mentions a custom observed on the eve of St. John’s Day, and some other
festivals, of dressing up a broomstick as a figure, and carrying it
about in the twilight from one cabin to the other, and suddenly pushing
it in at the door. The alarm or surprise occasioned by this feat
produced some mirth. The figure thus dressed up was called a _Bredogue_.
At Stoole, near Downpatrick, there is a ceremony commencing at twelve
o’clock at night on Midsummer Eve. Its sacred mount is consecrated to
St. Patrick; the plain contains three wells, to which the most
extraordinary virtues are attributed. Here and there are heaps of
stones, around some of which appear great numbers of people, running
with as much speed as possible; around others crowds of worshippers
kneel with bare legs and feet as an indispensable part of the penance.
The men, without coats, with handkerchiefs on their heads instead of
hats, having gone seven times round each heap, kiss the ground, cross
themselves, and proceed to the hill; here they ascend, on their bare
knees, by a path so steep and rugged that it would be difficult to walk
up. Many hold their hands clasped at the back of their necks, and
several carry large stones on their heads. Having repeated this ceremony
seven times, they go to what is called St. Patrick’s Chair, which are
two great flat stones fixed upright in the hill; here they cross and
bless themselves as they step in between these stones, and, while
repeating prayers, an old man, seated for the purpose, turns them round
on their feet three times, for which he is paid; the devotee then goes
to conclude his penance at a pile of stones, named the Altar. While this
busy scene is continued by the multitude, the wells and streams issuing
from them are thronged by crowds of halt, maimed, and blind, pressing to
wash away their infirmities with water consecrated by their patron
saint, and so powerful is the impression of its efficacy on their minds,
that many of those who go to be healed, and who are not totally blind,
or altogether crippled, really believe for a time that they are by means
of its miraculous virtues perfectly restored.--_Hibernian Magazine_,
July 1817.
JUNE 24.] MIDSUMMER DAY--ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST’S DAY.
The general customs connected with this season commenced on the
preceding evening.--_See_ Midsummer Eve.
BUCKINGHAMSHIRE.
The _Status Scholæ Etonensis_, A.D. 1560 (MS. Addit. Brit. Mus. 4813),
says: “_Mense Junii_, in Festo Natalis D. Johannis post matutinas
preces, dum consuetudo floruit accedebant omnes scholastici ad rogum
extructum in orientali regione templi, ubi reverenter a symphoniacis
cantatis tribus Antiphonis, et pueris in ordine stantibus venitur ad
merendam.”
CAMBRIDGESHIRE.
On a common called Midsummer Green, in the parish of Barnwell, an annual
fair is held, commencing on Midsummer Day, and continuing for a
fortnight. This fair is supposed to have originated with the assemblages
of children at this place on the eve of St. John the Baptist’s Day,
whose yearly gatherings being attended by a considerable concourse of
people, attracted the notice of some pedlars, who began to dispose of
their merchandise on this spot as early as the reign of Henry I. The
articles brought for sale are chiefly earthen-wares, whence the festival
has attained the name of _Pot fair_. The fair is proclaimed on the eve
of Midsummer Day by the heads of the University, first in the middle of
the village, and afterwards on the green where it is celebrated. It
appears to have assumed its legal form in the reign of Henry
III.--Brayley and Britton, _Beauties of England and Wales_, 1809, vol.
ii. p. 110.
CHESHIRE.
In former times there was a privilege of licensing the minstrels,
peculiar to the ancient family of Dutton. The original grant came from
Earl Randal Blundeville to Roger Lacy, constable of Chester; and his
son, John Lacy, assigned the privilege to the family of Dutton. The
anniversary of this solemnity was constantly celebrated on the festival
of St. John the Baptist by a regular procession of all the minstrels to
the church of this tutelary saint in the city of Chester. But after
having been constantly observed for at least 550 years, it seems to have
been discontinued in 1758; and, as an instance how sacred these
exclusive privileges were esteemed by legislative wisdom, the Act of the
29th of Elizabeth, which declares all _itinerant minstrels_ to be
vagabonds, particularly excepts the minstrel-jurisdiction of John
Dutton, of Dutton in Cheshire, Esq.--Gower, _Materials for a History of
Cheshire_, 1771, p. 67.
CORNWALL.
Hitchins, in his _History of Cornwall_ (1824, vol. i. p. 717), says:
Midsummer Day is considered as a high holiday, on which either a pole is
erected, decorated with garlands, or some flags displayed, to denote the
sanctity of the time. This custom has prevailed from time immemorial, of
which it is scarcely possible to trace the origin.
DEVONSHIRE.
Lynton revel begins on the first Sunday after Midsummer Day. It formerly
lasted a week. As in the days before the Reformation, revels until
lately began on a Sunday in Lynton and Lynmouth, a barrel of beer having
been placed near the church gate in readiness for the people coming out
of church, who partook of a glass and a cake, called revel cake, made
with dark flour, currants, and carraway seeds. Wrestling formed a chief
feature in the amusements, and large sums were raised by subscription to
purchase prizes. However odd it may appear, it is not more than twenty
years since the silver spoons, bought as prizes to be wrestled for, were
exhibited hung in front of the gallery in Countisbury Church during
divine service on Revel Sunday. Of late years, however, owing to the
prevalence of drunkenness, especially on the Sunday afternoon, the
respectable inhabitants have set their faces against these revels, which
have now dwindled into insignificance. The collusion which sprang up
among the wrestlers to share the prizes, without their being won by a
real trial of skill and strength, hastened also greatly to abate the
enthusiasm of the subscribers, so that of late the prizes have not been
beyond a few shillings collected from the people on the ground. This of
itself has given a death-blow to the revel.--Cooper, _Guide to Lynton
and Lynmouth_, 1853, p. 38.
ISLE OF MAN.
On this day a tent is erected on the summit of the Tynwald Hill (called
also Cronk-y-Keeillown, i.e., St. John’s Church Hill, a mound said to
have been originally brought from each of the seventeen parishes of the
island), and preparations are made for the reception of the officers of
state, according to ancient custom. Early in the morning the Governor
proceeds from Castletown under a military escort to St. John’s Chapel,
situated a few hundred yards to the eastward of the Tynwald Hill. Here
he is received by the Bishop, the Council, the clergy, and the keys, and
all attend Divine service in the chapel, the Government chaplain
officiating. This ended, they march in a procession from the chapel to
the mount, the military formed in line on each side of the green turf
walk. The clergy take the lead, next comes the Vicar-General, and the
two Deemsters, then the bearer of the sword of state in front of the
Governor, who is succeeded by the Clerk of the Rolls, the twenty-four
keys, and the captains of the different parishes.
The ceremony of the Tynwald Hill is thus stated in the _Lex Scripta_ of
the Isle of Man, as given for law to Sir John Stanley, in 1417:
“This is the constitution of old time, how yee should be governed on the
Tinwald day. First you shall come thither in your royal array, as a king
ought to do by the prerogatives and royalties of the land of Mann, and
upon the hill of Tinwald sitt in a chair covered with a royal cloath and
quishions, and your visage in the east, and your sword before you,
holden with the point upward. Your Barrons in the third degree sitting
beside you, and your beneficed men and your Deemsters before you
sitting, and your clarke, your knight, esquires, and yeomen about you in
the third degree, and the worthiest men in your land to be called in
before your Deemsters, if you will ask anything of them, and to hear the
government of your land and your will; and the Commons to stand without
the circle of the hill, with three clearkes in their surplices, and your
Deemsters shall call the coroner of Glanfaba, and he shall call in all
the coroners of Man, and their yardes in their hands, with their weapons
upon them, either sword or axe; and the moares, that is to witt of every
sheading; then the chief coroner, that is, the coroner of Glanfaba,
shall make affence upon pain of life or lyme, that no man make a
disturbance or stirr in the time Tinwald, or any murmur, or rising in
the King’s presence, upon pain of hanging and drawing; and then to
proceed in your matters whatsoever you have to doe, in felonie or
treason, or other matters that touch the government of your land of
Manne.”--Cumming’s _History of the Isle of Man_, 1848, pp. 185, 186.
MIDDLESEX.
“There is this solemn and charitable custom in y^{e} Ch. of St.
Mary-Hill, London. On the next Sunday after Midsummer Day, every year,
the fellowship of the Porters of y^{e} City of London, time out of mind,
come to this church in y^{e} morning, and whilst the Psalms are reading,
they group two and two towards the rails of y^{e} Communion table, where
are set two basons; and there they make their offering, and so return to
the body of y^{e} Church again. After then the inhabitants of y^{e}
parish and their wives, and others also then at church, make their
offering likewise; and the money so offered is given to the poor
decrepit Porters of the said fellowship for their better
subsistence.”--Newcomb’s _MS. Collect._, cited by Bishop Kennett.
NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.
It was the custom to strew the church of Middleton Chenduit, in summer,
with hay gathered from six or seven swaths in Ash Meadow, which were
given for this purpose. In the winter the rector found straw.--Bridges’s
_History of Northamptonshire_, 1791, vol. i. p. 187.
NORTHUMBERLAND.
It is customary on this day to dress out stools with a cushion of
flowers. A layer of clay is placed on the stool, and therein is stuck,
with great regularity, an arrangement of all kinds of flowers, so close
as to form a beautiful cushion. These are exhibited at the doors of
houses in the villages, and at the ends of streets and cross lanes of
larger towns, where the attendants beg money from passengers to enable
them to have an evening _fête_ and dancing.
This custom is evidently derived from the “Ludi Compitalii” of the
Romans; this appellation was taken from the _compita_, or cross lanes,
where they were instituted and celebrated by the multitude
assembled before the building of Rome. It was the feast of the
_lares_, or household gods, who presided as well over houses as
streets.--Hutchinson’s _History of Northumberland_.
OXFORDSHIRE.
The following notice of a curious custom, formerly observed at Magdalen
College, Oxford, is taken from the _Life of Bishop Horne_, by the Rev.
William Jones (Works, vol. xii. p. 131):--“A letter of July the 25th,
1755, informed me that Mr. Horne, according to an established custom at
Magdalen College, in Oxford, had begun to preach before the University,
on the day of St. John the Baptist. For the preaching of this annual
sermon, a permanent pulpit of stone is inserted into a corner of the
first quadrangle; and so long as the stone pulpit was in use (of which I
have been a witness), the quadrangle was furnished round the sides with
a large fence of green boughs, that the preaching might more nearly
resemble that of John the Baptist in the wilderness; and a pleasant
sight it was: but for many years the custom has been discontinued, and
the assembly have thought it safer to take shelter under the roof of the
chapel.”
At the mowing of _Revel-mede_, a meadow between Bicester and Wendlebury,
most of the different kinds of rural sports were usually practised; and
in such repute was the holiday, that booths and stalls were erected as
if it had been a fair. The origin of the custom is unknown; but as the
amusements took place at the time when the meadow became subject to
commonage, some have supposed it originated in the rejoicings of the
villagers on that account. These sports entirely ceased on the enclosure
of Chesterton field.--Dunkin, _History of Bicester_, 1816, p. 269.
SOMERSETSHIRE.
Collinson, in his _History of the County of Somerset_ (1791, vol. iii.
p. 586), gives an account of a custom that was celebrated on the
Saturday before old Midsummer Day in the parishes of Congresbury and
Puxton, at two large pieces of common land, called East and West
Dolemoors. These, he says, were divided into single acres, each bearing
a peculiar and different mark cut on the turf, such as a horn, four oxen
and a mare, two oxen and a mare, pole-axe, cross, dung-fork, oven,
duck’s nest, hand reel, and hare’s tail. On the Saturday before old
Midsummer Day, several proprietors of estates in the parishes of
Congresbury, Puxton, and Week St. Lawrence, or their tenants, assembled
on the commons. A number of apples were previously prepared, marked in
the same manner with the before-mentioned acres, which were distributed
by a young lad to each of the commoners from a bag or hat. At the close
of the distribution, each person repaired to his allotment as his apple
directed him, and took possession for the ensuing year. An adjournment
then took place to the house of the overseer of Dolemoors (an officer
annually elected from the tenants), where four acres, reserved for the
purpose of paying expenses, were let by inch of candle, and the
remainder of the day was spent in sociability and hearty mirth.
WILTSHIRE.
At Chiltern there is a sport widely practised by the boys, which they
call “egg-hopping.” At the commencement of summer the lads forage the
woods in quest of birds’ eggs. These, when found, they place on the road
at distances apart in proportion to the rarity or abundance of the
species of egg. The hopper is then blindfolded, and he endeavours to
break as many as he can in a certain number of jumps. The universality
of the game, and the existence of various superstitions, combined with
their refusal to part with the eggs for money, would warrant a
supposition that some superstition is connected with it.--_N. & Q. 3rd.
S._ vol. iv. p. 492.
YORKSHIRE.
Old Midsummer Day, says Cole (_History of Scalby_, 1829, p. 44), is, at
Scalby, a kind of gala time, when the sports, as they are termed, take
place, consisting of the most rustic description of amusements, such as
donkey-racing, &c., and when booths are erected for the accommodation of
the several visitors, and the village presents a motley fair-like
appearance.
IRELAND.
CO. CORK.
A pilgrimage to the source of the River Lee is one frequently performed
by two very different classes of persons--the superstitious and the
curious; the first led by a traditional sanctity attached to the place,
the latter by the reputed sublimity of its scenery, and a desire of
witnessing the religious assemblies and ceremonies of the peasantry. The
scenery of Gougaun lake is bold and rugged, surrounded by rocky and
barren mountains; in its centre is a small and solitary island,
connected with the shore by a narrow artificial causeway, constructed to
facilitate the rites of religious devotees, who annually flock thither
on the 24th June (St. John’s Day), and the celebration of a pious
festival. The principal building on the island is a rudely formed
circular wall of considerable solidity, in the thickness of which are
nine arched recesses or cells, called chapels, severally dedicated to
particular saints, with a plain flag-stone set up in each as an altar.
On the celebration of the religious meeting these cells are filled with
men and women in various acts of devotion, almost all of them on their
knees. Croker, in his _Researches in the South of Ireland_ (1824, p.
275), describing one of these pilgrimages, says: To a piece of rusty
iron considerable importance seems to have been attached; it passed from
one devotee to another with much ceremony. The form consisted in placing
it three times, with a short prayer[72] across the head of the nearest
person to whom it was then handed, and who went through the same
ceremony with the next to him, and thus it circulated from one to the
other. The banks of the lake were the scenes of merry-making. Almost
every tent had its piper, two or three young men and women dancing the
jig.
[72] “Copy of the prayer to be said at the well of St. John.--‘O
Almighty God, as I have undertaken this journey by way of pilgrimage
in and through a penitential spirit, in the first place I hope to
render myself worthy of the favour I mean to ask, to avoid drunkenness
and licentiousness, and hope to find favour in thy sight; I therefore
pay this tribute and fulfil the promise I have made; I ask you
therefore, through the intercession of St. John, to grant me the
following favour (here mention your ailment, the particular favour you
stand in need of). I know how unworthy I am of being heard, but I
resolve, with thy gracious assistance, henceforward to render myself
worthy of your favour. I implore this gift through the intercession of
St. John, and the sufferings of Christ our Lord. Amen.’
“N.B. You must be careful to avoid all excess in drinking, dancing in
tents, for it is impossible characters can find favour in the sight of
God, such as these. Fasting going there had formerly been the custom.”
CO. LIMERICK.
At one time, the tradesmen of Limerick marched, on Midsummer Day,
arranged under their respective leaders, decorated with sashes, ribbons,
and flowers, and accompanied with a band of musicians, and the shouts of
the delighted populace, through the principal streets of the city, while
their merry-men played a thousand antic tricks, and the day generally
ended in a terrible fight between the Garryowen and Thomond-gate boys
(the tradesmen of the north and south suburbs).--Fitzgerald and
Macgregor’s _History of Limerick_, 1827, p. 540.
JUNE 25.] YORKSHIRE.
In the village of Micklefield, about ten miles east of Leeds, it is the
custom on the second day of the feast, (June 25th) for about twelve of
the villagers,[73] dressed, in their best garb, and wearing a white
apron _à l’épicier_, to carry a large basket (generally a
clothes-basket) to each farm-house in the village, the occupier of which
seems to consider it his bounden duty to give them a good supply of
confectionery of some kind to take away with them, and ale _ad libitum_
to drink in his house.--_N. &. Q. 3rd S._ vol. iii. p. 263.
[73] These villagers call themselves “_Joss Weddingers_.” (?)
JUNE 29.] ST. PETER’S DAY.
On this day many of the rites peculiar to the festival of St. John the
Baptist were repeated.
BUCKINGHAMSHIRE.
It appears from the _Status Scholæ Etonensis_ (A.D. 1560) that the Eton
boys had a great bonfire annually on the east side of the church on St.
Peter’s Day, as well as on that of St. John Baptist.
KENT.
The stranger who chances to attend Divine service in Farnborough parish
church on the Sunday next after the feast of St. Peter, has his
attention arrested by the floor of the porch being strewed with reeds.
By an abstract of the will of George Dalton, Gent., of Farnborough,
dated December 3rd, 1556, set forth on a mural tablet in the interior of
the church, he learns that this gentleman settled a perpetual annuity of
13_s._ 4_d._ chargeable upon his lands at Tuppendence: 10_s._ to the
preacher of a sermon on the Sunday next after the feast of St. Peter,
and 3_s._ 4_d._ to the poor. Local traditional lore affirms that Mr.
Dalton was saved from drowning by reeds, and that the annual sermon and
odd manner of decorating the porch are commemorative of the event. This
day is called by the inhabitants of the village, Reed Day or Flag
Day.--_Maidstone Gazette_, 1859.
NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.
Cole, in his _History of Weston Favell_ (1829, p. 58), says:--The feast
follows St. Peter’s Day. The amusements and sports of the week consist
of dinner and tea parties formed from the adjacent towns, which meetings
are frequently concluded with a ball, indeed a dance at the inns on the
few first days of the feast is indispensable. Games at bowls and quoits
are pursued with great dexterity and interest by the more athletic
visitants, and in the evening the place presents a motley, fair-like
appearance; but this continues for no longer period than the second or
third day in the feast week.
NORTHUMBERLAND.
Formerly, says Brand (_Pop. Antiq._ 1849, vol. i. p. 337), on the
evening of St. Peter’s Day, the inhabitants of this county carried
firebrands about the fields of their respective parishes. They made
encroachments on these occasions upon the bonfires of the neighbouring
towns, of which they took away some of the ashes by force; this they
called “carrying off the flower (probably the flour) of the wake.”
YORKSHIRE.
In an old account of Gisborough, in Cleveland, and the adjoining coast,
printed in the _Antiquarian Repertory_ (1808, vol. iii. p. 304) from an
ancient MS. in the Cotton Library (marked Julius F. C., fol. 455),
speaking of the fishermen, it is stated that “Upon St. Peter’s Daye they
invite their friends and kinsfolk to a festyvall kept after their
fashion with a free hearte, and noe shew of niggardnesse; that daye
their boates are dressed curiously for the shewe, their mastes are
painted, and certain rytes observed amongst them, with sprinkling their
prowes with good liquor, sold with them at a groate the quarte, which
custom or superstition, suckt from their auncestors, even contynueth
down unto this present tyme.”
The feast day of Nun-Monkton is kept on St. Peter’s Day, and is followed
by the “Little Feast Day,” and a merry time extending over a week. On
the Saturday evening preceding the 29th a company of the villagers,
headed by all the fiddlers and players on other instruments that could
be mustered at one time went in procession across the great common to
“May-pole Hill,” where there is an old sycamore (the pole being near it)
for the purpose of “rising Peter,” who had been buried under the tree.
This effigy of St. Peter, a rude one of wood, carved--no one professed
to know when--and in these later times clothed in a ridiculous fashion,
was removed in its box-coffin to the neighbourhood of the public-house,
there to be exposed to view, and, with as little delay as possible,
conveyed to some out-building, where it was stowed away and thought no
more about till the first Saturday after the feast day (or the second if
the 29th had occurred at the back end of a week), when it was taken back
in procession again, and re-interred with all honour which concluding
ceremony was called “Buryin’ Peter.” In this way did St. Peter preside
over his own feast. On the evening of the first day of the feast, two
young men went round the village with large baskets for the purpose of
collecting tarts, cheese-cakes, and eggs for mulled ale--all being
consumed after the two ceremonies above indicated. This last good
custom is not done away with yet, suppers and, afterwards, dancing in a
barn being the order while the feast lasts.--_N. & Q. 4th S._ vol. i. p.
361.
SCOTLAND.
In Sinclair’s _Stat. Acc. of Scotland_ (1792, vol. iii. p. 105) we are
told that at Loudoun, in Ayrshire, the custom still retains among the
herds and young people to kindle fires in the high grounds, in honour of
Beltan. Beltan was anciently the time of this solemnity. It is kept on
St. Peter’s day.
JULY.] COMMENCEMENT DAY.
CAMBRIDGESHIRE.
In the University of Cambridge, the first Tuesday in July is usually the
Commencement Day. The Commencement Sunday is the Sunday immediately
before the Commencement Day. It is a commemoration day.
On Commencement Sunday, the Vice-Chancellor invites to dinner all
noblemen, the three Regius Professors, and their sons and the public
orator.--Adam Wall, _Ceremonies observed in the Senate House of the
University of Cambridge_, 1798, p. 76.
HUNTINGDONSHIRE.