Popular Pastimes  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Related e

Wikipedia Wiktionary Shop Featured: Rhombicuboctahedron by Leonardo da Vinci

Popular Pastimes, Being a Selection of Picturesque Representations of the Customs & Amusements of Great Britain, in Ancient and Modern Times: Accompanied with Historical Descriptions (1816) is a book edited by Francis Philip Stephanoff

Full text

This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the information in books and make it universally accessible. https://books.google.com

} 1T 1} ។ o . Got 4 TE Popular Pastimes, BEING A SELECTION OF PICTURESQUE REPRESENTATIONS OF THE CUSTOMS & AMUSEMENTS OF England [ Appx Misc. GREAT BRITAIN , In Ancient and Modern Times ; Accompanied with HISTORICAL DESCRIPTIONS. Stort that wrinkled Carederides AndLaughter holding both his sides Milton LONDON :-PUBLISHED BY SHERWOOD, NEELY, AND JONES ; TAYLOR AND HESSEY ; J. M. RICHARDSON ; NORNAVILLE AND FELL ; AND MOLTENO. Printed by T. H. Coe, Little Carter Lane, St. Paul's . 1816. ESEALED USE FSB. HRTEN NICO CONTENT S. Foot Ball PAGE . 1 Exorcism 5 Misletoe 12 16 19 24 26 30 35 40 45 43 51 Riding the Stang Bull - Baiting Heaving Skimmington , or the Shrew Lord Mayor's Day Flitch of Bacon Cock - Fighting Milk Maids' Garland Chimney Sweepers' Dance. Guy Faux Selling a Wife Donkey Riding Parochial Perambulations The White Bull of St. Edmund's Bury St. Mark's Day The Fool Plough and Sword Dance Sowing Hemp - Seed Horse Racing St. Valentine's Day Twelfth Day St. David's Day 59 - 61 63 68 71 74 Il 79 81 87 93 103 iv CONTENTS. PAGE. - 107 . 109 Swearing in the Sheriffs Shrove Tuesday Whipping the Cock Smock Race - 116 121 Michaelmas Goose 122 Hawking or Falconry 123 The Binder is requested to insert the Prints opposite to the Page where the description of each subject is commenced. s 1 1 1 BELLA DT. Drawn byStephanof . FOOT BALL . Published 1,288 March Sherwood ,byPaternosur &cRow POPULAR PASTIMES, OR THE Customs & Amusements OF GREAT BRITAIN, IN ANCIENT AND MODERN TIMES. Foot - Ball. And nowe in the winter, when men kill the fat swine, Then get the Bladder and blow it great and thin, With many beans and peason put within : It ratleth, soundeth , and shineth clere and fayre, While it is throwen and caste up in the ayre , Eche one contendeth and hath a great delite With foote , and with hande the Bladder for to smite ; If it fall to grounde, they lifte it up agayne , And this waye tu labour they count it for no payne. BARCLEY'S ECLOGUES, 1508. The origin of Foot- BALL, like that of most other popular sports, is unknown ; neither has it been ascertained at what period it was first practised in this kingdom . It is supposed to have been one of the customary amusements of the populace as early as the reign of Henry II .; and that Fitz -Stephen alludes to this among other games at Ball, in his curious detail of the pastimes of the London citizens about that era . Shrovetide, ” he says, " after dinner, all the youths of the city go into the fields to play at Ball. The scholars of every school have their Balls; and the teachers also , that train up others to feats and exercises, have each of them their Ball. The aged and wealthy citizens ride forth on horseback to see the sports of these youngsters, and feel the ardour of their own youth revive, in beholding their agility and mirth .' In the reign of Edward III . the playing at Foot- Ball was prohibited, among other popular exercises, by public edict ; (anno 1349) not, perhaps, “ from any particular objection to « At B 2 POPULAR PASTIMES. 66 but ور the sport itself,” as Mr. Strutt has judiciously remarked, because it co- operated with other favourite amusements to impede the progress of archery ." In Scotland, also, the games at Foot- Ball and Golf, appear to have been twice prohibited : first, by James II . in 1457 ; and again in 1491 , by James IV . The “ Basilicon Doron ," of our English James I. has this passage, in reference to the establishment and pursuits recom mended by the king to his son prince Henry ; “ From this court, I debar all rough and violent exercises, as Foot- Ball, meeter for lameing, than making able the users thereof." The custom of playing at Foot - Ball on Shrove Tuesdays was very general, and it is even yet prevalent in the north . “ I was informed , ” says Mr. Brand, “ that at Alnwick castle, in Northumberland, the waits belonging to the town come playing to the castle every year on Shrove Tuesday, at two o'clock in the afternoon, when a Foot- Ball is thrown over the castle walls to the populace; and I saw this done February the 5th, 1788.” We learn, too, from the “ Statistical Account of Scotland,” that in the parish of Inverness, in Mid - Lothian , there is, on Shrove Tuesday, “ a standing match at Foot - Ball between the married and unmarried women , in which the former are always victors." Until within the last thirty or forty years, it was also customary for the scholars of the free school at Bromfield, in Cumberland, to depose the master, on Fast ing's Even ( Shrove Tuesday) , and exclude him from the school during three days; at the end of which time, if either by force or stratagem , he had not been able to re -obtain pos session, he agreed to certain stipulations in favour of the boys ; the immediate celebration of a Foot- Ball match and a Cock Fight, being always included. These matches were very keenly contested, and songs, in the phraseology of the district, were occasionally composed in honour of the victors; the following is a verse from one of them . At Scales, great Tom Barwise gat the Ba' in his band, And t'wives aw ran out, and shouted and bann'd ; Tom Cowan then pulch'd and fang bim ' mang t'whins, And he - bledder’d, .Od- White- te," tou's broken my shins. FOOT- BALL. 3 The ensuing passage has been quotedby Strutt from the MSS. of the elder Randle Holmes, the Cheshire antiquary, in the British Museum. “ It had been the custom time out of mind, for the shoemakers on Shrove Tuesday, to deliver to the drapers, in the presence of the mayor of Chester, at the cross on the Rodehee, one ball of leather, called a Foote - Ball, of the value of three shillings and four -pence, or above, to play at from thence to the Common Hall of the said city ; which practice was pro ductive of much inconvenience, and therefore this year ( anno 1540) , by consent of the parties concerned , the Ball was changed into six glayves of silver, of the like value, as a re ward for the best runner that day, upon the aforesaid Rode hee. ” King, also, in his Vale Royal of England, acquaints ús, that in the year 1533, “ the offering of Ball and Foot - Balls was put down, and the silver bell offered to the mayor on Shrove Tuesday.” The “ Satyre against Separatists,” printed in 1675, shews that it had been customary for the London ap prentices to play at Foot -Ball in Finsbury fields on holydays, as Shrove - tide and May-day. In the north of England, says Brand, among the colliers, it is usual for a party to watch the bridegroom's coming out of the church after the ceremony, in order to demand money for a Foot- Ball, a claim that admits of no refusal. In the game of Foot - Ball, the rival competitors generally belong to different parishes or townships : the number on each side is variable, according to circumstances. In set matches the most athletic and active young men are selected to play, the fame of their respective neighbourhoods being considered as at stake on the issue . An extensive field, or common , is fixed on for the sport, and when the respective goals are prepared, the game is commenced. In some cases the Ball is thrown up midway between the parties ; in others, it is determined by lot, which party shall have the first kick. The struggle (du ring which the most violent blows on the legs and shins are frequently given, as well as rude shocks to the body, from the rough jostling of the players), is then continued with B2 4 POPULAR PASTIMES. the greatest animation and spirit, till the Ball is fairly kicked through the goal of one or other of the contending par ties : this ends the game. The opposite goals, corruptly termed goes in some counties, are usually made by driv ing two sticks into the ground, at about three feet distance from each other. The common Foot- Ball is nothing more than a blown bladder ; but that of the regular players is a bladder covered with leather, which opposes a much greater resistance to thorns and prickles, and is of course far more durable . One of the most considerable matches at Foot- Ball in mo dern times, was played on the 4th of December, 1815, on the extensive plain of Catterhaugh, in Scotland, near the junction of the rivers Ettrick and Yarrow . It was contested between the Dale -of - Yarrow men and those of Selkirk, both sides being joined by numerous individuals from other parishes. The duke of Buccleuch and Queensbury, with his sons, the young earl of Dalkeith, and lord John Scott, the countess of Home, and many other persons of rank and respectability, were present ; and the armorial banner of the Buccleuch family, a curious and venerable relique, emblazoned with the word “ Bellendaine," the ancient war cry of the clan of Scott, was displayed, as in former times, when the chief took the field in person. The Ball was thrown up by the duke himself, and after a close conflict of an hour and a half, the first game was won by the Selkirk men . The second game produced a stubborn struggle ofthree hours continuance, during which much agility and strength were exerted by both parties ; it was then gained by the Yarrow men. The decisive game could not be played, the waning of the day, and some confusion in ar ranging the voluntary auxiliaries, making it expedient to close the contest : before quitting the ground , however, a challenge was given and accepted for a grand match between one hundred picked men on each side, to be played at a future time, and all lost bets to be paid to the poor of the winning parish. Some idea of this important match may be obtained from the ac companying print.

000 2 delt Stephanoff EXORCISM . Published March 1,1826 Sherwood byC.Paternoster &Row . 5 Exorcism. Exorcism is a religious custom, which seems coeval with the earliest attempts at public worship, even in savage life, and is still a solemn rite of the Romish church, the believers in which maintain that their priesthood has the power of expel ling devils, or demons, from the bodies of possessed persons. The word is derived from the Greek ešopxočelv, signifying to abjure, or conjure ; yet, in point of fact, the conjuration ought to be regarded as the formula only, by which the evil spirit is commanded to depart from , or relinquish his hold on the diseased patient, whilst Exorcism is the ceremony entire. DEMONIACAL POSSESSION has engaged the attention of many learned men, both in ancient and modern times, and numerous arguments have been urged as well in defence of its reality as in attestation of its falsehood. The idea, itself, is of extreme age, and the established theology of the heathen world , from its earliest rise until its final extinction, was in a considerable de gree founded on the basis of demonism . The sacred writings furnish abundant evidence that a belief in frequent possession was common both to the Jews and the Gentiles, many ages prior to the Christian era ; and Josephus, the Jewish historian, asserts, that the method of Exorcism prescribed by Solomon , “ prevailed , or succeeded greatly" among the Jews, “ even to his time." The Catholics (who at the present day are the principal up holders of the utility of Exorcism ), infer from various passages of the New Testament, that our Saviour and his Apostles countenanced the doctrine of real possession ; and even among protestant divines of great learning and unimpeachable good ness, there are some who maintain a similar opinion. “ It is impossible for me,” says Dr. Campbell, “ to deny the existence of possessing demons, without admitting that the sacred histori ans were either deceived themselves in regard to them, or in 6 POPULAR PASTIMES. tended to deceive their readers.” But in contravention of this testimony, as Dr. Sykes, and other polemics have remarked, it should be remembered that it was customary with the ancient historians, with the sacred writers, and with Jesus himself, to use the language of the vulgar, although known and admitted to have been originally grounded on a false philosophy, or a debasing superstition . We are not warranted to conclude, how ever, merely from the circumstance of the sacred writers adopting the common phraseology of the time, that they there by gave sanction to the system which it favoured, any more than we are justified in ascribing an erroneous hypothesis to the naturalist, who, in accordance with the prevailing modes of expression, tells us that the “ dew falls ,” the “ sun sets," and the " moon changes.” With the Jews it was a very pre valent opinion, though not peculiar to them , that evil spirits frequented desolate places ; yet, because Jesus in his address to that people alludes to it for the purposes of useful instruction , shall we then represent him as entertaining and sanctioning the vulgar belief ! Many are the expressions of our Saviour, which it is impossible to understand in a literal sense, and should therefore have given to them that liberal interpretation which an impartial judgment awards. How else can we be convinced of the propriety of the command recorded by St. Mark, ( chap. ix. verse 25) . “ Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee come out of him .” . It was no unusual thing with Christ to address the elements and other objects equally insensible, as agents endowed with reason and liberty. He “ rebuked” the “ winds,” and the “ seas," saying “peace, be still." He “ rebuked ," a " fever," and it left the afflicted ; and to the « dead ,” he said , “ arise !" With these instances before us we can have little hesitation to ascribe the language of scripture, in reference to demoniacal possession , to the then popular be lief in its reality, which required a conformity of expression in order to be the more clearly understood . In remote ages, when the cause and nature of diseases were but little known , the credulous and vulgar were easily prevailed EXORCISM . 7 on to credit the notion of maniacs and epileptics, being really possessed by evil spirits ; yet even in those days the enquirers into truth very soon pronounced, that what commonly passed for demoniacal possessions were merely natural disorders. The learned Hippocrates wrote his book Περι Τηρης Νοση expressly to shew that the epilepsy has nothing in it super -human more than any other distemper; and that those, who, ascribing it to the agency of the gods, undertook to cure it by expiations and charms, were alike ignorant and impious. Plotinus also, a plato nist of the third century, speaks of those who pretended to cure disorders by expelling demons, as “ admired only by the vulgar ;" whilst they were despised by men of sense, who believed “ that all diseases proceed from natural causes :" we learn too from Origen, that in his time physicians accounted in a natural way for disorders imputed to demons, although he himself con demned them for so doing. 6. The doctrine of demoniacal possessions,” says Farmer, who has written extensively upon the subject, ” is so manifestly repugnant to the perfections of God, to the wisdom, equity, and goodness of the divine government, and to that fixed order of causes and effects which we discover in every part of nature, and particularly in the human system , that few , per haps, in this enlightened age, would appear in its defence, were it not from an apprehension that it is supported by the authority of revelation ;" yet that this surmise is absolutely groundless is evident from the whole tenor of the scriptures, the fundamental principles, both of the Jewish and Christian dispensations being utterly inconsistent with such a belief, and fully demonstrative of the fact, that there never was, nor can be, a real demoniac. One of the last instances of supposed demoniacal possession among protestants, was that of George Lukins, who was a na tive of Yatton , in Somersetshire, and had been brought up a tailor. This person about the year 1770, whilst go ing round the neighbourhood with other young fellows, acting Christmas plays or mummeries, suddenly fell down 8 POPULAR PASTIMES. senseless, struck, as he conceived, by an invisible hand, which was thus allowed to punish him for the part he was then playing, though his general conduct through life had been com mendable and pious. He was recovered with difficulty, and from that period became subject to fits of a most singular and dreadful nature, which continued with more or less violence during eighteen years. Whilst under the influence of these deplorable seizures, his countenance became greatly distorted , and his actions convulsive and violent to an extraordinary de gree. He would then in a roaring voice declare himself to be the devil, and with horrid execrations summon around him certain invisible agents, commanding them to torture the pos sessed by all the diabolical means possible. He would next at the presumed order of the demon, sing hunting and pas toral songs in different tones ; in one part imitating a delicate female, in another singing in his own character, and again changing his voice, would personate the demon himself with hoarse and appalling modifications of sound, that bore no resem blance to any thing human . He would afterwards sing an “ in verted Te Deum , ” in the alternate voices of a man and woman , who, with much profaneness would thank the demon for hav ing given them so much power. The demon himself would seem to conclude the paroxysm by declaring, that he would punish him for ever ; and then, after barking furiously, and strongly asserting his own diabolical dignity, he appeared to quit his prey, and the patient recovered from the fit, though utterly exhausted and helpless. At other times Lukins would mimic various animals, particularly the dog, and would both act and bark like one for a long while. The general time of the du ration of his fits was about an hour. Various medical means were tried by different persons to relieve him, but all without avail, and he became wretchedly exhausted and debilitated. At length, about 1788, Lukins began to declare that he was possessed by seven devils, and that nothing would avail but the united prayers of seven clergymen , who could ask de liverance for him in faith . Some time elapsed before a suffi EXORCISM . 9 cient number of divines could be found to engage in such an unusual service ; but eventually the Rev. J. Easterbrook , vicar of Temple church, Bristol, and several ministers of the West leian sect, assembled in the vestry room of Temple church , on June the 13th in the above year. Here Lukins being present, they began by singing a hymn, which seemed to throw him into strong convulsive agitations, “ very different from his usual sei zures,” and his face was variously distorted. His right hand and arm then began to shake with violence, which was always customary at the commencement of his fits, and after some vio lent throes he spake in a deep, hoarse, hollow voice, “ per sonating an invisible agent,” upbraiding him as a fool for bringing that silly company together, and swearing by his “ infernal den ," that he would never quit hold of him, but would torment him a thousand times worse for making this vain attempt. The residue of the fit was nearly a repetition of his former seizures ; but mingled with more direful imprecations, and greater apparent agony . At last, after one of the clergymen had several times abjured the evil spirit to depart from him in the name of “ Jesus, and in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost,” he exclaimed with dreadful how lings, “ Must I give up my power ?” and soon after, in another voice, as if with astonishment, “ Our Master has deceived us ! " The abjuration was then repeated , and a voice asked , “ Where shall we go? ” the reply was, “To Hell, thine own infernal den , and return no more to torment this man .” On this, the agita tion, howlings, and contortions of Lukins were stronger than ever : but as soon as the conflict was over, he said, in his own natural voice, “ Blessed Jesus ; ” and becoming quite serene, immediately praised God for his deliverance, and returning the most devout thanks to all present, went away entirely relieved from his fits and supposed possession, but subject to great weakness and nervous debility. His case occasioned much controversy in the western parts of England, and some accused him of imposture ; but the facts were, that both mind and body were disordered by the effects of epilepsy. 10 POPULAR PASTIMES. The learned Selden, speaking on the subject of demoniacal possession, asks, “ Why have we now none possest with devils in England ?" the old answer is, the devil hath the Protestants already, and the Papists are so holy he dares not meddle with them ! He further adds, “ Casting out devils is mere juggling ; they never cast out any but what they first cast in. They do it, where for reverence no man shall dare to examine it ; they do it in a corner, in a mortice -hole, not in the market place. They do nothing but what may be done by art ; they make the devil Ay out of the window in the likeness of a bat or a rat ; why do they not hold him ? why in the like ness of a Bat or a Rat, or some other creature ? and why not in the shape we paint him in, with claws and horns ?" In reply to these pertinent questions, it has been remarked , that real Bats and Rats may be procured, but every carver is not to be trusted with the making a horned or cloven - footed image of the devil. The Exorcist of the Romish Church is a priest or tonsured clerk , who has received the four lesser orders. The fourth council of Carthage appoints, that in the ordination of Exor cists, the bishop, putting the book of Exorcisms in their hands, shall say these words, “ Receive it, and keep it in remembrance, and have power to lay hands on energumeni, whether baptized or catechumens ;' and this form still obtains. The exorcising an haunted house, appears, from the ancient Form (which is given at length in Bourne's Antiquitates Vul gares ), to be attended with considerable difficulty , the priest being ordered to visit it for an entire week, and commencing at the gates, on Monday, to proceed by degrees, daily, through the whole habitation, repeating certain prayers, psalms, ejacula tions, &c. till on the following sabbath , placing himself “ in one of the largest and most sumptuous parts of the house, he shall direct this Exorcism to the Demons that haunt it.. “ I exorcise you , o ye Demons, who have thus boldly presumed to invade this habitation of men, and give such disquietude to its inhabitants, by the triune God, whose is the earth and the fulness thereof, the round world, and they that dwell EXORCISM. il therein ; by our Lord Jesus Christ, who, continuing what he was, made himself man, conceived by the Holy Ghost, and born of a Virgin, and who for our sakes, when he had undergone many sufferings, underwent also the torment of the cruel Cross, upon which he bowed his head, and gave up the Ghost, that he might obtain for us, abundant grace in the present life, and in the world to come, life everlasting : -By all the grace acquired for us, by the grace of faith conferred in baptism, of fortitude in confirmation , of charity in the eucharist, of justice in pe nance, of hope in extreme unction, of temperance in matri mony, and of prudence in holy orders, and by all holy men and women, the saints of God , who now inherit eternal glory, and by all their merits, that you remove this your presumptuous power from this house, and continue here no longer, nor any more vex its inhabitants.” The priest is then to exorcise and bless the house by a parti cular formula, and “ the image of our SAVIOUR upon the Cross," is to be “ erected in an open part of the principal room ,” after which , “ let the priest sprinkle the whole house from top even to the bottom ,” saying a “ lesson ” from the 19th chap. of St. Luke, which regards the interview between Jesus and Zaccheus. The ceremony is then ended, by hanging up at the four corners of the house, the herb abyssum , “ after it has been signed with the cross. " The annexed print represents a recent example of Exorcism , which took place in one of the Roman Catholic dis tricts, in England: the evil spirit is there depicted as an owl, and most probably was so in reality. Another instance of the existing superstition of the Catholics has just occured at Basle, in Switzerland; where the ceremony of the “ Greater Excom munication ” was solemnly performed against the Field Mice, for making depredations on the grain . Pliny asserts, that anciently houses were hallowed with brimstone against evil spirits. How curious the change ! In modern times diabolical visitations are almost always accom panied by a scent of burning sulphur. C2 12 POPULAR PASTIMES. Misletoe. When Rosemary and Bays, the poet's crown, Are bawled in frequent cries through all the town ; Then judge the festival of Christmas near, Christmas, the joyous period of the year ! Now with bright Holly all the temples strew, With Laurel green , and sacred MISLETOE. GAY'S TRIVIA. The custom of decking our churches and habitations with evergreens, has existed from the very establishment of Christi anity, and was unquestionably derived from the like similar practice of our Pagan ancestors. “ Trimming of the temples, " says Polydore Virgil, “ with hangyngs, floures, boughes, and garlondes, was taken of the Heathen people, whiche decked their idols and houses with such array. ” The Celts and Goths were alike distinguished for the respectful veneration which they entertained for the MISLETOE, and for the solemn rites with which they gathered it about that period of the year, when the sun approached the winter solstice. We find also, from Virgil's, “ comparison of the golden Bough in Infernis, to the Misletoe,” that the “ use of this plantwas not unknown in the religious ceremonies of the Greeks, of whose poets he was the acknowledged imitator." The Druids were particularly famed for the distinguished regard which they paid to the Misletoe of the Oak; they attri buted to it numerous virtues, and are stated to have wrought wonderful cures by its means : it was conceived to be a sure remedy for sterility in women, an antidote to poison, and a cure for epilepsy. At certain seasons of the year, especially at Yule- tide, or Christmas, they were accustomed to gather it with great solemnity, and the sacrifice of two milk white bullocks that had never been yoked, nor, till then, had their horns bound up. It was cut from the tree with a golden bill, or pruning knife, by a priest habited in a white vestment, and was received into a white woollen cloth : many orations were then made over it, and the ceremony being deemed complete, the “ sacred ” plant was preserved for use with religious care , THE MISTLETOE . Published March 2,2826 bySherwood &C.Paternoster Row

MISLETOE. 13 Dr. Stukeley ( Med. Hist. of Carausius), speaking of the great Druidical festival, observed at the winter solstice, or Yule-tide, says, that the Druids carried Misletoe, which they called All - heal, in their hands, and laid it on their altars, as an emblem of the salutiferous advent of Messiah .” This cus tom , he continues, “ is still preserved in the north, and was lately at York : on the eve of Christmas -day they carry Misletoe to the high altar of the cathedral, and proclaim a public, and universal liberty, pardon , and freedom to all sorts of inferior and even wicked people, at the gates of the city, towards the four quarters of Heaven . ” In the solemn procession which the Druids made when about to cut the Misletoe, they were accustomed to “ invite, ” as Borlase terms it, “ all the world ” to assist at the ceremony, with words importing, “ The New Year is at hand , gather the Misletoe.” A remnant of this practice was lately to be met with in some parts of France, where at New Year's tide the young villagers went round to the different inhabitants, and at their doors wished them good fortune, with the cry “ Au guy l'an neuf ; " or, “ To the Misletoe this New Year :" guy being a Celtic name for the oak, and by courtesy , for its parasitical intruder, the Misletoe. The above sentence has been strangely corrupted , and having been formed into one word by a rapid pronunciation , is said by Menage ( Dict. tom. i . ) , to have been changed to Aguinaldo, in Spain ; to Aguilanneu, in Touraine ; to Hoguinanno, in Lower Normandy, where the poor employ it in asking alms on the last day of the year. In other parts of France, where it is used to a somewhat similar purpose, that is, requesting a gift, it has merged into Aguila neuf, as appears from Douce's “ Illustrations of Shakespear, " in which the following lines are given on the authority of M. Oli vier, as being used by the common people on New Year's Day. Aguilaneuf de céans On le vois a sa fenêtre, Avec son petit bonnet blanc, Il dit qu'il sera le Maitre, Mettera le pot au feu ; Donnez nous ma bonne Dame Donnez nous Aguilaneuf. gue or 14 POPULAR PASTIMES. The Druids had an extraordinary veneration for the num ber three, and on this principle, says Vallancey, in his “ Gram mar of the Irish Language,” it was, that the Misletoe was held so sacred by them , since “ not only its berries but its leaves also , grow in clusters of three, united on one stock .” The inhabitants of Elgin, and the shire of Moray, in Scotland, according to the account written by the Rev. Mr. Shaw , are accustomed, at the full moon in March, to cut withes of the Misletoe, or Ivy, and making circles of them , to keep them all the year, pretending therewith to “ cure hectics and other troubles. ” Sir John Colbatch, in his “ Dissertation concerning Misle toe,” remarks, “ that this beautiful plant must have been de signed by the Almighty for further and more noble purposes than barely to feed thrushes, or to be hung up superstitiously in houses to drive away evil spirits. ” Under this persuasion , and from a consideration of its properties, he strongly recom mends it as a medicine very likely to subdue not only the epi lepsy, but all other convulsive disorders : he also attempts to prove, that though the Druids had particular reasons for pre ferring the Misletoe of the Oak, yet that that of the crab -apple, the lime, the pear, or any other tree, is of equal virtue.” The vulgar notions are, that the Misletoe of the oak , which is very rare, is a cure for wind ruptures in children, whilst that of the apple is good for fits. The late Rev. Mr. Brand, in allusion to Gay's mention of the Misletoe among those evergreens that were accustomed to be put up in churches, observes, that after many inquiries, it is his opinion “ it never entered those sacred edifices, but by mistake or ignorance of the sextons. ” This opinion, however, is incorrect : we have already, on Dr. Stukeley's authority, stated its public admission into York cathedral; and we learn that it is still suffered to be put up (without scruple by the incumbent) in many of our churches at Christmas, where it remains with the other evergreens, till Candlemas-day. Coles, speaking of this plant in his “ Art of Simpling,” which was MISLETOE. 15 published at London in 1656, says , “ it is carried many miles to set up in houses about Christmas time, when it is adorned with a white glistering berry . ” As the ivy is dedicated to Bacchus, so should the Misletoe be to Love ; not, however, to the chaste Eros, but to the spor tive Cupid. The sacred regard given to it in pagan and Druidical rites has long been terminated ; but it is still beheld with emotions of pleasurable interest, when hung up in our kitchens at Christmas ; it gives licence to seize “ the soft kiss ” from the ruby lips of whatever female can be enticed or caught beneath . So custom authorizes, and it enjoins also , that one of the berries of the Misletoe be plucked off after every salute . Though coy in appearance, the chariest maid” at this season of festivity is seldom loth to submit to the es tablished usage ; especially when the swain who tempts her is one whom she approves. The annexed verses purport to be the Christmas ditty of some country villager : their simplicity may be considered as a proof of their age. • The Misletoe hangs from an oaken beam , The Ivy creeps up the outer wall ; The Bays our broken casements screen , The Holly-bush graces the hall . Then hey for our Christmas revelling, For all its pastimes pleasures bring . “ The Misletoe's berries are fair and white, The Ivy's of gloomy sable hue ; Red as blood the Laurel's affect our sight, And the Holly's the same with prickles too . Then hey, &c . “ Nor black nor ensanguined red for me: The Misletoe only is mydelight : For pure as love all'its berries be, And to kissing my Fanny's sweet lips invite . Then hey for our Christmas revelling, For thus its symbols pleasures bring. 16 POPULAR PASTIMES. Biding the Stang. The vulgar of every country have particular customs, which , being immediately subversive of decorum and good order, can only be practised at uncertain intervals, when magistracy sleeps, or a more than common effervescence of popular daring contemns authority, and overbears control : of this descrip tion is the ignominious punishment called RIDING THE STANG. This custom is of northern origin , and of great antiquity ; but from the cognizance, which , in modern times, the laws gene rally take of all illegal restraints on personal liberty, it bids fair to terminate at no very distant period. Riding the Stang, ” according to Dr. Jamieson, “ is the remains of a very ancient custom among the Goths, who were wont to erect what they called Nidstaeng, on the pole of infamy, with the most dire imprecations against those who were thought to deserve the reprobation which this act im plied. The person thus subjected to dishonour was called Niding, or infamous, and he was thenceforth deemed incapa ble of making oath in any cause.” A memorable instance of the consequences of raising the Nidstaeng is furnished in the “ Runic Law ,” which states that Egill Scallagrim , the celebrated Icelandic bard, having performed this tremendous ceremony against Eric Bladdox, who, as he supposed, had highly injured him, the latter soon after became hated by all, and was obliged to fly from his dominions. The custom of Riding the Stang appears to have been known in Scandinavia ; for Soren gives Stong - hesten as signi fying a Roddle -horse. Callender observes, that in Scotland, “ Riding the Stang is a mark of the highest infamy, and the person who has been thus treated seldom recovers his honour in the opinion of his neighbours. ” When they cannot, he con tinues, “ lay hold of the culprit himself, they put some young fellow on the Stang, or pole, who proclaims, that it is not on Tume 081380 SUS S.SK del Stephanoff RIDING THE STANG . Published March 2,1026 bySherwood &t? Pateriwiter Row .

RIDING THE STANG. 17 his own account that he is thus treated , but on that of another, whom he names.” The glossary to Gawin's Douglas's Virgil informs us, that Riding the Stang , is “ when one is made to ride on a pole for his neighbour's wife's fault.” The word Stang, says Ray, is still used in some colleges in the university of Cambridge ; “ to Stang scholars in Christmas time, being, to cause them to ride on a colt - staff or pole , for missing of chapel.” In the Ice landic tongue Staung means a spear ; and hence, probably, the Stang of Yorkshire and the north, where it signifies a long pole. “ I am informed ,” says Dr. Jamieson , “ that in Lothian, and, perhaps, in other counties, the man who had debauched his neighbour's wife was formerly forced to ride the Stang :" yet this punishment was not exclusively inflicted on gallants detected in criminal amours. The virago who had beaten her husband was also subjected to ride the Stang, not in person , however, but by substitute, as we learn from Allan Ramsay's admirable continuation of “ Christ's Kirk on the Green , ” canto iï . where after the marriage, the visitors become inebriated, and the conduct and punishment of a graceless vixen are thus humourously drawn . The Smith's wife her blackdeary sougbt, And fand him skin and birn ; Quoth she, “ This day's wark's be dear bought ; " Heband and ga'e a girn, Ca'd ber a jade, and said she mucht Gae hame and scum her kirn : “ Whisbt ladren , for gin ye say ought Mair, l’se wind ye a pirn , To reel some day. " “ Ye'll wind a pirn ! ye silly snool, Wae worth ye'r drunken saul,” Quoth she, and lap out o'er a stool, And claught him by the spaul : He shook her, and sware muckle dool, “ Ye's thole for this, ye scaul ; l'se rive frae aff ye'r hips the hool And learn ye to be baul, On sic a day." “ Ye'r tippanizing scant o' grace, Quoth she, “ gars megangduddy ; Our nibour Pate sin break o' day's Been thumping at his study. D 1 9 ) 18 POPULAR PASTIMES. ܚܕ An' it be true that some fouk says , Ye'll girn yet in a woody ; Syne wi' her nails she rave bis face, Made a ' bis black baird bloody Wi' scarts that day. A Gilpy that had seen the faught, I wat he was nae lang , Till he had gather'd seven or aught, Wild bempies stout and strang ; They frae a barn a kaber raught, Ane mounted wi' a bang, Betwisht twa's shoulders, and sat straught Upon't, and Rade the Stang On her that day. The wives and gytlings a' spawn'd out, O'ermiddingsand o'er dykes, Wi' mony an unco skirl and shout, Like bumbees frae their bykes ; Thro' thick and thin they scour'd about, Plasbing thro' dubs and sykes, And sic areird ran through the rout, Gart a' the bale town tykes Yamph loud that day. The Newcastle Courant, for August 3, 1793, states, that at the assizes at Durham , in the preceding week, seven persons (whose names are mentioned ), were sentenced to be impri soned two years in Durham gaol, and find sureties for their good qehaviour for three years, “ for violently assaulting Nicholas Lowes, of Bishop Wearmouth, and carrying him on a Stang .' In Yorkshire, in the neighbourhood of Leeds, it was cus tomary about sixty years ago , to “ Ride Stang " on the man who had beaten his wife ; but this practice was pursued only by the lowest of the vulgar. The subject of the accompanying print is derived from a custom of the populace in Westmoreland and Cumberland ; who, on the morning of the new year, assemble with stangs and bas kets for the purpose of preventing every one, whether male or female, inhabitant or stranger, from pursuing any employment or business on that day . Whatever person is caught offending, is immediately seized, and if a male, mounted across the stang, if a woman , placed in a basket, and carried on men's shoulders to the next public - house, where on payment of a small fine, the prisoner is liberated . BRITISH MUSEUM ME MR. W bert BULLAITING . Mshal Mach 18.6 Sherwood bydocumew Rowe 19 Bull- Baiting . “ This battle was fought near to Tutbury town , Where the Bag- pipers baited the Bull : I'm King of the fidiers, and swear ' tis a truth, And I call him that doubts it a gull !" BALLADS OF Robin Hood. BULL -BAITINGS and bear-baitings, says Burton, in his “ Ana tomy of Melancholy," are pastimes « in which our countrymen and citizens greatly delight, and frequently use . ” The passion of the English for these boisterous amusements seems to have been derived from their Roman masters, whose imperial city abounded with amphitheatres, many of which were employed for the combats of wild beasts. It must be allowed, however, as a modern writer has truly remarked , that in these sports the polished Romans displayed more ingenuity than our rude an cestors, who contented themselves with merely chaining a bull or a bear to a stake, and then suffering him to be torn or wor ried by fierce dogs ; whereas the Romans were accustomed to pair for the combat, a great variety of heterogeneous creatures; as a lion with a bull, a bull with an elephant, a rhinoceros with a bear, a tiger with a lion, &c. and very frequently men , who acquired the appellation of Bestiarii, nay, even women, as we learn from Juvenal's first Satire, engaged in these savage exhibitions. The Spanish Bull - fights , in which men are exposed to combat with the ferocious animal, are most probably of similar origin. Training of bulls, bears, horses, and other animals, for the purpose of baiting them with dogs,” says Strutt, “ was certainly practised by the jugglers ; and this vicious pastime has the sanction of high antiquity.” Fitz - Stephen also , speaking of the customs of the Londoners, temp. Henry II. tells us, that in winter, on almost every holiday before dinner, “ the boars fight for their heads; or else some lusty bull or huge bear is baited with dogs. ” So addicted, indeed , were D 2 20 POPULAR PASTIMES. > our forefathers to bull and bear-baiting, that on the Surrey side of the Thames, on Bank -side, there were two established circi, or amphitheatres, for this sport ; one of which, if credit may be given to our old maps and views, was a circular build ing, and the other an irregular polygon. The “ Old Bear Garden” appears to have formed a part of Paris Garden ; and “ herein ,” says Stow , “ were kept bears, bulls, and other beastes, to be bayted , as also mastives in several kenels nou rished to bayt them .” It is probable that Shakespeare's Play house, the Globe, was erected on the site of the ancient " Bowll Baytynge, ” as the building is termed in the maps ; and that that sport as well as name was afterwards transferred to the old Bear Garden , whilst a new “ Beare Baytynge” was established at a short distance eastward from the playhouse. The vast improvements made in dramatic poetry by Shakes peare (whose divine genius can never be contemplated without exciting feelings of enthusiastic veneration) , and by other writers of his day, had, unquestionably, great influence in giving a more rational turn to the public taste ; and the barbarous sports of bull and bear- baiting, which had hitherto been coun tenanced by personages of the most exalted rank , “ without exception even of the fair sex, ” began from that period to decline. How highly they were once estimated, may be con ceived from various passages in our annals ; and particularly during the reigns of Mary and Elizabeth . When the latter princess was in confinement at Hatfield -house, she was visited by queen Mary, and the next morning, after mass, à grand display of bear - baiting was exhibited for the amusement of the fair sisters ; with which, says the record, “ their highnesses were right well content !” Elizabeth , too, soon after her accession to the throne, gave a splendid dinner to the French ambassadors, and in the afternoon entertained them with the baiting of bulls and bears ; and on the day fol lowing, the same persons were diverted by another bull and bear - baiting, at Paris Garden . Twenty - seven years afterwards, queen Elizabeth received the Danish ambassador at Green wich, where he was treated with the sight of a bull and bear BULL - BAITING . 21 baiting, tempered ,” says Holinshed, “ with other merry disports." That these ferocious pastimes were ever openly practised on the Sabbath, seems almost incredible, yet such was incontes tibly the fact. Cartwright, in his “ Admonition to Parliament,” printed in 1672, arguing on the impropriety of an established form of prayer, has this passage : - “ He [the minister] post eth it over as fast as he can gallope ; for, eyther he hath two places to serve, or else there are some games to be playde in the afternoon, as lying for the whetstone, heathenish dauncing for the ring, a beare or a bull to be baited, or else a jackanapes to ride on horseback, or an interlude to be plaide.” James I. though a great encourager of Sunday sports among his “ good people,” found it requisite to interdict, “ bull and bear -bait ings,” and “ interludes," on that day ; yet with such inade quate effect, that his successor, Charles, was obliged to renew the proclamation in his eighth year. The annual Bull-runnings at Tutbury, in Staffordshire, and at Stamford , in Lincolnshire, are of great antiquity : at both places they have been the cause of numerous excesses and many accidents. The Tutbury custom was connected with the endowments of the priory, as well as with the honour of Tut bury (which comprehends the counties of Stafford, Derby, Nottingham , Leicester, and Warwick ), and it was incumbent upon every minstrel within the honour to attend both at church , and at a court held by the steward, at the castle , “ on the morrow after the assumption of the Blessed Virgin , ” and “ after court done,” in which the election of a “ King of musick, " or of “ the minstrels, ” formed a part of the ceremonies; the prior was obliged to deliver to the minstrels, a bull, or 40d . in money . After the dissolution, the delivery of the bull was entailed on the possessors of the priory demesne ; and in what is called “ the modern usage, ” the following are given as the particu lars of the Bull -baiting custom . 6 After dinner all the minstrels repair to the priory gate, without any manner of weapons, attending the turning out of 22 POPULAR PASTIMES, the bull, which is there to have the tips of his horns sawed off, his ears and tail cut off, his body smeared all over with soap , and his nose blowed full of beaten pepper. Then the steward causes proclamation to be made, that all persons, except min strels, shall give way to the bull, and not come within forty foot of him at their own peril, nor hinder the minstrels in their pursuit of him . After which, the prior's bailiff turns out the bull among the minstrels, and if any of them cut off a piece of his skin before he runs into Derbyshire, then he is the King of musick’s bull; but if the bull gets into Derbyshire, sound and uncut, he is the lord prior's again . If the bull be taken and a piece of him cut off, then he is brought to the bailiff's house , and there collared and roped , and so brought to the Bull-ring in the High - street in Tutbury, and there baited with dogs ; the first course in honour of the king of musick , the second in honour of the prior, the third of the town , and if more, for divertisement of the spectators : and after he is baited the king may dispose of him as he pleases. ” Various alterations in this usage took place at subsequent periods; and the late Mr. Shaw informs us , in his “ History of Staffordshire, ” that the custom itself was abolished by the late duke of Devon shire, the grantee of the priory estates, The Stamford bull- running is still continued . Tradition ascribes its origip to the time of king John, when William , earl of Warren, first lord of the town, having accidentally witnessed the confusion and uproar occasioned by the hunting of a mad bull through the streets, was so pleased with the sport, that he gave what are now called the Castle Meadows, in perpetuity, to the butchers of the town ( after the first grass is eaten ) to keep their cattle in till the time of slaughter, upon condition , that on the anniversary of that day, viz. exactly six weeks before Christmas, they should for ever provide a mad bull for the continuance of the sport. In the modern practice, the shops and houses are shut up, and all the avenues of the town closed , when the bull is turned out; the poor animal is then pursued by dogs, men , women , and children , with a din that BULL- BAITING. 23 might rend “ Heay'n's concave," till with their bull- clubs, sticks, staves, &c. the skin and flesh are literally separated from his bones. It appears from the public papers that a feeble attempt has lately been made to revive this brutal pastime at Tothill - fields, Westminster, where the prize - fighter, Caleb Baldwin's ball, has been twice or thrice baited . Tothill - fields, and Hockley in the Hole, Clerkenwell, were in queen Anne's days both celebrated for their Bear- garden, the “ diversions" ofwhich, to use the language of their respective advertisements, included a “ va riety of bull and bear-baiting.” A writer in the Gent's. Mag. for March, 1805, describing Axbridge, in Somersetshire, says, the disgrace of this town, the abominable practice of Bull baiting, or rather bull-beating, with all its concomitant horrors, is continued annually on the fifth of November." « miscellaneous collection of bills and title pages, now preserved in the British Museum, is a hand - bill ( sur mounted by the regal arms) , of which the following is a copy. 66 to In a a “At the Bear-garden , in Hockley in the Hole, 1710. “ This is to give notice to all gentlemen, gamesters, and others, that on this present Monday is a match to be fought by two dogs, one from Newgate -market against one from Hony-lane market, at a bull, for a guinea to be spent ; five let- goes out off hand, which goes fairest and farthest in wins all : likewise a green bull to be baited, which was never baited before ; and bull to be turned loose with fireworks all over him ; also a mad ass to be baited, with variety of bull-baiting and bear-baiting, and a dog to be drawn up with fireworks. Beginning exactly at three of the clock . " It is almost needless to remark, that the phrase green bull ( which occurs in other bills of the day also), had no reference to colour ; but meant only that the animal had never been pre viously baited . In some of our country towns the bull -ring , and to the disgrace of humanity, the sport itself, is still suf fered to be occasionally practised. 24 Weaving. www 華 HEAVING, or Lifting , is a custom supposed by Mr. Brand to have formerly prevailed among all ranks throughout the kingdom ; and however strange it may appear, “ to have been intended to represent no less than our Saviour's Resurrection . ” The same opinion, but better expressed, had been entertained by other writers, who describe it as a “ memorial of the raising up of Christ from the grave." However generally this custom may once have spread , it is now , we believe, chiefly confined to the northern and north western provinces. That it existed as long ago as the reign of Edward I. is evident from an extract of a manuscript intituled “ Liber Contrarotulatoris Hospicii, anno 18 Edward I.” which was communicated by Samuel Lysons, Esq. keeper of the Tower records, to the Society of Antiquaries, in 1805, and which implies, that “ on the morrow of Easter ( Easter Monday ), the king was taken in his bed by seven of the queen's ladies and maids of honour, who had afterwards given to them xiiij li . by the hands of Hugo de Cerru , ” apparently, by way of fine or This taking of the king in his bed is regarded as a proof of the license that the custom of Heaving, or Lifting, formerly authorized. In the mode of Heaving, there is considerable variation in different districts ; but it is general, we believe, for the men to lift the women on Easter Monday, and the women the men , on Tuesday. In Manchester, Bolton , and other towns in Lan cashire, parties are formed , who surround every one of the opposite sex that they meet, and either with or without their consent, take hold of their legs and arms, and lift them thrice above their heads, into the air, in an horizontal position , with loud shouts at each elevation . A small sum must then be paid for ransom by the persons thus elevated. At Manchester, the magistrates constantly prohibit this indecent practice, yet it is ransom . PI ith ice eir heLE 122 er 20 be h de of 12 red B 21 asi WANA URLU del Stephanoff HEAVING . Published bySherwood &C.°Paternoster Row April 1,2816 .

HEAVING. 25 still carried on in the outskirts of the town . In Cheshire, Shropshire, &c. the men go with a chair into every house to which they can obtain admission, and forcing every female to be seated in their vehicle, lift them up three times with loud huzzas. For this they claim a kiss, which, however, is remitted to the coy on payment of a fine. On the following day the women have the same privilege, and pursue it with equal licence. In North Wales the Heavers travel from house to house, both in town and country, and have frequently a fiddle playing before them . The accompanying print was designed from a letter sent by a respectable gentleman to Mr. Brand, in the year 1799, the most material parts of which are as follow : “ I was sitting alone last Easter Tuesday, at breakfast, at the Talbot, in Shrewsbury, when I was surprised by the entrance of all the female servants of the house, handing in an arm - chair, lined with white, and decorated with ribbons and favours of different colours. On asking what they wanted, their answer was they came to heave me : it was the custom of the place on ' that morning, and they hoped I would take a seat in their chair. It was impossible not to comply with a request very modestly made, and to a set of nymphs in their best apparel, and several of them under twenty. I wished to see all the ceremony, and seated myself accordingly. The fair group then lifted me from the ground, turned the chair about, and I had the felicity of a salute from each. I told them, I supposed there was a fine due upon the occasion, and was answered in the affirmative, and having satisfied the damsels, they withdrew to heave others. At this time I had never heard of such a cus tom ; but, on inquiry, I found that on Easter Monday, between nine and twelve, the men heave the women in the same man ner as on the Tuesday, between the same hours, the women heave the men.” 6 26 Skiinmington . SKIMMINGTON, or “ Riding Skimmington,” is a custom very analogous to that of Riding the Stang ; it seems, principally , to have been inflicted by the populace on lewd and scolding women , but sometimes, also , on those willing cornutoes who basely contented themselves with deriving profit from their wives' prostitution . The derivation of the term has not been traced : Mr. Douce deduces it from the skimming - ladle, with which the shameless termagant, in these processions, was permitted to chastise her husband ; but Mr. Brand, with more likelihood , from the name of some errant scold , whose celebrity was sufficiently notorious to place her at the head of the profession, and thence by an easy metonymy, to occasion the appellation of a “ Skimmington” to be given to every pro ficient in her line. In the “ Gentleman's Dictionary, " a Skimmington is defined to be “ a sort of burlesque procession in ridicule of a man who suffers himself to be beat by his wife ;" and Grose, in his Provincial Glossary, after a similar definition, gives the ensuing particulars of the cavalcade : “ It consists of a man riding behind a woman with his face to the horse's tail, holding a distaff in his hand, at which he seems to work, the woman all the while beating him with the ladle ; a smock dis played upon a staff is carried before them , as an emblema tical standard , denoting female superiority ; they are accompa nied by what is called rough music, that is, frying pans, bulls ' horns, marrow - bones and cleavers, & c.” But the most appo site , as well as humourous, account of this kind of Skimming ton, and from which Hogarth's facetious print was designed , is that given in Hudibras (part ü, canto ii. ) where the fierce dispute of the knight and his ' squire is suddenly put an end to by an alarming and hideous clamour, “ As if all sorts of noise had been Contracted into one loud din :

ke=x, 是

esa ists of ession THE SHREW . 3 SKIMMINGTON. 27 They might distinguish different noise Of horns, and pans, and dogs, and boys, And kettle -drums, whose sullen dub Sounds like thehooping of a tub. But when the sight appeard in view, They found it was an antic shew ; A trinmpb, that for pomp and state, Did proudest Romans emulate. First, he that led the cavalcate Blew a sow -gelder's flaggellet ; Next, pans and kettles of all keys, From trebles down to double base ; And after them, upon anag That might pass for a forehand stag, A cornet rode, and on his staff A smock display'd did proudly wave : Then bagpipes of the loudestdrones, With snuffling broken- winded tones, Wbose blasts of air, in pockets shut, Sound filthier than from the gut, And make a viler noise than swine In windy weather, when they whine. Next, one upon a pair of panniers Full fraught with that, which , for good manners, Shall here be nameless, mix'd with grains, Which be dispens'd among the swains. Then mounted on a horned horse, One bore a gauntlet and gilt spurs, Ty'd to the pummel of a long sword He beld reverst, the point turn'd downward : Next after, on a raw-bon'd steed , The conqueror's standard - bearer rid, And bore aloft before the champion A petticoat displayed , and rampant; Near whom the Amazon triumphant Bestrid ber beast, and on the rump on ' t Sat face to tayl , and bum to bum, The warrior whilom overcome, Arm’d with a spindle and a distaff, Which, as he rode, she made him twist off ; And when he loiter'd, o'er ber shoulder Chastis'd the reformado soldier. Before the dame, and round about, March'd whifflers, and staffiers on foot, With lackies, grooms, valets, and pages, In fit and proper equipages ; Ofwhom ,some torches bore, some links, Before the proud virago -minx ; Aud at fit periods thewhole rout Set up their throats with clam'rous shout. " Hudibras now tells his 'squire, that the show is a “ Paganish invention ; ' and that he who made it, had read “ All the Grecian Speeds and Stows That best describe those ancient shows ; E 2 POPULAR PASTIMES. 96 And has observ * d all fit decorums, Wefind describ’d by old historians :: And as in antique triumphs, eggs Were borne for mystical intrigues, There's one in truncheon , like a ladle , That carries eggs too , fresh or addle ; And still at random as he goes, Among the rabble rout bestows. " Quoth Ralpho, you mistake the matter ; For all the antiquity you smatter, Is but a Riding, us'd of course When the gray -mare's the better horse ; When o'er the breeches greedy women Fight, to extend their vast dominion ; For when men by their wives are cow'd , Their horns, of course, are understood . In Misson's Travels in England, translated by Ozell, is this passage : - “ 1 have sometimes met in the streets of London , a woman carrying a figure of straw , representing a man , crowned with very ample horns, preceded by a drum , and fol lowed by a mob, making a most grating noise with tongs, gridirons, frying -pans, and sauce -pans. On inquiring the meaning of this, they told me that a woman had given her husband a sound beating for accusing her of making him a cuckold, and that upon such occasions some kind neighbour of the poor innocent injured creature generally performed this ceremony.” In a scarce little duodecimo, printed in 1639, and intituled “ Divers Crab - tree Lectures that Shrews read to their Husbands, ” &c. facing the frontispiece, is a wood -cut representing a woman beating a man, with a ladle, called “ Skimmington and her Husband.” This cut is repeated in one of the chapters, where also , among others, is the follow ing verse . But all shall not serve thee, For bave at thy Pate ; My Ladle of the Crab- tree Shall teach thee to cogge and to prate. In Dr. King's Miscellany Poems, vol . iii . occurs the ensu ing curious passage relating to this custom : When the young people Ride the Skimmington , There is a general trembling in a Town. Not only he for whom the person rides, Sufters, but they sweep other doors besides : And by that bieroglyphic does appear, That the good Woman is the Master there. SKIMMINGTON . 29 The following lines may be conceived to have been spoken by one of the attendants on “ a Skimmington ,” as represented in the accompanying print. Xantippe of old , Was as thorough a scold, As ever antiquity knew ; Yet Socrates wise , Did her clamour despise, And with silence his studies pursue. Enraged at his scorn , One unlucky morn , Quick into a passion she flew , And souse - o'er his head, (When just ris'n from bed) , A large vase full of salt- water threw . But to chafe his mild blood, In vain did the flood His bald pate and boar side- locks bedew ; Still in anger remiss , All he uttered was this , “ Thus patience we learn from a Shrew !" ' Twas well for the Greek That he'd not here to seek, The fair fame which mankind think his due : -- 'Mongst the scolds of our town Where had been his renown ? They ' d have soon made his sage worship rue. All bis pains had miscarried , Had he but once married, Witha jade like theone now in view ; For her tongue had so vext, Disturb'd and perplext Him, his wits had been quite in a stew. She'd have jib'd , jeer'd, and baited , Magg'd, moyl’d, mobb’d, and rated , Till, sick ofso much “ cream o' Tartar , " The clapper- claw'd Stoic, Like Dido, heroic, Wou'd have hitch'd himself up with a Garter. Colmenar, in his “ Delices de l'Espagne, ” &c. speaking of Spanish manners, states, that " When a man, for the sake of profit, knowingly suffers his wife to cuckold him, they are, on discovery, both seized, set astride upon an ass, and publicly exposed ; the cornuto having on a very large pair of horns, hung with small bells, and the wife being compelled to flog him , whilst she, herself, is lashed by the executioner .' 30 POPULAR PASTIMES. Lord Mayor's Day. “ By this light , I do not thinke but to be Lord Mayor of London before I die ; and have three pageants carried before nie, besides a ship and an unicorn ." GREEN's Tu Quoque. The inauguration of the chief magistrate of the City of Lon don, is attended by much civic festivity, and sometimes by considerable show ; yet, the manner in which the LORD Mayor's Day, as it is popularly called , is now observed , is not by any means comparable with the splendid pomp and symbolic pageantry that accompanied its celebration in former ages. Whilst under the dominion of “ Imperial Rome,” London was governed by a præfect ; in the Saxon times by a port - reve, and after the coming of the Normans, by a port- reve and pro vost jointly. The appellation Mayor was first bestowed on Henry Fitz-Alwyn Fitz - Leofstan, goldsmith ; a descendant of the celebrated duke Ailwyn, alderman of all England (and kinsman to king Edgar ), who founded Ramsey abbey. This gentleman continued to hold the office till his decease, about twenty - four years afterwards ; and in the following year, anno 1214, king John, as a means of conciliating the good -will of the citizens, granted to the “ barons of the city ,” as they are called in the charter, the privilege of choosing a Mayor out of their own body, annually , or at their own pleasure, to “ con tinue him in that situation from year to year. ” It was requisite, however, to render this choice effective, that the new Mayor should be presented to the king, or in his absence, to his jus tice ; but this condition having occasioned great expense and inconvenience, the citizens in the 37th of Henry III . obtained a new charter, empowering them to present their Mayor to the « barons of the exchequer, at Westminster,” when the king should not be there ; and before those judges he is still sworn . 1 TOP te, Do 10 SI pu fu DO Fy 12 d is D ic 402 006 Cry delt 12. Suphanoff LORD MAYORS SHOW . Published April 1,1816 bySherwood &Paternoster Row .

LORD MAYOR'S DAY. 31 Edward III . in the year 1354, granted to the City the right of having gold and silver maces carried before their principal offi cers, and it was probably at this period that their chief magis trate was first entitled Lord Mayor ; a conjecture which re ceives corroboration from the circumstance of that officer being rated as an earl, under the levies of the capitation tax , in 1379 : at the same time the aldermen were rated as barons. The right of electing the Mayor was formerly resident in the citizens at large, when assembled in general Folk -mote ; yet, this having been productive of great disturbances, gave rise to the more confined mode of election by delegates, chosen out of each ward . This method (with some variations at dif ferent periods) continued till the year 1475, when, by an act of common - council, the choice both of mayor and sheriffs was vested in the mayor, aldermen , and common -council, and the masters, wardens, and livery of the city companies, in whom it still remains ; the right having been confirmed to them by act of parliament. The election is made annually on Michael mas- day, in Guildhall; and whoever is chosen Lord Mayor must have previously served the office of sheriff ; he must also be free of one of the twelve principal city companies, or become so before he can be sworn . His power is very ex tensive, and his supremacy does not cease even on the death of the sovereign ; and when this happens, “ he is considered as the principal officer in the kingdom , and takes his place ac cordingly in the privy -council, until the new king be pro claimed . ” A memorable instance of this dignity may be seen in the invitation sent by the privy -council to James of Scotland, after the demise of queen Elizabeth , in which the name of Sir Robert Lee, the then Lord Mayor, stands foremost in the list, before all the great officers of state and the nobility. Since the alteration in the style, the Lord Mayor has been first sworn into office on the 8th of November, at Guildhall ; and on the next day, the 9th, at Westminster : the procession made on this last occasion, is what is termed the Lord Mayor's Show . The original processions, both in going to and returning 32 POPULAR PASTIMES. from Westminster, were by land ; but, in the year 1453, the custom of going thither by water, which is still continued, was introduced by Sir John Norman, who at his own charge built a magnificent barge for the purpose, and his example was emu lated by the twelve principal city companies, who all built costly barges on this occasion . Fabian says, that the Thames watermen were so highly pleased with the Lord Mayor, through the advan tages which they reaped in consequence, that they composed a Song in his praise, beginning thus ; “ Row thy Boat Norman, Row to thy Lemman :" Long after this the processions by land were rendered ex tremely attractive through the variety and gorgeousness of the different pageants which were introduced, as well at the costof the corporation as of the more affluent companies. Stow informs us, that in his memory " greatpart of Leadenhall was appropriated for the purpose of painting and depositing the pageants for the use of the city; " and a considerable number of artificers were kept employed to decorate them, and to invent and furnish the machinery. But it should be remembered that these expenses were not all incurred in honour of the Lord Mayor; the City being at that time accustomed to make pompous shows on various occasions, as coronations, visits of sovereigns, victories, &c. Some of the pageants were entirely of a dramatic cast, and appropriate speeches were assigned to the different cha racters. This was particularly the case at the inauguration of Sir Wolstone Dixie, who was chosen Mayor in 1585, and whose Show displayed a Pageant wherein LONDON was repre sented by “ a beautiful girl, gorgeously apparelled, seated under a canopy adorned with the royal arms, “ in beaten gold, " and attended by several Nymphs, among whom , was “ The pleasant Thames, a sweet and dainty one," together with “ Magnanimity ,Loyalty,the Country, the Soldier, the Sailor, and Science . The whole was led by a “ Moor, LORD MAYOR'S DAY . 33 mounted upon the back of a Luzarn , ” who thus opened the same, in an address to the chief magistrate. From where the sun doth settle in his wain, And yokes bis horses to bis fiery car, And in his course gives life to Ceres' corn ; Even from the torrid zone behold I come, A stranger, strangely mounted, as you see , Seated upon a lusty Luzarn's back , To offer to your Honour ( good my Lord ! ) This emblem thus in shew significant, Of lovely LONDON ! rich and fortunate : Fam'd through the world for peace and happiness ! Sir John Shaw , who was Lord Mayor in 1501 , revived the more ancient custom of riding to Westminster, on horseback ; but this practice was finally discontinued in Queen Anne's time, Sir Gilbert Heathcote being the last Mayor who rode thither, in 1711. Sir Humphrey Edwin, whom Swift has im mortalized in his “ Tale of a Tub ,” is noted for having gone to a conventicle, while Mayor, in 1698, in his formalities, and with all the insignia of his office. This indiscreet conduct is supposed to have had considerable influence in the framing of a proviso in the statute 5th of Geo. I. c. 4. which declares, that any mayor, bailiff, or other magistrate, convicted of being present at any place of public worship, other than the church of England, in the peculiar habit of his office, or attended with the ensigns thereof, shall be adjudged incapable to bear any public office or employment whatsoever. ” It appears that on one or two occasions, as during a plague, &c . when the barons of the exchequer have been absent from London, the Lord Mayor has been sworn into office on Tower- hill, by the constable of the Tower . The general mode of procedure on Lord Mayor's Day, at the present time, is as follows : The sheriffs and aldermen in their respective carriages, (those of the sheriffs being always new and elegantly painted and adorned for their own entry into office, on Michaelmas -day ), repair in the morning to the residence of the Lord Mayor elect, and attend him to Guildhall ; from which place about noon they all proceed to Blackfriars- bridge, where they embark in the 34 POPULAR PASTIMES. city barge and head the procession to Westminster ; the several city companies in their formalities, following in their respective barges : all the barges have bands of music on board, and are decorated with flags and pendants ; the watermen who row them having scarlet jackets, and other fineries. The principal barges are magnificently gilt, and ornamented ; and display the arms of the company to which they belong. At Westminster, the new Lord Mayor is sworn in before the barons in the court of exchequer, and is afterwards addressed by the chief baron ; he then goes in procession to all the other courts in Westminster Hall, and the recorder invites the judges, &c. to the civic dinner. These ceremonies being over, they again take water and return to Blackfriars, where the Lord Mayor lands, and proceeds to Guildhall ; his own company taking the lead in the procession, and the other companies following : after them come the Lord Mayor's officers and servants, preceding the state coach in which his Lordship is seated, and on stools fronting the doors are his mace - bearer and sword -bearer. The state coach, which is drawn by six horses, richly caparisoned, is very large, andsumptuously ornamentedwith gilding and carving; the pannels also are neatly painted with emblematical subjects. The sheriffs, aldermen , recorder, &c. in their several carriages and splendid equipages, close the train ; unless, as is frequently the case, some of the principal officers of the crown, noblemen and others, who have been invited to the banquet, join in the procession : the princes of the blood royal, also , have at different times graced it with their presence. At the last Lord Mayor's Day ( 1815) , independently of two persons in complete armour ( and a third, partially armed ), representing ancient knights, with their attendants, 'squires, heralds, standard -bearers, &c. the procession was rendered very interesting by small parties of horse soldiers, arrayed as cuirassiers, in the spoils so bravely, won at the ever - memorable battle of Waterloo ! Great mul titudes of people assembled on this occasion to see the display ; and this indeed is generally the case should the weather be fine, both on land, and in boats on the river Thames. 11?1리1 t 1) F.D. Stephanoll del CLAIMING THE FLITCH OFBACON . 35 Flitch of Bacon . AMONG the ludicrous tenures by which lands were held by our ancestors, was that of the delivery of a Flitch, or GAMMON , of Bacon , to every wedded Benedict whose conjugal happiness had been such, that he would conscientiously make oath , he had never quarrelled with nor been unfaithful to his wife, nor once regretted his marriage, for an entire twelvemonth after the nuptial day. This whimsical custom prevailed both at Little Dunmow , in Essex, and at Whichenovre, in Staffordshire; yet from whatever cause , whether from the moroseness and incon stancy of the male sex, or from the levity and peevish caprice of the fair, the names of but very few successful claimants can be found on record . The best and most ancient account of the Dunmow institution , is contained in the collections of Sir Richard St. George, garter, now preserved in the College of Arms ( MS. L. p. 226) , and was probably written about the year 1640 : from that source the ensuing particulars have been principally derived . The priory of Little Dunmow , which had been originally founded in 1104, by the Lady Juga, sister to Ralph Baynard, (whose family gave name to Baynard -castle, in London ; ) was 56 re-edified ” by her descendant Robert Fitz - Walter, “ wholived long beloved of King Henry, the sonne of King John , as also of all the Realme,” and who, “ in his later days, betooke him self to prayer and deeds of charity.” In this “ priorie arose a Custome begunne and instituted either by him or some other of his successors, which is verified by a common proverb or say ing, viz. y . he who repents him not of his marriage, either sleeping or waking, in a year and a day, may goe to Dunmowe 6 and fetch a Gamon of Bacon. ' It is most assured that such a custome there was, and that this Bacon was delivered with such solemnitie and triumph as they of the priory and the townesmen could make. I have inquired of the manner of yt and 6 F 2 36 POPULAR PASTIMES. can learne no more but that yt continued untill the dissolution of that house, as also the abbey : that the Ptie or Pilgrim for Bacon was to take his oathe before the prior, the convent, and the whole towne, humbly kneeling in the church -yard upon two hard pointed stones, which stones some saye are there yet to be seene in the prior's church - yard. This oath was ministred with such long prosesse, such solemn singing on him, as doublesse must make his pilgrimage ( as I tearme yt) painfull. After [ that] he was taken up upon men's shoulders, and carried first about the priory church - yard, and after, throughe the towne, with all the friers and bretheren , and all the townes- folks, young and ould, following him wth , shoutes and acclamations, with his Bacon borne before him ; and in such manner ( as I have said ) he was sent home with his Bacon : of which I find that some had a gammon , and others a fleeke, or a flitch ; for proofe whereof I have from the records of the house found the names of 3 severall persons that at severall tymes had yt.” The three persons named in the manuscript are Stephen Samuel, of Ayston Parva, husbandman ; Richard Wright, of Badbourghe, yeoman ; and Thomas Ley, of Cogshall, fuller ; all of whom were sworn before the prior and convent of Dun mow , and “ a multitude of neighbours," _ " according to the forme of the charter, ” and had the Bacon delivered to them : the first and last having each a Gammon, and the other a Flitch . Samuel's claim was made on Lady-day, in the 7th of Edward IV.; Wright's on the 27th of April, 23d of Henry VI.; and Ley's, on Sunday, September the 8th , in the 2d of Henry VIII. Since the time of the Suppression, also, Morant and other writers, state that the Bacon has been only thrice delivered ; the ceremonies in these instances having been performed at a court -baron for the manor, held by the steward. Mr. Gough, in his enlarged edition of Camden's Britannia, mentions the custom as abolished ; but we understand that it is only dor mant, either from the want of claimants, or through their neglect to enforce the demand. The last persons that received FLITCH OF BACON. 37 the Bacon were, John Shakeshanks, wool- comber, and Anne his wife, of Wethersfield, who established their right on the 20th of June, 1751. The ceremony and procession which took place on that occasion , are represented in a scarce print by David Ogbourne, called “ an exact perspective view of Dun mow ,"" &c. “ when Thomas Shapeshaft, weaver, and Anne his wife, came to demand, and did actually receive a Gammon of Bacon, having first kneeled down upon two bare stones within the church door, and taken the oath . ” The original oath was in prose, and was so administered to the husband only ; but some poetical wag of later days has thus versified it, and made it apply to both parties. You shall swear hy the custom of confession, That you never made nuptial transgression ; Nor since you were married man and wife, By bousehold brawles or contentious strife, Or otherwise, in bed or at board, Offended each other in deed or word : Or, since the parish - clerk said " Amen ," Wished yourself unmarried agen . Or, in a Twelvemonth and a Day, Repented in thought any way ; But continued true in thought and desire, As when you join'd hands in the holy quire. If to these conditions, without all fear, Of your own accord you will freely swear, A Gammon of Bacon you shall receive , And bear it hence with love and good leave ; For this is our Custom in Dunmow well known ; Though the sport be our's, the Bacon's your own. There is a similar uncertainty in regard to the origin of the tenure under which the Bacon was given at Whichenovre, as at Dunmow ; but it was unquestionably as ancient as the 10th of Edward III. when the manor was held by Sir Philip de Somervile ( together with four others), “ by this memorable service ; that the said Sir Philip find, maintain, and sustain , one Bacon Flitch, hanging in his Hall at Whichenovre, redy arrayde all times of the year, bott in Lent, to be given to every man or woman married, after the day and the year of their marriage be passed,” provided that certain conditions were complied with , and the following oath taken . 38 POPULAR PASTIMES. “ Here ye, Sir Phillipe de Somervile, Lord of Whichenovre , maynteyer and gyver of this Baconne; that I A , sithe I wed ded B , my wife, and sythe I hadd hyr in my kepyng, and at my wylle by a yere and a day, after our Mariage, I wold not have chaunged for none other, farer ne fowler, rycher ne pourer, ne for none other descended of greater lynage, slepyng ne waking, at noo tyme. And if the seyd B. were sole, and I sole, I would take her to be my Wyfe, before all the Wymen of the worlde, of what condicions soever they be, good or evylle, as helpe me God ond hys Seyntys ; and this flesh and all fleshes." Besides taking the oath it was incumbent on the claimant to have two neighbours ready to attest that they “ verily be lieved him to have said truly, ” and to declare “ if he be a free man or a villain. ” If a freeman , he had delivered to him with the Bacon “ half a quarter of wheat and a cheese ;” and if a villain , “ half a quarter of rye without cheese . ” The Bacon was brought to the hall door, and had the corn and a book laid upon it , before the oath was taken, which was done by the demandant, kneeling, with his right hand placed upon the book. He was afterwards permitted to depart, the corn and Bacon being carried on horseback before him, and all the free tenants of Whichenovre accompanying him , together “ with trumpets, tabourets, and other manner of minstrelsy ," till he had passed the bounds of the lordship . It is observable, that, the Whichenovre Flitch was “ to be gyven to everyche man of religion, archbishop, bishop, prior, or other religious, and to everyche preest, after the year and day of their profession finished, or of their dignity reseyved ; " as well as to the married claimant who complied with the ac customed rules. Addison, who in his Spectator (vol. viï . No. 608.) has in serted a pleasant paper on this subject, refers to a feigned re gister as his authority for the following (among other) awards. “ Aubry de Falstaff, son of Sir John Falstaff, Knt. with dame Maude, his wife, were the first that demanded the Bacon , and he, having bribed twain of his father's companions to swear FLITCH OF BACON. 39 falsely in his behoof, thereby gained the fitch ; but falling immediately into a dispute with his wife, as to how the said Bacon should be dressed, it was by order of the judges taken from him , and hung up again in the Hall. “ Alison, the wife of Stephen Freckle, set forth the good conditions and behaviour of her consort, adding withal, that she doubted not but he was ready to attest the like of her, his wife; whereupon he, the said Stephen , shaking his head, she turned short upon him , and gave him a box on the ear. Re jected.- Joceline Jolly , Esq. making it appear by unquestion able testimony, that he and his wife had preserved a full and entire affection for the space of the first month, or honey -moon , had, in consideration thereof, one rasher bestowed upon him. -Philip de Waverland's claim was rejected, because that on coming to the clause were I sole and she sole," he found a secret compunction rising in his mind, and stole his hand off the book again : -- and that of Richard de Loveless had a similar fate, because that on his being desired to explain why he he sitated at the words ' after our marriage,' he largely expati ated on his complaisance and conduct for a year and a day be fore marriage, and hoped it was the same thing.'-One claim was thrown out in consequence of the husband having returned a passionate · Pish !' to a loose remark of his wife ; another was rejected on account of the wife saying God forgive him ! when speaking of her husband ; and a third, for that the lady had once told her husband, it was her duty to obey ,' to which he replied, “ Oh, my dear ! you are never in the wrong.' Of one Gervase Poacher it was recorded, that he might have had Bacon to his eggs if he had not hitherto scolded his wife when • they were over - boiled .' The only successful candidates in the first century , were a sea captain and his wife, who had not seen one another from the nuptials till the day of the claim ; and an honest pair in the neighbourhood, the husband, a man of plain good sense , and the woman , dumb." 40 Cock - Fighting. “ They flock thicke and threefolde to the Cock - fightes : -- and they have their appointed dayes and set houres when these Devilries must be exercised. They have houses erected to that purpose ; Flags and Ensignes banged out to give notice of it to others, and proclamation goes out to proclaimthe same, to the end that many may come to the dedication of this solemne Feast of Mis chiefe. " Stubs's ANATOMIE OF ABUSES, 1595 . Cock - FIGHTING, however barbarous it may appear to the feeling mind, is a pastime that claims the sanction of high an tiquity, and has been practised with avidity in every age, and in all countries. The natural antipathy which exists between birds of the gallinaceous tribe has, by man, been converted into a source of domestic sport ; and the Breeding and Train ing of Game Cocks for the express purpose of fighting them , is become a regular science . The Rev. Dr. Pegge, in the third volume of the Archæo logia, has in a learned “ Memoir ” endeavoured to prove, that the ancient Greeks were the authors of this « cruel and inhu man mode of diversion ; ” but the probability is, thatits origin was still more remote, and that it was first practised in the more distant parts of Asia. In China it is a very common sport, and of antiquity far beyond record . In Persia , in Ma lacca, and in Sumatra , it is of equally unknown origin ; and is at times pursued with an almost incredible eagerness. Mars den , speaking of the inhabitants of Sumatra, says, they are so fond of Cock -Fighting, that “ a father, on his death - bed , has been known to desire his son to take the first opportunity of matching a Cock for a sum equal to his whole property , under a blind conviction of its being invulnerable." The origin of this pastime in Greece is blended with one of the most signal events of history. It is stated that when Themistocles was leading his gallant band against the Persians, heespied two Cocks fighting, on which , pointing to the con tending rivals, he thus addressed his troops :- “ Behold ! these do not fight for their household gods, for the monuments . $"Oth COCK FIGHTING . lar IPPO ents

COCK-FIGHTING. 41 of their ancestors, nor for glory, nor for liberty , nor for the safety of their children, but only because the one will not give way unto the other.” Every allusion in this short speech was felt by the Grecians ; they fought strenuously , and obtained the victory, and thence - forward Cock - Fighting was, by a particular law , ordained to be practised annually by the Athenians. It appears from Dr. Pegge's Memoir, that the inhabitants of Delos were great lovers of this sport ; and that Tanagra, a city of Boetia ; the Isle of Rhodes ; Chalcis in Euboea, and the country of Media, were “ famous for their generous and magnanimous race of Chickens." The ancients fought Partridges and Quails as well as Cocks. Quail- Fighting is still a favourite diversion in China (where even the Ladies participate in the pastime), and Sumatra ; and was, formerly, in France . The Athenians were famous for it, and both that and Cock - Fighting were brought from Greece by the Romans. Herodian records, that the first cause of conten tion between the brothers, Bassianus and Geta, sons of the Em peror Septimus Severus, arose in their youth, about fighting their Quails and Cocks. These birds, when bred up for the purpose of combatting each other to the last gasp , for diversion or avarice , are by the Roman writers frequently compared to gladiators ; and hence Pliny's expression “ Gallorum seu Gladiatorum .” The sport of Cock - Fighting was most probably introduced into Britain by the Romans; though the bird itself, as we learn from Cæsar, was here before their invasion . In Fitz- Stephen's curious account of the Metropolis about Henry the Second's time, it is stated, that “the boys of every school do yearly at Shrovetide bring Game Cocks to their masters, and all the forenoon is spent in school in seeing these Cocks fight together.” This practice was continued for several centu ries; and was even very recently observed in different parts of the North , and in Scotland . In the “ Statistical Account" of the latter country ( vol. iii . Edin . 1792) , the Schoolmaster of Apple cross, in Ross, is mentioned as having among his perquisites, " the Cock - Fight dues, which are equal to one quarter's payment 42 POPULAR PASTIMES. for each scholar.” The venerable Dean Colet, in his statutes for the government of St. Paul's School ( anno 1518) , left this order “ I will they use no Cock - Fightinge, nor ridinge about of victorye, nor disputing at St. Bartilemewe, which is but foolish babling and losse of time.” In the reign of Edward III. Cock - Fighting was a very pre valent and fashionable amusement, and though it was inter dicted with various other “idle and unlawful games, ” in the 39th year of that monarch, it still maintained its popularity. Henry VIII. was so fond of the diversion, that he had a Cock - pit made at Whitehall, among other additions to the pa lace there. In Queen Elizabeth's time, it was again discounte nanced by public proclamation, but with little effect; and in the next reign it flourished with additional vigour, through the partiality of James I. who was so addicted to Cock - Fighting that he amusedhimself with seeing it twice a week . Hence it was that Misson, in his “ Travels in England,” denominates this sport a “ royal pleasure ;" and he describes it as one of the great English diversions. ” Speaking of this period, also, Stow's Continuator says, “ Cocks of the game are yet cherished by di vers men for their pleasures, much money being laid on their heads when they fight in Pits, whereof some are costly made for > that purpose.' In a manuscript preserved in the Harleian Collection , at the British Museum , written in the reign of James I. and bearing the title of “ Merry Passages and Jeasts , ” is the following anecdote.- “ Sir Thomas Jermin, meaning to make himself merry , and gull all the Cockers, sent his man to the pit in Shoe Jane, with an hundred pounds and a Dunghill Cock, neatly cut and trimmed for the battle ; the plot being well lay'd, the fellow got another to throw the cock in, and fight him in Sir Thomas Jermin's name, while he betted his hundred pounds against him : the cock was matched, and bearing Sir Thomas's name, had many betts layd upon his head ; but after three or four good brushes, he shewed a payre of heeles : every one wondered to see a cock belonging to Sir Thomas cry craven ; and away came the man with his money doubled . ” COCK - FIGHTING . 43 In 1654 , a temporary restraint was thrown upon this pas time by an act of Oliver Cromwell ; yet after the Restoration it was revived with augmented popularity. The “ Compleat Gamester, ” a small octavo, first published in 1674, describes it as in “ great estimation among the gentry ; " and how highly it was then appreciated may be conceived from the enthusiastic way in which the author speaks of the science of Cocking . It is, he remarks, " a sport or pastime so full of delight and plea sure, that I know not any game in that respect to be preferred before it :" he likewise calls it a “ noble recreation ," and a pleasing art.” Annexed to the same work, is “ an excellent and elegant Copy of Verses upon two Cocks fighting, by Dr. R. Wild ; " in which the following couplet occurs, descriptive of the spirited qualities of the combatants ; They scorn the Dunghill ; ' tis their only prize To dig for pearls within each other's eyes. The progress of the battle is then detailed, and in the end the conquered and dying Cock is made to dictate a Will, some of the quaint items of which are as follow . Imp. First ofall, let never be forgot, My body freely I bequeath to thePot, Decently to be boild ; and for its tomb Let it be buried in some hungry womb. Item . For Executors I'll have none But be that on my side laid seven to one ; And like a Gentlemen that he may live, Tohim and to his heirs my combI give, Together with my brains, that all may know, That oftentimes his brains did use to crow. For Ladies that are light, it is My Feathers make a Fan : and for my Bill I'll give ' t a Taylor ; but faith 'tis soshort, I am afraid he'll rather curse me for't. my will, The practice of Cock - Fighting in modern days, differs essen tially, in at least two respects, from that of ancient and modern times, namely, in the use of artificial spurs, or gafles, and in that horrid display of butchery the Welsh Main : both these innova , tions are by our own writers supposed to have originated in this Island. The introduction of the gafle is the least exceptionable; since the work of destruction is sooner accomplished by its use; G 2 44 POPULAR PASTIMES. and the poor bird more speedily relieved from pain . At what period the artificial spur was first employed does not appear ; but it may be correctly inferred from the ensuing directions, ex tracted from “ The Compleat Gamester," that it was not till subsequently to the publication of that work. “ How to prepare Cocks for Fight : First, with a pair of fine Cock - shears, cut all his mane off close unto his neck, from the head to the setting on of the shoulders ; secondly, clip off all the feathers from the tail close to his rump, the redder it appears, the better is the Cock in condition. Thirdly, take his wings and spread them forth by the length of the first rising feather, and clip the rest slope -wise with sharp points, that in his rising he may therewith endanger an eye of his adversary. Fourthly, scrape, smooth, and sharpen his spurs with a penknife. Fifthly and lastly, see that there be no feathers on the crown of his head for his adversary to lay hold of; then with your spittle, moistening his head all over, turn him into the pit to move his fortune . ” - The Welsh Main usually consists of eight pair of Cocks, who fight till one half of them are killed : the conquerors are then pitted against each other, till only four being left alive, these are again matched , and two being slain , the survivors are by an excess of barbarity, again set to fight ; so that of the whole sixteen there remains but one undestroyed !! At the present time, Cock - Fighting is extremely prevalent ; and the Cocks of adjoining, or neighbouring counties, are fre quently matched in a grand battle . In various towns and cities, also , there are established Cock-pits under the immediate patro nage of the respective corporations ; one example of which occurs even in the metropolitan city of Canterbury, where the Corporation Cock-pit is in an apartment of the beautiful gate way that formed part of St. Augustine's monastery, The Cock -pit Royal, in Duke- street, Westminster, was pulled down a few years ago ; but another having the same appellation was immediately erected by private subscription , in Tufton - street. It is a curious fact, that the original Drury - lane Theatre had been previously a Cock -pit. 31 3 பெயரரைமாதமான HEE ) BARA COT PUTHI delt Stephanoff EP. MILKLAIDS GARLAND (. 45 Milk Maids Garland. “ What's a May - Day Milking -pail without a Garland and Fiddle ? " COL. MARTIN'S FAMILIAR EPISTLES, 1695 . T The festivities of May were anciently celebrated throughout Europe to an extent, and with a magnificence of which modern times afford no parallel. They originated in the Heathen Flo ralia, which were games and sports instituted in honour of the Goddess Flora, and practised on the four last days of April and the first of May. Hence the Custom of gathering flowers and green branches on May-day ; of setting -up and dancing round the May - pole ; of electing a lady, or queen of the May ; and of greeting the opening dawn with cheerful songs. The custom of going a Maying, though now almost wholly confined to the populace, was formerly observed by royal and noble personages, as well as by the vulgar. Thus we read in Chaucer's “ Court of Love," that, early on May Day, “ fourth goeth al the Court, both most and lest, to fetche the flouris fresh, and braunch and blome.” Henry VIII. also , as we learn from Stow , occasionally partook of this diversion with his queen and courtiers ; —and the same historian, speak ing of that period, informs us , that “ In the moneth of May, the citizens of London, of all estates, lightly in every parish, or sometime two or three parishes, joyning together, had their several Mayings, and did fetch in May -poles with diverse warlike shewes, with good archers, morice- dauncers, and other devices, for pastime all the day long ; and towards the evening they had stage- playes, and bone - fiers in the streetes.” The pageantry of the May -Games was of very various de scription ; but the Lord and Lady of the May (who Jatterly: were personated by Robin Hood and his faithful Mistress, the Maid Marian ), were always constituent characters. Thus, in a “ goodly May-game” in Fenchurch - street (anno 1557, 4th 46 POPULAR PASTIMES. of Queen Mary ), there were “ drums, and guns, and pikes, with the Nine Worthies, who rode, and each of them made his speech, a Morrice-Dance, and an Elephant and Castle, and the Lord and Lady of the May appearing to make up the Show .” The earliest notice of the Milk Maid's GARLAND (which it is scarcely to be doubted had its origin in the pageantries of this season ), that has fallen under our observation, is in Mis son's “ Travels in England," as translated by Ozell ; his words are these :- “ On the first of May, and the five and six days fol lowing, all the pretty young country girls that serve the town with milk, dress themselves up very neatly , and borrow abundance of silver plate, whereof they make a pyramid , which they adorn with ribands and flowers, and carry upon their heads, in stead of their common milk - pails. In this equipage, accompanied by some of their fellow milk -maids, and a bagpipe, or fiddle, they go from door to door, dancing before the houses of their customers, in the midst of boys and girls that follow them in troops, and every body gives them something . ” To the same purport is the following passage of the Spectator (vol. v. No. 365) , where speaking of May - day, he says, now “ we see the ruddy Milk -maid exerting herself in a most sprightly manner under a pyramid of silver tankards, and like the virgin Tarpeia, oppressed by the costly ornaments which her benefactors lay upon her.” - Notwithstanding these authorities, there is reason to believe that the Milk - pail itself was always the base, or foundation , of the pyramid, and that the silver cups, tankards, and salvers, were hung round or placed over it, together with flowers, ribands, &c . Such at least is the manner in which it is represented in the set of Prints called Tempest's “ Cryes of London,” where Kate Smith ( vide Gran . Biog. His. vol. iv .) called the “ Merry Milk -maid ,” is dancing with the Milk -pail on her head ; and such , also, is the way in which it has been exhibited within the last thirty years. The Milk -maid's Garland of the present day, is carried by two chairmen upon a wooden horse, and is generally built up in a pyramidical form to the height of seven or eight feet ; MILK MAIDS' GARLAND . 47 1 that

the am w the plate, favours, &c. being disposed around it, and a larger tankard, or bowl, placed on the top : the Milk - pail, we be lieve, is invariably at the base of the pyramid. The Milk maids' walk before it , and wherever there appears a chance of their exertions being recompensed by a small gratuity, the garland is set down, and they engage in a sprightly dance. Sometimes, though rarely , the display is enlivened with a song ; and the following is given as one of the most appro priate : it bears the title of “ The Bonny Milk -maid .” Ye Nymphs and Sylvan gods, That haunt green fields and woods, When the Spring new -born , Doth herself adorn, With flow’rs and blooming buds ; Come, sing in the praise, While the teeming herdsgraze In yonder pleasant vale, Of those that choose Their sleep to lose, And midst cold dews With clouted shoes, Blythe carry the Milking Pail. At the first blush of morn , They rise with the dawn, And singing repair To taste the fresh air, While Linnets on every thorn , Witb Blackbird and Thrush On each green bush , And the warbling Nightingale, In merry vein With dulcet strain , Sweet entertain The cheerful train , That carry the Milking Pail, When bleak winds wildly roar, And flow'rs spring forth no more , And the fields late seen So pleasantand green , Are by winter all candy'd o'er ; Oh ! how the town Jass Looks with her white face, And her lips all deadly pale : But it is not so With those who go , Through frostand snow , With cheeks that glow , To carry the Milking Pail . eb IN precio 153 220 ! an't 11 ' e Cha I, ekno har

thet 48 Chimney Sweepers Dance. The Milk -maids are not the only class which has singled out the first of May as a festival ; for the Chimney Sweepers of London have long observed it as an established holiday. On this day, they parade the streets in parties, fantastically dressed , and gaudily decorated with tawdry finery ; of which, strips of gilt and various coloured papers are the prime articles : their faces, also , are generally chalked, if the expression may be allowed, in the height of fashion , and with their shovels and brushes in hand (which they rattle against each other in a particular manner ), they caper the CHIMNEY SWEEPERS DANCE, to a well -known tune, considered by amateurs as far more noisy than musical. Some of the larger parties are ac companied by a fiddle, and a Jack in the Green , as well as by a Lord and Lady of the May, who are not unfrequently, the Master and Mistress of the youthful sweeps that compose the majority of the party ; but sometimes the Lady is represented by a boy arrayed in girl's clothes. These characters, beside the peculiar hop of the “ Profession,” for so have its practitioners been known to denominate their trade, occasionally dance “ the Hay,” as well as various jigs, &c. in proportion as their “ itching palms, ” are soothed by the galvanic touch of the cir culating metals. The “ Jack in the Green " is a man concealed within a frame of wicker -work , made in the form of a sugar loaf, and covered with green leaves and wreathes of flowers, interwoven with each other. During the contentions about popular rights in the early part of the French Revolution, the celebrated George Selwyn, happening on a May -day to meet with a festive band of Sweeps glittering in all their gorgeous paraphanalia, remarked that he 6 had often heard of the Majesty of the People, but never before had the pleasure of seeing any of its young Princes." -- nnn !IT713 4 OODOO CUANDO << FP.Stepharort id .DANCE SWEEPERS CHIMNEY &CSherwood 1,2526 byJune Pbhshed Row Paternoster

CHIMNEY SWEEPERS' DANCE. 49 The late Mrs. Montagu, who wrote the admirable “ Essay on the Writings and Genius of Shakespeare, ” while resident at the corner of Portman Square, was induced, from feelings of commiseration, to give a public breakfast, every first of May, to all the Sweeps who chose to assemble in the square to be come partakers ; and many laughable scenes have occurred du ring these festive congregations of the knights of the brush . Vulgar report, which always inclines to the extraordinary for its explanations of things removed from the common path , at tributed this custom to the above lady's having had a son stolen from her in his youth, whom she afterwards discovered, by some peculiar mark, in the lowly garb and occupation of a Chimney Sweeper. Yet Yet,, soso far far was was ththis from being correct, that the fact was, Mrs. Montagu never had but one son, who died an infant ; and was excited only by the generous sensibility of her own heart, to relieve, with one day's good cheer, some small portion of the miseries which the younger Sweeps are compelled to endure throughout the twelvemonth . The restraint and hardships to which so many unfortunate children are subjected by the method of sweeping chimnies that has so long been practised , together with a knowledge of the brutality exercised upon their tender frames by unfeeling masters, and which has frequently been the cause, not only of lameness and other ills, but even of death itself, led to the institution , in London, in the year 1802, of a Society for abolishing the present mode of cleansing chimnies by climbing boys; and for establishing in its place the more humane method of sweeping them by mechanism . Under the patronage of this Society, (which offered several premiums of £ 200 and under, for the invention of any machine or mechanical apparatus that would effect the desired end) , various means have been projected, and different machines made. Some of these are now in use , and fully answer the purpose of their contrivance ; though from a reprehensible inattention among housekeepers and heads of families they are not encouraged to the extent which they de serve, and which wouldeventually supersede the common method. н 50 POPULAR PASTIMES. Among the regulations devised by the legislature for depres sing the evils arising from this business, are the infliction of penalties, of from five to ten pounds, on every Chimney Sweeper, who shall employ “ servants or apprentices under eight years of age :” or shall suffer them to “ cry their trade before seven in the morning in the winter months and six in summer, or after twelve at any time of the year; ” or be “ out on duty without a brass plate attached to their caps, with their master's name and place of abode engraven thereon ;" or neglect to find them in “ sufficient food, clothing and lodging; ” or not send them “ to attend divine service, clean washed and clothed, on Sundays ;” or at any time “ force them to climb up a chimney that is on fire .” The antiquity of Chimney-Sweeping, connected as it is with the introduction of chimnies into buildings, would form a curious subject for historical research . There is no direct evidence that the houses of Greece and Rome had any chim nies. Vitruvius is silent on the subject ;, “ and what we learn from the discoveries at Herculaneum and Pompeii, as well as from the traces of Roman stations both in this and other countries, more than indicates that the different apartments were warmed entirely by subterraneous fires.” In Rochester castle is to be found one of the earliest attempts at a chimney in this country ; that is, an aperture obliquely extending through the thickness of the wall, from the fire - place to an opening for the smoke at several feet above. But the first mention of chimnies to be met with in British records, is in Matthew Paris's account of St. Alban's abbey, where speakin of the abbot, John of Hertford, who made various considerable additions to the abbey buildings, he expressly says, that he fur nished the whole with chimnies." This must have been previously to the year 1260, when the abbot died ; and it proves that the chimnies, so particularly described by Leland, as existing at Bolton castle, in Yorkshire, were posterior to those of the Abbey, by at least eighteen or twenty years : that castle having been built between the years 1277 and 1279. E 1 1 קרוקוד Wild ווי he GUY FAUX . 51 Guy Faux. „ NNon The important change in the ecclesiastical affairs of this coun try, which historians have distinguished by the name of the ReFORMATION , was not carried into effect without the greatest opposition on the part of the Catholics ; who made many attempts to arrest its progress, and to over- awe and destroy its promoters. The reigns of the Tudors, however, saw the sun of Protestantism advance to its meridian, though not with an unclouded lustre; for the bigotted Mary obscured the brightness of its course by the sacrifice of hecatombs of victims to the fearful moloch of papal superstition. The accession of Eliza beth again brightened the horizon, and the steady policy of her ministers secured the triumph of religious light ; yet throughout the whole busy period of her reign, there were not wanting the most determined efforts to restore the Roman priesthood to their accustomed tyranny and power. Nor had these endeavours ceased when James I. was called to the throne on the death of Elizabeth, in March, 1603. This event occasioned a short intermission in the designs of the adherents to the “ Holy See;" but when it was fully understood that the new king had no intention of re -acknowledging the supremacy of the arch pontiff, they once more proceeded to plot the destruction of the chief Protestants, in order to prepare the way for the restora tion of the Catholic religion. The year 1604 had now arrived ; and about the time of Easter, that most atrocious conspiracy, known by the appellation of the Gunpowder Plot, was first devised, and it was afterwards carried on with every possible precaution that seemed necessary to ensure its success . The preliminary measure through which the conspirators thought to effect their ulterior object, was the destruction of the King and Parliament ; and the blowing up the Parliament House, with gunpowder, at the moment when the sovereign should be commencing the session by the accus H 2 52 POPULAR PASTIMES. tomed speech from the throne, was the dreadful means by which that destruction was to be accomplished. The principal con spirators were all bigotted Catholics, who during many years had been plotting the downfall of the reformed church in this country ; and they had even sentmessengers for foreign aid both into Flanders and to Spain. Being disappointed, however, in the assistance they required, they resolved to depend upon their own efforts ; and Robert Catesby, Esq. a man of talents, and of good family , and Thomas Winter, a Catholic gentleman (whom Catesby had twice dispatched to the continent to negociate for assistance) , first conceived the infernal idea of the Gunpowder Plot ;-and this scheme having been communicated to several others, under the strongest oaths of secrecy and the solemnity of the eucharist, was agreed to be carried into effect on the meeting of Parliament in February, 1605. Some scruples of conscience, which even this hardened band could not avoid feeling, were soon removed by jesuitical casuistry ; and Henry Garnet, the provincial of the English Jesuits, is stated to have administered the sacrament to Percy, Catesby, Winter, Wright, and Guy Faux, the five principal conspirators, in a house at the back of St Clement's church, in the Strand, immediately after they had sworn fidelity to the cause , and to each other, on a Catholic Primer. Percy, who was one of the gentleman - pensioners to the king, and cousin - german to the earl of Northumberland, hired a house in the beginning of December, immediately adjoining to that part of the Parliament House appropriated for the assembly of the lords. Here the conspirators commenced their operations by digging a hole in the foundation wall, which was of great strength , and about nine feet in thickness. At their first entrance they had “ made competent provision for twentie days, of wine, beare, and baked meates, because their being there should neyther bee seene, nor suspected of any, neyther came they forth until) Christmas eeve :—they had also furnished themselves with weapons, shot and powder, being determined rather to die there in their owne defence, than to GUY FAUX. 53 be apprehended. About Candlemasse they had wrought the wall halfe through, and as they were at worke, they heard a rustling of sea - coales in the next roome, which was a cellar right under the Parliament House, and then they feared they had been discovered .” This alarm , however, was of short duration ; for, on inquiry, they found that the adjoining vault had been made a depositary for coals, that the coals were then under sale, and that the cellar was to be let . As nothing could be more favourable for their purpose, Percy immediately hired the cellar, and bought the remainer of the coals, as if for domestic use , and without any appearance of concealment. The prorogation of Parliament from February till October, gave the conspirators sufficient leisure to further their design ; and, at convenient opportunities, about thirty barrels and four hogsheads of gunpowder, which had been brought from Hol land, were conveyed into the cellar by night, and covered with billets and faggots of wood, great iron bars, stones, &c. All this was done without exciting any suspicion ; and though the Parliament had again been prorogued, the long - expected day at length drew nigh, and every thing wore the aspect of success. The conspiracy had now been on foot upwards of eighteen months, and the important secret had been confided to more than twenty persons, yet neither fear, nor pity, nor remorse , had cooled the ardour of any one of the associates, nor had the least indiscreet hint or expression led a single step towards a discovery. “ But God,” says Rapin , “ abhorring so detesta ble a plot, inspired one of the conspirators with a desire to save the life of Lord Monteagle, [William Parker) son of the Lord Morley . " About ten days before the time appointed for the Parliament to assemble, this nobleman received a letter “ in an unknown and somewhat unlegible hand,” which, in ambiguous, yet strong language, recommended him to absent himself from Parliament, on account of a great, yet hidden , danger, to which he would otherwise be exposed. “ Think not slightly of this advertisement," said the writer, “ but retire yourself into your 54 POPULAR PASTIMES. country, where you may expect the event in safetie : for though there be no appearance of any stirre, yet I say, they shall receive a terrible blow this Parliament, yet they shall not see who hurts them .” After some reflection, Monteagle carried the letter to Cecil, earl of Salisbury, principal secretary of state, who, finding the contents to agree with various ob scure intimations of a Catholic conspiracy, which he had re ceived from abroad , . judged it of sufficient importance to be communicated to the earl of Suffolk, who was lord chamberlain , and some others of the privy council. Whether Cecil and the lord chamberlain had, at this time, actually divined the plot, as would seem from a letter of Cecil's to sir Charles Cornwallis, published in “ Winwood's Memorials , ” or that the discovery was afterwards made by the superior sagacity of the sovereign, as asserted by himself, it was determined to proceed with the most cautious secrecy , and that nothing should be done till the king returned from his seat at Royston, in Cambridgeshire, where he then was on a hunting party. James came to London on the 31st of October, and on the next day it was resolved that “ a very secret and exact search should be made in the Parliament House, and in all other rooms and lodgings near adjoining . ” Yet, to prevent any need less alarm , as well as to avoid “ giving suspicion unto the workers of this mischievous mystery, " it was thought prudent to delay the search till the eve of the day (November the 5th ), on which the Parliament was to meet : and that it should then be made by the lord chamberlain, as if only in virtue of his office , and official duty. When the lord chamberlain entered the cellar where the ammunition of the conspirators was deposited, and saw the great store of faggots, billets, and coals,” that was there piled up, he inquired of Whinyard, keeper of the wardrobe, to “ what use he had put those lower rooms ?” and was then in formed that the cellar had been let to Percy, and that the fuel which he saw there was probably for that gentleman's winter consumption. The earl heard this with seeming inattention , 66 GUY FAUX . 55 lar ; but perceiving a man standing in an obscure corner of the cel " he asked who he was ?" and was answered , a servant of Percy's ; and keeper of that place for him .” The figure and deportment of this pretended menial, “ who, indeed, was the afore- named Faux, sole agent for this tragedy, ” ( that is, the setting fire to the powder ), made a deep impression on the mind of the lord chamberlain ; yet he “ still carried a seeming careless survey of things,” though “ with a very serious and heedful eye, ” and quitted the cellar with affected negligence. When the earl had made his report to the council, it was agreed that a stricter search should take place about midnight, and that the billets and faggots should be removed under pre tence of seeking for “ certaine robes and other furniture of the kinges, lately stolen out of the wardrobe. ” Sir Thomas Knevet, a gentleman of the privy chamber, and a magistrate for West minster, was appointed to this business, and he going at the hour assigned, with proper attendants, first apprehended Guy Faux, who was found standing at the door, and then causing the fuel in the cellar to be removed, discovered the concealed gunpowder. Faux, who was wrapped in a cloak, and booted and spurred, was afterwards searched, and “ there was founde in his pocket a piece of touchwood, a tinder - boxe to light the touch - wood, and a watch which Percy and Fawkes had bought the day before to try conclusions for the long or short business of the touch wood which he had prepared to give fier to the trayne of powder. ” He was also provided with a dark lanthorn, and when questioned as to his purpose, instantly confessed his de sign , saying, that " if he had been within the House, when they first laid hands upon him, hee woulde have blowne up them , himself, and all .” On his examination before the privy council, he displayed the same daring impudence, affirming, that he only “ repented that the deed was not done,” and that “ God would have concealed it, but the Devil was the disco verer ." All that day he obstinately refused to discover who were his associates ; but being committed to the Tower, and shewn the rack, he felt his spirit subdued, and on the next morning made a full disclosure of the conspiracy. 56 POPULAR PASTIMES. For some days a general alarm was spread over the metro polis, and the magistrates of London and Westminster were ordered to keep strong guards in their respective cities. At length the particulars of the plot being fully disclosed and made public, great rejoicings took place, and “ there were as many bonefiers in and about London , as the streets could permit, the people praying to God for his most gracious delivery, wishing that day for ever to be held festivall.” This sentiment was so far complied with, that the Parliament passed a statute, ( 3rd James I. c.i.) ordering, that the anniversary of the discovery should be kept in perpetual remembrance, by a distinct religious service in all the churches of the establishment. After Faux was arrested, Percy, with most of the principal conspirators “ fled into Warwickshire, where they endeavoured to excite an immediate and general rising of the Catholics, but without effect, though Sir Everard Digby was already in arms, with intent to seize the young princess Elizabeth , who was then at lord Harrington's, and who was to have been proclaimed queen had the plot succeeded.” The whole number they could ever muster did not exceed fourscore, including atten dants, and the country being instantly raised by the sheriffs, “they were obliged to take refuge at Holbeach, a house belong ing to one of the conspirators, on the skirts of Staffordshire. There, though completely surrounded, they determined to de fend themselves ; but on the accidental ignition of some powder which had been put to dry before the fire, and in “ blowing up, maimed the faces of some of the principal rebels, and the hands and sides of others, ” they opened the gate, and rushed out. Percy, Catesby, Winter, and the two Wrights, fought desperately, and were all slain excepting Winter, who was taken alive after receiving several wounds. The two first fell by the same shot : “ Catesby at his death saide, the plot and practice of this treason was only his, and that all others were but his assistants, chosen by himselfe to that purpose , and that the honor thereof only belonged unto himselfe.” Both his and Percy's head were afterwards “cut off, and set uppon the ends of the Parliament GUY FAUX . 57 House." The other conspirators were mostly made prisoners on the spot, and were conveyed to the Tower. On the 30th of January, 1606, Sir Everard Digby, Robert Winter, John Grant, and Thomas Bates, who were all concerned , were executed as traitors, at the west end of St. Paul's cathe dral ; and on the next day, Guy Faux, Thomas Winter, Ambrose Rookwood, and Robert Keys, underwent a similar fate in the Old Palace yard, at Westminster. Their quarters were after wards exposed on the different gates of the City, and their heads set upon poles on London Bridge. Garnet, the provincial of the Jesuits, who had been condemned in March, for misprision of treason , was executed at St. Paul's, on the 3d of May ; and several others suffered the just punishment of their guilt about the same time in different parts of the country . In June, Percy's cousin, the earl of Northumberland, was fined £ 30,000, deprived of all his posts, and sentenced to be imprisoned for life, on suspicion of being privy to the conspi racy ; and the lords Mordaunt and Stourton were also fined, the first, 10,000 marks, and the latter 6000, and ordered to be im prisoned during the King's pleasure, for the like offence, although the only shadow of proof exhibited against them was, that they had been absent from the parliament. These sentences were passed by that iniquitous court, the Star- chamber. Shortly after wards the king granted crown lands, to the annual value of € 200 in fee, and a yearly pension of £ 600 to the Lord Mont eagle, in reward for his “ discreete, timely, and dutifull impart ing to the Council, the private letter out of which they had the first ground, andonlymeans that discovered the Powder Treason." The fifth of November is still one of the principal holidays of London, though of late years it has not been observed by the populace with so much festive diversion as formerly ; and the burning of Guy Faux in effigy, was a ceremony much in vogue with the lower classes, but is now chiefly confined to school boys. The greater attention given by the police, of late years, to prevent tumult, and restrain the letting -off of fireworks, through which frequent accidents attended the commemoration of the I 58 POPULAR PASTIMES. Gunpowder Plot, are, perhaps, the leading causes of the disuse of the ancient custom. The writer of these pages can perfectly recollect when the rabble of neighbouring parishes, or districts, were in the habit of attempting to outvie each other in their cele bration of Guy Faux's treason ; and when combustibles for the fires, as old posts, pales, railing, branches of trees, &c . most appro priately called plunder, were assiduously collected for several weeks before the day of solemnity, The Butchers of Clare -market, also , were accustomed to celebrate this anniversary in a some what peculiar stile ; one of their body, personating Guy Faux, being seated in a cart, with a prayer book in his hand, and a priest, executioner, &c. attending, and drawn backwards through the streets, as if going to the place of execution ; while a select party , with marrow -bones and cleavers, led the way, and others solicited money from the inhabitants and spectators. The sums thus obtained were, at night, spent in jollity and carousing. The effigy of Guy Faux is made with worn - out or left- off clothes, stuffed with hay, straw , or rags, and sewed together. The head is a barber's block ; sometimes painted in imitation of the human face , and sometimes more gorgeously arrayed in a mask . An old scratch , or jasey, or a counsellor's full -bottomed perri wig , crowns the block ; with occasionally a paper mitre instead of a hat surmounting it : the hands contain a lanthorn and matches. Thus composed, the effigy is, at night, hung upon a gallows, and consumed in the midst of a large bonfire ; but during the day the grotesque malkin is placed in a chair, and carried about by boys, who collect halfpence from passengers, and pursue their way with loud shouts and huzzas. A doggerel ditty is sometimes employed at these seasons to enforce atten tion, beginning with the following lines :

Pray remember The fifth of November ,
Gunpowder Treason and Plot;
I know no reason
Why Gunpowder Treason Should ever be forgot.

SELLING AWIFE . PETH Dealerecikli Whitl 11ㅁ 333 }] Aiblished Manh1,1816 Sherwad byC. Putarnoster Row . 5.9 Selling a dwife. Among the customs unknown to the law in this country, though by the illiterate and vulgar supposed to be of legal validity and assurance, is that of SELLING a WIFE, like a brute animal, in a common market -place. At what period this practice had origin we have not discovered , but it has unquestionably been in existence for a long series of years ; and many instances might be given of the extensive spread of this licentious custom in more modern times. From newspapers of different dates, now before us, the three following cases are selected , in order to shew that the metropolis does not alone participate in the disgrace which springs from the legislative tolerance of this irreligious and indecent custom ; but that other parts of England are equally involved in the shame of such a scandalous profli gacy. It merits, indeed, the greater reprehension, from the foul stigma which it fixes on our national character ; and though the magistracy may not, at present, be armed with sufficient powers to put a stop to a practice so highly censurable (though we doubt the assumption ; for whatever is contrary to good morals, is assuredly amenable to the law ) ; the Parliament should im mediately interfere, and prevent its longer continuance by the infliction of punishment. Under the date of June the 12th , 1797, we read thus : “ At the close of Smithfield -market on Monday, a man who keeps a public house in the neighbourhood of Lisson - green , brought his Wife, to whom he had been married about two months, for sale into the market ; where having by means of a rope, made her fast to the railing opposite St. Bartholemew's coffee -house, she was exposed to the view of hundreds of spectators for near a quarter of an hour, and at length sold, for half a guinea, to a dealer in flowers, at Paddington . He is to receive with the woman , from her original owner, twenty pounds in bạd half pence." The second instance, was on the 11th of March, 1803, I 2 60 POPULAR PASTIMES. 1 when“ a private individual led his Wife to Sheffield market, by a cord tied round her waist, and publicly announced that he wanted to sell his cow . On this occasion , a butcher who officiated as auctioneer, and knocked down the lot for a guinea, declared that he had not brought a cow to a better market for many years.” The last of the three instances occurred on the the 27th of March , 1808, when “ a man publicly sold his Wife to a fisherman , in the market at Brighton, for twenty shillings and a blunderbuss .” This practice, immoral and shameful as it is, has given rise to various pleasant Jeu d'esprits ; the following, which is one of the best, was sung at the Lyceum Theatre. A jolly shoemaker, Jobn Hobbs, John Hobbs, A jolly shoemaker, John Hobbs ; He married Jane Carter, No damsel look'd smarter, But he caught a Tartar, Jobn Hobbs, John Hobbs ; Yes, be caught a Tartar, John Hobbs. He tied a rope to her, John Hobbs, John Hobbs, He tied a rope to her, Job Hobbs; To 'scape from hot water, To Smithfield he brought her, But nobody bought her, Jane Hobbs, Jane Hobbs ; They all were afraid of Jane Hobbs. Oh, who'll buy a wife, says Hobbs, Jobo Hobbs, A pretty sweet wife, says Hobbs : But some how , they tell us, The wife -dealing fellows, Were all of them Sellers, John Hobbs, John Hobbs, And none of ' em wanted Jane Hobbs. The rope it was ready, John Hobbs, John Hobbs, Come give me the rope, says Hobbs ; I won'tstand towrangle, Myself I will strangle, And bangdingledangle, John Hobbs, John Hobbs So he hung dingle dangle, John Hobbs. But down his wife cut him , John Hobbs, Jobu Hobbs, But down his wife cut him , John Hobbs ; With a few hubble bubbles, They settled theirtroubles, Like most marriedcouples, John Hobbs, Jobo Hobbs ; Oh ! happy shoemaker, John Hobbs. 3 11 1 ! F.7.Stephanot dels DONKEY RIDING . 61 Donkey Kiding at Margate. The Riding on Donkeys, or Asses, by the visitants at water ing places, in the way of amusement, is, we believe, a custom entirely of modern growth , and has perhaps originated within the last twenty or thirty years. The ladies actuated, probably, by a similar feeling to that which prompted the taylor, in the hu mourous extravaganza of “ The Taylor riding to Brentford ,” to enquire for a tame horse, are the chief encouragers of this di version ; and it is no uncommon sight at Margate, Brighton, Worthing, and other bathing towns, to see a variety of elegant females mounted on their neddies, and pursuing their devious course along a strait road, as fast as their dull steeds can be made to go ; though exhilarated by the lashes and cracks of the whip, which a boy, running behind, unsparingly exercises on the flanks of the long - eared animals. But the sport of DONKEY Riding is not confined to the ladies, although they honour it with such distinguished patronage ; their male friends frequently accompany them in their frolicksome excursions, and are perhaps as frequently overthrown, or brought to a stand - still, by the obstinacy of poor “ Jack ," as the fair themselves. Shakespeare must have had Margate in his mind — that is, speaking on the same principle of illustration which a recently published work applies to Hogarth's designs, when the “ poet's eye,” was “ in a fine phrenzy rolling, ”-at the time he put the adage “ Your dull Ass never mends bis pace with beating," into the mouth of the grave -digger, in Hamlet ; and had, doubtless, in the wanderings of " mental vision ,” beheld the gamesome train urging their jaded coursers to a festive break fast at Dandelion , or Draper's. The following verses on this subject, denominated “ News from Worthing, in a Letter from a Beast of Burden to Brother Jack,” were written by Robert Bloomfield , the ingenious author of the Farmer's Boy. 62 POPULAR PASTIMES. пр , Brother Jack, I am going to inform you Of things that ne'er enter'd your head, And I hope the narration will charm you Wherever you're driven or led ; Forit grieves me to think of your bampers, And the cudgel that thumps you behind ; Youhave noneof my frolics and scampers, Mylabour's as light as the wind. On atine level form'd by the tide, The beach and the ocean between, Fashion here tells young lasses to ride On the best walk that ever was seen . The sands, brother Jack, that's the spot Where the ladies exhibit their graces ; Therethey push mealong till I trot, 'Midsta circle of giggling faces. Notone of the partystandsidle, For, when I movejust like asnail, One balf of them pull at my bridle, And t'other half push atmy tail. Then full of frolic andglee, One will mount, andwill scold, and will strike, And ride me knee -deep in the sea , Where I stop - just as long as I like. For wbat are their tricks and manoeuvres ? They may pull me, and haul me, and teize, But I plague them asthey plaguetheir lovers ; 0, I like to do just as I please ! Dont be envious but hark what I tell You would never do here for a prude, Becau: Jac you know very well, You were always inclin’d to be rude ; And ifyou shouldset up your braying, Andgive thembut twoor three staves, You would stopall the children from playing , Or frighten them into the waves ! Sometimes a sick lady will ride me, More tender and delicate still ; And employ a poor boy just to guide me, Where I cannot go wrong if I will : Then back through the town gently creeping, We stop at some library door, Where nonsense preferring to sleeping, She loads me with novels a score , And, dear Jack, by the bye, I've long, guest, Tho'good ladies I've no wish to spite ' em ; That ' tis we bring these books in request, And that some of our family write ' em . But who'd to boast about that ? No, I'll finish by telling you true, That atWorthingwe all might grow fat, And keep the bestcompany too . So love to you, Jack, till next season , I'll be happy as long as I can ; Foran ass that complains without reason , Becomes — just as bad as a man ! go

Stephanolt dels P. PAROCHIAL PERAMBULATION . lehed June Pred Sherwole 2016 byCPt Now 63 Parochial Perambulations. That every man might keep hisown possessions, Our fathers used, in reverend PROCESSIONS, (Withzealous pray’rs, and with praisefull cheere ), To walke their PARISH LIMITs once a yeare ; And well- knowne markes, which sacrilegious hands Now cut or breake, so border'd out their lands, That every one distinctly knew his owne ; And many brawles, now rife , were then unknowne. WITHER'S EMBLEMS, p. 161 , fo . 1635 . The custom of going in procession round the bounds and limits of Parishes is of great antiquity, and was formerly observed with many ceremonies, which at the Reformation were abolished as superstitious and inconvenient; though the practice itself was retained from its utility in impressing the exact situation of parochial boundaries on the minds of the rising generation , Spelman , in his “ Glossary,” under the word Perambulatio, derives this custom from the institutions of Numa Pompilius ; and considers it an imitation of the feast called Terminalia , which was dedicated to the god Terminus, whom the heathens con sidered as the guardian of fields and landmarks, and thepreserver of friendship and concord among mankind. « The primitive custom used by the Christians was, for the people to accompany the bishop or some of the clergy into the fields, where litanies were made, and the mercy of God implored, that he would avert the evils of plague and pestilence, send them good and season able weather, and give them in due season the fruits of the earth . ” What the Greeks called litanies, the Latins termed roga tions : they were, originally, public supplications, with fasting, &c. for averting some apprehended calamity, or soliciting some required blessing. At Vienna, they were observed as early as the year 550, when Mamertius, the bishop, ordered them to be made on account of the frequent earthquakes, and the incursions of wild beasts, which laid in ruins and depopulated that city. In the same century, it was ordained by the first council of Orleans, that rogations should be made annually, on the Monday, 64 POPULAR PASTIMES. Tuesday, and Wednesday, preceding the day of the Ascension ; and hence the origin of Rogation week. By the Canons of Cuth bert, Archbishop' of Canterbury, made at the council held at Cloveshoo, in Kent, in the year 747, it was ordered, that litanies should be observed by the clergy and all the people with great reverence , on the 7th of the calends of May, according to the rites of the church of Rome (which terms this the greater Li tany ), and also , “ according to the custom of our forefathers, ” on the three days before the Ascension of our Lord , with fastings, and other solemnites. By the Saxons the days of perambulation, or of going in procession in Rogation week, were termed Gang-Dager, or going days ; from to gang, which, in the north , signifies to go : and Rogation week , itself, is still called Gang week . In an early printed work , intituled “The Cobler's . Book,” noticed in Herbert's edition of Ames, Gang daysare classed among certain “ idolatries maintained by the church of England :” and in a curious tract by Michael Wodde, dated from “ Roane, " on the 20th of Feb. 1554, and called “ A Dialogue, or familiar Talke, ” between two neighbours, concerning the chief ceremonies that were suppressed in England, we read thus, “ What say ye to procession in Gang- daies, when Sir John saith a gospel to our corne fieldes ? ” the reply is, “as for your latine gospels read to I am sure the corne understandeth as much as you , and therefore hath as much profit by them as ye have ; that is to sai, none at all." On the 25th of January, in the 7th of the reign of Elizabeth, it was commanded by “ the Queen's majesties letters , " among other things, “ that in the Rogation daies of Procession , they singe or saye in Englishe, the two psalmes, beginning Benedic anima mea , &c. withe the letanye and suffrages thereunto, with one homelye of thankesgevyng to God, alreadie devised and divided into foure partes, without addition of any superstitious ceremonyes heretofore used .” In the Injunctions, also , made in the19th year ofthe same Queen, it is ordered that the curate, at certain and convenient places, shall admonish the people to the corne, 9 ) PAROCHIAL PERAMBULATIONS 65 give thanks to God, for the increase and abundance of his fruits, saying the 103d psalm , &c. at which time the minister shall inculcate these, or such sentences, Cursed be he which trans lateth the bounds or doles of his neighbours,' or such orders of prayers as shall be hereafter.” The following is the account of “ Procession weeke, ” given in Barnabe Googe's translation of the “ Regnum Papisticum ” of Naogeorgus, fol. 53. Now comes the Day wherein they gad abrode, with Crosse in hande, To boundes of every field , and round about their neighbour's lande : And, as theygo, they sing and pray to euerysaint aboue, But to our Ladie specially, who most of allthey loue. When as they to the towne are come, the Church they enter in And looke what Saint that Church doth guide, they humbly pray to him, That he preserve both corne and fruite from storme and tempest great, And them defend from harme, and send them store of drinke and meat. This done, they to the tavernego, or in the fieldes they dine, Where downe they sit and feede a pace, and fill themselves with wine, So much that oftentymes without the Crosse they come away, And miserably they reele, till as their stomacke up they lay. These things three days coutinually are done, with solemne sport, With many Crosses often they vnto some Church resort, Whereas they all do chaunt alowde, wherby there streight doth spring, A bawling noyse, while euery man seekes highest for to sing. In an old black letter quarto, intituled “ The Epistles and Gospelles," imprinted by Richard Bankes, is given a “ Sermon in the Crosse dayes, or Rogation dayes,” in which occurs the following passage. “ Alacke, for pitie ! these solemne and accustomable Processions and Supplications be nowe growen into a right foule and detestable abuse, so that the moost parte of men and women do come forth rather to set out and shew themselves, and to passe the time with vayne and unpro fitable tales and mery fables, than to make generall supplications and prayers to God, for theyr lackes and necessities. I wyll not speake of the rage andfurour of these uplandysh processions and gangynges aboute, which be spent in ryoting and in belychere. Furthermore, the banners, and badges of the Crosse be so un reverently handled and abused , that it is merveyle God destroye us not in one daye.” In some parts of England, Rogation week is still called Cross-week, partly from the ancient custom of the K 66 POPULAR PASTIMES. Catholic priests having crosses carried before them when they went in procession at this season ; and partly from their practice of reading the gospel at the Crosses set up in the public places and highways, and which on this occasion were decked like idols.” Johnson, speaking of the Birch-tree, in his edition of Gerarde's “ Herbal," says, “ it serveth well to the decking up of houses and banquetting -rooms, for places of pleasure, and for beautifying of streets in the Crosse organg-week ,and such like." Shaw , in the second volume of his History of Staffordshire , speaking of Wolverhampton , has these passages ; — “ Among the local customs which have prevailed here may be noticed that which was popularly called · Processioning .' Many of the elder 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 was 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 , Omnio Opera, &c. This ceremony, innocent at least, and not illaudable in itself, was of high an tiquity, having probably its origin in the Roman offerings of the Primitæ , from which ( after being rendered conformable to our purer worship ), it was adopted 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 the year 1765. The boundaries ofthe 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 PAROCHIAL PERAMBULATIONS. 67 the strictest care and attention .” The same custom is alluded to by Herrick, who in his “ Hesperides,” has these words : Dearest ,bury me Under that Holy- oke, or Gospel Tree , Where (though thou see'st not), thou may'st think upon Me, when thou yearly go'st Procession. Though the customs formerly observed in these Parochial Perambulations have been either entirely disused, or much al tered, it is still common in Rogation week to trace the bounda ries of most parishes ; excepting in some of the larger districts of the country, where a lapse of two, three , or even more years, takes place between the times of going in procession. At Bark ing, for instance, in Essex, the Parish being forty -two miles in circumference, the Perambulation is made only once in seven years ; and then no more than one fourth of the parochial limits are visited . The Minister, Parish Officers, and Trades men of the town, with white wands and blue ribbands, accom panied by the Charity boys, and many other youngsters, join in the procession ; and with the intent of impressing more strongly the exact bounds on the memory , the boys are bumped against the posts, which in different parts have been set up to mark the limits : it is customary also, for the Minis ter himself, to be made the first example of patient sufferance under this kind of discipline. A similar practice, in regard to the children, prevails in the London Parishes ; and formerly , as appears from the “ Churchwarden's books" of Chelsea ( as quoted in Lysons's “ Environs of London ),” it was usual to employ some other expedients to impress the recollection of the boundaries on the minds of youth ; that is, whipping, and dis tributing of points as gratuities. The following is one of the entries, under the date 1670. Spent at the Perambulation dinner Given to the boys that were whipt Paid for poynts for the boys 11 £. s. d. 3 10 0 0 4 0 0 2 0 The accompanying print was designed from a paragraph in Dr. Plot's Natural History of Oxfordshire, page 203, which K 2 68 POPULAR PASTIMES. runs thus : - " I cannot but note an odd custom at STANLAKE, where the Parson in the procession about Holy Thursday reads a Gospel at a Barrel's head, in the cellar of the Chequer Inn, where some say there was formerly an Hermitage, others, that there was anciently a cross , at which they read a Gospel in former times ; over which now the house, and particularly the cellar, being built, they are forced to perform it in manner as above.” At Oxford, at this time, says Brand, “ the little crosses cut in the stones of buildings, to denote the division of the parishes, are whitened with chalk ; and great numbers of boys, with peeled willow - rods in their hands, accompany the Minis ter in the procession .” TheWhite Bull of St.Edmund's Bury . EDMUND, king of East Anglia, having been defeated by Ivar, or Hinguar, the Dane, in the year 870 , was, after the battle, barbarously shot to death with arrows, for refusing to hold his crown of Ivar as his superior sovereign, and pay him tribute. His remains were interred at Breadicsworth, in Suffolk, which subsequently obtained the name of St. Edmund's Bury, the superstition of the age having exalted Edmund into a Saint and Martyr. Edward the Elder founded a monastery on the spot of his interment, which Canute, the Danish king, greatly aug mented, both in buildings and revenues ; he also erected a stately church there, besides considerably enlarging the town itself : Canute was probably induced to these acts by his desire to propitiate the Saint, whom the monkish legends represented as having slain Sweyn , Canute's father, with a club, in order to save his own burial- place from being plundered. Numerous grants and rich donations were in subsequent ages made to this foundation, so that it became one of the richest in the king THE WHITE BULL OF ST . EDMUND'S BURY. 69 dom ; and Leland, who was an eye-witness of the splendour he describes, has used the following terms in his account of St. Edmund's Bury : “ A city more neatly seated the sun never saw , hanging upon a gentle descent, with a little river on its east side ; nor a monastery more great and stately, whe ther we consider the endowments, largeness, or unparalleled magnificence. The monastery itself looks like a city, so many gates it has (some whereof are brass), so many towers, and a church , than which nothing can be more stately ; to which, as appendages, there are three more of admirable beauty and workmanship in the same church -yard .” women . The pilgrimages that were made to St. Edmund's Shrine were very numerous, and the gifts and offerings of the devotees extremely rich and splendid. St. Edmund, besides being famed for his piety, was still more celebrated for his exem plary chastity ; and the Monks, with great artfulness, spread a report that in reward for this excellence, he had a power by his intercession , of causing the removal of barrenness in married This effect, however, could not be produced, unless a White BULL was presented as an offering at the bier of St. Edmund, and certain vows and prayers made ; the lady solicit- , ing relief being generally present to perform a part in the cere mony. So extensively was the Saint's renown for removing sterility circulated , that his Shrine was visited by divers eminent females of our own country, as well as by ladies from beyond sea ; and that a White Bull for this pious service might never be want ing, the tenants of the Abbey lands, and particularly of the manor of Habyrdon, in St. Edmund's Bury, were obliged to have one always in readiness for the solemnity, as appears by various deeds and leases that were extant in the last century : and most probably are yet preserved, though in other hands. One of these instruments (bearing date on the 4th of June, second of Henry VII . ) , as translated from the Latin , has been given as follows. “ This indenture wituesseth, that Mr. John 70 POPULAR PASTIMES. Swaffham , sacrist of the monastery of St. Edmund of Bury , with the assent and will of the prior and convent of that place, has granted, and to farm let, to Simons Lolepeke, of Bury aforesaid, Yeoman , the manor called Habyrdon , in Bury, to hold, &c. for the term of seven years ; yielding therefor, &c. And the said Simon, his executors and assigns, shall find, or cause to be found, one White Bull every year of his said term , as often as it shall happen that any Gentlewoman, or any other woman , out of devotion, or vow , by them made, shall come to the bier of the glorious king and martyr, St. Edmund, to make their oblations of the White Bull. In witness whereof, & c .” The original of this deed was in the time of George I. in the possession of Mr. James Copin, of St. Edmund's Bury , a Public Notary and Proctor in the ecclesiastical Court. When the ceremony of making the offering was performed, it was customary for the White Bull to be curiously adorned with garlands of flowers between his horns, ribands, & c . and to beled in procession through the streets by a monk ; the fe male applicant walking by the side, and frequently stroaking the Bull, whilst the rest of the convent attended, chanting, &c. The procession commonly set forth from the south gate of the town, passing through Church - street, Guildhall- street, and Cook - row , now Abbey -Gate - street, to the great gate of the Abbey ; whence the fair petitioner proceeded to St. Edmund's Shrine, and having said her prayers and made her offerings, departed with a full assurance of a speedy conception . That the fame of St. Edmund in removing barrenness by virtue of the White Bull, was not confined to our own country, is evident from the following certificate, which was, also, in the possession of Mr. Copin, and appears to have been given to substantiate the fact of the necessary oblation having been ac tually made, when the lady herself, from some untold cause , did not personally attend : - “ To all faithful christian people that inspect these presents, John Swaffham , sacrist of the monastery of St. Edmund of Bury, &c. and arch -deacon of the same place, Health , on the author of Health : We make known to you all by C THE WHITE BULL OF ST . EDMUND'S BURY. 71 these presents, that father Peter Minnebode, licentiate in Holy theology, and father Peter Brune, with father Cornelius, a lay brother of the order of Carmelites, of the City of Gaunt, on the second day of the month of June, in the year of our lord 1474, did, in the presence of many credible persons, offer at the Bier of the glorious King, Virgin and Martyr, St. Edmund at Bury, afore said, one White Bull, according to the ancient custom, to the honour of God, and the said glorious Martyr, in relief of the desire of a certain noble lady. Sealed with the seal of onr office, ” &c. The artful policy of the monks in promoting these offerings proved of great advantage to their house ; as the superstitious reverence for St. Edmund was much advanced whenever the lady found her wishes gratified , and new presents were in grateful acknowledgment brought to his Shrine. St. Mark's Day. Ar Alnwick, in Northumberland, according to an account inserted in the first volume of the “ Antiquarian Repertory, ” a peculiar mode of conferring the freedom of the place has been practised ever since the time of King John ; who, as tradition states, having on horseback attempted to ride across Alnwick Moor, he sunk into a bog or morass, where he stuck so fast, that his attendants had great difficulty to extricate him. Being incensed, by the danger, against the inhabitants of Alnwick for not keeping the passes over the moor in better repair, he caused to be inserted in their charter, both by way of_memento and punishment, “ that all men created freemen , should in future, on St. Mark's Day (April the 25th ), pass on foot through that morass ; " which in after times acquired the name of the Free mens' Well. 72 POPULAR PASTIMES. In obedience to this injunction, “ when any new freemen are to be made, a small rill of water which flows through the morass is kept dammed up for a day or two, previous to that on which the ceremonial is to take place, 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, un lucky wags frequently dig holes and trenches, and these being filled up and rendered invisible by the fluid mud, are sometimes the occasion of the freemen falling down, and being in great danger of suffocation . In proportion, indeed, as the new made freemen are more or less popular, the passage is rendered more or less difficult ; at best, however, it is scarcely preferable to the punishment of the horse - pond inflicted by the mob on a detected pick - pocket.” On the day of initiation, “the candidates, dressed in white, repair to the scene of action, preceded by a cavalcade, con sisting of the castle bailiff, the four chamberlains, the freemen of the town, and a band of music : and on the word , or a signal being given, they pass through the bog ; each person having liberty to employ 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, or hogs in the mire, to the great amusement of the populace, who usually assemble in vast num ers on this occasion : when the sport is over, the parties return to town, and endeavour to prevent, by good cheer, any ill effect from their morning's exercise." In the Catholic times, St. Mark's day was observed in this country with many ceremonies ; the Romish Church keeping it as a strict fast, in imitation of the first Christians ofAlexandria, who were St. Mark's disciples, and eminent for their “ great prayer, abstinence, and sobriety.” Strype, in his “Annals of the Reformation, ” under the date 1599 ( 1st of Elizabeth ), ac quaints us, that in that year, “ on St. Mark's Day , was a pro cession in divers parishes of London ; and the citizens went with their banners abroad in their respective parishes, singing in ST. MARK'S DAY. 73 Latin, the Kyrie Eleeson , after the old fashion .” We learn from Hall's “ Triumphs,” that on St. Mark's Day, it was cus tomary to implore “ blessings on the corn.” From a passage in the very rare tract intituled , “The burnynge of Paul's Church in London, 1561,” &c. it would seem that the fasting on the anniversary of St. Mark was but a late institution in England : the author's words are , “ Althoughe Ambrose says that the churche knewe no fastinge day betwix Easter and Whitsonday, yet beside manye fastes in the rogation weeke, our wise popes of late yeares have devysed a monstrous faste on St. Marke's daye. All other fastinge daies are on the holy day Even , only St. Marke must have his day fasted ! - Tell us a reason why, so that it will not be laughen at ? " Awriter on the opposite side, that is, Vaughan , in his “ Golden Grove, " relates the following disastrous event, as a “ gentle warning to them that violate and prophane forbidden daies. In the year of our Lord, 1589, I being as then but a boy, do remember that an ale wife, making no exception of dayes, would needes brue upon St. Mark's daye ; but loe, the mar vailous worke of God ! whiles she was thus Jabouring, the top of the chimney tooke fire; and, before it could bee quenched, her house was quite burnt. ” To the same effect is the information given by Mr. Pennant, who says, that in “ North Wales, no farmer dare hold his team on St. Mark's day, because as they believe, one man's team that did work on that day, was marked with the loss of an ox . ” Mr. Brand records the following particulars on the authority of a Yorkshire clergyman.- It is customary, in that county , for the common people to sit and watch in the church porch on St. Mark's eve, from eleven o'clock at night till one in the morning. The third year ( for this must be done thrice ), they are supposed to see the ghosts of all those who are to die the next year, pass by into the church . When any one sickens that is thought to have been seen in this manner, it is presently whispered about that he will not recover ; for that such, or such an one, who has watched on St. Mark's eve, says so ." L 74 POPULAR PASTIMES. This superstition is in such force, that if the patients themselves hear of it, they almost despair of recovery ; and many are said to have actually died by their imaginary fears on the occasion : a truly lamentable, but by no means incredible, instance of hu man folly. The Fool Plough and Sword Dance . Plough Munday, next after that Twelf-tide is past, Bids out with the Plough ; the worst husband is last : If Ploughman get hatchet, or whip to the screene, Maids loseth their Cocke if no water be seen . Tusser's Five HUNDRED POINTS OF GOOD HUSBANDRY. ABOUT Christmas, " in the north of England, ” says Brand, in the first volume of his “ Observations on Popular Antiquities ,” there " is a custom used, which was anciently observed, also , at the beginning of Lent. The Fool Plough goes about, a Pageant that consists of a number of Sword - dancers dragging a Plough, with music, and one, sometimes two, in very strange attire ; the Bessy, in the grotesque habit of an old woman , and the Fool, almost covered with skins, a hairy cap on, and the tail of some animal hanging from his back . The office of one of these characters, in which he is very assiduous, is to go about rattling a box amongst the spectators of the dance, in which he receives their little donations. This Pageant, or dance, as used at present, seems a composition made up of the gleaning of several obsolete customs, followed anciently here and elsewhere, on this and the like festive occasions." This grotesque exhibition, besides its denomination Fool Plough, is also occasionally called the fond plough, the white plough, and the stot plough. The term fond, in the north , is said to mean the same as fool: the white plough is so named when the young men who draw it appear dressed in their shirts OM be 1P ITE VE po 2h 3 1 E.P. Stephanaf det FOOL PLUGH Row Paternoster Sherwood &CºPublished July 1.1836 .by

THE FOOL PLOUGH AND SWORD DANCE. 75 (without coat or waistcoat) having a number of ribbands formed into knots and roses slightly attached to them . A stot signifies a young bullock, or steer, and stot plough, probably, in its more strict sense, is a light plough, which a single bullock is sufficient to draw . Hutchinson, in the second volume of his “ History of Northumberland," after describing the dress of the sword dancers at Christmas, says ; “ others, in the same kind of gay attire, draw about a plough , called the stot plough, and when they receive the gift, make the exclamation Largess ! But if not requited at any house for their appearance , they draw the plough through the pavement, and raise the ground of the front in furrows. " It would seem by the following extracts from the “ Church wardens' accounts” of Heybridge, near Malden, in Essex ; and Wigtoft, in Lancashire, inserted in Nichols's “ Illustrations of Ancient Manners and Expenses," that a portion of the receipts derived from the Plough gatherings, was claimed by the church . At Heybridge, under the date 1522, the entry is, Item. réceyved of the gadrying of the White Plowe ol. ls. 3d. At Wigtoft, under the year 1575, the words are , Received of Wylliam Clarke and John Wyatt, of yeplougadrin 11. Os. Od. It is not improbable but that these sums were paid towards the support of the Plough Light, which it was formerly cus tomary in many churches for the husbandmen and ploughmen to maintain before some image. On the continent, the fool plough appears to have been exhibited on Ash -Wednesday, after the solemn service of the day was over, but without the sword dance, and with other variations in the pageant; as may be learned from the following extract from Barnaby Googe's translation of the“ Regni Papistici ” of Neogorgius. In some places, the youthful flocke, with Minstrels doe repaire, And out of every house they plucke the girles, and maydensfayre, And them to Plough they straightwaysput,with whipone doth them hit, Avother holds the Plough hande ; the Minstrel here doth sit, Amiddethe same, and drounken songs with gaping mouth he sings, Whom foloweth one that sowes out sande, or ashes fondly flings. L 2 76 POPULAR PASTIMES. Whenthus they through the streets have plaide, the man that guidetb all , Doth drive both plough and maydens through some pond or river small, And dabbled all with durt, and wringing wette as they may bee, To supper calls, and after that to daunsing lustilee, The custom of opening the New Year with agricultural cere monies, in which the Plough was a chief agent, is of an extremely remote origin . The Chinese, the Persians, and the Greeks, cbserved them at the earliest periods to which their history has been traced ; and in general they appear to have been connected with the sacred mysteries of religion . Sheridan , in his edition of Persius, mentions the “ Compitalia ” of the ancients, which “ were feasts instituted, some say, by Tarquinius Priscus, in the month of January, and celebrated by servants alone when their plowing was over . ” Plutarch informs us that the Athenians were accustomed to celebrate “ three sacred ploughings.” Du Cange, in his “ Glossary ,” has a reference to some old laws which mention “ the drawing a plough about ; ” — and in a curious tract printed by Pynson, in 1493, with the title “ A Com pendiouse Treetise Dyalogue of Dives and Pauper,” among the superstitions censured at the beginning of the year, is that of “ Ledyng the ploughe aboute the fire, as for gode begynnyng of the yere that they shulde fare the better alle the yere follow yng. ” It would seem also to have been once customary to perfume the ploughs with incense ; for the learned Bale in his very rare book intituled , “ Yet a Course at the Romyshe Foxe," &c. printed at Zurick, 1542, mentioning the " auncyent rytes, and laudable ceremonyes of Holy Churche” can only allude to this, where he says, “then ought my lorde,” meaning Bishop Bonner, " to suffre the same selfe ponnyshment for not sensing the Plowghess, upon Plowgh Mondaye. " Dr. Samuel Pegge, speaking of Derbyshire customs, under the signature of T. Row , in the Gent.'s Mag. for December , 1762, acquaints us, that “ Plough Monday, the Monday after Twelfth -day, is when the labour of the plough and the other rustic toils begin. On this day the young men yoke themselves and draw a plough about, with music ; and one or two persons, THE FOOL PLOUGH AND SWORD DANCE. 77 in antic dresses, like Jack Puddings, go from house to house, to gather money to drink : if you refuse them they plough up your dunghill. We call them here the Plough bullocks.” In “ Tusser Redivivus, ” printed in 8vo. 1744 , the lines given at the head of this article are thus explained :- “ After Christ mas , (which formerly during the twelve days was a time of very little work ) every gentleman feasted the farmers, and every farmer their servants and tąsk-men. Plough Monday puts them in mind of their business. In the morning the men and maid servants strive who shall shew their diligence in rising earliest : if the ploughman can get his whip, his plough - staff, hatchet, or any thing that he wants in the field , by the fireside, before the maid hath got her kettle on, then the maid loseth her shrove tide cock, and it wholly belongs to the men. Thus did our forefathers strive to allure youth to their duty, and provided them innocent mirth as well as labour. On this Plough Monday they have a good supper and some strong drink . ” - A variation of this custom is mentioned by Coles, who after stating that “the northern ploughmen begged money to drink on Plough Monday,” adds, “ In some places, if the ploughman, after that day's work, come with his whip to the kitchen hatch and cry Cock in Pot,' before the maid cry “ Cock on the Dunghill,' he gains a Cock for Shrove Tuesday.” He likewise mentions an old practice among farmers of giving sharping corn to their smith at Christmas, for sharping plough irons, and other imple ments of agriculture. It appears from an extract of a journal printed in the Gent.'s Mag. for May, 1811 , which had been kept in the North Riding of Yorkshire, by a person who had spent his Christmas there (but the particular year is not mentioned) , that it was customary in that part for the Sword Dance to be performed from St, Stephen's Day till New Year's Day. The dancers, says the journalist, “ are six youths clad in white and bedecked with ribbands, attended by a fiddler, and another youth curiously dressed, who generally has the name of Bessy ; and also by one who personates a doctor. These travel from village to village ; 78 POPULAR PASTIMES. and one of the six youths acts the part of a king in a kind of farce, which consists of singing and dancing, when the Bessy interferes while they are making a hexagon with their swords, and is killed .” In Olaus Magnus's “ History of the Northern Nations, is a curious and minute description of the SWORD DANCE, which Mr. Brand has thus translated . “ The northern Goths and Swedes have a sport wherein they exercise their youth , con sisting of a dance with swords in the following manner : first, with their swords sheathed , and erect in their hands, they dance in a triple round ; then with their drawn swords, held erect as before ; afterwards, extending them from hand to hand, they lay hold of each others hilts and points, and while they are wheeling more moderately round and changing their order, throw themselves into the figure of a hexagon, which they call a rose ; but presently raising and drawing back their swords, they undo that figure in order to form with them a four -square rose, that they may rebound over the head of each other. Lastly, they dance rapidly backwards, and vehemently rattling the sides of their swords together, conclude their sport. Pipes, or songs, (sometimes both) direct the measure , which, at first, is slow , but increasing afterwards, becomes a very quick one towards the conclusion ." Olaus Magnus calls this “ a kind of gymnastic rite, in which the ignorant were successively instructed by those who were skilled in it. ” The dance is still frequently practised in our northern counties ; and was most probably introduced by the original Danish settlers : one difference, however, is observable in the modern usage, that is, when the swords are formed into a figure, they are laid upon the ground, and the dancers wheel round them . Wallis, in his “ History of Northumberland," who refers this custom to the “ Saltatio armati" of the Roman militia ( but, as we believe, erroneously), tells us,that the “ young men march from village to village, and from house to house, with music before them , dressed in an antic attire, and before the entrance of every house, entertain the family with the Motus THE FOOL PLOUGH AND SWORD DANCE. 79 incompositus, the antic dance , or Chorus Armatus, with sword or spears in their hands, erect and shining. This they call the Sword -dance. For their pains they are presented with a small gratuity in money ;-for which they express their gratitude by firing a gun . One of the company is distinguished from the rest by a more antic dress ; a fox's skin generally serving him for a covering and ornament to his head, the tail hanging down his back : this droll figure is their chief or leader, but does not mingle in the dance .” A very curious old cut, representing the Sword dance, is in the possession of Mr. Douce , Sowing Hemp- seed . At Eve last Midsummer no sleep I sought , But to the field a bag of Hemp- seed brought ; I scattered round the seed on every side , And three times , in a trembling accent, cry'd , This Hemp-seed with my virgin hand I sow , Who shall my true love be, the crop shall mow. GAY's PASTORALS. AMONG the Love divinations still in vogue with our peasant girls is that of Sowing Hemp Seed on Midsummer Eve, for the purpose of discovering who their true sweethearts are . This custom is thus pleasingly noticed in the “ Connoisseur" ( No. 56) , as well as several others that are frequently practised at the same season by our country lasses. “ I and my two sisters tried the dumb cake together; you must know , two must make it, two bake, two break it, and the third put it under each of their pillows (but you must not speak a word all the time) , and then you will dream of the man you are to have. This we did : and to be sure I did nothing all night but dream of Mr. Blossom. “ The same night, exactly at twelve o'clock , I sowed Hemp -seed in our back yard, and said to myself these words, 80 POPULAR PASTIMES. Hemp- seed I sow, Hemp -seed I hoe, And he that is my true love, Come after me and mow . Will you believe me ? I looked back, and saw him behind me, as plain as eyes could see him. After that, I took a clean shift and wetted it, and turned it wrong side out, and hung it to the fire upon the back of a chair ; and very likely my sweetheart would have come and turned it right again (for I heard his step ), but I was frightened, and could not help speaking, which broke the charm. I likewise stuck up two Midsummer Men (that is, Orpine plants) , one for myself and one for him. Now if his had died away, we should have never come together, but I assure you his blowed and turned to mine. Our maid Betty tells me that if I go backwards without speaking a word , into the garden upon Midsummer eve, and gather a rose, and keep it in a clean sheet of paper, without looking at it till Christmas Day, it will be as fresh as in June ; and if I then stick it in my bosom, he that is to be my husband will come and take it out.” The poet Burns in the notes to his beautiful poem of “ Hal low - e'en ” (All Saint's eve, or the last of October ), informs us, that “ Sowing Hemp-seed ” is one of the customs pursued on this evening, in Scotland ; and for the same purpose as in England, on Midsummer eve. His words are : Steal out unperceived , and sow a handful of Hemp-seed, harrowing it with any thing you can conveniently draw after you : repeat, now and then , ‘ Hemp- seed , I saw thee, hemp-seed , I saw thee, and him (or her) that is to be my true love, come after me and pou thee ;' then , look over your left shoulder and you will see the appearance of the person invoked , in the attitude of pulling hemp. Some traditions say, come after me and shaw thee ,' that is, ' show thyself, in which case it simply appears : others omit the harrowing, and say ' come after me, and harrow thee. ' In the elegant collection of “ Poems, chiefly written by gentlemen of Devonshire and Cornwall, is one named “ The Cottage Girl, written “on Midsummer Eve, 1786.” In this SOWING HEMP- SEED . 81 poem, which very ingeniously connects together many of the superstitious ceremonies of our village fair , " The Rustic Maid invokes her swain ; And bails, to pensive damsels dear, This Eve, though direst of the year: " and after various practices to discover her true love, she thus proceeds to the Sowing of Hempseed. " With trembling hand she lifts the latch, And steps, as creaks the feeble door, With cautious feet, the threshold o'er ; Lest stumbling ou the horse- shoe dim; Dire spells unsinew every limb. “ Lo ! shuddering at the solemn deed , She scatters round the magic seed , And thrice repeats the seed I sow , My true love's scythe the crop shall mow. ' Strait, as her frame fresh horrors freeze , Her True - love with his scythe she sees . “ And now , she seeks the yew tree shade, Where he who died for love is laid ; There binds upon the verdant sod By manya moon -light fairy trod, The cowslip, and thelilywreath She wove, her hawthorn bedgebeneath, And whispering, Ab ! may Colin prove * As constant as thou wast to love ! ' Kisses, with pale lip, full of dread , The turf that hides his clay- cold head ! “ At length , ber love-sick projects tried, She gains her Cot the lea beside ; And , on her pillow sinks to rest, With dreams of constant Colinblest. " Horse Racing. The diversion of HORSE RACING is of very ancient origin . Having had its rise in the East, it was afterwards practised by the nations of Greece and Rome ; and in all probability was introduced into this country by the Romans, who are supposed to have established regular courses both at York and at Ches M 82 POPULAR PASTIMES. ter. The Anglo -Saxons continued the amusement; and we learn from William of Malmesbury, that when Hugh Capet (whose descendants became sovereigns of France ), solicited the hand of Edelswitha, the sister to king Æthelstan , he sent to that prince, among other valuable presents, several Running Horses, richly caparisoned , and having bridles embellished with studs of gold. Fitz- Stephen, in his curious description of London , as it existed in Henry II.'s time, informs us that Horses were usually exposed for sale in Smithfield , and that it was custom ary to match the more valuable kinds against each other, in order to try their speed and qualities. His language as given in Pegge's translation, is to this effect : - “ When a race is to be run by this sort of horses, and perhaps by others, which also in their kind are strong and fleet, a shout is immediately raised, and the common horses are ordered to withdraw out of the way. Three jockies, or sometimes only two, as the match is made, prepare themselves for the contest ; such , as being used to ride, know how to manage their horses with judgment: the grand point is to prevent a competitor from getting before them . The horses, on their part, are not without emulation ; they tremble and are impatient, and are continually in motion : at last, the signal once given , they strike, devour the course, hurrying along with unremitting velocity. The jockies, in spired with the thoughts of applause and the hopes of victory, clap spurs to their willing horses, brandish their whips, and cheer them with their cries." In the registers of royal expenditures in different reigns, Running Horses are frequently mentioned, yet it does not de cidedly appear that they were used for racing ; yet it is most likely that they were so employed, as well as for the chace and other sports of the field . King John was particularly attached to these kind of pastimes ; and his great partiality to fine horses, hounds, and hawks, is evident from his frequently re ceiving such animals instead of money, for the renewal of grants, and in payment of fines, &c. to the crown, as may be HORSE RACING . 83 seen in Blount's “ Ancient Tenures.” The Running Horses purchased for Edward III. were generally estimated at twenty marks in value ; yet some few of them were prized so high as twenty -five marks, or £16 : 13 : 4. In an entry made in the ninth year of that monarch, it is stated that the king gave 100s . to a person who brought over two Running Horses, which had been sent to him as a present from the king of Navarre. “ If we appeal to the poets,” says Mr. Strutt, in his Sports and Pastimes, “ we shall find that swift Running Horses were greatly esteemed by the heroes who figure in their romances, and were rated at prodigious prices : for instance, in an ancient poem (MS. Harl. 4690, written early in the 14th century) which celebrates the warlike actions of Richard I. it is said that in the camp of the emperor, as he is called , of Cyprus, Too Stedes fownde kinge Richarde, Thatt oon Favell , thatt other Lyard : Yn this worlde, they bad no pere ; Dromedary, neither destrere, Stede, rabyte, ne cammele, Goeth none so swyftewithoute fayle : For athousand pownd of golde, Ne sholde the one be solde. And though the rhymist may be thought to have claimed the poetical licence for exaggeration, respecting the value of these two famous steeds, the statement plainly indicates that in his time there were horses very highly prized on account of their swiftness. We do not find, indeed, that they were kept for the purpose of racing only, as horses are in the present day; but rather for hunting, and other purposes of a similar nature ; and also to be used by heralds and messengers in cases of ur gency.” In the middle ages there were certain seasons of the year when the nobility indulged themselves in running their horses ; and especially in the Easter and Whitsuntide holidays. This is partly evident from the old metrical romance of Syr Bevys of Hampton , ” in which is the subjoined passage. In Somer at Whitsontydle, When Knightes most on horseback ride ; A Cours let them make on a daye, Steedes and Palfraye, for to assaye ; M 2 84 POPULAR PASTIMES. Whiche borse, that best may ren; Three myles the cours was then : Who that night ryde him shoulde Have forty pounds of redy golde. Randle Holmes, the celebrated Chester antiquary, tells us (in his MSS. in the British Museum) , that it had been customary , time out of mind, upon Shrove Tuesday, for the company of saddlers belonging to the city of Chester, to present to the drapers a wooden ball, embellished with flowers, and placed upon the point of a lance ; a ceremony that was performed in the presence of the mayor, at the cross in the “ Roodee, ” or Roody, an open place near the city, but this year ( thirty - first of Henry VIII. ), he continues, “ the ball was changed into a bell of silver, valued at three shillings and sixpence, or more, to be given to him who shall run the best, or farthest, on horse back, before them upon the same day.” These bells were afterwards denominated St. George's bells ; and we are in formed by Randle Holmes the younger, that in the last year of James I. John Brereton, innkeeper, mayor of Chester, first caused the horses entered for this race, then called St. George's Race, to start from the point beyond the new tower ; and appointed them to run five times round the Roody : he, says our author, “who won the last course, or trayne, received the bell, of a good value, of eight or ten pounds, or there about, to have it for ever ; which moneyes were collected of the citizens into a sum for that purpose .” Forty- six years afterwards (that is in the year 1665) , according to the same writer, “ the sheriffs of Chester would have no Calves Head feast, but put the charge of it into a piece of plate to be run for on Shrove Tuesday ; and the high sheriff borrowed a Bar bary horse of Sir Thomas Middleton, which won him the plate .” Till the time of James I. Horse Racing appears to have been considered as a liberal pastime, and to have been prac tised rather for pleasure than profit, without the least idea of reducing it to a system of gambling. “ It is ranked ,” Mr. Strutt remarks, " with hunting and hawking, and is opposed to dice and card playing by an old Scotch poet ( quoted by HORSE RACING . 85 acces Warton in his “ History of English Poetry,” vol. ii .) , who laments that the latter had, in a great measure , superseded the former. One of the puritanical writers, also, of the reign of Elizabeth, though very severe against cards, dice, vain plays, interludes, and other idle pastimes, allows of, Horse Racing, as “ yielding good exercise ;" which he certainly would not have done had it been in the least degree obnoxious to the censure which at present it so justly claims. Horse Races, says Bur ton , in his “ Anatomy of Melancholy, " " are desports of great men, and good in themselves, though many gentlemen by such means gallop quite out of their fortunes ; ” — a passage which may be considered as a plain indication that they had begun to be productive of mischief at the time he wrote ; which was about the decline of the seventeenth century. A new spur was given to this diversion soon after the sion of James I. whose nobles brought with them from Scot land a decided partiality for the sport, it having become greatly in vogue in that country, within a few years, from the spirit and swiftness of some Spanish horses which had been wrecked in the vessels of the Armada, and thrown a -shore on the coasts of Galloway. Public races were now established in various parts of the kingdom , and had, at first, the name of bell courses ; the prize being generally a valuable bel]. The famous course at Newmarket was, about this period, beginning to attain celebrity ; and as James erected a house or palace in that town, it seems probable that some kind of a racing estab lishment was then formed . It is said that the discipline and modes of preparing the horses for the race were much the same as are practised at the present time. About the latter end of the reign of Charles I. races were held in Hyde Park ; but these, from the subsequent troubles, as well as through the confusion attending the contiguity of the course to a populou capital, were afterwards discontinued . During the civil wars Horse Racing was utterly discountenanced ; puritanical severity not allowing of a pastime of such questionable utility, and the house which James had built at Newmarket was destroyed. 86 POPULAR PASTIMES. After the restoration this sport was revived and much en couraged by Charles II. who frequently graced the race - course with his presence, and for his own amusement, whilst he resided at Windsor, appointed races in Datchet Mead. He also rebuilt the palace at Newmarket, and frequently resided there in the racing seasons ; at which times he is reported to have entered and run his horses in his own name. The silver bells were now changed into cups and pieces of plate ( some of them from fifty to one hundred guineas in value ), and upon these trophies of victory the exploits and pedigrees of the suc cessful horses were commonly engraven , as they are, also, at the present day. Considerable sums, likewise , were at this period, often betted upon the race , and all the arrangements and detail of the course began to assume a regular and systematic form ; as the erection of distance posts, weighing the riders, and loading them with weights, breeding and training the horses, & c . Even the knaveries of the turf were reduced into science ; and numerous subtilities contrived to decoy and ruin the uninitiated . “ I might here," says the writer of the “ Complete Gamester,” (firstprinted in 1674) , after introducing various directions for the right ordering of a race- horse, " “ insert the many tricks that are used in making a match, the craft of the betters, with the knavery of the riders, but that they are now too generally known by the woeful experience of the losers. " The idea of improving the breed of horses was doubtless the grand cause of the encouragement given to Horse Racing by the legislature, and Parliament has at different times been induced to provide for the due regulation of this sport. William III. particularly patronized it, besides establishing an academy for riding ; and his Queen not only continued the gifts of her predecessors, but added several pieces of plate to their dona tions. Various plates, gold and silver cups, and purses of from fifty to one hundred guineas, are at this time given at the different race courses throughout England, as well by the crown, as by subscription of the nobility and gentry. The | 13592222 VALENTINES DAY . HORSE RACING . 87 courses at Newmarket, Ascot, Epsom , York, Beverley, Don caster, Stockbridge, and Stamford, are particularly famous. They are each attended by a vast concourse of people ; and large sums are frequently won and lost on the issue of a single race , The usual number of heats are three ; and so well are the horses matched that the most important contests have been occasionally determined by the distance only, of “ half a neck . ” The Prince Regent in his younger days was particu larly attached to this sport, and had one of the finest studs of horses that was ever collected. St. Valentine's Day. Seynte VALENTINE - of custome yeere by yeere Men have a usaunce in this regioun, To loke and serche Cupides Kalendere, And chose theyr choyse, by grete affeccioun ; Such as ben prike with Cupides mocioun Takyng theyre choyse as theyr sort doth falle : But I love oon whiche excellith alle . LYDGATE, MS. Harl . 2251 . Sr. VALENTINE'S DAY, (February the 14th ,) has long been famous for certain observances which favour more of gallantry than love ; and are reprehensible in the same degree as they tend too early to awaken those strong desires which nature has im planted in the human heart, but which are far better developed by exuberant health than by an inflamed imagination. Why St. Valentine shouldhave been selectedas the patron of these customs does not appear : there is not any particular occurrence in the legend of his life which bears reference to them ; and although Wheatley, in his “ Illustrations of the Common Prayer,” tells us that this Saint “ was a man of most admirable parts, and so famous for his love and charity, that the custom of choosing Valentines upon his festival took its rise from thence,” yet this 88 POPULAR PASTIMES. 66 To explication is by no means satisfactory, since love and charity must be supposed to be common to all the Saints, and Valen tine assuredly could not arrogate to himself the peculiar pos session of those qualities. St. Valentine was a presbyter of the church , and was beheaded in the time of the emperor Claudius. Butler, in his “Lives of the Saints,” has this passage abolish the Heathens' lewd superstitious custom of boys drawing the names of girls, in honour of their goddess Februata Juno, on the 15th of February , several zealous pastors substituted the names of saints in billets given on that day.” It has been questioned , however, whether there really was such a custom among the Romans as is here referred to. Shakespeare in his “ Midsummer Night's Dream ” makes Theseus exclaim , on finding Demetrius and Lysander sleeping with their mistresses in the wood, St. Valentine is past : Begin these woods- birds but to couple now. In this sentence the poet alludes to the ancient rural tradition every bird chooses his mate on St. Valentine's Day." In an age still more remote, Chaucer expressed the same idea in the following lines : Nature the Vicare of the Almightie Lord , That hote, cold, hevie, light, moist, and drie Hath knit by even number of accord, In easie voice, began to speak and say, Foules, take hede ofmy sentence 1 pray , And for your own ease in fodring of your need, As fast as I mayspeak I will me speed. Ye know well, how on St. Valentine's Day, By my statute and through my governaunce , Ye doe choose your Mates, and after flie away With hem as I pricke you with pleasaunce. The verse by Lydgate, the Monk of Bury, which is printed at the headof this article, is extracted from a poem written by him in praise of Queen Catherine, consort to Henry V ; it proves therefore that the custom of choosing Valentines is at least as ancient as the year 1422, when Henry died ; having then been married to Catherine but little more than two years. In the that " ST. VALENTINE'S DAY. 89 catalogue of Poetical Devises, written by the same poet, which is annexed to Speght's Chaucer, occurs one with the title of “ Chusing Loves on St. Valentine's Day." It appears, also, from a letter dated in February, 1476, printed in Fenn’s “ Paston Letters," vol . ii. that the custom of choosing Valentines was at that era practised in the mansions of the English gentry. The antiquity of this pastime is likewise evident from a curious French Valentine, composed by Gower, the precursor of Chau cer, which Warton has printed among his additions to the second volume of his “ History of English Poetry.” The following address to his Valentine, occurs in Herrick's “ Hesperides.” On St. Valentine's Day. Oft have I heard both Youth and Virgins say , Birds chuse their Mates, and couple too this day : But by their flight I never can divine, When I shall couple with my Valentine. The same writer in a previous part of the above work, thus alludes to another custom which was formerly practised on this day :-speaking of a bride, he says, She must no more a -maying ; Nor by Rose- buds divine Who ' il be her Valentine. Misson, in his “ Travels in England , ” as translated by Ozell, has thus described the modes of choosing Valentines as they were practised in his time. « On the eve of St. Valentine's Day, a time when all living nature inclines to couple, the young folks in England and Scotland too, by a very ancient custom, celebrate a little festival that tends to the same end. An equal number of maids and batchelors get together ; each writes their true or some feigned name upon separate billets, which they roll up and draw by way of lots, the maids taking the men's billets, and the men the maids?;" so that each of the young men lights upon a girl that he calls his Valentine, and each of the girls upon a young man which she calls her's. By this means each has two Valentines : but the man sticks faster to the Valentine that is fallen to him , than to the Valentine to whom he is fallen . Fortune having thus divided the company into so many ܪ ! N 90 POPULAR PASTIMES. couples, the Valentines give balls and treats to their mistresses, wear their billets several days upon their bosoms or sleeves ; and this little sport often ends in love. This ceremony is practised differently in different counties, and according to the freedom or severity of Madam Valentine. [ The original is " selon les plus ou les moins de severité des Mesdames les Valentines.] There is yet another kind of Valentines, which is the first young man or woman that chance throws in your way, in the street, or elsewhere, on that day.” Respecting this last species of Valen tine, the poet Gay has given us the following description in his Pastorals. men « “Last Valentine, the day when birds of kind Theirparamours with mutual chirpings find, I early rose, just at the break of day , Before the sun had cbas'd the stars away ; A field I went, amid the morning dew, To milk my kine (for so should house- wives do, ) Thee first I spied, and the first swain we see, In spite of Fortune, shall our true love be .” The learned Moresin tells us, that at this festival the were accustomed to make presents to the women, as upon another occasion, the women used to do to the men ; but that presents were on this day made reciprocally, in Scotland .” To the same effect is the following question and answer inserted in the second volume ofthe “ British Apollo . ” Question, “ In chusing Valentine, ( according to custom) is not the party chusing, be it man or woman, to make a present to the party chosen ? Answer, We think it more proper, to say drawing of Valentines, since the most customary way is for each to take his or her lot : and chance cannot be termed choice . According to this method the obligations are equal; and therefore it was formerly the custom mutually to present ; but now it is cus tomary for the gentlemen only to do so ." In one of the papers of the Connoisseur ( part of which has before been quoted under the custom of Sowing Hemp- seed ), are the following curious particulars of Love divinations as practised on St. Valentine's Day, or Eve. “ Last Friday was Valentine Day, and the night before I got five bay -leaves, and ST. VALENTINE'S DAY. 91 pinned four of them to the four corners of my pillow , and the fifth to the middle ; and then , if I dreamt of my sweet-heart, 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 a bed, 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 . ” Dr. Goldsmith , in his “ Vicar of Wakefield," describing the manners of some rustics, informs us, that they sent true - love knots on Valen tine's Morning After a lapse of years it becomes as difficult to fix the pre cise time when new customs spring up, as it is to determine when old one's are discontinued ; unless particular circum stances have arisen to mark the period. It will be observed that no allusion whatever is contained in any of the quotations given above to the common practice of the present day, of sending Valentines, or billet - doux and other fancies, so deno minated , to those whom we select as partners on this day ; or wish to intimate an affection for. Should we limit the origin of this practice to the last fifty or sixty years, it would probably be as near the truth as can now be ascertained . That it has become more than ever prevalent within the preceding twenty years is most certain ; and it still seems to spread with every return of the festival. The major part of these Valentines are slight engravings ( from emblematical designs expressive of affection ), printed on one side of a sheet of letter paper, and coloured ; but others are curiously cut, or stamped, into dif ferent forms, chiefly of true lovers' knots, hearts, darts, altars, lace -work, &c. and within the last year or two, some of them have been so very ingeniously contrived as to assume the ap pearance of a full - blown rose, or other flower, when the various N 2 92 POPULAR PASTIMES. foldings representing leaves, have been drawn out, or distended , by means of a thread fastened to the centre . Others again , on this plan, have been made to appear like baskets of flowers, nosegays, &c. as well as of birds of different species ; though the bird of Venus, the dove, has, as may be imagined , the predominancy. Another kind of Valentines must be in cluded in the class of caricatures, being purposely calculated to excite ridicule ; whilst a different species, more chastly humour ous, are adapted to raise a smile without outraging the feel ings. Verses of various description, playful and affectionate , epigrammatic, witty, and satirical, and frequently absurd and puerile, are generally attached to these fancies ; and the Post is literally burthened with the immense numbers of them which are sent for distribution by the votaries of the Saint on this day. The common price is from sixpence to a shilling ; but the more elaborate and embossed Valentines, are as high as from five to ten and fifteen shillings: some, also , which are neatly drawn in colours are charged even at a guinea and upwards. The great demand is among servant maids and their sweethearts ; yet, no inconsiderable portion of these articles are sold to young men, whose education and stations in life would seem to have kept them far removed from such kinds of folly. Small pamphlets, called “ Valentine Writers, " are also common : these contain various sorts of short poetical effusions ; supposed by their respective compilers to be best adapted for the freedom and gallant intercourse which this festival authorizes. The following have been selected as specimens of the more elegant kinds of verses which are occasionally inserted in Va lentines, by persons of a cultivated taste and superior acquire ments. To Dorinda, on St. Valentine's Day. Look how , my Dear, the feather'd choir, Bynature urg'd and warm desire, Sóft bill, and seem to teach us too What we to love and custom owe . ST. VALENTINE'S DAY. 93 Sball only you and I forbear The mutual happiness to share ? Shall we alone delay to live ? This day an age of bliss may give. But ah ! when I the proffer make, Still coyly you refuse to take, That heart enthrall'd in Cupid's chain , Where love and you alone can reign. Yet since this mystic day allows Tochoose the object of our vows, Boldly I dare profess my flame; Proud to be yours by any name. Then hear me, sweet, and quick incline To bless your anxious Valentine. To Laura, with two Rose- buds on one Stem . Like wedded Love these opening Rose -buds glow , And on one Stem with blended sweetness grow. United thus, yet blooming thus apart, They're emblematic of each Lover's heart, Whose soft desires in mutualconcord join ; Be such my union with my Valentine. Twelfth Day. TWELFTH Day, or the Feast of the Epiphany, has been cele brated from the earliest period of the Christian Establishment. The word Epiphany is Greek, and signifies manifestation, it being on this day that Christ was manifested to the Gentiles by a star which conducted the Wise Men to Bethlehem . Its com mon name of Twelfth Day was obtained in consequence of its being the twelfth in number from that of Christmas , or the Nativity ; and the whole twelve days from that period, accord ing to Collier's “ Ecclesiastical History,” were by a law respecting holidays, made in the time of the great Alfred , ordered to be kept as festivals. 94 POPULAR PASTIMES. The customs of this day, says Mr. Brand, though various in different countries, yet agree in the same end, that is, to do honour to the Eastern Magi, or Wise Men, who are supposed to have been of royal dignity ; and the learned Selden appears, by the following passage in his “ Table Talk ," to have enter tained a similar opinion : -“ Our chusing Kings and Queens on Twelfth - night has reference to the three Kings.” These magi, or sages (who are vulgarly called the three Kings of Colen or Cologne, from the place of their presumed interment) , have the names of Melchior, Jasper, and Balthasar : according to an ancient distich, the first, who is represented as an aged man with a long beard, offered gold to Christ ; the second, a beard less youth, offered frankincense ; and the third , who was a black, or Moor, with a large spreading beard , offered myrrh. These personages are still held in much veneration by the Ca tholics ; and, formerly, such great respect was given to their memory, that forty days of pardon was granted by the Arch Pontiff to every one that made a pilgrimage to their burial place. The “ Popish Kingdom ” of Naorgeorgus, as translated by Barnabe Googe, and printed in the year 1570, contains the following particulars of various ceremonies anciently practised on Twelfth Day. “ The wise Men's Day here foloweth , who out from Persia farre, Brought gifts and presents unto Christ, conducted by a starre. The Papistes do beleeve that these were Kings, and so them call , And do affirme that of the same there were but three in all. Hence sundrie Friends together come, and meete in companie, And make a King amongst themselves by voice or destinie ; Who after princely guise appointes his officers alway, Then unto feasting doe they go, and long time after play “ Then also every Householder, to his abilitie, Doth make a mightie Cake, that may suffice his companie : Herein a penny doth he put, before it come to fire, This be divides according as his householde doth require ; And every peece distributeth , as round about they stand, Which in their names untothe poor is given out of hand : But who so chaunceth on the peece wherein the money lies, Is counted Kingamongst them all ( and is with showtes and cries Exalted to the Heavens up) , who taking chalke in hande, Doth make a crosse on every beame and rafters as they stande ; TWELFTH DAY. 95 Great force and powre have these agaynst all injuryes and harms Of cursed Devils, Sprites , and Bugges, of conjurings and charmes . So much the King can do ; so muchthe crosses 'bring to passe Made by some servant , maide, or cbilde, or by somefoolish asse . “ Twice sixe nigbts then from Christmasse ,-and at this present time, The Youth in every place doe flocke, and all apparel'd fine, With pypars through the streetes they runne, and sing at every dore, In commendation of the man - rewarded well therefore, The money on themselves they spend, or on the church , as though The people were not plagude with rogues and begging friars enow . There Cities are, where boyes and gyrles together still do runne, About the streete with like , as soon as night beginnes to come, And bring abrode their Wassell Bowles , who well rewarded bee With cakes and cheese, and great good cheare, and money plenţeouslee ." In a curious tract called the “ Bee-hive of the Romish Church,” printed in 1569, the dedication concludes with these words :- “ Datum in our Musæo the 5 of January, being the even of the three Kings of Collen, at which time all good Catholiks make merry and crie, ' The Kinge drinkes.' ” The “ Féte de Rois," or Twelfth Day, was kept in France with great splendour, till a year or two after the Revolution ; and in the “ Dictionnaire Comique , ” by Le Roux, is an interesting account of the French Ceremony of choosing the “ Roi de la Feve , " or King of the Bean, which fully explains Jordaen's celebrated picture of “ Le Roi Boit. ” This custom furnished Sir Thomas Urqhart, of Cromarty, with the following illustration , in his curious work, intituled, “ The Discovery of a most exquisite Jewel, found in the Kennel of Worcester Streets, the Day after the Fight, 1651," _ " Verily, I think they make use of Kings, as the French on the Epiphany Day use their Roy de la Fehve, or Bean King ; whom after they have honoured with drinking of his health , and shouting aloud, Le Roy Boit,' Le Roi Boit,' they make pay for all the reckoning : not leaving him sometimes one peny, rather than that the exorbitance of their debosh should not be satisfied to the full. ” In an ancient Calendar of the Romish Church, formerly in the possession of Mr. Brand, the ensuing remark occurs on the fifth of January, the eve or vigil of the Epiphany ; “ Reges Fabis creantur :" that is “ Kings created or elected by Beans.” The sixth day is called “ Festum Regum, ” or “ Festival of 96 POPULAR PASTIMES. Kings ;" with the observation that “ this ceremony of electing Kings was continued with feasting for many days ;" - " Regna atque Epulæ in multos dies exercentur.” What connection the Bean could have had with the origin of the festivities on Twelfth Day is by no means apparent; yet the practise of choosing the King by this mystic symbol, was certainly very general. Randolph, the poet, in a curious letter to Dudley, Earl ofLeicester, published in Pinkerton's “ Ancient Scotish Poems," and dated Edin . 15 Jan. 1563, mentions Lady Flemyng being “ Queene of the Beene," on Twelfth Day. Sir Egerton Brydges, in one of the interesting publications so beautifully executed at Lee Priory, in Kent, has favoured us with the “ Speeches,” &c. made before Queen Elizabeth, at the entertainment given to her by Giles Brydges, third Lord Chandos, on her visit to Sudeley Castle in 1592 ; from which work it appears to have been the custom at that period to put both a Bean and a Pea into the cake, as may be gathered from the dialogue between Melibæus and Nisa : Melibæus says, “ Cut the cake : who hath the Bean shall be King : and where the Peas is, she shall be Queen .” Nisa, I have the Peas, and must be Queen ." “ Melibæus, I the Bean, and King : I must command . " The same custom with some others practised at this season , has thus been sung in lively strains by Herrick in his “ Hes perides." >> 66 Twelfe Night, or Kinge and Queene. Now, now the mirth comes With the Cake full of plums, Where Bean's the King of the sport here ; Besides ye must know , The Pea also Must revell, as Queene, in the Court here. Begin then to chuse, (This night as ye use) Who'shall for the present delight here ; Be a King by the lot, And who,marvel not, Be our twelfe-day Queeve for the night here : TWELFTH DAY. 97 Which knowne, let us make Joy- sops with the Cake ; And let not a man then be seen here , Who un -urged will not drinke To the base from the brink A health to the King and the Queene here. Next crowne the Bowle full With gentle lamb's-wooll ; Adde sugar, nutmeg, and ginger, With store of ale too ; And thus he must doe To make the Wassaile a swinger. Give then tothe King And Queen, Wassailing ; And though with ale ye be wet here ; Yet partye from hence As free from offence, As when ye innocent met here. In Ben Jonson's Masque of Christmas," the character of Baby - Cake is attended by “ an usher, bearing a great Cake with a Bean and a Pease.” The remoteness of the era at which the Bean was used , is indicated by a passage in the “ Cries of Paris," a poem composed by Guillaume de Villeneuve, in the thirteenth century, and printed at the end of Barbason Ordene de Chevalerie ; where Beansfor Twelfth Day are mentioned : “ Gastel à feve orrois crier .” In the “ Anecdotes of Distin guished Persons,” vol. iii . by Seward, it is stated that when the King of Spain told Count Olivarez that John, Duke of Braganza, had obtained the Kingdom of Portugal, he slighted it, saying, he was but “ Rey de Havas," a Bean- cake King. The “ Mores, Leges, et Ritus omnium Gentium ,” of Joan . Boem. Aubanus, printed in 1620, gives us the following parti culars of the Twelfth Cake, and of the ceremonies connected with it ; which, it will be observed, nearly accord with the quo tation from Naogeorgus given above. “ The materials of the cake, are honey, flour, ginger, and pepper. One is made for every family by the mistress, who thrusts in, at random , as she is kneading it, a small coin. When the cake is baked , it is divided into as many parts as there are persons in the family, and each has his share. Portions of it , also, are assigned to Christ, to the Virgin , and to the three Magi, which are given away in 98 POPULAR PASTIMES. alms. Whoever finds the piece of coin in his share is saluted by all as King, and being placed on a seat or throne, is thrice lifted aloft with joyful acclamations. He holds a piece of chalk in his right hand, and each time he is lifted up, makes a cross on the ceiling. These crosses are thought to prevent many evils, and are much revered .” Mr. Brand affirms that, “ The chusing a person King or Queen, by a Bean found in a piece of a divided cake, was formerly a common Christmas gambol in both the English Universities. ” A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine (December, 1764,) imagines that the practice of choosing King and Queen on Twelfth Night, owes its origin to the custom among the Ro mans, which they derived from the Grecians, of casting dice to determine who should be the Rex Convivii ; or as Horace calls him, the Arbiter Bibendi. Whoever threw the lucky cast, which they termed Venus, or Basilicus, gave laws for the night. In the same manner the lucky clown, who out of the several divisions of a plumb- cake, draws the King, thereby becomes sovereign of the company ; and the poor clod - pole, to whose lot the knave falls, is as unfortunate as the Roman whose hard fate it was to throw Damnosum Caniculum . The same volume informs us that “ In the South - Hams ofDevonshire, on the Eve of the Epi phany, the farmer attended by his men, with a large pitcher of cyder, goes to the orchard, and there encircling one of the best bearing trees, they drink the following toast three several times : • Here's to thee, old Apple tree, Whence thou may'st bud, and whence thou may'st blow ! And whence thou may'st bear apples enow ! Hats full ! Caps full ! Bushel, Bushel, Sacks full ! And my Pockets full too ! Huzza ! " This done, they return to the house, the doors of which they are sure to find bolted by the females, who, be the weather what it may, are inexorable to all intreaties to open them till some one has guessed at what is on the spit ; which is generally some nice little thing, difficult to be hit on, and is the reward of him who first names it. The doors are then thrown and open, TWELFTH DAY. 99 the lucky clod -pole receives the tit-bit as his recompence. Some are so superstitious as to believe that if they neglect this custom , the trees will bear no apples that year.” In other parts of Devonshire it is customary for the inhabitants on the eve of Twelfth Day, to go, after supper, into the orchard , with a large milk -pan full of cyder, having roasted apples pressed into it. Out of this each person present takes a clayen cup ( that is, of earthenware) full of liquor, and standing under each of the more fruitful apple-trees, he addresses it in the following words : “ Health to thee, good apple tree, Well to bear, Pocket- fulls, Hat- fulls, Peck - fulls, Bushel-bag - fulls ? " and then drinking up part of the contents, he throws the rest with the fragments of the roasted apples, at the tree ; the com pany setting up a loud shout at each cup. In the Glossary to the Exmoor Dialect, the term “ Watsail,” is explained to be “ a drinking song , sung on Twelfth Day Eve, throwing toast to the apple trees , in order to have a fruitful year ; an apparent relic of the heathen sacrifice to Pomona.” The same kind of ceremony, also, is in some parts practised on Christmas Eve ; and must be considered of long standing, Herrick having alluded to it in the ensuing lines : “ Wassaile the trees, that they may beare You many a plaum, and manya peare ; For more or less fruits they will bring , As you do give them Wassailing." The writer of the “ Vox Graculi,” printed in quarto , in 1623, speaking of Twelfth Day, gives us this information . “ This day about the houres of 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 ; yea , in some places till midnight well nigh, will be such a massacre of spice -bread, that ere the next day at noone , a two - penny brown loafe will set twenty poore folkes teeth on edge. Which hungry humour will hold so violent, that a number of good fellowes will not refuse to give a statute -marchant of all the lands and goods they enjoy, for halfe a crowne's worth of two- penny pas 02 100 POPULAR PASTIMES. ties. On this night much masking in the Strand, Cheapside, Holburne, and Fleet - street. " Mr. Brand tells us that there is a custom in many Glou cestershire parishes, on Twelfth Day, of having twelve small fires made, and one large one, ” in honour of that festival : the same also is done in Herefordshire, as appears from the fol lowing account of the Wassailing of that district. “ At the approach of the evening on the vigil of the Twelfth Day, the farmers, with their friends and servants, meet toge ther, and about six o'clock walk out to a field where wheat is growing. On the highest part of the ground twelve small fires, and one large one, are lighted up. The attendants, headed by the master of the family, pledge the company in old cyder, which circulates freely on these occasions. A circle is formed round the large fire, and a general shout and hallooing takes place, which you hear answered from all the adjacent villages and fields. Sometimes fifty or sixty of these fires may be all seen at once. This being finished , the company return home, where the good housewife and her maids are preparing a good supper. A large cake is always provided with a hole in the middle. After supper , the company all attend the bailiff ( or head of the oxen ), to the Wain- house, where the following ceremonies are observed . The master, at the head of his friends, fills the cup (generally of strong ale ), and stands oppo site to the first or finest of the oxen. He then pledges him in a curious toast : the company follow his example with all the oxen , addressing each by his name. The large cake is then produced, and, with much ceremony, put on the horn of the first ox, through the hole above mentioned. The ox is then tickled , to make him toss his head : if he throw the cake be hind, then it is the mistresses perquisite ; if before, into what is termed the boosy, the bailiff claims the prize. The com pany afterwards return to the house, the doors of which they find locked, nor will they be opened till some joyous songs are sung . On their gaining admittance, a scene of mirth and jollity ensues, which lasts the greatest part of the night. ” TWELFTH DAY. 101 In Yorkshire, and other counties, it was formerly the cus tom for the heads of families to invite their relations, friends, and neighbours, to their houses, to play at cards and partake of a supper on Twelfth Night, of which minced pies were an in dispensible ingredient. After supper, the wassail Cup or Bowl, was brought in, filled with ale , roasted apples, nutmeg, and sugar ; which altogether composed the beverage usually called Lamb's Wool ; probably, from its peculiar softness. Of this every one partook, by first eating one of the roasted apples, and then drinking the healths of all the company out of the bowl, and wishing them a happy new year. Though discon tinued in some parts, through the severe pressure of the times within the last twenty years, this social kind of intercourse has not been entirely disused ; and many families still assemble round the paternal and friendly fire - side on Twelfth night, to partake of the festive cheer . In the metropolis, Twelfth Day is considered as the winding up of the Christmas Holidays ; and the ceremonies of appor tioning the Twelfth Cake, and choosing King and Queen, are pursued with considerable glee and good humour. With the London Pastry Cooks, this festival is one of considerable interest and show ; and their respective shops display a rich variety of Cakes, adorned with numerous figures in paste -work, with flags, streamers, &c. The crowds that assemble to view them are frequently so great that peace -officers are obliged to be stationed at the doors to ensure a sufficient passage chaser. Some of these Cakes are extremely large ; but the most enormous one of modern days was exhibited in January, 1811 , by a celebrated pastry - cook in the City. The materials which composed it, are stated to have weighed nearly half a ton : it contained 270lb. of currants, and 1000 eggs. Its circumference was eighteen feet ; and its frosted top was gar nished with a considerable variety of appropriate characters. The manner in which the King and Queen are now chosen on Twelfth Night, is by drawing lots, or Characters ; various sets of which, mostly engraved , and of a humourous description , to the pur 102 POPULAR PASTIMES. have been published of late years. The bean and the pea have been long forgotten ; but the royal dignity is still preserved ; and the larger divisions of the Cake are awarded to the sove reigns ; to whom , also, the other parties are held subordinate till midnight, and all must sustain their respective characters under pain of some forfeiture. Considerable diversion is fre quently the result of this arrangement ; especially when some lively genius has been exercised in devising the titles and offices assumed by the company. In a small work, printed in 1657, and intituled, “ Wit a sporting in a pleasant Grove of New Fancies, ” is the annexed description of the pleasantries enjoined to be practised on “ St. Distaff's Day ; or the morrow after Twelfth Day. " Partly worke andpartly play, You must on St. Distaff's Day : From the plough soon free your teame ; Then come home and fother them. If the maides a spinning goe, Burne the flax , and fire the tow ; Scorch their plackets, but beware That ye singe no maiden- haire. Bring in pales of water, then , Let the maides bewash the men. Give St. Distaff all the right ; Then bid Christmas sport, good night : And next morrow , every one To his own vocation . The connexion between Twelfth Day, and the gifts made by the Magi, is exemplified by a passage in the Gentleman's Maga zine for 1731, which states, that in the Chapel Royal at St. James's, on that day, “ the King and the Prince made the offerings at the altar, of gold , frankincense, and myrrh , accord ing to custom .” >> 103 St. David's Day. “ I like the Leeke above all herbes and lowers ; When first we wore the same, the field was ours . The Leeke is white and greene, whereby is ment That Britaines are both stout and eminent. Next to the Lion and the Unicorn , The Leeke's the fairest emblyn that is worne.” MS. Harl. 1977. Fol . 9. “ March various, fierce, and wild , with wind- crackt cheeks , By wilder Welshmen led, and crown'd with Leeks.” CHURCHILL. St. David's Day, or the first of March, is so called from its having been consecrated to the memory of St. David, the Patron Saint of Wales, who, according to the traditions of that Prin cipality, was uncle to the famous British King, Arthur, and flourished in the fifth and sixth centuries. He was a man , ” says Godwin, in his Catalogue of the Bishops of England, very learned, eloquent, and of incredible austerity of life and conversation .” In proof of which latter quality may be instanced the removal of his See from Caerleon, in Mon mouthshire, to the barren hills of Menevia, afterwards named from him Twy Dewi, and St. David's. Bale reports, from the British historians, that he was 146 years of age at the time of his death in 642, having then held his diocese for the long period of sixty - five years, and been the founder of twelve mo nasteries : he was interred in his own cathedral. It is stated in the “ Festa Anglo - Romana" a small octavo , printed in 1678, that “ On this day, the Britons do constantly wear a Leek, in memory of a famous and notable victory ob tained by them over the Saxons ; they during the battle having Leeks in their hats for their military colours and distinction of themselves, by persuasion of their prelate, St. David ,” Ano ther writer adds, that the Welsh were fighting under their king Cadwallo, at Hethfield, or Hatfield Chace, in Yorkshire, near a field that was replenished with that vegetable, at the time when the bishop recommended the wearing of the Leek, that 104 POPULAR PASTIMES. 66 The they might distinguish their friends from their enemies in the heat of the battle. In the “Royal Apophthegms” of King James I. a different origin is assigned to this custom ; Welshmen ," says the monarch , “ in commemoration of the great fight by the Black Prince of Wales, do wear Leeks as their chosen ensign." Hadthis been the fact, however, it is most probable that the anniversary of the battle of Poictiers, which was gained on the 19th of September, 1356 , would have been the day celebrated, and not the 1st of March . The “ Flowers of the Lives of the most renowned Saints," printed at Doway in 1632, speaking of St. David , has this passage . “ He died the 1st of March, which day, not only in Wales, but all England over, is most famous in memorie of him . But in these, our unhappy daies, the greatest part of his solemnitie consisteth in wearing of a Greene Leeke, and it is a sufficient theame for a zealous Welshman to ground a quarrell against him that doth not honour his capp with the like ornament that day.” Coles, likewise, in his “ Adam in Eden , ” says, concerning Leeks, “ The gentlemen in Wales have them in great regard, both for their feeding, and to wear in their hats upon St. David's Day." In contradiction to these, and other passages of like import which might be quoted from old writers, Mr. Owen, the in genious compiler of the Welsh Dictionary, tells us, in his “ Cambrian Biography,” that “ the wearing of the Leek on St. David's Day probably originated from the custom of Cym hortha, or the neighbourly aid practised among farmers, which is of various kinds. In some districts of South Wales, all the neighbours of a small farmer without means, appoint a day when they shall attend to plough his land and the like ; and at such a time it is a custom for each individual to bring his por tion of Leeks, to be used in making pottage for the whole company ; and they bring nothing else but the Leeks in parti cular for the occasion. ” In respect, however, to St. David , he says, that he 66 never heard of such a Patron Saint, nor of the Leek as his symbol, until he became acquainted therewith ST. DAVID'S DAY. 105 your words ? ” in London !” This negative evidence, however high we may estimate Mr. Owen's attachment to truth, cannot be admitted to disprove the positive facts of St. David having for many centuries been regarded as the protector of Wales, and of the Leek being his discriminating symbol for ages. Shakespeare, whose knowledge of our ancient Chronicles was very extensive, has, in his historical drama of Henry V. made Gower speak thus to Pistol, on the latter's using boasting language, after Fluellen had compelled him to eat the Leek for his " jests, and his gypes, and his mockeries.” “ Go, go, you are a counterfeit, cowardly knave :-Will you mock at an ancient tradition , began upon an honourable respect, and worn as a memorable trophy of pre- deceased va lour, and dare not avouch in your deeds any of In a previous part of the same scene, Gower asks Fluellen , “ But why wear you your Leek to day ? St. David's Day is passed.” Shakespeare's opinion on the origin of the custom may be seen in a speech of Fluellen to the King. “Your Majesty," he observes, “ says very true : if your Majesty is remembered of it, the Welshmen did goot service in a garden where Leeks did grow , wearing Leeks in their Monmouth caps, which your Majesty knows to this hour is an honourable padge of the ser vice ; and I do believe your Majesty takes no scorn to wear the Leek upon St. David's Day.” That the King, as Fluellen here intimates, should actually honour the Saint by wearing a Leek, is not a mere invention of the dramatist, as some persons might be induced to conjec ture, but an absolute fact ; and is thus corroborated by Misson, in his Travels in England, where after speaking of the Welsh men never failing to wear a Leek on the anniversary of the battle gained under St. David, he says, “ The King himself is so complaisant as to bear them company." In the old play of the “ Vow- Breaker, or the Fayre Maid of Clifton ,” printed in London in 1636, Ursula is introduced speak ing to Anne in these terms . “ Thou marry German ! His head's like a Welshman's crest on St. Davie's Day ! He looks like P 106 POPULAR PASTIMES. a hoary frost in December. Now , Venus blesse me ! I'de rather ly by a statue.” The proverbial fondness of the Welsh people for Leeks, seems to be of very ancient date. Caxton , speaking of the « Maners and Rytes of the Walshemen, ” printed in the year 1500, at the end of “ The Scholemaster of St. Alban's Chro nicle ," has these lines. “ Atte meete, and after eke, Her solace is salte and Leke. " “ They have gruell to potage And Lekes kynde to companage.” In “ The Diverting Post,” published in 1705, is the fol lowing epigram ; On St. David's Day. Why, on St. David's Day do Welshmen seek To beautify their bats with verdant Leek , Of nauseous smell ? For Honour ’ tis, ' hur say, Dulce et decorum est pro patria . Right, Sir, to die or fight it is, I think , But how is it, Dulce, when you for it stink ? From various inquiries made of the natives of Wales, we are led to believe that the custom of wearing Leeks on St. David's Day, is by no means common in that country, yet in London it is extremely prevalent; and not only are common garden Leeks worn , by the poorer classes of Welshmen, but also artificial ones of tinsel, and even of gold and silver, in pro portion to the degree and affluence of the wearers. It is probable that the annual ceremony of the Welsh Charity Children going in procession to St. Andrew's Church on this day, from the Hospital in Gray's Inn Lane, with wands, ribbands, leeks, &c. and which attracts great numbers of people, is a principal cause of the Leeks being so generally worn . After the sermon, a collection is made for the benefit of the Charity, and the governors, patrons, &c. dine together at the Crown and Anchor Tavern in the Strand. There is also a low kind of fair, chiefly frequented by the Welsh, held on this day, in the avenue near the church, at Lambeth , 107 Swearing in of the Sheriffs . In the City of London , which purchased the right of choosing its own Sheriffs from Henry I. before which they used to be appointed by the king, the SWEARING OF THE SHERIFFS into office is attended with much ceremony. The mode of making the choice has been altered at different periods. Formerly the elder Sheriff was nominated by the Lord Mayor, who drank to him by name, as Sheriff for the year ensuing, and this nomina tion was, by custom, confirmed by the commonalty ; but the citizens succeeded in abrogating this practice, and for some time both Sheriffs were chosen by the Livery at large. Sir John Parsons, however, who was Lord Mayor in the year 1704, revived the ancient method of nomination, under the authority of a then recent Act of Common Council. The manner of appointing them at the present day is as follows. The Lord Mayor drinks to fourteen respectable citizens, two of whom are elected by the Livery on the following Mid summer Day, and are obliged to serve under a penalty of 4001. ( and £ 13 : 6 : 8 to the ministers of the City Prisons), 1001. of which is to be given to him who first agrees to fill the office. On the election of the Sheriffs by the Livery, all the Aldermen who have not already served are put up in rotation , according to seniority ; notwithstanding which, the Livery have the privi lege of choosing whom they think proper, whether of that court or out of it, or of those persons who have been drank to as eligible by the Lord Mayor. There is frequently consider able difficulty in getting persons willing to serve, many being contented to pay the fine, rather than encounter the duties of the office ; but when the choice is fixed, the new Sheriffs are first sworn in at Guildhall, on the 28th of September, and two days afterwards in the Court of Exchequer, at West minster Hall. The following particulars of what takes place in the Court of Exchequer, are extracted from the first volume P 2 108 POPULAR PASTIMES . of Brand's “ Observations on Popular Antiquities, ” where they are given in a note written by Mr. Ellis, the learned Editor of that work . “ The ceremony on this occasion, in the Court of Exche quer, which vulgar error supposed to be an unmeaning farce, is solemn and impressive ; nor have the new Sheriffs the least con nexion either with chopping of sticks, or counting of hob nails. The tenants of a manor in Shropshire are directed to come forth to do their suit and service : on which the senior alderman below the chair steps forward, and chops a single stick, in token of its having been customary for the tenants of that manor to supply their lord with fuel. The owners of a forge in the Parish of St. Clement (which formerly belonged to the City, and stood in the high road from the Temple to Westminster, but now no longer exists) , are then called forth to do their suit and service ; when an officer of the court, in the presence of the senior Alderman , produces six Horse Shoes and sixty - one Hob -nails, which he counts over in form before the Cursitor Baron, who, on this particular occasion, is the immediate representative of the sovereign ." It appears from Madox’s “ History of the Exchequer," that the latter ceremony had origin in a grant made in the 19th of Henry III. ( anno 1235) , to Walter le Bruin , a farrier, of a piece of ground in the Parish of St. Clement's Danes, in the Strand, “ whereon to erect a forge ; he rendering at the Exche quer annually for the same, a quit rent of six Horse Shoes, with the nails thereunto belonging . " This rent was twice paid in the reign of Edward I. “ and is still rendered, annually, at the Exchequer by the Mayor and Citizens of London, the said piece of ground having been granted to them some ages ago." The two Sheriffs of London, which, by charter, is both a City and a County, act, jointly, as Sheriff of Middlesex ; though their jurisdictions are , to a considerable extent, perfectly sepa rate . Any citizen is eligible to the office, unless he swear himself not worth £ 15,000 . ورو 109 Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake Day. “ Here must enter that wadling, stradling, bursten -gutted Carnifex of all Christendome, vulgarly enstiled SHROVE TUESDAY, but, more pertinently sole Monarch of the Mouth, high Steward to the Stomach , chiefe Ganimede to the Guts, prime peere of the Pullets , first favourite to the Frying- pans, greatest Bashaw to the Butter-Bowles, Protector of the Pan - cakes, first foun der of the Fritters, Baron of Bacon - fitch , Earl of Egge -baskets, & c. This corpulent Commander of those chollericke things called Cookes, will shew him selfe to be buit of ignoble education ; for by his manners you may finde him better fed than taught wherever be comes ." Vox GRACULI, 4to. 1623. SAROVE Tide, says Mr. Brand, plainly signifies the time of confessing sins, as the Saxon word Shrive, or Shrift, means confession ; and this season was anciently set apart by the Church of Rome for the purpose of Shriving, or of making confession . “ The luxuries and intemperance that usually prevailed at this season were vestiges of the Roman Carnival, [the Romish Church having anciently a feast which immediately preceded Lent, and lasted many days, called Carniscapium ] which the learned Moresin derives from the times of Gentilism, introducing Joan. Boem . Aubanus as describing it thus : Men eat and drink and abandon themselves to every kind of sportive foolery, as if resolved to have their fill of pleasure before they die : '-- thus also Selden : What the church debars us one day, she gives us leave to take on another ; first there is a Carnival, and then a Lent. ” Bishop Hall, in his “ Triumphs of Rome," has thus de scribed the manner in which the three days before the Lent Fast commenced, commonly called the Carnival, or the “ bid ding farewell to flesh ,” were formerly spent. “ Every man cries Sciolto, letting himself loose to the maddest of merriments, marching up and down in all forms of disguises ; each man striveing to out- go other in strange pranks of humourous de bauchedness, in which even those of the Holy order are wont to be allowed their share ; for, howsoever it was by some sullen 110 POPULAR PASTIMES. authority forbidden to clerks and votaries of any kind, to go masked and misguised in these seemingly abusive solemnities, yet more favourable construction hath offered to make them believe that it was chiefly for their sakes, for the refreshment of their sadder and more restrained spirits, that this free and lawless Festivity was taken up.” In Googe's translation of Naogeorgus's “ Regnum Papisti cum ,” is a very particular account of numerous revels and pas times common to Shrove -tide : some idea of their nature and extent may be gathered from the following lines . “ Now when at length the pleasanttime ofShrove- tide comes in place, And cruell fasting dayes at hand approach with solemne grace; Thenolde and yong are both as mad, as ghestes of Bacchus' feast, And foure dayes long they tipple square, and feede and never reast . Downe goes the hogges in every place, and puddings every where Do swarm ; the dice are shakte and toste, and cardes apace they teare ; In every house are showtes and cryes, and mirth, and revell route, And daintie tables sprede , and all beset with ghestes aboute : With sundrie playes and Christmasse games, and feare and shame away, The tongue is set at libertie, and hath no kinde of stay . All thinges are lawful then and done, no pleasure passed by, That in their mindes they can devise, as if they then should die . “ Some sort there are that run with staves, or fight in armour fine, Orshew thepeople foolishe toyes for somesmall peece of wine. Eche partie bath his favourers, and faythfull friendes enowe, That readie are to turn themselves as fortune liste to bowe. But some againe the dreadful shape of devils on them take, And chase such as they meete, andmake poore boyes for feare to quake. Some nakid runne about the streetes, their faces hid alone, With visars close, that, so disguisde, they might be knowne of none. Both men and women chaunge their weed, the men in maydes array, And wanton wenches dressedlike men, doe travell by the way, And to their neighbours houses go, or where it likes them best, Perbaps unto some auncient friend or olde acquainted gbest, Unknowne, and speaking but fewe words, the meat devour they up, That is before them set, and cleane they swinge up every cup. Some run about the streets attyrde like Monks, and some like Kings, Accompanied with pompe and garde, and other stately things. Some hatch yong fooles as hennes do egges with good and speedie lucke, Or as the goose doth use to do, or as the quacking ducke. Some like wilde beastes doe runne abrode in skinnes that divers bee Arrade, and eke with lothsome shapes , that dreadfull are to see : They counterfet both beares and wolves, and lions fierce in sight, And raging bulles : some play the cranes, with wings and stilts upright. Some like the tilthie form of apes, and some like fools are drest, Which best beseeme these Papistes all, that thus keep Bacchus's feast. “ There are that certain praiers have, that on the Tuesday fall, Againste the quartaine ague, andtheotherfeversall. SHROVE TUESDAY, OR PANCAKE DAY. 111 Some others too sowe onyon seedes the greater to be seene, And perseley eke, and lettys both , to have them always greene . Of trutb I loth for to declare tbe foolish toyes and trickes, That in these dayes are done by these same Popish Catholickes, “ –Ever till midnight holde they on, their pastimes for to make, Whereby they binder men of sleepe and cause their beads to ake. But all this same they care not for, nor doe esteem a hair, So they may have their pleasure still , and foolish wanton geare .” Among the other sports that Naogeorgus mentions, are car rying about an effigy ( stuffed with straw and rags) in a blanket, of some person lately deceased, and in divers places hurling it aloft into the air ; dancing, “ with filthie gestures mad ;" throw ing snow balls ; and driving a waggon or cart through the streets, as fast as the horse attached to it, and which was “ well trapt” and hung round with “ a hundred gingling bells,” could be made to gallop ; the wives and children of the driver being at the same time in front of the waggon, and in great danger : “ Yea, sometimes legges and arms they breake, and horse and cart and all , They overthrow, with such a force they in their course do fall.” There was formerly a custom in the City of London , for the peace -officers to make search after women of ill-fame, on Shrove Tuesday, and after carting them through the streets in an ignominious manner, to confine them during the season of Lent. The carting of bawds and prostitutes is frequently mentioned in Stow ; and some curious particulars of the mode of inflicting this punishment ( of which whipping formed a part ,) may be gathered from Dekker's old play of the “ Honest Whore.” Sir Thomas Overbury, in his Characters, speaking of a “ Maquerela, or in plain English, a bawde, ” says, “ no thing daunts her so much as the approach of a Shrove Tuesday .” In another place, where he is describing “ a Roaring Boy,” he calls him a Supervisor of brothels, and in them “ a more unlaw ful” reformer of vice then “ Prentices on Shrove Tuesday .” In our old comedies and writers, allusions are frequent to the custom here alluded to of the apprentices taking the punishment of people of ill - fame into their own hands : thus in the “ Satyre against Separatists,” printed in 1675, we read, 112 POPULAR PASTIMES. رو >> .“ the ' Prentices , -for they Who, if upon Shrove Tuesday, or May Day, Beat an old Bawd, or fright poor whores they could Thought themselves greater than their founder Lud . ” And in Nabbe's “ Totenham Court,” published in 1638, the following occurs “ If I doe, I have lesse mercy than ' Prentices at Shrove-tide.” So also , in Dekker's “ Seven Deadly Sinnes of London,” 4to. 1606 , is this passage. “ They presently, like ' Prentices upon Shrove Tuesday, take the lawe into their owne handes and do what they list.” In the Comedy of “ Match me in London , ” by the same author, Bilbo says, “ I'll beate down the doore, and put him in mind of Shrove Tuesday, the fatall day for doores to be broke open. ' We shall here insert a curious Poem from “ Pasquil's Pali nodia, ” printed in 1634, as it contains a short account of most of the Shrove-tide sports which were at that period practised in England. It was the day of all dayes in the yeare, That unto Bacchus bath its dedication , When mad- brain’d Prentices, that no men feare , O'erthrow the dens of bawdy recreation ; When tailors, coblers, plaisterers, smiths, and masons, And every rogue will beat down barber's basons, Whereat Don Constable in wrath appears , And runs away with his stout halbadiers. It was the day whereon both rich and poore Are chiefly feasted with the self- same dish, When every paunch , till it can hold no more Is fritter - fill'd , as well as heart can wish ; And every man and maide doe take their turne, And tosse their pancakes up for feare they burne, And all the kitchen doth with laughter sound, To see the pancakes fall upon the ground. It was the day when every kitchen reekes, And hungry bellies keepe a Jubile, When flesh doth bid adieu for divers weekes, And leaves old ling to be his deputie ! It was the day when Pullen goe to block, And every spit is filled with belly timber, When cocks are cudgel'd down with many a knock, And hens are thrasht to make them short and tender ; When country wenches play with stoole and ball, And run at barly -breake untill they fall ! Though most of the customs above mentioned have been disused, that of feasting on Pancakes on Shrove Tuesday is SHROVE TUESDAY, OR PANCAKE DAY. 113 رو still very general; and is unquestionably of great antiquity. The Greek church had a Pancake, feast preceding Lent; and we are informed by Hakluyt, that the Russians, who follow the same rites, “ begin their Lent always eight weeks before Easter ; the first week they eat eggs, milk, cheese , and butter, and make great cheer with Pancakes, and such other things.' In our greater seminaries, there was formerly much ceremony employed in commencing this feast ; and even at the present day it is not entirely discontinued. In Westminster School, it is common for the cook upon Shrove Tuesday, preceded by the beadle and other officers, to enter the School, and throw a large Pancake over the curtain which separates the forms of the upper from those of the under scholars. A similar custom is said to be observed at Eton ; and in a manuscript in the British Museum , intituled “ Statis Scholæ Etoniensis, A. D. 1560,” it is mentioned that “ the boys were allowed to play from eight o'clock for the whole day ;” and that “ the cook was accustomed to come and fasten a Pancake to a crow, which the young crows were calling upon , near it, at the School door :” the words are, venit coquus, afhgit laganum cornici, juxta illud pullis corvorum invocantibus eum, ad ostium scholæ . It is still the practice in schools to give the pupils a whole or a half- holiday on Shrove Tuesday. The following singular account of this day, is given by Taylor, the Water Poet, in his “ Jacke- a - Lent." 66 In the morning, at the entrance of Shrove Tuesday, all the whole kingdom is unquiet ; but by that time the clocke strikes eleven, which ( by the help of a knavish sexton) is commonly before nine, then there is a bell rung , cal'd the Pancake - bell, the sound whereof makes thousands of people distracted, and forgetful either of manners or humanitie ; then there is a thing called wheeten floure, which the cookes do mingle with water, egges, spice, and other tragical, magicall inchantments, and then they put it by little and little into a frying - pan of boiling suet, where it makes a confused dismall hissing ( like the Ler nean snakes in the reeds of Acheron, Stix, or Phlegeton ), untill Q 114 POPULAR PASTIMES. at last, by the skill of the cooke, it is transformed into the form of a Flip-Jack, cal'd a pancake, which ominous incantation the ignorant people do devoure very greedily." The Pancake Bell, as it is termed, is still rung in many parishes on Shrove Tuesday, about noon ; but its original intent, of calling the people together to confess their sins, seems to be almost forgotten. At Newcastle upon Tyne,” says Mr. Brand, " the great bell of St. Nicholas church is tolled at twelve o'clock at noon on this day ; shops are immediately shut up, offices closed, and all kind of business ceases : a little carnival ensuing for the remaining part of the day .” Shakespeare's Clown, in his play of “ All's Well that Ends Well,” when asked by theCountess whether his " answer" would serve fit to all questions, ” replies, “ As fit as ten groats is for the hand of an Attorney, as your French crown for your taffata punk, as Tib's rush for Tom's fore - finger, as a Pancake for Shrove Tuesday, a morris for May -day, as the nail to his hole, the cuckold to his horn, as a scolding quean to a wrangling knave, as a nun's lip to the friar's mouth ; nay, as the pudding to his skin . ” In the North of England, Shrove Tuesday is vulgarly called no Fasten's Ee'n," or Fasting's Eve, from the succeeding day being Ash -Wednesday, or the first day of the Lenten fast. In Westmoreland, Yorkshire, and other northern counties, the practise of tossing, or casting, Pancakes, that is, turning them in the pan by a sudden jerk , is customary among farmers and rustics ; and sacks and other like articles are commonly spread upon the ground to receive them should they chance to fall, which is frequently the case . This is alluded to by Gayton, in his “ Festivous Notes to Don Quixote ,” where, speaking of Sancho Pancha's having converted a cassock into a wallet, he observes, “ it were serviceable after this greasie use for nothing but to preach at a Carnivale, or Shrove Tuesday, and to tosse Pancakes in after the exercise.” So likewise in Walker's “ Westmorland Dialect, ” printed in 1790, we read, “ we met sum Lads an Lasses gangin to kest their Pankeaks. ” In وو SHROVE TUESDAY, OR PANCAKE DAY. 115 Scotland according to “ The State of the Poor,” 4to. 1797 , by Sir F. M. Eden, Bart. Crowdie (which is made by pouring boiling water over oat -meal, and stirring it a little ; after which it is eaten with milk, or butter, ) is a “ never - failing dinner with all ranks of people on Shrove Tuesday ; and was probably first introduced on that day, in the papal times, to strengthen them against the Lenten Fast ; it being accounted the most substantial dish known in that country. On this day there is always put into the bason or porringer, out of which the un married folks are to eat, a Ring, the finder of which, by fair means, is supposed to be ominous of the finder's being first married .” In many parts of England, is is customary to have Eggs and Collops (which are thin slices of bacon or hung beef) on Shrove or Collop Monday, Pancakes on Tuesday, and Fritters on Wednesday, in the same week, for dinner ; but sometimes the Pancakes and Fritters are eaten on the same day. Thus, in the singular Collection of poetical scraps called the “ Oxford Sausage,” it is said ; “ Let glad Shrove Tuesday bring the Pancake thin, Or Fritter rich, with Apples stored within . ” The Pastimes of Foot- Ball and Cock - Fighting, which were anciently very prevalent, and are yet partially so , on Shrove Tuesday, have already been described in distinct articles ; ( see pp . 1 and 40) : those of Throwing at Cocks, Threshing the Hen, &c . will be noticed in the next section. Shrove Tuesday is still a very general holiday among apprentices and working people ; as it appears to have been, indeed, through the course of many centuries. In Wiltshire, in the neighbour hood of Salisbury, the boys go about before Shrove -tide, sing ing these rhymes : Shrove -tide is nigb at hand , And I am come a Shroving : Pray, Dame, something , An Apple, or a Dumpling, Or a piece of Truckle Cheese Of your own making. Q 2 116 Whipping the Cock . Sir CHARLES SEDLEY, in an Epigram 66 On a Cock at Ro. chester, ” printed in the “ Gentleman's Journal” for January 1692-3, alludes to an opinion, formerly current, that the bar barities exercised on this heroic bird had some allusion to the denial of Christ by St. Peter ; he says, 66 May'st thou be punished for St. Peter's crime, And on Shrove Tuesday perish in thy prime.” What possible connexion, however, the cruelties to which the Cock has long been subjected at Shrove - tide both in this country , and in various parts of the continent, could have had with the admonition given to St. Peter, in accomplish mentof our Saviour's prophecy, “ Ere the Cock crow twice thou shalt deny me thrice," seems impossible to determine ; nor indeed, is it at all likely, that the real origin of these cruel customs, which true humanity so much abhors, should now be discovered. The tradition that the “ Throwing at Cocks," arose from the ill - timed crowing of a cock, which led to the disclosure of an adulterous amour, does not merit an attempt at refutation . As little credit, perhaps, is due to the tale given in answer to a question in the “ British Apollo,” fol. 1708, which states , that according to “ one Cranenstein , an old German writer," the practice arose from feelings of ven geance excited among the inhabitants of a certain great city, in England, in revenge for the failure of a conspiracy against their Danish subjugators, in consequence of an “ unusual crowing and fluttering among the Cocks; " on the eve of their intended enterprize. Hearne, in the preface to his edition of Thos. Otterbourne, tells us, that “ the custom of throwing at Cocks must be traced to the time of Henry V. and the victories then gained over the French, whose name in Latin , is synonimous to that WHIPPING THE COCK

WHIPPING THE COCK. 117 3 of a Cock (vulgo Gallos appellatos); and that our brave coun trymen hinted by it that they could as easily, at any time, overthrow the Gallic armies as they could knock down the Cocks on Shrove Tuesday.” Unfortunately, however, for the assumed authenticity of this derivation , this pastime was not only practised in England, but also in France, long before the reign of our fifth Harry. Carpentier, in his Glossary, under the date 1355, mentions a petition of the scholars of Ramera to their master, soliciting him to “ give them a Cock, " which they affirm ,” their said master owed them upon Shrove Tues day, to throw sticks at, according to the usual custom , for their sport and entertainment. ” In a manuscript also, in the Bodleian library, No. 264, referred to both by Brand and Strutt ( the former correcting an error in the date as given by the lat ter ) , is an illumination , executed as early as 1343 , in the margin of the “ Roman d'Alexandre, " which seems to represent a boyish triumph at having won a Cock ; the young hero of the party being depicted sitting across a long stick, or pole, with a Cock held up in his hands, and carried on the shoulders of two other boys, whilst a fourth youth is following them , bear ing a flag or standard emblazoned with a cudgel. In Smith's Life of Thomas, fourth Lord Berkeley (who was born in 1352, and died in 1417) , which is still remaining at Berkeley Castle, we are told that that noblemen “ would also to the threshing of the Cocke, pucke with Hens blindfolde, and the like .” The custom of throwing at Cocks appears to have been made a source of parochial profit, and the money col Jected was applied in aid of the Poor Rates ; as may be seen in Lysons's “ Environs of London,” vol . ii . under the account of the hamlet of Pinner, at Harrow on the Hill. One entry, of the date 1622, is , “ Received for Cocks at Shrove -tide, 12s.” and a second , six years later, “ Received for Cocks in Towne, 195. 10d. out of Towne, 6d . ” In a Royal Household account of the time of Henry VII. is the following entry, though for what particular end the Cocks mentioned were procured, whe ther for fighting, or for throwing at, does not appear : 118 POPULAR PASTIMES. “ March 2, 7th Henry VII. Item : to Master Bray for rewards to them that brought Cokkes at Shrove- tide to Westminster , XXs. " Hogarth, the inimitable portrayer of popular manners, has satirized this barbarity in the first of his prints, denominated “ the Four Stages of Cruelty.” Trusler, describing this print, says, “ We have several groupes of boys at their different bar barous diversions ; one is, throwing at a Cock, the universal Shrove - tide amusement, beating the harmless feather'd animal to jelly .” The following song on this cruel sport appears in a small volume intituled “ Men - Miracles, with other Poems, by M. Lluelin , printed in 1679.” Cock - Throwing Cocke a doodle doe ; - 'tis the bravest game, Takes a Cocke from his Dame, And binds him to a stake How he struts, how he throwes, How he swaggers, how he crowes, As if the day newly brake. How bis Mistress cackles Thus to find him in shackles And tyed to a packe- thread garter. Ob the Bears and the Bulls Are but corpulent gulls To the valiant Shrove- tide Martyr.

Strutt informs us that Throwing at Cocks was a diversion universally practised on Shrove Tuesday, especially among the younger branches of the community ; and that “ if the poor bird by chance had its legs broken, or was otherwise so lamed as not to be able to stand , the barbarous owners were wont to support it with sticks, in order to prolong the pleasure received from the reiteration of its torment.” The magistrates, he adds “ greatly to their credit, have for some years past put a stop to this wicked custom, and at present it is nearly, if not entirely, discontinued in every part of the kingdom .” By a refinement upon cruelty, when this pastime was in its zenith, the poor Cock was trained by its owner for some time before" Shrove Tuesday, in order to prepare him for the brutal sport ; and accustomed , by being thrown at, to avoid the fatal blow by WHIPPING THE COCK. 119 springing aside. The animal being tied by the leg with a cord was afterwards exposed to be thrown at with sticks or cudgels ( similar to those now used to shy at oranges , boxes, &c. at country fairs), till he was knocked down, and if the person throwing , who generally stood at the distance of fifteen or twenty yards, could then run up and catch the bird before he recovered his legs, he had him as his prize. The terms were, generally, a single throw, or shy, for a penny, and three shys for two- pence. “ WHIPPING The Cock , ” according to Grose, “ is a piece of sport practised at wakes, horse races, and fairs, in Leices tershire : a Cock being tied or fastened into a hat or basket, half a dozen carters, blindfolded , and armed with their cart whips, are placed round it, who, after being turned thrice about, begin to whip the Cock, which if any one strikes so as to make it cry out, it becomes his property ; the joke is, that instead of whipping the Cock they flog each other heartily .” The “ Threshing of the Cock ,” which has been mentioned above as a diversion of the fourth Lord Berkeley, will be best understood by an extract from “ Tusser Redivivus," where in a note on the following passage, “ At Shrove -tide to shroving, next Thresh the fat Hen ; If blindfold can kill her, then give it thy men :" which occurs under the ploughman's feasting days, the prac tice is thus described . “ The Hen is hung on a fellow's back, who has also some horse - bells about him ; the rest of the fellows are blinded , and have boughs in their hands, with which they chace this fellow and his Hen about some large court or small enclosure . The fellow with his Hen and bells shifting as well as he can, they follow the sound, and sometimes hit him and his Hen ; other times, if he can get behind one of them, they thresh one ano ther well favouredly : but the jest is, the maids are to blind the fellows, which they do with their aprons, and the cunning baggages will endear their sweethearts with a peeping- hole, 120 POPULAR PASTIMES. while the others look out as sharp to hinder it. After this the Hen is boiled with bacon , and store of pancakes and fritters are made. She that is noted for lying a bed long, or any other miscarriage, hath the first pancake presented to her, which most commonly falls to the dog's share at last, for no one will own it their due.” The latter remark , is to illustrate the fol lowing lines in the same work : Maids, Fritters, and Pancakes ynow see ye make; Let Slut have one Pancake for company sake. In Baron's “ Cyprian Academy,” printed in 1648, a Clown says, “ By the Maskins I would give the best Cow in my yard to find out the raskall : and I would thrash him as I did the Henne last Shrove Tuesday . ” In Wales, within memory , it was common to doom such Hens as did not lay eggs before Shrove Tuesday, to be threshed on that day, by a man with a flail, as being no longer good for any thing but the pot. The practice of Throwing at Cocks was not confined to Shrove Tuesday, but usually extended to all wakes and fairs that took place about that time. “ On the abolition of this inhuman custom , ” says Mr. Strutt, “ toys, made in the shape of Cocks, were supplied in lieu of the living bird, with large and heavy stands of lead, and he who could overturn the toy claimed it as a reward for his adroitness : -- but this innocent pastime never became popular .” The origin of the shrill cry of “ My Cock's up, a ha’penny a shy, ” which we so frequently hear when oranges, &c. are set up in small heaps to be thrown at, will be readily traced to this practice. The place, both of the living Cock and its substitute, is now supplied by snuff and tobacco -boxes, tunbridge -ware toys, and other trifling articles, set upon the ends of short sticks, standing upright, the oppo site ends being slightly driven into the ground. Three of these are so placed as to form a triangle, and whoever throws down any of the trinkets, so that they fall beyond a small hollow scooped around each stick, receives them for his dexterity,

E.Stepharoff det . .RACE SMOCK CºPaternoster Row .Published July 1.281 :6,bySherwood & 121 Smock Bace. SMOCK Racing, though a common Shrove- tide sport in coun try places, is not confined to any particular season, but is practised both in the Easter and Whitsun holidays ; as well as at other periods, when the lovers of fun unite their mites to defray the charges of the Chemise and its garniture. When pursued with spirit, this pastime affords considerable amuse ment to its roguish patrons, who usually promote the race for the sake of participating in “ the rustic's loud laugh,” (to em ploy the words of the old song) , should either of the contend ing wenches expose, by tripping in the course , those charms which her modesty would conceal. When the time for the race is fixed, the Smock , which is generally of fine Holland cloth , ornamented with bows of coque licot ( that is poppy-coloured) , or other ribbands, is attached to a pole or standard, and carried in procession through the village, or neighbourhood, with a drum beating, and fife sounding, or such music as can be procured, playing ; and the merry lasses are invited to enrol themselves as candidates for the prize. Though, perhaps, backward, at first, from feel ings of timidity and shame, yet the desire of wearing so attractive an object, conjoined with the hope of victory, generally proves sufficiently powerful to induce many a blushing maiden to enter the lists, and like a new Atalanta, exert her utmost speed to conquer in the race . An hundred and fifty, or two hundred , yards, and back again , is commonly the appointed distance yet short as this appears, the encumbrance of the female dress frequently occasions a false step, and the career of expected conquest is checked by a sudden fall ; but this, instead of ex citing commiseration for the disappointed damsel, is com monly the signal for shouting and laughter on the part of the spectators, and the poor girl for the remainder of the day, be comes subject to be quizzed by her compeers. Though more ز R 122 POPULAR PASTIMES. properly a rustic diversion, this sport is occasionally promoted at the watering places round the coast ; subscriptions being raised for the purpose among the visitors . The Smock Race is a common pastime at wakes and fairs in many parts of the kingdom . Michaelmas Goose. GEESE now in their prime season are, Which, if well roasted, are good fare ; Yet, however, friends, take heed , How too much on them you feed , Lest, when as your tongues run loose, Your discourse do smell of Goose. Poor ROBIN'S ALMANACK, &c . 1695. MICHAELMAS, says Bailey, “ is a festival appointed by the church to be observed in honour of St. Michael, the Arch Angel, who is supposed to be the chief of the host of Heaven , as Lucifer is of the infernal host ; and as he was supposed the protector of Jewish, so is he now esteemed the guardian and defender of the Christian Church . " The custom of having a roast Goose for dinner on Michael mas, or St. Michael's Day (September the 29th ), is of very ancient standing ; but whence it originated is unknown . Churchill tells us, that “ By Custom ( right divine ) , Geese are ordained to bleed at Michael's shrine ; ” yet the cause why remains unexplained ; though as Beckwith remarks in his new edition of Blount's “ Jocular Tenures," it was probably for no other reason but that Michaelmas Day was a great festival, and Geese at that time most plentiful.” We learn from the same work, that, as long ago as the tenth year of Edward IV. among other services, John de la Hay was bound to render to William Barnaby, Lord of Lastres, in Hereford MICHAELMAS GOOSE. 123 shire, for a parcel of the demesne lands, “ xxd. and one Goose fit for his lord's dinner on the Feast of St. Michael, the Arch Angel.” This proves the antiquity of the practice of Goose eating on St. Michael's Day ; and it is demonstrative, also, that the vulgar opinion, which attributes the origin of the cus tom to Queen Elizabeth having received the news of the defeat of the Spanish Armada, whilst she was eating a Goose on this day, cannot be the truth. Like evidence may be found among the “ Posies ,” of George Gascoigne, Esq. printed in 1575, wherein is the following paasage : “ And when the tenauntes 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 yeres tide, for feare their lease flie loose ." There is a popular saying, that “ If you eat Goose on Michaelmas Day, you will never want money all the year round ;" and it is not improbable that this adage has been the death of many a Goose at this season , for far more people are influenced by these kind of proverbs than are willing to own it . In Deering's “ History of Nottingham , ” it is mentioned that “ hot roasted Geese ” have been formerly given in that town, by the old Mayor, on Michaelmas Day, at his own house, previously to the election of a new Mayor. Wawking or Falconry . Hawking, or the art of training and flying of Hawks, for the purpose of catching other birds, is usually placed at the head of country amusements ; and it probably obtained this su periority from being a pastime so generally followed by the nobility of former times, not in this island only, but also upon the continent. Persons of the highest rank, rarely R 2 124 POPULAR PASTIMES. appeared without their dogs and their Hawks. They car ried their Hawks with them when they journeyed from one country to another, and sometimes even when they went to battle, nor would they part with them , to procure their own liberty when taken prisoner ; for as these birds were considered to be ensigns of nobility, no action was regarded as more disho nourable to a man of rank, than to give up his Hawk. In the Bayeux Tapestry, Earl Harold is represented approaching the Duke of Normandy with his Hawk upon his hand ; and the ancient English illuminators have uniformly distinguished the portrait of King Stephen by giving him a Hawk in the like position ; which Mr. Strutt conjectures, was with intent to sig nify that he was nobly, though not royally, born ; and the same reasoning applies to Earl Harold. Occasionally we find that these birds formed part of the train of an embassador ; and the famous Archbishop Becket had hounds and Hawks of every kind with him, when sent on an embassy by Henry II. to the Court of France. Peacham , in his Complete Gentleman, says, but on what authority is not known, that Hawking was first invented and prac tised by Frederic Barbarossa, when he besieged Rome. The first Latin author, that speaks of Falconry, was Julius Firmicus, who lived about the middle of the fourth century ; and this art appears to have been fashionable on the continent some time previously to its being introduced into this country. In the eight century Winifred , otherwise Boniface, Archbishop of Mons, who was a native of England, presented to Ethelbert, King of Kent, one Hawk and two Falcons ; and a Mercian King requested the same prelate to send to him “ two Falcons that had been trained to kill cranes.” In the succeeding ages, this sport was very highly esteemed by the Anglo - Saxon nobility ; and the training and flying of Hawks became an essential part of the education of young men of rank. Alfred the Great has been commended for his early proficiency in this amusement ; and he is even said to have written a treatise upon Hawking. So general was this pastime in the Saxon times, that the monks of Abingdon HAWKING OR FALCONRY. 125 thought it necessary to procure a charter from King Kenulph to restrain the practice in order to prevent their lands from being trampled on . Edward the Confessor passed the whole of his leisure hours in the sports of Hawking and Hunting. According to Froissart, Edward III , when he invaded France, had with him thirty falconers on horseback who had charge of his Hawks ; and “every day he either hunted , or went to the river for the purpose of Hawking, as his fancy inclined him .” The frequent mention of Hawking by the water- side, made by the historians and romance writers of the middle ages, is a circumstance which led Mr. Strutt to imagine that the pursuit of water - fowls afforded the most diversion. In the poetical romance of the • Squire of Low Degree ,' the King of Hungary promises his daughter that at her return from hunt ing, she should hawk by the river-side with gos- hawk, gentle falcon, and other well - tutored birds ; so also Chaucer, in the rhyme of Sir Thopaz, says, that he could hunt the wild deer, “And ryde on Haukynge by the ryver With grey gos Hawke in tande." The fair sex were, about this period, renowned for their fondness for Hawking ; and besides accompanying their male friends when engaged in this sport, they frequently practised it by themselves. Johan . Sarisburiensis, who wrote in the thir teenth century , asserts, that “ they even excelled the men in their knowledge and exercise of the art of Falconry .” From the Carta de Forresta obtained from King John, it would seem that no person , except of the highest rank, was under the Norman laws permitted to breed Hawks ; but by that charter every free man was privileged to have airies of Hawks, Sparrow - hawks, Falcons, Eagles, and Herons, in his own woods. In the 37th of Edward III. the stealing and concealing of a Hawk was made felony by the legislature; and in the same reign, as appears from the register of Orleton, Bishop of Win chester, the Bishop of Ely excommunicated certain persons for 126 POPULAR PASTIMES. stealing a Hawk, belonging to himself, that was sitting on its perch in the cloisters of Bermondsey Abbey, in Southwark . Even the very eggs of these birds were protected by royal edicts ; an instance of which occurs in the 11th year of Henry VII . when it was decreed that “ any person taking from the nest, or destroying, the eggs of a Falcon , a Gos-hawk, a Laner, or a Swan, should suffer imprisonment for a year and a day, and be liable to a fine at the King's pleasure. Hentzner, who wrote his Itinerary in the year 1593, affirms that Hawking was then the general sport of the English nobi Jity ; yet so rapidly did this amusement decline, that before the time of the civil wars it was almost forgotten . This arose from the introduction and gradual improvement of the gun ; which ensured a greater certainty of procuring game, and rendered all the expense of training and maintaining Hawks unnecessary , An attempt to revive the diversion of Hawking appears, from the public prints, to be at this time in practice by some Gen tlemen of Yorkshire. mononnrrrrnowrunnen COE, Printer, 10 , Little Carter Lane, St. Paul's, London .

PRESERVATION SERVICE SHELFMARK.785 h8. THIS BOOK HAS BEEN MICROFILMED 2002 N.S.T.C. MICROFILM NO SEE RPM