_Curious Custom_.--The custom spoken of by "PWCCA" (No. 11 p. 173.) was
also commonly practised in one or two places in Lancashire some ten or
twelve years back, but is now, I believe, obsolete. The horse was played
in a similar way, but the performer was then called "Old Balls." It is
no doubt a vestige of the old "hobby-horse,"--as the Norwich "Snap," who
kept his place in the procession of the mayor of that good city till the
days of municipal reform, was the last representative of his companion
the dragon.