Dorking.
["Shrove-tide," says Warton, "was formerly a season of extraordinary
sport and feasting. There was {224} anciently a feast immediately
preceding Lent, which lasted many days, called _Carniscapium_. In some
cities of France an officer was annually chosen, called Le Prince
d'Amoreux, who presided over the sports of the youth for six days
before Ash Wednesday. Some traces of these festivities still remain in
our Universities." In these degenerate days more is known, we suspect,
of pancakes and fritters, than of a football match and a
cock-fight:--the latter, we are happy to say, is now almost forgotten
among us. As to the pancake custom, no doubt that is most religiously
observed by the readers of "N. & Q.," in obedience to the rubric of the
_Oxford Sausage_:
"Let glad Shrove Tuesday bring the pancake thin,
Or fritter rich, with apples stored within."
According to Fitz-Stephen, "After dinner, all the youths go into the
fields to play at the ball. The scholars of every school have their
ball and bastion in their hands. The ancient and wealthy men of the
city come forth on horseback to see the sport of the young men, and to
take part of the pleasure, in beholding their agility." And till within
the last few years:
"... The humble play
Of trap or football on a holiday,
In Finsbury fields,"--
was sufficiently common in the neighbourhood of London and other
places. See Brande's _Popular Antiquities_, vol. i. pp. 63-94. (Bohn's
edition), and Hone's _Every-Day Book_, vol. i. pp. 244. 255-260.]
_Vossioner; its Meaning._--In looking over a parcel of brass rubbings made
some years since, I find the word _vossioner_ used, and not knowing its
signification, I should be glad to be enlightened on the subject; but, in
order to enable your readers to judge more correctly, I think it better to
copy the whole of the epitaph in which the word occurs. The plate is in
Ufton Church, near Southam, county Warwick; it measures eighteen inches in
width by sixteen deep.
"Here lyeth the boddyes of Richard Hoddomes, Parsson and Pattron and
_Vossioner_ of the Churche and Parishe of Oufton, in the Countie of
Warrike, who died one Mydsomer Daye, 1587. And Margerye his Wiffe
w^{th} _her_ seven Childryn, as namelye, Richard, _John_, and _John_,
Anne, Jane, Elizabeth, Ayles, _his_ iiii Daughters, _whose soule_
restethe with God."
I give the epitaph _verbatim_, with its true orthography. There are some
curious points in this epitaph. First, the date of the death of the
clergyman only is given; second, the children are called _hers_, while the
four daughters are _his_; and two of the sons bear the same Christian name,
whilst only one _soul_ is said to rest with God. The family is represented
kneeling. Above the inscription, and between the clergyman and his lady, is
a desk, on which is represented two books lying open before them.