book i
. p 246.
It was formerly the custom in some of the northern parts of England for the young men and maids who received the sacrament to walk after dinner into the corn-fields, and to bless the corn and fruits of the earth.--Kennett, MS. Brit. Mus.
CORNWALL.
In former days persons resorted to “Our Lady of Nantswell” with a palm cross in one hand and an offering in the other. The offering fell to the priest’s share: the cross was thrown into the well, and if it swam was regarded as an omen that the person who threw it would outlive the year; if however it sank, a short ensuing death was foreboded.--Carew, _Survey of Cornwall_, 1811.
DERBYSHIRE.
On Palm Sunday morning, the boys go into the fields and gather branches of the willow; these are carried about during the day, and in some churches it is customary to use them for decoration.--_Jour. of Arch. Assoc._, 1852, vol. vii. p. 204.
HEREFORDSHIRE.
The return of Palm Sunday has, from time immemorial, been observed at Hentland Church in a peculiar manner. The minister and congregation receive from the churchwardens a cake or bun, and, in former times, a cup of beer also. This is consumed within the church, and is supposed to imply a desire on the part of those who partake of it to forgive and forget all animosities, and thus prepare themselves for the festival of Easter.--_N. & Q. 3rd S._ vol. vii. p. 275.
HERTFORDSHIRE.
Hone, in his _Year Book_ (1838, p. 1593), states that at Kempton it has long been a custom for the inhabitants to eat figs on this day, there termed _Fig Sunday_, where it is also usual for them to keep wassel, and make merry with their friends.
LINCOLNSHIRE.
A curious and quaint custom existed for very many years at Caistor Church, in Lincolnshire, on Palm Sunday, connected with a tenure of property; and in the particulars of sale, circulated in 1845, is the following account of it:
“This estate is held subject to the performance, on Palm Sunday in every year, of the ceremony of cracking a whip in Caistor Church, in the said county of Lincoln, which has been regularly and duly performed on Palm Sunday, from time immemorial, in the following manner:
“The whip is taken every Palm Sunday by a man from Broughton to the parish of Caistor, who, while the minister is reading the first lesson, cracks it three distinct times in the church porch, then folds it neatly up, and retires to a seat. At the commencement of the second lesson, he approaches the minister, and kneeling opposite to him with the whip in his hand, and the purse at the end of it, held perpendicularly over his head, waves it thrice, and continues in a steadfast position throughout the whole of the chapter. The ceremony is then concluded. The whip has a leathern purse tied at the end of it, which ought to contain thirty pieces of silver, said to represent, according to Scripture, “the price of blood.” Four pieces of weechelm[24] tree, of different lengths, are affixed to the stock, denoting the different Gospels of the holy Evangelists; the three distinct cracks are typical of St. Peter’s denial of his Lord and Master three times; and the waving it over the minister’s head as an intended homage to the Blessed Trinity.”
[24] Properly Wych elm (_Ulmus montana_).
In an article on this subject in the _Archæological Journal_ (1849, vol. vi. p. 239), the writer says: “I have not been able to trace this custom to its source. It would appear to have prevailed in very primitive times, and yet the circumstance of the custom requiring the more essential part of the ceremony to be performed during the reading of the _second lesson_ is scarcely reconcilable with this idea; but I am induced to think that the custom prevailed long before our present ritual existed, and that it has in this respect been accommodated to the changes which time has effected in the services of the Church. Unfortunately, the title-deeds do not contain the slightest reference to the custom. I have no means of tracing the title beyond 1675. The parish of Broughton is a very large one, and anterior to 1675 belonged, with small exceptions, to the Anderson family; but whether Stephen Anderson, the then owner of the manor, and the 2200 acres of land sold in 1845, was owner of the other part of Broughton, which has long been in the possession of Lord Yarborough’s ancestors, I cannot say. A partition of the property appears to have been made between the co-heiresses, and the manor and 2200 acres being settled in 1772 by Sir Stephen Anderson, of Eyeworth, on his niece, Frances Elizabeth Stephens, and her issue; upon her death it became the property of her son, Ellys Anderson Stephens, who died in 1844, leaving four daughters and co-heiresses, and who, in 1845, sold the property to a client of mine, Mr. John Coupland, and who afterwards sold the manor and about 600 acres to Lord Yarborough, 982 acres to myself, and other portions to different purchasers, reserving to himself about 200 acres. I cannot make out when this partition (above alluded to) took place. The deed or will by which it was effected would probably refer to the custom and provide for the performance of it, but there is no document with the title deeds tending to show whether the custom was due only in respect of the manor, and 2200 acres, or in respect of Lord Yarborough’s portion of the parish as well. The fact of a partition having taken place, rests rather upon tradition than evidence; but supposing it, as I do, to be a fact, it seems strange that the title-deeds should be silent as to the obligation imposed upon the owner of the manor to perform the service by which the whole property was held. The manor and estate sold in 1845, were of the tenure of ancient demesne; a tenure which is very rare at this time of day, at least in this part of the world. Probably a reference to Lord Yarborough’s title-deeds would clear up the mystery, or Sir Charles Anderson may have the means of doing so.
“I may also refer to Sir Culling Eardley as possibly in a position to throw some light on the subject; for it was to him and his ancestors, as lords of the manor of Hundon, in Caistor, to whom this service was due, and for whose use the whip was deposited after the service in the pew of Caistor Church, belonging to the lord of the manor of Hundon. All the versions that I have seen of the custom favour the opinion that it had some reference to the subject of the second lesson for Palm Sunday, which is the 26th chapter of St. Matthew, and if so, it would seem likely to follow, that the principal part of the ceremony took place at the reading of that chapter; but in that case it has clearly undergone some change, because, until the last revision of the Book of Common Prayer, there was no proper second lesson for the morning of Palm Sunday; but the 26th chapter of St. Matthew was part of the Gospel for that day, and had been so from Anglo-Saxon times.
Perhaps the better opinion is, that this custom, recently discontinued, had been so varied from time to time as to have borne at last little resemblance to what originally took place. I do not suppose at its commencement it was regarded as at all irreverent, or was intended to be otherwise than most decorous, according to the idea of a semi-barbarous age; what it really was at first it is now impossible to conjecture or discover. The explanation suggested in the particulars of sale appears too much in accordance with modern notions to be altogether correct. Some allege a tradition that it was a self-inflicted penance by a former owner of the Broughton estate for killing a boy with such a whip.”
In May, 1836, the following petition was presented to the House of Lords by the lord of the manor against the annual observance of this custom; but without effect:
“_To the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament assembled._
“The petition of the undersigned Sir Culling Eardley Smith, of Bedwell Park, in the county of Hertford, sheweth, that your petitioner is lord of the manor of Hundon, near Caistor, in the county of Lincoln.
“That the lord of the manor of Broughton, near Brigg, in the same county, yearly, on Palm Sunday, employs a person to perform the following ceremony in the parish church at Caistor, etc.; that the performance of this superstitious ceremony is utterly inconsistent with a place of Christian worship.
“That it is generally supposed that it is a penance for murder, and that, in the event of the performance being neglected, the lord of the manor of Broughton would be liable to the penalty to the lord of the manor of Hundon.
“That your petitioner being extremely anxious for the discontinuance of this indecent and absurd practice, applied to the lord of the manor of Broughton for the purpose, who declined entering into any negotiation until the deed should be produced under which the ceremony was instituted, which deed (if it has ever existed) your petitioner is unable to produce.
“That your petitioner subsequently applied to the Bishop of Lincoln to use his influence to prevent the repetition of the ceremony, and offered to guarantee the churchwardens against any loss in consequence of their refusal to permit it.
“That your petitioner believes there are no trustees of a dissenting chapel who would permit the minister or officers of their chapel to sanction such a desecration.
“That the ceremony took place, as usual, on Palm Sunday, in this year.
“Your petitioner therefore prays that your Lordships will be pleased to ascertain from the bishop of the diocese why the ceremony took place; that, if the existing law enables any ecclesiastical persons to prevent it, the law may be hereafter enforced; and that, if the present law is insufficient, a law may be passed enabling the bishop to interfere for the purpose of saving the national Church from scandal.
“And your petitioner will ever pray.”
NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.
It is the universal custom, with both rich and poor, to eat figs on this day. On the Saturday previous, the market at Northampton is abundantly supplied with figs, and there are more purchased at this time than throughout the rest of the year; even the charity children, in some places, are regaled with them.
No conjecture is offered as to the origin or purpose of this singular custom. May it not have some reference to Christ’s desiring to eat figs the day after his triumphant entrance into Jerusalem?--Baker, _Glossary of Northamptonshire Words and Phrases_, 1854, i. p. 232.
OXFORDSHIRE.
In some parts of this country figs are eaten on Palm Sunday, which is in consequence called Fig Sunday.[25]--_N. & Q. 2nd S._ vol. i. p. 227.
[25] See Mid-Lent Sunday.
SURREY.
From time immemorial a fair, or wake, has been held in the churchyard of Crowhurst on Palm Sunday. Formerly, excesses were frequently committed on the occasion through the sale of liquors; but of late years the fair has been conducted with great decorum.--Brayley, _Topographical History of Surrey_, 1841, iv. p. 132.
WILTSHIRE.
On St. Martin’s Hill, near Marlborough, at which there is an ancient camp more than thirty acres in extent, Palm Sunday is kept; and persons in great numbers used to assemble there, each carrying a hazel-nut bough with the catkins hanging from it.--_N. & Q. 2nd S._ v. p. 447.
YORKSHIRE.
In Yorkshire and the northern counties Palm Sunday is a day of great diversion, young and old amusing themselves with sprigs of willow, or in manufacturing palm-crosses, which are stuck up or suspended in houses. In the afternoon and evening a number of impudent girls and young men sally forth and assault all unprotected females whom they meet out of doors, seizing their shoes, and compelling them to redeem them with money. These disgraceful scenes are continued until Monday morning, when the girls extort money from the men by the same means; these depredations were formerly prolonged till Tuesday noon.--_Time’s Telescope_, 1822, p. 68.
At Filey figs are also eaten on this day.--Cole, _History of Filey_, 1826, p. 135.
WALES.
In South Wales Palm Sunday goes by the name of Flowering Sunday, from the custom of persons assembling in the churchyards, and spreading fresh flowers upon the graves of friends and relatives.--TIMES, 13th April, 1868, p. 7.
MARCH 16.] LANCASHIRE.
A rural celebration used to be held at Poulton-in-the-Fylds on the Monday before Good Friday, by young men, under the name of “Jolly Lads,” who visited such houses as were likely to afford good entertainments, and excited mirth by their grotesque habits and discordant noises. This was evidently borrowed from the practice of the _pace_ or _pask eggers_, of other parts of the county, merely preceding instead of following Easter.--Baines, _Hist. of Lancashire_, 1836, vol. iv. p. 436.
OXFORDSHIRE.
Aubrey, in MS. Lansd., 231, gives the following: It is the custom for the boys and girls in country schools in several parts of Oxfordshire, at their breaking up in the week before Easter, to go in a gang from house to house, with little clacks of wood, and when they come to any door, there they fall a-beating their clacks, and singing this song:
“Herrings, herrings, white and red, Ten a penny, Lent’s dead; Rise, dame, and give an egg, Or else a piece of bacon. One for Peter, two for Paul, Three for Jack a Lent’s all. Away, Lent, away!”
They expect from every house some eggs, or a piece of bacon, which they carry baskets to receive, and feast upon at the week’s end. At first coming to the door, they all strike up very loud, “Herrings, herrings,” &c., often repeated. As soon as they receive any largess, they begin the chorus--
“Here sits a good wife, Pray God save her life; Set her upon a hod, And drive her to God.”
But if they lose their expectation and must goe away empty, then, with a full cry,--
“Here sits a bad wife, The devil take her life; Set her upon a swivell, And send her to the devil.”
And, in further indignation, they commonly cut the latch of the door, or stop the key-hole with dirt, or leave some more nasty token of displeasure.--Thom’s _Anecdotes and Traditions_, 1839, p. 113.
MARCH 17.] ST. PATRICK’S DAY.
In the metropolis, says Stow in his _Sports, Pastimes, and Customs of London_ (1847, p. 241), this anniversary is generally observed at court as a high festival, and the nobility crowd and pay their compliments in honour of the tutelary saint of Ireland. It is usually selected, also, for soliciting aid to a great national object--the promotion of education.
BUCKINGHAMSHIRE.
In the _Illustrated London News_ of 22nd March, 1862, p. 285, is the following paragraph:
“Lord Langford, as the highest Irish nobleman in Eton School, presented, on St. Patrick’s Day, the beautifully-embroidered badges, in silver, of St. Patrick, to the head master, the Rev. E. Balston, and the lower master, the Rev. W. Carter, which were worn by the reverend gentlemen during the day. About twenty-four of the Irish noblemen and gentlemen in the school were invited to a grand breakfast with the head master, as is customary on these occasions.”
IRELAND.
The shamrock is worn in all parts of Ireland on this day. Old women, with plenteous supplies of trefoil, may be heard in every direction, crying “Buy my shamrock, green shamrocks;” and children have “Patrick’s crosses” pinned to their sleeves. This custom is supposed to have taken its origin from the fact that when St. Patrick was preaching the doctrine of the Trinity he made use of this plant, bearing three leaves upon one stem, as a symbol of the great mystery.[26]
[26] Mr. Jones in his _Historical Account of the Welsh Bards_ (1794, p. 13) says: When St. Patrick landed near Wicklow the inhabitants were ready to stone him for attempting an innovation in the religion of their ancestors. He requested to be heard, and explained unto them, that God is an omnipotent, sacred Spirit, who created heaven and earth, and that the Trinity is contained in the Unity; but they were reluctant to give credit to his words. St. Patrick, therefore, plucked a trefoil from the ground, and expostulated with the Hibernians: “Is it not as possible for the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as for these three leaves to grow upon a single stalk?” Then the Irish were immediately convinced of their error, and were solemnly baptized by St. Patrick.
In _Contributions towards a Cybele Hibernica_ (D. Moore and A. G. More, 1866, p. 73) is the following note: “_Trifolium repens_, Dutch clover, Shamrock.--This is the plant still worn as shamrock on St. Patrick’s Day, though _Medicago lupulina_ is also sold in Dublin as the shamrock. Edward Lhwyd, the celebrated antiquary, writing in December 1699 to Tancred Robinson, says, after a recent visit to Ireland: ‘Their shamrug is our common clover’ (_Phil. Trans._, No. 335). Threkeld, the earliest writer on the wild plants of Ireland, gives _Seamar-oge_ (young trefoil) as the Gaelic name for _Trifolium pratense album_, and says expressly that this is the plant worn by the people in their hats on St. Patrick’s Day. Wade also gives _Seamrog_ as equivalent to _Trifolium repens_, while the Gaelic name given for _Oxalis_ by Threkeld is _Sealgan_.”
A correspondent of _N. & Q._ (_4th S._ vol. iii. p. 235) says the _Trifolium filiforme_ is generally worn in Cork. It grows in thick clusters on the tops of walls and ditches, and is to be found in abundance in old limestone quarries in the south of Ireland. The _Trifolium minus_ is also worn.
The following whimsical song descriptive of St. Patrick is given on Hone’s authority as one often sung by the Irish:
St. Patrick was a gentleman, and he came from decent people, In Dublin town he built a church, and on it put a steeple; His father was a Wollaghan, his mother an O’Grady, His aunt she was a Kinaghan, and his wife a widow Brady.
Tooralloo, tooralloo, what a glorious man our saint was! Tooralloo, tooralloo, O whack fal de lal, de lal, etc.
Och! Antrim hills are mighty high, and so’s the hill of Howth too; But we all do know a mountain that is higher than them both too; ’Twas on the top of that high mount St. Patrick preach’d a sermon. He drove the frogs into the bogs, and banished all the vermin.
Tooralloo, tooralloo, etc.
No wonder that we Irish lads, then, are so blythe and frisky; St. Patrick was the very man that taught us to drink whisky; Och! to be sure he had the knack, and understood distilling, For his mother kept a sheebeen shop near the town of Enniskillen.
Tooralloo, tooralloo, etc.--
_Every Day Book_, vol. ii. p. 387.
It is customary early in February for wealthy farmers and landowners in Ireland to brew ale to be kept till the 17th of March, St. Patrick’s Day; and there is a delicious cake made this day, to be eaten with pickled salmon.--_N. & Q. 3rd S._ vol. ix. p. 367.
Some years ago this day was welcomed, in the smaller towns or hamlets, by every possible manifestation of gladness and delight. The inn, if there was one, was thrown open to all comers, who received a certain allowance of oaten bread and fish. This was a benevolence from the host, and to it was added a “Patrick’s pot,” or quantum of beer; but of late years whisky is the beverage most esteemed. The majority of those who sought entertainment at the village inn were young men who had no families, whilst those who had children, and especially whose families were large, made themselves as snug as possible by the turf fire in their own cabins. Where the village or hamlet could not boast of an inn, the largest cabin was sought out, and poles were extended horizontally from one end of the apartment to the other; on these poles, doors purposely unhinged, and brought from the surrounding cabins, were placed, so that a table of considerable dimensions was formed, round which all seated themselves, each one providing his own oaten bread and fish. At the conclusion of the repast they sat for the remainder of the evening over a “Patrick’s pot,” and finally separated quietly.--_Every Day Book_, vol. ii. p. 386.
The following description of St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland is taken from the _Time’s Telescope_ (1827, p. 66): Every one is expected, says the writer, to wear a sprig of shamrock in honour of the saint and his country, and a few pence will supply a family with plenty of this commodity. In the morning upon the breakfast table of the “master” and “the mistress” is placed a plateful of this herb for a memento that it is Patrick’s Day, and they must “drown the shamrock,” a figurative expression for what the servants themselves do at night in glasses of punch, if the heads of the family are so kind as to send down the plate of shamrock crowned with a bottle of whisky, under which is also expected to be found a trifle towards a treat. While the lower circles are, on this blessed of all Irish days, thus enjoying themselves in the evening, the higher are crowding into that room of the castle entitled St. Patrick’s Hall, which is only opened two nights in the year--this, and the birth-night (the 23rd of April); it is a grand ball, to which none can be admitted who have not been presented and attended the Viceroy’s drawing-rooms; and of course every one must appear in court dress, or full uniforms, except that, in charity to the ladies, trains are for that night dispensed with on account of the dancing. A few presentations sometimes take place, after which the ball commences, always with a country dance to the air of “Patrick’s Day,” and after this quadrilles, etc., take their turn.
MARCH 18.] SHEELAH’S DAY.
IRELAND.
The day after St. Patrick’s Day is “Sheelah’s Day,” or the festival in honour of Sheelah. Its observers are not so anxious to determine who “Sheelah” was as they are earnest in her celebration. Some say she was “Patrick’s wife,” others that she was “Patrick’s mother,” while all agree that her immortal memory is to be maintained by potations of whisky. The shamrock worn on St. Patrick’s Day should be worn also on Sheelah’s Day, and on the latter night be drowned in the last glass. Yet it frequently happens that the shamrock is flooded in the last glass of St. Patrick’s Day, and another last glass or two, or more, on the same night deluges the over-soddened trefoil. This is not “quite correct,” but it is endeavoured to be remedied the next morning by the display of a fresh shamrock, which is steeped at night in honour of “Sheelah” with equal devotedness.--_Every Day Book_, vol. ii. p. 387.
MARCH 19.] MAUNDY, OR CHARE THURSDAY.
The day before Good Friday is termed Maundy Thursday, because, says the _British Apollo_ (1709, ii. 7), on this day our Saviour washed his disciples’ feet, to teach them the great duty of being humble; and therefore he gave them a command to do as he had done, to imitate their Master in all proper instances of condescension and humility. The origin, consequently, of this custom is of very great antiquity, and, unlike many other ceremonies connected with the Church before the Reformation, remains in existence in a modified form up to the present day. The original number of poor persons whose feet were washed by the king or queen was thirteen, but this number was afterwards extended so as to correspond with the age of the reigning sovereign.
Matthew Paris mentions Maundy money, and the Benedictional of Archbishop Robert at Rouen, a manuscript of the 10th century, cap. xxix., contains a “Benedictio ad mandatum ipso die” (_Archæologia_, vol. xxiv. p. 119), and Wlnothus, Abbot of St. Alban’s, ordained a daily performance of the mandate. In other houses it was customary to wash the feet of as many poor people as there were monks in the convent, on Holy Thursday, and on Saturday before Palm Sunday: the day of the latter ablution received the name of _mandatum pauperum_, to distinguish it from the _Mandati Dies_. During the ceremony the whole choir chanted the words of Christ, “Mandatum novum do vobis” (“A new commandment I give unto you”). Du Cange quotes from the life of St. Brigida by Chilienus:
“Proxima cœna fuit Domini, qua sancta solebat Mandatum Christi calido complere lavacro.”
(Du Cange, _Gloss._, tom. iv., col. 399.)
Archdeacon Nares, however, apparently following Spelman and Skinner whose opinion is adopted by Junius, in opposition to Minsheu, says that this day is so named from the _maunds_, in which the gifts were contained, and he maintains that _maund_ is a corruption of the Saxon _mand_, a basket.
The glossographer on Matthew Paris explains the word _mandatum_, to be alms, from the Saxon _Mandye_, charity. Somner has no such word in his Dictionary; and it seems more probable that Maunday Thursday has originally been Mandate Thursday; _Mandati Dies_ being the name where the Saxon _mands_ were totally unknown.
Ælfric, Archbishop of Canterbury, having employed the Latin name of this day, Cœna Domini, gives these directions to the Saxon priests: “On Thursday you shall wash the altars before you celebrate mass, otherwise you must not. After vespers you must uncover the altars and let them remain bare until Saturday, washing them in the interior. You shall then fast until nones. _Imple mandata Domini in cœna ipsius._ ‘Do on Thursday as our Lord commands you;’ wash the feet of the poor, feed and clothe them; and, with humility, wash your feet among yourselves as Christ himself did, and commanded us so to do.” On the whole there seems to be no reason to doubt that the name _maundy_ is derived from the mandate obeyed on this day.
The bread given to the poor on Maundy Thursday was named mandate bread, _mandati panes_, in the monasteries; as the coin given was called mandate money.--_Med. Ævi Kalend._ i. 183-185.
One of the earliest instances on record of a monarch observing this custom, and which is the more curious as it shows that the practice of regulating the amount of the dole given on Maundy Thursday by the age of the king was then in existence, is preserved in the “_Rotulus Misæ_, or role of the wardrobe expenses of the 14th year of King John,” in which there appears an item of “fourteen shillings and one penny, for alms to thirteen poor persons, every one of whom received thirteen pence at Rochester, on Thursday, in Cœna Domini” (Holy Thursday), John having then reigned thirteen complete years.
In the wardrobe expenses of Edward I. we find money given on Easter eve to thirteen poor people whose feet the Queen had washed; which latter custom is said to have been performed by the sovereign so late as the reign of James II.--Thoms, _Book of the Court_, 1844, p. 311.
Henry VII. gave, when thirty-eight years old, thirty-eight coins and thirty-eight small purses to as many poor people:
“_March 25._ To thirty-eight poor men in almes, £6 0_s._ 4_d._ For thirty-eight small purses, 1_s._ 8_d._
There are several entries for the Maundy in the “Privy Purse expenses” of this sovereign, as in 1496:
“April 10. For bote hire for the Maundy and the kinges robe, payed by John Flee, 4_s._”
The order of the Maundy, as practised by Queen Elizabeth in 1579 is here given--(from No. 6183, Add. MSS. in the British Museum):
“_Order of the Maunday made, at Greenwich, 19th March 1579, 14 Elizabeth._”
“First.--The hall was prepared with a long table on each side, and formes set by them; on the edges of which tables, and under those formes were lay’d carpets and cushions for her Majestie to kneel when she should wash them. There was also another table set across the upper end of the hall somewhat above the foot pace, for the chappelan to stand at. A little beneath the midst whereof, and beneath the said foot-pace, a stoole and cushion of estate was pitched for her Majestie to kneel at during the service time. This done the holy water, basons, alms, and other things being brought into the hall, and the chappelan and poor folks having taken the said places, the laundresse, armed with a faire towell, and taking a silver-bason filled with warm water and sweet flowers, washed their feet all after one another and wiped the same with his towell, and soe making a crosse a little above the toes kissed them. After hym, within a little while, followed the sub-almoner, doing likewise, and after him the almoner himself also. Then, lastly, her Majestie came into the hall, and after some singing and prayers made, and the gospel of Christ’s washing of his disciples’ feet read, 39 ladyes and gentlewomen (for soe many were the poor folks, according to the number of the yeares complete of her Majesties age), addressed themselves with aprons and towels to waite upon her Majestie; and she, kneeling down upon the cushions and carpets under the feete of the poore women, first washed one foote of every one of them in soe many several basons of warm water and sweete flowers, brought to her severally by the said ladies and gentlewomen; then wiped, crossed, and kissed them, as the almoner and others had done before. When her Majestie had thus gone through the whole number of 39 (of which 20 sat on the one side of the hall, and 19 on the other), she resorted to the first again, and gave to each one certain yardes of broad clothe to make a gowne, so passing to them all. Thirdly; she began at the first, and gave to each of them a pair of gloves. Fourthly; to each of them a wooden platter, wherein was half a side of salmon, as much ling, six red herrings and lofes of cheat bread. Fifthly; she began with the first again, and gave to each of them a white wooden dish with claret wine. Sixthly; she received of each waiting-lady and gentlewoman their towel and apron, and gave to each poor woman one of the same, and after this the ladies and gentlewomen waited no longer, nor served as they had done throughout the courses before. But then the treasurer of the chamber, Mr. Hennage, came to her Majestie with thirty-nine small white purses, wherein were also thirty-nine pence (as they saye) after the number of yeares to her Majestie’s saide age, and of him she received and distributed them severally. Which done she received of him soe many leather purses alsoe, each containing 20_sh._ for the redemption of her Majestie’s gown, which (as men saye) by ancient order she sought to give some of them at her pleasure but she to avoid the trouble of suite, which accustomablie was made for that preferment, had changed that reward into money, to be equally divided amongst them all, namely, 20_sh._ a piece, and she also delivered particularly to the whole company. And so taking her ease upon the cushion of estate and hearing the quire a little while, her Majestie withdrew herself and the companye departed, for it was by that time the sun was setting.”
Charles II. observed this custom, as we find in a letter preserved in the _Rawdon Letters_, p. 175:
“On Thursday last his Majesty washed poor men’s feet in the Banquetting House, an act of humility used by his predecessors on Maundy Thursday to as many poor men as he had lived years. To each poor man he gave two yards of cloth for a coat, three ells of linen for a shirt, shoes, stockings, two purses, the one with thirty-three pence, the other with twenty pence, one jole of ling, one jole of salmon, a quantity of red and white herrings, one barrel with beer, and another with wine, with which they drank his Majesty’s health. The queen did pay the same observance to several women about one of the clock at St. James.”
After these illustrations of the ceremonies formerly observed in the distribution of the royal alms on Maundy Thursday, it becomes interesting to witness those which obtain at the present time.
The following is taken from the _Times_ newspaper (April 6th, 1871):
“Those ancient and royal charities designated the Queen’s Maundy were distributed yesterday in Whitehall Chapel during Divine service with the customary formalities, to fifty-two aged men and fifty-two aged women, the number of each one corresponding with the age of her most gracious Majesty.
At three o’clock a procession, consisting of a detachment of the yeomen of the guard under the command of a sergeant-major (one of the yeomen carrying the royal alms on a gold salver), the Rev. Dr. Jelf, D.D., Sub-Almoner, Mr. Joseph Hanby, Secretary and Yeoman of the Royal Almonry, and his Assistant, Mr. John Hanby, accompanied by senior children from the National Schools in the parish of St. John the Evangelist and St. Margaret, Westminster, who had been selected to
## participate in this privilege for their good conduct, proceeded from the
Almonry office, in Scotland Yard, to the Chapel Royal, Whitehall.
The arrival of the procession having been signified to the Hon. and Very Rev. the Dean of Windsor, Lord High Almoner, and to the Sub-Dean of the Chapels Royal, they, preceded by Mr. Chapman, Sergeant of the Vestry, met it at the entrance, and took their places immediately after the yeoman of the guard bearing the salver with the royal alms.
The whole procession then advanced in the following order:
Boys of the Chapel Royal,
Gentlemen of the Chapel Royal,
Priests of the Chapel Royal,
Sergeant-Major of the Yeoman of the Guard,
The Yeoman with the Salver of Alms,
The Sergeant of the Vestry,
The Lord High Almoner,
The Sub-Almoner and Sub-Dean,
The Children of the National Schools,
The Yeoman of the Almonry and his Assistant,
And the Yeomen of the Guard.
The procession having passed up the centre aisle to the steps of the altar, the Lord Almoner, the Sub-Almoner, and the Sub-Dean, and those forming the procession having taken their assigned places on either side of the chapel, the royal alms being deposited in front of the royal closet, the afternoon service (a special service for the occasion) was read by the Rev. Dr. Vivian, senior priest in waiting, commencing with the Exhortation, Confession, Absolution, &c. Then followed the
41ST PSALM (THE GRAND CHANT).
FIRST LESSON, ST. MATTHEW, CHAP. xxv. 14-31.
_First Anthem_ (Psalm xxxiv.)--“O taste and see how gracious the Lord is.”
Goss.
£1. 15_s._ distributed to each woman. To each man, shoes and stockings.
_Second Anthem._--“O Saviour of the world.”
Goss.
Woollen and linen clothes distributed to each man.
_Third Anthem.-_--“I waited for the Lord.”
Mendelssohn.
Money purses distributed to each man and woman.
SECOND LESSON, ST. MATTHEW, CHAP. xxv. v. 31, to the end.
_Fourth Anthem_ (Psalm xxi.)--“The king shall rejoice in thy strength.”
Greene.
Then were read two prayers composed for the occasion, after which followed the prayer for the Queen, and so on to the end.”
The minor bounty and royal gate alms, &c., were, in accordance with ancient usage, distributed at the Almonry Office, in Scotland Yard, on Friday and Saturday in the past week, and on Monday and Tuesday during the current week, to aged, disabled, and meritorious persons who had been previously recommended by the clergy of the various parishes in and round London.
There were over four thousand persons relieved.
The selections were made by the Lord High Almoner, assisted by the Rev. Dr. Jelf, D.D. The payments were conducted by Mr. Joseph Hanby, secretary and yeoman of Her Majesty’s Almonry in ordinary, who has officiated on these occasions since Easter, 1812, inclusive.--See also the _True Briton_, 1801.
In Nares’ _Glossary_ (1859, vol. i. p. 151) occurs the following article:
“_Chare Thursday._--The Thursday in Passion week, corrupted, according to the following ancient explanation, from _Shear Thursday_, being the day for shearing, or shaving, preparatory to Easter. Called also Maundy Thursday:
“‘Upon _Chare Thursday_ Christ brake bread unto his disciples, and bade them eat it, saying it was his flesh and blood.’--Shepherd’s _Kalendar_.
“‘If a man asks why _Shere Thursday_ is called so, ye may say that in holy Chirche it is called _Cena Domini_, our Lordes Super day. It is also in Englyshe called _Sher Thursday_, for in old faders dayes the people wolde that day shere theyr hedes, and clippe theyr berdes, and poll theyr hedes, and so make them honest agenst Ester day. For on Good Fryday they doo theyr bodyes none ease, but suffre penaunce in mynde of him that that day suffred his passyon for all mankynde. On Ester even it is time to here theyr service, and after service to make holy daye.
“‘Then, as Johan Bellet sayth, on _Sher Thursday_ a man sholde so poll his here, and clype his berde, and a preest sholde shave his crowne, so that there sholde nothynge be between God and hym.’”--Festival, quoted by Dr. Wordsworth, in _Eccles. Biog._ vol. i. p. 297.
In Brand’s _Pop. Antiq._ (revised by Sir Henry Ellis), London, 1841, in the chapter headed “Shere Thursday, also Maundy Thursday,” the same derivation is given; and in one of the notes, a passage is quoted from the _Gent. Mag._ (July 1779, p. 349), in which the writer says:
“Maundy Thursday, called by Collier _Shier Thursday_, Cotgrave calls by a word of the same sound and import, _Sheere Thursday_. Perhaps--for I can only go upon conjecture--as _shear_ means _purus_, _mundus_, it may allude to the washing of the disciples’ feet (John xiii. 5., _et seq._), and be tantamount to clean. See 10th verse, and Lye’s _Saxon Dictionary v. Scip_. If this does not please, the Saxon _scipan_ signifies _dividere_, and the name may come from the distribution of alms upon that day, for which see _Archæol. Soc. Antiq._, vol. i. p. 7, _seq._; Spelman, _Gloss._ _v._ Mandatum; and Du Fresne, vol. iv. p. 400. Please to observe, too, that on that day _they also washed the altars_, so that the term in question may allude to that business.--See Collier’s _Eccles. History_, vol. ii. p. 157.”
_Chare Thursday_, however, says Dr. Hahn (_N. & Q. 3rd S._ vol. viii. p. 389), is the correct expression, and has nothing whatever to do with _shearing_ or _sheer_, or _scipan_. _Shere_ is only a corruption of chare = char, care, or carr.
In Germany Passion Week is called _Charwoche_, and Good Friday _Charfreitag_. But in former times _Char_ was prefixed to every day of Passion Week, and we find _Charmontag_ (Chare Monday), _Chardienstag_ (Chare Tuesday), &c. The origin of Chare Thursday is therefore evident. _Char_ is an old German word signifying _luctus_, _solicitudo_; Goth. _kar_, _kara_; Old Saxon _cara_; O.-H.-G. _chara_; Anglo-Saxon _cearu_, _caru_, allied to Latin _cura_, &c.[27]
[27] See Care Sunday, p. 121.
The original signification _chare_ having become obsolete, a word of similar sound was substituted in its place, and hence _Shere Thursday_.
MIDDLESEX.
Robert Halliday, by his will, dated 6th May, 1491, gave estates in the parish of St. Leonard, Eastcheap, London, the rents to be applied to various purposes, and, amongst others, five shillings to the churchwardens yearly, either to make an entertainment among such persons of the said parish of St. Clement, who should be at variance with each other, in the week preceding Easter, to induce such persons to beget brotherly love amongst them; or if none should be found in the said parish, then to make an entertainment with the said five shillings, at the tavern, amongst the honest parishioners of the said parish on the day of our Lord’s Supper, commonly called Shere Thursday, that they might pray more fervently for the souls of certain persons named in his will.--Edwards, _Old English Customs and Charities_, 1842, p. 146.
By indenture, bearing date 11th April, 1691, John Hall, granted a messuage, in the parish of St. Martin Ongar, to Francis Kenton and another, in trust to pay out of the rents thereof, amongst other sums, ten shillings a year, to the churchwardens of the parish of St. Clement, Eastcheap, London, on the Thursday next before Easter, to provide two turkeys for the parishioners, to be eaten at their annual feast, called the reconciling or love feast, usually made on that day. The house is in the possession of the Weavers’ Company, who make the payment for the turkeys annually.--_Ibid._ p. 60.
NORTHUMBERLAND.
The Thursday before Easter is called Bloody Thursday by some of the inhabitants of this and the neighbouring county of Yorkshire.--_N. & Q. 1st S._ vol. x. p. 87; _4th S._ vol. v. p. 595.
MARCH 20.] GOOD FRIDAY.
The term Good Friday is erroneously said to be peculiar to the English Church; but it is certainly an adoption of the old German _Gute Freytag_, which may have been a corruption of _Gottes Freytag_, God’s Friday, so called on the same principle that Easter Day in England was at one period denominated God’s Day.
In a manuscript homily, entitled _Exortacio in die Pasche_, written about the reign of Edward IV., we are told that the Paschal Day “in some place is callede Esterne Day, and in sum place Goddes Day.”--Harl. MSS. Cod. id. fol. 94.
Another MS. quoted by Strutt (_Horda Angel-Cynna_, vol. iii. p. 175) says it is called Good Friday, because on this day good men were reconciled to God. The length of the services in ancient times on this day, occasioned it to be called Long Friday, the ~Lang Frigdæg~ of the Anglo-Saxons, which they probably received from the Danes, by whom at the present time the day is denominated _Lang Freday_.--_Med. Ævi Kalend._ 1841, vol. i. p. 186.
The old ceremony of Creeping to the Cross on Good Friday is given from an ancient book of the ceremonial of the Kings of England, in the _Notes to the Northumberland Household Book_. The usher was to lay a carpet for the king to “creepe to the Crosse upon.” The Queen and her ladies were also to creepe to the Crosse.
In an original Proclamation, black letter, dated 26th February, 30th Henry VIII., in the first volume of a _Collection of Proclamations_ in the archives of the Society of Antiquaries of London (p. 138), we read:
“On Good Friday it shall be declared howe creepyng of the Crosse signifyeth an humblynge of ourselfe to Christe before the Crosse, and the kyssynge of it a memorie of our redemption made upon the Crosse.”
Anciently it was a custom with the kings of England on Good Friday to hallow, with great ceremony, certain rings, the wearing of which was believed to prevent the falling sickness. The custom originated from a ring, long preserved with great veneration in Westminster Abbey, which was reported to have been brought to King Edward by some persons coming from Jerusalem, and which he himself had long before given privately to a poor person, who had asked alms of him for the love he bare to St. John the Evangelist. The rings consecrated by the sovereign were called “Cramp-rings,” and there was a special service for their consecration.
Andrew Boorde, in his _Breviary of Health_, 1557, speaking of the cramp, says, “The Kynge’s Majestie hath a great helpe in this matter in halowyng crampe-ringes, and so geven without money or petition.”
Good Friday has now almost ceased to be considered a fast by a great number of people. By many indeed its solemn significance is by no means neglected; but while these attend the churches others make high holiday. On this day excursion trains begin running, foot-races are advertised, donkeys and gipsy drivers make their first appearance for the season on heaths and commons, and Cornish and Devonshire wrestlers struggle for muscular triumphs in the presence of excited multitudes.--_N. & Q. 5th S._ vol. i. p. 261.
In many parts a small loaf of bread is baked on the morning of Good Friday, and then put by till the same anniversary in the ensuing year. This bread is not intended to be eaten, but to be used as a medicine, and the mode of administering it is by grating a small portion of it into water and forming a sort of panada. It is believed to be good for many disorders, but particularly for diarrhœa, for which it is considered a sovereign remedy. Some years ago, a cottager lamented that her poor neighbour must certainly die of this complaint, because she had already given her two doses of Good Friday bread without any benefit.--Brand, _Pop. Antiq._ 1849, vol. i. p. 155; see _N. & Q. 3rd S._ vol. iii. pp. 262, 263; see also p. 157.
In London, and all over England (not, however, in Scotland), the morning of Good Friday is ushered in with a universal cry of _Hot cross buns!_ A parcel of them appears on every breakfast-table. It is rather a small bun, more than usually spiced, and having its brown sugary surface marked with a cross. The ear of every person who has ever dwelt in England is familar with the cry of the street bun-vendors:
“One a penny, buns, Two a penny, buns, One a penny, two a penny, Hot Cross buns!”
_Book of Days_, vol. i. p. 418.
The following lines are taken from _Poor Robin’s Almanac_ for 1733:
“Good Friday comes this month, the old woman runs With one or two a penny _hot cross buns_, Whose virtue is, if you believe what’s said, They’ll not grow mouldy like the common bread.”
It seems more than probable that the cross upon the Good Friday bun is intended to remind the devout of a Saviour’s sufferings. The following extract in illustration of the ancient name and use of the bun is from Bryant’s _Analysis of Ancient Mythology_, 1807, vol. i. pp. 371-373: “The offerings which people in ancient times used to present to the gods were generally purchased at the entrance of the Temple, especially every species of consecrated bread, which was denominated accordingly. One species of sacred bread which used to be offered to the gods was of great antiquity, and called _Boun_. Hesychius speaks of the _Boun_, and describes it as a ‘kind of cake with a representation of two horns.’” Julius Pollux mentions it after the same manner, “a sort of cake with horns.” It must be observed, however, as Dr. Jamieson remarks, that the term occurs in Hesychius in the form of βους, and that for the support of the etymon Bryant finds it necessary to state that “the Greeks, who changed the nu final into a sigma, expressed it in the nominative βους, but in the accusative more truly βουν.” Winckelman relates this remarkable fact, that at Herculaneum were found two entire loaves of the same size, a palm and a half, or five inches in diameter; they were marked by a _cross_, within which were four other lines, and so the bread of the Greeks was marked from the earliest period.--_Med. Ævi Kalend._ vol. i. p. 187.
The Romans divided their sacred cakes with lines intersecting each other in the centre at right angles, and called the quarters _Quadra_.
“Et violare manu malisque audacibus orbem Fatalis crusti, patulis nec parcere quadris.”
Virg. _Æn._ lib. vii. 114, 115.
“Nec te liba juvant, nec sectæ quadra placentæ.”
Mart. lib. iii. _Epig._ 77.
In the North of England a herb-pudding, in which the leaves of the _passion-dock_ (_Polygonum Bistorta_) are a principal ingredient, is an indispensable dish on this day. The custom is of ancient date, and it is not improbable that this plant, and the pudding chiefly composed of it, were intended to excite a grateful reminiscence of the Passion, with a suitable acknowledgment of the inestimable blessings of the Redemption.--Brand, _Pop. Antiq._ 1849, vol. i. p. 150.
BEDFORDSHIRE.
A yearly contribution is made of one quarter of wheat, one quarter of barley, and one quarter of beans, by the proprietor of the great tithes of the parish of Eaton Bray, to be distributed among the poor of the parish on Good Friday. The great tithes of Eaton Bray are vested in the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge, by whose lessee the quantity of grain above specified is regularly supplied; the whole of which is distributed on Good Friday by the churchwardens and overseers, among poor persons selected by them, in proportion to their several wants and necessities.--_Old English Customs and Charities_, p. 33.
BERKSHIRE.
John Blagrave, by will dated 30th June, 1611, devised to Joseph Blagrave and his heirs a mansion-house in Swallowfield, and all his lands and messuages in Swallowfield, Eversley, and Reading, on condition that they should yearly, for ever, upon Good Friday, between the hours of six and nine in the morning, pay 10_l._, in a new purse of leather, to the mayor and burgesses, to the intent that they should provide that the same should yearly be bestowed in the forenoon of the same day in the following manner, viz., twenty nobles to one poor maiden servant who should have served, dwelt, and continued in any one service within any of the three parishes of Reading, in good name and fame, five years at the least, for her preferment in marriage; and to avoid partiality in the choice, he ordered that there should be every Good Friday three such maidens in election, to cast and try by lot whose the fortune should be, and that of those three one should be taken out of each parish, if it could be, and that every fifth year one of the three should be chosen from Southcote, if any there should have lived so long; and that there should be special choice of such maids as had served longest in any one place, and whose friends were of least ability to help them. That ten shillings should be given on the same day to the preacher of St. Laurence for a sermon; and that afterwards there should be twenty shillings given to threescore of the poorest householders of the same parish who should accompany the maiden to whom the lot had fallen home to her dwelling-place, and there leave her with her purse of twenty nobles. That the ringer should have three shillings and fourpence to ring a peal till the same maiden reached home.--_Old English Customs and Charities_, p. 147.
DEVONSHIRE--DORSETSHIRE.
In some parishes in these counties the clerk carries round to every house a few white cakes as an Easter offering; these cakes, which are about the eighth of an inch thick, and of two sizes--the larger being seven or eight inches, the smaller about five in diameter--have a mingled bitter and sweet taste. In return for these cakes, which are always distributed after Divine service on Good Friday, the clerk receives a gratuity according to the circumstances or generosity of the householder.--_Book of Days_, vol. i. p. 426.
ESSEX.
In the centre of Waltham Church, and suspended from the ceiling, there formerly was a large and handsome brass chandelier, which had thirty-six candles, and used to be lighted up only on the evening of Good Friday, when the church was thronged with persons from the surrounding parishes for miles, who were chiefly attracted by the singing of the parish choir, at that time deservedly in repute. The chandelier was removed in effecting the restoration of the church.--Maynard, _History of Waltham Abbey_, 1865, p. 40.
LANCASHIRE.
The practice of eating fig-sue is prevalent in North Lancashire on Good Friday. It is a mixture consisting of ale, sliced figs, bread, and nutmeg for seasoning, boiled together, and eaten hot like soup.--_N. & Q. 3rd S._ vol. p. 221.
If an unlucky fellow is caught with his lady-love on this day in Lancashire, he is followed home by a band of musicians playing on pokers, tongs, pan-lids, etc., unless he can get rid of his tormentors by giving them money to drink with.--_N. & Q. 1st S._ vol. ii. p. 516.
In some places in this county, Good Friday is termed “Cracklin Friday,” as on that day it is customary for children to go with a small basket to different houses, to beg small wheaten cakes, which are something like the Jews’ Passover bread, but made shorter or richer, by having butter or lard mixed with the flour. “Take with thee loaves and cracknels” (1 Kings, xiv. 3).--Harland and Wilkinson, _Lancashire Folk-Lore_, 1867, p. 227.
LINCOLNSHIRE.
In Glentham Church there is a tomb with a figure known as _Molly Grime_. Formerly this figure was regularly washed every Good Friday by seven old maids of Glentham, with water brought from Newell Well, each receiving a shilling for her trouble, in consequence of an old bequest connected with some property in that district. About 1832 the custom was discontinued.--_Old English Customs and Charities_, 1842, p. 100.
ISLE OF MAN.
Good Friday is in some instances superstitiously regarded in the Isle of Man. No iron of any kind must be put into the fire on that day, and even the tongs are laid aside, lest any person should unfortunately forget this custom and stir the fire with them; by way of a substitute a stick of the rowan tree is used. To avoid also the necessity of hanging the griddle over the fire, lest the iron of it should come in contact with a spark of flame, a large hammock or _soddog_ is made, with three corners, and baked on the hearth.--Train, _History of the Isle of Man_, 1845, vol. 2, p. 117.
MIDDLESEX.
It was for a considerable period customary on Good Friday for a sermon to be preached in the afternoon at St. Paul’s Cross,[28] London, the subject generally being Christ’s Passion. The Lord Mayor and Aldermen usually attended.
[28] Respecting the age of St. Paul’s Cross, Stow declares himself ignorant. Dugdale, however, records, on the authority of Ingulphus, that its prototype, a cross of stone, was erected on the same spot, A.D. 870, to induce the passers-by to offer prayers for certain monks slain by the Danes. St. Paul’s Cross consisted of some steps, on which was formed a wooden pulpit, covered with lead, whence sermons were preached to the people every Sunday morning. It was not, however, specially reserved for this purpose; since from this place, at times, the anathema of the Pope was thundered forth, or the ordinances of the reigning king were published, heresies were recanted, and sins atoned for by penance.
So early as 1256, we find John Mancell calling a meeting at _Powly’s Crosse_, and showing the people that it was the king’s desire that they should be “rulyd with justyce, and that the libertyes of the cytie shulde be maynteyned in every poynt.” In 1299 the Dean of St. Paul’s proclaimed from the Cross that all persons who searched for treasure in the church of St. Martin-le-Grand, or consented to the searching, were accursed; and it was here that Jane Shore, with a taper in one hand, and arrayed in her ‘kyrtell onelye,’ was exposed to open penance. After 1633, sermons were no longer preached at the Cross, but within the cathedral; and in 1643 it was altogether taken down.--Godwin and Britton, _Churches of London_, 1839; Pennant, _Account of London_, 1793; Brayley, _Londiniana_, 1829.
At the church of All Hallows, Lombard Street, a sermon is preached every Good Friday in accordance with the directions of the will of Peter Symonds, dated 1587. Gifts, also, are distributed, consisting of a new penny and a packet of raisins, to a certain number of the younger scholars of Christ’s Hospital.--_City Press_, April 12th, 1873.[29]
[29] Under the same will the children of Langbourn Ward Schools who help in the choir, and the children of the Sunday School, receive each a bun, and various sums of new money, ranging from 1_d._ to 1_s._, besides the poor of the parish, on whom it bestowed 1_s._ each and a loaf. The money used to be given away over the tomb of the donor, until the railway in Liverpool Street effaced the spot.--_City Press_, April 12, 1873.
Just outside the church of St. Bartholomew-the-Great, Smithfield, the rector places twenty-one sixpences on a gravestone, which the same number of poor widows pick up. The custom is nearly as old as the church, and originated in the will of a lady, who left a sum of money to pay for the sermon, and to yield these sixpences to be distributed over her grave. As however, her will is lost, and her tomb gone, the traditionary spot of her interment is chosen for the distribution, a strange part of the tradition being that any one being too stiff in the joints to pick up the money is not to receive it.--_Ibid._
On Good Friday the Portuguese and South American vessels in the London Docks observe their annual custom of flogging Judas Iscariot. The following extract is taken from the _Times_ (April 5th, 1874):--“At daybreak a block of wood, roughly carved to imitate the Betrayer, and clothed in an ordinary sailor’s suit, with a red worsted cap on its head, was hoisted by a rope round its neck into the fore-rigging; the crews of the various vessels then went to chapel, and on their return, about 11 a.m., the figure was lowered from the rigging, and cast into the dock, and ducked three times. It was then hoisted on board, and after being kicked round the deck was lashed to the capstan. The crew, who had worked themselves into a state of frantic excitement, then with knotted ropes lashed the effigy till every vestige of clothing had been cut to tatters. During this process the ship’s bell kept up an incessant clang, and the captains of the ships served out grog to the men. Those not engaged in the flogging kept up a sort of rude chant intermixed with denunciations of the Betrayer. The ceremony ended with the burning of the effigy amid the jeers of the crowd.”
There is an indorsement on one of the indentures of gift to the parish of Hampstead stating that £40 had been given by a maid, deceased, to the intent that the churchwardens for the time being should provide and give to every one--rich and poor, great and small, young and old persons--inhabiting the parish, upon every Good Friday yearly for ever, one halfpenny loaf of wheaten bread.--_Old English Customs and Charities_, p. 16.
OXFORDSHIRE.
Formerly, at Brazen-nose College, Oxford, the scholars had almonds, raisins, and figs for dinner on Good Friday, as appears by a receipt of thirty shillings, paid by the butler of the College, for “eleven pounds of almonds, thirty-five pounds of raisins, and thirteen pounds of figs, serv’d into Brazen-nose College, March 28th, 1662.”--Pointer’s _Oxoniensis Academia_, 1749, p. 71.
SURREY.
A custom, the origin of which is lost in the obscurity of time, prevails in the neighbourhood of Guildford of making a pilgrimage to St. Martha’s (or Martyr’s) Hill on Good Friday. Thither from all the country side youths and maidens, old folks and children, betake themselves, and gathered together on one of the most beautiful spots in Surrey, in full sight of an old Norman Church which crowns the green summit of the hill, beguile the time with music and dancing. Whatever the origin of this pilgrimage to St. Martha’s, it is apparently one that commends itself to the taste of the present generation, and is not likely to die out with the lapse of years, but to increase in popular estimation as long as the green hill lasts to attract the worshippers of natural beauty, or to furnish the mere votaries of pleasure with the excuse and the opportunity for a pleasant holiday.--_Times_, April 18th, 1870.
SUSSEX.
At Brighton, on this day, the children in the back streets bring up ropes from the beach. One stands on the pavement on one side, and one on the other, while one skips in the middle of the street. Sometimes a pair (a boy and a girl) skip together, and sometimes a great fat bathing-woman will take her place, and skip as merrily as the grandsire danced in Goldsmith’s _Traveller_. They call the day “Long Rope Day.” This was done as lately as 1863.--_N. & Q. 3rd S._ vol. iii. p. 444.
WORCESTERSHIRE.
The parish church at Leigh is decked on this day with “funereal yew.” The same custom exists also at Belbroughton in the same county.--_N. & Q. 2nd S._ vol. i. p. 267.
YORKSHIRE.
In East Yorkshire it was customary to keep a hot-cross-bun from one Good Friday to the next, as it was reputed not to turn mouldy, and to protect the house from fire. Presents of eggs and buns are made on this day.--_N. & Q. 4th S._ vol. v. p. 595.
WALES.
At Tenby, as late as the end of the last century, the old people were in the habit of walking barefooted to the church--a custom continued from times prior to the Reformation. Returning home from church they regaled themselves with hot-cross-buns, and having tied a certain number in a bag, they hung them up in the kitchen, where they remained till the next Good Friday for medicinal purposes, the belief being that persons labouring under any disease had only to eat of a bun to be cured.
About this time many young persons would meet together to “make Christ’s bed.” This was done by gathering a quantity of long reed-leaves from the river, and weaving them into the shape of a man; they then laid the figure on a wooden cross in a retired part of a field or garden, where they left it. This custom is perhaps derived from an old popular popish custom of burying an image of Christ on Good Friday, which is described in Barnabe Googe’s translation of _Nao-Georgus_:
“Another image do they get, like one but newly deade, With legges stretcht out at length, and hands upon his body spreade: And him with pomp and sacred song they beare unto his grave.”
--Mason, _Tales and Traditions of Tenby_, 1858, p. 19.
IRELAND.
In the midland districts of Ireland, viz., the province of Connaught, on Good Friday, it is a common practice with the lower orders of Irish Catholics to prevent their children having any sustenance, even to those at the breast, from twelve o’clock on the previous night to the same hour on Friday, and the fathers and mothers will only take a small piece of dry bread and a draught of water during the day. It is a common sight to see along the roads between the different market towns, numbers of women with their hair dishevelled, barefooted, and in their worst garments: all this is in imitation of Christ’s Passion.--_Every Day Book_, vol. ii. p. 411.
MARCH 21.] EASTER EVE.
On Easter Eve it was customary in our own country to light in the churches what was called the Paschal Taper. In Coates’s _History of Reading_ (1802, p. 131) is the following extract from the Churchwarden’s accounts: “Paid for makynge of the Paschall and the Funte Taper, 5_s._ 8_d._” A note on this observes, “The Pascal taper was usually very large. In 1557 the Pascal taper for the Abbey Church of Westminster was 300 pounds weight.”--Brand, _Pop. Antiq._, 1849, vol. i. p. 158.
On the eves of Easter and Whitsunday _Font-hallowing_ was one of the very many ceremonies in early times. The writer of a MS. volume of Homilies in the Harleian Library, No. 2371, says, “in the begynning of holy chirch, all the children weren kept to be chrystened on thys even, at the font-hallowyng; but now, for enchesone that in so long abydynge they might dye without chrystendome, therefore holi chirch ordeyneth to chrysten in all tymes of the yeare, save eyght dayes before these evenys the chylde shalle abyde till the font-hallowing, if it may safely for perill of death, and ells not.”
CUMBERLAND, ETC.
In Cumberland and Westmoreland, and other parts of the north of England, boys beg, on Easter Eve, eggs to play with, and beggars ask for them to eat. These eggs are hardened by boiling, and tinged with the juice of herbs, broom-flowers, &c. The eggs being thus prepared, the boys go out and play with them in the fields; rolling them up and down like bowls upon the ground, or throwing them up like balls into the air.--Brand, _Pop. Antiq._ 1849, vol. i. p. 172.
DORSETSHIRE.
During the last century it was customary in this county, on Easter Eve, for the boys to form a procession bearing rough torches, and a small black flag, chanting the following lines:
“We fasted in the light, For this is the night.”
This custom was no doubt a relic of the Popish ceremony formerly in vogue at this season.--Brand, _Pop. Antiq._, 1849, vol. i. p. 160.
MIDDLESEX.
Brayley in his _Londiniana_ (1829, vol. ii. p. 207) mentions a custom of the sheriffs, attended by the Lord Mayor, going through the streets on Easter Eve, to collect charity for the prisoners in the city prisons.
YORKSHIRE.
In East Yorkshire young folks go to the nearest market-town to buy some small article of dress or personal ornament, to wear for the first time on Easter Sunday, as otherwise they believe that birds--notably rooks or “crakes”--will spoil their clothes.--_N. & Q. 4th S._ vol. v. p. 595.
In allusion to the custom of wearing new clothes on Easter Day Poor Robin says:
“At Easter let your clothes be new, Or else be sure you will it rue.”
IRELAND.
The day before Easter Day is in some parts called “Holy Saturday.” On the evening of this day, in the middle parts of Ireland, great preparations are made for the finishing of Lent. Many a fat hen and dainty piece of bacon is put into the pot, by the cotter’s wife, about eight or nine o’clock, and woe be to the person who should taste it before the cock crows. At twelve is heard the clapping of hands, and the joyous laugh, mixed with an Irish phrase which signifies “out with the Lent.” All is merriment for a few hours, when they retire, and rise about four o’clock to see the sun dance in honour of the Resurrection. This ignorant custom is not confined to the humble labourer and his family, but is scrupulously observed by many highly respectable and wealthy families.--Brand, _Pop. Antiq._ 1849, vol. i. p. 161.
MARCH 22.] EASTER DAY.
Easter, the anniversary of our Lord’s Resurrection from the dead, is one of the three great festivals of the Christian year--the other two being Christmas and Whitsuntide. From the earliest period of Christianity down to the present day, it has always been celebrated by believers with the greatest joy, and accounted the queen of festivals. In primitive times it was usual for Christians to salute each other on the morning of this day by exclaiming, ‘Christ is risen;’ to which the person saluted replied, ‘Christ is risen indeed,’ or else, ‘And hath appeared unto Simon’--a custom still retained in the Greek Church.
The term _Easter_ is derived, as some suppose, from _Eostre_,[30] the name of a Saxon deity, whose feast was celebrated every year in the spring, about the same time as the Christian festival--the name being retained when the character of the feast was changed, or, as others suppose, from _Oster_, which signifies rising. If the latter supposition be correct, Easter is in name, as well as reality, the feast of the Resurrection.--_Book of Days_, vol. i. p. 423; _see Med. Ævi Kalend._ vol. ii. p. 100.
[30] _Eostre_ is perhaps a corruption of Astarte, the name under which the Assyrians, Babylonians, Phœnicians, and the most ancient nations of the east worshipped the moon, in like manner as they adored the sun, under the name of Baal.
In former times it was customary to make presents of gloves at Easter. In Bishop Hall’s _Virgidemarium_, 1598, iv. 5, allusion is made to this custom.
“For Easter gloves, or for a Shrovetide hen, Which bought to give, he takes to sell again.”
It was an old custom for the barbers to come and shave the parishioners in the churchyard on Sundays and high festivals (at Easter, etc.,) before matins, which liberty was retained by a particular inhibition of Richard Flemmyng, Bishop of Lincoln, A.D. 1422.--_Time’s Telescope_, 1826, p. 73.
Allusion is made by Mr. Fosbroke (_British Monachism_, 1843, p. 56) to a custom in the thirteenth century of seizing all ecclesiastics who walked abroad between Easter and Pentecost, because the Apostles were seized by the Jews after Christ’s Passion, and making them purchase their liberty by money.
The custom of eating a “_gammon at Easter_,” says Aubrey (which is still kept up in many parts of England), was founded on this, viz., to show their abhorrence of Judaism at that solemn commemoration of our Lord’s Resurrection. Of late years the practice of decorating churches with flowers on this festival has been much revived.
CORNWALL.
A very singular custom prevailed at Lostwithiel on Easter Sunday. The freeholders of the town and manor having assembled together, either in person or by their deputies, one among them, each in his turn, gaily attired and gallantly mounted, with a sceptre in his hand, a crown on his head, and a sword borne before him, and respectfully attended by all the rest on horseback, rode through the principal street in solemn state to the church. At the churchyard stile the curate, or other minister, approached to meet him in reverential pomp, and then conducted him to church to hear divine service. On leaving the church he repaired, with the same pomp and retinue, to a house previously prepared for his reception. Here a feast, suited to the dignity he had assumed, awaited him and his suite, and being placed at the head of the table, he was served, kneeling, with all the rites and ceremonies that a real prince might expect. The ceremony ended with a dinner; the prince being voluntarily disrobed, and descending from his momentary exaltation to mix with common mortals. On the origin of this custom but one opinion can be reasonably entertained, though it may be difficult to trace the precise period of its commencement. It seems to have originated in the actual appearance of the prince, who resided at Restormel Castle in former ages; but on the removal of royalty this mimic grandeur stepped forth as its shadowy representative, and continued for many generations as a memorial to posterity of the princely magnificence with which Lostwithiel had formerly been honoured.--Hitchins, _History of Cornwall_, 1824, vol. i. p. 717.
CUMBERLAND.
At one time it was customary to send reciprocal presents of eggs at Easter to the children of families respectively betwixt whom any intimacy existed. For some weeks preceding Good Friday the price of eggs advanced considerably, from the great demand occasioned by this custom.
The principal modes adopted to prepare the eggs for presentation were the following:--The eggs being immersed in hot water for a few moments, the end of a common tallow-candle was made use of to inscribe the names of individuals, dates of particular events, &c. The warmth of the eggs rendered this a very easy process. Thus inscribed, the egg was placed in a pan of hot water, saturated with cochineal, or other dye-woods; the part over which the tallow had been passed was impervious to the operation of the dye; and, consequently, when the egg was removed from the pan, there appeared no discoloration of the egg where the inscription had been traced, but the egg presented a white inscription on a coloured ground. The colour of course depended upon the taste of the person who prepared the egg; but usually much variety of colour was made use of.
Another method of ornamenting “pace eggs” was, however, much neater, although more laborious than that with the tallow candle. The egg being dyed, it was decorated, by means of a penknife, with which the dye was scraped off, leaving the design white on a coloured ground. An egg was frequently divided into compartments, which were filled up according to the taste and skill of the designer. Generally, one compartment contained the name and also the age of the party for whom the egg was intended. In another there was perhaps a landscape, and sometimes a cupid was found lurking in a third; so that these “pace eggs” became very useful auxiliaries to the missives of St. Valentine.--_Every Day Book_, vol. i. p. 426.
The words pays, _pas_, _pace_, _pase_, _pasce_, _pask_, _pasch_, _passhe_, formerly used in this county, and still used in the north, are clearly derived from the Hebrew through the Greek πασχα. The Danish _Paaske-egg_, and the Swedish _Paskegg_, both likewise signify coloured eggs. Brand considers this custom a relic of ancient Catholicism, the egg being emblematic of the Resurrection; but it is not improbable that it is in its origin like many other ancient popular customs, totally unconnected with any form of Christianity, and that it had its commencement in the time of heathenism.
The egg was a symbol of the world, and ancient temples in consequence sometimes received an oval form. This typification is found in almost every oriental cosmogony. The sacred symbol is still used in the rites of the Beltein, which are, unquestionably of heathen origin, and eggs are presented about the period of Easter in many countries. “Easter,” says a recent tourist, “is another season for the interchange of civilities when, instead of the coloured egg in other parts of Germany, and which is there merely a toy for children, the Vienna Easter egg is composed of silver, mother-of-pearl, bronze, or some other expensive material, and filled with jewels, trinkets, or ducats.--(_Sketches of Germany and the Germans in 1834, 1835, and 1836_, vol. ii. p. 162; _Med. Ævi Kalend._ vol. i. p. 202.) This latter custom has lately become very popular in London.
John Troutbeck, by will, October 27th, 1787, gave to the poor of Dacre, the place of his nativity, 200_l._ the interest thereof to be distributed every Easter Sunday on the family tombstone in Dacre churchyard, provided the day should be fine, by the hands and at the discretion of a Troutbeck of Blencowe, if there should be any living, those next in descent having prior right of distribution; and if none should be living that would distribute the same, then by a Troutbeck, as long as one could be found that would take the trouble of it; otherwise by the ministers and churchwardens of the parish for the time being; that not less than five shillings should be given to any individual, and that none should be considered entitled to it that received alms, or any support from the parish.--_Old English Customs and Charities_, p. 115.
DERBYSHIRE.
On Easter Sunday the old custom of sugar-cupping at the dripping-torr, near Tideswell, is observed; when the young people assemble at the torr, each provided with a cup and a small quantity of sugar or honey, and having caught the required quantity of water, and mixed the sugar with it, drink it, repeating a doggerel verse.[31]--_Jour. of the Arch. Assoc._ 1852, vol. vii. p. 204.
[31] It is also a general belief in this county that unless a person puts on some new article of dress he will be injured by the birds, and have no good fortune that year--_Ibid._ p. 205; see also p. 160.
KENT.
Hasted, in his _History of Kent_ (1798, vol. vii. p. 138), states that, in the parish of Biddenden there is an endowment of old but unknown date for making a distribution of cakes among the poor every Easter Day in the afternoon. The source of the benefaction consists in twenty acres of land, in five parcels, commonly called the Bread and Cheese Lands. Practically, in Mr. Hasted’s time, six hundred cakes were thus disposed of, being given to persons who attended service, while two hundred and seventy loaves of three and a half pounds weight each, with a pound and a half of cheese, were given in addition to such as were parishioners.
The cakes distributed on this occasion were impressed with the figures of two females side by side, and close together.[32] Amongst the country people it was believed that these figures represented two maidens named Preston, who had left the endowments; and they further alleged that the ladies were twins, who were born in bodily union, that is, joined side to side, as represented on the cakes; who lived nearly thirty years in this connection, when at length one of them died, necessarily causing the death of the other in a few hours. It is thought by the Biddenden people that the figures on the cakes are meant as a memorial of this natural prodigy, as well as of the charitable disposition of the two ladies. Mr. Hasted, however, ascertained that the cakes had only been printed in this manner within the preceding fifty years, and concluded more rationally that the figures were meant to represent two widows, “as the general objects of a charitable benefaction.”
[32] An engraving of one of these cakes will be found in the _Every Day Book_, 1827, vol. ii. p. 443.
If Mr. Hasted’s account of the Biddenden cakes be the true one, the story of the conjoined twins--though not inferring a thing impossible or unexampled--must be set down as one of those cases, of which we find so many in the legends of the common people, where a tale is invented to account for certain appearances, after the real meaning of the appearance was lost.--_Book of Days_, vol. i. p. 427; see Britton and Brayley, _Beauties of England and Wales_, 1803, vol. viii. p. 208; _Old English Customs and Charities_, 1842, p. 60.
MIDDLESEX.
According to Lysons’ _Environs of London_ (1795, vol. iii. p. 603) there was an ancient custom at Twickenham of dividing two great cakes in the Church upon Easter Day, among the young people; but it being looked upon as a superstitious relic, it was ordered by Parliament, 1645, that the parishioners should forbear this custom, and, instead thereof, buy loaves of bread for the poor of the parish with the money that should have bought the cakes. It appears that the sum of £1 _per annum_ is still charged upon the vicarage for the purpose of buying penny loaves for poor children on the Thursday before Easter. Within the memory of man they were thrown from the church-steeple to be scrambled for; a custom which prevailed also at Paddington.
NORFOLK.
In this county it is customary to eat baked custards at Easter, and cheesecakes at Whitsuntide.--_N. & Q. 3rd S._ vol. i. p. 248.
OXFORDSHIRE.
At University College, Oxford, on this day, the representation of a tree, dressed with evergreens and flowers, is placed on a turf close to the buttery, and every member there resident, as he leaves the Hall after dinner, chops at the tree with a cleaver. The College cook stands by holding a plate, in which the Master deposits half a guinea, each Fellow five shillings and sixpence. This custom is called “chopping at the tree.”--_N. & Q. 1st S._ vol. ix. p. 468.
On Easter Day the rector of Ducklington for the time being, as long as can be remembered, has paid £10 per annum, which was formerly given away in the church amongst the parishioners, in veal or apple pies: of late years it has been given away in bread. All the parishioners of Ducklington and Hardwick who apply, whether rich or poor, without any distinction, partake of it according to the size of their families. Many of the farmers take the bread as they say, for the sake of keeping up their right. It is stated that there is no document or record relating to this payment, nor any tradition respecting its origin.--_Old English Customs and Charities_, p. 14.
The rector of Swerford supplies a small loaf for every house in the parish on Easter Sunday, which is given after evening service. It is understood that this is given on account of a bushel of wheat, which is payable out of a field called Mill Close, part of the glebe. Each house, whether inhabited by rich or poor, receives a loaf.--_Ibid._ p. 18.
YORKSHIRE.
It was customary in this country, for the young men in the villages to take off the young girls’ buckles, and, on the Easter Monday, the young men’s shoes and buckles were taken off by the young women. On the Wednesday they were redeemed by little pecuniary forfeits, out of which an entertainment called a _Tansey Cake_, was provided, and the jollity concluded with dancing. At Ripon, where this custom also prevailed, it is reported that no traveller could pass the town without being stopped, and, if a horseman, having his spurs taken away, unless redeemed by a little money, which was the only means to get them returned. This seems to bear an affinity to the custom of hocking.
Cole in his _Hist. of Filey_ (1828, p. 136) mentions a similar custom as practised in that place. He says, the young men seize the shoes of the females, collecting as many as they can, and, on the following day, the girls retaliate by getting the men’s hats, which are to be redeemed on a subsequent evening, when both parties assemble at one of the inns, and partake of a rural repast.--_Gent. Mag._ 1790, vol. lx. p. 719.
Two farms lying in the township of Swinton, and which belong to Earl Fitzwilliam, every year change their parish. For one year, from Easter Day at twelve at noon till next Easter Day at the same hour, they lie in the parish of Mexbrough, and then till Easter Day following at the same hour, they are in the parish of Wath-upon-Dearne, and so alternately.--Blount’s _Ancient Tenures of Land_.
WALES.
Easter Day is generally kept in Wales as the Sunday, that is, with much and becoming respect to the sacredness of the day. It is also marked by somewhat better cheer, as a festival, of which lamb is considered as a proper constitutional part. In some places, however, after morning prayer, vestiges of the sundry sports and pastimes remain. It is thought necessary to put on some new portion of dress at Easter and unlucky to omit doing so, were it but a new pair of gloves or a ribbon. This idea is evidently derived from the custom of former times, of baptizing at Easter, when the new dress was in some degree symbolical of the new character assumed by baptism.
IRELAND.
The solemnity of Easter (says Bishop Kennett) was anciently observed in Ireland with so great superstition that they thought it lawful to steal all the year, to hoard up provisions against this festival time.--Kennett _MS_.
In some parts of Ireland at Easter a cake, with a garland of meadow flowers, is elevated upon a circular board upon a pike, apples being stuck upon pegs around the garland. Men and women then dance round, and they who hold out longest win the prize.[33]--_Time’s Telescope_, 1826, p. 37.
[33] Plutarch mentions a trial for dancing: a cake the prize.
MARCH 23.] EASTER MONDAY.
BUCKINGHAMSHIRE.
In the Parliamentary Returns of 1786 a donor of the name of Randell is stated to have given by deed, in 1597, five quarters of wheat and money to the poor of Edlesborough. Forty-nine bushels of wheat were yearly sent by Lady Bridgewater to the mill to be ground in respect of this charity. They were ground, and the flour baked at her expense; the bread was made up in four-pound loaves, which were given away by the parish officers on Easter Monday to all the poor of the parish, in shares varying according to the size of the families, a loaf being given to each individual.--_Old English Customs and Charities_, p. 18.
CHESHIRE.
Pasch eggs are begged at the farmhouses; the children sing a short song, asking for--
“Eggs, bacon, apples, or cheese, Bread or corn, if you please, Or any good thing that will make us merry.”
These eggs are in some parts of the county boiled in vinegar, and otherwise ornamented, and hung up in the houses until another year. In some cottages as many as a score may be seen hanging. The custom of lifting is also observed.--_Jour. of Arch. Assoc._, 1850, vol. v. p. 253.
In a pamphlet entitled _Certayne Collections of Anchiante Times, concerning the Anchiante and Famous Cittie of Chester_, already referred to and published in Lysons’ _Magna Britannia_, is the following account of a curious practice once observed at Chester, “There is an anchant custome in this cittie of Chester: the memory of man now livinge not knowing the original, that upon Monday in Easter weeke, yearely, commonly called Black Mondaye, the two sheriffes of the cittie do shoote for a breakfaste of calves-heades and bacon, commonly called the Sheriffes’ Breakfaste, the maner being thus: the day before, the drum soundeth through the cittie, with a proclamation for all gentlemen, yeomen, and good fellowes, that will come with their bowes and arrowes to take part with one sheriff or the other, and upon Monday morning, on the Rode-dee, the Mayor, shreeves, aldermen, and any other gentlemen that be there, the one sherife chosing one, and the other sherife chosing another, and soe of the archers; the one sherife shoteth, and the other sherife he shoteth to _shode_ him, beinge at length some twelve score, soe all the archers on one side to shote till it be _shode_, and so till three shutes be wonne, and then all the winners’ side goe up together, first with arrowes in their hands, and all the loosers with bowes in their hands together, to the common hall of the cittie, where the maior, aldermen, and the reste, take parte together of the saide breakfaste in loveing manner. This is yearely done, it beinge a commendable exercise, a good recreation, and a lovinge assemblye.”
In the year 1640 the sheriffs gave a piece of plate to be run for, instead of the calves’-head breakfast. In 1674, a resolution was entered in the Corporation journals that the calves’-head feast was held by ancient custom and usage, and was not to be at the pleasure of the sheriffs and leave-brokers. In the month of March, 1676-7, the sheriffs and leave-brokers were fined £10, for not keeping the calves’-head feast. For this feast an annual dinner was afterwards substituted, usually given by the sheriffs at their own houses on any day most suitable to their convenience.
DERBYSHIRE.
During a visit to the little village of Castleton, says a correspondent of _N. & Q._ (_4th S._ vol. v. p. 595), I noticed every child without exception had a bottle of _elecampane_--the younger ones having one tied round their necks--all sucking away at this curious compound of Spanish juice, sugar, and water with great assiduity. I was informed by a very old man that the custom had always obtained at Castleton on this day as long as he could remember.
The custom of lifting was practised in some of the northern parts of this county.--_Jour. of Arch. Assoc._, 1852, vol. vii. p. 205.
ESSEX.
Easter Monday was formerly appropriated to the grand “Epping Hunt.” So far back as the year 1226, King Henry III. confirmed to the citizens of London _free-warren_, or liberty to hunt a circuit about their city, in the warren of Staines, &c.; and in ancient times, the Lord Mayor, aldermen, and corporation, attended by a due number of the constituents, are said to have availed themselves of this right of chase “in solemn guise.” But years ago, the “Epping Hunt” lost the Lord Mayor and his brethren in their corporate capacity; the annual sport subsequently dwindled into a mere burlesque and farcical show amongst the mob, and even that has died away, and is now numbered “amongst the things that were.”--_Sports, Pastimes and Customs of London_, 1847, p. 27.
The following extract illustrative of this ancient custom is taken from the _Chelmsford Chronicle_ (April 15th, 1805): “On Monday last Epping Forest was enlivened with the celebrated stag-hunt. The road from Whitechapel to the Bald-faced Stag, on the forest, was covered with cockney sportsmen, chiefly dressed in the costume of the chase, in scarlet-frock, black jockey cap, new boots, and buckskin breeches. By ten o’clock the assemblage of civil hunters, mounted on all sorts and shapes, could not fall short of 1,200. There were numberless Dianas, also of the chase, from Rotherhithe, the Minories, &c., some in riding-habits, mounted on titups, and others by the side of their mothers, in gigs, tax-carts, and other vehicles appropriate to the sports of the field. The Saffron Walden stag-hounds made their joyful appearance about half after ten, but without any of the Melishes or Bosanquets, who were more knowing sportsmen, than to risk either themselves, or their horses, in so desperate a burst. The huntsmen having capped their half crowns, the horn blew just before twelve, as a signal for the old fat one-eyed-stag (kept for the day) being enlarged from the cart. He made a bound of several yards, over the heads of some pedestrians, at first starting, when such a clatter commenced as the days of Nimrod never knew. Some of the scarlet-jackets were sprawling in the high road a few minutes after starting--so that a lamentable return of the maimed, missing, thrown, and thrown out, may naturally be supposed.--_Every Day Book_, vol. ii. p. 460; see _Long Ago_, 1873, vol. i. pp. 19, 44, 83, 146; also _N. & Q. 4th S._ vol. x. pp. 373, 399, 460, 478; xi. p. 26.
HEREFORDSHIRE.
At this season, in the neighbourhood of Ross, the rustics have a custom called _corn-showing_. Parties are made to pick out cockle from the wheat. Before they set out they take with them, cake, cider, and _a yard_ of toasted cheese. The first person who picks the cockle from the wheat has the first kiss of the maid and the first slice of the cake. This custom, doubtless, takes its origin from the Roman as appears from the following line of Ovid (_Fasti_, i. 691):--
“Et careant loliis oculos vitiantibus agri.”
“Let the fields be stripped of eye-diseasing cockle.”
--Fosbroke, _Ariconensia or Archæological Sketches of Ross and Archenfield_, 1822.
KENT.
At this season young people go out holiday-making in public-houses, to eat _pudding-pies_, and this practice is called going a _pudding-pieing_. The pudding-pies are from the size of a teacup to that of a small tea-saucer. They are flat, like pastrycooks’ cheesecakes, made with a raised crust to hold a small quantity of custard, with currants lightly sprinkled on the surface. Pudding-pies and cherry-beer usually go together at these feasts.--Hone’s _Year Book_, 1838, p. 361.
LANCASHIRE.
In Lancashire, and in Cheshire, Staffordshire, and Warwickshire, and perhaps in other counties, the ridiculous custom of ‘lifting’ or ‘heaving’ is practised. On Easter Monday the men lift the women, and on Easter Tuesday the women lift or heave the men. The process is performed by two lusty men or women joining their hands across each other’s wrists, then, making the person to be heaved sit down on their arms, they lift him up aloft two or three times, and often carry him several yards along a street. A grave clergyman who happened to be passing through a town in Lancashire on an Easter Tuesday, and having to stay an hour or two at an inn, was astonished by three or four lusty women rushing into his room, exclaiming they had “come to lift him!” “To lift him!” repeated the amazed divine; “what can you mean?” “Why, your reverence, we’ve come to lift you, ’cause it’s Easter Tuesday.” “Lift me because it’s Easter Tuesday! I don’t understand you--is there any such custom here?” “Yes to be sure; why, don’t you know? All us women was lifted yesterday, and us lifts the men to-day in turn. And, in course, it’s our reights and duties to lift ’em.” After a little further parley the reverend traveller compromised with his fair visitors for half-a-crown, and thus escaped the dreaded compliment.--_Book of Days_, vol. i., p. 425.
Agnes Strickland in her _Lives of the Queens of England_ (1864, vol. i. p. 303), narrates how on the Easter Monday of 1290 seven of Queen Eleanora’s ladies unceremoniously invaded the chamber of King Edward (I.), and seizing their majestic master, proceeded to “heave him” in his chair, till he was glad to pay a fine of fourteen pounds to enjoy his own peace and be set at liberty.
The following extract is taken from the _Public Advertiser_, April 13th, 1787:--The custom of rolling down Greenwich-hill at Easter is a relique of old city manners, but peculiar to the metropolis. Old as the custom has been, the counties of Shropshire, Cheshire and Lancashire boast of one of equal antiquity, which they call heaving, and perform with the following ceremonies, on the Monday and Tuesday in the Easter week. On the first day, a party of men go with a chair into every house into which they can get admission, force every female to be seated in their vehicle, and lift them up three times with loud huzzas. For this they claim the reward of a chaste salute, which those who are too coy to submit to may get exempted from by a fine of one shilling, and receive a written testimony which secures them from a repetition of the ceremony for that day. On the Tuesday the women claim the same privilege, and pursue their business in the same manner, with this addition--that they guard every avenue to the town, and stop every passenger, pedestrian, equestrian or vehicular.”
A correspondent of the _Gent. Mag._, 1784, vol. xcvi. p. 96, says that _lifting_ was originally designed to represent our Saviour’s Resurrection.
MIDDLESEX.--LONDON.
In the Easter holidays the young men, says Fitzstephen (in his tract entitled ‘_Descriptio Nobilissimæ Civitatis Londoniæ_,’ _circa_ 1174), counterfeit a fight on the water: a pole is set up in the midst of the river, with a target strongly fastened to it, and a young man standing in the fore part of a boat, which is prepared to be carried on by the flowing of the tide, endeavours to strike the target in his passage.
If he succeeds so as to break his lance, and yet preserve his footing, his aim is accomplished; but if he fail, he tumbles into the water, and his boat passes away with the stream. On each side, however, of the target, ride two vessels, wherein are stationed several young men ready to snatch him from the water, as soon as he appears again above the surface.
Formerly the Lord Mayors and the sheriffs were accustomed to, separately, ask each of their friends as were aldermen or governors of the hospitals, whom they saw at church, to dine with them at their own houses. But, in process of time, however, it was agreed that the Lord Mayor should invite all that were at church on the first day; and the two sheriffs, in their turn, on the next succeeding days. Hence, by degrees, they began to invite other of the friends, and the aldermen bringing their ladies, other ladies were also invited, so that the private houses not being large enough, they began to entertain at their respective halls.--Brayley, _Londiniana_, 1829, vol. ii. p. 28.
NORTHUMBERLAND.
Formerly, at Easter and Whitsuntide, the mayor, aldermen, and sheriff of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, with a great number of the burgesses, went yearly to the Forth, or Little Mall of the town, with the mace, sword, and cap of maintenance carried before them, and patronised the playing at hand-ball, dancing, and other amusements, and sometimes joined in the ball-play, and at others joined hands with the ladies.--_Every Day Book_, vol. i. p. 430.
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE.
Deering, in his _Historical Account of Nottingham_ (1751, p. 125), says:--By a custom time beyond memory, the mayor and aldermen of Nottingham and their wives have been used on Monday in Easter week, morning prayer ended, to march from the town to St. Anne’s Well, having the town waits to play before them, and attended by all the clothing, i.e., such as have been sheriffs, and ever after wear scarlet gowns, together with the officers of the town, and many other burgesses and gentlemen, such as wish well to the woodward--this meeting being first instituted, and since continued for his benefit.
WARWICKSHIRE.
Easter Monday and Tuesday, says a correspondent of Brand’s _Pop. Antiq._ (1849, vol. i. p. 183), were known by the name of _heaving-days_, because, on the former day, it was customary for the men to heave and kiss the women, and on the latter for the women to retaliate upon the men. The women’s heaving-day was the most amusing. Many a time have I passed along the streets inhabited by the lower orders of people, and seen parties of jolly matrons assembled round tables on which stood a foaming tankard of ale. There they sat in all the pride of absolute sovereignty, and woe to the luckless man that dared to invade their prerogatives! As sure as he was seen he was pursued; as sure as he was pursued he was taken; and, as sure as he was taken, he was heaved and kissed, and compelled to pay sixpence for “leave and licence” to depart.
At one time a custom was observed at Birmingham, on the Easter Monday, called “Clipping the Church.” This ceremony was performed amid crowds of people and shouts of joy, by the children of the different charity schools, who at a certain hour flocked together for the purpose. The first comers placed themselves hand in hand with their backs against the Church, and were joined by their companions, who gradually increased in number, till at last the chain was of sufficient length completely to surround the sacred edifice. As soon as the hand of the last of the train had grasped that of the first, the party broke up, and walked in procession to the other Church (for in those days Birmingham boasted but of two), where the ceremony was repeated.--_Every Day Book_, vol. i. p. 431.
They have an ancient custom at Coleshill, says Blount, (_Jocular Tenures_, Beckwith’s Edition, p. 286), that if the young men of the town can catch a hare, and bring it to the parson of the parish before ten o’clock on Easter Monday, the parson is bound to give them a calf’s-head, and a hundred eggs for breakfast, and a groat in money.
WORCESTERSHIRE.
At sunset upon Easter Monday, and at no other period throughout the year, a game is played by the children of Evesham called “thread-my-needle.” From the season of this observance, as well as the cry of the players while elevating their arms arch-wise, which _now_ is:
“Open the gates as high as the sky, And let Victoria’s troops pass by,”
it is probable, says May in his _Hist. of Evesham_ (1845, p. 319), that the custom originally had reference to the great festival of the church and the triumphant language of the Psalmist, applied to the event commemorated at this period--Psalm xxiv. 9: ‘Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.” The accuracy of this supposition, however, may be fairly doubted.
WALES.
In North Wales, says Pennant, the custom of heaving upon Monday and Tuesday in Easter week is preserved; and on Monday the young men go about the town and country, from house to house, with a fiddle playing before them, to heave the women. On the Tuesday the women heave the men.
At Tenby Easter Monday was always devoted to merry-making; the neighbouring villages (Gumfreston especially) were visited, when some amused themselves with the barbarous sport of cock-fighting, while others frequented the two tea-parties held annually at Tenby and Gumfreston, and known as the “Parish Clerks’ Meeting.”--Mason’s _Tales and Traditions of Tenby_, 1858, p. 21.
SCOTLAND.
BERWICK-UPON-TWEED.
It is pleasurable, says Fuller in his _History of Berwick-upon-Tweed_ (1799, p. 445), to see what a great number of lovely and finely-dressed children make their appearance on Easter Monday, which is known in this neighbourhood as the Children’s Day. Being attended by a multitude of servants, they parade and run about for many hours, amusing themselves in a variety of ways. This charming group is joined more or less by the parents of the children, who, together with such as are attracted by curiosity, form, on such occasions, a company of a great many hundreds. They assemble in greatest numbers behind the barracks, where the rampart is broadest. The fruiterers attend in full display, as well as many itinerants in various pursuits. The whole company may be called a _sportive fair_.
IRELAND.
In the County of Antrim this day is observed by several thousands of the working classes of the town and vicinity of Belfast resorting to the Cave-hill, about three miles distant, where the day is spent in dancing, jumping, running, climbing the rugged rocks, and drinking. Here many a rude brawl takes place, many return home with black eyes, and in some cases with broken bones. Indeed it is with them the greatest holiday of the year, and to not a few it furnishes laughable treats to talk about till the return of the following spring. On this evening a kind of dramatic piece is usually brought forward at the Belfast Theatre, called _The Humours of the Cave-hill.--The Table Book_, p. 507.
CO. CLARE.
On Easter Monday multitudes go to Scattery Island for the purpose of performing penance on their bare knees, round the stony beach and holy well there. Tents are generally erected on this occasion, and often times more whisky is taken by the pilgrims than is found convenient on their return in crowded boats.--Mason, _Stat. Acc. of Ireland_, 1814, vol. ii. p. 459.
CO. DOWN.
At Holywood the trundling of eggs, as it is called, is an amusement common at Easter. For this purpose the eggs are boiled hard, and dyed of different colours, and, when they are thus prepared, the sport consists in throwing or trundling them along the ground, especially down a declivity, and gathering up the broken fragments to eat them. Formerly it was usual with the women and children to collect in large bodies for this purpose, though nothing can be, to all appearance, more unmeaning than this amusement. They yet pursue it in the vicinity of Belfast. It is a curious circumstance that this sport is practised only by the Presbyterians.--Mason, _Stat. Acc. of Ireland_, 1819, vol. iii. p. 207.
On Easter Monday several hundreds of young persons of the town and neighbourhood of Portaferry resort, dressed in their best, to a pleasant walk near that town, called “The Walter.” The avowed object of each person is to see the fun, which consists in the men kissing the females, without reserve, whether married or single. This mode of salutation is quite a matter of course; it is never taken amiss, nor with much show of coyness; the female must be very ordinary indeed, who returns home without having received at least a dozen hearty kisses. Tradition is silent as to the origin of this custom, which of late years is on the decline, especially in the respectability of the attendants.--_The Table Book_, p. 506.
MARCH 24.] EASTER TUESDAY.
MIDDLESEX.
Every Easter Tuesday, in pursuance of an ancient custom, the boys of Christ’s Hospital, London, pay a visit to the Mansion House, and receive from the Lord Mayor the customary Easter gifts. On reaching the Mansion House, they march into the Egyptian Hall, and on passing the Lord Mayor, receive a gratuity in coins fresh from the mint. To the fifteen Grecians a guinea each is given; nine probationers, half-a-guinea; forty-eight monitors, half-a-crown; and the ordinary scholars, one shilling each. Each boy also before leaving receives a glass of wine and two buns. The boys wear linen badges on their coats, on which the words “He is risen” are inscribed. After this ceremony, the Lord Mayor and the rest of the civic authorities go in the customary state to Christ Church, Newgate Street, where the second Spital sermon is preached. At this service the whole of the Christ’s Hospital boys attend.--See _Daily News_, April 12th, 1871, and April 3rd, 1872.
NORTHUMBERLAND.
Holly-bussing, says a writer in the _Newcastle Express_ (April 16th, 1857), is a vernacular expression for a very ancient custom celebrated at Netherwitton, the origin of which is unknown. On Easter Tuesday the lads and lasses of the village and vicinity meet, and, accompanied by the parish clerk, who plays an excellent fiddle, the inspiring strains of which put mirth and mettle in their heels, proceed to the wood to get holly; with which some decorate a stone cross that stands in the village while others are “bobbing around” to “Speed the Plough” or “Birnie Bouzle.”
MARCH 25.] LADY DAY.
The _Festival of the Annunciation_ commemorates in the Christian world the message of the Angel to the Virgin Mary: hence it was anciently called St. Mary’s Day in Lent, to distinguish it from other festivals in her honour:
“Seinte Marie Daye in Leynte, among All other dayes gode, Is ryt for to holde heghe He so [whoso] bein vnderstode.”
Harl. MS. Codex 2277, fol. i.
All the festivals of the Virgin are properly Lady Days, but this falling in Lent, and being the first quarter day for rents and other payments, readily became Lady Day _par excellence_. Otherwise considered, it is simply an abridgment of “Our Lady Day the Annunciation,” as we find it written in the reign of Henry the Sixth. Some old customs on paying quarterly rents are noticed in Gascoigne’s _Flowers of Poesie_, 4to, 1575:
And when the tenantes come to paie their quarter’s rent, They bring some fowle at Midsummer, a dish of fish in Lent, At Christmasse a capon, at Michaelmasse a goose, And somewhat else at New Yeare’s tide for feare their lease flie loose.”
--_Med. Ævi Kalend._ vol. i. p. 206; Forster, _Perenn. Calend._ 1841, p. 515.
HERTFORDSHIRE.
At St. Alban’s certain buns called “Pope Ladies” are sold on Lady Day, their origin being attributed by some to the following story:--A noble lady and her attendants were travelling on the road to St. Alban’s (the great North road passes through this town), when they were benighted and lost their way. Lights in the clock-tower at the top of the hill enabled them at length to reach the monastery in safety, and the lady in gratitude gave a sum of money to provide an annual distribution on Lady Day of cakes, in the shape of ladies, to the poor of the neighbourhood. As this bounty was distributed by the monks, the “Pope Ladies” probably thus acquired their name.--See _N. & Q. 4th S._ vol. x. p. 412. Another correspondent of _N. & Q._ (_4th S._ vol. x. 341) says these buns are sold on the first day of each year, and that there is a tradition that they have some relation to the myth of Pope Joan.--See also the _Gent. Mag._ 1820, vol. xc. p. 15.
LANCASHIRE.
The gyst-ale, or guising-feast, was an annual festival of the town of Ashton-under-Lyne. It appears from the rental of Sir John de Assheton, compiled A.D. 1422, that twenty shillings were paid to him as lord of the manor for the privilege of holding this feast by its then conductors. The persons named in the roll as having paid 3_s._ 4_d._ each are:--“Margret, that was the wife of Hobbe the Kynges (of misrule); Hobbe Adamson; Roger the Baxter; Robert Somayster; Jenkyn of the Wode; and Thomas of Curtual.” The meaning of the term _gyst-ale_ is involved in some obscurity--most probably the payments above were for the _gyst_, or hire, for the privilege of selling ale and other refreshments during the festivals held on the payment of the rents of the manor. These _guisings_ were frequently held in the spring, most probably about Lady Day, when manorial rents were usually paid; and, as the fields were manured with _marl_ about the same period, the term _marlings_ has been supposed to indicate the rough play or _marlocking_ which was then practised. This, however, must be a mistake, since the term relates to merry pranks, or pleasure gambols only, and has no connection with marl as a manure.
These gyst-ales, or guisings, once ranked amongst the principal festivals of Lancashire, and large sums of money were subscribed by all ranks of society in order that they might be celebrated with becoming splendour. The lord of the manor, the vicar of the parish, the farmer, and the operative, severally announced the sums they intended to give, and when the treasurer exclaimed “A largesse,” the crowd demanded “from whom?” and then due proclamation was made of the sum subscribed. The real amount, however, was seldom named, but it was announced that “Lord Johnson,” or some other equally distinguished person had contributed “a portion of ten thousand pounds” towards the expenses of the feast.
After the subscription lists were closed an immense garland was prepared, which contained abundance of every flower in season, interspersed with a profusion of evergreens and ribbons of every shade and pattern. The framework of this garland was made of wood, to which hooks were affixed, and on these were suspended a large collection of watches, jewels, and silver articles borrowed from the richer residents in the town. On the day of the gyst this garland was borne through the principal streets and thoroughfares, attended by crowds of townspeople dressed in their best attire. These were formed into a procession by a master of the ceremonies, locally termed the king. Another principal attendant was the Fool, dressed in a grotesque cap, a hideous grinning mask, a long tail hanging behind him, and a bell with which he commanded attention when announcements were to be made. In an early period of these guisings the fool was usually mounted on a hobby-horse, and indulged in grotesque pranks as he passed along--hence we obtained the term “hob-riding,” and more recently the proverbial expression of “riding one’s hobby to death.”--Harland and Wilkinson, _Legends and Traditions of Lancashire_, 1873, p. 86.
NORFOLK.
On a table of benefactions in the Church at Oxburgh it is stated that Sir Henry Bedingfield paid at Lady Day annually £2 for lands belonging to the township of Oxburgh; that this was called _walk money_, and was given to the poor.--_Old English Customs and Charities_, p. 124.
ISLE OF THANET.
Evelyn in his _Diary_, under the date of March 25th, 1672 (Bohn’s Edition, 1859, vol. ii. p. 78), says: “Observing almost every tall tree to have a weather-cock on the top bough, and some trees half-a-dozen, I learned that on a certain holiday the farmers feast their servants, at which solemnity they set up these cocks as a kind of triumph.”
IRELAND.
At Kilmacteige, Co. of Sligo, the Lady Days are observed with most scrupulous attention, that is to say, so far as abstaining from all kind of daily labour, or following any trade or calling, although their sanctity does not operate on their minds so as to induce them to refrain from sports and pastimes, cursing or swearing, or frequenting tippling-houses and drinking to excess.--Mason, _Stat. Acc. of Ireland_, 1814-19, vol ii. p. 864.
MARCH 29.] LOW SUNDAY.
The Octave or first Sunday after Easter.
The author of _Christian Sodality_, a collection of discourses, 1652, says:--This day is called White or Low Sunday because in the Primitive Church those neophytes that on Easter Eve were baptized and clad in white garments did to-day put them off, with this admonition, that they were to keep within them a perpetual candour of spirit, signified by the _Agnus Dei_ hung about their necks, which, falling down upon their breasts, put them in mind what innocent lambs they must be, now that of sinful, high, and haughty men they were by baptism made low, and little children of Almighty God, such as ought to retain in their manners and lives the Paschal feasts which they had accomplished.
Seymour in his _Survey of London_ (1734, B. iv. p. 100) tells us that the aldermen used to meet the Lord Mayor and sheriffs at St. Paul’s in their scarlet gowns, furred, without their cloaks, to hear the sermon.
WALES.
Fenton in his _Tour through Pembrokeshire_ (1811, p. 495) alludes to the game of _Knappan_ as being played at Pwlldu, in the parish of Penbedw, on low Easter-day. He says the knappan was a ball of some hard wood, of such a size as a man might hold in his hand, and was boiled in tallow to make it slippery. The players at this game were very numerous, frequently amounting to a thousand or fifteen hundred people, parish against parish, hundred against hundred, and sometimes county against county. When the company assembled, about one or two o’clock in the afternoon, entirely naked, with the exception of a light pair of breeches, a great shout was given as the signal to begin, and the ball was hurled bolt upright into the air by one of the parties and at its fall he that caught it hurled it towards the county or goal he played for. The players consisted of horse and foot, who in the purest times of the game never mixed, being governed by certain rules and regulations that were never violated; but long before this game was disused various abuses and disorders had crept into it, so that it served to inflame every bad passion, engender revenge, foment private quarrels, and stimulate even to bloodshed and murder.
APRIL 1.] ALL FOOLS’ DAY.
On this day a custom prevails not only in Britain, but on the Continent, of imposing upon and ridiculing people in a variety of ways. It is very doubtful what is the precise origin of this absurd custom. In France the person imposed upon on All Fools’ Day is called _Poisson d’Avril_, an April Fish, which Bellingen, in his _Etymology of French Proverbs_, published in 1656, thus explains. The word _Poisson_, he contends, is corrupted through the ignorance of the people from _Passion_, and length of time has almost totally defaced the original intention, which was as follows: that as the Passion of our Saviour took place about this time of the year, and as the Jews sent Christ backwards and forwards to mock and torment him, that is, from Annas to Caiaphas, from Caiaphas to Pilate, from Pilate to Herod, and from Herod back again to Pilate, this ridiculous custom took its rise from thence, by which we send about from one place to another such persons as we think proper objects of our ridicule. A writer in the _Gent. Mag._, 1783, vol. liii. p. 578, also conjectures that this custom may have an allusion to the mockery of the Saviour of the world by the Jews. Another attempt to explain it has been made by referring to the fact that the year formerly began in Britain on the 25th of March, which was supposed to be the Incarnation of our Lord, and the commencement of a new year was always, both among the ancient heathens and among modern Christians, held as a great festival. It is to be noted then that the 1st of April is the octave of the 25th of March, and the close consequently of that feast which was both the festival of the Annunciation and of the New Year. Hence it may have become a day of extraordinary mirth and festivity.
Alluding to this custom, Charles Dickens, jun. (_Gent. Mag._ 1869, New Series, vol. ii. p. 543), says: A prince of the house of Lorraine, confined in one of Louis XIII.’s prisons, made his escape on the 1st of April by swimming across the moat, and is accordingly commemorated as a _poisson d’Avril_ to this day. Why this should be so is not very clear, inasmuch as the gaolers and not the prince would have been the April fools on the occasion. A later version of the same story would appear to be the correct one. Here the prince and his wife, escaping in the disguise of peasants on the 1st of April, were recognised by a servant-maid as they were passing out of the castle-gates. She immediately made for the guard-room, giving the alarm to a sentinel by the way, but, unfortunately for her, yet happily for the fugitives, although she may have forgotten that it was All Fool’s Day, the soldiers on guard had not. The information was treated with the utmost contempt, the soldiers declining to be made game of, and while the royal prison-breakers got clear off, it is said that the luckless informer was soundly buffetted by the guard for her ill-timed jocularity. This version of the story, however, goes to prove nothing beyond the fact that the custom of making April fools was well known in the time of Louis XIII., but in nowise accounts for the curious expression _poisson d’Avril_; while the swimming story explains the fish, but leads one to believe that the incident was the origin of the dedication of the 1st of April to fools.
Another curious explanation of this peculiar custom, giving it a Jewish origin, has also been suggested. It is said to have begun from the mistake of Noah sending the dove out of the Ark before the water had abated on the first day of the Hebrew month, answering to our month of April, and to perpetuate the memory of this deliverance it was thought proper, whoever forgot so remarkable a circumstance, to punish them by sending them upon some sleeveless errand similar to that ineffectual message upon which the bird was sent by the patriarch.--_Public Advertiser_, April 13th, 1769.
Maurice, in his _Indian Antiquities_ (vi. 71), says that the custom prevailing both in England and India had its origin in the ancient practice of celebrating with festival rites the period of the vernal equinox, or the day when the new year of Persia anciently began.
Addison, in the _Spectator_, referring to the year 1711, remarks that “a custom prevails everywhere among us on the 1st of April, when everybody takes it in his head to make as many fools as he can. A neighbour of mine--a very shallow, conceited fellow, makes his boast that for these ten years successively he has not made less than a hundred April fools. My landlady had a falling-out with him, about a fortnight ago, for sending every one of her children upon some “sleeveless errand,” as she terms it. Her eldest son went to buy a halfpenny-worth of inkle at a shoemaker’s; the eldest daughter was dispatched half a mile to see a monster; and, in short, the whole family of innocent children were made April fools. Nay, my landlady herself did not escape him. The empty fellow has laughed upon these conceits ever since.”
In the north of England persons imposed upon on this day are called “April Gouks.” A gouk, or gowk, is properly a cuckoo, and is used here, metaphorically, in vulgar language, for a fool. The cuckoo is, indeed, everywhere a name of contempt.--Brand, _Pop. Antiq._, 1849, vol. i. p. 139.
HAMPSHIRE.
In this county the following rhyme is said after twelve o’clock:--
“April fool’s gone past, You’re the biggest fool at last; When April fool comes again You’ll be the biggest fool then.”
_N. & Q. 1st S._ vol. xii. p. 100.
MIDDLESEX.
In connection with the ancient custom of making “April fools” on the 1st of April, the following hoax was practised on the London public on the 1st April, 1860. Some days previous thousands of persons received a neatly printed and official-looking card, with a seal marked by an inverted sixpence at one of the angles. It was to this effect:--“Tower of London. Admit the Bearer and Friend to view the Annual Ceremony of washing the White Lions on Sunday April 1st, 1860. Admitted at the White Gate. It is particularly requested that no gratuity be given to the Warders or their Assistants.” The hoax succeeded remarkably well, and consequently several thousand persons were taken in. For many hours cabs might have been seen wending their way towards Tower Hill on that Sunday morning; the drivers asking every one they met “How they should get to the White Gate.” At last this piece of deception was found out, and the many thousands who had been thus imposed upon returned home highly disgusted.
SCOTLAND.
The Scotch have a custom of Hunting the Gowk, as it is termed. This is done by sending silly people upon fools’ errands from place to place by means of a letter, in which is written:--
“On the first day of April Hunt the Gowk another mile.”
Brand, _Pop. Antiq._ 1849, vol. i. p. 140.
APRIL 3.] ST. RICHARD’S DAY.
Aubrey, in _MS. Lansd._ 231, says: “This custome is yearly observed at Droitwich, in Worcestershire, where, on the day of St. Richard, they keep holyday, and dresse the well with green boughs and flowers. One yeare in the Presbyterian time it was discontinued in the civil warres, and after that the springe shranke up or dried up for some time; so afterwards they revived their annual custom, notwithstanding the power of the parliament and soldiers, and the salt water returned again and still continues. This St. Richard was a person of great estate in these parts, and a briske young fellow that would ride over hedge and ditch, and at length became a very devout man, and after his decease was canonized for a saint.”
APRIL 7.] HOCK, OR _HOKE_ DAY.
A popular holiday mentioned by Matthew Paris and other ancient writers. It was usually kept on the Tuesday following the second Sunday after Easter Day, and distinguished by various sportive pastimes, which consisted, according to Spelman, in the men and women binding each other, and especially the women the men, and so was called “Binding Tuesday.” Jacob (_Law Dictionary_, 1797) says that “Hokeday, or Hock Tuesday (_Dies Martis, quem quindenam Paschæ vocant_), was a day so remarkable that rents were reserved and payable thereon; and in the accounts of Magdalen College, Oxford, there is a yearly allowance _pro mulieribus hockantibus_, in some manors of theirs in Hants, where the men hock the women on Monday, and the contrary on Tuesday; the meaning of it is, that on that day the women in merriment stop the way with ropes, and pull passengers to them, desiring something to be laid out in pious uses. The following remarks are taken from _Book of Days_, vol. i. p. 499:--
The meaning of the word _hoke_ or _hock_ seems to be totally unknown, and none of the derivations yet proposed seem to be deserving of our consideration.[34] The custom may be traced, by its name at least, as far back as the thirteenth century, and appears to have prevailed in all parts of England, but it became obsolete early in the last century. At Coventry, which was a great place for pageantry, there was a play or pageant attached to the ceremony, which, under the title of “The old Coventry play of Hock Tuesday,” was performed before Queen Elizabeth during her visit to Kenilworth, in July 1575. It represented a series of combats between the English and Danish forces, in which twice the Danes had the better, but at last, by the arrival of the Saxon women to assist their countrymen, the Danes were overcome, and many of them were led captive in triumph by the women. Queen Elizabeth laughed well at this play, and is said to have been so much pleased with it that she gave the actors two bucks and five marks in money. The usual performance of this play had been suppressed in Coventry soon after the Reformation, on account of the scenes of riot which it occasioned.
[34] Some have supposed that the term hock-day is equivalent to “_dies irrisionis_,” or _irrisiorius_, a day of scorn and triumph, or, as we now say, “a day of hoaxing”--_Med. Ævi Kalend._, 1841, vol. ii. p. 198. Verstegan derives Hoc-tide from _Heughtyde_, which, he says, in the Netherlands means a festival season.
Denne conjectures the name of this festivity to have been derived from _Hockzeit_, the German word for a wedding. Skinner mentions a derivation from the Dutch _hocken_, _desidere_, and adds, “mallem igitur deducere ab A.S. _Heah-tid_.” Kennett (_Paroch. Antiq._ p. 495) suggests the Saxon _headœg_, which answers to the French _haut-jour_.--See Brand, _Pop. Antiq._ 1849, vol. i. pp. 184-191.
It will be seen that this Coventry play was founded on the statement which had found a place in some of our chronicles as far back as the fourteenth century, that these games of hock-tide were intended to commemorate the massacre of the Danes on St. Brice’s Day, 1002; while others, alleging the fact that St. Brice’s Day is the 13th of November, suppose it to commemorate the rejoicings which followed the death of Hardicanute, and the accession of Edward the Confessor, when the country was delivered from Danish tyranny. Others, however, and probably with more reason, think that these are both erroneous explanations; and this opinion is strongly supported by the fact that Hock Tuesday is not a fixed day, but a movable festival, and dependent on the great Anglo-Saxon pagan festival of Easter, like the similar ceremony of heaving, still practised on the borders of Wales on Easter Monday and Tuesday. Such old pagan ceremonies were preserved among the Anglo-Saxons long after they became Christians, but their real meaning was gradually forgotten, and stories and legends, like this of the Danes, afterwards invented to explain them. It may also be regarded as a confirmation of the belief that this festival is the representation of some feast connected with the pagan superstitions of our Saxon forefathers, that the money which was collected was given to the church, and was usually applied to the reparation of the church buildings. We can hardly understand why a collection of money should be thus made in commemoration of the overthrow of the Danish influence, but we can easily imagine how, when the festival was continued by the Saxons as Christians, what had been an offering to some one of the pagan gods might be turned into an offering to the church. The entries on this subject in the old churchwardens’ registers of many of our parishes not only show how generally the custom prevailed, but to what an extent the middle classes of society took part in it.
In Reading these entries go back to a rather remote date, and mention collections by men as well as women, while they seem to show that there the women “hocked,” as the phrase was, on the Monday, and the men on the Tuesday.
In the registers of the parish of St. Laurence, under the year 1499, we have:
“Item, received of Hock money gaderyd of women, xx^{s.}
Item, received of Hock money gaderyd of men, iiij^{s.}”
In the parish of St. Giles, under the date 1535:
“Hoc money gatheryd by the wyves (women), xiij^{s.} ix^{d.}”
In St. Mary’s parish, under the year 1559:
“Hoctyde money, the mens gatheryng, iiij^{s.}
The womens, xij^{s.}”
In the “Privy Purse Expenses” of Henry VIII. for the year 1505, is the following entry:--
“May 2.--To Lendesay for the wiffs at Grenewiche upon Hock Monday, 3_s._ 4_d._”
Higgins, in his _Short View of English History_, says that, “At Hoctide the people go about beating brass instruments, and singing old rhymes in praise of their cruel ancestors.” Dr. Plot says that one of the uses of the money collected at _Hoketyde_ was the reparation of the several parish churches where it was gathered. This is confirmed by extracts from the _Lambeth Book_.--Brand, _Pop. Antiq._ 1849, vol. i. p. 189.
BERKSHIRE.
Some singular Hocktide customs observed at Hungerford are thus described in the _Standard_ of April 14th, 1874:--These customs are connected with the Charter for holding by the Commons the rights of fishing, shooting, and pasturage of cattle on the lands and property bequeathed to the town by John O’Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. The proceedings commenced on Friday evening with a supper, at which the fare was macaroni, Welsh rare-bits, watercress, salad, and punch. To-day--John O’Gaunt’s Day--known in the town as “Tuth” Day, the more important business of the season is transacted at the Town Hall, from the window of which the town-crier blows the famous old horn, which has done service on these occasions for many long years. The tything or “tuth” men thereupon proceed to the high constable’s residence, to receive their “tuth” poles, which are usually decorated with ribbons and flowers. The first business of these officials, who are generally tradesmen of the borough, is to visit the various schools and ask a holiday for the children; then to call at each house and demand a toll from the gentlemen, and a kiss from the ladies, and distribute oranges _ad libitum_ throughout the day, in expectation of which a troop of children follow them through the streets, which are for several hours kept alive by the joyous shouts and huzzas. The high constable is elected at the annual court held to-day, and one of the curious customs is the sending out by that officer’s wife of a bountiful supply of cheesecakes among the ladies of the place.
APRIL 20.] WORCESTERSHIRE.
The 20th of April is the great fair-day of Tenbury, and there is a belief in the county that the cuckoo is never heard till Tenbury fair-day, or after Pershore fair-day, which is the 26th of June.[35]--_N. & Q. 2nd S._ vol. i. p. 429.
[35] Formerly there prevailed a singular custom peculiar to the county of Shropshire, called the “cuckoo-ale,” which was celebrated in the month of May, and sometimes near the latter end of April. As soon as the first cuckoo had been heard all the labouring classes left off work, even if in the middle of the day, and the time was devoted to mirth and jollity over what was called the cuckoo-ale.--_Morning Post_, May 17th, 1821.
APRIL 23.] ST. GEORGE’S DAY.
St. George’s Day, though now passed over without notice, was formerly celebrated by feasts of cities and corporations, as we learn from Johan Bale, who, speaking of the neglect of public libraries, has the following curious apostrophe:
“O cyties of Englande, whose glory standeth more in bellye chere then in the serche of wysdome godlye. How cometh it that neyther you, nor your ydell masmongers, have regarded thys most worthy commodyte of your countrey? I mean the conservacyon of your antiquytees, and of the worthy labours of your lerned men. I thynke the renowne of suche a notable acte wolde have muche longar endured than of all your belly bankettes and table tryumphes, eyther yet of your newly purchased hawles to kepe St. Georges feast in.”--Preface to the _Laboryeuse Journey and Serche of John Lyelande for Englande’s Antiquitees_ in _Lives of Leland, Hearne, and Wood_, vol. i., sign C.
Among courtiers and people of fashion blue coats were worn on this day. Captain Face, a character in the _Ram Alley_, alludes to the custom among the knights:--
“Do you bandy tropes? By Dis I will be knight, Wear a blue coat on great St. George’s Day, And with my fellows drive you all from Paul’s.”
Dodsley’s _Old Plays_, vol. v. p. 486.
In Epigram 33 of _The Seconde Bowle_, by Thomas Freeman, 4to, 1614, quoted also in Dodsley’s _Old Plays_, vol. xii. p. 398, its this distich:
“With’s eorum nomine keeping greater sway, Than a Court blew coat on St. George’s Day.”
Dr. Forster, in his _Perennial Calendar_ (1824, p. 185), mentioning an allusion to this dress in Reed’s _Old Plays_ (vol. xii.), observes that it was probably because blue was the fashionable colour of Britain, over which St. George presides, and not in imitation of the clothing of the fields in blue, by the flowering of the blue-bells, as many have supposed.
The king’s spurs became the fee of the choristers at Windsor on installations and feasts on St. George’s Day. In the “Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VII.” is an entry under the year 1495:
“Oct. 1. At Windesor. To the children for the spoures.”
A similar disbursement occurs thrice in the Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VIII. in 1530.--_Med. Ævi Kalend._ vol. i. p. 214.
Strype, in his _Ecclesiastical Memorials_ (1822, vol. iii. pt. ii. p. 3), says, “April 23rd [1557], being St. George’s Day, the King’s grace went a procession at Whitehall, through the hall, and round about the court hard by the gate, certain of the Knights of the Garter accompanying him, viz., the Lord Mountagu, the Lord Admiral St. Anthony St. Leger, the Lord Cobham, the Lord Dacre, Sir Thomas Cheyne, the Lord Paget, the Earl of Pembroke, the Earl of Arundel, the Lord Treasurer, and Secretary Petre, in a robe of crimson velvet, with the garter embroidered on his shoulder (as Chancellor of the Garter). One bare a rod of black, and a doctor the book of records. Then went all the heralds, and then the Lord Talbot bare the sword, and after him the sergeant-at-arms. And then came the king, the Queen’s grace looking out of a window beside the court on the garden side. And the bishop of Winchester did execute the mass, wearing his mitre. The same afternoon were chosen three Knights of the Garter, viz., the Lord Fitz-Water, the deputy of Ireland; Lord Grey of Wilton, deputy of Guynes; and Sir Robert Rochester, comptroller of the Queen’s house. After, the duke of Muscovia (as that ambassador was usually termed) came through the hall and the guard stood on a row, in their rich coats, with halberts; and so passed up to the Queen’s chamber, with divers aldermen and merchants. And after came down again to the chapel to evensong, to see the ceremonies. And immediately came the king, (the Lord Strange bearing the sword), and the Knights of the Garter, to evensong, which done, they went all up to the chamber of presence. After came the ambassador, and took his barge to London.[36]
[36] See also Machyn’s _Diary_, 1848, p. 195.
BERKSHIRE.
The following is a curious account of the expenses for decorating a figure of St. George on this day, taken from Coates’s _History of Reading_, p. 221:
“_Charge of Saynt George._
“First payd for iij caffes-skynes, and ij horse-skynnes, iij^{s.} vj^{d.}
“Payd for makeying the loft that Saynt George standeth upon, vj^{d.}
“Payd for ij plonks for the same loft, viij^{d.}
“Payd for iiij pesses of clowt lether, ij^{s.} ij^{d.}
“Payd for makeyng the yron that the hors resteth upon, vj^{d.}
“Payd for makeyng of Saynt George’s cote, viij^{d.}
“Payd to John Paynter for his labour, xlv^{s.}
“Payd for roses, bells, gyrdle, sword, and dager, iij^{s.} iiij^{d.}
“Payd for settyng on the bells and roses, iij^{d.}
“Payd for naylls necessarye thereto, x^{d.} ob.”
CHESHIRE.
In a pamphlet entitled _Certayne Collections of Anchiante Times, concerninge the Anchante and Famous Cittie of Chester_ (already alluded to) and published in Lysons’ _Magna Britannia_, 1810, vol. ii. pt. ii. pp. 588-590, is the following account of races at one time annually held at Chester on St. George’s Day: In A.D. 1609, Mr. William Lester, mercer, being mayor of Chester, one Mr. Robert Amerye, ironmonger, sometime sherife of Chester (A.D. 1608), he, with the assent of the mayor and cittie, at his own coste chiefly, as I conceive, caused three silver cuppes of good value to be made, the whiche saide silver cuppes were, upon St. George’s Daye, for ever to be thus disposed. All gentlemen that would bringe their horses to the Rood-dee that daye, and there rune, that horse which with spede did over-rune the rest, should have the beste cuppe there presently delivered, and that horse which came seconde, nexte the firste, before the rest, had the seconde cuppe there also delivered, and for the third cuppe it was to be rune for at the ringe, by any gentleman that would rune for the same upon the said Rood-dee, and upon St. George’s Daye, being thus decreed, that every horse putt in soe much money as made the value of the cupps or bells, and had the money, which horses did winne the same, and the use of the cupps, till that day twelve month, being in bond to deliver in the cupps that daye, soe also for the cuppe for the ringe, which was yearly continued accordingly untill the yeare of our Lord 1623; John Brereton, inn-holder, being mayor of Chester, he altered the same after this manner and caused the three cupps to be sould, and caused more money to be gathered and added, soe that the intereste thereof woulde make one faire silver cuppe, of the value of £8, as I suppose, it may be more worth, and the race to be altered, viz., from beyonde the New-tower a great distance, and soe to rune five times from that place rownd about the Rood-dee, and he that overcame all the rest the last course, to have the cup freely for ever, then and there delivered, which is continued to this daye. But here I must not omitt the charge, and the solemnitie made, the first St. George’s daye; he had a poet, one Mr. Davies, who made speeches and poeticale verses, which were delivered at the high crosse before the mayor and aldermen, with shewes of his invention,[37] which booke was imprinted and presented to that famous Prince Henry, eldest sonne to the blessed King James, of famous memorie. Alsoe, he caused a man to go upon the spire of St. Peter’s steeple in Chester, and by the fane, at the same time he sounded a drum, and displayed a baner upon the top of the same spire. And this was the original of St. George’s race, with the change thereof.
[37] The following description of this show, written as it appears by Mr. Amorye himself, is copied from some Cheshire collections, among the Harleian MSS. No. 2150, f. 356. It appears that instead of three cups, as stated by Mr. Rogers, the prizes that year were two bells and one cup:
“The manner of the showe, that is, if God spare life and health, shall be seene by all the behoulders upon St. George’s Day next, being the 23rd April, 1610, and the same with more addytions to continue, being for the kyng’s crowne and dignitie, and the homage to the Kyng and Prynce, with that noble victor St. George, to be continued for ever.--God save the Kyng.
“Item.--Two men in greene liveries set with worke upon their other habit, with blacke heare, and blacke beards, very ougly to behoulde, and garlands upon their heads, with firworks to scatter abroad, to maintaine way for the rest of the showe.
“It. One on horseback, with the buckler and head-peece of St. George, and three men to guide him, with a drum before him, for the honor of Englande.
“It. One on horsebacke, called Fame, with a trumpet in his hand, and three men to guide him, and he to make an oration, with his habit in pompe.
“It. One called Mercury to descend from above in a cloude, his wings and all other matters, in pompe, and heavenly musicke with him; and after his oration spoken, to ryde on horsebacke, with his musicke before hym.
“It. One on horsebacke, with the Kynge’s arms upon a shield, in pompe.
“It. One called Chester, with an oration, and drums before him, his habit in pompe.
“It. One on horsebacke, conteening the Kynge’s crowne and dignity, with an oration in pompe.
“It. One on horsebacke with a bell, dedicated to the kynge, being double-gilt with the kynge’s armes upon it, carried upon a septer in pompe, and before him a noise of trumpets, in pompe.
“It. One on horsebacke, with an oration for the Prynce, in pompe.
“It. One on horsebacke, with a bell, dedicated to the Prynce, his armes upon it, in pompe, and to be carried on a septer, and before the bell, a noyse of trumpets.
“It. One on horsebacke, with a cup for St. George, carried upon a septer, in pompe.
“It. One on horsebacke, with an oration for St. George, in pompe.
“It. St. George himself on horseback, in complete armor, with his stag and buckler, in pompe, and before him a noyse of drums.
“It. One on horsebacke, called Peace, with an oration, in pompe.
“It. One on horsebacke, called Plentye, with an oration, in pompe.
“It. One on horsebacke, called Envy, with an oration, whom Love will comfort, in pompe.
“It. One on horseback, called Love, with an oration to maintaine all, in pompe.
“It. The Maior and his bretheren, at the pentes of this citye, with ther best apparell, and in scarlet; and all the orations to be made before him, and seene at the high crosse, as they passe to the Roodye, wher by Gent shall be runne for by thirr horses, for the two bells on a double staffe and the cup to be runne for at the rynge in some place by Gent and with a greater mater of the showe by armes, and shott, and with more than I can recyte, with a banket after in the Pentis to make welcome the Gent; and when all is done, then judge what you have seen, and so speak on your mynd, as you fynd the--
“Actor for the presente “Robert Amorye.”
“Amor is love, and Amorye is his name, That did begin this pomp and princelye game; The charge is great to him that all begun, Who now is satisfied to see all so well done.”
Notwithstanding Mr. Amorye had entertained the citizens so well in 1610, it was ordered in 1612 “that the sports and recreations used on St. George’s Day should in future be done by the direction of the Mayor and citizens, and not of any private person.”--_Corporation Records._
LEICESTERSHIRE.
At Leicester, the “Riding of the George” was one of the principal solemnities of the town. The inhabitants were bound to attend the Mayor, or to “ride against the king,” as it is expressed, or for “riding the George” or for any other thing to the pleasure of the Mayor and worship of the town.
St. George’s horse, harnessed, used to stand at the end of St. George’s Chapel, in St. Martin’s Church, Leicester.--Fosbroke, _Dict. of Antiq._
IRELAND.
St. George’s Day was at one time celebrated at Dublin with high veneration. In the Chain-book of the city of Dublin are several entries to that purpose:
“Item 1. It was ordered in maintenance of the pageant of St. George, that the Mayor of the foregoing year should find the Emperor and Empress with their train and followers well apparelled and accoutered, that is to say, the Emperor attended with two doctors, and the Empress with two knights, and two maidens richly apparelled to bear up the train of her gown.
“Item 2. The Mayor for the time being was to find St. George a horse, and the wardens to pay 3_s._ 4_d._ for his wages that day. The bailiffs for the time being were to find four horses, with men mounted on them, well apparelled, to bear the pole-axe, the standard, and the several swords of the Emperor and St. George.
“Item 3. The elder master of the guild was to find a maiden well attired to lead the dragon, and the clerk of the market was to find a golden line for the dragon.
“Item 4. The elder warden was to find for St. George four trumpets; but St. George himself was to pay their wages.
“Item 5. The younger warden was obliged to find the King of Dele and the Queen of Dele, as also two knights, to lead the Queen of Dele, and two maidens to bear the train of her gown, all being entirely clad in black apparel. Moreover, he was to cause St. George’s Chapel to be well hung in black, and completely apparelled to every purpose, and was to provide it with cushions, rushes, and other necessaries for the festivity of that day.”--Harris, _History of Dublin_, 1766, p. 146.
APRIL 24.] ST. MARK’S EVE.
In _Poor Robin’s Almanac_ for 1770 is the following:--
“On St. Mark’s Eve, at twelve o’clock, The fair maid will watch her smock, To find her husband in the dark, By praying unto good St. Mark.”
_Ass-ridlin_ is another superstition practised in the northern counties. The ashes being riddled or sifted on the hearth, if any of the family be to die within the year the mark of the shoe, it is supposed, will be impressed on the ashes; and many a mischievous wight has made some of the credulous family miserable by slyly coming down stairs, after the rest have retired to bed, and marking the ashes with the shoe of one of the members.--Jamieson, _Etymol. Dict._
NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.
On St. Mark’s Eve it is customary in this county for young maidens to make the _dumb-cake_, a mystical ceremony which has lost its origin. The number of the party never exceeds three; they meet in silence to make the cake, and as soon as the clock strikes twelve, they each break a portion off to eat, and when done they walk up to bed backwards without speaking a word, for if one speaks the spell is broken. Those that are to be married see the likeness of their sweethearts hurrying after them, as if wishing to catch them before they get into bed; but the maids being apprised of this beforehand (by the cautions of old women who have tried it), take care to unpin their clothes before they start, and are ready to slip into bed before they are caught by the pursuing shadow. If nothing is seen, the desired token may be a knocking at the doors, or a rustling in the house, as soon as they have retired. To be convinced that it comes from nothing else but the desired cause, they are always
## particular in turning out the cats and dogs before the ceremony begins.
Those that are to die unmarried neither see nor hear anything; but they have terrible dreams, which are sure to be of newly-made graves, winding-sheets, and churchyards, and of rings that will fit no finger, or which, if they do, crumble into dust as soon as put on. There is another dumb ceremony, of eating the yolk of an egg in silence and then filling the shell with salt, when the sweetheart is sure to make his visit in some way or other before morning.--_Every Day Book_, vol. i. p. 523.
YORKSHIRE.
In Yorkshire it is usual for the common people to sit and watch in the church-porch from eleven o’clock at night until one in the morning. In the third year, for this must be done thrice, it is supposed that they will see the ghosts of all those who are to die the next year pass into the church. When any one sickens, who is thought to have been seen in this manner, it is presently whispered about that he will not recover, for that such a one who has watched St. Mark’s Eve, says so. The superstition is in such force that, if the patients themselves hear of it, they almost despair of recovery, and many are actually said to have died by the influence of their imaginations on this occasion.
“‘’Tis now,’ replied the village belle, ‘St. Mark’s mysterious Eve; And all that old traditions tell I tremblingly believe.
‘How, when the midnight signal tolls, Along the churchyard green A mournful train of sentenced souls In winding-sheets are seen!
‘The ghosts of all whom Death shall doom Within the coming year, In pale procession walk the gloom Amid the silence drear.’”
Brand, _Pop. Antiq._ 1819, vol. i. p. 192; J. Montgomery, _Vigil of St. Mark_.
APRIL 25.] ST. MARK’S DAY.
This day is distinguished in old kalendars by a second appellation, _Litania Major_, which had reference to the prayers, and solemn processions of covered crosses on this day. It was frequently confounded with the processions of the Rogations, which depended upon the movable feast of the Ascension, and were also called Litanies, though it does not appear that the processions of St. Mark were ever called Rogations. A mistake of this kind was committed by the author of a Saxon homily on the Litania Major, by applying to it the term Gang Days, the Saxon name of the three days preceding Holy Thursday.--_Med. Ævi Kalend._ vol. i. p. 219.
NORTHUMBERLAND.
St. Mark’s Day is observed at Alnwick by a ridiculous custom in connection with the admission of freemen of the common, alleged to have reference to a visit paid by King John to Alnwick. It is said that this monarch, when attempting to ride across Alnwick Moor, then called the Forest of Aidon, fell with his horse into a bog or morass where he stuck so fast that he was with great difficulty pulled out by some of his attendants. Incensed against the inhabitants of that town for not keeping the roads over the moor in better repair, or at least for not placing some post or mark pointing out the particular spots which were impassable, he inserted in their charter, both by way of memento and punishment, that for the future all new created freemen should on St. Mark’s Day pass on foot through that morass, called the Freemen’s Well. In obedience to this clause of their charter, when any new freeman is to be made, a small rill of water which passes through the morass is kept dammed up for a day or two previous to that on which this ceremonial is to be exhibited, by which means the bog becomes so thoroughly liquified that a middle sized man is chin deep in mud and water in passing over it. Besides which, not unfrequently, holes and trenches are dug; in these, filled up and rendered invisible by the liquid mud, several freemen have fallen down and been in great danger of suffocation. In later times, in proportion as the new-made freemen are more or less popular the passage is rendered more or less difficult.
Early in the morning of St. Mark’s Day the houses of the new freemen are distinguished by a holly-tree planted before each door, as the signal for their friends to assemble and make merry with them. About eight o’clock the candidates for the franchise, being mounted on horseback and armed with swords, assemble in the market place, where they are joined by the chamberlain and bailiff of the Duke of Northumberland, attended by two men armed with halberds. The young freemen arranged in order, with music playing before them and accompanied by a numerous cavalcade, march to the west end of the town, where they deliver their swords. They then proceed under the guidance of the moorgrieves through a part of their extensive domain, till they reach the ceremonial well. The sons of the oldest freemen have the honour of taking the first leap. On the signal being given they pass through the bog, each being allowed to use the method and pace which to him shall seem best, some running, some going slow, and some attempting to jump over suspected places, but all in their turns tumbling and wallowing like porpoises at sea, to the great amusement of the populace, who usually assemble in vast numbers on this occasion. After this aquatic excursion, they remount their horses and proceed to perambulate the remainder of their large common, of which they are to become free by their achievement. In passing the open part of the common the young freemen are obliged to alight at intervals, and place a stone on a cairn as a mark of their boundary, till they come near a high hill called the Twinlaw or Tounlaw Cairns, when they set off at full speed, and contest the honour of arriving first on the hill, where the names of the freemen of Alnwick are called over. When arrived about two miles from the town they generally arrange themselves in order and, to prove their equestrian abilities, set off with great speed and spirit over bogs, ditches, rocks, and rugged declivities till they arrive at Rottenrow Tower on the confines of the town, the foremost claiming the honour of what is termed “winning the boundaries,” and of being entitled to the temporary triumphs of the day. Having completed the circuits the young freemen, with sword in hand, enter the town in triumph,[38] preceded by music, and accompanied by a large concourse of people in carriages, &c. Having paraded the streets, the new freemen and the other equestrians enter the Castle, where they are liberally regaled, and drink the health of the lord and lady of the manor. The newly-created burgesses then proceed in a body to their respective houses, and around the holly-tree drink a friendly glass with each other. After this they proceed to the market-place, where they close the ceremony over an enlivening bowl of punch.--_Antiquarian Repertory_, 1809, vol. iv. p. 387; _History of Alnwick_, 1822, pp. 304-309; _Gent. Mag._, 1756, vol. xxvi. p. 73.
[38] It appears by a traditionary account that at one time they were met by women dressed up with ribbons, bells, and garlands of gumflowers, who welcomed them with dancing and singing; they were called _timber-waits_, probably a corruption of _timbrel-waits_, players on timbrels, waits being an old appellation for those who play on musical instruments in the street.
In the _Lonsdale Magazine_ (1828, vol. iii. p. 312) occurs the following: On Wednesday (St. Mark’s Day) twelve persons were made free of the Borough of Alnwick, by scrambling through a muddy pool, and perambulating the boundaries of the moor.
STAFFORDSHIRE.
At the fairs held in Wednesbury on the 25th of April and 23rd of July (old style) a custom prevailed for many years called “Walking the Fair.” The ceremonies connected with it were conducted in the following manner: On the morning of the fair the beadle appeared in the market-place dressed for the occasion, and wearing as badges of his office a bell, a long pike, &c. To him assembled a number of the principal inhabitants of the parish, often with a band of music. They then marched in procession, headed by the beadle, through different parts of the town; called at the Elephant and Castle, in the High Bullen, drank two tankards of ale, and then returned into the market-place where they quenched their thirst again with the same kind of beverage. After this they dined together at one of the public-houses. The expenses incurred in this “Walking the Fair” were defrayed by the parish funds.--_Hist. of Wednesbury_, 1854, p. 153.
APRIL 26.] ROGATION SUNDAY.
Rogation Sunday received and retains its title from the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday immediately following it, which are called _Rogation Days_, derived from the Latin _rogare_, to beseech; the earliest Christians having appropriated extraordinary prayers and supplications for those three days, as a preparation for the devout observance of our Saviour’s Ascension on the day next succeeding to them, denominated Holy Thursday, or Ascension Day.
So early as the year 550, Claudius Mamertus, bishop of Vienne in France, extended the object of Rogation Days, before then solely applied to a preparation for the ensuing festival of the Ascension, by joining to that service other solemnities, in humble supplication for a blessing on the fruits of the earth at this season blossoming forth. Whether, as is asserted by some authors, Mamertus had cause to apprehend that any calamity might befall them by blight or otherwise at this particular period, or merely adapted a new Christian rite on the Roman _terminalia_, is a matter of dispute. Sidonius, bishop of Clermont, soon followed the example, and the first Council of Orleans, held in the sixth century, confirmed its observance throughout the Church. The whole week in which these days happen is styled Rogation Week; and in some parts it is still known by the other names of Cross Week, Grass Week, and Gang or Procession Week: Rogation, in token of the extraordinary praying; Cross, because anciently that symbol was borne by the priest who officiated at the ceremonies of this season; Grass, from the peculiar abstinence observed, such as salads, green-sauce, &c., then substituted for flesh; and Gang, or Procession, from the accustomed perambulations. Supplications and abstinence are yet enjoined by the Reformed Church, and also such part of the ceremony of the processions as relates to the perambulating of the circuit of parishes, conformably to the regulation made in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. One of our church homilies of the day is composed particularly for this occasion. “The people shall once a year, at the time accustomed,” says the injunction of that Sovereign, “with the curate and substantial men of the parish, walk about the parishes as they were accustomed, and at their return to church make their common prayers; provided that the curate in the said common perambulations, as heretofore in the days of Rogations, at certain convenient places, shall admonish the people to give thanks to God, in the beholding of God’s benefits, for the increase and abundance of his fruits upon the face of the earth, with the saying of Psalm civ., _Benedic, anima mea_, &c.: at which time also the same minister shall inculcate this and such like sentences, “Cursed be he which translateth the bounds and dales of his neighbour,” or such other words of prayer as shall be hereafter appointed.” The bearing of willow wands makes part of this ceremony.
Before the Reformation, the processions in this week were observed with every external mark of devotion; the Cross was borne about in solemn pomp, to which the people bowed the ready knee; with other rites considered of too superstitious a nature to warrant their continuance.--Brady, _Clavis Calendaria_, 1815, vol. i. p. 348.
BEDFORDSHIRE.
A certain estate in Husborne Crawley has to pay 4_l._ on Rogation Day, once in seven years, to defray the expenses of perambulating, and keeping up the boundaries of the parish.--_Old English Customs and Charities_, p. 116.
DORSETSHIRE.
On Monday in Rogation week was formerly held in the town of Shaftesbury or Shaston a festival called the Bezant, a festival so ancient that no authentic record of its origin exists.
The borough of Shaftesbury stands upon the brow of a lofty hill, and until lately, owing to its situation, was so deficient in water that its inhabitants were indebted for a supply of this necessary article of life to the little hamlet of Enmore Green, which lies in the valley below. From two or three wells or tanks, situate in the village, the water with which the town was provided was carried up the then precipitous road, on the backs of horses and donkeys, and sold from door to door.
The Bezant was an acknowledgment on the part of the mayor, aldermen and burgesses of the borough to the lord of the manor of Mitcombe, of which Enmore Green forms a part, for the permission to use this privilege; no charter or deed, however, exists among their archives, as to the commencement of the custom, neither are there any records of interest connected with its observances beyond the details of the expenses incurred from year to year. On the morning of Rogation Monday, the mayor and aldermen accompanied by a lord and lady appointed for the occasion, and by their mace-bearers carrying _the Bezant_, went in procession to Enmore Green. The lord and lady performed at intervals, as they passed along a traditional kind of dance to the sound of violins; the steward of the manor meeting them at the green, the mayor offered for his acceptance, as the representative of his lord, _the Bezant_,--a calf’s head, uncooked,--a gallon of ale, and two penny loaves, with a pair of gloves edged with gold lace, and gave permission to use the wells, as of old, for another year. The steward, having accepted the gifts, retaining all for his own use, except the Bezant, which he graciously gave back, accorded the privilege, and the ceremony ended.
The Bezant, which gives its name to the festival is somewhat difficult to describe.[39] It consisted of a sort of trophy, constructed of ribbons, flowers, and peacock’s feathers, fastened to a frame, about four feet high, round which were hung jewels, coins, medals, and other things of more or less value, lent for the purpose by persons interested in the matter;[40] and many traditions prevailed of the exceeding value to which in earlier times it sometimes reached, and of the active part which persons of the highest rank in the neighbourhood took in its annual celebration.
[39] Bezant being the name of an ancient gold coin, the ceremony probably took its name from such a piece of money being originally tendered to the lord of the manor.--_Book of Days_, vol. i. p. 585.
[40] Hutchins says this _beson_ or _byzant_ was so richly adorned with plate and jewels, borrowed from the neighbouring gentry, as to be worth no less than 1500_l._--_History of Dorset_, 1803, vol. ii. p. 425.
Latterly, however, the festival sadly degenerated, and in the year 1830, the town and the manor passing into the hands of the same proprietor, it ceased altogether, and is now one of those many observances which are numbered with the past. If this had not happened, however, the necessity for it no longer exists. The ancient borough is no longer indebted to the lord of the manor for its water, for, through the liberality of the Marquis of Westminster, its present owner, the town is bountifully supplied with the purest water from an artesian well sunk at his expense.--_The Book of Days_, vol. i. p. 585; Hutchins, _History of Dorset_, 1803, vol. ii. p. 425.
KENT.
In Rogation week, about Keston and Wickham, a number of young men meet together and with a most hideous noise run into the orchards, and, encircling each tree, pronounce these words:
“Stand fast, root; bear well top; God send us a youling sop! Every twig, apple big; Every bough, apple enow.”
For this incantation the confused rabble expect a gratuity in money, or drink, which is no less welcome; but if they are disappointed of both, they with great solemnity anathematize the owners and trees with altogether as insignificant a curse. It seems highly probable that this custom has arisen from the ancient one of perambulation among the heathen, when they made prayers to the gods for the use and blessing of the fruits coming up, with thanksgiving for those of the preceding year; and as the heathens supplicated Æolus, god of the winds, for his favourable blasts, so in this custom they still retained his name with a very small variation: this ceremony is called _youling_, and the word is often used in their invocations.--Hasted, _History of Kent_, vol. i. p. 109.
OXFORDSHIRE.
At Stanlake, says Plot, the minister of the parish, in his procession in Rogation Week, reads the Gospel at a barrel’s head, in the cellar of the Chequer Inn, in that town, where, according to some, there was formerly a hermitage, according to others a cross, at which they read a Gospel in former times; over which the house, and particularly the cellar, being built, they are forced to continue the custom.--_History of Oxfordshire_, 1705, p. 207.
STAFFORDSHIRE.
Among the local customs which formerly prevailed at Wolverhampton may be noticed that which was popularly called “Processioning.” Many of the older inhabitants can well remember when the sacrist, resident prebendaries, and members of the choir assembled at morning prayers on Monday and Tuesday in Rogation Week, with the charity children bearing long poles clothed with all kinds of flowers then in season, and which were afterwards carried through the streets of the town with much solemnity, the clergy, singing-men and boys, dressed in their sacred vestments, closing the procession, and chanting, in a grave and appropriate melody, the Canticle, _Benedicite, omnia opera_, &c. This ceremony, innocent at least, and not illaudable in itself, was of high antiquity, taking probably its origin in the Roman offerings of the Primitiæ, from which (after being rendered conformable to our purer worship) it was adapted by the first Christians, and handed down, through a succession of ages, to modern times. The idea was, no doubt, that of returning thanks to God, by whose goodness the face of nature was renovated, and fresh means provided for the sustenance and comfort of his creatures. It was discontinued about 1765.
The boundaries of the township and parish of Wolverhampton are in many points marked out by what are called _Gospel trees_, from the custom of having the Gospel read under or near them by the clergyman attending the parochial perambulations. Those near the town were visited for the same purpose by the _processioners_ before mentioned, and are still preserved with the strictest care and attention.--Shaw, _History of Staffordshire_, vol. ii.