Let the maides bewash the men;
Give St. Distaff all the night,
Then bid Christmas sport good night;
Then next morning, every one
To his own vocation.”
_Med. Ævi Kalend._ vol. i. p. 138.
[8] See ‘Things not generally known,’ by John Timbs, 1859, pp. 1-6.
PLOUGH MONDAY.
This was the name of a rustic festival, held the first Monday after
Twelfth Day, formerly of great account in England, bearing in its first
aspect, like St. Distaff’s Day, reference to the resumption of labour
after the Christmas holidays. In Catholic times, the ploughmen kept
lights burning before certain images in churches to obtain a blessing on
their work; and they were accustomed on this day to go about in
procession, gathering money for the support of these _plough lights_, as
they were called. The Reformation put out the lights, but it could not
extinguish the festival. The peasantry contrived to go about in
procession, collecting money, though only to be spent in conviviality in
the public-house. It was at no remote date a very gay and rather
pleasant-looking affair. A plough was dressed up with ribbons and other
decorations--the _Fool plough_. Thirty or forty stalwart swains, with
their shirts over their jackets, and their shoulders and hats flaming
with ribbons, dragged it along from house to house, preceded by one in
the dress of an old woman, but much bedizened, bearing the name of
_Bessy_. There was also a fool, in fantastic attire. In some parts of
the country morris-dancers attended the procession; occasionally, too,
some reproduction of the ancient Scandinavian sword-dance added to the
means of persuading money out of the pockets of the lieges.--_Book of
Days_, vol. i. p. 94.
In Tusser’s _Five Hundred Points of Husbandry_, under the account of the
Ploughman’s Feast Days, are the following lines:
“Plough Munday, next after that twelf-tide is past,
Bids out with the plough: the worst husband is last.
If plowman get hatchet or whip to the skrene,
Maids loseth their cocke, if no water be seen.”
Which are thus explained in _Tusser Redivivus_ (1744, p. 79): “After
Christmas (which formerly, during the twelve days, was a time of very
little work), every gentleman feasted the farmers, and every farmer
their servants and task-men. _Plough Monday_ puts them in mind of their
business. In the morning, the men and the maid-servants strive who shall
show their diligence in rising earliest. If the ploughman can get his
whip, his ploughstaff, hatchet, or anything that he wants in the field,
by the fireside, before the maid hath got her kettle on, then the maid
loseth her shrove-tide cock, and it wholly belongs to the men. Thus did
our forefathers strive to allure youth to their duty, and provided them
with innocent mirth as well as labour. On this Plough Monday they have a
good supper and some strong drink.” See also _Every Day Book_, 1826,
vol. i. p. 71.
In the _British Apollo_ (fol. 1710, ii. 92), to an inquiry why the first
Monday after Twelfth Day is called _Plough Monday_, answer is given:
“Plough Monday is a country phrase, and only used by peasants, because
they generally used to meet together at some neighbourhood over a cup of
ale, and feast themselves, as well as wish themselves a plentiful
harvest from the great corn sown (as they call wheat and rye), as also
to wish a God-speed to the plough as soon as they begin to break the
ground, to sow barley, and other corn, which they at that time make a
holiday to themselves as a finishing stroke after Christmas, which is
their master’s holiday time, as ’prentices in many places make it the
same, appropriated by consent to revel among themselves.”
Formerly the following custom prevailed in the northern counties of
England on Plough Monday. If a ploughman came to the kitchen-hatch, and
could cry, “Cock in the pot,” before the maid could cry “Cock on the
dunghill,” he was entitled to a cock for Shrove Tuesday.--_N. & Q. 2nd
S._ vol. i. p. 386.
CAMBRIDGESHIRE.
Plough Monday is observed at Cambridge by parties going about the town
variously dressed in ribbons, etc.; some with a female among them, some
with a man in women’s clothes, some with a plough: they dance and
collect money which is afterwards spent in a feast.--_Time’s Telescope_,
1816, p. 3.
DERBYSHIRE.
On Plough Monday the “Plough bullocks” are occasionally seen; they
consist of a number of young men from various farmhouses, who are
dressed up in ribbons, their shirts (for they wear no coats or
waistcoats) literally covered with rosettes of various colours and their
hats bound with ribbons, and decorated with every kind of ornament that
comes in their way; these young men yoke themselves to a plough, which
they draw about, preceded by a band of music, from house to house,
collecting money. They are accompanied by the Fool and Bessy; the Fool
being dressed in the skin of a calf, with the tail hanging down behind,
and Bessy generally a young man in female attire. The Fool carries an
inflated bladder tied to the end of a long stick, by way of whip, which
he does not fail to apply pretty soundly to the heads and shoulders of
his team. When anything is given a cry of “Largess!” is raised, and a
dance performed round the plough. If a refusal to their application for
money is made they not unfrequently plough up the pathway, door-stone,
or any other portion of the premises they happen to be near.--_Jour. of
Arch. Assoc. 1852_, vol. vii. p. 202.
HUNTINGDONSHIRE.
Plough Monday is observed in this county. The mummers are called
“Plough-Witchers,” and their ceremony, “Plough-Witching.”--_N. & Q. 2nd
S._ vol. ix. p. 381.
LEICESTERSHIRE.
Macaulay (_History of Claybrook_, 1791, p. 128,) says: On _Plough
Monday_ I have taken notice of an annual display of morris-dancers at
Claybrook, who come from the neighbouring villages of Sapcote and
Sharnford.
LINCOLNSHIRE.
A correspondent of the _Book of Days_, vol. i. p. 94, giving the
following interesting account as to how Plough Monday was, in days gone
by, celebrated in the county, says:--Rude though it was, the Plough
procession threw a life into the dreary scenery of winter, as it came
winding along the quiet rutted lanes, on its way from one village to
another; for the ploughmen from many a surrounding hamlet and lonely
farmhouse united in the celebration of Plough Monday. It was nothing
unusual for at least a score of the “sons of the soil” to yoke
themselves with ropes to the plough, having put on clean smock frocks in
honour of the day. There was no limit to the number who joined in the
morris-dance, and were partners with “Bessy,” who carried the money-box;
and all these had ribbons in their hats, and pinned about them wherever
there was room to display a bunch. Many a hardworking country Molly lent
a helping hand in decorating out her Johnny for Plough Monday, and
finished him with an admiring exclamation of “Lawks, John! thou does
look smart, surely.” Some also wore small bunches of corn in their hats,
from which the wheat was soon shaken out by the ungainly jumping which
they called dancing. Occasionally, if the winter was severe, the
procession was joined by threshers carrying their flails, reapers
bearing their sickles, and carters with their long whips, which they
were cracking to add to the noise, while even the smith and the miller
were among the number, for the one sharpened the ploughshares and the
other ground the corn; and Bessy rattled his box, and danced so high
that he showed his worsted stockings and corduroy breeches; and very
often, if there was a thaw, tucked up his gown skirts under his
waistcoat, and shook the bonnet off his head, and disarranged the long
ringlets that ought to have concealed his whiskers. For Bessy is to the
procession of Plough Monday what the leading _figurante_ is to an opera
or ballet, and dances about as gracefully as the hippopotami described
by Dr. Livingstone. But their rough antics were the cause of much
laughter, and rarely do we ever remember hearing any coarse jest that
would call up the angry blush to a modest cheek.
No doubt they were called “plough-bullocks,” through drawing the plough,
as bullocks were formerly used, and are still yoked to the plough in
some parts of the country. The rubbishing verses they recited are not
worth preserving, beyond the line, which graces many a public-house
sign, “God speed the plough.” At the large farmhouse, besides money they
obtained refreshment, and through the quantity of ale they thus drank
during the day managed to get what they called “their load by night.”
Even the poorest cottagers dropped a few pence into Bessy’s box.
But the great event of the day was when they came before some house
which bore signs that the owner was well-to-do in the world, and nothing
was given to them. Bessy rattled his box, and the ploughmen danced,
while the country lads blew the bullocks’ horns, or shouted with all
their might; but if there was still no sign, no coming forth of either
bread-and-cheese or ale, then the word was given, the ploughshare driven
into the ground before the door or window, the whole twenty men yoked
pulling like one, and in a minute or two the ground before the house was
as brown, barren, and ridgy as a newly-ploughed field. But this was
rarely done, for everybody gave something, and were it but little the
men never murmured, though they might talk about the stinginess of the
giver afterwards amongst themselves, more especially if the party was
what they called “well off in the world.” We are not aware that the
ploughmen were ever summoned to answer for such a breach of the law, for
they believe, to use their own expressive language, “they can stand by
it, and no law in the world can touch ’em, ’cause it’s an old charter;”
and we are sure it would spoil their “folly to be wise.”
One of the mummers generally wears a fox’s skin in the form of a hood;
but beyond the laughter the tail that hangs down his back awakens by its
motion as he dances, we are at a loss to find a meaning. Bessy formerly
wore a bullock’s tail behind, under his gown, and which he held in his
hand while dancing, but that appendage has not been worn of late.
NORFOLK.
Hone’s _Year Book_, p. 29, gives a quotation from a _Briefe Relation_,
&c., 1646, wherein the writer says, that the Monday after Twelfth Day is
called “Plowlick Monday” by the husbandmen in Norfolk, “because on that
day they doe first begin to plough.”
NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.
In the northern and eastern parts of the county Plough Monday is more
noticed than in the neighbourhood of Northampton. The pageant varies in
different places; sometimes five persons precede the plough, which is
drawn by a number of boys with their faces blackened and reddled.
Formerly, when the pageant was of a more important character than now,
the plough was drawn by oxen decorated with ribbons. The one who walks
first in the procession is styled the Master, and is grotesquely
attired, having on a large wig; two are gaily bedizened in women’s
clothes; and two others have large hunches on their backs, on which is
sewed the knave of hearts. These two are called Red Jacks, or fools.
Each of the five carries a besom, and one of them a box, which he
rattles assiduously among the spectators to obtain their donations,
which are spent at night in conviviality and jollification. In some
instances they plough up the soil in front of the houses of such
persons as refuse their contributions. Before the inclosure of open
fields, there was another custom in connection with the day. When the
ploughman returned from his labours in the evening, the servant-maid
used to meet him with a jug of toast and ale; and if he could succeed in
throwing his plough-hatchet into the house before she reached the door,
he was entitled to a cock to throw at Shrovetide; but if she was able to
present him with the toast and ale first, then she gained the cock. (See
page 38.)--Baker’s _Northamptonshire Words and Phrases_, 1854, ii. 1257.
YORKSHIRE.
On the Monday after Twelfth Day, says Clarkson (_Hist. of Richmond_,
1821, p. 293), a number of young men from the country, yoked to a
plough, drag it about the streets, begging money, in allusion to the
labours of the plough having ceased in that severe weather. In like
manner the watermen in London, when the Thames is covered with ice in
hard frosts, haul a boat about the streets, to show that they are
deprived of the means of earning their livelihood.
JAN. 10.] OXFORDSHIRE.
Pointer, in his _Oxoniensis Academia_ (1749, p. 96), alludes to a
practice observed at St. John’s and Corpus Christi Colleges, Oxford, of
having a speech spoken on this day, _in laudem Laudi Archiepiscopi_.
JAN. 12.] SCOTLAND.
This day is observed by the people of Halkirk, as New Year’s Day, a time
when servants are too apt to spend their hard-earned penny in drink and
other equally useless purposes.--_Stat. Acc. of Scotland_, 1845, vol.
xv. p. 75.
JAN. 13.] ST. HILARY’S DAY.
St. Hilary is memorable in the annals of Richmond, in the county of
York, as on the anniversary of his festival the mayor is chosen for the
ensuing year, which causes it to be observed as a jubilee-day among the
friends, and those concerned in corporation matters.
St. Hilary likewise gives name to one of the four seasons of the year
when the courts of justice are opened.--Clarkson’s _Hist. of Richmond_,
1821, p. 293.
JAN. 14.] MALLARD NIGHT.
OXFORDSHIRE.
This day was formerly celebrated in All Souls College, Oxford, in
commemoration of the discovery of a very large mallard or drake in a
drain, when digging for the foundation of the college; and though this
observance no longer exists, yet on one of the college “gaudies” there
is sung in memory of the occurrence a very old song called “The
swapping, swapping mallard.”
“THE MERRY OLD SONG OF THE ALL SOULS MALLARD.
“Griffin, bustard, turkey, capon,
Let other hungry mortals gape on;
And on the bones their stomach fall hard,
But let All Souls’ men have their Mallard.
Oh! by the blood of King Edward,[9]
Oh! by the blood of King Edward,
It was a swapping, swapping Mallard.
The Romans once admired a gander
More than they did their chief commander;
Because he saved, if some don’t fool us,
The place that’s called th’ ‘_head of Tolus_.’
Oh! by the blood of King Edward, &c.
The poets feign Jove turned a swan,
But let them prove it if they can;
As for our proof, ’tis not at all hard,
For it was a swapping, swapping Mallard.
Oh! by the blood of King Edward, &c.
Therefore let us sing and dance a galliard,
To the remembrance of the Mallard;
And as the Mallard dives in pool,
Let us dabble, dive, and duck in bowl.
Oh! by the blood of King Edward,
Oh! by the blood of King Edward,
It was a swapping, swapping Mallard.”
[9] The allusion to King Edward is surely an anachronism, as King
Henry VI. was reigning at the time of the foundation of the
college.--_Book of Days_, vol. i. p. 114.
When Pointer wrote his _Oxoniensis Academia_ (1749), he committed a
grave offence by insinuating that this immortalised mallard was no other
than a _goose_. The insinuation produced a reply from Dr. Buckler,
replete with irresistible irony; but Pointer met a partisan in Mr.
Bilson, chaplain of All Souls, who issued a folio sheet entitled
‘Proposals for printing by subscription the History of the Mallardians,’
with the figure of a cat prefixed, said to have been found starved in
the college library.--_Hist. of Co. of Oxford_, 1852, p. 144.
JAN. 17.] SEPTUAGESIMA.
Septuagesima occurs between this day and February the 22nd, according as
the Paschal full moon falls. It was formerly distinguished by a strange
ceremony, denominated the _Funeral of Alleluia_. On the Saturday of
Septuagesima, at nones, the choristers assembled in the great vestiary
of the cathedral, and there arranged the ceremony. Having finished the
last _benedicamus_, they advanced with crosses, torches, holy waters,
and incense, carrying a turf in the manner of a coffin, passed through
the choir, and went howling to the cloister as far as the place of
interment; and then having sprinkled the water and censed the place,
returned by the same road.--Fosbroke’s _British Monachism_, 1843, p. 56.
JAN. 20.] ST. AGNES’ EVE.
This night was formerly much venerated by young maidens who wished to
know when and whom they should marry. It was required that on this day
they should not eat, which was called “fasting St. Agnes’ fast.” Keats
has made this custom the subject of one of his poems. The following are
a few stanzas from it:
“St. Agnes’s Eve! Ah, bitter chill it was!
The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold;
The hare limp’d trembling through the frozen grass,
And silent was the flock in woolly fold.
* * * * *
They told me how, upon St. Agnes’s Eve
Young virgins might have visions of delight;
And soft adorings from their loves receive,
Upon the honey’d middle of the night,
If ceremonies due they did aright;
As supperless to bed they must retire,
And couch supine their beauties, lilywhite;
Nor look behind, nor sideways, but require
Of Heaven, with upward eyes, for all that they desire.
* * * * *
Her vespers done,
Of all its wretched pearls her hair she frees;
Unclasp’d her warmed jewels one by one;
Loosens her fragrant bodice; by degrees
Her rich attire creeps rustling to her knees:
Half hidden, like a mermaid in sea-weed,
Pensive awhile she dreams awake, and sees,
In fancy, fair St. Agnes in her bed,
But dares not look behind, or all the charm is fled.”
SCOTLAND.
Formerly on the eve of St. Agnes’ Day the following custom was, and
perchance still is observed in the northern parts of Scotland by the
mountain peasantry. A number of young lads and lasses meeting together
on the eve of St. Agnes, at the hour of twelve, went one by one to a
certain cornfield, and threw in some grain, after which they pronounced
the following rhyme:
“Agnes sweet and Agnes fair,
Hither, hither, now repair;
Bonny Agnes, let me see
The lad who is to marry me.”
The prayer was granted by their favourite saint, and the shadow of the
destined bride or bridegroom was seen in a mirror on this very
night.--_Time’s Telescope_, 1832, p. 15.
JAN. 21.] ST. AGNES’ DAY.
Since the Reformation, St. Agnes has by degrees lost her consequence in
this country as superstition has subsided; though our rural virgins in
the north are yet said to practise some singular rites, in keeping “what
they call St. Agnes’ Fast, for the purpose of discovering their future
husbands.”--_Clavis Calendaria_, Brady, 1815, vol. i. p. 170. See Mother
Bunch’s _Closet Newly Broke Open_, 1825 (?). _Anatomy of Melancholy_,
Burton, 1660, p. 538.
JAN. 24.] ST. PAUL’S EVE.
CORNWALL.
The first red-letter day in the Tinner’s Calendar is St. Paul’s
Pitcher-day, or the Eve of Paul’s Tide. It is marked by a very curious
and inexplicable custom, not only among tin-streamers, but also in the
mixed mining and agricultural town and neighbourhood of Bodmin, and
among the seafaring population of Padstow. The tinner’s mode of
observing it is as follows:--On the day before the Feast of St. Paul, a
water-pitcher is set up at a convenient distance, and pelted with
stones until entirely demolished. The men then leave their work, and
adjourn to a neighbouring ale-house, where a new pitcher bought to
replace the old one is successively filled and emptied, and the evening
is given up to merriment and misrule.
On inquiry whether some dim notion of the origin and meaning of this
custom remained among those who still keep it up, it was found to be
generally held as an ancient festival intended to celebrate the day when
tin was first turned into metal--in fact, the discovery of smelting. It
is the occasion of a revel, in which, as an old streamer observes, there
is an open rebellion against the water-drinking system which is enforced
upon them whilst at work.
The custom of observing _Paul’s Pitcher Night_ is probably
half-forgotten even in Cornwall at the present time, where many of the
ancient provincial usages have been suffered to die out. It was,
however, in full vigour so recently as 1859. The boys of Bodmin parade
the town with broken pitchers, and other earthenware vessels, and into
every house, where the door can be opened, or has been inadvertently
left so, they hurl a “Paul’s pitcher,” exclaiming,
“Paul’s Eve,
And here’s a heave.”
According to custom, the first “heave” cannot be objected to; but upon
its repetition the offender, if caught, may be punished.--Brand’s _Pop.
Antiq._ 1870, vol. i. p. 23; _N. & Q. 1st S._ vol. iii. p. 239; _2nd S._
vol. viii. p. 312.
JAN. 25.] ST. PAUL’S DAY.
Strype, in his _Ecclesiastical Memorials_ (1822, vol. iii. part i. p.
331), says: On the 25th of January (1554), being St. Paul’s Day, was a
general procession of St. Paul by every parish, both priests and clerks,
in copes, to the number of an hundred and sixty, singing _Salve festa
dies_, with ninety crosses borne. The procession was through Cheap unto
Leadenhall. And before went two schools; that is, first, all the
children of the Gray Friars, and then those of St. Paul’s school. There
were eight bishops, and the Bishop of London, mitred, bearing the
Sacrament, with many torches burning, and a canopy borne over. And so
about the churchyard, and in at the West door, with the Lord Mayor and
Aldermen, and all the Companies in their best liveries. And within a
while after, the King came, and the Lord Cardinal, and the Prince of
Piemont, and divers lords and knights. At the foot of the steps to the
choir, as the King went up, kneeled the gentlemen lately pardoned,
offering him their service. After mass, they returned to the court to
dinner. And at night bonfires, and great ringing of bells in every
church. And all this joy was for the conversion of the realm.
It was on this day that the husbandmen of old used to make prognostics
of the weather, and of other matters for the whole year, a custom which
Bourne (_Antiquitates Vulgares_, chap. xviii. p. 159) has tried to
unravel.--_New Curiosities of Literature_, Soane, 1847, p. 42.
_St. Paul’s Cathedral._--One of the strangest of the old ceremonies in
which the clergy of St. Paul’s Cathedral used to figure was that which
was performed twice a year, namely, on the day of the Conversion, and on
that of the Commemoration of St. Paul. On the former of these festivals
a fat buck, and on the latter a fat doe, was presented to the church by
the family of Baud, in consideration of some lands which they held of
the Dean and Chapter at West Lee in Essex. The original agreement made
with Sir William Le Baud, in 1274, was that he himself should attend in
person with the animals; but some years afterwards it was arranged that
the presentation should be made by a servant, accompanied by a
deputation of part of the family. The priests, however, continued to
perform their part in the show. On the aforesaid days, the buck and doe
were brought by one or more servants at the hour of the procession, and
through the midst thereof, and offered at the high altar of St. Paul’s
Cathedral; after which the persons that brought the buck received of the
Dean and Chapter, by the hands of their chamberlain, twelvepence for
their entertainment; but nothing when they brought the doe. The buck
being brought to the steps of the altar, the Dean and Chapter,
apparelled in copes and proper vestments, with garlands of roses on
their heads, sent the body of the buck to be baked, and had the head and
horns fixed on a pole before the cross in their procession round about
the church, till they issued at the West door, where the keeper that
brought it blowed the death of the buck, and then the horns that were
about the city answered him in like manner; for which they had each of
the Dean and Chapter three and fourpence in money, and their dinner; and
the keeper, during his stay, meat, drink, and lodging, and five
shillings in money at his going away; together with a loaf of bread,
having on it the picture of St. Paul. This custom was continued till the
reign of Elizabeth.--_Beauties of England_, Brayley and Britton, 1803,
vol. v. p. 486.
JAN. 31.] EXECUTION OF CHARLES I.