Part 18

Far different from this is a stanza which is a great favorite with young girls on this day, offered indiscriminately, and of course quite innocently, to most of their acquaintances:

The rose is red, The violet's blue; Pinks are sweet, And so are you!

The mission of valentines is one of the very few old customs not on the wane; and the streets of our metropolis practically bear evidence of this fact in the distribution of love-messages on our stalls and shop-windows, varying in price from a sovereign to one halfpenny. Our readers, no doubt, will ask for its origin, and there we are at fault to begin with. The events of St. Valentine's life furnish no clue whatever to the mystery, although Wheatley, in his Illustration of the Common Prayer, absurdly disposes of the question in this way: "St. Valentine was a man of most admirable parts, and so famous for his love and charity, that the custom of choosing valentines upon his festival, which is still practised, took its rise from thence." We see no explanation here in any way satisfactory, and must be contented with the hope that some of our antiquaries may hit on something more to the purpose.

Valentine's day has long been popularly believed to be the day on which birds pair. Shakespeare alludes to this belief:

Good morrow, friends: St. Valentine is past; Begin these wood-birds but to couple now?

It was anciently the custom to draw lots on this day. The names of an equal number of each sex were put into a box, in separate partitions, out of which every one present drew a name, called the valentine, which was regarded as a good omen of their future marriage. It would appear from a curious passage quoted in my Dictionary of Archaisms, that any lover was hence termed a valentine; not necessarily an affianced lover, as suggested in Hampson's Calendarium, vol. i. p. 163. Lydgate, the poet of Bury, in the fifteenth century, thus mentions this practice:

Saint Valentine, of custom year by year Men have an usance in this region To look and search Cupid's calendere, And choose their choice by great affection: Such as be prick'd with Cupid's motion, Taking their choice as their lot doth fall: But I love one which excelleth all.

Gay alludes to another popular notion referring to the same day:

Last Valentine, the day when birds of kind Their paramours with mutual chirpings find, I early rose, just at the break of day, Before the sun had chas'd the stars away; Afield I went, amid the burning dew, To milk my kine, for so should housewives do. Thee first I spied; and the first swain we see, In spite of fortune shall our true love be.

The divinations practised on Valentine's day is a curious subject. Herrick mentions one by rose-buds:

She must no more a-maying; Or by rose-buds divine Who'll be her valentine.

Perhaps the poet may here allude to a practice similar to the following, quoted by Brand: "Last Friday was Valentine day; and the night before I got five bay-leaves, and pinned four of them to the four corners of my pillow, and the fifth to the middle; and then, if I dreamt of my sweetheart, Betty said we should be married before the year was out. _But to make it more sure_ I boiled an egg hard, and took out the yolk, and filled it with salt; and when I went to bed, eat it shell and all, without speaking or drinking after it. We also wrote our lovers' names upon bits of paper, and rolled them up in clay, and put them into water; and the first that rose up was to be our valentine. Would you think it? Mr. Blossom was my man. I lay abed, and shut my eyes all the morning, till he came to our house, for I would not have seen another man before him for all the world." According to Mother Bunch, the following lines should be said by the girl on retiring to rest the previous night:

Sweet guardian angels, let me have What I most earnestly do crave, A valentine endow'd with love, That will both kind and constant prove.

We believe the old custom of drawing lots on this eventful day is obsolete, and has given place to the favorite practice of sending pictures, with poetical legends, to objects of love or ridicule. The lower classes, however, seldom treat the matter with levity, and many are the offers of marriage thus made. The clerks at the post-offices are to be pitied, the immense increase of letters beyond the usual average adding very inconveniently to their labours.

"This iz Volantine day, mind, an be wot ah can see theal be a good deal a hanksiaty a mind sturrin amang't owd maids an't batchillors; luv sickness al be war than ivver wor nawn, espeshly amang them ats gettin raither owdish like; but all al end weel, so doant be daan abaght it. Ah recaleckt, when ah wor a yung man, ah went tut poast-office an bowt hauf a peck a volantines for tuppance, an when ah look't em ovver, thear wor wun dereckted for mesen, an this wor wot thear wor it inside:

Paper's scarce, and luv iz dear, So av sent ye a bit a my pig-ear; And if t'same bit case we yo, my dear, Pray send me a bit a yor pig-ear.

Ha, ah wor mad, yo mind, ah nivver look't at a yung womman for two days at after for't; but it wor becos ah hedant a chonce."—Yorkshire Dial.

YOULING.

In Rogation week there is or was an odd custom in the country about Keston and Wickham, in Kent. A number of young men meet together for the purpose, 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! E'ry twig, apple big; E'ry bough, apple enow. Hats full, caps full, Full quarter sacks full.

For this incantation the confused rabble expect a gratuity in money, or drink, which is no less welcome; but if they are disappointed in both, they, with great solemnity, anathematize the owners and trees with altogether as insignificant a curse.

"It seems highly probable," says Hasted, in his History of Kent, "that this custom has arisen from the ancient one of perambulation among the heathens, when they made their 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 Eolus, the god of the winds, for his favorable blasts, so in this custom they still retain his name, with a very small variation, the ceremony being called _yeuling_; and the word is often used in their invocations."

BOY'S BAILIFF.

An old custom, formerly in vogue at Wenlock, in Shropshire, thus described by Mr. Collins: "I am old enough to remember an old custom, and the last time it took place was about sixty years ago; it was called the 'boy's bailiff,' and was held in the Easter week, Holy Thursday, or in Whitsun week, and I have no doubt was for the purpose of going a bannering the extensive boundaries of this franchise, which consists of eighteen parishes. It consisted of a man, who wore a hair-cloth gown, and was called the bailiff, a recorder, justices, town-clerk, sheriff, treasurer, crier, and other municipal officers. They were a large retinue of men and boys mounted on horseback, begirt with wooden swords, which they carried on their right sides, so that they must draw the swords out of the scabbards with their left hands. They, when I knew them, did not go the boundary, but used to call at all the gentlemen's houses in the franchise, where they were regaled with meat, drink, and money; and before the conclusion they assembled at the pillory, at the guildhall, where the town-clerk read some sort of rigmarole which they called their charter, and I remember one part was—

We go from Bickbury and Badger to Stoke on the Clee, To Monkhopton, Round Acton, and so return we.

Bickbury, Badger, and Stoke on the Clee, were and are the two extreme points of the franchise, north and south; Monkhopton and Round Acton are two other parishes on the return from Stoke St. Millborough, otherwise Stoke on the Clee (or perhaps Milburga, the tutelar saint of the Abbey of Wenlock), to Much Wenlock. This custom I conceive to have originated in going a bannering, unless it should have been got up as a mockery to the magistracy of the franchise; but I rather think the former."

PACE-EGGING.

It is a custom in some parts of England for boys to go round the village on Easter eve begging for eggs or money, and a sort of dramatic song is sometimes used on the occasion. The following copy was taken down from recitation some years ago in the neighbourhood of York; but in another version we find Lords Nelson and Collingwood introduced, by a practice of adaptation to passing events, which is fortunately not extensively followed in such matters. A boy, representing a captain, enters and sings—

Here's two or three jolly boys all o' one mind, We've come a pace-egging, and hope you'll be kind; I hope you'll be kind with your eggs and your beer, And we'll come no more pace-egging until the next year.

Then old Toss-pot enters, and the captain, pointing him out, says—

The first that comes in is old Toss-pot you see, A valiant old blade for his age and degree; He is a brave fellow on hill or in dale, And all he delights in is a-drinking of ale.

Toss-pot then pretends to take a long draught from a huge quart-pot, and, reeling about, tries to create laughter by tumbling over as many boys as he can. A miser next enters, who is generally a boy dressed up as an old woman in tattered rags, with his face blackened. He is thus introduced by the captain:

An old miser's the next that comes in with her bags, And to save up her money, wears nothing but rags.

_Chorus._ Whatever you give us we claim for our right, Then bow with our heads, and wish you good night.

This is repeated twice, and the performance concludes by the whole company shouting to the top of their voice—

Now, ye ladies and gentlemen, who sit by the fire, Put your hands in your pockets, 'tis all we desire; Put your hands in your pockets, and lug out your purse, We shall be the better, you'll be none the worse!

"Pase-day, Easter-day. Pase-eggs, Easter-eggs. Corrupt. from Pasch. They have a proverbial rhyme in those parts for the Sundaies in Lent:

Tid, Mid, Misera, Carl, Paum, good Pase-day." Kennett, MS. Lansd. 1033.

COLLOP-MONDAY.

Collop Monday, Pancake Tuesday, Ash Wednesday, Bludee Thursday, Friday's lang, but will be dune, And hey for Saturday afternune!

Verses for Shrove-tide, Collop-Monday being a North-country name for Shrove-Monday, because eggs and collops compose a standard dish for that day. At Islip, in Oxfordshire, the children, on Shrove-Tuesday, go round to the various houses to collect pence, saying:

Pit-a-pat, the pan is hot, We are come a-shroving; A little bit of bread and cheese Is better than nothing. The pan is hot, the pan is cold; Is the fat in the pan nine days old?

"_Collap Munday._—This time reminds me on a bit ov a consarn at happand abaght two year sin, to a chap at thay call Jeremiah Fudgemutton. This Jerry, yo mun naw, went ta see a yung womman, a sweetheart a hiz, an when he put hiz arms raand her neck ta gie her a cus, it happand shood been hevin sum fried bacon to her dinner, an fagettan ta wipe t' grease off on her magth at after. Thear hiz faice slip't off on her chin-end, an slap went hiz head reight throot winda, an cut tip ov hiz noaze off."—Yorkshire Dial.

ISLE OF WIGHT SHROVERS.

Until within about the last thirty years, it had been the custom in the Isle of Wight from time immemorial at all the farms and some other charitable houses to distribute cakes on Shrove-Tuesday, called Shrove-cakes, to the poor children of the parish or neighbourhood, who assembled early in the morning at the different villages, hamlets, and cottages, in parties of from two to thirty or more, for the purpose of what was denominated "Going Shroving," and the children bore the name of _Shrovers_. At every house they visited they had a nice Shrove-cake each given them. In those days the winters were much more inclement and of longer duration than at the present time, and it often happened that, in addition to a severe frost, the ground was covered several inches high with snow, yet however cold or intense the weather, it did not prevent these little ones from what they called in the provincial dialect _Gwine a Shrovun_, and they jogged merrily along hand in hand from one house to another to obtain their cakes; but, before receiving them, it was expected and deemed necessary that they should all sing together a song suitable to the occasion; those who _sang the loudest_ were considered the _best Shrovers_, and sometimes had an extra cake bestowed on them; consequently, there was no want of noise (whatever there might have been of harmony) to endeavour to get another Shroving gift. There were many different versions of the song according to the parishes they lived in. The one generally sang by the children of the East Medina was as follows:

A Shrovun, a Shrovun, I be cum a Shrovun, A piece a bread, a piece a cheese, A bit a your fat beyacun, Or a dish of doughnuts, Aal of your own meyacun!

A Shrovun, a Shrovun, I be cum a Shrovun, Nice meeat in a pie, My mouth is verrey dry! I wish a wuz zoo well a-wet, I'd zing the louder for a nut![49]

_Chorus._ A Shrovun, a Shrovun, We be cum a Shrovun!

[Footnote 49: Composed of flour and lard, with plums in the middle, and made into round substances about the size of a cricket-ball. They were called _nuts_ or _dough-nuts_, and quite peculiar to the Isle of Wight.]

The song of the children of the West Medina was different:

A Shrovun, a Shrovun, I be cum a Shrovun, Linen stuff es good enuff, Vor we that cums a Shrovun. Vine veathers in a pie, My mouth is verrey dry. I wish a wuz zoo well a-wet, Then I'd zing louder vor a nut!

Dame,[50] dame, a igg, a igg,[51] Or a piece a beyacun. Dro awaay[52] the porridge pot, Or crock to bwile the peeazun. Vine veathers in a pie, My mouth is verrey dry. I wish a wuz zoo well a-wet, Then I'd zing louder vor a nut!

_Chorus._ A Shrovun, a Shrovun, We be cum a Shrovun!

[Footnote 50: Dame. The mistress of the house, if past the middle age, was called Dame, i. e. Madame.]

[Footnote 51: An egg, an egg.]

[Footnote 52: Throw away.]

If the song was not given sufficiently loud, they were desired to sing it again. In that case it very rarely required a second repetition. When the Shrovers were more numerous than was anticipated, it not unfrequently happened that, before the time of the arrival of the latter

## parties, the Shrove-cakes had been expended; then dough-nuts, pancakes,

bread and cheese, or bread and bacon, were given, or halfpence were substituted; but in _no instance_ whatever were they sent from the door empty-handed. It is much to be regretted that this charitable custom should have become almost extinct; there being very few houses at the present time where they distribute Shrove-cakes.

"There was another very ancient custom somewhat similar to the Shroving, which has also nearly, if not quite, disappeared; probably it began to decay within the last half-century: this was a gift of cakes and ale to children on _New Year's Day_, who, like the Shrovers, went from house to house singing for them; but, if we may judge from the song, those children were for the most part from the towns and larger villages, as the song begins, "_A sale, a sale in our town_;" there is no doubt but it was written for the occasion some centuries since, when "a sale" was not a thing of such a common occurrence as now, and when there was one, it was often held in an open field in or near the town." So writes my kind and valued correspondent, Captain Henry Smith, but _town_ is, I think, merely a provincialism for _village_. It is so, at least, in the North of England. As for the phrase _a seyal_, it seems to be a corruption of _wassail_, the original sense having been lost. The following was the song:

A seyal, a seyal in our town, The cup es white and the eal es brown; The cup es meyad from the ashen tree, And the eal es brew'd vrom the good barlie.

_Chorus._ Cake and eal, cake and eal, A piece of cake and a cup of eal; We zing merrily one and aal For a piece of cake and a cup of eal.

Little maid, little maid, troll the pin,[53] Lift up the latch and we'll aal vall in;[54] Ghee us a cake and zum eal that es brown, And we dont keer a vig vor the seyal in the town.

_Chorus._ W'ill zing merrily one and aal Vor a cake and a cup of eal; God be there and God be here, We wish you aal a happy New Year.

[Footnote 53: That is, turn the pin inside the door in order to raise the latch. In the old method of latching doors, there was a pin inside which was turned round to raise the latch. An old Isle of Wight song says,—

Then John he arose, And to the door goes, And he trolled, and he trolled at the pin. The lass she took the hint, And to the door she went, And she let her true love in.]

[Footnote 54: "Aal vall in," stand in rank to receive in turn the cake and ale.]

The above was the original song, but within the last fifty or sixty years, as the custom began to fall off, the chorus or some other part was often omitted.

EASTER-GLOVES.

Love, to thee I send these gloves, If you love me, Leave out the G, And make a pair of loves!

It appears from Hall's Satires, 1598, that it was customary to make presents of gloves at Easter. In Much Ado About Nothing, the Count sends Hero a pair of perfumed gloves, and they seem to have been a common present between lovers. In Devonshire, the young women thus address the first young man they happen to meet on St. Valentine's day—

Good morrow, Valentine, I go to-day, To wear for you what you must pay, A pair of gloves next Easter-day.

In Oxfordshire I have heard the following lines intended, I believe, for the same festival:

The rose is red, the violet's blue, The gilly-flower sweet, and so are you; These are the words you bade me say For a pair of new gloves on Easter-day.

LENT-CROCKING.

## Parties of young people, during Lent, go to the most noted farmhouses,

and sing, in order to obtain a _crock_ of cake, an old song beginning—

I see by the latch There is something to catch; I see by the string The good dame's within; Give a cake, for I've none; At the door goes a stone. Come give, and I'm gone.

"If invited in," says Mrs. Bray, "a cake, a cup of cider, and a health followed. If not invited in, the sport consisted in battering the house door with stones, because not open to hospitality. Then the assailant would run away, be followed and caught, and brought back again as prisoner, and had to undergo the punishment of roasting the shoe. This consisted in an old shoe being hung up before the fire, which the culprit was obliged to keep in a constant whirl, roasting himself as well as the shoe, till some damsel took compassion on him, and let him go; in this case he was to treat her with a little present at the next fair."

CARE-SUNDAY.

Care Sunday, care away, Palm Sunday and Easter-day.

Care-Sunday is the Sabbath next before Palm Sunday, and the second before Easter. Etymologists differ respecting the origin of the term. It is also called Carling-Sunday, and hence the Nottinghamshire couplet:

Tid, Mid, Misera, Carling, Palm, Paste-egg day.

APRIL-FOOL-DAY.

The custom of making fools on the 1st of April is one of the few old English merriments still in general vogue. We used to say on the occasion of having entrapped any one—

Fool, fool, April fool, You learn nought by going to school!

The legitimate period only extends to noon, and if any one makes an April-fool after that hour, the boy on whom the attempt is made, retorts with the distich—

April-fool time's past and gone, You're the fool, and I'm none!

MAY-DAY.

Rise up, fair maidens, fie, for shame, For I've been four lang miles from hame; I've been gathering my garlands gay; Rise up, fair maids, and take in your May.

This old Newcastle May-day song is given by Brockett, ii. 32. At Islip, near Oxford, the children go round the village on this day with garlands of flowers, singing—

Good morning, missus and measter, I wish you a happy day; Please to smell my garland, 'Cause it is the first of May.

HARVEST-HOME.

Here's a health unto our maister, The founder of the feast, And I hope to God wi' all my heart, His soul in heaven mid rest.

That everything mid prosper That ever he tiak in hand, Vor we be all his sarvants, And all at his command.

These verses were sometimes said in proposing the health of the farmer at a harvest-home supper. Another version of them is given in Hone's Table Book, ii. 334. When they have had a fortunate harvest, and the produce has been carried home without an accident, the following lines are sang at the harvest-home:

Harvest home, harvest home, Ne'er a load's been overthrown.

THE BARLEY MOW.

Here's a health to the barley mow, Here's a health to the man, Who very well can Both harrow, and plough, and sow. When it is well sown, See it is well mown, Both raked and gravell'd clean, And a barn to lay it in: Here's a health to the man, Who very well can Both thrash and fan it clean.

ALL-SOULS' DAY.

"November 2nd is All Souls, a day instituted by the Church of Rome in commemoration of all the faithful departed this life, that by the prayers and suffrages of the living they may be discharged of their purging pain, and at last obtain life everlasting. To this purpose the day is kept holy till noon. Hence proceeds the custom of Soul-mass cakes, which are a kind of oat-cakes that some of the richer sort of persons in Lancashire and Herefordshire (among the Papists there) use still to give the poor on this day; and they, in retribution of their charity, hold themselves obliged to say this old couplet:

"God have your saul, Beens and all."

—_Festa Anglo-Romana_, 1678, p. 109.

FIFTH OF NOVEMBER.