely kept, the fiend
      Can do no mischiefe there.”

The rosemary, the bay, the ivy, the holly, and the mistletoe, the
Christmas decorations of hall and cottage, were now pulled down, when,
according to the popular superstition, not a branch, nor even a leaf,
should be allowed to remain.

    “Down with the _Rosemary_ and so
    Down with the _Baies_ and the _Misleto_:
    Down with the _Holly, Ivie, all
    Wherewith ye dress the Christmas Hall_:
    That so the superstitious find
    _No one least branch there left behind_:
    For look, _how many leaves_ there be
    Neglected there (maids trust to me),
    _So many goblins you shall see_.”

  Herrick (_Hesperides_, p. 361).

In the place, however, of the Christmas decorations, the “greener box
was upraised,” and Christmas now was positively at an end. Some indeed,
considered this to have been the case on Twelfth Night, and old Tusser,
in his _Five Hundred Points of good Husbandry_, strongly contends for
it; but then his head was more full of the cart and plough than of
regard for old customs; and like any other master, he was naturally
anxious that the holidays should be ended, and the labourers should get
to work again as soon as possible; and merry-making, however agreeable
it may be, will not help to dig the land or sow the grain. But in spite
of these wise saws, the truth of which nobody would contest, human
feelings are stronger than human reason, and customs, when they tend to
pleasure, will maintain their ground till they are superseded, not by
privations, but by other forms of amusement.--_New Curiosities of
Literature_, Soane, 1847, vol. i. p. 52.

The following is from Herrick’s _Hesperides_, p. 337.

          “Down with the Rosemary and Bayes,
            Down with the Misleto;
          Instead of Holly, now up-raise
            The greener Box for show.

          The Holly hitherto did sway,
            Let Box now domineere,
          Until the dancing Easter Day,
            Or Easter’s Eve appeare.

          Then youthful Box, which now hath grace
            Your houses to renew,
          Grown old, surrender must his place
            Unto the crisped Yew.

          When Yew is out, then Birch comes in,
            And many flowers beside;
          Both of a fresh and fragrant kinne
            To honour Whitsontide.

          Green Rushes then, and sweetest Bents,
            With cooler Oaken boughs,
          Come in for comely ornaments
            To re-adorn the house.

    Thus times do shift; each thing his turne does hold;
    New things succeed, as former things grow old.”

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_, the _Holiday of St.
Simeon_, and _The Wives’ Feast_. The ceremony of candle-bearing (which
continued in England till it was repealed for its Popish tendency by an
order in council in the second year of King Edward VI.) is generally
considered to refer to what Simeon said when he took the infant Jesus in
his arms, and declared that he was _a light to lighten the Gentiles_.

Pope Innocent, in a sermon on this festival quoted in _Pagano Papismus_,
in reply to the question “Why do we (the Catholics) in this feast carry
candles?” says, “Because the Gentiles dedicated the month of February to
the infernal gods; and as at the beginning of it Pluto stole Proserpine,
and her mother, Ceres, sought her in the night with lighted candles, so
they in the beginning of this month, walked about the city with lighted
candles. Because the holy fathers could not utterly extirpate this
custom, they ordained that Christians should carry about candles in
honour of the blessed Virgin Mary; and thus what was done before to the
honour of Ceres is now done to the honour of the Virgin.”

From whatever cause, however, the ceremony originated, it acquired many
additional rites in the process of time, according to the manners and
habits of those who adopted it. We are told in Dunstan’s _Concord of
Monastic Rules_ that “the monks went in surplices to the church for
candles, which were to be consecrated, sprinkled with holy water, and
incensed by the abbot. Every monk took a candle from the sacrist and
lighted it. A procession was made, thirds and mass were celebrated, and
the candles, after the offering, were presented to the priest. The
monks’ candles signified the use of them in the parable of the wise
virgins.”

According to some authorities, there was on this day a general
consecration of all the candles to be burnt in the Catholic churches
throughout the whole year; and it should also be mentioned that from
Candlemas the use of tapers at vespers and litanies, which had continued
through the whole winter, ceased until the ensuing _All Hallow Mass_,
which will serve to explain the old English proverb in Ray’s collection:

    “On Candlemas Day,
    Throw candle and candlestick away.”

  _New Curiosities of Literature_, vol. i. p. 25.

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 event of some importance; for of usage they had a sort of right to
sit up that night, and partake of the refreshment, till all retired to
rest, the signal for which was the self-extinction of the Candlemas
Candle.--_Every Day Book_, vol. i. p. 206.

YORKSHIRE.

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

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 even more. The boy and girl who give most are respectively styled
king and queen. The children being then dismissed for a holiday proceed
along the streets in a confused procession, carrying the king and queen
in state, exalted upon that seat, formed of crossed hands, which,
probably from this circumstance, is called “the king’s chair.” In some
schools it used to be customary for the teacher, on the conclusion of
the offerings, to make a bowl of punch, and regale each boy with a glass
to drink the king and queen’s health, and a biscuit. The latter part of
the day was usually devoted to what was called the _Candlemass bleeze_
or blaze, namely, the conflagration of any piece of furze which might
exist in their neighbourhood, or, were that wanting, of an artificial
bonfire.

According to Sinclair the king’s power lasted for six weeks, and during
his reign he was not only entitled to demand an afternoon’s play for the
scholars once a week, but had also the royal privilege of remitting
punishments.--_Book of Days_, vol i. p. 214. _Stat. Acc. of Scotland_,
Sinclair, 1794, vol. xiii. p. 211.

It was formerly customary in Scotland to hold a football match, the east
end of a town against the west, the unmarried men against the married,
or one parish against another. The “Candlemas ba’,” as it was called,
brought the whole community out in a state of high excitement. On one
occasion when the sport took place in Jedburgh, the contending parties,
after a struggle of two hours in the streets, transferred the contention
to the bed of the river Jed, and there fought it out amidst a scene of
fearful splash and dabblement, to the infinite amusement of a multitude
looking on from the bridge.--_Book of Days_, vol. i. p. 214.

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 prosperous year, and the contrary they take as an
ill-omen.--_Description of the Western Isles of Scotland_, Martin, 1703,
p. 119.

COLLOP MONDAY.

The Monday before Shrove Tuesday is so called because it was the last
day of flesh-eating before Lent, and our ancestors cut their fresh meat
into collops or steaks, for salting or hanging up until Lent was over;
and hence in many places it is customary to have eggs and collops, or
slices of bacon at dinner on this day.--_Every Day Book_, vol. i. p.
241.

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 Wine. It retains, however, the name of Bacchus.--Brand’s _Pop.
Antiq_., vol. i. p. 62. _Status Scholæ Etonensis_, A.D. 1560, fol. 423.

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 the following morning are discovered displayed in some
conspicuous place, to expose the disgraceful want of vigilance supposed
to characterise the owner. The time when this is practised is called
“Nickanan night;” and the individuals concerned are supposed to
represent some imps of darkness, who seize on and expose unguarded
moments.

On the following eve (Shrove Tuesday), the clubs are again in
requisition; but on this occasion the blows on the door keep time to the
following chant:

    “Nicka, nicka nan;
    Give me some pancake, and then I’ll be gone.
    But if you give me none,
    I’ll throw a great stone,
    And down your doors shall come.”

  _Report of the Royal Institution of Cornwall for 1842_; _N. & Q. 1st
  S._ vol. xii. p. 297.

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, &c., to furnish out the Tuesday’s feast:

    “Lent Crock, give a pancake,
    Or a fritter, for my labour,
    Or a dish of flour, or a piece of bread,
    Or what you please to render.
    I see, by the latch,
    There’s something to catch;
    I see, by the string,
    There’s a good dame within.
    Trap, trapping throw,
    Give me my mumps, and I’ll be go” (gone).

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 schoolmistress, who was a native of another part of the country,
where her version was customary:

    “Shrovetide is nigh at hand,
    And we are come a-shroving;
    Pray, Dame, give something,
    An apple, or a dumpling,
    Or a piece of crumple cheese,
    Of your own making,
    Or a piece of pancake.
    Trip, trapping throw;
    Give me my mumps, and I’ll be go.”

This custom existed also in the neighbourhood of Salisbury.--_N. & Q.
1st S._ vol. v. p. 77. _Pop. Antiq._ 1849, vol. i. p. 62.

FEB. 3.] ST. BLAIZE’S DAY.

St. Blasius was Bishop of Sebaste, a city of Cappadocia, in the Lesser
Asia, and is said to have suffered martyrdom in the persecution of
Licinus in 316. The fact of iron combs having been used in tearing the
flesh of the martyr appears to be the reason for his having been adopted
by the wool-combers as their patron saint. The large flourishing
communities engaged in this business in Bradford, and other English
towns, are accustomed to hold a septennial jubilee on the 3rd of
February, in honour of Jason of the Golden Fleece and St. Blaize; and
not many years ago the fête was conducted with considerable state and
ceremony.--_Book of Days_, vol. i. p. 219.

In 1825 the procession was drawn up in the following order:

  _Herald_ bearing a flag.

  _Woolstaplers_ on horseback, each horse caparisoned with a fleece.

  _Worsted Spinners and manufacturers_ on horseback, in white stuff
  waistcoats, with each a sliver over the shoulder, and a white stuff
  sash; the horses’ necks covered with nets made of thick yarn.

  _Merchants_ on horseback, with coloured sashes.

  Three guards. Masters’ Colours. Three guards.

  _Apprentices and Masters’ Sons_, on horseback, with ornamented caps,
  scarlet stuff coats, white stuff waistcoats, and blue pantaloons.

  _Bradford_ and _Keighley Bands_.

  _Mace-bearer_, on foot.

  Six guards. King. Queen. Six guards.

  Guards. Jason. Princess Medea. Guards.

  Bishop’s Chaplain.

  Bishop Blase.

  _Shepherd and Shepherdess._

  _Shepherd Swains._

  _Woolsorters_, on horseback, with ornamented caps, and various
  coloured slivers.

  _Comb Makers._

  _Charcoal Burners._

  _Combers’ Colours._

  Band.

  _Woolcombers_, with wool wigs, &c.

  Band.

  _Dyers_, with red cockades, blue aprons, and crossed slivers of red
  and blue.

Before the procession started it was addressed by Richard Fawcett, Esq.,
in the following lines:

    Hail to the day, whose kind auspicious rays
    Deign’d first to smile on famous Bishop Blase!
    To the great author of our Combing trade,
    This day’s devoted, and due honour’s paid
    To him whose fame thro’ Britain’s isle resounds,
    To him whose goodness to the poor abounds.
    Long shall his name in British annals shine,
    And grateful ages offer at his shrine!
    By this our trade are thousands daily fed,
    By it supplied with means to earn their bread.
    In various forms our trade its work imparts,
    In different methods, and by different arts:
    Preserves from starving indigents distress’d,
    As Combers, Spinners, Weavers, and the rest.
    We boast no gems, or costly garments vain,
    Borrow’d from India or the coast of Spain;
    Our native soil with wool our trade supplies,
    While foreign countries envy us the prize.
    No foreign broil our common good annoys,
    Our country’s product all our art employs;
    Our fleecy flocks abound in every vale,
    Our bleating lambs proclaim the joyful tale.
    So let not Spain with us attempt to vie,
    Nor India’s wealth pretend to soar so high;
    Nor Jason pride him in his Colchian spoil,
    By hardships gain’d, and enterprising toil;
    Since Britons all with ease attain the prize,
    And every hill resounds with golden cries,
    To celebrate our founder’s great renown.
    Our shepherd and our shepherdess we crown.
    For England’s commerce and for George’s sway
    Each loyal subject give a loud Huzza.
                      Huzza!

  _Every Day Book_, vol. i. p. 209. See also _Northamptonshire Words and
  Phrases_, ii. p. 416.

Minshen, in his _Ductor in Linguas_, (1617, p. 236), under the word
Hock-tide speaks of S. Blase his day, about Candlemas, when countrywomen
goe about and make good cheere; and if they finde any of their neighbour
women a spinning that day, they burne and make a blaze of fire of the
distaffe, and thereof called S. Blaze his day.

Dr. Percy, in his _Notes to the Northumberland Household Book_ (1825,
pp. 333-435), tells us that the anniversary of St. Blasius is the 3rd
of February, when it is customary in many parts of England to light
fires on the hills on St. Blayse night: a custom anciently taken up,
perhaps, for no better reason than the jingling resemblance of his name
to the word “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.

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 the
following day. Its Latin and Continental names have all a reference to
the last time of eating flesh. After the people had made the confession
required by the ancient discipline of the Church, they were permitted to
indulge in festive amusements, though restricted from partaking of any
repasts beyond the usual substitutes for flesh; hence the name
_carnaval_, etymologically signifying, _Flesh, fare thee well_. From
this cause originated the custom of eating pancakes at Shrovetide, which
began on the Sunday before the first in Lent.--_Med. Ævi Kalend._ vol.
i. p. 158.

That none, however, might plead forgetfulness of the ceremony of
confessing and being _shriven_, the great bell was rung at an early hour
in every parish, and in after times this ringing was still kept up in
some places, though the cause of it ceased with the introduction of
Protestantism; it then got the name of the _Pancake Bell_.

Taylor, the water poet (in his _Jacke-a-Lent Workes_, 1630, vol. i. p.
115), gives the following curious account as to the way in which Shrove
Tuesday was celebrated in olden times:

“Always before Lent there comes waddling a fat, grosse groome, called
_Shrove Tuesday_, one whose manners show he is better fed than taught,
and indeed he is the only monster for feeding amongst all the dayes of
the yeere, for he devoures more flesh in fourteene houres than this old
kingdom doth (or at least should doe) in sixe weekes after. Such boyling
and broyling, such roasting and toasting, such stewing and brewing, such
baking, frying, mincing, cutting, carving, devouring, and gorbellied
gurmondizing, that a man would thinke people did take in two months’
provision at once. Moreover it is a goodly sight to see how the cookes
in great men’s kitchins doe frye in their master’s suet, that if ever a
cooke be worth the eating, it is when Shrove Tuesday is in towne, for he
is so stued and larded, basted, and almost over-roasted, that a man may
eate every bit of him and never take a surfet. In a word, they are that
day extreme cholerike, and too hot for any man to meddle with, being
monarchs of the marrow-bones, marquesses of the mutton, lords high
regents of the spit and kettle, barons of the gridiron and sole
commanders of the frying-pan. And all this hurly burly is for no other
purpose than to stop the mouth of the land-wheale, _Shrove-Tuesday_, at
whose entrance in the morning all the whole kingdome is in quiet, but by
the time the clocke strikes eleven--which by the help of a knavish
sexton is commonly before nine,--then there is a bell rung called the
_Pancake-Bell_, the sound whereof makes thousands of people distracted
and forgetful either of manner or humanitie. Then there is a thing cal’d
wheat’n flowre, which the sulphory, necromanticke cookes doe mingle with
water, eggs, spice, and other tragicall, magicall inchantments, and then
they put it little by little into a frying-pan of boyling suet, where it
makes a confused dismal hissing--like the Lernean snakes in the reeds of
Acheron, Stix, or Phlegeton--until at last by the skill of the cooke it
is transformed into the forme of a _flap-jack_, which in our translation
is call’d a _pancake_, which ominous incantation the ignorant people doe
devoure very greedily--having for the most part well dined before--but
they have no sooner swallowed that sweet candied baite, but straight
their wits forsake them, and they runne starke mad, assembling in routs
and throngs numberlesse of ungovernable numbers, with uncivill civil
commotions.

“Then Tim Tatters--a most valiant villaine--with an ensign made of a
piece of a baker’s maukin fixed upon a broomstaffe, he displaies his
dreadful colours, and calling the ragged regiment together, makes an
illiterate oration, stuft with most plentiful want of discretion, the
conclusion whereof is that somewhat they will doe, but what they know
not; until at last comes marching up another troupe of tatterdemalions,
proclayming wars against no matter who, so they may be doing. Then these
youths arm’d with cudgels, stones, hammers, rules, trowels, and
handsawse, put play-houses to the sacke, and *   *   * to the spoyle, in
the quarrel breaking a thousand _quarrels_--of glasse, I mean--making
ambitious brickbats breake their neckes, tumbling from the tops of lofty
chimnies, terribly untyling houses, ripping up the bowels of feather
beds, to the inriching of upholsters, the profit of plaisterers and
dirt-dawbers, the gaine of glasiers, joyners, carpenters, tylers and
bricklayers; and, what is worse, to the contempt of justice; for what
avails it for a constable with an army of reverend rusty bill-men to
command peace to these beastes? for they with their pockets, instead of
pistols, well charged with stone-shot, discharge against the image of
authority whole volleys as thicke as hayle, which robustious repulse
puts the better sort to the worst part, making the band of unscowered
halberdiers retyre faster than ever they come on, and show exceeding
discretion in proving tall men of their heels. So much for _Shrove
Tuesday_, Jacke-a-Lent’s gentleman usher; these have been his humours in
former times, but I have some better hope of reformation in him
hereafter, and indeed I wrote this before his coming this yeere, 1617,
not knowing how hee would behave himselfe; but tottering betwixt
despaire and hope I leave him.”

In connection with the custom of eating pancakes on this day, Fosbroke
in his _Encyclopædia of Antiquities_ (vol. ii. p. 572) says that
“Pancakes, the Norman _Crispellæ_, are taken from the Fornacalia, on
Feb. 18th, in memory of the practice in use before the goddess Fornax
invented ovens.”

The Saxons called February “Solmonath,” which Dr. F. Sayers, in his
_Disquisitions_, says is explained by Bede’s “Mensis Placentarum,” and
rendered by Spelman, in an inedited MS., “Pancake month,” because in the
course of it cakes were offered by the Pagan Saxons to the Sun.

Our most usual name of this Tuesday, says Hampson (_Med. Ævi Kalend._
vol. i. p. 158), is originally Swedish: _pankaka_, an omelette; but, it
has been absurdly derived from the Greek παν and κακοι, _all bad_, in
reference to the penitents at confession.

At one time Shrove Tuesday was the great holiday of the apprentices. Why
it should have been so, says Hone (_Every Day Book_, 1826, vol. i. p.
258), is easy to imagine, on recollecting the sports that boys were
allowed on that day at school. The indulgences of the ancient city
apprentices were great, and their licentious disturbances stand recorded
in the annals of many a fray. The old plays make us aware of a licence
which they took on Shrove Tuesday to assail houses of dubious repute,
and cart the unfortunate inmates through the city.--_Book of Days_, vol.
i. p. 239; See Dekker’s _Seven Deadly Sinnes_, 1606, p. 35.

_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 matter. The church bells at times announced
the winning of a “long-main.” Matches were sometimes so arranged as to
last the week. When country gentlemen had sat long at table, and the
conversation had turned upon the relative merits of their several birds,
a cock-fight often resulted, as the birds in question were brought for
the purpose into the dining-room.--Roberts, _Social History of S.
Counties of England_, 1856, p. 421.

Formerly cock-fighting was practised on Shrove Tuesday to a very great