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.