Charlton about an acre of land in Rushall Field, the rent whereof was
to be applied annually to give them a dinner wherewith to commemorate
Stephen Duck the poet, who was originally a thrasher of Charlton. The
parish of Rushall was afterwards inclosed, and by the award date, 12th
January, 1804, a piece of arable land, measuring one acre and fifteen
poles, was awarded in a different part of Rushall Field. The land is now
called Duck’s Acre, and let at a rent of £2 9_s._ 9_d._ per annum. The
land tax, amounting to 3_s._ per annum, was reduced by a subscription
raised in the parish.
The rent is paid for a dinner, which is annually given on the 1st June,
to the thrashers of this parish.--_Old English Customs and Charities_,
p. 169.
JUNE 9.] IRELAND.
CLONMANY, CO. DONEGAL.
The titular saint of this parish is Columbkill. The 9th of June is his
festival day, and formerly on this day many of the inhabitants drove
down their cattle to the beach, and swam them in that part of the sea
into which runs the water of St. Columb’s Well--_Mason’s Stat. Acc. of
Ireland_, 1814, vol. i. p. 185.
JUNE 11.] ST. BARNABAS’ DAY.
On the feast of St. Barnabas it seems to have been usual to decorate
some churches with garlands of flowers. Brand (1849, vol. i. 293) quotes
the following disbursements from the Churchwardens’, Accounts of St.
Mary-at-Hill, London, in the reigns of Edward IV. and Henry VII.:--
“For Rose garlondis and Woodrove garlondis on St Barnabe’s Daye, xj^{d.}
“Item, for two doss’ (dozen?) di bocse (box) garlands for prestes and
clerkes on St. Barnabe Daye, j^{s.} x^{d.}”
CUMBERLAND.
Hesket, an extensive parish in this county, is noted for the singular
circumstance of the Court of Inglewood Forest (in the precincts of
which it is wholly included) being held in it annually, on St. Barnabas’
Day, in the open air. The suitors assemble by the highway-side, at a
place only marked by an ancient thorn, where the annual dues to the lord
of the forest, compositions for improvements, &c., are paid; and a jury
for the whole jurisdiction chosen from among the inhabitants of twenty
mesne manors who attended on this spot.--Britton and Brayley, _Beauties
of England and Wales_, 1802, vol. iii. p. 171.
JUNE 15.] ST. VITUS’ DAY.
On St. Vitus’ Day, says Hazlitt (Brand’s _Pop. Antiq._ 1870, vol. i. p.
166), the Skinners’ Company, accompanied by girls strewing herbs in
their path, and by Bluecoat boys placed by their patronage on the
foundation of Christ’s Hospital, march in procession from Dowgate Hill,
where their hall is, to St. Antholin’s Church, in Watling Street, to
hear service.[66] The sermon, says Hampson (in his _Med. Ævi Kalend._
vol. i. p. 296), for which the chaplain (who is usually a member of the
company, educated at Christ’s Hospital or Tunbridge) receives two
guineas, has probably arisen out of a pious bequest for the purpose.
[66] In Brand’s _Pop. Antiq._, 1849, this custom is said to take place
on Corpus Christi Day.
JUNE 23.] MIDSUMMER EVE--ST. JOHN’S EVE.
On this eve people were in former times accustomed to go into the woods,
and break down branches of the trees, which they brought to their homes,
and planted over their doors, amidst great demonstrations of joy, to
make good the scripture prophecy respecting the Baptist, that many
should rejoice in his birth. This custom was at one time universal in
England.--_Book of Days_, vol. i. p. 815.
It was a popular superstition that if any unmarried woman fasted on
Midsummer Eve, and at midnight laid a clean cloth with bread, cheese,
and ale, and then sat down as if going to eat, the street door being
left open, the person whom she was afterwards to marry would come into
the room and drink to her by bowing; and after filling the glass would
leave it on the table, and, making another bow, retire.--_Grose._
The same writer also tells us that any person fasting on Midsummer Eve,
and sitting in the church porch, will at midnight see the spirits of the
persons of that parish who will die that year come and knock at the
church door, in the order and succession in which they will die.
The _fern_ was a most important object of popular superstition at this
season. It was supposed at one time to have neither flower nor seed, the
seed which lay on the back of the leaf being so small as to escape the
sight of the hasty observer. Hence, probably, proceeding on the
fantastic doctrine of signatures, our ancestors derived the notion that
those who could obtain and wear this invisible seed would be themselves
invisible, a belief of which innumerable instances may be found in our
old dramatists.--Soane’s _Book of the Months_.--See Brand’s _Pop.
Antiq._, 1849, vol. i. p. 314.
People also gathered on this night the rose, St. John’s wort, vervain,
trefoil, and rue, all of which were thought to have magical properties.
They set the orpine in clay upon pieces of slate or potsherd in their
houses, calling it a Midsummer-man. As the stalk was found next morning
to incline to the right or left, the anxious maiden knew whether her
lover would prove true to her or not. Young men sought also for pieces
of coal, but in reality certain hard, black, dead roots, often found
under the living mugwort, designing to place these under their pillows,
that they might dream of themselves.--_Book of Days_, vol. i. p. 816.
In addition to the superstitious customs already mentioned there was the
Dumb Cake:[67]
Two make it,
Two bake it,
Two break it;
and the third must put it under each of their pillows, but not a word
must be spoken all the time. This being done, the diviners are sure to
dream of the man they love. There was the divination by hemp-seed,[68]
which consisted of a person sowing hemp-seed, saying at the same time,
Hemp-seed I sow,
Hemp-seed I hoe.
And he that is my true love,
Come after me and mow.
The lover was sure then to make his appearance.--Soane’s _Book of the
Months_.
[67] See page 199.
[68] See page 100.
Towards night, materials for a fire were collected in a public place and
kindled. To this the name of bonfire was given, a term of which the most
rational explanation seems to be that it was composed of contributions
collected as _boons_ or gifts of social and charitable feeling. Around
this fire the people danced with almost frantic mirth, the men and boys
occasionally jumping through it, not to show their agility, but as a
compliance with ancient custom.[69]--_Book of Days_, vol. i. p. 86.
[69] Fuller (_Mixt Contemplations in Better Times_, 1858, p. 25) says
he has met with “two etymologies of bone-fires. Some deduce it from
fires made of bones, relating it to the burning of martyrs, first made
fashionable in England in the reign of King Henry the Fourth; but
others derive the word from _boon_, that is, good, and fires.” The
more probable explanation seems to be that of Dr. Hickes, and which
has been adopted by Lye in the _Etymologicon of Junius_, namely, that
it was derived from the Anglo-Saxon _bælfyr_, a burning pile, by the
change of a single letter only, baal in the Islandic signifying a
conflagration.
In the reign of Henry VII. these fires were patronised by the Court, and
numerous entries appear in the “Privy purse Expenses” of that monarch,
by which he either defrayed the charges, or rewarded the firemen. A few
are subjoined, as examples of the whole:
“June 23 (1493). To making of the bonefuyr on Midsomer Eve, 10^{s}.
“June 28 (1495). For making the king’s bonefuyr, 10^{s}.
“June 24 (1497). Midsomer Day, for making of the bone-fuyr, 10^{s}.
“June 30 (1498). The making of the bone-fuyr, £2.”
_Med. Ævi Kalend._, 1841, vol. i. p. 303.
In the months of June and July, says Stow, on the vigils of festival
days, and on the same festival days in the evening after the sun
setting, there were usually made bonfires in the streets, every man
bestowing wood or labour towards them; the wealthier sort also, before
their doors near to the said bonfires, would set out tables on the
vigils, furnished with sweet bread and good drink, and on the festival
days with meats and drinks plentifully, whereunto they would invite
their neighbours and passengers also to sit and be merry with them in
great familiarity, praising God for His benefit bestowed on them. On
these occasions it appears that it was customary to bind an old wheel
round about with straw and tow, to take it to the top of some hill at
night, to set fire to the combustibles, and then roll it down the
declivity.
BUCKINGHAMSHIRE.
The _Status Scholæ Etonensis_, A.D. 1560 (MS. Addit. Brit. Mus. 4843),
says:--“In hac vigilia moris erat (quamdiu stetit) pueris, ornare lectos
variis rerum variarum picturis, et carmina de vita rebusque gestis
Joannis Baptistæ et præcursoris componere: et pulchre exscripta affigere
clinopodiis lectorum, eruditis legenda.”
CHESHIRE.
The annual setting of the watch on St. John’s Eve, in the city of
Chester, was an affair of great moment. By an ordinance of the mayor,
aldermen, and common councilmen, of that corporation, dated in the year
1564, and preserved among the _Harleian_ MSS. in the British Museum, a
pageant which is expressly said to be “according to ancient custom,” is
ordained to consist of four giants, one unicorn, one dromedary, one
camel, one luce, one dragon, and six hobby-horses, with other figures.
By another MS. in the same library, it is said that Henry Hardware,
Esq., the mayor in 1599, caused the giants in the Midsummer show to be
broken, “and not to goe the devil in his feathers;” and it appears that
he caused a man in complete armour to go in their stead; but in the year
1601, John Ratclyffe, being mayor, set out the giants and Midsummer show
as of old it was wont to be kept. In the time of the Commonwealth the
show was discontinued, and the giants with the beasts were destroyed. At
the Restoration of Charles II. the citizens of Chester replaced their
pageant, and caused all things to be made new, because the old models
were broken.--See _Every Day Book_, vol. i. p. 834.
CORNWALL.
In Cornwall the festival fires, called bonfires, are kindled on the eve
of St. John the Baptist and St. Peter’s Day; and Midsummer is thence in
the Cornish tongue called “Goluan,” which signifies both light and
rejoicing. At these fires the Cornish attend with lighted torches,
tarred and pitched at the end, and make their perambulations round their
fires, and go from village to village, carrying their torches before
them; and this is certainly the remains of the Druid superstition, for
“faces præferre,” to carry lighted torches, was reckoned a kind of
Gentilism and as such particularly prohibited by the Gallick Councils:
they were in the eye of the law “accensores facularum,” and thought to
sacrifice to the devil, and to deserve capital punishment.--Borlase,
_Antiquities of Cornwall_, 1754, p. 130.
On Whiteborough (a large tumulus with a fosse round it), on St.
Stephen’s Down, near Launceston, there was formerly a great bonfire on
Midsummer Eve: a large summer pole was fixed in the centre, round which
the fuel was heaped. It had a large bush on the top of it.[70] Round
this were parties of wrestlers contending for small prizes.--Brand,
_Pop. Antiq._ 1849, vol. i. p. 318.
[70] The boundary of each tin-mine in Cornwall is marked by a long
pole with a bush at the top of it. These on St. John’s Day are crowned
with flowers.--Brand, _Pop. Antiq._, 1849, vol. i. p. 318.
CUMBERLAND.
Hutchinson (_Hist. of Cumberland_, vol. i. p. 177), speaking of the
parish of Cumwhitton, says: They hold the wake on the Eve of St. John,
with lighting fires, dancing, &c.
LANCASHIRE.
The custom of making large fires on the Eve of St. John’s Day is
annually observed by numbers of the Irish people in Liverpool.
Contributions in either fuel or money to purchase it with are collected
from house to house. The fuel consists of coal, wood, or in fact
anything that will burn: the fire-places are then built up and lighted
after dark.--_N. & Q. 3rd S._ vol. xii. p. 42.
ISLE OF MAN.
Formerly the inhabitants lighted fires to the windward side of every
field, so that the smoke might pass over the corn; they folded their
cattle and carried blazing furze or gorse around them several times;
they gathered _bawan fealoin_ or mugwort as a preventive against the
influence of witchcraft; and it was on this occasion they bore green
meadow grass up to the top of Barule in payment of rent to
Mannan-beg-mac-y-heir.--Train, _History of Isle of Man_, 1845, vol. ii.
p. 120.
MIDDLESEX.
The date of the first establishment of a regular watch or guard for the
City of London is uncertain. Stow assures us it has been instituted
“time out of mind;” and we have, as early as the 39th Henry VI., the
following entries:
“Payde to iiij men to wacche w^{t} the Mayre and to goo w^{t} him a
nyghtes, xvj^{d.}”
“Payde in expenses for goyng about w^{t} the Mayre in the town in the
wacche, iiij^{d.}”
The watch for the ensuing year was always appointed with much pomp and
ceremony on the vigil of St. John, or Midsummer’s Eve; hence the
appellation of the Midsummer Watch. On this night, as we learn from
Stow, the standing watches in every ward and street of the city and
suburbs were habited in bright harness. There was also a marching watch
consisting of as many as 2000 persons, most of them old soldiers, who
appeared in appropriate habits, armed, and many of them, especially the
musicians and standard-bearers, rode on horseback. The watch was
attended by men bearing cresset-lights,[71] which were provided partly
by the companies, and partly by the City Chamber. Every cresset-bearer
was presented with a “strawen hat and a painted badge, beside the
donation of his breakfast next morning.” The constables, one half of
whom went out on the Eve of St. John, and the other half on the Eve of
St. Peter, were dressed in “bright harnesse, some over gilt, and every
one had a jornett of scarlet thereupon, and a chain of gold, his
henchman following him, and his minstrels before him, and his cresset
light at his side. The Mayor himself came after them, well mounted, with
his sword-bearer before him, in fair armour on horseback, preceded by
the waits, or city minstrels, and the Mayor’s officers in liveries of
woosted, or sea-jackets party-coloured. The sheriff’s watches came one
after the other in like order, but not so numerous; for the Mayor had,
beside his giant, three pageants; whereas the sheriff had only two
besides their giants, each with their morris-dancer and one henchman.”
[71] _Cresset-light._--A kind of fire-basket let into an iron frame at
the end of a long pole, and so contrived that the basket remained in a
horizontal position, whichever way the pole was carried. These poles
were usually borne on men’s shoulders. Cresset-lights were also used
as beacons and served instead of lighthouses for signals along the
coast. The badge of the Admiralty was anciently a cresset.--Shakspeare
makes Glendower say, in “Henry IV.” (Act iii. s. 1):
“At my nativity,
The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes,
Of burning cressets.”
Douce, in his _Illustrations of Shakspeare_, imagines the word to have
been derived from the French word _croiset_--a cruet, or earthen pot.
Stow says that King Henry VIII., in the first year of his reign, came
privately into Westcheap to view the setting of this watch, “being
clothed in one of the coates of his guard,” and at the next muster,
which was on St. Peter’s night, “the king and queene came roially riding
to the signe of the King’s Head in Cheape, and there beheld the watche
of the citie, which watche was set out with divers goodly shewes, as had
been accustomed.” In the 31st year of this reign (1539), however, the
Midsummer Watch was discontinued; but it was revived, for one year only,
by Sir Thomas Gresham, then Lord Mayor, in the second year of Edward
the Sixth’s reign.--Stow’s _Survey of London_; Jupp, _History of the
Carpenter’s Company_, 1848, pp. 40-44.
NORTHUMBERLAND.
In the ordinary of the Company of Cooks at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1575,
quoted by Brand (_Pop. Antiq._ 1849, vol. i. p. 318), is the following
clause:--“And alsoe that the said fellowship of Cookes, shall yearelie
of theire owne cost and charge mainteigne and keep the bonefires,
according to the auntient custome of the said towne on the Sand-hill;
that is to say, one bone-fire on the even of the Feast of the Nativitie
of St. John Baptist, commonly called Midsomer Even, and the other on the
even of the Feast of St. Peter the Apostle, if it shall please the Maior
and Aldermen of the said towne for the time being to have the same
bone-fires.”
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE.
Deering, in his _Nottinghamia Vetus et Nova_ (1751, p. 123), quoting
from an old authority, gives the following curious account of the watch
once held at Nottingham. He says: “Every inhabitant of any ability sets
forth a man, as well voluntaries as those who are charged with arms,
with such munition as they have; some pikes, some muskets, calivers, or
other guns; some partisans, or halberts; and such as have armour send
their servants in their armour. The number of these are yearly about two
hundred, who at sun-setting meet on the Row, the most open part of the
town, where the Mayor’s serjeant-at-mace gives them an oath, the tenor
wherof followeth in these words: ‘You shall well and truly keep this
town till to-morrow at the sun-rising; you shall come into no house
without license or cause reasonable. Of all manner of casualties, of
fire, of crying of children, you shall due warning make to the parties,
as the case shall require. You shall due search make of all manner of
affrays, bloudsheds, outcrys, and all other things that be suspected,’
&c. Which done, they all march in orderly array through the principal
streets of the town, and then they are sorted into several companies,
and designed to several parts of the town, where they are to keep the
watch until the sun dismisses them in the morning. In this business the
fashion is for every watchman to wear a garland, made in the fashion of
a crown imperial, bedecked with flowers of various kinds, some natural,
some artificial, bought and kept for that purpose, as also ribbands,
jewels; and for the better garnishing whereof, the townsmen use the day
before to ransack the gardens of all the gentlemen within six or seven
miles round Nottingham, besides what the town itself affords them: their
greatest ambition being to outdo one another in the bravery of their
garlands.” This custom was kept up till the reign of Charles I.
OXFORDSHIRE.
About the year 750, says Plott, a battle was fought near Burford,
perhaps on the place still called Battle-Edge, west of the town, towards
Upton, between Cuthred or Cuthbert, a tributary king of the West Saxons,
and Ethelbald, king of Mercia, whose insupportable exactions the former
king not being able to endure, he came into the field against Ethelbald,
met and overthrew him there, winning his banner, whereon was depicted a
golden dragon; in memory of which victory, the custom of making a dragon
yearly, and carrying it up and down the town in great jollity on
Midsummer Eve, to which they added the picture of a giant, was in all
likelihood first instituted.--Plott, _Natural History of Oxfordshire_,
1705, p. 356.
WORCESTERSHIRE.
A very curious practice is observed on Midsummer Eve at Kidderminster,
arising from the testamentary dispositions of two individuals once
resident there. A farthing loaf is given to every person born in Church
Street, Kidderminster, who chooses to claim it. The bequest is of very
ancient standing, and the farthing loaf, at the time of its date, was
far different to what it is now-a-days. The day is called Farthing Loaf
Day, and the bakers’ shops are amply provided with these diminutives, as
it is the practice of the inhabitants throughout the town to purchase
them. Superadded to this bequest is another. About the year 1788 an old
bachelor left a sum for the purchase of a twopenny cake for every
unmarried resident in Church Street, to be given on Farthing Loaf Day,
and also the sum of two guineas to be paid to a household in the said
street, as remuneration for providing a supper of bread and cheese and
ale, to which every householder in the street should be invited. The
householders each take their turn in being host, but with a promise,
that none except the occupiers of front houses should enjoy this
dignity. The toast directed to be drunk after supper is, “Peace and good
neighbourhood.” The money required arises from a sum which is lent at
interest, annually, to any competent inhabitant of this favoured street,
upon his producing two good sureties for the repayment at the end of the
year.--Hone’s _Year Book_, 1838, p. 745; _Old English Customs and
Charities_, p. 241.
YORKSHIRE.
On Midsummer Eve, at Ripon, in former days, every housekeeper, who in
the course of the year had changed his residence into a new
neighbourhood, spread a table before his door in the street with bread,
cheese, and ale for those who chose to resort to it. The guests, after
staying awhile, if the master was liberally disposed, were invited to
supper, and the evening was concluded with mirth and good
humour.--_Every Day Book_, vol. ii. p. 866.
WALES.
Bingley, in his _Tour Round North Wales_ (1800, vol. ii. p. 237), says:
On the Eve of St. John the Baptist they fix sprigs of the plant called
St. John’s-wort over their doors, and sometimes over their windows, in
order to purify their houses, and by that means drive away all fiends
and evil spirits.
SCOTLAND.
The Eve of St. John is a great day among the mason-lodges of Scotland.
What happens with them at Melrose may be considered as a fair example of
the whole.
Immediately after the election of office-bearers for the year ensuing,
the brethren walk in procession three times round the Cross, and
afterwards dine together under the presidency of the newly-elected grand
master. About six in the evening the members again turn out, and form
into line two abreast, each bearing a lighted flambeau, and decorated
with their peculiar emblems and insignia. Headed by the heraldic banners
of the lodge, the procession follows the same route, three times round
the Cross, and then proceeds to the abbey. On these occasions the
crowded streets present a scene of the most animated description. The
joyous strains of a well-conducted band, the waving torches, and
incessant showers of fire-works make the scene a carnival. But at this
time the venerable abbey is the chief point of attraction and resort,
and as the torch-bearers thread their way through its mouldering aisles,
and round its massive pillars, the outlines of its gorgeous ruins become
singularly illuminated, and brought into bold and striking relief. The
whole extent of the abbey is, with “measured step and slow,” gone three
times round. But when near the _finale_, the whole masonic body gather
to the chancel, and forming one grand semicircle around it, where the
heart of King Robert Bruce lies deposited near the high altar, the band
strikes up the patriotic air, “Scots wha hae wi’ Wallace bled,” and the
effect thus produced is overpowering. Midst showers of rockets and the
glare of blue lights the scene closes.--Wade’s _History of Melrose
Abbey_, 1861, p. 146.
IRELAND.
The following extract is taken from the _Liverpool Mercury_, June 29th,
1867:--
The old pagan fire-worship still survives in Ireland, though nominally
in honour of St. John. On Sunday night bonfires were observed throughout
nearly every county in the province of Leinster. In Kilkenny, fires
blazed on every hillside at intervals of about a mile. There were very
many in the Queen’s county, also in Kildare and Wexford. The effect in
the rich sunset appeared to travellers very grand. The people assemble,
and dance round the fires, the children jump through the flames, and in
former times live coals were carried into the corn fields to prevent
blight: of course, people are not conscious that this Midsummer
celebration is a remnant of the worship of Baal. It is believed by many
that the round towers were intended for signal fires in connection with
this worship.--See _Gent. Mag._ 1795, vol. lxv. pt. ii. p. 124; see Sir
Henry Piers’s _Description of Westmeath_, 1682; and _The Comical
Pilgrim’s Pilgrimage into Ireland_, 1723 p. 92.