followed the election of the king and queen. Barnaby Googe, in his
paraphrase of the curious poem of Naogeorgus, _The Popish Kingdom_,
1570, states that the king, on being elected, was raised up with great
cries to the ceiling, where with chalk he inscribed crosses on the
rafters to protect the house against evil spirits.--_Book of Days_,
1863, vol. i. p. 62. See also _Every Day Book_, 1827, vol. i. p. 51.
Herrick, the poet of our festivals, has several allusions to the
celebration of this day of our ancestors, as may be seen in the
subjoined poem:
“TWELFE-NIGHT, OR KING AND QUEENE.
“Now, now the mirth comes
With the cake full of plums,
Where beane’s the king of the sport here;
Besides, we 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 be the lot,
And who shall not
Be Twelfe-day queene for the night here.
Which knowne, let us make
Joy-sops with the cake;
And let not a man then be seene here.
Who unurg’d will not drinke,
To the base from the brink,
A health to the king and queene here.
Next crowne the bowle full
With gentle lamb’s-wooll;
Adde sugar, nutmeg, and ginger,
With store of ale too;
And thus ye must doe
To make the wassaile a swinger.
Give them to the king
And queene wassailing;
And though with ale ye be whet here;
Yet part ye from hence,
As free from offence,
As when ye innocent met here.”
In the last century _Twelfth Night Cards_ represented ministers, maids
of honour, and other attendants of a court, and the characters were to
be supported through the night. John Britton, in his _Autobiography_
tells us “he suggested and wrote a series of Twelfth Night characters,
to be printed on cards, placed in a bag, and drawn out at parties on the
memorable and merry evening of that ancient festival. They were sold in
small packets to pastrycooks, and led the way to a custom which annually
grew to an extensive trade. For the second year my pen-and-ink
characters were accompanied by prints of the different personages by
Cruikshank (father of the inimitable George), all of a comic or
ludicrous kind.” Such characters are still printed.--_Book of Days_,
vol. i. p. 64.
Formerly the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, and the Guilds of London, used to
go to St. Paul’s on Twelfth Day to hear a sermon. This is mentioned as
an old custom in the early part of Queen Elizabeth’s reign.
Twelfth Day and its customs appear to have been observed by royalty
almost from time immemorial. At the English court in the eighth year of
the reign of Edward III., the majestic title of _King of the Bean_ was
conferred upon one of the king’s minstrels, as appears by a _Compotus_
of that date, which states that sixty shillings were given by the king
on the day of the Epiphany to Regan, the trumpeter, and his associates,
the court minstrels, in the name of the king of the bean.--Strutt,
_Sports and Pastimes_, 1801, p. 255.
The grand state of the sovereign on Twelfth Day, and the manner of
keeping festival at court, in the reign of King Henry VII., are set
forth in Le Neve’s MS., called _The Royalle Book_, to the following
effect:
As for Twelfth Day, the king must go crowned in his royal robes, kirtle,
surcoat, his furred hood about his neck, his mantle with a long train,
and his cutlas before him; his armills upon his arms, of gold set full
of rich stones; and no temporal man to touch it but the king himself;
and the squire for the body must bring it to the king in a fair
kerchief, and the king must put them on himself; and he must have his
sceptre in his right hand, and the ball with the cross in the left hand,
and the crown upon his head. And he must offer that day gold, myrrh, and
sense; then must the dean of the chapel send unto the Archbishop of
Canterbury by clerk or priest the king’s offering that day; and then
must the Archbishop give the next benefice that falleth in his gift to
the same messenger. And then the king must change his mantle when he
goeth to meat, and take off his hood and lay it about his neck, and
clasp it before with a great rich ouche; and this must be of the same
colour that he offered in. And the queen in the same form when she is
crowned.
The same day that he goeth crowned he ought to go to matins; to which
array belongeth his kirtle, surcoat, tabard, and his furred hood slyved
over his head, and rolled about his neck; and on his head his cap of
estate, and his sword before him.
At even-song he must go in his kirtle and surcoat, and hood laid about
his shoulders, and clasp the tippet and hood together before his breast
with a great rich ouche, and his hat of estate upon his head.
As for the _void_ on the Twelfth Night, the king and the queen ought to
have it in the hall. And as for the wassail, the steward, the treasurer,
and the controller, shall come for it with their staves in their hands;
the king’s sewer and the queen’s having fair towels about their necks,
and dishes in their hands, such as the king and queen shall eat of; the
king’s carvers and the queen’s shall come after with chargers or dishes,
such as the king or the queen shall eat of, and with towels about their
necks. And no man shall bear anything unless sworn for three months. And
the steward, treasurer, comptroller, and marshall of the hall shall
ordain for all the hall. And, if it be in the great chamber, then shall
the chamberlain and ushers ordain, after the above form; and if there be
a bishop, his own squire, or else the king’s, such as the officers
choose to assign, shall serve him; and so of all the other estates, if
they be dukes or earls; and so of duchesses and countesses. And then
there must come in the ushers of the chamber, with the pile of cups, the
king’s cups and the queen’s, and the bishop’s with the butlers and wine
to the cupboard, and then a squire for the body to bear the cup, and
another for the queen’s cup, such as is sworn for hire.
The singers [of the chapel] may stand at the one side of the hall, and
when the steward cometh in at the hall-door, with the wassail, he must
cry thrice “Wassaile,” &c., and then shall the chapel answer it anon
with a good song, and thus in likewise, if it please the king to keep
the great chamber. And then when the king and queen have done, they will
go into the chamber. And there belongeth for the king, two lights with
the void, and two lights with the cup; and for the queen as
many.--_Antiq. Rep._ 1807, vol. i. p. 328.
On Twelfth Day, 1563, Mary Queen of Scots celebrated the French pastime
of the King of the Bean at Holyrood, but with a queen instead of a king,
as more appropriate, in consideration of herself being a female
sovereign. The lot fell to the real queen’s attendant, Mary Fleming, and
the mistress good-naturedly arrayed the servant in her own robes and
jewels, that she might duly sustain the mimic dignity in the festivities
of the night. The English resident, Randolph, who was in love with Mary
Beton, another of the queen’s maids of honour, wrote in excited terms
about this festival to the Earl of Leicester. “Happy was it,” says he,
“unto this realm, that her reign endured no longer. Two such sights, in
one state, in so good accord, I believe was never seen, as to behold two
worthy queens possess, without envy, one kingdom, both upon a day. I
leave the rest to your lordship to be judged of. My pen staggereth, my
hand faileth, further to write.----The Queen of the Bean was that day in
a gown of cloth of silver; her head, her neck, her shoulders, the rest
of her whole body, so beset with stones, that more in our whole
jewel-house were not to be found. The cheer was great. I never found
myself so happy, nor so well treated, until that it came to the point
that the old Queen (Mary) herself, to show her mighty power, contrary
unto the assurance granted me by the younger Queen (Mary Fleming), drew
me into the dance; which part of the play I could with good will have
spared unto your lordship as much fitter for the purpose.”--_Lives of
the Queens of Scotland_, Strickland, vol. iv. p. 20.
Down to the time of the Civil Wars, the feast of the Epiphany was
observed with great splendour, not only at court, but at the Inns of
Court, and the Universities (where it was an old custom to choose the
king by the bean in a cake), as well as in private mansions and smaller
households. We read, too, of our nobility keeping Twelfth Night by the
diversion of blowing up pasteboard castles; letting claret flow like
blood out of a stag made of paste; the castle bombarded from a
pasteboard ship, with cannon, in the midst of which the company pelted
each other with egg-shells filled with rose-water; and large pies were
made, filled with live frogs, which hopped and flew out upon some
curious person lifting up the lid. Twelfth Night grew to be a court
festival, in which gaming was a costly feature. Evelyn tells us that on
Twelfth Night, 1662, according to custom, His Majesty (Charles II.)
opened the revels of that night by throwing the dice himself in the
privy chamber, where was a table set on purpose, and lost his
100_l._--_Book of Days_, vol. i. p. 63.
CUMBERLAND.
In Cumberland, and other northern parts of England, on Twelfth Night,
which finishes the Christmas holidays, the rustics meet together in a
large room. They begin dancing at seven o’clock, and finish at twelve,
when they sit down to _lobscouse_ and _ponsondie_; the former is made of
beef, potatoes, and onions, fried together; and in ponsondie we
recognise the wassail or waes-hael of ale, boiled with sugar and nutmeg,
into which are put roasted apples; the anciently admired lambs’-wool.
The feast is paid for by subscription; two women are chosen, who with
two wooden bowls placed one within the other, so as to leave an opening
and a space between them, go round to the female part of the society in
succession, and what one puts into the uppermost bowl the attendant
collectress slips into the bowl beneath it. All are expected to
contribute something, but not more than a shilling, and they are best
esteemed who give most. The men choose two from themselves and follow
the same custom, except that as the gentlemen are not supposed to be so
fair in their dealings as the ladies, one of the collectors is furnished
with pen, ink, and paper, to set down the subscription as soon as
received.--_Time’s Telescope_, 1825, p. 13.
In many of the small towns they partake of scalded field-peas, and a
hare or some other kind of game. The peas are brought to table with the
hare, and are scalded in water with the husks on, after which a lump of
butter is put in the middle, and they are picked out as they are eaten.
The supper concludes with a _tharve-cake_, a large, flat, oaten cake,
baked on a girdle, sometimes with plums in it. Dancing and drinking then
occupy the remainder of the evening. Tar barrels are common at all their
festivals, and scarcely a town is without them.--_Ibid._ 1829, p. 11.
DERBYSHIRE.
The morris-dancers who go about from village to village about Twelfth
Day, have their fool, their Maid Marian (generally a man dressed in
woman’s clothes, and called “the fool’s wife,”) and sometimes the
hobby-horse; they are dressed up in ribbons and tinsel, but the bells
are usually discarded.--_Jour. of Arch. Assoc._ 1852, vol. vii. p. 201.
DORSETSHIRE.
The rector of Piddle Hinton gives away on Old Christmas Day a pound of
bread, a pint of ale, and a mince pie, to every poor person in the
parish. This distribution is regularly made by the rector to upwards of
three hundred persons.--Edwards, _Old English Customs and Charities_,
1842, p. 6.
LINCOLNSHIRE.
Anciently the Mowbrays had great possessions in and about the Isle of
Axholme, and a seat, at which they principally resided, and were
considered the greatest folks in that part of the country. It so
happened that on Old Christmas Day, while a young lady (the daughter of
the then Mowbray) was riding over the Meeres to the church by an old
road (at that time the principal one across the village) a gale of wind
blew off her hood. Twelve farming men who were working in the fields saw
the occurrence, and ran to gather up the hood, and in such earnest were
they that the lady took so much amusement at the scene she forbade her
own attendants joining in the pursuit. The hood being captured, and
replaced on the lady’s head, she expressed her obligation to the men,
giving them each some money, and promised a piece of land (to be vested
in certain persons in trust) to throw up a hood annually on Old
Christmas Day.[7] She also ordered that the twelve men engaged to
contest the race for the hood should be clothed (_pro temp._) in scarlet
jerkins and velvet caps: the hood to be thrown in the same place as the
one where she lost hers. The custom is yet followed; and though the
Meeres on which she was riding has long ago been brought into a state of
cultivation, and the road through been diverted, yet an old mill stands
in the field where the road passed through, and is pointed out as the
place where the original scene took place, and the hood is usually
thrown up from this mill. There is generally a great concourse of people
from the neighbouring villages who also take part in the proceedings;
and when the hood is thrown up by the chief of the _boggons_, or by the
officials, it becomes the object of the villagers to get the hood to
their own village, by throwing or kicking it, similar to the foot-ball.
The other eleven men, called _boggons_, being stationed at the comers
and sides of the field to prevent, if possible, its being thrown out of
the field; and should it chance to fall into any of their hands it is
“boggoned,” and forthwith returned to the chief, who again throws it up
from the mill as before. Whoever is fortunate enough to get it out of
the field, tries to get it to his village, and usually takes it to the
public house he is accustomed to frequent, and the landlord regales him
with hot ale and rum.
[7] The quantity of land given by Lady Mowbray was forty acres, known
by the name of the Hoodlands.
The game usually continues until dusk, and is frequently attended by
broken shins and bruised heads. The next day is occupied by the boggons
going round the villages, singing as waits, who are regaled with hot
furmenty; from some they get coppers given them, and from others a small
measure of wheat, according to the means of the donor. The day after
that they assume the character of plough bullocks, and at a certain part
of West Woodside they “smoke the fool;” that is, straw is collected by
those who like, and piled on a heap, a rope being tied or slung over
the branches of the tree next the pile of straw; the other end of the
rope is fastened round the waist of the “fool,” and he is drawn up, and
fire is put to the straw, the “fool” being swung to and fro through the
smoke, until he is well nigh choked; after which he goes round with his
cap, and collects whatever the spectator thinks proper to give. The
performance is then at an end until the following year. See _N. & Q. 2nd
S._ vol. v. p. 94. Peek’s _History of Axholme_, 1815, vol. i. p. 277.
In the _History of Lincolnshire_ (vol. ii. p. 214) is the following
account of this custom, differing but little from the notice already
given. At Haxey, Old Twelfth Day is devoted to _throwing the hood_, an
amusement, which according to tradition, was instituted by one of the
Mowbrays. A roll of canvas, tightly corded together, from four to six
pounds in weight, is taken to an open field, and contended for by the
rustics. An individual appointed casts it from him, and the first person
who can convey it into the cellars of any public house receives the
reward of one shilling, paid by the plough-bullocks or _boggins_. A new
hood being furnished when the others are carried off, the contest
usually continues till dark. The next day the plough-bullocks or boggins
go round the town collecting alms, and crying “Largess.” They are
dressed like morris-dancers, and are yoked to and drag a small plough.
They have their farmer, and a fool called Billy Buck, dressed like a
harlequin, with whom the boys make sport. The day is concluded by the
bullocks running with the plough round the cross on the green; and the
man that can throw the other down, and convey the plough into the cellar
of a public house, receives one shilling for his agility.--See _N. & Q.
4th S._ vol. ix. p. 158.
MIDDLESEX.
In London on Twelfth Night, in former days, boys assembled round the
inviting shops of the pastrycooks, and dexterously nailed the coat-tails
of spectators who ventured near enough to the bottoms of the window
frames, or pinned them strongly together by their clothes. Sometimes
eight or ten persons found themselves thus connected. The dexterity and
force of the nail-driving was so quick and sure that a single blow
seldom failed of doing the business effectually.--Withdrawal of the nail
without a proper instrument was out of the question, and consequently,
the person nailed was forced either to leave part of his coat as a
cognisance of his attachment, or quit the spot with a hole in it. At
every nailing and pinning shouts of laughter arose from the
perpetrators, yet it often happened to one who turned and smiled at the
duress of another, that he also found himself nailed. Efforts at
extrication increased mirth; nor was the presence of a constable, who
was usually employed to attend and preserve free “ingress, egress, and
regress,” sufficiently awful to deter the offender.--_Every Day Book_,
vol. i. p. 50.
A curious custom of mediæval origin is observed at the Chapel Royal, St.
James’s Palace, on the festival of the Epiphany. After the reading of
the sentence at the offertory, “Let your light so shine before men,”
&c., while the organ plays, two members of her Majesty’s household,
wearing the royal livery, descend from the royal pew and advance to the
altar rails, preceded by the usher, where they present to one of the two
officiating clergymen a red bag, edged with gold lace or braid, which is
received in an offertory basin, and then reverently placed on the altar.
This bag or purse is understood to contain the Queen’s offering of gold,
frankincense, and myrrh, in commemoration of the gifts of the Magi to
the infant Saviour.--_Echo_, Jan. 7th, 1869.
In the _Lady’s Mag._ for 1760, is the following:
Sunday Jan. 6th, being Twelfth Day, and a collar and offering day at St.
James’, his Majesty, preceded by the heralds, pursuivants, &c., and the
knights of the Garter, Thistle, and Bath, in the collars of their
respective orders, went to the Royal Chapel at St. James’, and offered
gold, myrrh, and frankincense, in imitation of the Eastern Magi offering
to our Saviour.
ISLE OF MAN.
In this island there is not a barn unoccupied on the whole twelve days
after Christmas, every parish hiring fiddlers at the public charge. On
Twelfth Day the fiddler lays his head in the lap of some one of the
wenches, and the _mainstyr fiddler_ asks who such a maid, or such a
maid, naming all the girls one after another, shall marry, to which he
answers according to his own whim, or agreeable to the intimacies he has
taken notice of during the time of merriment, and whatever he says is
absolutely depended on as an oracle; and if he happen to couple two
people who have an aversion to each other, tears and vexation succeed
the mirth; this they call “cutting off the fiddler’s head,” for after
this he is dead for a whole year.--Waldron’s _Description of the Isle of
Man_, 1859, p. 156.
SOMERSETSHIRE.
A friend of mine, says Mr. C. W. Bingham in _N. & Q._ (_3rd S._ vol. ix.
p. 33), met a girl on Old Christmas Day, in a village of North Somerset,
who told him that she was going to see the Christmas thorn in blossom.
He accompanied her to an orchard, where he found a tree, propagated from
the celebrated Glastonbury thorn, and gathered from it several sprigs in
blossom. Afterwards the girl’s mother informed him that it had been
formerly the custom for the youth of both sexes to assemble under the
tree at midnight on Christmas Eve, in order to hear the bursting of the
buds into flower, and she added, “As they comed out, you could hear ’um
_haffer_.”
Jennings, and after him Halliwell, give this word _haffer_ for to
crackle, to patter, to make repeated loud noises.
STAFFORDSHIRE.
At Paget’s Bromley a curious custom went out in the seventeenth century.
A man came along the village with a mock horse fastened to him, with
which he danced, at the same time making a snapping noise with a bow and
arrow. He was attended by half a dozen fellow-villagers, wearing mock
deers’ heads, and displaying the arms of the several landlords of the
town. This party danced _the Hays_, and other country dances, to music,
amidst the sympathy and applause of the multitude. There was also a huge
pot of ale with cakes, by general contribution of the village, out of
the very surplus of which “they not only repaired their church, but kept
their poor too; which charges,” quoth Dr. Plot, “are not now, perhaps,
so cheerfully borne.”--Plot’s _Nat. Hist. of Staffordshire_, 1680, p.
434.
WESTMORELAND.
Twelfth Night, or Holly Night, was formerly celebrated at Brough, by
carrying through the town a holly-tree with torches attached to its
branches. The procession set out at 8 o’clock in the evening preceded by
music, and stopped at the town-bridge, and again at the cross, where it
was greeted each time with shouts of applause. Many of the inhabitants
carried lighted branches as flambeaux; and rockets, squibs, &c., were
discharged on the joyful occasion. After the tree had been carried
about, and the torches were sufficiently burnt, it was placed in the
middle of the town, when it was again cheered by the surrounding crowd,
and then was thrown among them. The spectators at once divided into two
parties, one of which endeavoured to take the tree to one of the inns,
and the other to a rival inn. The innkeeper whose party triumphed was
expected to treat his partisans liberally.--Hone’s _Table Book_, 1838,
p. 26; _Handbook for the Lakes_, Murray, 1866, p. 113.
WALES.
In some parts of Pembrokeshire, the following practice is observed. A
wren is secured in a small house made of wood, with door and windows,
the latter glazed. Pieces of ribbon of various colours are fixed to the
ridge of the roof outside. Sometimes several wrens are brought in the
same cage, and oftentimes a stable-lantern, decorated as above
mentioned, serves for the wren’s-house. The proprietors of this
establishment go round to the principal houses in their neighbourhood:
where, accompanying themselves with some musical instrument, they
announce their arrival by singing the ‘Song of the Wren.’ The wren’s
visit is a source of much amusement to children and servants, and the
wren’s men, or lads, are usually invited to have a draught from the
cellar, and receive a present in money. The ‘Song of the Wren’ is
generally _encored_, and the proprietors very commonly commence high
life below stairs, dancing with the maid-servants, and saluting them
under the kissing bush, where there is one. The following is the ‘Song
of the Wren:’
“Joy, health, love, and peace,
Be to you in this place.
By your leave we will sing,
Concerning our king:
Our king is well drest;
In silks of the best;
With his ribbons so rare,
No king can compare.
In his coach he does ride,
With a great deal of pride;
And with four footmen
To wait upon him.
We were four at watch,
And all nigh of a match;
And with powder and ball
We fired at his hall.
We have travell’d many miles,
Over hedges and stiles,
To find you this king,
Which we now to you bring.
Now Christmas is past,
Twelfth Day is the last.
Th’ Old Year bids adieu;
Great joy to the New.”
It would appear from the ninth line of the song that the wren at one
time used to occupy a coach, or that her house was placed upon
wheels.--_N. & Q. 3rd S._ vol. v. p. 109.
JAN. 7.] ST. DISTAFF’S DAY.--ROCK DAY.
The day after Twelfth Day was called Rock Day[8] and St. Distaff’s Day,
because on that day women resumed their spinning, which had been
interrupted by the sports of Christmas; for our ancestors, it seems,
returned to their work in a very leisurely manner. From Herrick’s
_Hesperides_ (p. 374) we learn that the men, in boisterous merriment,
burned the women’s flax, and that they in retaliation dashed pails of
water upon the men:
“Partly work, and partly play
Ye must on St. Distaff’s Day:
From the plough soone free your teame,
Then home and fother them;
If the maides a spinning goe,
Burn the flax and fire the tow.
* * * * *