part ii

. p. 63.

Formerly, on this day, boys used to go about _clacking_ at doors, to get eggs or bits of bacon wherewith to make up a feast among themselves; and, when refused, would stop the keyhole up with dirt, and depart with a rhymed denunciation.--_Book of Days_, vol. i. p. 240. We learn also from Fosbroke’s _British Monachism_ (1843) that in days gone by boys used on the evening of Ash Wednesday to run about with firebrands and torches.

In former times during the season of Lent, an officer denominated “The King’s Cock-Crower” crowed the hour every night within the precincts of the palace, instead of proclaiming it in the ordinary manner. On the first Ash Wednesday after the accession of the House of Hanover, as the Prince of Wales, afterwards George II., was sitting down to supper, this officer suddenly entered the apartment, before the chaplain said grace, and crowed “past ten o’clock.” The astonished Prince, not understanding English, and mistaking the tremulation of the crow for mockery, concluded that this ceremony was intended as an insult, and instantly rose to resent it; when, with some difficulty, he was made to understand the nature of the custom, and that it was intended as a compliment, and according to court etiquette. From that period the custom was discontinued.

The intention of crowing the hour of the night was no doubt intended to remind waking sinners of the august effect the third crowing of the cock had on the guilty Apostle St. Peter; and the limitation of the custom to the season of Lent was judiciously adopted; as, had the practice continued throughout the year, the impenitent would become as habituated and as indifferent to the crow of the mimic cock as they are to that of the real one, or to the cry of the watchmen. The adaptation to the precincts of the Court seems also to have had a view, as if the institutor (probably the Royal Confessor) had considered that the greater and more obdurate sinners resided within the purlieus of the palace.--_Gent. Mag._ 1785, vol. lv. p. 341.

The beginning of Lent was at one time marked by a custom now fallen into disuse. A figure, made up of straw and cast-off clothes, was drawn or carried through the streets amid much noise and merriment; after which it was either burnt, shot at, or thrown down a chimney. This image was called “Jack o’Lent,” and was, according to some, intended to represent Judas Iscariot. Elderton, in a ballad, called _Lenton Stuff_, in a MS. in the Ashmolean Museum, thus concludes his account of Lent:

“Then Jake a’ Lent comes justlynge in, With the hedpecce of a herynge, And saythe, repent yowe of yower syn, For shame, syrs, leve yower swerynge: And to Palme Sonday doethe he ryde, With sprots and herryngs by hys syde, And makes an end of Lenton tyde!”

_N. & Q. 1st S._ vol. xii. p. 297.

In Ben Jonson’s _Tale of a Tub_, occurs the following:

--“On an Ash Wednesday, When thou didst stand six weeks the Jack o’ Lent, For boys to hurl three throws a penny at thee.”

Brand’s _Pop. Antiq._ 1849, vol. i. p. 101.

It was once customary for persons to wear black cloth during Lent. Roberts in his _Cambrian Pop. Antiq._ (1815, 112), says this usage was entirely laid aside in his time; but of late years it has been somewhat revived.

It is observed by Mr. Fosbroke that ladies wore friars’ girdles during this season, and quoting from _Camden’s Remains_ he tells us how Sir Thomas More, finding his lady scolding her servants during Lent, endeavoured to restrain her. “Tush, tush, my lord,” said she, “look, here is one step to heavenward,” showing him a friar’s girdle. “I fear me,” said he, “that one step will not bring you one step higher.”

In a curious tract written about 1174 by FitzStephen, a monk of Canterbury, and entitled _Descriptio Nobilissimæ Civitatis Londoniæ_, there is an interesting account of the metropolis and its customs in Henry II.’s time. Speaking of the season of Lent the writer says, “Every Friday afternoon a company of young men ride out on horses fit for war and racing, and trained to the course. Then the citizens’ sons flock through the gates in troops, armed with lances and shields, and practise feats of arms; but the lances of the more youthful are not headed with iron. When the king lieth near, many courtiers, and young striplings from the families of the great, who have not yet attained the warlike girdle, resort to these exercises. The hope of victory inflames every one. Even the neighing and fierce horses shake their joints, chew their bridles, and cannot endure to stand still. At length they begin their race; afterwards the young men divide their troops and contend for mastery.”

ESSEX.

At Felstead the churchwardens distribute, as the gift of Lord Rich, seven barrels of white herrings and three barrels and a half of red on Ash Wednesday, and the six following Sundays, to ninety-two poor householders of the parish, selected by the churchwardens, in shares of eight white herrings and four red a piece. A list is kept of the persons receiving this donation, and they continue to receive it during their lives, unless they misconduct themselves or enter the workhouse.--_Old English Customs and Charities_, 1842, p. 9.

NORFOLK.

P. Le Neve Foster, Esq., who in 1835 held the rectorial tithes of the parish of Great Witchingham, under a lease from the warden and fellows of New College, Oxford, was bound by a covenant contained therein, to provide and distribute to and amongst the poor inhabitants and parishioners, two seams of peas, containing in all sixteen bushels. The practice has been to give to every person who happens to be in the parish on Ash Wednesday, whether rich or poor, one quart of peas each.--_Old English Customs and Charities_, 1842, p. 34.

SCAMBLING DAYS.

The days so called were Mondays and Saturdays in Lent, when no regular meals were provided, and the members of our great families scambled. In the old household-book of the fifth Earl of Northumberland there is a

## particular section appointing the order of service for these days, and

so regulating the licentious contentions of them. Shakespeare, in his play of Henry V. (act v. scene 2), makes King Henry say: “If ever thou be’st mine, Kate, I get thee with _scambling_, and thou must therefore needs prove a good soldier-breeder.”

The word _scambling_ is conjectured to be derived from the Greek σκαμβος, oblique, indirect, &c.

“The scambling and unquiet time.”

Shak. _Henry V._ act i. sc. 1.

--_Med. Ævi Kalend._ vol. ii. p. 350. _Antiq. Repert._ 1809, vol. iv. pp. 87, 91, 305.

FEB. 5.] GLOUCESTERSHIRE.

In Smith’s MS. _Lives of the Lords of Berkeley_, in the possession of the Earl of Berkeley (p. 49), we read that on the anniversary of the founder of St. Augustine’s, Bristol, i.e., Sir Robert Fitzharding, on the 5th of February, “at that monastery there shall be one hundred poore men refreshed in a dole made unto them in this forme: Every man of them hath a chanon’s loaf of bread, called a myche (a kind of bread), and three hearings therewith. There shall be doaled also amongst them two bushells of peys.”--Brand, _Pop. Antiq._, 1849, vol., i. p. 116.

YORKSHIRE.

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

FEB. 8.] CHALK SUNDAY.

IRELAND.

In the west of Ireland nine-tenths of the marriages that take place among the peasantry are celebrated the week before Lent, and

## particularly on Shrove Tuesday, on which day the Roman Catholic priests

have hard work to get through all their duties. On the first Sunday in Lent it is usual for the girls slyly to chalk the coats of those young men who have allowed the preceding festival to pass without having made their choice of a partner; and “illigible” young men strut about with affected unconsciousness of the numerous stripes which decorate their backs, while boys just arrived at manhood hold their heads higher, and show tokens of great satisfaction, if any good-natured lass affixes the coveted mark.--_N. & Q. 2nd S._ vol. iii. p. 207.

FEB. 10.] ST. SCHOLASTICA’S DAY.

OXFORDSHIRE.

This festival was formerly observed at Oxford. The following extract is taken from _The Lives of Leland, Hearne, and Wood_ (1772. vol. ii. p. 312): Friday, the burghers or citizens of Oxford appeared in their full number on St. Scholastica’s Day at St. Mary’s. Alderman Wright, their oracle, told them that if they did not appear there might be some hole picked in their charter, as there was now endeavouring to be done in that of the city of London; he told them moreover that, though it was a popish matter, yet policy ought to take place in this juncture of time.[17]

[17] See ibid. p. 295.

The origin of this custom was a furious contest between the citizens of Oxford and the students. Some of the latter being at a tavern, on the 10th of February, 1354, broke the landlord’s head with a vessel in which he had served them with bad wine. The man immediately collected together a number of his neighbours and fellow-citizens, who, having for a long time waited for such an opportunity, fell upon the students, and in spite of the mandates of the Chancellor, and even the King himself, who was then at Woodstock, continued their outrages for several days, not only killing or wounding the scholars, but, in contempt of the sacerdotal order, destroying all the religious crosses of the town. For this offence the King deprived the city of many valuable privileges, and bestowed them on the University, and the Bishop of Lincoln forbade the administration of the sacraments to the citizens. In the following year they petitioned for a mitigation of this sentence, but without success; but in 1357 a total abrogation of it was granted upon condition that the city should annually celebrate on St. Scholastica’s day, the 10th of February, a number of masses for the souls of the scholars killed in the conflict; the mayor and bailiffs with sixty of the chief burgesses being bound also to swear at St. Mary’s Church observance of the customary rights of the University, under the penalty of 100 marks in case of omission of this ceremony. It was further ordered, that the said citizens should afterwards offer up singly at the high altar one penny, of which sum forty pence were to be distributed to poor scholars, and the remainder given to the curate of St. Mary’s. This offering being omitted upon the pretence that masses were abolished, the University in Queen Elizabeth’s reign sued them for the sum of 1,500 marks due for such neglect during fifteen years; when it was decreed that instead of mass there should be a sermon and a communion at St. Mary’s (which at length came only to public prayers), and that the said offering should be made. The traditional story that the mayor was obliged to attend with a halter round his neck, which was afterwards, to lessen the disgrace, changed into a silken string, has no real foundation.--_Ibid._, p. 296.

FEB. 13.] ST. VALENTINE’S EVE.

Misson, in his _Travels in England_ (translated by Ozell, p. 330), describes the amusing practices of his time connected with this day. He tells us that on the eve of the 14th February, St. Valentine’s day, the young folks in England and Scotland, by a very ancient custom, celebrate a little festival. An equal number of maids and bachelors get together, and each writes their true or some feigned name upon separate billets, which they roll up, and draw by way of lots, the maids taking the men’s billets, and the men the maids’; so that each of the young men lights upon a girl that he calls his Valentine, and each of the girls upon a young man which she calls hers. By this means each has two Valentines; but the man sticks faster to the Valentine that is fallen to him, than the Valentine to whom he is fallen. Fortune having thus divided the company into so many couples, the Valentines give balls and treats to their mistresses, wear their billets several days upon their bosoms or sleeves, and this little sport often ends in love. There is another kind of Valentine, which is the first young man or woman that chance throws in your way in the street, or elsewhere, on that day.

In some places, says Hone (_Every Day Book_, vol. i. p. 226), at this time, and more particularly in London, the lad’s Valentine is the first lass he sees in the morning, who is not an inmate of the house; the lass’s Valentine is the first youth she sees.

Gay mentions this usage on St. Valentine’s Day; he makes a rustic housewife remind her good man--

“I early rose just at the break of day, Before the sun had chas’d the stars away; A-field I went, amid the morning dew To milk my kine (for so should house-wives do); Thee first I spied, and the first swain we see, In spite of Fortune shall our true-love be.”

Shakespeare bears witness to the custom of looking for your Valentine, or desiring to be one, through poor Ophelia’s singing:

“Good morrow! ’tis St. Valentine’s day, All in the morning betime, And I a maid at your window, To be your Valentine!”

DERBYSHIRE.

At Ashborne the following custom is observed on Valentine’s Eve. When a young woman wishes to divine who her future husband is to be, she goes into the churchyard at midnight, and as the clock strikes twelve commences running round the church, repeating without intermission:

“I sow hempseed, hempseed I sow, He that loves me best Come and after me mow.”

Having thus performed the circuit of the church twelve times without stopping, the figure of her lover is supposed to appear and follow her.--_Jour. Arch. Assoc._ 1852, vol. vii. p. 209.

DEVONSHIRE.

The peasants and others believe that if they go to the porch of a church, waiting there till half-past twelve o’clock on the Eve of St. Valentine’s day, with some hempseed in his or her hand, and at the time above-named, then proceed homewards, scattering the seed on either side, repeating these lines:

“Hempseed I sow, hempseed I mow, She (or he) that will my true-love be, Come rake this hempseed after me,”

his or her true love will be seen behind raking up the seed just sown, in a winding-sheet.--_N. & Q. 1st S._ vol. v. p. 55.

NORFOLK.

As soon as it is dark, packages may be seen being carried about in a most mysterious way; and as soon as the coast seems clear, the parcel is laid on the doorstep, the bell rung, and the bearer runs away. Inside the house is all on the _qui vive_, and the moment the bell is heard, all the little folks (and the old ones too, sometimes) rush to the door, and seize the parcel and scrutinize the direction most anxiously, and see whether it is for papa or mamma, or one of the youngsters. The parcels contain presents of all descriptions, from the most magnificent books or desks, to little unhappy squeaking dolls. These presents are always sent anonymously, and nearly always contain a few verses, ending with the distich:

“If you’ll be mine, I’ll be thine, And so good morrow, Valentine.”

The last three words are for the most part written on the wrapper also, with the address, thus:

MISS MARY ISABELLA KING,

_St. Giles,’_

_Norwich._

_Good Morrow, Valentine._

_N. & Q. 1st S._ vol. x. p. 5; _4th S._ vol. xi. p. 173.

At Swaffham, also, Valentines are sent on this evening. Watching for a convenient opportunity, the door is slyly opened, and the Valentine attached to an apple or an orange, is thrown in; a loud rap at the door immediately follows, and the offender taking to his heels, is off instantly. Those in the house, generally knowing for what purpose the amusing rap was made, commence a search for the juvenile billet-doux: in this manner numbers are disposed of by each youth. By way of teasing the person who attends the door, a white oblong square the size of a letter is usually chalked on the step of the door, and should an attempt be made to pick it up, great amusement is thus afforded to some of the urchins, who are generally watching.--_Every Day Book_, vol. ii. p. 222.

FEB. 14.] ST. VALENTINE’S DAY.

This is a festival which lovers have observed and poets have honoured from time immemorial. The observance is much more than sixteen hundred years old, when the Christian Valentine was beaten by clubs and beheaded, at the time of the great heathen festival of love and purification. A few years ago the observance was dying out; but it has lately revived, especially in London.--_N. & Q. 4th S._ vol. xi. p. 129.

In that curious record of domestic life in England in the reign of Charles II., _Pepys’ Diary_, we find some notable illustrations of the customs connected with this day.

It appears that married and single were then alike liable to be chosen as a Valentine; and that lady Valentines were honoured not by anonymous verses, but by substantial gifts. Four days after Pepys had chosen Martha Batten for his Valentine, he took her to the Exchange, and there, “upon a pair of embroidered, and six pair of plain white gloves, I laid out 40_s._” The question of expense troubled the diarist. When, in 1667, he took his wife for (honorary) Valentine, he wrote down the fact that it would cost him 5_l._; but he consoled himself by another fact, that he must have laid out as much “if we had not been Valentines.” The outlay at the hands of princes and courtiers was enormous. When the Duke of York was Miss Stewart’s Valentine, he gave her a jewel of about 800_l._ in value; and in 1667, Lord Mandeville, being that lady’s Valentine, presented her with a ring worth 300_l._ The gifts of Pepys to his wife look small by the side of presents made by lovers to ladies. Pepys came to an agreement with Mrs. Pepys to be her Valentine (which did not preclude others from being so) every year, “and this year,” he remarks, in 1668, “it is likely to cost 4_l._ or 5_l._ in a ring for her, which she desires.” In 1669, he bought more useful things for his cousin Turner, who told him she had drawn him for her Valentine. Straightway he went to the New Exchange, and bought her a pair of fashionable “green silk stockings, and garters, and shoe-strings, and two pairs of jessimy gloves, all coming to about 28_s._” London shops do not now exhibit green silk stockings, but they tempt buyers with gallant intentions; and “Valentine gifts” are in windows or on counters at prices to suit a few and terrify many.

Other old customs have not been revived, but we may learn some of these from old makers of Notes, and specially from Pepys, as to the old methods of choosing, or avoiding to choose, Valentines. When he went early on Valentine’s Day to Sir W. Batten’s, he says he would not go in “till I asked whether they that opened the doors was a man or a woman; and Mingo who was there, answered, a woman, which, with his tone, made me laugh; so up I went, and took Mrs. Martha for my Valentine (which I do only for complacency); and Sir W. Batten, he go in the same manner to my wife, and so we were very merry.” On the following anniversary the diarist tells us that Will Bowyer came to be his wife’s Valentine, “she having (at which I made good sport to myself) held her hands all the morning, that she might not see the painters that were at work gilding my chimney-piece and pictures in my dining-room.” It would seem, moreover, that a man was not free from the pleasing pains of Valentineship when the festival day was over. On Shrove Tuesday, March 3rd, 1663, after dinner, says Pepys, “Mrs. The. showed me my name upon her breast as her Valentine, which,” he added, “will cost me 30_s._” Again, in 1667, a fortnight after the actual day Pepys was with his wife at the Exchange, “and there bought things for Mrs. Pierce’s little daughter, my Valentine (which,” he says, “I was not sorry for, it easing me of something more than I must have given to others), and so to her house, where we find Knipp, who also challenged me for her Valentine;” of course, Pepys had to pay the usual homage in acknowledgment of such choice. Then, as Pepys had a little girl for Valentine, so boys were welcomed to early gallantry by the ladies. A thoroughly domestic scene is revealed to us on Valentine’s Day, 1665:

“This morning comes betimes Dickie Pen, to be my wife’s Valentine, and came to our bedside. By the same token, I had been brought to my bedside thinking to have made him kiss me; but he perceived me, and would not, so went to his Valentine--a notable, stout, witty boy.”

When a lady drew a Valentine, a gentleman so drawn would have been deemed shabby if he did not accept the honour and responsibility. On the 14th February, 1667, we have the following:

“This morning called up by Mr. Hill, who, my wife thought, had come to be her Valentine--she, it seems, having drawn him; but it proved not. However, calling him up to our bedside, my wife challenged him.”

Where men could thus intrude, boys like Dickie Pen could boldly go. Thus in 1667:

“This morning came up to my wife’s bedside little Will Mercer, to be her Valentine; and brought her name writ upon blue paper, in gold letters, done by himself very pretty; and we were both well pleased with it.”

The drawing of names and name-inscriptions were remnants of old customs before the Christian era. Alban Butler, under the head of “St. Valentine, Priest and Martyr,” says:

“To abolish the heathens’ lewd, superstitious custom of boys drawing the names of girls in honour of their goddess, Februata Juno, on the 15th of the month (the drawing being on the eve of the 14th), several zealous pastors substituted the names of saints in billets given on this day.” This does not, however, seem to have taken place till the time of St. Francis de Sales, who, in the beginning of the seventeenth century, as we are told in his Life, “severely forbade the custom of Valentines, or giving boys in writing the names of girls to be admired or attended on by them; and to abolish it, he changed it into giving billets with the names of certain saints for them to honour and imitate in a particular manner.”

To the drawing of names--those of the saints gave way to living objects of adoration--was first added, in 1667, a custom out of which has sprung the modern epistolary Valentine. In the February of that year Pepys writes:

“I do first observe the fashion of drawing of mottoes as well as names; so that Pierce, who drew my wife’s, did draw also a motto, ‘most courteous and most fair;’ which, as it may be used, or an anagram made upon each name, might be very pretty.”

The Valentines of chance were those who drew names; the Valentines by choice were made by those who could not open their eyes on Valentine’s morn till the one he or she most desired to see was near. The one by chance sometimes proved to be the one by choice also, and such were true Valentines. _N. & Q. 4th S._ vol. xi. p. 129, 130.

Pennant, in his _Tour in Scotland_, tells us that in February young persons draw Valentines, and from thence collect their future fortune in the nuptial state; and Goldsmith, in his _Vicar of Wakefield_, describing the manners of some parties, tells us they sent true-love knots on Valentine morning.

St. Valentine’s Day is alluded to by Shakspeare and by Chaucer, and also by the poet Lydgate, the monk of Bury (who died in 1440). One of the earliest known writers of Valentines was Charles, Duke of Orleans, who was taken at the Battle of Agincourt. See _Every Day Book_, vol. i. p. 215.

A singular custom prevailed many years ago in the west of England. Three single young men went out together before daylight on St. Valentine’s Day, with a clap-net to catch an old owl and two sparrows in a neighbouring barn. If they were successful and could bring the birds without injury to the inn before the females of the house had risen, they were rewarded by the hostess with three pots of purl in honour of St. Valentine, and enjoyed the privilege of demanding at any house in the neighbourhood a similar boon. This was done as an emblem that the owl, being the bird of wisdom, could influence the feathered race to enter the net of love as mates on that day, whereon both single lads and maidens should be reminded that happiness could alone be secured by an early union.--_Every Day Book_, vol. i. p. 227.

CAMBRIDGESHIRE.

In the village of Duxford and other adjoining parishes the custom of “valentining” is still in feeble existence. The children go in a body round to the parsonage and the farm-houses, singing:

“Curl your looks as I do mine, Two before and three behind, So good morning, Valentine. Hurra! Hurra! Hurra!”

They start about 9 A.M. on their expedition, which must be finished by noon; otherwise their singing is not acknowledged in any way. In some few cases the donor gives each child a halfpenny, others throw from their doors the coppers they feel disposed to part with amongst the little band of choristers, which are eagerly scrambled after.--_The Antiquary_, 1873, vol. iii. p. 103.

DERBYSHIRE.

The following customs, which have nearly died out, were very prevalent about fifty or sixty years ago:

_Valentine Dealing._--Each young woman in the house would procure several slips of paper, and write upon them the names of the young men she knew, or those she had a preference for. The slips when ready were put into a boot or shoe (a man’s), or else into a hat, and shaken up. Each lassie then put in her hand and drew a slip, which she read and retained until every one had drawn. The slips were then put back and the drawing done over again, which ceremony was performed three times. If a girl drew the same slip thrice, she was sure to be married in a short time, and to a person of the same name as that which was written upon the thrice drawn slip.

_Looking through the Keyhole._--On the early morn of St. Valentine, young women would look through the keyhole of the house door. If they saw only a single object or person they would remain unmarried all that year. If they saw, however, two or more objects or persons, they would be sure to have a sweetheart, and that in no distant time; but if fortune so favoured them that by chance they saw a cock and a hen, they might be quite certain of being married before the year was out.

_Sweeping the girls_ was another real old Derbyshire custom. If a girl did not have a kiss, or if her sweetheart did not come to see her early on this morning, it was because she was _dusty_, and therefore it was needful that she should be well swept with a broom, and then afterwards equally well kissed by the young men of the house, and those living near, who used to go round to their intimate friends’ houses to perform this custom.--_N. & Q. 4th S._ vol. ix. p. 135.

HEREFORDSHIRE.

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

“Good morrow to you, Valentine; Curl your locks as I do mine, Two before and three behind. Good morrow to you, Valentine.”

This they repeat under the windows of all the houses they pass, and the inhabitant is seldom known to refuse a mite towards the merry solicitings of these juvenile serenaders.--Hone’s _Year Book_, 1838, p. 201.

KENT.

The following extract is taken from the _Gentleman’s Magazine_, 1779, vol. xlix. p. 137: “Being on a visit in a little obscure village in Kent, I found an odd kind of sport going forward: the girls, from eighteen to five or six years old, were assembled in a crowd, and burning an uncouth effigy, which they called an _holly-boy_, and which it seems they had stolen from the boys, and in another part of the village the boys were assembled together, and burning what they called an _ivy-girl_, which they had stolen from the girls; all this ceremony was accompanied with loud huzzas, noise, and acclamation.”

NORFOLK.

Independent of the homage paid to St. Valentine on this day at Lynn, it is in other respects a red-letter day amongst all classes of its inhabitants, being the commencement of its great annual mart. This mart was granted by a charter of Henry VIII. in the twenty-seventh year of his reign, “to begin on the day next after the feast of the purification of the blessed Virgin Mary, and to continue six days next following.” Since the alteration of the style, in 1752, it has been proclaimed on Valentine’s Day. About noon, the Mayor and Corporation, preceded by a band of music, and attended by twelve decrepit old men, called from their dress “Red Coats,” walk in procession to proclaim the mart, concluding by opening the antiquated and almost obsolete court of “Piepowder.” Like most establishments of this nature, it is no longer attended for the purpose it was first granted, business having yielded to pleasure and amusement. Formerly Lynn mart and Stourbridge (Stirbitch) fair, were the only places where small traders in this and the adjoining counties supplied themselves with their respective goods. No transactions of this nature now take place, and the only remains to be perceived are the “mart prices,” still issued by the grocers. Here the thrifty housewives, for twenty miles round, laid in their annual store of soap, starch, &c., and the booth of Green, from Limehouse, was for three generations the emporium of such articles; but these no longer attend. A great deal of money is however spent, as immense numbers of persons assemble from all parts. Neither is there any lack of incitements to unburthen the pockets: animals of every description, tame and wild, giants and dwarfs, tumblers, jugglers, peep-shows, &c., all unite their attractive powers, in sounds more discordant than those which annoyed the ears of Hogarth’s “enraged musician.”

In the early part of the last century, an old building, which, before the Reformation, had been a hall belonging to the guild of St. George, after being applied to various uses, was fitted up as a theatre (and, by a curious coincidence, where formerly had doubtless been exhibited, as was customary at the guild feasts, religious mysteries and pageants of the Catholic age, again were exhibited the mysteries and pageants of the Protestant age) during the mart and a few weeks afterwards, but apparently with no great success.--_Every Day Book_, vol. ii. p. 223.

In the parish of Ryburgh it is customary for the children to go round to the houses in the village for contributions, saying:

“God bless the baker; If you will be the giver, I will be the taker.”

_N. & Q. 4th S._ vol. v. p. 595.

NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.

In this county children go from house to house, on the morning of St. Valentine’s Day, soliciting small gratuities. The children of the villages go in parties, sometimes in considerable numbers, repeating at each house the following salutations, which vary in different districts:[18]

“Good morrow, Valentine! First it’s yours, and then it’s mine, So please give me a Valentine.”

“Morrow, morrow, Valentine! First ’tis yours, and then ’tis mine, So please to give me a Valentine. Holly and ivy tickle my toe, Give me red apples and let me go.”

“Good morrow, Valentine! Parsley grows by savoury, Savoury grows by thyme, A new pair of gloves on Easter day. Good morrow, Valentine!”

[18] See _History and Antiquities of Weston Favell_ (1827, p. 6). Brand in his _Pop. Antiq._ mentions this custom as existing in Oxfordshire.--1849, vol. i. p. 60.

It was formerly customary for young people to _catch_ their parents and each other on their first meeting on St. Valentine’s morning. _Catching_ was no more than the exclamation, “Good morrow, _Valentine_!” and they who could repeat this before they were spoken to, were entitled to a small present from their parents or the elderly persons of the family; consequently there was great eagerness to rise early, and much good-natured strife and merriment on the occasion.[19]

[19] The custom was observed at Norfolk.--Brand, _Pop. Antiq._ vol. i. p. 60.

In Peterborough and in some of the villages in the northern part of the county sweet plum buns were formerly given, and I believe are still made, called Valentine buns; and these buns, I am told, are in some villages given by godfathers and godmothers to their godchildren on the Sunday preceding and the Sunday following St. Valentine’s Day.--Baker, _Glossary of Northamptonshire Words and Phrases_, 1854, vol. ii. p. 373.

NOTTINGHAMSHIRE.

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

OXFORDSHIRE.

In this county the following rhymes were used:

“Good morrow, Valentine! I be thine, and thou be’st mine, So please give me a Valentine!”

Also

“Good morrow, Valentine! God bless you ever! If you’ll be true to me, I’ll be the like to thee. Old England for ever!”

Also

“Good morrow, Valentine, First ’tis yours, then ’tis mine, So please give me a Valentine.”

_The Antiquary_, 1873, vol. iii. p. 107; Brand, _Pop. Antiq._ 1849, vol. i. p. 60.

YORKSHIRE.

“On Valentine’s Day,” says Clarkson (_Hist. of Richmond_, 1821, p. 293), “the ceremony of drawing lots called Valentines is seldom omitted. The names of a select number of one sex with an equal number of the other are put into a vessel, and every one draws a name, which is called their Valentine; and which is looked upon as a good omen of their being afterwards united.”

MARCH. 1.] ST. DAVID’S DAY.

Various attempts have been made to account for the custom of wearing the leek. Owen, in his _Cambrian Biography_ (1803), considers it to have originated from the custom of _cymhortha_, or the neighbourly aid practised among farmers. He says that it was once customary in some districts of South Wales for all the neighbours of a small farmer without means to appoint a day, when they all met together for the purpose of ploughing his land, or rendering him any service in their power. On such an occasion each individual carried with him his portion of leeks to be used in making the pottage for the company. Some also are of opinion that the practice took its rise in consequence of a victory obtained by Cadwallo over the Saxons on the 1st of March, 640, when the Welsh, to distinguish themselves, wore leeks in their hats. Shakespeare introduces the custom into his play of Henry V., act iv. sc. 7. Fluellin addressing the monarch says:

“Your grandfather of famous memory, an’t please your majesty, and your great uncle Edward the plack prince of Wales, as I have read in the chronicles, fought a most prave pattle here in France.

“_K. Hen._ They did, Fluellin.

“_Flu._ Your majesty says very true: if your majesty is remembered of it, the Welshmen did goot service in a garden where leeks did grow, wearing leeks in their Monmouth caps; which, your majesty knows, to this hour is an honourable padge of the service; and I do believe your majesty takes no scorn to wear the leek upon Saint Tavy’s day.”

This allusion by Fluellin to the Welsh having worn the leek in a battle under the Black Prince, is not, as some writers suppose, wholly decisive of its having originated in the fields of Cressy or Poictiers, but shows that when Shakespeare wrote Welshmen wore leeks. In the same play the well-remembered Fluellin’s enforcement of Pistol to eat the leek he had ridiculed, further establishes the wearing as a usage.--_Every Day Book_, vol. i. p. 318.

A contributor to a periodical work, entitled _Gazette of Fashion_ (March 9th, 1822), rejects the notion that wearing leeks on St. David’s Day originated at the battle between the Saxons and the Welsh in the sixth century; and considers it more probable that leeks were a Druidic symbol employed in honour of the British _Ceudven_, or Ceres. In which hypothesis he thinks there is nothing strained in presuming that the Druids were a branch of the Phœnician priesthood. Both were addicted to oak worship; and during the funereal rites of Adonis at Byblos, leeks and onions were exhibited in “pots with other vegetables, and called the gardens of that deity.”

In the fifteenth century, the celebration of St. David’s Day was honoured with the patronage of royalty; and numerous entries of payments, such as the following, are recorded in the “Privy Purse Expenses of Henry the Seventh,” a monarch whose liberality is not proverbial:

“March 1 (1492). Walshemen on Saint David Day, £2.” “March 6 (1494). To the Walshemen towardes their feste, £2.”--_Med. Ævi Kalend._, vol. i. p. 168.

From _Poor Robin’s Almanack_ for 1757 it appears that, in former times in England, a Welshman was burnt in effigy on this anniversary:

“But it would make a stranger laugh To see th’ English hang poor Taff: A pair of breeches, and a coat, Hat, shoes, and stockings, and what not, All stuffed with hay to represent The Cambrian hero thereby meant: With sword sometimes three inches broad, And other armour made of wood, They drag hur to some publick tree, And hang hur up in effigy.”

To this custom Pepys probably alludes in his Diary for 1667 (Bohn’s Edition, 1858, vol. iii. p. 761):

“In Mark Lane I do observe (it being St. David’s Day) the picture of a man dressed like a Welshman, hanging by the neck upon one of the poles that stand out at the top of the merchant’s houses, in full proportion; and very handsomely done, which is one of the oddest sights I have seen a good while.”

Brand, in his _Pop. Antiq._ (1849, vol. i. p. 105), thinks that from this custom arose the practice, at one time in vogue amongst pastrycooks, of hanging or skewering _taffies_ or Welshmen of gingerbread for sale on St. David’s Day.

The goat has by time-honoured custom been attached to the regiment of the Royal Welsh (23rd) Fusiliers, and the following extract, taken from the _Graphic_ (No. 171, March, 8th, 1873), shows how St. David’s Day is observed by the officers and men of this regiment:

The drum-major, as well as every man in the regiment, wears a leek in his busby; the goat is dressed with rosettes and ribbons of red and blue. The officers have a party, and the drum-major, accompanied by the goat, marches round the table after dinner, carrying a plate of leeks, of which he offers one to each officer or guest who has never eaten one before, and who is bound to eat it up, standing on his chair, with one foot on the table, while a drummer beats a roll behind his chair. All the toasts given are coupled with the name of St. David, nor is the memory of Toby Purcell forgotten. This worthy was gazetted major of the regiment when it was first raised, and was killed in the Battle of the Boyne.

MIDDLESEX.

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

OXFORDSHIRE.

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

WALES.

At Tenby one of the benefit clubs marched through the town bearing the leek in their hats. In the evening a ball took place, at which artificial leeks were worn by both sexes.--Mason, _Tales and Traditions of Tenby_, 1858, p. 19.

MARCH 1.] SIMNEL SUNDAY.

Simnel Sunday is better known as Mid-Lent or Mothering Sunday, and was so called because large cakes called Simnels were made on this day.

Bailey in his _Dictionary_ (fol. 1764, by Scott,) says, _Simnel_ is probably derived from the Latin _Simila_, fine flour, and means a sort of cake, or bun, made of fine flour, spice, &c.

Frequent mention is made of the Simnel in the household allowances of Henry the First.

“Cancellarius v solidos in die et i Siminellum dominicum, et ii salum, et i sextarium de vino claro, et i sext. de vino expensabili, et unum grossum cereum, et xl frusta Candell.”--_Libr. Nigr. Scaccarii_, p. 341.

The “Siminellum Dominicum,” Hearne thinks, was a better kind of bread[20] and that “Siminellum Salum,” from ~sal~, cibus, victus, was the ordinary bread; if it be not the Latin _Salis_ (Siminellum Salinum), in which case it denotes that more salt is contained in it than in the other. If the derivation from Simnel be not satisfactory, perhaps the Anglo-Saxon ~symbel~, a feast or banquet, whence ~simbel~, ~dæg~, a festival day, may suffice.--_Med. Ævi Kalend._ vol. i. p. 177.

[20] Alderman Wilkinson of Burnley, a well known able Lancashire antiquary, some time since stated that it “originally meant the _very finest_ bread. _Pain demain_ is another term for it, on account of its having been used as Sunday bread.”

In Wright’s _Vocabularies_ it appears thus:--‘_Hic artæcopus, a symnylle_.’ This form was in use during the fifteenth century.

In the _Dictionarius_ of John de Garlande, compiled at Paris in the thirteenth century, it appears thus:--“_Simeneus_ = placentæ = simnels.” Such cakes were signed with the figure of Christ, or of the Virgin.

At Bury, in Lancashire, from time beyond memory, thousands of persons come from all parts, and eat “simnels” on Simnel Sunday. Formerly, nearly every shop was open, quite in defiance of the law respecting the closing during “service,” but of late, through the improved state of public opinion, the disorderly scenes to which the custom gave rise have been partially amended. Efforts have been repeatedly made to put a stop to the practice altogether, but in vain. The clergy, headed by the rector, and the ministers of all denominations (save the Romanists) have drawn up protests and printed appeals against this desecration, but, as just stated, with scarcely any visible effect.

It is not a little singular that the practice of assembling in one town, upon one day--the middle Sunday in Lent, to eat simnel cake, is a practice confined to Bury. Much labour has been expended to trace the origin of this custom, but without success.--_Gent. Mag._ (New Series) 1866, vol. i. p. 535; Baines, _History of Lancashire_, 1836, vol. ii. p. 776.

Herrick in his _Hesperides_ has the following:

“TO DIANEME.

“A CEREMONIE IN GLOCESTER.

“I’ll to thee a Simnell bring, ’Gainst thou go’st a _mothering_; So that, when she blesseth thee, Half that blessing thou’lt give me.”

1, p. 2787.

Again, the bread called “simnel bread” is mentioned by Jehoshaphat Aspin, in his _Pictures of Manners, &c., of England_, p. 126, who quotes from a statute of 51st of Henry III.:--_A farthing symnel_ (a sort of small cake, twice baked, and also called a _cracknel_) should weigh two ounces less than the _wastel_ (a kind of cake made with honey, or with meal and oil).

Curious are some of the tales which have arisen to explain the meaning of the name _simnel_. Some pretend that the father of Lambert Simnel, the well-known pretender in the reign of Henry VII., was a baker, and the first maker of simnels, and that, in consequence of the celebrity he gained by the acts of his son, his cakes have retained his name. There is a story current in Shropshire, which is more picturesque. Long ago there lived an honest old couple, boasting the names of Simon and Nelly, but their surnames are not known. It was their custom at Easter to gather their children about them, and thus meet together once a year under the old homestead. The fasting season of Lent was just ending, but they had still left some of the unleavened dough which had been from time to time converted into bread during the forty days. Nelly was a careful woman, and it grieved her to waste anything, so she suggested that they should use the remains of the lenten dough, for the basis of a cake to regale the assembled family. Simon readily agreed to the proposal, and further reminded his partner that there were still some remains of their Christmas plum-pudding hoarded up in the cupboard, and that this might form the interior, and be an agreeable surprise to the young people when they had made their way through the less tasty crust. So far all things went on harmoniously; but when the cake was made, a subject of violent discord arose, Sim insisting that it should be boiled, while Nell no less obstinately contended that it should be baked. The dispute ran from words to blows, for Nell not choosing to let her province in the household be thus interfered with, jumped up, and threw the stool she was sitting on at Sim, who, on his part, seized a besom, and applied it with right good will to the head and shoulders of his spouse. She now seized the broom, and the battle became so warm, that it might have had a very serious result, had not Nell proposed as a compromise that the cake should be boiled first and afterwards baked. This Sim acceded to, for he had no wish for further acquaintance with the heavy end of the broom. Accordingly, the big pot was set on the fire, and the stool broken up and thrown on to boil it, whilst the besom and broom furnished fuel for the oven. Some eggs, which had been broken in the scuffle, were used to coat the outside of the pudding when boiled, which gave it the shining gloss it possesses as a cake. This new and remarkable production in the art of confectionery became known by the name of the cake of Simon and Nelly, but soon only the first half of each name was alone preserved and joined together, and it has ever since been known as the cake of Sim-Nel or Simnel.--_Book of Days_, vol. i. p. 337.

_Mothering Sunday._--In many parts of England it was formerly customary for servants, apprentices, and others to carry presents to their parents on this day. This practice was called Going a-Mothering, and originated in the offerings made on this day at the mother-church.

In the _Gent. Mag._ (vol. liv. p. 98) a correspondent tells us that whilst he was an apprentice the custom was to visit his mother on Mid-Lent Sunday (thence called Mothering Sunday) for a regale of excellent furmety.[21]

[21] Furmenty, Furmity, or Frumity; still a favourite dish in the north, consisting of hulled wheat boiled in milk and seasoned. It was especially a Christmas dish. In the _True Gentlewoman’s Delight_, 1676, p. 17, the following receipt is given for making furmity:

Take a quart of sweet cream, two or three sprigs of mace, and a nutmeg cut in half, put it into your cream, so let it boil; then take your French barley or rice, being first washed clean in fair water three times and picked clean, then boil it in sweet milk till it be tender, then put it into your cream, and boil it well, and when it hath boiled a good while, take the yoke of six or seven eggs, beat them very well to thicken on a soft fire, boil it, and stir it, for it will quickly burn; when you think it is boiled enough sweeten it to your taste, and so serve it in with rosewater and musk-sugar, in the same manner you make it with wheat.--Nares’ _Glossary_ (Halliwell and Wright), 1859, vol. i. p. 340.

Another correspondent of the same journal for May (vol. liv. p. 343) says, “I happened to reside last year near Chepstow, in Monmouthshire; and there, for the first time, heard of _Mothering Sunday_. My inquiries into the origin and meaning of it were fruitless; but the practice thereabouts was for servants and apprentices on Mid-Lent Sunday to _visit their parents_, and _make them a present of money_, _a trinket_, or _some nice eatable_; and they are anxious not to fail in this custom.”

A mothering-cake is alluded to in Collins’s _Miscellanies_, 1762, p. 114:

“Why, rot thee, Dick! see Dundry’s Peak Lucks like a shuggard motherin’-cake.”

A sort of spiced ale called Braggot, Bragget, or Braggat, was used in many parts of Lancashire on these visits of relations, whence the day was called _Braggot Sunday_.

In Nares’ _Glossary_ (Halliwell and Wright, 1859, vol. i. p. 102) the following receipt for making _bragget_ is given from the _Haven of Health_, chap. 239, p. 268:

Take three or four galons of good ale, or more as you please, two dayes or three after it is densed, and put it into a pot by itselfe; then draw forth a pottle thereof, and put to it a quart of good English honey, and set them over the fire in a vessell, and let them boyle faire and softly, and alwayes as any froth ariseth skumme it away, and so clarifie it, and when it is well clarified, take it off the fire and let it coole, and put thereto of pepper a pennyworth, cloves, mace, ginger, nutmegs, cinamon, of each two pennyworth, beaten to powder, stir them well together, and set them over the fire to boyle againe awhile, then bring milke warme, put it to the reste, and stirre alltogether, and let it stand two or three daies, and put barme upon it, and drink it at your pleasure.

Minshen in his _Ductor in Linguas_ (1617, p. 50) tells us that Braggot is composed of two Welsh words, _Bräg_, malt, and _Gots_, honeycombs.

In Ben Jonson’s masque of the _Metamorphosed Gipsies_ is the following reference to this word:

“And we have serv’d there, armed all in ale, With the brown bowl, and charg’d in _braggat_ stale.”

On this day also boys went about in ancient times into the villages with a figure of death made of straw, from whence they were generally driven by the country people, who disliked it as an ominous appearance, while some gave them money to get the mawkin carried off. Its precise meaning under that form is doubtful, though it seems likely to have purported the death of winter, and to have been only a part of another ceremony conducted by a larger number of boys, from whom the death carriers were a detachment, and who consisted of a large assemblage carrying two figures to represent Spring and Winter. These two figures they bore about, and fought; in the fight, Summer or Spring got the victory over Winter, and thus was allegorized the departure or burial of the death of the year, and its commencement or revival as Spring.--_Every Day Book_, vol. i. p. 358.

In the north of England, and also in the Midland Counties, the following names are given to the Sundays of Lent, the first of which however is anonymous:

“Tid, Mid, Misera, Carling, Palm, Paste Egg-day.”

Another version of this couplet is given in the _Gent. Mag._, 1788, vol. lviii. p. 288.

“Tid, and Mid, and Misera, Carling, Palm, and Good-Pas-Day.”

The first three names are no doubt corruptions of some part of the ancient Latin service or psalms used on each.--Brand’s _Pop. Antiq._ 1849, vol. i. p. 116; see the _Festa Anglo-Romana_, 1678.

In the _Gent. Mag._ (1785, p. 779) an advertisement for the regulation of Newark fair is quoted, which mentions that “_Careing Fair_ will be held on Friday before Careing Sunday;” and Nichols remarks on this passage that he had heard the following old Nottinghamshire couplet:

“Care Sunday, Care away, Palm Sunday and Easter Day.”

--_Ibid._ p. 113.

LANCASHIRE.

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

STAFFORDSHIRE.

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

FIRST MONDAY IN MARCH.

BERKSHIRE AND HAMPSHIRE.

The first Monday in March being the time when shoemakers in the country cease from working by candle-light, it used to be customary for them to meet together in the evening for the purpose of _wetting the block_. On these occasions the master either provided a supper for his men, or made them a present of money or drink; the rest of the expense was defrayed by subscriptions among themselves, and sometimes by donations from customers. After the supper was ended, the block candlestick was placed in the midst, the shop candle was lighted, and all the glasses being filled, the oldest hand in the shop poured the contents of his glass over the candle to extinguish it; the rest then drank the contents of theirs standing, and gave three cheers. The meeting was usually kept to a late hour.[22]--_Every Day Book_, vol. ii. p. 470.

[22] In some places this custom took place on Easter Monday.

FRIDAY IN LIDE.

CORNWALL.

The first Friday in March is so called from _lide_, Anglo-Saxon for March. This day is marked by a serio-comic custom of sending a young lad on the highest mound or hillock of the work, and allowing him to sleep there as long as he can; the length of his _siesta_ being the measure of the afternoon nap for the tinners throughout the ensuing twelve months. The weather which usually characterizes Friday in Lide is, it need scarcely be said, not very conducive to prolonged sleep. In Saxon times labourers were generally allowed their mid-day sleep; and it has been observed that it is even now permitted to husbandmen in some parts of East Cornwall during a stated portion of the year. Browne appears to allude to this practice in Devonshire, when he says in the third song of his first book, in reference to the song-birds in the woodland:

“Whose pleasing noates the tyred swaine have made To steale a nap at noontide in the shade.”

Brand, _Pop. Antiq._ 1870, vol. i. p. 64.

MARCH 3.] SCOTLAND.

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

MARCH 5.] ST. PIRAN’S DAY.

CORNWALL.

The tinners observe this day, says Hitchins in his _History of Cornwall_ (1844, vol. i. p. 725), as a holiday, which they call St. Piran’s Day. This, by a custom established from time immemorial, sanctions a suspension from all labour, because St. Piran is supposed to have communicated some important information relative to the tin manufacture.

MARCH 8.] CARE SUNDAY.

This day, the ancient _Passion Sunday_, is the fifth Sunday after Shrove Tuesday. The word _Care_, which is also applied to Christmas Cakes, has been a stumbling-block to etymologists. The following remarks respecting its derivation are taken from Hampson’s _Med. Ævi Kalend._ (1841, vol. i. p. 178):--T. Mareschall observes that the day on which Christ suffered, is called in German both _Gute Freytag_ and _Karr Freytag_, and that _Karr_ signified a satisfaction for a fine or penalty. Adelung speaking of _Charfreytag_ (_Care_ or _Carr_ Friday) and _Charwoche_ (_Care_ or _Carr-week_), observes that the first syllable is supposed to be the old _Cara_, preparation (_Zubereitung_), and that this week, conformably to the usage of the Jews, was called _Preparation Week_ (_Zubereitungswoche_) because the sixth day was _Preparation day_ (_Zubereitungstag_), when the Jews prepared themselves for Easter. Hence the Greeks called Carfriday, _Dies Parasceves_, of which the Gothic _Gartag_, or _Garfreytag_ is a translation.

Tatian (Cap. 58) names the Friday before Easter “Garotag fora Ostrum,” and renders the phrase, “My heart is prepared,” “Karo ist mein herza.” Schiller’s opinion, however, that _Char_, _Kar_, signifies mourning, complaint, sorrow, has equal probability; for it appears from ancient manuscripts that _Car_ formerly bore the signification of _Care_ or grief, and in Sweden, where the fifth Sunday in Lent is denominated _Kaersunnutag_, the verb _Kæra_ is actually to lament, to complain.

Dr. Jameson, adopting the opinion of Mareschall, observes, “This name may have been imposed in reference to the satisfaction made by our Saviour. Some, however, understand it, as referring to the accusations brought against him on this day, from the Sueo-Gothic _Kæra_, to complain.”--_Etymol. Dict._, Art. _Care Sunday_.

On this day, in the northern counties, and in Scotland, a custom obtains of eating _Carlings_, which are grey peas, steeped all night in water, and fried the next day with butter:

“There’ll be all the lads and lassies Set down in the midst of the ha’, With sybows, and ryfarts, and _carlings_ That are bath sodden and raw.”

Ritson’s _Scottish Songs_, vol. i. p. 211.

As to the origin of this custom, Brand (_Pop. Antiq._ 1849, vol. i. p. 114) offers the following explanation:--“In the Roman Calendar, I find it observed on this day, that a dole is made of _soft beans_. I can hardly entertain a doubt but that our custom is derived from hence. It was usual among the Romanists to give away beans in the doles at funerals; it was also a rite in the funeral ceremonies of heathen Rome. Why we have substituted peas I know not, unless it was because they are a pulse somewhat fitter to be eaten at this season of the year.” Having observed from Erasmus that Plutarch held pulse (_legumina_) to be of the highest efficacy in invocation of the _Manes_, he adds: “Ridiculous and absurd as these superstitions may appear, it is quite certain that _Carlings_ deduce their origin from thence.” This explanation, however, is by no means regarded as satisfactory.

Hone (_Every Day Book_, 1826, vol. i. p. 379) says, How is it that _Care Sunday_ is also called _Carl_ and _Carling_ Sunday; and that the peas, or beans of the day are called _Carlings_? _Carle_, which means a _Churle_, or rude boorish fellow, was anciently the term for a working countryman or labourer; and it is only altered in the spelling, without the slightest deviation in sense, from the old Saxon word ~Ceorl~, the name for a husbandman. The older denomination of the day, then, may not have been _Care_, but _Carl Sunday_, from the benefactions to the _Carles_ or _Carlen_. A correspondent of _Notes & Queries_ (_1st S._ vol. iii. 449) tells us that on the north-east coast of England, where the custom of frying dry peas on this day is attended with much augury, some ascribe its origin to the loss of a ship freighted with peas on the coast of Northumberland. Carling is the foundation beam of a ship, or the beam on the keel.

CAMBRIDGESHIRE.

In several villages in the vicinity of Wisbeach, in the Isle of Ely, the fifth Sunday in Lent has been, time immemorial, commemorated by the name of _Whirlin Sunday_, when cakes are made by almost every family, and are called, from the day, _Whirlin Cakes_.--_Gent. Mag._ 1789, vol. lix. p. 491.

YORKSHIRE.

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

MARCH 10.] OXFORDSHIRE.

William Handy, by will dated the 10th of March, 1622, bequeathed to the parish of St. Giles’, Oxford, £40, upon condition that, upon the 10th of March for ever, in the morning, about 5 o’clock, they should ring one peal with all the bells, and about 8 or 9 o’clock should go to service, and read all the service, with the Litany and the Communion, as it is commanded to be read in the cathedral church, and after that to have a sermon, and in it to give God thanks for His great blessings in delivering and bringing the giver from Papistry and idolatry to the light and truth of the blessed Gospel; and he desired that the preacher might have 10_s._ for his sermon, and the minister 5_s._ for leading service, and the poor to have given them in bread or money 10_s._

This sum, with other money, was laid out in 1633, in purchasing a tenement, garden, and one acre of pasture ground, situated in Corn Street, Witney, to the uses of the donor’s will; of the rent, 15_s._ a year was accordingly commanded to be paid to the minister for reading prayers and preaching a sermon on the 10th of March, 5_s._ to the clerk, 5_s._ to the ringer, and 15_s._ to be distributed at the church, with other money in small sums to the poor.[23]--_Old English Customs and Charities_, 1842, p. 249.

[23] There was a similar gift of the same donor to the parish of St. Mary Magdalen, Oxford; but since 1800 nothing has been paid in respect of this charity.

MARCH 11.] NOTTINGHAMSHIRE.

Formerly, there lived at Newark one Hercules Clay, a tradesman of considerable eminence, and an alderman of the borough of Newark. During the siege, in the night of the 11th of March 1643, he dreamed three times that his house was on fire; on the third warning he arose much alarmed, awoke the whole of his family, and caused them to quit the premises, though at that time all appeared to be in perfect safety. Soon afterwards, however, a bomb from a battery of the Parliamentarian army on Beacon Hill, an eminence near the town, fell upon the roof of the house, and penetrated all the floors, and happily did little other execution. The bomb was intended to destroy the house of the governor of the town, which was in Stadman Street, exactly opposite Clay’s house. In commemoration of this extraordinary deliverance, Mr. Clay, by his will, gave £200 to the Corporation in trust to pay the interest of £100 to the Vicar of Newark, for a sermon to be preached every 11th of March. The interest of the other £100 he directed to be given in bread to the poor. Penny loaves were, accordingly, given to every one who applied, and the day on which they were distributed, was called “Penny Loaf Day.”--Hone’s _Year Book_, 1838, p. 301.

MARCH 12.] ST. GREGORY’S DAY.

IRELAND.

The feast of St. Gregory the Great, 12th of March, was formerly observed as a holiday, and one of festivity in all the rural schools in the baronies of Forth and Baigy (the Strongbonian Colony), in the county of Wexford. The manner was this: the children, for some days previous, brought contributions, according to the means and liberality of their parents, consisting of money, bread, butter, cream, &c., and delivered them to the teacher. On the morning of the joyous day, the children repaired to the school-house in holiday dress, where the teacher had everything prepared for the festivity, the simple temple of learning decorated with the richest flowers within his means of obtaining, and the presence of two or more kind-hearted females to do the honours and duties of the tea-table to the happy juveniles. A “king” and a “queen” were nominated, who, of course, took the seat of honour, and the proud and busy teacher was everywhere all attention to his little pupils. The day passed off in hilarity and innocent enjoyment, and the competitive system of free offerings left, generally, something pleasing to tell for some days in the pockets and humble cupboard of the teacher. This custom prevailed until after the commencement of the present century.--_N. & Q. 2nd S._ vol. vii. p. 392.

MARCH 14.] PALM SATURDAY.

SCOTLAND.

On the Saturday before Palm Sunday the boys belonging to the grammar-school at Lanark, according to ancient usage, used to parade the streets with a palm, or its substitute, a large tree of the willow kind, (_Salix caprea_), in blossom, ornamented with daffodils, mezereon, and box-tree. This day was called Palm Saturday, and supposed to be a popish relic of very ancient standing.--_Stat. Acc. of Scotland_, Sinclair, 1795, vol. xv. p. 45.

MARCH 15.] PALM SUNDAY.

Palm Sunday receives its English and the greater part of its foreign names from the custom of bearing palm branches, in commemoration of those which were strewn in the path of Christ on his entry into Jerusalem. “It is a custom among churchmen,” says the author of a Normano-Saxon homily in the reign of Henry II., or Richard I., “to go in procession on this day. The custom has its origin in the holy procession which our Saviour made to the place where he chose to suffer death.”

The ceremony of bearing palms on Palm Sunday was retained in England after some others were dropped, and was one of those which Henry VIII. in 1536 declared were not to be discontinued. In a proclamation in the library of the Society of Antiquaries, dated the 26th February, 1539, “Concernyng rites and ceremonies to be used in due fourme in the Churche of Englande,” occurs the following clause: “On Palme Sonday it shall be declared that bearing of palmes renueth the memorie of the receivinge of Christe in lyke maner into Jerusalem before his deathe.” Again, in Fuller’s _Church History_ (1655, p. 222), we read that “bearing of palms on Palm Sunday is in memory of the receiving of Christ into Jerusalem a little before his death, and that we may have the same desire to receive him into our hearts.”

In Howe’s edition of _Stow’s Chronicle_ (1615, fol. p. 595), it is stated, under the year 1548, that “this yeere the ceremony of bearing of palmes on Palme Sunday was left off, and not used as before.”--_Med. Ævi Kalend._ vol. i. p. 181; Brand, _Pop. Antiq._ 1849, vol. i. p. 124.

It is still customary with our boys, both in the south and north of England, to go out and gather slips with the willow-flowers or buds at this time. These seem to have been selected as substitutes for the real palm, because they are generally the only things which can be easily obtained at this season. This practice is still observed in the neighbourhood of London. The young people go _a-palming_; and the sallow is sold in London streets for the whole week preceding Palm Sunday. In the north it is called going a-palmsoning or palmsning.--Brand, _Pop. Antiq._ 1849, vol. i. p. 127.

Stow in his _Survey of London_ (1603, p. 98) says that “in the weeke before Easter had ye great shewes made for the fetching in of a _twisted tree or with_, as they termed it, out of the woodes into the kinge’s house, and the like into every man’s house of honor or worship.” Probably this was a substitute for the palm.

An instance of the great antiquity of this practice in England is afforded by the Domesday Survey, under Shropshire, vol. i. p. 252, where a tenant is stated to have rendered in payment a bundle of box twigs on Palm Sunday, “Terra dimid. car unus reddit inde _fascem buxi in die Palmarum_.”

By an Act of Common Council, 1 and 2 Phil. and Mary, for retrenching expenses, it was ordered, “that from henceforth _there shall be no wyth fetcht home at the Maior’s or Sheriff’s Houses_. Neither shall they keep any lord of misrule in any of their houses.”--Strype’s _Stow_, 1720,

##