separation of men from the women; and second, the division of the
morning service into two. The allotment to each sex of a distinct
place in the church was very strictly observed among the primitive
Christians, and Geoffrey of Monmouth states that the Britons observed
the ancient custom of Troy, by which the men and women used to
celebrate their festivals apart. There is an old _jeu d'esprit_ in
relation to the custom at Worcester:
"The churches in general, we everywhere find,
Are places where men to the women are joined;
At Worcester, it seems, they are more cruel hearted,
For men and their wives are brought here to be parted."
As to the division of the morning service (one portion being performed
between eight and nine o'clock; and the Litany, Communion, and sermon,
from eleven to one), it is to be observed that these services were
originally intended to be distinct, so that the curate might have time
between them to receive the names of those who intended to communicate.
The Communion Office still everywhere retains the old name of "the
second service;" and Bishop Overal imputes it to the negligence of
ministers and the carelessness of the people that they are huddled
together into one office. (See Wheatley on the Common Prayer.)
MARRIAGE CUSTOM.
The neighbourhood of Abberton, Flyford Flavel, Wick, Naunton Beauchamp,
and other rural parishes in that district, celebrate weddings by
serenading the house of the newly-married pair at night, and firing
off guns, pistols, or any other instrument which will explode. Some
parties at Wick were not long ago summoned before the magistrates for
having participated in one of these popping-bouts, but the indignation
of the district was greatly aroused by their being mulcted in certain
expenses and ordered to discontinue the practice, for it is believed
to be nearly "as old as Adam," and as indispensable a ceremony as the
marriage vow itself.
FUNEREAL.
At Broadwas, at all funerals, the bearers invariably set down the
coffin in the middle of the lane leading to the church, and forming a
circle around it, they all bow most reverentially--a remnant, no doubt,
of those ceremonies observed in Catholic days, to mark respect for the
departed and to bid him farewell.
ASCENSION DAY.
Brand, in his "Popular Antiquities," states that a servant, named Betty
Jelkes, who lived several years at Evesham, informed him of an ancient
custom at that place for the master-gardeners to give their workpeople
a treat of baked peas, both white and grey, and pork, annually on Holy
Thursday.
On Ascension Day the inhabitants of Nantwich formerly assembled and
sang a hymn of thanksgiving for the blessings of brine, and a very
ancient pit there was held in great veneration and bedecked with
boughs, flowers, and garlands; a jovial band of young people encircled
the place, celebrating the occasion with song and dance. The custom
also was yearly observed at Droitwich, on St. Richard's Day. This
"Saint Richard" was Richard de Burford, Bishop of Chichester, who was
born at Droitwich about the year 1200. Leland says that the principal
salt springs "did fayle in the tyme of Richard de la Wich, or Burford,
Bishop of Chichester; and that after, by his intercession, it was
restored to the profit of the ould course; such (he adds) is the
superstition of the people. In token whereof, or for the honour that
the Wichemen and saulters bear unto this Richard, their countrieman,
they used of late tymes on his daye to hange about the sault springe
or well, once a yeere, with tapestrie, and to have drinking games or
revels at it." One year "in the Presbyterian time (as Aubrey hath
it) it was discontinued, and after that the spring shrank up or dried
up for some time; so afterwards they revived their annual custom,
notwithstanding the power of Parliament and the soldiers, and the salt
water returned again and still continues."
GUY FAULX.
The 5th of November--so long celebrated as
"The day that God did prevent
To blow up his king and parliament,"
--is still faintly remembered among us by means of squibs and crackers
stealthily discharged by mischievous boys in the streets. The good old
system of bonfires--always a most popular mode of rejoicing--would
probably not have been abandoned but for the numerous conflagrations
it must have occasioned at a time when thatch generally covered our
houses. In 1789, the Worcester corporation caused the bellman to
cry down bonfires, although previous to that time the expense of
providing fuel, and drink to hand round to the happy spectators, had
been regularly defrayed out of the civic purse. Last year (1855)
the notoriety of the day was partly revived, though on another
account--namely, its being the first anniversary of the battle of
Inkermann.
"ROYAL OAK DAY"--MAY 29,
is wonderfully shorn of its honours since people have generally taken
to read history, and have learned how little reason they have to bless
the memory of the Stuarts. The marvellous escape of Charles II, when
his pursuers passed under the oak tree in which he was secreted after
the battle of Worcester, is now only commemorated in the city which
boasts of being "faithful" to its kings whether their memory be
odorous or not, by some half-dozen boughs of oak being affixed over as
many doorways in different streets.
MOTHERING SUNDAY.
Midlent, or, as it is called in Worcestershire, "Mothering Sunday,"
is still observed as a minor festival, upon which all the children
and grand-children visit their parents, and the pride of the feast is
invariably a loin of veal.
ALL FOOLS' DAY.
The first of April, too, is not forgotten by the young fry, as "April
fool day;" when all sorts of traps are set to make each other look
ridiculous.
PLEDGING.
The old custom of drinking healths is on the decline. In a book of
rhymes, published about 1660, in "a catch made before the king's coming
to Worcester with the Scottish army," is the following:
"Each man upon his back
Shall swallow his sack,
This health will endure no shrinking;
The rest shall dance round
Him that lies on the ground:
'Fore me this is excellent drinking."
MAY-POLES.
The May-pole, it has been already stated, is still in existence at
Offenham, Hartlebury, Bayton, &c. Thomas Hall, a puritanical writer
(1660), author of the "Downfall of May Games," says--"The most of these
May-poles are stollen, yet they give out that the poles are given them.
There were two May-poles set up in my parish (Kingsnorton); the one
was stollen, and the other was given by a profest Papist. That which
was stollen was said to bee given, when 'twas proved to their faces
that 'twas stollen, and they were made to acknowledge their offence.
This pole that was stolen was rated at five shillings: if all the
poles, one with another, were so rated, which was stollen this May,
what a considerable sum would it amount to! Fightings and bloodshed are
usual at such meetings, insomuch that 'tis a common saying, that 'tis
no festival unless there bee some fightings."
HEAVING.
"Heaving" or "lifting" at Easter has not long been discontinued at
Worcester, the locality where the writer last heard of its performance
being in Birdport and Dolday. On Easter Monday the women would surround
any man who happened to be passing by, and by their joint efforts
lift him up in the air, and on the next day the men did the same to
the women. The only mode of escaping this kind of elevation was by
"forking out" (as they term it in the classical phraseology of that
neighbourhood) a certain sum to be spent in drink. At Hartlebury, a few
years back, the farmhouse mistress would give the male servant a treat
on Easter Tuesday, to heave the female servant, for she superstitiously
believed that it would prevent the female servant from breaking the
crocks during the ensuing year. At Kidderminster, on Easter Monday, the
women would deck themselves gaily for the occasion, dress a chair with
ribbons, and place a rope across the street to prevent the escape of
any unfortunate man who chanced to pass that way. He was then seized,
placed in the chair, elevated up on high, turned round three times,
set down again, and was then kissed by all the women. He was also
expected to pay something towards the evening's entertainments of tea
and dancing. Next day the women were heaved by the men. This custom
was observed in the streets till about a dozen years ago, and even to
a later period in the factories and public-houses in Kidderminster.
Heaving was no doubt originally designed to represent the resurrection.
VALENTINE'S DAY
is one of the best preserved customs of the middle ages, and will
probably last as long as "young men and maidens" have a tender regard
for each other. The first woman seen by a man on the morning of this
day, or _vice versa_, is called their Valentine, though the parties
never see each other again. Since the establishment of the penny
postage system and the cheapening of paper and print, the custom of
sending Valentines has been much on the increase, some of our Worcester
booksellers having found the trade sufficiently important to warrant
the insertion of advertisements in the newspapers announcing a varied
stock of these little missives on hand; while the progress of education
and taste among the people is shown by the elegance with which some of
the amatory designs are "got up." There is no satisfactory account of
the origin of this custom, which has been proved to have existed at
least five centuries ago. In the life of St. Valentine there is nothing
that could have given rise to it. There was a rural tradition that on
this day every bird chose its mate:
"Look how, my dear, the feather'd kind,
By mutual caresses joined,
Bill, and seem to teach us two
What we to love and custom owe.
Shall only you and I forbear
To meet and make a happy pair?
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;
My heart I dedicate in vain,
The too mean present you disdain.
Yet, since the solemn time allows
To choose the object of our vows,
Boldly I dare profess my flame,
Proud to be yours by any name."
MORRIS DANCING
is still resorted to by the boatmen of the Severn and the canals,
whenever the frost interrupts their ordinary occupation, on which
occasion small parties of them, dressed up fantastically with ribbons,
and carrying short sticks, which they strike together in time with
parts of the dance, perform in the streets, soliciting alms. The Morris
Dancers made a considerable figure in the parochial festivals of the
olden times. It is said the custom was introduced by the Moors into
Spain. A few years ago a dance was performed in Herefordshire by eight
men whose united ages amounted to eight hundred years; and Sir William
Temple mentions that in a certain year of King James's reign there were
ten men in Herefordshire who went about that county as Morris Dancers
whose ages altogether numbered twelve hundred years! 'Tis not so much
(says he) that so many in one county should live to that age, as that
they should be in vigour and humour to travel and dance.
THE "WAITS"
linger yet among us, but their operations are confined to an early
serenading of the citizens with soft music a few mornings in the
Christmas time. Formerly the Worcester Corporation kept a "company of
waites," paying them wages and dressing them in livery (cock'd hats
and blue coats or cloaks), to be ready to play on all public occasions;
but towards the close of the last century they were gradually
superseded by another order of minstrels, "ye drums and fifes." Busby,
in his Dictionary of Music, says the term "wayghts or waites" formerly
signified "hautboys," and, what is remarkable, has no singular number.
From the instruments, its signification was for a time transferred to
the performers themselves; who, being in the habit of parading the
streets by night with their music, occasioned the name to be applied
generally to all musicians who followed a similar practice; hence those
persons who annually, at the approach of Christmas, salute us with
their nocturnal concerts, were, and are to this day, called Wayghts.
THE CURFEW BELL
still is occasionally rung at St. Helen's church, in this city, and at
Bewdley and King's Norton, also at Pershore from October till March. At
Evesham it is rung in the fine old bell-tower at eight o'clock every
evening, except on Saturdays, when it is rung at seven o'clock during
the Christmas holidays--the week before and the week after Christmas
Day it is rung at seven o'clock; and probably at other old towns in the
county which I have not ascertained; but the perpetuation of the old
custom seems to be dependent solely on the poor ringers' respect for
ancient usages, as they apparently get no money for their pains. At St.
Helen's, after ringing the eight o'clock bell, it was usual to strike
upon it the number of the day of the month.
PLUM-PUDDING AND OTHER BELLS.
At St. Martin's church, a few weeks before Christmas, a bell is nightly
rung, the expense of which, I believe, is provided for under the will
of one Sir Robert Berkeley, Knight, who left a fund for bell-ringing on
certain days, and to purchase bell-ropes. The bell at St. Martin's is
called "the plum-pudding bell," probably in allusion to the approaching
Christmas festivities, as the "pancake bell" was formerly rung in many
places at Easter. In most old towns, as at Worcester and Bewdley, a
very early morning bell was formerly rung, probably for the purpose of
waking up apprentices and arousing the working classes generally, as
also school-boys to their studies; but these parties are now mainly
left to manage their early rising as they can, unless some friendly
factory bell be at hand. There was also a passing bell, tolled while
persons were dying. In the articles of visitation for the diocese of
Worcester in 1662 occurs the following: "Doth the parish clerk or
sexton take care to admonish the living, by tolling of a passing bell,
of any that are dying, thereby to meditate of their own deaths, and to
commend the other's weak condition to the mercy of God?"
ST. CATHARINE'S DAY.
"Catherning," or "Cattaring,"--that is, the observance of St.
Catharine's Day (Nov. 25) has not yet gone out of remembrance
in Worcestershire. It was formerly the custom of the Dean and
Chapter--that day being the last of their audit--to distribute amongst
the inhabitants of the College precincts a rich compound of wine,
spices, &c., called "the Cattern bowl." A modified edition of the
custom, I believe, is still observed. At Leigh, Harvington, Offenham,
and other parishes, the young people had a custom of going round to
the houses and asking for apples and beer, using a doggrel rhyme on
the occasion which differs in most places, and St. Thomas's and old
Christmas Day are sometimes selected for the purpose. The St. Thomas's
Day perambulation is in some places called "Going a gooding." The
rhyme or carol more usually sung on St. Catharine's Day began thus:
"Catt'n and Clement comes year by year,
Some of yr apples and some of yr beer;
Some for Peter, some for Paul,
Some for Him who made us all.
Peter was a good old man,
For his sake give us some:
Some of the best and none of the worst,
And God will send yr souls to roost."
Concluding thus:
"Up the ladder and down with the can,
Give me red apples and I'll begone."
The ladder alluding to the store of apples, generally kept in a loft;
and the can, doubtless, to the same going down into the cellar for the
beer. In some districts of the county the following doggrel is repeated:
"St. Clements! St. Clements! A cat by the ear!
A good red apple--a pint o' beer!
Some o' your mutton, some o' your _vale_! [veal]
If it's good, gie us a _dale_, [deal]
If its _naught_, gie us some _saut_! [salt]
Butler, butler, fill the bowl--
If you fill it of the best,
God will send your soul to rest;
But if you fill it of the small,
The Devil take butler, bowl, and all!"
A correspondent states that this custom originated, or was revived,
when Queen Elizabeth visited Worcester, the inhabitants sparing no
expense to give her Majesty a gracious reception upon St. Catharine's
Day, when a number of apples were strung before the fire and the
citizens went with a can from house to house, begging apples and beer,
and repeating the above lines.
CURIOUS CHARITY, &c.
At Kidderminster is a whimsical charity for the benefit of the
inhabitants of Church Street. Mr. Brecknall, a bachelor, in 1778,
bequeathed a farthing loaf and twopenny cake annually to every _single_
person born in that street who should apply for it on the 21st of June;
the applicant is eligible during the whole of his or her life, or in
whatever part of the world residing. The mere residents of Church
Street, if not born there, are also entitled to a cake, but their
claim is forfeited when they leave the street. The recipients make
themselves truly "jolly" on the night of the distribution.--In the
same town the inhabitants formerly assembled at a particular hour on
Michaelmas Day, on the occasion of the election of a bailiff, which
was announced by the ringing of the town-house bell, and during one
hour--termed "lawless hour"--the poorer classes amused themselves by
throwing cabbage-stalks at each other, while the higher classes threw
apples. Sometimes the apples were thrown from windows, to be scuffled
for, and many a black eye was the consequence of this fruit being used
as a projectile. After a whole street had been amused by this practical
fun, it was given out by some leader of the mob what locality was next
to be favoured, and thither they all proceeded at once. This custom was
observed within the last twenty years.
THE WHOOP.
On the second Sunday in July there was a custom at Chaddesley Corbett
to put strangers "through the whoop." I cannot ascertain exactly
what this practice was, as the inhabitants from whom I have sought
information fight exceedingly shy of it, and some even deny the
existence of the custom; but one gentleman informs me that it was
usual on that day for the lower order of the parishioners to play
some practical joke--anything which first presented itself to their
imaginations--upon whatever stranger happened to come within their
boundary.
TENURE.
There is a curious tenure at Inkberrow. The manor and advowson
were granted by Philip and Mary to an ancestor of the present Lord
Abergavenny, on condition that in default of male issue the same should
revert to the Crown. Up to the present time, however, there has been
no lack of males in the family, and the present noble lord "hath his
quiver full" of promising sons.
NICKNAMES.
Among the colliers in the north of this county, as also that singular
race of beings known as the "Lye-wasters," near Stourbridge, the custom
is observed of adopting nicknames, so that they are but very little
known by their Christian or surnames, and an officer who goes to serve
a writ or summons has a task which he finds himself unable to perform.
Amusing instances are given in "The Rambler," vol. ii, p. 80, and vol.
iii, p. 253.
BRIDE ALES.
At Halesowen, in former times, the celebration of bride-ales or
love-ales, at a wedding, prevailed, and led to such disorder that
during the reign of Elizabeth it was found necessary by the Borough
Court to make some most stringent orders thereon. The custom was for
the bride to sell a quantity of ale, for which she received, by way
of contribution, whatever handsome price the friends assembled chose
to pay; the object being to assist the young people in commencing
housekeeping. The custom is now reversed, for the entertainment to be
given by young married people to their friends is at present a serious
item.
PAUPER RELIEF.
The way of relieving parochial paupers at Harvington in the
seventeenth century was by assigning them for certain days to any of
the inhabitants who would employ them. An entry occurs in the parish
register thus:
"April 6, 1697. A particular of the several days as Thomas
Godfrey is to worke with the persons under written, for which
they are to give him 8d. a day, or if they doe not employ him,
4d. per day; to begin from the 6th of April, 1697, and soe to
goe thro' the towne as thus:"
Then follows a list of thirty-six persons who were to employ the said
Thomas Godfrey, giving him a month's intermission at harvest time.
CHRISTMAS CUSTOMS.
On the confines of Worcestershire, towards Ledbury, it was some years
ago the custom, on Twelfth Night, for the farmers to make twelve
fires upon the head (east side) of one of their wheat fields. One of
these fires was larger than the others, which they called "Old Meg,"
and around this the farm servants, with their families and friends,
congregated to drink warm cider, with plum-cake toasted in it, and
with loud hurrahs wishing success to the master and his crops; then
they proceeded to the cow-house, which had been nicely cleaned for the
occasion, and the cows had also been cleaned and tied up, being allowed
a good supply of their best provender. A large plum-cake, bound round
with tape, was stuck on the horns of the best cow, and buckets of cider
with plum-cake were carried in. Each person present then drank to the
health of the cow, using this doggrel:
"Here's to thee, Ball, and to thy white horn;
Pray God send thy master a good crop of corn,
Of wheat, rye, and barley, and all sorts of grain,
And at this time twelve months we meet here again.
The leaves they are green,
The nuts they are brown,
They all hang so high
That they cannot come down.
They cannot come down until the next year,
So thee eat thy oats and we'll drink our beer" (or cider, as
the case might be.)
Then the cowman went up to the cow, and caused her by some movement
to shake her head, and if the cake tumbled over in front of her it
belonged to the cowman; if it fell behind, it became the property
of the dairymaid. The party then retired to the house, and made the
evening jolly, never concluding the festivity without a dance. I have
heard that to this day the custom of lighting twelve fires on the
same night still prevails at Preston, near Ledbury, and other places.
A correspondent informs me that he remembers a custom similar to the
above being observed in the neighbourhood of Tenbury on Christmas Eve,
and that Neen Sollars was the last parish in which he witnessed it.
The twelve fires on the eve of Twelfth Day, kindled with great
rejoicing before a pole wrapped up in straw, called "the old woman," in
a field that has been sown with grain, are supposed to be the remains
of some heathen ceremony derived from the Romans or Saxons, allusive to
Ceres and the months, but afterwards adopted to a holiday season of the
Christian year. This practice (as the Rev. J. Webb, of Tretire, near
Ross, informs us) is still continued in parts of Herefordshire.
It is the custom at the present day in some parishes in Worcestershire
(Longdon for instance) for boys and girls to go early on New Year's
morning to all the farmhouses and say as follows, all in one breath:
"Bud well, bear well,
God send you fare well,
Every sprig and every spray
A bushel of apples next New Year's Day.
Morning, master and mistress,
A happy New Year,
A pocket full of money,
A cellar full of beer.
Please to give me a New Year's gift."
A clergyman in Worcestershire communicated to the editor of "Brand's
Antiquities" the following doggrel lines, but the occasion and use of
them appear to be unknown, and it is not unlikely that some corruption
has crept into them:
"Wassail brews good ale,
Good ale for Wassail;
Wassail comes too soon
In the wane of the moon."