Kidderminster.
_St. Crispin's Day._--In the parishes of Cuckfield and Hurst-a-point in
Sussex, it is still the custom to observe St. Crispin's day, and it is
kept with much rejoicing. The boys go round asking for money in the name
of St. Crispin, bonfires are lighted, and it passes off very much in the
same way as the fifth of November does. It appears, from an inscription
on a monument to one of the ancient family of Bunell in the parish
church of Cuckfield, that a Sir John Bunell attended Henry V. to France
in the year 1415, with one ship, twenty men-at-arms, and forty archers;
and it is probable that the observance of this day in that neighbourhood
is connected with that fact. If so, though the names of--
"Harry the king, Bedford, and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloster,"
have ceased to be "familiar as household words" in the mouths of the
people, yet it is a curious proof for what length of time a usage may be
transmitted, though the origin of it may be lost.
If any of your correspondents can inform me whether St. Crispin's Day is
observed in their neighborhood, and, if so, whether such cases can be
connected, as in the present instance, with some old warrior of
Agincourt, they will much oblige