Chapter XVII: Customs Connected with Certain Days and Seasons

The New Year 283-286
Twelfth Day, and Plough Monday 286-288
Candlemas Day 289
Shrovetide 290-291
Sundays in Lent 291-292
Good Friday 292-293
Easter 293-296
May-day 296-297
Rogation Days 297-298
Whitsuntide 298
Rush-bearing 298-299
Halloween 299-300
All Souls’ Day, and St. Clement’s Day 300-301
St. Thomas’ Day 301-302
Christmas 302-304
Childermas Day 304
Feasts and fairs 305-306

CHAPTER XVIII
GAMES

Historical importance of children’s games 307
Girls’ singing-games 308
The game of marbles 309
Children’s rhymes addressed to birds and insects 310-311

CHAPTER XIX
WEATHER LORE AND FARMING TERMS

The weather as a topic for conversation 312-313
Signs of rain and of fine weather 314-317
Prophecies concerning seasons and crops 317-318
Thomas Tusser and his ‘good husbandlie lessons’ 318-320
Decay of old farming customs 321
Harvest customs 322-324
Names for hay-cocks, labourers’ meals, &c. 325
Calls to animals 326
Sheep-scoring numerals 327

CHAPTER XX
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES

Varieties of weights and measures in the dialects 328-331