called by them), is attired in a great coat, having his head covered
with an oakum wig, face masked, and a long white beard; thus attired, he
seats himself in a large wooden chair, chiefly covered with a sort of
stuff called bunting, with a crown and anchor, made of wood, on the top
and around it, four transparencies representing the “Blacksmiths’ Arms,”
“Anchor Smiths at Work,” “Britannia with her Anchor,” and “Mount Etna.”
He has before him a wooden anvil, and in his hands a pair of tongs and
wooden hammer. A mate, also masked, attends him with a wooden
sledge-hammer; he is also surrounded by a number of other attendants,
some of whom carry torches, banners, flags, &c.; others, battle-axes,
tomahawks, and other accoutrements of war. This procession, headed by a
drum and fife, and six men with Old Clem mounted on their shoulders,
proceed round the town, not forgetting to call on the blacksmiths and
officers of the dockyard: here the money-box is pretty freely handed,
after Old Clem and his mate have recited their speeches, which commence
by the mate calling for order with,
“Gentlemen all, attention give,
And wish St. Clem long, long to live.”
Old Clem then recites the following speech:--
“I am the real St. Clement, the first founder of brass, iron, and steel,
from the ore. I have been to Mount Etna, where the god Vulcan first
built his forge, and forged the armour and thunderbolts for the god
Jupiter. I have been through the deserts of Arabia; through Asia,
Africa, and America; through the city of Pongrove, through the town of
Tipmingo, and all the northern parts of Scotland. I arrived in London on
the 23rd of November, and came down to his Majesty’s dockyard at
Woolwich to see how all the gentlemen Vulcans came on there. I found
them all hard at work, and wish to leave them well on the
twenty-fourth.”
The mate then subjoins:
“Come all you Vulcans stout and strong,
Unto St. Clem we do belong;
I know this house is well prepared
With plenty of money and good strong beer;
And we must drink before we part,
All for to cheer each merry heart.
Come all you Vulcans, strong and stout,
Unto St. Clem I pray turn out;
For now St. Clem’s going round the town,
His coach-and-six goes merrily round.
Huzza--a--a.”
After having gone round the town and collected a pretty decent sum, they
retire to some public-house, where they enjoy as good a supper as the
money collected will allow.
STAFFORDSHIRE.
On the feast of St. Clement, a custom exists in Staffordshire for the
children to go round to the various houses in the village to which they
belong singing the following doggerel:
“Clemany! Clemany! Clemany mine!
A good red apple and a pint of wine,
Some of your mutton and some of your veal,
If it is good, pray give me a deal;
If it is not, pray give me some salt.
Butler, butler, fill your bowl;
If thou fillst it of the best,
The Lord’ll send your soul to rest;
If thou fillst it of the small,
Down goes butler, bowl and all.
Pray, good mistress, send to me
One for Peter, one for Paul,
One for Him who made us all:
Apple, pear, plum, or cherry,
Any good thing to make us merry;
A bouncing buck and a velvet chair,
Clement comes but once a year;
Off with the pot and on with the pan,
A good red apple and I’ll be gone.”
_N. & Q. 1st. S._ vol. viii. p. 618.
The following rhyme is also sung:
“Clemeny, Clemeny, God be wi’ you,
Christmas comes but once a ye-ar;
When it comes, it will soon be gone,
Give me an apple, and I’ll be gone.”
_Ibid. 3rd. S_. vol. iv. p. 492; See Oliver’s _History of Collegiate
Church of Wolverhampton_, 1836, p. 16.
WALES.
At Tenby, on St. Clement’s Day, it was customary for the owners of
fishing-boats to give a supper of roast goose and rice pudding to their
crews.--Mason’s _Tales and Traditions of Tenby_, 1858, p. 27.
NOV. 24.] ST. CATHERINE’S EVE.
In Strype’s _Ecclesiastical Memorials_ (1822, vol. iii. pt. ii. p. 507)
is the following notice of this festival:
“The 24th (1556) being St. Katharine’s Day (or rather Eve), at six of
the clock at night St. Katharine went about the battlements of St.
Paul’s Church accompanied with fine singing and great lights; this was
St. Katharine’s procession.”
NOV. 25.] ST. CATHERINE’S DAY.
BUCKINGHAMSHIRE.
On Cattern Day the lace makers hold merry-makings, and eat a sort of
cakes called “wigs”[85] and drink ale. Tradition says it is in
remembrance of Queen Catherine, who, when the trade was dull, burnt all
her lace, and ordered new to be made. The ladies of the court could not
but follow her example, and the consequence was a great briskness in the
manufacture.--_N. & Q. 3rd S._ vol. i. p. 387.
[85] Cakes called “wigs” were very commonly sold in the Midland
counties some years ago, and they are even mentioned as allowable at
the collation in Lent by a Catholic writer nearly two centuries ago.
They were light and spongy, and something like very light gingerbread.
As to the derivation of the name “wig” as applied to them, a
correspondent of _Notes and Queries_ says he never dreamed of seeing
it any where but in the shape of these cakes, which greatly resembled
a wig; being round, and having a thick rim round them, which turned up
like the curls of a wig of the olden times.--See _N. & Q. 3rd. S._
vol. i. p. 436.
CAMBRIDGESHIRE.
A paragraph in the _Cambridge Chronicle_ (December 8th, 1860) alludes to
the custom of the carpenters of Chatteris, in the Isle of Ely, observing
the feast of their patron Saint, St. Catherine, by dining together, &c.
KENT.
The following extract is taken from _N. & Q._ (_2nd S._ vol. v. p.
47):--On Wednesday (the 25th) night last the towns of Chatham,
Rochester, and Brompton exhibited considerable excitement in consequence
of a torchlight procession appearing in the streets, headed by a band of
fifes and drums. Notwithstanding the late hour (eleven o’clock) a large
number of persons of both sexes, accompanied the party. The
demonstration was got up by the rope-makers of the dockyard, to
celebrate the anniversary of the founder of the ropery (Queen
Catherine). The female representing her Majesty (who was borne in a
chair of state by six rope-makers) was dressed in white muslin, wore a
gilt crown, and carried in her hand a Roman banner.
NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.
At one time it was customary, at Peterborough, till the introduction of
the new poor laws, for the female children belonging to the workhouse,
attended by the master, to go in procession round the city on St.
Catherine’s Day. They were all attired in white, and decorated with
various coloured ribbons, principally scarlet; the tallest girl was
selected to represent the Queen, and was adorned with a crown and
sceptre. The procession stopped at the houses of the principal
inhabitants, and they sang the following rude ballad, begging for money
at every house as they passed along:
“Here comes Queen Catherine, as fine as any queen,
With a coach and six horses a coming to be seen.
And a spinning we will go, will go, will go,
And a spinning we will go.
Some say she is alive, and some say she is dead,
And now she does appear with a crown upon her head.
And a spinning we will go, &c.
Old Madam Marshall she takes up her pen,
And then she sits and calls for all her royal men.
And a spinning we will go, &c.
All you that want employment, though spinning is but small,
Come list, and don’t stand still, but go and work for all.
And a spinning we will go, &c.
If we set a spinning, we will either work or play,
But if we set a spinning we can earn a crown a day.
And a spinning we will go, &c.
And if there be some young men, as I suppose there’s some,
We’ll hardly let them stand alone upon the cold stone.
And a spinning we will go, &c.”
St. Catherine being the patron of the spinners, as well as of spinsters,
and spinning being formerly the employment of the females at the
workhouse, it naturally followed that they should be selected to
commemorate the anniversary of this Saint; and that this commemoration
is of great antiquity appears from the early entries in the Dean and
Chapter’s accounts of payments on St. Catherine’s Day for wheels and
reels for the children of the workhouse.--Baker, _Glossary of
Northamptonshire Words and Phrases_, 1854, vol. ii. p. 436.
A correspondent of _N. & Q._ (_4th S._ vol. ii. p. 332), alluding to the
above custom, says that it was not confined to Peterborough, but was
observed throughout the whole of the Northamptonshire lace-making
districts, as well as in those of Bedfordshire. According to popular
tradition the custom is derived from one of the Queens Catherine in the
time of Henry VIII.--probably from Catherine Parr, who was a
Northamptonshire woman. By some this day is called “Candle Day,” from
its forming the commencement of the season for working at lace-making by
candle-light.
ISLE OF THANET.
On St. Catherine’s Day in the Isle of Thanet, the carters place a small
figure on a wheel on the front of their cart sheds.--_N. & Q. 2nd S._
vol. v. p. 235.
WORCESTERSHIRE.
In this county the children go round to the farmhouses collecting apples
and beer for a festival, and sing the following lines:
“Catherine and Clement, be here, be here,
Some of your apples, and some of your beer;
Some for Peter, and some for Paul,
And some for Him that made us all.
Clement was a good man,
For his sake give us some,
Not of the worse, but some of the best,
And God will send your soul to rest.”
The Chapter of Worcester have a practice of preparing a rich bowl of
wine and spices, called the “Cathern bowl,” for the inhabitants of the
college upon this day.--Halliwell’s _Popular Rhymes_, 1849, p. 238; see
_N. & Q. 2nd S._ vol. iv. pp. 495, 496.
NOV. 30.] ST. ANDREW’S DAY.
The commencement of the ecclesiastical year is regulated by the feast of
St. Andrew, the nearest Sunday to which, whether before or after,
constitutes the first Sunday in Advent, or the period of four weeks
which heralds the approach of Christmas. St. Andrew’s Day is thus
sometimes the first and sometimes the last festival in the Christian
Year.--_Book of Days_, vol ii. p. 636.
KENT.
Hasted, in his _History of Kent_ (vol. ii. p. 757), speaking of the
parish of Eastling, says that, on St. Andrew’s Day, there is a yearly
diversion called squirrel-hunting in this and the neighbouring parishes,
when the labourers and lower kind of people, assembling together, form a
lawless rabble, and being accoutred with guns, poles, clubs and other
such weapons, spend the greater part of the day in parading through the
woods and grounds, with loud shoutings, and under pretence of
demolishing the squirrels, some few of which they kill, they destroy
numbers of hares, pheasants, partridges, and, in short, whatever comes
in their way, breaking down the hedges, and doing much other mischief,
and, in the evening betaking themselves to the ale-houses, finish their
career there as is usual with such sort of gentry.
MIDDLESEX.
Strype, in his _Ecclesiastical Memorials_ (1822, vol. iii. pt. ii. p.
21), says:--“The 30th November [1557] being St. Andrew’s Day, was a
procession at Paul’s, and a priest of every parish attending, each in
his cope, and a goodly sermon preached, and after that, the procession,
with _salve festa dies_.”
NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.
Tander and Tandrew are the names given to the festival of St. Andrew, of
which they are corruptions.
The anniversary of this saint is, or rather was, kept by the lacemakers
as a day of festivity and merry-making; but since the use of pillow-lace
has in a great measure given place to that of the loom, this holiday has
been less and less observed. The day in former times was one of
unbridled licence: village “scholards” barred out their master; the lace
schools were deserted; and drinking and feasting prevailed to a riotous
extent. Towards evening the villagers used to become suddenly smitten
with a violent taste for masquerading. Women might be seen walking about
in male attire, while men and boys clothed in female dress visited each
other’s cottages, drinking hot “eldern wine,” the staple beverage of the
season. Then commenced the mumming.--Sternberg, _Dialect and Folk Lore
of Northamptonshire_, 1851, p. 183; A. E. Baker, _Glossary of
Northamptonshire Words and Phrases_, 1854, vol. ii. p. 326.
SUSSEX.
A correspondent of the _Athenæum_ (No. 993) says that the custom of
squirrel-hunting was at one time kept up in this county, but, in
consequence of the inclosure of the coppices and the more strict
observance of the game, it has wholly dropped.
SCOTLAND.
In Scotland this day is called Andrys Day, Androiss Mess, and Andermess.
Singed sheep’s heads are borne in the procession before the Scots in
London on St. Andrew’s Day.--Brand’s _Pop. Antiq._ 1849, vol. i. p.
415.
STIR UP SUNDAY.
The 25th Sunday after Trinity is called by the schoolboys “Stir Up
Sunday,” from the collect used on that day; and they repeat the
following lines without considering their irreverent application:
“Stir up, we beseech thee,
The pudding in the pot,
And when we get home,
We’ll eat it all hot.”
Brand’s _Pop. Antiq._ 1859, vol. i. p. 414; See _Times_, November
25th, 1863.
ADVENT.
_Advent Bells._--Advent bells are rung in many parishes throughout
various parts of England during the month of December. A correspondent
of _N. & Q._ (_1st S._ vol. i. p. 21) says that, in his
neighbourhood--on the western borders of Berks--he has heard their merry
peals break gladsomely upon the dark stillness of the cold evening from
many a steeple round.
ISLE OF MAN.
Train, in his _History of the Isle of Man_ (1845, vol. ii. p. 127),
says, that the fiddlers go round from house to house, in the latter part
of the night for two or three weeks before Christmas, playing a tune
called the _Andisop_. On their way they stop before particular houses,
wish the inmates individually “good morning,” call the hour, then report
the state of the weather, and after playing an air, move on to the next
halting-place.
PICROUS DAY.
CORNWALL.
The Second Thursday before Christmas Day is a festival observed by the
tinners of the district of Blackmore, and known as “Picrous Day.” It is
said to be the feast of the discovery of tin by a man named Picrous. It
is not at present marked by any distinctive ceremonies, but it is the
occasion of a merry-making, and the owner of the tin stream contributes
a shilling a man towards it. Mr. T. Q. Couch says his first impression
was that the day took its name from the circumstance of a _pie_ forming
the _pièce de resistance_ of the supper; but this explanation is not
allowed by tinners, nor sanctioned by the usages of the feast.--Hunt’s
_Romances of the West of England_, 1871, p. 468.
DEC. 5.] ST. NICHOLAS’ EVE.
Strype, in his _Ecclesiastical Memorials_ (1822, vol. iii. part. i. p.
326), says:--“On the 5th December [1554], the which was St. Nicholas’
Eve, at evensong time, came a commandment that St. Nicholas should not
go abroad nor about. But, notwithstanding, it seems, so much were the
citizens taken with the mock St. Nicholas, that is, a boy-bishop, that
there went about three St. Nicholases in divers parishes, as in St.
Andrew’s Holborn and St. Nicolas Olave’s in Bread Street. The reason the
procession of St. Nicholas was forbid was because the Cardinal had this
St. Nicholas’ Day sent for all the convocation, bishops, and inferior
clergy, to come to him to Lambeth, there to be absolved from all their
prejudices, schisms, and heresies.”
DEC. 6.] ST. NICHOLAS’ DAY.
THE BOY-BISHOP.
St. Nicholas was deemed the patron of children in general, but much more
particularly of all schoolboys, amongst whom the 6th of December (the
saint’s festival) used to be a very great holiday for more than one
reason. In those bygone times all little boys either sang or served
about the altar at church; and the first thing they did upon the eve of
their patron’s festival was to elect from among themselves, in every
parish church, cathedral, and nobleman’s chapel, a bishop and his
officials, or, as they were then called, “a Nicholas and his clerks.”
This boy-bishop and his ministers afterwards sang the first vespers of
their saint, and, in the evening, arrayed in their appropriate
vestments, walked all about the parish; all were glad to see them, and
those who could afford it asked them into their houses to bestow a gift
of money, sweetmeats, or food upon them. In the year 1299 we find Edward
I., on his way to Scotland, permitting one of these boy-bishops to say
vespers before him in his chapel at Heton, near Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and
making a considerable present to the said bishop and certain other boys
that came and sang with him on the occasion, on the 7th of December, the
day after St. Nicholas’ Day. What was the custom in the houses of our
nobles we may learn from the _Northumberland Household Book_, which
tells us that “My lord useth and accustomyth to gyfe yerly, upon Saynt
Nicolas-Even, if he kepe chapell for Saynt Nicolas, to the master of his
childeren of his chapell, for one of the childeren of his chapell,
yerely, vi^{s.} viii^{d.}; and if Saynt Nicolas com owt of the towne
wher my lord lyeth, and my lord kepe no chapell, than to have yerely
iii^{s.} iiij^{d.}” At Eton College, it was on St. Nicholas’ Day, and
not on Childermas, that the boy-bishop officiated, which he did not only
at evensong, but at mass, which he began and went on with up to the more
solemn part at the offertory: “In festo Sancti Nicholai, in quo, et
nullatenus in festo Sanctorum Innocentium, divina officia præter missæ
secreta exequi et dici permittimus per episcopum puerorum scholiarium ad
hoc de eisdem annis singulis eligendum.”
It was upon this festival that some wealthy man or other of the parish
would make an entertainment on the occasion for his own household, and
invite his neighbours’ children to come and partake of it; and, of
course, Nicholas and his clerks sat in the highest place. The _Golden
Legend_ tells how “a man, for the love of his sone that wente to scole
for to lerne, halowed every year the feest of Saynt Nycholas moche
solemply. On a time it happed that the fader had doo make redy the
dyner, and called many clerkes to this dyner.” Individuals sometimes
bequeathed money to find a yearly dinner on St. Nicholas’ day for as
many as a hundred Childermas’ tide scholars, who were, after meat, to
pray for the soul of the founder of the feast. In our large schools and
universities the festival was kept with public sports and games. But it
was at Holy Innocents, or Childermas’ tide, that Nicholas and his clerks
came forth in all their glory. The boy-bishop had a set of pontificals
provided for him. St. Paul’s, London, had its “una mitra alba cum
flosculis breudatis--ad opus episcopi parvulorum--baculus ad usum
episcopi parvulorum;” York Minster, too, its “una capa de tissue pro
episcopo puerorum;” Lincoln Cathedral, “a cope of red velvet, ordained
for the barn-bishop;” All Souls’ College, Oxford, “j. chem. (ches.?) j.
cap et mitra pro episcopo Nicholao;” St. Mary’s Church, Sandwich, “a
lytyll chesebyll for Seynt Nicholas bysschop.” For the boy-bishop’s
attendants copes were also made, and York had no fewer than “novem capæ
pro pueris.”
Towards the end of evensong on St. John’s Day the little Nicholas and
his clerks, arrayed in their copes, and having burning tapers in their
hands, and singing those words of the Apocalypse (_c._ xiv.) “Centum
quadraginta” walked processionally from the choir to the altar of the
Blessed Trinity, which the boy-bishop incensed; afterwards they all sang
the anthem, and he recited the prayer commemorative of the Holy
Innocents. Going back into the choir these boys took possession of upper
canons’ stalls, and those dignitaries themselves had to serve in the
boys’ place, and carry the candles, the thurible, and the book, like
acolytes, thurifers, and lower clerks. Standing on high, wearing his
mitre, and holding his pastoral staff in his left hand, the boy-bishop
gave a solemn benediction to all present, and, while making the sign of
the Cross over the kneeling crowd, said:
“Crucis signo vos consigno; vestra sit tuitio,
Quos nos emit et redemit suæ carnis pretio.”
The next day, the feast itself of Holy Innocents, the boy-bishop
preached a sermon, which of course had been written for him; and one
from the pen of Erasmus, “Concio de puero Iesu,” spoken by a boy of St.
Paul’s School, London, is still extant, and Dean-Colet, the founder of
that seminary, in his statutes for it, ordained that “all these children
shall, every Childermas Daye, come to Paulis Churche, and hear the
childe bishop sermon; and after be at the high masse, and each of them
offer a 1^{d.} to the childe bysshop, and with them the maisters and
surveyors of the scole.” At evensong bishop Nicholas and his clerks
officiated as on the day before, and until Archbishop Peckham’s times,
used to take some conspicuous part in the services of the church during
the whole octave of Childermas tide. About 1279 A.D. that primate
decreed, however, thus:--“Puerilia autem solennia, quæ in festo solent
fieri Innocentum post vesperas S. Johannis tantum inchoari permittimus,
et in crastino in ipsa die Innocentum totaliter terminentur.” This
festival, like St. Nicholas’ Day, had its good things; and then, as now,
was marked by a better dinner in nunneries, wherein the little boys who
had served at the altars of the nuns’ churches were not forgotten, as we
see by the expenses of St Mary de Prees: “Paid for makyng of the dyner
to the susters upon Childermas Day, iii^{s.} iiij^{d.} It. Paid for
brede and ale for Saint Nicholas, iii^{s.}
If schoolboys had the patron St. Nicholas, little girls had their
patroness too, St. Catherine, who by her learning overthrew the
cavilings of many heathen philosophers and won some of them to
Christianity. On this holy martyr’s festival, therefore, did the girls
walk about the towns in their procession. All this was looked upon with
a scowl by those who pulled down the Church of God in this land: hence
Cranmer, towards the end of Henry VIII.’s reign, forbade these and other
like processions:--“Whereas heretofore dyverse and many superstitious
(?) and childysshe observations have been used, and yet to this day are
observed and kept in many and sondry parties of this realm, as upon
Sainte Nicolas, Sainte Catheryne, Sainte Clement, the Holy Innocentes,
and such like; children be strangelye decked and apparelid to
counterfaite priestes, byshoppes, and women; and so ledde with songes
and daunces from house to house, bleassing the people, and gatherynge of
monye, and boyes doo singe masse and preache in the pulpitt ... the
Kyng’s majestie willith and commaundeth that from henceforth all suche
superstitions be loste and clyerlye exstinguished,” &c. Queen Mary
restored these rites, and the people were glad to see this, along with
other of their old religious usages, given back to them; and an
eye-witness tells us that, in A.D. 1556, “the V. day of December was
Sant Necolas evyn, and Sant Necolas whentt abrod in most partt in
London, syngyng after the old fassyon, and was reseyvyd with mony good
pepulle into their howses, and had mych good chere as ever they had, in
mony plasses.”
Some have thought that it was owing to his early abstinence that St.
Nicholas was chosen patron of schoolboys; a better reason perhaps is
given to us by a writer in the _Gent. Mag._ (1777, vol. xlvii. p. 158),
who mentions having in his possession an Italian life of St. Nicholas,
from which he translates the following story, which explains the
occasion of boys addressing themselves to St. Nicholas’ patronage:--