and his heirs a mansion-house in Swallowfield, and all his lands and
messuages in Swallowfield, Eversley, and Reading, on condition that they
should yearly, for ever, upon Good Friday, between the hours of six and
nine in the morning, pay 10_l._, in a new purse of leather, to the mayor
and burgesses, to the intent that they should provide that the same
should yearly be bestowed in the forenoon of the same day in the
following manner, viz., twenty nobles to one poor maiden servant who
should have served, dwelt, and continued in any one service within any
of the three parishes of Reading, in good name and fame, five years at
the least, for her preferment in marriage; and to avoid partiality in
the choice, he ordered that there should be every Good Friday three such
maidens in election, to cast and try by lot whose the fortune should be,
and that of those three one should be taken out of each parish, if it
could be, and that every fifth year one of the three should be chosen
from Southcote, if any there should have lived so long; and that there
should be special choice of such maids as had served longest in any one
place, and whose friends were of least ability to help them. That ten
shillings should be given on the same day to the preacher of St.
Laurence for a sermon; and that afterwards there should be twenty
shillings given to threescore of the poorest householders of the same
parish who should accompany the maiden to whom the lot had fallen home
to her dwelling-place, and there leave her with her purse of twenty
nobles. That the ringer should have three shillings and fourpence to
ring a peal till the same maiden reached home.--_Old English Customs and
Charities_, p. 147.
DEVONSHIRE--DORSETSHIRE.
In some parishes in these counties the clerk carries round to every
house a few white cakes as an Easter offering; these cakes, which are
about the eighth of an inch thick, and of two sizes--the larger being
seven or eight inches, the smaller about five in diameter--have a
mingled bitter and sweet taste. In return for these cakes, which are
always distributed after Divine service on Good Friday, the clerk
receives a gratuity according to the circumstances or generosity of the
householder.--_Book of Days_, vol. i. p. 426.
ESSEX.
In the centre of Waltham Church, and suspended from the ceiling, there
formerly was a large and handsome brass chandelier, which had thirty-six
candles, and used to be lighted up only on the evening of Good Friday,
when the church was thronged with persons from the surrounding parishes
for miles, who were chiefly attracted by the singing of the parish
choir, at that time deservedly in repute. The chandelier was removed in
effecting the restoration of the church.--Maynard, _History of Waltham
Abbey_, 1865, p. 40.
LANCASHIRE.
The practice of eating fig-sue is prevalent in North Lancashire on Good
Friday. It is a mixture consisting of ale, sliced figs, bread, and
nutmeg for seasoning, boiled together, and eaten hot like soup.--_N. &
Q. 3rd S._ vol. p. 221.
If an unlucky fellow is caught with his lady-love on this day in
Lancashire, he is followed home by a band of musicians playing on
pokers, tongs, pan-lids, etc., unless he can get rid of his tormentors
by giving them money to drink with.--_N. & Q. 1st S._ vol. ii. p. 516.
In some places in this county, Good Friday is termed “Cracklin Friday,”
as on that day it is customary for children to go with a small basket to
different houses, to beg small wheaten cakes, which are something like
the Jews’ Passover bread, but made shorter or richer, by having butter
or lard mixed with the flour. “Take with thee loaves and cracknels” (1
Kings, xiv. 3).--Harland and Wilkinson, _Lancashire Folk-Lore_, 1867, p.
227.
LINCOLNSHIRE.
In Glentham Church there is a tomb with a figure known as _Molly Grime_.
Formerly this figure was regularly washed every Good Friday by seven old
maids of Glentham, with water brought from Newell Well, each receiving a
shilling for her trouble, in consequence of an old bequest connected
with some property in that district. About 1832 the custom was
discontinued.--_Old English Customs and Charities_, 1842, p. 100.
ISLE OF MAN.
Good Friday is in some instances superstitiously regarded in the Isle of
Man. No iron of any kind must be put into the fire on that day, and even
the tongs are laid aside, lest any person should unfortunately forget
this custom and stir the fire with them; by way of a substitute a stick
of the rowan tree is used. To avoid also the necessity of hanging the
griddle over the fire, lest the iron of it should come in contact with a
spark of flame, a large hammock or _soddog_ is made, with three corners,
and baked on the hearth.--Train, _History of the Isle of Man_, 1845,
vol. 2, p. 117.
MIDDLESEX.
It was for a considerable period customary on Good Friday for a sermon
to be preached in the afternoon at St. Paul’s Cross,[28] London, the
subject generally being Christ’s Passion. The Lord Mayor and Aldermen
usually attended.
[28] Respecting the age of St. Paul’s Cross, Stow declares himself
ignorant. Dugdale, however, records, on the authority of Ingulphus,
that its prototype, a cross of stone, was erected on the same spot,
A.D. 870, to induce the passers-by to offer prayers for certain monks
slain by the Danes. St. Paul’s Cross consisted of some steps, on which
was formed a wooden pulpit, covered with lead, whence sermons were
preached to the people every Sunday morning. It was not, however,
specially reserved for this purpose; since from this place, at times,
the anathema of the Pope was thundered forth, or the ordinances of the
reigning king were published, heresies were recanted, and sins atoned
for by penance.
So early as 1256, we find John Mancell calling a meeting at _Powly’s
Crosse_, and showing the people that it was the king’s desire that
they should be “rulyd with justyce, and that the libertyes of the
cytie shulde be maynteyned in every poynt.” In 1299 the Dean of St.
Paul’s proclaimed from the Cross that all persons who searched for
treasure in the church of St. Martin-le-Grand, or consented to the
searching, were accursed; and it was here that Jane Shore, with a
taper in one hand, and arrayed in her ‘kyrtell onelye,’ was exposed to
open penance. After 1633, sermons were no longer preached at the
Cross, but within the cathedral; and in 1643 it was altogether taken
down.--Godwin and Britton, _Churches of London_, 1839; Pennant,
_Account of London_, 1793; Brayley, _Londiniana_, 1829.
At the church of All Hallows, Lombard Street, a sermon is preached every
Good Friday in accordance with the directions of the will of Peter
Symonds, dated 1587. Gifts, also, are distributed, consisting of a new
penny and a packet of raisins, to a certain number of the younger
scholars of Christ’s Hospital.--_City Press_, April 12th, 1873.[29]
[29] Under the same will the children of Langbourn Ward Schools who
help in the choir, and the children of the Sunday School, receive each
a bun, and various sums of new money, ranging from 1_d._ to 1_s._,
besides the poor of the parish, on whom it bestowed 1_s._ each and a
loaf. The money used to be given away over the tomb of the donor,
until the railway in Liverpool Street effaced the spot.--_City Press_,
April 12, 1873.
Just outside the church of St. Bartholomew-the-Great, Smithfield, the
rector places twenty-one sixpences on a gravestone, which the same
number of poor widows pick up. The custom is nearly as old as the
church, and originated in the will of a lady, who left a sum of money to
pay for the sermon, and to yield these sixpences to be distributed over
her grave. As however, her will is lost, and her tomb gone, the
traditionary spot of her interment is chosen for the distribution, a
strange part of the tradition being that any one being too stiff in the
joints to pick up the money is not to receive it.--_Ibid._
On Good Friday the Portuguese and South American vessels in the London
Docks observe their annual custom of flogging Judas Iscariot. The
following extract is taken from the _Times_ (April 5th, 1874):--“At
daybreak a block of wood, roughly carved to imitate the Betrayer, and
clothed in an ordinary sailor’s suit, with a red worsted cap on its
head, was hoisted by a rope round its neck into the fore-rigging; the
crews of the various vessels then went to chapel, and on their return,
about 11 a.m., the figure was lowered from the rigging, and cast into
the dock, and ducked three times. It was then hoisted on board, and
after being kicked round the deck was lashed to the capstan. The crew,
who had worked themselves into a state of frantic excitement, then with
knotted ropes lashed the effigy till every vestige of clothing had been
cut to tatters. During this process the ship’s bell kept up an incessant
clang, and the captains of the ships served out grog to the men. Those
not engaged in the flogging kept up a sort of rude chant intermixed with
denunciations of the Betrayer. The ceremony ended with the burning of
the effigy amid the jeers of the crowd.”
There is an indorsement on one of the indentures of gift to the parish
of Hampstead stating that £40 had been given by a maid, deceased, to the
intent that the churchwardens for the time being should provide and give
to every one--rich and poor, great and small, young and old
persons--inhabiting the parish, upon every Good Friday yearly for ever,
one halfpenny loaf of wheaten bread.--_Old English Customs and
Charities_, p. 16.
OXFORDSHIRE.
Formerly, at Brazen-nose College, Oxford, the scholars had almonds,
raisins, and figs for dinner on Good Friday, as appears by a receipt of
thirty shillings, paid by the butler of the College, for “eleven pounds
of almonds, thirty-five pounds of raisins, and thirteen pounds of figs,
serv’d into Brazen-nose College, March 28th, 1662.”--Pointer’s
_Oxoniensis Academia_, 1749, p. 71.
SURREY.
A custom, the origin of which is lost in the obscurity of time, prevails
in the neighbourhood of Guildford of making a pilgrimage to St. Martha’s
(or Martyr’s) Hill on Good Friday. Thither from all the country side
youths and maidens, old folks and children, betake themselves, and
gathered together on one of the most beautiful spots in Surrey, in full
sight of an old Norman Church which crowns the green summit of the
hill, beguile the time with music and dancing. Whatever the origin of
this pilgrimage to St. Martha’s, it is apparently one that commends
itself to the taste of the present generation, and is not likely to die
out with the lapse of years, but to increase in popular estimation as
long as the green hill lasts to attract the worshippers of natural
beauty, or to furnish the mere votaries of pleasure with the excuse and
the opportunity for a pleasant holiday.--_Times_, April 18th, 1870.
SUSSEX.
At Brighton, on this day, the children in the back streets bring up
ropes from the beach. One stands on the pavement on one side, and one on
the other, while one skips in the middle of the street. Sometimes a pair
(a boy and a girl) skip together, and sometimes a great fat
bathing-woman will take her place, and skip as merrily as the grandsire
danced in Goldsmith’s _Traveller_. They call the day “Long Rope Day.”
This was done as lately as 1863.--_N. & Q. 3rd S._ vol. iii. p. 444.
WORCESTERSHIRE.
The parish church at Leigh is decked on this day with “funereal yew.”
The same custom exists also at Belbroughton in the same county.--_N. &
Q. 2nd S._ vol. i. p. 267.
YORKSHIRE.
In East Yorkshire it was customary to keep a hot-cross-bun from one Good
Friday to the next, as it was reputed not to turn mouldy, and to protect
the house from fire. Presents of eggs and buns are made on this
day.--_N. & Q. 4th S._ vol. v. p. 595.
WALES.
At Tenby, as late as the end of the last century, the old people were in
the habit of walking barefooted to the church--a custom continued from
times prior to the Reformation. Returning home from church they regaled
themselves with hot-cross-buns, and having tied a certain number in a
bag, they hung them up in the kitchen, where they remained till the next
Good Friday for medicinal purposes, the belief being that persons
labouring under any disease had only to eat of a bun to be cured.
About this time many young persons would meet together to “make Christ’s
bed.” This was done by gathering a quantity of long reed-leaves from the
river, and weaving them into the shape of a man; they then laid the
figure on a wooden cross in a retired part of a field or garden, where
they left it. This custom is perhaps derived from an old popular popish
custom of burying an image of Christ on Good Friday, which is described
in Barnabe Googe’s translation of _Nao-Georgus_:
“Another image do they get, like one but newly deade,
With legges stretcht out at length, and hands upon his body spreade:
And him with pomp and sacred song they beare unto his grave.”
--Mason, _Tales and Traditions of Tenby_, 1858, p. 19.
IRELAND.
In the midland districts of Ireland, viz., the province of Connaught, on
Good Friday, it is a common practice with the lower orders of Irish
Catholics to prevent their children having any sustenance, even to those
at the breast, from twelve o’clock on the previous night to the same
hour on Friday, and the fathers and mothers will only take a small piece
of dry bread and a draught of water during the day. It is a common sight
to see along the roads between the different market towns, numbers of
women with their hair dishevelled, barefooted, and in their worst
garments: all this is in imitation of Christ’s Passion.--_Every Day
Book_, vol. ii. p. 411.
MARCH 21.] EASTER EVE.
On Easter Eve it was customary in our own country to light in the
churches what was called the Paschal Taper. In Coates’s _History of
Reading_ (1802, p. 131) is the following extract from the Churchwarden’s
accounts: “Paid for makynge of the Paschall and the Funte Taper, 5_s._
8_d._” A note on this observes, “The Pascal taper was usually very
large. In 1557 the Pascal taper for the Abbey Church of Westminster was
300 pounds weight.”--Brand, _Pop. Antiq._, 1849, vol. i. p. 158.
On the eves of Easter and Whitsunday _Font-hallowing_ was one of the
very many ceremonies in early times. The writer of a MS. volume of
Homilies in the Harleian Library, No. 2371, says, “in the begynning of
holy chirch, all the children weren kept to be chrystened on thys even,
at the font-hallowyng; but now, for enchesone that in so long abydynge
they might dye without chrystendome, therefore holi chirch ordeyneth to
chrysten in all tymes of the yeare, save eyght dayes before these evenys
the chylde shalle abyde till the font-hallowing, if it may safely for
perill of death, and ells not.”
CUMBERLAND, ETC.
In Cumberland and Westmoreland, and other parts of the north of England,
boys beg, on Easter Eve, eggs to play with, and beggars ask for them to
eat. These eggs are hardened by boiling, and tinged with the juice of
herbs, broom-flowers, &c. The eggs being thus prepared, the boys go out
and play with them in the fields; rolling them up and down like bowls
upon the ground, or throwing them up like balls into the air.--Brand,
_Pop. Antiq._ 1849, vol. i. p. 172.
DORSETSHIRE.
During the last century it was customary in this county, on Easter Eve,
for the boys to form a procession bearing rough torches, and a small
black flag, chanting the following lines:
“We fasted in the light,
For this is the night.”
This custom was no doubt a relic of the Popish ceremony formerly in
vogue at this season.--Brand, _Pop. Antiq._, 1849, vol. i. p. 160.
MIDDLESEX.
Brayley in his _Londiniana_ (1829, vol. ii. p. 207) mentions a custom of
the sheriffs, attended by the Lord Mayor, going through the streets on
Easter Eve, to collect charity for the prisoners in the city prisons.
YORKSHIRE.
In East Yorkshire young folks go to the nearest market-town to buy some
small article of dress or personal ornament, to wear for the first time
on Easter Sunday, as otherwise they believe that birds--notably rooks or
“crakes”--will spoil their clothes.--_N. & Q. 4th S._ vol. v. p. 595.
In allusion to the custom of wearing new clothes on Easter Day Poor
Robin says:
“At Easter let your clothes be new,
Or else be sure you will it rue.”
IRELAND.
The day before Easter Day is in some parts called “Holy Saturday.” On
the evening of this day, in the middle parts of Ireland, great
preparations are made for the finishing of Lent. Many a fat hen and
dainty piece of bacon is put into the pot, by the cotter’s wife, about
eight or nine o’clock, and woe be to the person who should taste it
before the cock crows. At twelve is heard the clapping of hands, and the
joyous laugh, mixed with an Irish phrase which signifies “out with the
Lent.” All is merriment for a few hours, when they retire, and rise
about four o’clock to see the sun dance in honour of the Resurrection.
This ignorant custom is not confined to the humble labourer and his
family, but is scrupulously observed by many highly respectable and
wealthy families.--Brand, _Pop. Antiq._ 1849, vol. i. p. 161.
MARCH 22.] EASTER DAY.
Easter, the anniversary of our Lord’s Resurrection from the dead, is one
of the three great festivals of the Christian year--the other two being
Christmas and Whitsuntide. From the earliest period of Christianity down
to the present day, it has always been celebrated by believers with the
greatest joy, and accounted the queen of festivals. In primitive times
it was usual for Christians to salute each other on the morning of this
day by exclaiming, ‘Christ is risen;’ to which the person saluted
replied, ‘Christ is risen indeed,’ or else, ‘And hath appeared unto
Simon’--a custom still retained in the Greek Church.
The term _Easter_ is derived, as some suppose, from _Eostre_,[30] the
name of a Saxon deity, whose feast was celebrated every year in the
spring, about the same time as the Christian festival--the name being
retained when the character of the feast was changed, or, as others
suppose, from _Oster_, which signifies rising. If the latter supposition
be correct, Easter is in name, as well as reality, the feast of the
Resurrection.--_Book of Days_, vol. i. p. 423; _see Med. Ævi Kalend._
vol. ii. p. 100.
[30] _Eostre_ is perhaps a corruption of Astarte, the name under which
the Assyrians, Babylonians, Phœnicians, and the most ancient nations
of the east worshipped the moon, in like manner as they adored the
sun, under the name of Baal.
In former times it was customary to make presents of gloves at Easter.
In Bishop Hall’s _Virgidemarium_, 1598, iv. 5, allusion is made to this
custom.
“For Easter gloves, or for a Shrovetide hen,
Which bought to give, he takes to sell again.”
It was an old custom for the barbers to come and shave the parishioners
in the churchyard on Sundays and high festivals (at Easter, etc.,)
before matins, which liberty was retained by a particular inhibition of
Richard Flemmyng, Bishop of Lincoln, A.D. 1422.--_Time’s Telescope_,
1826, p. 73.
Allusion is made by Mr. Fosbroke (_British Monachism_, 1843, p. 56) to
a custom in the thirteenth century of seizing all ecclesiastics who
walked abroad between Easter and Pentecost, because the Apostles were
seized by the Jews after Christ’s Passion, and making them purchase
their liberty by money.
The custom of eating a “_gammon at Easter_,” says Aubrey (which is still
kept up in many parts of England), was founded on this, viz., to show
their abhorrence of Judaism at that solemn commemoration of our Lord’s
Resurrection. Of late years the practice of decorating churches with
flowers on this festival has been much revived.
CORNWALL.
A very singular custom prevailed at Lostwithiel on Easter Sunday. The
freeholders of the town and manor having assembled together, either in
person or by their deputies, one among them, each in his turn, gaily
attired and gallantly mounted, with a sceptre in his hand, a crown on
his head, and a sword borne before him, and respectfully attended by all
the rest on horseback, rode through the principal street in solemn state
to the church. At the churchyard stile the curate, or other minister,
approached to meet him in reverential pomp, and then conducted him to
church to hear divine service. On leaving the church he repaired, with
the same pomp and retinue, to a house previously prepared for his
reception. Here a feast, suited to the dignity he had assumed, awaited
him and his suite, and being placed at the head of the table, he was
served, kneeling, with all the rites and ceremonies that a real prince
might expect. The ceremony ended with a dinner; the prince being
voluntarily disrobed, and descending from his momentary exaltation to
mix with common mortals. On the origin of this custom but one opinion
can be reasonably entertained, though it may be difficult to trace the
precise period of its commencement. It seems to have originated in the
actual appearance of the prince, who resided at Restormel Castle in
former ages; but on the removal of royalty this mimic grandeur stepped
forth as its shadowy representative, and continued for many generations
as a memorial to posterity of the princely magnificence with which
Lostwithiel had formerly been honoured.--Hitchins, _History of
Cornwall_, 1824, vol. i. p. 717.
CUMBERLAND.
At one time it was customary to send reciprocal presents of eggs at
Easter to the children of families respectively betwixt whom any
intimacy existed. For some weeks preceding Good Friday the price of eggs
advanced considerably, from the great demand occasioned by this custom.
The principal modes adopted to prepare the eggs for presentation were
the following:--The eggs being immersed in hot water for a few moments,
the end of a common tallow-candle was made use of to inscribe the names
of individuals, dates of particular events, &c. The warmth of the eggs
rendered this a very easy process. Thus inscribed, the egg was placed in
a pan of hot water, saturated with cochineal, or other dye-woods; the
part over which the tallow had been passed was impervious to the
operation of the dye; and, consequently, when the egg was removed from
the pan, there appeared no discoloration of the egg where the
inscription had been traced, but the egg presented a white inscription
on a coloured ground. The colour of course depended upon the taste of
the person who prepared the egg; but usually much variety of colour was
made use of.
Another method of ornamenting “pace eggs” was, however, much neater,
although more laborious than that with the tallow candle. The egg being
dyed, it was decorated, by means of a penknife, with which the dye was
scraped off, leaving the design white on a coloured ground. An egg was
frequently divided into compartments, which were filled up according to
the taste and skill of the designer. Generally, one compartment
contained the name and also the age of the party for whom the egg was
intended. In another there was perhaps a landscape, and sometimes a
cupid was found lurking in a third; so that these “pace eggs” became
very useful auxiliaries to the missives of St. Valentine.--_Every Day
Book_, vol. i. p. 426.
The words pays, _pas_, _pace_, _pase_, _pasce_, _pask_, _pasch_,
_passhe_, formerly used in this county, and still used in the north,
are clearly derived from the Hebrew through the Greek πασχα. The Danish
_Paaske-egg_, and the Swedish _Paskegg_, both likewise signify coloured
eggs. Brand considers this custom a relic of ancient Catholicism, the
egg being emblematic of the Resurrection; but it is not improbable that
it is in its origin like many other ancient popular customs, totally
unconnected with any form of Christianity, and that it had its
commencement in the time of heathenism.