Chapter IV: Preface (4)

In the Newark, says Throsby (_History of Leicester_ 1791, p. 356), on Shrove Tuesday is held the annual fair, chiefly for the amusement of the young. Formerly, there was practised in its full extent the barbarous custom of throwing at cocks, but now the amusement is confined to the purchase of oranges, ginger-bread, &c., and to a custom known by the name of “_Whipping-Toms_;” a practice no doubt instituted by the dwellers in the Newark to drive away the rabble, after a certain hour, from the fair. Two, three, or more men, armed with cart-whips, and with a handkerchief tied over one eye, are let loose upon the people to flog them, who are generally guarded with boots on their legs and sticks in their hands. These whip-men, called “_Whipping-Toms_,” are preceded by a bell-man, whose shake of his hand-bell gives a token or authority for the whipping the legs of those who dare to remain in the Newark. Many arts and devices are practised by the Whipping-Toms to take the people by surprise; but quarrels sometimes ensue.

At Claybrook, in the same county, a bell rings at noon, which is meant as a signal for people to commence frying their pancakes.--Macaulay, _History of Claybrook_, 1791.

ISLE OF MAN.

On this occasion it was formerly customary for the Manks to have _Sollaghyn_ or _Crowdy_ for dinner, instead of for breakfast, as at other times; and for supper, flesh meat, with a large pudding and pancakes; hence the Manks proverb:

“Ee shibber oie innid vees olty volg lane,
My jig laa caisht yon traaste son shen.”

“On Shrove Tuesday night, though thy supper be fat,
Before Easter Day thou may’st fast for that.”

Train, _History of the Isle of Man_, 1845, vol. ii. p. 117.

MIDDLESEX.

At Westminster School, London, the following is observed to this day. At 11 o’clock A.M. a verger of the Abbey, in his gown, bearing a silver bâton, emerges from the college kitchen, followed by the cook of the school, in his white apron, jacket, and cap, and carrying a pancake. On arriving at the school-room door, he announces himself, ‘The Cook;’ and having entered the school-room, he advances to the bar which separates the upper school from the lower one, twirls the pancake in the pan, and then tosses it over the bar into the upper school, among a crowd of boys, who scramble for the pancake; and he who gets it unbroken, and carries it to the deanery, demands the honorarium of a guinea (sometimes two guineas) from the Abbey funds, though the custom is not mentioned in the Abbey Statutes: the cook also receives two guineas for his performance.--_Book of Days_, vol. i. p. 237.

NORFOLK.

It is customary at Norwich to eat a small bun called cocque’els--cook-eels--coquilles (the name being spelt indifferently), which is continued throughout the season of Lent. Forby, in his _Vocabulary of East Anglia_, calls this production “a sort of cross-bun,” but no cross is placed upon it, though its composition is not dissimilar. He derives the word from _coquille_ in allusion to their being fashioned like an escallop, in which sense he is borne out by Cotgrave, who has “_pain coquillé_, a fashion of an hard-crusted loafe, somewhat like our stillyard bunne.” A correspondent of _Notes and Queries_ says that he has always taken the word to be “coquerells,” from the vending of such buns at the barbarous sport of “throwing at the cock” (which is still called a cockerell in E. Anglia) on Shrove Tuesday.--_N. & Q. 1st S._ vol. i. pp. 293 and 412.

Formerly there used to be held at Norwich on Shrove Tuesday a most curious festivity, to which Blomefield in his _History of Norfolk_ (1806, vol. iii. p. 155) incidentally alludes. In 1442, he says, there was a great insurrection at Norwich, for which the citizens were indicted, who among other things pleaded in their excuse:

“That John Gladman, of Norwich, who ever was, and at thys our is, a man of sad disposition, and trewe and feythfull to God and to the Kyng, of disporte, as hath been acustomed in ony cite or burgh thorowe alle this reame, on Tuesday in the last ende of Crestemesse, viz. _Fastyngonge Tuesday_, made a disport with his neighbours, havyng his hors trappyd with tynnsoyle, and other nyse disgisy things, corouned as Kyng of Crestemesse, in tokyn that seson should ende with the twelve monethes of the yere: aforn hym [went] yche moneth, disguysed after the seson requiryd, and _Lenton_ clad in whyte and red heryngs skinns, and his hors trappyd with oystyr-shells after him, in token that sadnesse should folowe, and an holy tyme; and so rode in diverse stretis of the cite, with other people with hym disguyssd, and makyng myrth, disportes, and plays.”

NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.

In many parts of this county the church bell is rung about noon, as the signal for preparing pancakes. At Daventry the bell which is rung on this occasion is muffled on one side with leather, or _buffed_, as it is termed, and obtains the name of _Pan-burn-bell_. Jingling rhymes in connection with this day are repeated by the peasantry, varying in different districts. The following are the most current:

“Pancakes and fritters,
Says the bells of St. Peter’s.
Where must we fry ’em?
Says the bells of Cold Higham.
In yonder land thurrow [furrow],
Says the bells of Wellingborough.
You owe me a shilling,
Says the bells of Great Billing.
When will you pay me?
Says the bells at Middleton Cheney.
When I am able,
Says the bells at Dunstable.
That will never be,
Says the bells at Coventry.
Oh, yes it will,
Says Northampton Great Bell.
White bread and sop,
Says the bells at Kingsthrop.
Trundle a lantern,
Says the bells at Northampton.”

That the bells of the churches of Northampton used also to be rung on this day may be inferred from the following similar doggerel:

“Roast beef and marsh-mallows,
Says the bells of All Hallow’s,
Pancakes and fritters.
Says the bells of St. Peter’s.
Roast beef and boil’d,
Says the bells of St. Giles’.
Poker and tongs,
Says the bells of St. John’s.[13]
Shovel, tongs, and poker,
Says the bells of St. Pulchre’s.[14]”

Baker, _Northamptonshire Words and Phrases_, vol. ii. p. 92.

[13] St. John’s Hospital.

[14] The church of St. Sepulchre is often called “Pulchre’s” in
Northampton.

At Earls Barton the custom of making “leek pasties” is observed. A party of shoemakers, after procuring a chaff-cutter and a quantity of leeks, proceed to the green, where they publicly chop the vegetable to the amusement of the spectators.--See _Gent. Mag._, 1867, _4th S._ vol. iv. p. 219.

NORTHUMBERLAND.

Formerly at Alnwick the waits belonging to the town used to come playing to the Castle every year on Shrove Tuesday at two o’clock P.M., when a foot-ball was thrown over the Castle walls to the populace.--Brand, _Pop. Antiq._, 1849, vol i. p. 92.

NOTTINGHAMSHIRE.

At Aspley Old Hall, in days gone by, butter and lard, fire and frying-pans were provided for all the poor families of Wollaston, Trowell, and Cossall, who chose to come and eat their pancakes at this mansion. The only conditions attached to the feast were, that no quarrelling should take place, and that each wife and mother should fry for her own family, and that when the cake needed turning in the pan, the act should be performed by tossing it in the air and catching it again in the pan with the uncooked side downwards. And many were the roars of laughter which took place among the merry groups in the kitchen, at the mishaps which occurred in the performance of this feast, in which his Honour and Madam joined.

In addition to the pancakes, each man was allowed a quart of good ale, women a pint, and children a gill.--Sutton, _Nottingham Date Book_, 1852, p. 75.

There is a curious tradition existing in Mansfield, Woodhouse, Bulwell, and several other villages near Sherwood Forest, as to the origin of pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. The inhabitants of any of the villages will inform the questioner that when the Danes got to Linby all the Saxon men of the neighbouring villages ran off into the forest, and the Danes took the Saxon women to keep house for them. This happened just before Lent, and the Saxon women, encouraged by their fugitive lords, resolved to massacre their Danish masters on Ash Wednesday. Every woman who agreed to do this was to bake pancakes for this meal on Shrove Tuesday as a kind of pledge to fulfil her vow. This was done, and that the massacre of the Danes did take place on Ash Wednesday is a well-known historical fact.--_N. & Q. 2nd S._ vol. vii. p. 450.

OXFORDSHIRE.

In this county children go about singing the following rhyme, begging at the same time for half-pence:

“Knick, knock, the pan’s hot,
And we be come a shroving:
A bit of bread, a bit of cheese,
A bit of barley dompling,
That’s better than nothing.
Open the door and let us in,
For we be come a pancaking.”

At Islip in the same county this version is used:

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

Brand, _Pop. Antiq._, 1849, vol. i. p. 88.

ISLANDS OF SCILLY.

The boys celebrate the evening of this day by throwing stones against the doors of the dwellers’ houses: a privilege which they claim from time immemorial. The terms demanded by them are pancakes or money to capitulate. Some of the older sort, exceeding the bounds of this whimsical practice, in the dusk of the evening, set a bolted door or window-shutter at liberty, by battering in a breach with large pieces of rock stones, which sometimes causes work for the surgeon, as well as for the smith, glazier, and carpenter. The way of making reprisal, in such cases, is by a rope drawn across the road of the mischievous, by means of which their flight is suddenly interrupted, and themselves ignominiously hurled to the ground with the loss of their artillery.--Heath, _Account of Islands of Scilly_, 1750, p. 127.

SHROPSHIRE.

In _The History and Antiquities of Ludlow_, 1822 (pp. 188-189), occurs the following account of a custom formerly observed on this day: “The corporation provide a rope, three inches in thickness, and in length thirty-six yards, which is given out at one of the windows of the Market-House as the clock strikes four, when a large body of the inhabitants divided into two parties--one contending for Castle Street and Broad Street wards, and the other for Old Street and Corve Street wards--commence an arduous struggle, and as soon as either party gains the victory by pulling the rope beyond the prescribed limits, the pulling ceases, which is, however, renewed by a second, and sometimes by a third contest; the rope being purchased by subscription from the victorious party, and given out again. Without doubt this singular custom is symbolical of some remarkable event, and a remnant of that ancient language of visible signs, which, says a celebrated writer, “imperfectly supplies the want of letters, to perpetuate the remembrance of public or private transactions.” The sign, in this instance, has survived the remembrance of the occurrence it was designed to represent, and remains a profound mystery. It has been insinuated that the real occasion of this custom is known to the corporation, but that for some reason or other, they are tenacious of the secret. An obscure tradition attributes this custom to circumstances arising out of the siege of Ludlow by Henry VI., when two parties arose within the town, one supporting the pretensions of the Duke of York, and the other wishing to give admittance to the king; one of the bailiffs is said to have headed the latter party. History relates that, in this contest, many lives were lost, and that the bailiff, heading his party in an attempt to open Dinham Gate, fell a victim there.”

SOMERSETSHIRE.

An odd practice seems to prevail in some parts of Somersetshire, and also in Devonshire and Dorsetshire on Shrove Tuesday, which is locally nick-named _Sharp Tuesday_. The youngsters go about after dusk, and throw stones against people’s doors, by what is considered by them an indefeasible right. They at the same time sing in chorus:

“I be come a shrovin
Vor a little pankiak;
A bit o’ bread o’ your baikin,
Or a little truckle cheese o’ your maikin,
If you’ll gi’ me a little, I’ll ax no more,
If you don’t gi’ me nothin, I’ll _rottle_ your door.”

Brand, _Pop. Antiq._ (Ed. Hazlitt), 1870, vol. i. p. 48.

STAFFORDSHIRE.

In this county Shrove Tuesday goes by the name of Goodish Tuesday.--_N. & Q. 2nd S._ vol. v. p. 209.

SUFFOLK.

At Bury St. Edmund’s on Shrove Tuesday, Easter Monday, and the Whitsuntide festivals, twelve old women side off for a game at trap-and-ball, which is kept up with the greatest spirit and vigour until sunset. Afterwards they retire to their homes, where

“Voice, fiddle, or flute,
No longer is mute,”

and close the day with apportioned mirth and merriment.--_Every Day Book_, vol. i. p. 430.

SURREY.

The following is taken from the _Times_ of March 7th, 1862:

“Shrove Tuesday was observed, as in days of yore, at Dorking,[15] first by a perambulation of the streets by the foot-ball retinue, composed of grotesquely-dressed persons, to the sounds of music, and in the afternoon by the kicking of the ball up and down the principal thoroughfares of the town. The usual number of men and boys joined in the sport, and played, especially towards the end of the game, with a roughness extremely dangerous to the limbs of the competitors. As 6 o’clock drew near the struggle for victory became more vehement; the palm, however, was obtained, for the fifth year, by the players from the west end of the town. The old custom of tolling the ‘pancake bell’ during the morning was, on this occasion, as during the last two or three years, dispensed with.”--_West Surrey Times._

[15] This custom prevails at Epsom. _N. & Q. 3rd S._ vol. i. p. 439.
It seems to have been observed also at Twickenham, Bushy, Teddington,
Kingston. See _Every Day Book_, vol. i. p. 245.

ISLE OF WIGHT.

At Brighstone parties of young boys, girls, and very small children parade the village, singing the following words:

“Shroving, shroving, I am come to shroving.
White bread and apple pie,
My mouth is very dry;
I wish I were well a-wet,
As I could sing for a nut.

Shroving, shroving, I am come to shroving.
A piece of bread, a piece of cheese,
A piece of your fat bacon,
Dough nuts and pancakes,
All of your own making.
Shroving, shroving, I am come to shroving.”[16]

_N. & Q. 1st S._ vol. xi. p. 239.

[16] For a more detailed account of the Isle of Wight Shrovers, see
Halliwell’s _Popular Rhymes_, 1849, p. 246.

YORKSHIRE.

A correspondent of _N. & Q. 2nd S._ vol. v. p. 391, says that all the apprentices in the town of Hedon whose indentures terminate before the return of the day assemble in the belfry of the church at eleven o’clock, and in turn toll the tenor bell for an hour, at the sound of which all the housewives in the parish commence frying pancakes. The sexton, who is present receives a small fee from each lad.

At Scarborough on the morning of Shrove Tuesday hawkers parade the streets with barrows loaded with party-coloured balls, which are purchased by all ranks of the inhabitants. With these, and armed with sticks, men, women, and children repair to the sands below the old town, and indiscriminately commence a contest, one party trying to drive the ball into the sea, and another equally zealous in their attempts to rescue it.

WALES.

Formerly it was customary to take such hens as had not laid eggs before Shrove Tuesday, and to thrash them to death, as being no longer of any use. The same custom also prevailed in some parts of Cornwall.--Brand, _Pop. Antiq._ 1849, vol. i. p. 81; _Book of Days_, vol. i. p. 238.

At Harding, in Flintshire, the lord of the manor, attended by his bailiff, formerly provided a foot-ball, and after throwing it down in a field near the church (called thence _foot-ball field_) the young and old assembled together to play at foot-ball.--Kennett MS. British Museum.

At Tenby Shrove Tuesday was formerly a general holiday, when the time was divided between foot-ball-kicking and pancake-eating. The shutters remained upon the shop-windows, while the windows of the private houses were barricaded with wood, or blinded with laths, bags, and sacking.--Mason, _Tales and Traditions of Tenby_, 1858, pp. 17, 18.

SCOTLAND.

Fastren’s E’en is celebrated annually, after the Border fashion, in the month of February, the day being fixed by the following antiquated couplet:

“First comes Candlemas, syne the New Moon;
The next Tuesday after is Fastren’s E’en.”

_Crowdie_ is mentioned by Sir F. M. Eden (_State of the Poor_, 1797, vol. i. p. 498) as a never-failing dinner on Shrove Tuesday, with all ranks of people in Scotland, as pancakes are in England; and that a ring is put into the basin or porringer of the unmarried folks, to the finder of which by fair means it was an omen of marriage before the rest of the eaters.

THE HIGHLANDS.

In the Highlands the most substantial entertainment peculiar to the evening of Shrove Tuesday is the matrimonial _brose_ (pottage), a savoury dish, generally made of the _bree_ (broth) of a good fat piece of beef or mutton, which being sometimes a good while _in retentum_, renders the addition of salt to the meal unnecessary. Before the bree is put in the bicker or plate, a ring is mixed with the meal, which it will be the aim of every partaker to get. The first bicker being discussed, the ring is put into two other bickers successively; and should any of the candidates for matrimony find the ring more than once, he may rest assured of his marrying before the next anniversary.

The brose, and plenty of other good cheer, being dispatched, the guests betake themselves to another part of the night’s entertainment. Soon as the evening circle convenes, the _Bannich Junit_, or “sauty bannocks,” are resorted to. The component ingredients of those dainties are eggs and meal, and a sufficient quantity of salt to sustain their ancient and appropriate appellation of “sauty.” These ingredients, well mixed together, are baked or roasted on the gridiron, and are regarded by old and young as a most delicious treat; and, as may be expected, they have a charm attached to them which enables the happy Highlander to discover the object of all his spells--his connubial bedfellow. A sufficient number of those designed for the palate being prepared, the great or matrimonial bannock is made, of which all the young people in the house partake. Into the ingredients of it there is some article intermixed, which, in the distribution, will fall to the lot of some happy person, who may be sure, if not already married, to be so before the next anniversary.

Last of all are made the _Bannich Bruader_, or dreaming bannocks, to the ingredients composing which is added a little of that substance which chimney-sweeps call soot, and which contains some charm. In baking these last bannocks the baker must be as mute as a stone--one word would destroy the charm of the whole concern. One is given to each individual, who slips off with it quietly to bed, and, reposing his head on his bannock, he will be gratified by the sight of his beloved in the course of his midnight slumbers.--Stewart, _Popular Superstitions of the Highlanders of Scotland_, 1851, p. 178.

COUNTY OF MID-LOTHIAN.

On Shrove Tuesday, in the parish of Inverness, there is a standing match at football between the married and unmarried women, in which the former are always victorious.--_Stat. Acc. of Scotland_, Sinclair, 1795, vol. xvi. p. 19.

PERTHSHIRE.

Formerly, on this day, the bachelors and married men drew themselves up at the Cross of Scone, on opposite sides. A ball was then thrown up, and they played from two o’clock till sunset. The game was this: He who at any time got the ball into his hands, ran with it till overtaken by one of the opposite party, and then, if he could escape from those of the opposite side who seized him, he ran on; if not, he threw the ball away, unless it was wrested from him by the other party; but no person was allowed to kick it. The object of the married men was to _hang it_, i.e., to put it three times into a small hole in the moor, the _goal_ or limit, on the one hand; that of the bachelors was to drown it, i.e., to dip it three times into a deep place in the river, the limit of the other. The party who could effect either of these objects won the game. But, if neither party won, the ball was cut into equal parts at sunset. In the course of the play, one might always see some scene of violence between the parties; but, as the proverb of that part of the country expresses it, “All was fair at the Ball of Scone.” This custom is supposed to have had its origin in the days of chivalry.

An Italian, it is said, came into that part of the country, challenging all the parishes, under a certain penalty in case of declining his challenge. All the parishes declined the challenge except Scone, which beat the foreigner, and in commemoration of this gallant action the game was instituted. Whilst the custom continued, every man in the parish, the gentry not excepted, was obliged to turn out and support the side to which he belonged; and the person who neglected to do his part on that occasion was fined.--Sinclair, _Stat. Acc. of Scotland_, 1796, vol. xviii. p. 88.

ROXBURGHSHIRE.

On this occasion the town of Melrose presents a most singular appearance, from the windows of the shops and dwellings in the main streets being barricaded. This precaution is necessary to prevent breakage, as football-playing on a most indiscriminate and unlimited scale is the order of the day. The ball is thrown up at the cross at one o’clock, when the young men of the town and neighbourhood, with a sprinkling of the married athletes, assemble in considerable numbers. The foot-balls used are previously supplied by a general public subscription, and from one o’clock the sport is kept up with great spirit until darkness sets in and puts a stop to the game. Business throughout the town is almost entirely suspended during the day.--Wade, _History of Melrose Abbey_, 1861, p. 144.

IRELAND.

At Kilrush in the county of Clare, this is the greatest day in the year for weddings, and consequently the Roman Catholic priests are generally occupied in the celebration of matrimony from sunrise till midnight. The general fee on this occasion is two guineas and a half; and many thoughtless couples, under the age of sixteen, pay it with cheerfulness when they have not another penny in their possession. Those who do not marry on this day must wait until Easter Monday on account of the intervening Lent.--Mason, _Stat. Acc. of Ireland_, 1814, vol. ii. p. 458.

FEB. 4.] ASH WEDNESDAY.

Among the Anglo-Saxons Ash Wednesday had its ceremonial of strewing ashes upon not merely the public penitent, but all; and thereby spoke its awful teachings and warnings unto all--unto the young and old--the guiltless and the guilty. As soon as none-song was over, that is, about mid-afternoon, the ashes were hallowed and then put upon each one’s forehead. From their own parish church the people then went in procession to some other church, and on coming back heard mass. Then, and only then, did such as were bound and able to fast take any kind of food.--D. Rock, _The Church of our Fathers_, 1849-53, vol. iii. part ii. p. 63.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ESSEX.

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

NORFOLK.

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

SCAMBLING DAYS.

The days so called were Mondays and Saturdays in Lent, when no regular meals were provided, and the members of our great families scambled. In the old household-book of the fifth Earl of Northumberland there is a particular section appointing the order of service for these days, and so regulating the licentious contentions of them. Shakespeare, in his play of Henry V. (act v. scene 2), makes King Henry say: “If ever thou be’st mine, Kate, I get thee with _scambling_, and thou must therefore needs prove a good soldier-breeder.”

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

“The scambling and unquiet time.”

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

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

FEB. 5.] GLOUCESTERSHIRE.

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

YORKSHIRE.

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

FEB. 8.] CHALK SUNDAY.

IRELAND.

In the west of Ireland nine-tenths of the marriages that take place among the peasantry are celebrated the week before Lent, and particularly on Shrove Tuesday, on which day the Roman Catholic priests have hard work to get through all their duties. On the first Sunday in Lent it is usual for the girls slyly to chalk the coats of those young men who have allowed the preceding festival to pass without having made their choice of a partner; and “illigible” young men strut about with affected unconsciousness of the numerous stripes which decorate their backs, while boys just arrived at manhood hold their heads higher, and show tokens of great satisfaction, if any good-natured lass affixes the coveted mark.--_N. & Q. 2nd S._ vol. iii. p. 207.

FEB. 10.] ST. SCHOLASTICA’S DAY.

OXFORDSHIRE.

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

[17] See ibid. p. 295.

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

FEB. 13.] ST. VALENTINE’S EVE.

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

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

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

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

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

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

DERBYSHIRE.

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

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

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

DEVONSHIRE.

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

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

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

NORFOLK.

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

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

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

MISS MARY ISABELLA KING,

_St. Giles,’_

_Norwich._

_Good Morrow, Valentine._

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

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

FEB. 14.] ST. VALENTINE’S DAY.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CAMBRIDGESHIRE.

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

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

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

DERBYSHIRE.

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

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

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

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

HEREFORDSHIRE.

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

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

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

KENT.