JUNE.
"The woods, or some near town
That is a neighbour to the bordering down,
Hath drawn them thither, 'bout some lusty sport,
Or spiced wassel-bowl, to which resort
All the young men and maids of many a cote,
Whilst the trim minstrell strikes his merry note."
FLETCHER, _The Faithful Shepherdess_.
Whitsuntide Sports--Church-ales--Church-house--Quarter-staff
--Whistling and Jingling Matches--St. John's Eve--Wrestling.
After May Day our villagers had not long to wait until the
Whitsuntide holiday came round. This holiday was notorious for the
"Church-ales," which were held at this season. These feasts were a
means of raising money for charitable purposes. If the church needed
a new roof, or some poor people were in sad straits, the villagers
would decide to have a "Church-ale"; generally four times a year the
feast was given, and always at Whitsuntide. The churchwardens
bought, and received presents of, a large quantity of malt, which
they brewed into beer, and sold to the company, and any inhabitant
of the parish who did not attend had to pay a fine. Every one who
was able contributed something to the entertainment. The feast was
held in the church-house, a building which stood near the church.
This was the scene of many social gatherings, and is thus described
by an old writer--
"In every parish was a church-house, to which belonged
spits, crocks, and other utensils for dressing provisions.
Here the housekeepers met. The young people were there,
too, and had dancing, bowling, shooting at butts, &c., the
ancients (_i.e._ the old folk) sitting gravely by and
looking on. All things were civil, and without scandal.
The church-ale is, doubtless, derived from the Agapai or
Love Feasts, mentioned in the New Testament."
Whether the learned writer was right in his conjecture we cannot be
quite certain, but church-ales subsequently degenerated into
something quite different from New Testament injunctions, and were
altogether prohibited on account of the excess to which they gave
rise. Let us hope that all these feasts were not so bad as they were
represented, and indeed in early times great reverence was attached
to them, which prevented excess. The neighbours, too, would come in
from the adjoining parishes and share the feast. An arbour of boughs
was erected in the churchyard, called Robin Hood's Bower, where the
maidens collected money for the "ales" in the same way which they
employed at Hock-tide, and which was called "Hocking." The old books
of St. Lawrence's Church, Reading (to which I have before referred),
contain a record of this custom--"1505 A.D. Item. Received of the
maidens' gathering at Whitsuntide by the tree at the church door,
ij^s. vi^d." The morris-dancers and minstrels, the ballad-singers
and players, were in great force on these occasions, and were
entertained at the cost of the parish. In the churchwardens' account
of St. Mary's, Reading, we find in the year 1557--
"Item--paid to Morris-dancers and the Minstrels, meat and
drink at Whitsuntide--iii^s. iiii^d."
When the feasting had ended, archery, running races in sacks,
grinning through a horse-collar (each competitor trying to make the
most ludicrous grimaces), afforded amusement to the light-hearted
spectators.
The game of quarter-staff is an old pastime which was a great
favourite among the rustics of Berkshire. The quarter-staff is a
tough piece of wood about eight feet long, which the player grasped
in the middle with one hand, while with the other he kept a loose
hold midway between the middle and one end. The object of the game
was, to use the forcible language of the time, to "break the head"
of the opponent. On the White Horse Hill, where Alfred fought
against the Danes, and carved out on the hill-side the White Horse
as a memorial of his victory, many a rural sport has been played,
and at the periodical "scourings of the Horse" many a Berkshire head
broken to see who was the noted champion of the game. An old
parishioner of mine, James of Sandhurst, was once the hero of
quarter-staff in the early part of the century. The whistling match
was not so dangerous a contest; the prize was conferred upon the
whistler who could whistle clearest, and go through his tune while a
clown, or merry-andrew, made laughable grimaces before him.
[Illustration: QUARTER-STAFF.]
Another diversion common at these country gatherings was the
jingling match. A large circle was inclosed with ropes, in which the
players took their place. All were blindfolded with the exception of
one, who was the jingler, and who carried a bell in each hand, which
he was obliged to keep ringing. His object was to elude the pursuit
of his blinded companions, and he won the prize if he was still free
when the play ceased. It was an amusing sight to see the men trying
to catch the active jingler, running into each other's arms, and
catching every one but the right one. When the jingling match was
over, a pig with a short, well-soaped tail was turned out for the
people to run after, and he who could hold it by the tail without
touching any other part obtained it for his pains. There was also a
game called Pigeon-holes, which appears to have been somewhat
similar to our present game of bagatelle.
And so with laughter and with song the feast ended, the evening
shadows fell around, and the happy rustics retired to their humble
thatched-roofed homes. The proceeds of these church-ales were often
considerable. "There were no rates for the poor in my grandfather's
time," says one writer, "the church-ale of Whitsuntide did the
business"; and whether the parishioners had to pay a tax for the
support of the King's army, or to repair the church, or to maintain
some orphan children, it was generally found "that something still
remained to cover the bottom of the purse."
Of the "mysteries," or miracle plays, as they were called, which
were performed in towns on Corpus Christi Day and at other times, I
propose to write in another chapter; and we will now proceed to the
hillsides near our villages on the eve of St. John's Day, when we
should witness the lighting of large bonfires, and some curious
customs connected with that ceremony. Both the old and the young
people used to sally forth from the village to some neighbouring
height, and there, amidst much laughter and with many a shout, they
lighted the large bonfire. Then they danced round the blazing logs,
and afterwards leaped through the flames, and at the close of the
ceremony each person brought away with him a burning branch. This
rite appears to have been a relic of Paganism. Probably the fire was
originally lighted in honour of the sun, which our forefathers
worshipped before they became Christians. The leaping through the
flames had also a superstitious meaning, and the simple people
thought that in this way they could ward off evil spirits and
prevent sickness. The Roman shepherds used to leap through the
Midsummer blaze in honour of Pales. The Scandinavians lit their
bonfires in honour of their gods Odin and Thor, and the leaping
through the flames reminds us of the worshippers of Baal and Moloch,
who, as we read in the Bible, used to "pass their children through
the fire" in awe of their cruel god. St. John's Day, or Midsummer
Day (June 24th), was chosen because on that day the sun reaches its
highest point in the zodiac. There is, however, another
interpretation of the meaning of the fires on St. John's Day, as
illustrating the verse which speaks of him "as a burning and a
shining light" (St. John v. 35); but this interpretation was
probably invented by some pious divine who endeavoured to attach a
Christian meaning to an ancient heathen custom. The connection of
the ceremony with the old worship of the sun is indisputable. Its
practice was very general in nearly all European nations, and in not
very remote times from Norway to the shores of the Mediterranean the
glow of St. John's fires might have been seen. The Emperor
Charlemagne in the ninth century forbade the custom as a heathen
rite, but the Church endeavoured to win over the custom from its
Pagan associations and to attach to it a Christian signification. In
the island of Jersey the older inhabitants used to light fires under
large iron pots full of water, in which they placed silver
articles--as spoons, mugs, &c., and then knocked the silver against
the iron with the idea of scaring away all evil spirits.[11]
Sometimes bones were burnt in the fire, for we are told in a quaint
homily on the Feast of St. John Baptist, that bones scared away the
evil spirits in the air, since "wise clerks know well that dragons
hate nothing more than the stink of burning bones, and therefore the
country folk gather as many as they might find, and burned them; and
so with the stench thereof they drove away the dragons, and so they
were brought out of great disease."
In some most remote northern parts of England the farmer lights a
wisp of straw, which he carries round his fields to protect them
from the tare and darnel, the devil and witches. In some places they
used to cover a wheel with straw, set it on fire, and roll it down a
hill. A learned writer on antiquities tells us that the people
imagined that all their ill-luck rolled away from them together with
this burning wheel. All these customs are relics of the old fire and
sun worship, to which our forefathers were addicted. Wrestling,
running races, and dancing were afterwards practised by the
villagers. Wrestling is a very ancient sport, and the men of
Cornwall and Devon, of Westmoreland and Cumberland, were famous for
their skill. A "Cornish hug" is by no means a tender embrace.
Sometimes the people bore back to their homes boughs of trees, with
which they adorned their doors and windows. At Oxford the
quadrangle of Magdalen College was decorated with boughs on St.
John's Day, and a sermon preached from the stone pulpit in the
corner of the quadrangle; this was meant to represent the preaching
of St. John the Baptist in the wilderness.
At length the villagers, wearied with their exertions, retire to
their cottage homes, marching in procession from the scene of their
observances; and silence reigns o'er the village for a few short
hours, till the sunlight summons them to their daily toil.