British Popular Customs, Present and Past / Illustrating the Social and Domestic Manners of the People. Arranged According to the Calendar of the Year.

Middlesex.

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

Northamptonshire.

The following is the rhyme formerly sung in this county:

Nottinghamshire.

At Clifton the following rhyme is sung:

Oxfordshire.

This is the Oxfordshire song chanted by the boys when collecting sticks for the bonfire, and it is considered quite lawful to appropriate any old wood they can lay their hands on after the recitation of these lines. If it happen that a crusty chuff prevents them, the threatening finale is too often fulfilled. The operation is called going a-progging. In some places they shout, previously to the burning of the effigy of Guy Fawkes,

Formerly, it was the custom for the undergraduates of Pembroke College, Oxford, to make verses on the 5th of November, and to have two copies of them, one to present to the master, the other to stick up in the Hall, and there to remain till a speech on this occasion was spoken before supper.—Pointer, Oxoniensis Academia, 1749, p. 109.

Sussex.

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

Westmoreland.

The following doggerel is sung in this county:

Wiltshire.

At Marlborough the rustics have the following peculiar custom at their bonfires. They form themselves into a ring of some dozen or more round the bonfire, and follow each other round it, holding thick club-sticks over their shoulders; while a few others, standing at distances outside this moving ring with the same sort of sticks, beat those which the men hold over their shoulders, as they pass round in succession, all shouting and screaming loudly. This might last half an hour at a time, and be continued at intervals till the fire died out.—N. & Q. 1st. S. vol. v. p. 355.

At Purton the boys, for several weeks before the 5th of November, used to go from house to house begging faggots for the bonfire, in the middle of which was burnt the effigy of Guy Fawkes. The following rhyme was sung on the occasion:

Yorkshire.

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

Blount, in his Fragmenta Antiquitatis (Beckwith, 1815, p. 565), gives the following account of a custom observed at Doncaster. He says at this place on the 5th November, yearly, whether it happens on a Sunday, or any other day in the week, the town waits play for some time on the top of the church steeple, at the time when the congregation are coming out of the church from morning service, the tune of “God Save the King.” This has been done for four-score years at least, and very possibly ever since the 5th of November has been a festival, except that formerly the tune played was “Britons, strike home.” The waits always receive from the churchwardens sixpence a-piece for this service.

Nov. 6.] ST. LEONARD’S DAY.

Nov. 6.]

ST. LEONARD’S DAY.

Essex.

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

Worcestershire.

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

Nov 9.] LORD MAYOR’S DAY.

Nov 9.]

LORD MAYOR’S DAY.

The office of Chief Magistrate of London was held for life till about 1214, nor was it until more than a hundred years afterwards that the title of Lord was given to the Mayor. This arose in the time of Richard II., on occasion of Walworth, the Mayor of the day, basely murdering Wat Tyler in Smithfield.

That which in later days has been called the Lord Mayor’s Show was but a degenerate copy of the old Pageant or Triumph, which assumed a variety of forms at different times, blending Paganism, Christianity, and chivalry in marvellous confusion. This, however, was not always the case, for at one time it became the fashion for the city to employ dramatists of note upon these matters; and there are yet extant certain pageants by Decker, Middleton, Webster, and others, though perhaps inferior writers.—Soane’s Curiosities of Literature.

With the processions, &c., of late years, most readers are sufficiently well acquainted from the newspapers of the day. Fully to describe those of former ages would require, however, a volume of no mean size; but some idea of their general character may be formed from the following brief sketch:—The first account of this annual exhibition known to have been published, was written by George Peele for the inauguration of Sir Wolstone Dixie, Knight, on the 29th of October (Old Style), 1585. On that occasion, as was customary to the times, there were dramatic representations in the procession of an allegorical character. Children were dressed to personify the city, magnanimity, loyalty, science, the country, and the river Thames. They also represented sailors, soldiers, and nymphs, with appropriate speeches. The show opened with a Moor mounted on a lynx. On Sir Thomas Middleton’s mayoralty, in 1613, the solemnity is described as unparalleled for the cost, art, and magnificence of the shows, pageants, chariots, morning, noon, and night triumphs. In 1655 the city pageants, after a discontinuance of about fourteen years, were revived. Edmund Gayton, the author of the description for that year, says that “our metropolis, for these planetary pageants, was as famous and renowned in foreign nations as for their faith, wealth, and valour.” In the show of 1659, an European, an Egyptian, and a Persian were personated. On Lord Mayor’s Day, 1671, the King, Queen, and Duke of York, and most of the nobility being present, there were “sundry shows, shapes, scenes, speeches, and songs in part;” and the like in 1672 and 1673, when the King again graced the triumphs. The King, Queen, Duke and Duchess of York, Prince Rupert, the Duke of Monmouth, foreign ambassadors, the chief nobility, and Secretary of State, were at the celebration of Lord Mayor’s Day in 1674, when there “were emblematical figures, artful pieces of architecture, and rural dancing, with pieces spoken on each pageant.”—See Hone’s Every Day Book, vol. i. p. 1445.

Nov. 11.] ST. MARTIN’S DAY.

Nov. 11.]

ST. MARTIN’S DAY.

The festival of St. Martin, happening at that season when the new wines of the year are drawn from the lees and tasted, when cattle are killed for winter food, and fat geese are in their prime, is held as a feast day over most parts of Christendom. On the ancient clog almanacs, the day is marked by the figure of a goose, our bird of Michaelmas being, on the continent, sacrificed at Martinmas. In Scotland and the north of England, a fat ox is called a mart[84] clearly from Martinmas, the usual time when beeves are killed for winter use.—Book of Days, vol ii. p. 568.

Salt Silver.

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

Buckinghamshire.

There is a house in Fenny Stratford, called St. Martin’s house, in the wall of which is a stone bearing the following inscription:—

“This house was settled on the parish officers of this town, for the annual observance of St. Martin’s Day.”—“Anno Domini 1752.”

The house is let at 5l. 4s. per annum, and the rent, after defraying the expense of repairs, is laid out in giving an entertainment to the inhabitants of the town.—Edwards, Old English Customs and Charities, 1842, p. 59.

Cambridgeshire.

Within the manor of Whitlesea there is a custom for the inhabitants to choose, on the Sunday next after the feast of St. Martin, two persons called storers, to oversee the public business, and likewise to provide a common bull, in consideration whereof they enjoy a certain pasture called Bull Grass; and the major part of the freeholders and copyholders at a meeting grant the grass every year to any person who will take it, to have the same from Lady-day till the corn is carried out of Coatsfield.—Blount’s Fragmenta Antiquitatis, 1815, p. 576.

Cumberland.

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

Warwickshire.

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

Yorkshire.

In the North Riding of Yorkshire it is customary for a party of singers, mostly consisting of women, to begin at the feast of St. Martin a kind of peregrination round the neighbouring villages, carrying with them a small waxen image of our Saviour adorned with box and other evergreens, and singing at the same time a hymn which, though rustic and uncouth, is nevertheless replete with the sacred story of the Nativity. The custom is yearly continued till Christmas Eve, when the feasting, or as they usually call it, “good living,” commences; every rustic dame produces a cheese preserved for the sacred festival, upon which, before any part of it is tasted, according to an old custom, she with a sharp knife makes rude incisions to represent the Cross. With this, and furmity made of barley and meal, the cottage affords uninterrupted hospitality.—Gent. Mag. 1811, vol. lxxxi. pt. i. p. 423.

IRELAND.

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

Nov. 13.] ST. BRICE’S DAY.

Nov. 13.]

ST. BRICE’S DAY.

The Stamford Bull Running.

—From time immemorial down to a late period this day was annually celebrated at the town of Stamford, in Lincolnshire, by a rough sport called bull-running. Butcher, in his Survey of Stamford (1717, pp. 76, 77), alluding to this custom, says:—“The butchers of the town at their own charge provide the bull, and place him over-night in a stable or barn belonging to the alderman. The next morning proclamation is made by the common bell-man of the town that each one shut up his shop-door and gate, and that none, upon pain of imprisonment, do any violence to strangers, for the preventing whereof (the town being a thoroughfare and then being in Term time) a guard is appointed for the passing of travellers through the same without hurt. That none have any iron upon their bull-clubs or other staff which they pursue the bull with. Which proclamation made, and all the gates shut up, the bull is turned out of the alderman’s house, and the men, women, and children, with all the dogs in the town, run after him, &c.”

According to tradition the origin of the custom dates from the time of King John, when, one day, William, Earl of Warren, standing on the battlements of the castle, saw two bulls fighting in the meadow beneath. Some butchers, coming to part the combatants, one of the bulls ran into the town, causing a great uproar. The earl, mounting his horse, rode after the animal, and enjoyed the sport so much that he gave the meadow in which the fight began to the butchers of Stamford, on condition that they should provide a bull, to be run in the town annually, on the 13th of November, for ever after.

There is no documentary evidence on the subject, but the town of Stamford undoubtedly holds certain common rights in the meadow specified, which is still termed the bull-meadow.—See Book of Days, vol. ii. p. 574.

Nov. 14.] St. ERCONWALD’S DAY.

Nov. 14.]

St. ERCONWALD’S DAY.

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

Nov. 17.] QUEEN ELIZABETH’S ACCESSION.

Nov. 17.]

QUEEN ELIZABETH’S ACCESSION.

Queen Elizabeth’s accession was long observed as a Protestant festival, and with the society of the Temple, the Exchequer, Christ’s Hospital, Westminster, and Merchant Taylors’ Schools, is, says Timbs, kept as a holiday. The Pope in effigy, in a chair of state, with the devil, a real person, behind him, caressing him, &c., was formerly paraded in procession on this day in the streets of London, and afterwards thrown into a bonfire. In Queen Anne’s time the Pretender was added to the Pope and the devil. There were also great illuminations in the evening. This anniversary was first publicly celebrated about 1570, twelve years after Elizabeth’s accession. (Timbs, Something for Everybody, p. 122.) Brayley in his Londiniana, vol. iv. p. 74, et seq., has given a very interesting account of these processions.

A correspondent of N. & Q. (1st S. vol. iv. p. 345) says that when he was at Christ’s Hospital the following curious custom prevailed on the 17th of November.

Two or more boys would take one against whom they had any spite or grudge, and having lifted him by the arms and legs, would bump him on the hard stones of the cloisters.

In reading Sir Roger de Coverley, with notes by Willis published in the Traveller’s Library, the same correspondent says that he found (at p. 134) what he considered a fair explanation. A full account is there given, he says, of the manner in which the citizens of London intended celebrating, in 1711, the anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s accession on the 17th of November, some parts of which would almost seem to have been copied during the excitement against the papal bull in November 1850. Probably therefore, originally, the unfortunate boy who had to endure the rude bumping by his schoolfellows was intended to represent the Pope or one of his emissaries, and that those who inflicted the punishment were looked upon as good Protestants.

Nov. 23.] ST. CLEMENT’S DAY.

Nov. 23.]

ST. CLEMENT’S DAY.

The festival day of St. Clement was formerly considered as the first day of winter, in which were comprised ninety-one days. From a State proclamation in 1540 it appears that processions of children were frequent on St. Clement’s Day; and, in consequence of a still more ancient custom of perambulating the streets on the night of this festival to beg drink for carousing, a pot was formerly marked against the 23rd of November upon the old runic or clog almanacs; but not upon all.—Med. Ævi Kalend. 1841, vol. i. p. 60.; Plot, History of Staffordshire, 1686, p. 430; see Gough’s Camden Brit. vol. ii. pt. xvi. p. 499.

Cambridgeshire.

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

Kent.

In Every Day Book (1826, vol. i. p. 1501) is the following account of an annual ceremony formerly celebrated on the evening of St. Clement’s Day, by the blacksmiths’ apprentices of the dockyard at Woolwich:—

One of the senior apprentices being chosen to serve as Old Clem (so called by them), is attired in a great coat, having his head covered with an oakum wig, face masked, and a long white beard; thus attired, he seats himself in a large wooden chair, chiefly covered with a sort of stuff called bunting, with a crown and anchor, made of wood, on the top and around it, four transparencies representing the “Blacksmiths’ Arms,” “Anchor Smiths at Work,” “Britannia with her Anchor,” and “Mount Etna.” He has before him a wooden anvil, and in his hands a pair of tongs and wooden hammer. A mate, also masked, attends him with a wooden sledge-hammer; he is also surrounded by a number of other attendants, some of whom carry torches, banners, flags, &c.; others, battle-axes, tomahawks, and other accoutrements of war. This procession, headed by a drum and fife, and six men with Old Clem mounted on their shoulders, proceed round the town, not forgetting to call on the blacksmiths and officers of the dockyard: here the money-box is pretty freely handed, after Old Clem and his mate have recited their speeches, which commence by the mate calling for order with,

Old Clem then recites the following speech:—

“I am the real St. Clement, the first founder of brass, iron, and steel, from the ore. I have been to Mount Etna, where the god Vulcan first built his forge, and forged the armour and thunderbolts for the god Jupiter. I have been through the deserts of Arabia; through Asia, Africa, and America; through the city of Pongrove, through the town of Tipmingo, and all the northern parts of Scotland. I arrived in London on the 23rd of November, and came down to his Majesty’s dockyard at Woolwich to see how all the gentlemen Vulcans came on there. I found them all hard at work, and wish to leave them well on the twenty-fourth.”

The mate then subjoins:

After having gone round the town and collected a pretty decent sum, they retire to some public-house, where they enjoy as good a supper as the money collected will allow.

Staffordshire.

On the feast of St. Clement, a custom exists in Staffordshire for the children to go round to the various houses in the village to which they belong singing the following doggerel:

The following rhyme is also sung:

WALES.

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

Nov. 24.] ST. CATHERINE’S EVE.

Nov. 24.]

ST. CATHERINE’S EVE.

In Strype’s Ecclesiastical Memorials (1822, vol. iii. pt. ii. p. 507) is the following notice of this festival:

“The 24th (1556) being St. Katharine’s Day (or rather Eve), at six of the clock at night St. Katharine went about the battlements of St. Paul’s Church accompanied with fine singing and great lights; this was St. Katharine’s procession.”

Nov. 25.] ST. CATHERINE’S DAY.

Nov. 25.]

ST. CATHERINE’S DAY.

Buckinghamshire.

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

Cambridgeshire.

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

Kent.

The following extract is taken from N. & Q. (2nd S. vol. v. p. 47):—On Wednesday (the 25th) night last the towns of Chatham, Rochester, and Brompton exhibited considerable excitement in consequence of a torchlight procession appearing in the streets, headed by a band of fifes and drums. Notwithstanding the late hour (eleven o’clock) a large number of persons of both sexes, accompanied the party. The demonstration was got up by the rope-makers of the dockyard, to celebrate the anniversary of the founder of the ropery (Queen Catherine). The female representing her Majesty (who was borne in a chair of state by six rope-makers) was dressed in white muslin, wore a gilt crown, and carried in her hand a Roman banner.

Northamptonshire.

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

St. Catherine being the patron of the spinners, as well as of spinsters, and spinning being formerly the employment of the females at the workhouse, it naturally followed that they should be selected to commemorate the anniversary of this Saint; and that this commemoration is of great antiquity appears from the early entries in the Dean and Chapter’s accounts of payments on St. Catherine’s Day for wheels and reels for the children of the workhouse.—Baker, Glossary of Northamptonshire Words and Phrases, 1854, vol. ii. p. 436.

A correspondent of N. & Q. (4th S. vol. ii. p. 332), alluding to the above custom, says that it was not confined to Peterborough, but was observed throughout the whole of the Northamptonshire lace-making districts, as well as in those of Bedfordshire. According to popular tradition the custom is derived from one of the Queens Catherine in the time of Henry VIII.—probably from Catherine Parr, who was a Northamptonshire woman. By some this day is called “Candle Day,” from its forming the commencement of the season for working at lace-making by candle-light.

Isle of Thanet.

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

Worcestershire.

In this county the children go round to the farmhouses collecting apples and beer for a festival, and sing the following lines:

The Chapter of Worcester have a practice of preparing a rich bowl of wine and spices, called the “Cathern bowl,” for the inhabitants of the college upon this day.—Halliwell’s Popular Rhymes, 1849, p. 238; see N. & Q. 2nd S. vol. iv. pp. 495, 496.

Nov. 30.] ST. ANDREW’S DAY.

Nov. 30.]

ST. ANDREW’S DAY.

The commencement of the ecclesiastical year is regulated by the feast of St. Andrew, the nearest Sunday to which, whether before or after, constitutes the first Sunday in Advent, or the period of four weeks which heralds the approach of Christmas. St. Andrew’s Day is thus sometimes the first and sometimes the last festival in the Christian Year.—Book of Days, vol ii. p. 636.

Kent.

Hasted, in his History of Kent (vol. ii. p. 757), speaking of the parish of Eastling, says that, on St. Andrew’s Day, there is a yearly diversion called squirrel-hunting in this and the neighbouring parishes, when the labourers and lower kind of people, assembling together, form a lawless rabble, and being accoutred with guns, poles, clubs and other such weapons, spend the greater part of the day in parading through the woods and grounds, with loud shoutings, and under pretence of demolishing the squirrels, some few of which they kill, they destroy numbers of hares, pheasants, partridges, and, in short, whatever comes in their way, breaking down the hedges, and doing much other mischief, and, in the evening betaking themselves to the ale-houses, finish their career there as is usual with such sort of gentry.

Middlesex.

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

Northamptonshire.

Tander and Tandrew are the names given to the festival of St. Andrew, of which they are corruptions.

The anniversary of this saint is, or rather was, kept by the lacemakers as a day of festivity and merry-making; but since the use of pillow-lace has in a great measure given place to that of the loom, this holiday has been less and less observed. The day in former times was one of unbridled licence: village “scholards” barred out their master; the lace schools were deserted; and drinking and feasting prevailed to a riotous extent. Towards evening the villagers used to become suddenly smitten with a violent taste for masquerading. Women might be seen walking about in male attire, while men and boys clothed in female dress visited each other’s cottages, drinking hot “eldern wine,” the staple beverage of the season. Then commenced the mumming.—Sternberg, Dialect and Folk Lore of Northamptonshire, 1851, p. 183; A. E. Baker, Glossary of Northamptonshire Words and Phrases, 1854, vol. ii. p. 326.

Sussex.

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

SCOTLAND.

In Scotland this day is called Andrys Day, Androiss Mess, and Andermess.

Singed sheep’s heads are borne in the procession before the Scots in London on St. Andrew’s Day.—Brand’s Pop. Antiq. 1849, vol. i. p. 415.

STIR UP SUNDAY.

The 25th Sunday after Trinity is called by the schoolboys “Stir Up Sunday,” from the collect used on that day; and they repeat the following lines without considering their irreverent application: