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CHAPTER IX.

ANNIVERSARIES.

FOUR periodical festivals anciently existed amongst the Celts, in celebration of the seasons, and irrespective of the rejoicings at the New Year and Midsummer. Of these the first two only, now known as Candlemas, and May-day, have left any traces in Cumbria; the others, Lammas, and All Hallows, have long since become extinct.

Candlemas was once celebrated with fireworship, as mentioned before, judging from the names of Blaze Fell in Cumberland and Westmorland. Candlemas cake, a relic of this festival, is still remembered.

Carnival customs outlive the subsequent fasts for which they form the preparation, the substantial support of dinner being wanting in the latter case. The Monday preceding Lent is celebrated with the dinner adjunct of bacon" collops" and eggs, Tuesday with pancakes, Ash Wednesday with a hash. An imagination that may be termed butcherly, fills up the void to the end of the week, thus: Collop Monday, Pancake Tuesday, Hash Wednesday, Bloody Thursday, Hang up on Friday, and Cut down on Saturday. The singular phenemenon of Hash Wednesday, a custom very generally observed, is perhaps not to be parallelled.

Carling Sunday, the second Sunday before Easter, has a peculiar celebration in these counties. In some districts, according to custom, grey peas are steeped in water, fried in fat, and presented to all visitors, the peas being called carlings; whilst in Cumbria, wherever it is yet observed, the raw carlings are carried in the pocket, and thrown at friends and acquaintances. The curious

Carnival custom of Italy-the pelting with sugar plums and confetti-seems to be identical with our carlings, but changed as to time and manner. There is no appearance of a Christian origin. Good Friday is kept by the smiths as a sort of holiday. No smith will heat an iron on that day under any pretence, on account, it is said, of the nails used in the crucifixion of Christ. The master limits himself to an examination of his old irons, the assistants to whitewashing the shop, and renovating the bellows. It was an old custom on this day to have an ale posset with the addition of figs, hence called figsue, which furnishes another connecting link with the Italian Carnival.

Easter is announced a fortnight before it arrives by the " 'paceegging" of the children, which they carry on at the farmhouses of the surrounding country. The "pace-egger" hardly ever meets a refusal, many persons having prepared eggs, boiled and coloured, which they give away during the last week to all comers. When the pace-eggers go in bands, as is generally the case, they sing at the door or in the kitchen, and formerly each of the party was dressed, or supposed to be dressed, in character. The song commences thus:

Here's two or three jolly boys all in one mind,

We've comt a pace-egging, I hope you'll prove kind,

I hope you'll prove kind with your eggs and strong beer,
And we'll come no more nigh you until the next year.

We are then informed that "the first that comes in is Lord Nelson you'll see ;" and the remainder of the company may be enumerated as Jolly Jack Tar, Old Tosspot, and a female character styled Old Miser "with her bags.' The "ladies and gentlemen that sits by

*The singing in character of the pace-eggers comes down from the Miracles and Mysteries of the Middle Ages. In the latter Belzebub was the principle comic actor, assisted by a troop of under-devils. These characters are traceable in the Lancashire custom of singing at Christmas. The chief actor, who has his face blackened, carries a broom, and sings "Here come I little David Doubt," was the little Devil Doubt of older times, in conjunction with whom used to appear Oliver Cromwell, a very natural addition after the Restoration, The transition from this point to the popular character of Lord Nelson, is obvious enough.

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the fire," are then requested to put their hands in their pockets and remember pace-egging time. The eggs thus obtained are supposed to be "trundled," or rolled against each until one or both break, on Easter Monday.

Much of the Easter rejoicing seems to have come from the May festival. The sports of Easter Monday answer well enough to the season, but the providing of new clothes for the children belongs more naturally to May. The change proves to be a crying misfortune, as the gauze of Summer clothing now replaces the warm covering of Winter frequently in the face of sleet, snow, and north winds. The "pace-egg," probably the magnet of the whole. transfer, appears to have come from the East in Christian times.*

The first of April is still in a flourishing condition, and the fools made thereon are in these counties called gowks (D. glög, the cuckoo). We have likewise the notion that the three first days of the month are sometimes borrowed by March for sinister purposes.

May-eve was formerly celebrated in this district with the Beltain, at which green branches were borne, a Scandinavian rite, apparently, superadded to the Celtic fire worship. The latter custom identifies itself with the Jack in the Green of the London sweeps, the intention having been to celebrate at this season, when Nature is awaking from the chaotic sleep of Winter, the myth of the creation.† The singular sign called the Green Man, who is now

The Tcherkesses (Circassians), who have adopted many customs from their neighbours north and south, celebrate an Easter-feast at which the young people shoot at an egg. Cf. the story of Tell shooting at the apple.

The rulers of the earth, says the mythology of Scandinavia, found two pieces of wood on the shore, and out of them formed the first man and woman. They named them Askr and Embla, Ash and Alder.

We have a similar instance of the long preservation of old traditions and myths in the nursery rhyme commencing

London Bridge is broken down,
Dance o'er my lady lee.

See Nursery Rhymes, by J. O. Halliwell. Here is its origin: At the death of Svend Tveskiæg, Ethelred returned to England, to endeavour to regain possession of his kingdom. He was joined by Olaf of Norway. The allied forces made an attack on London from the Thames, but the Danes defended themselves with success from both sides of the river and

represented as wearing bright green, Robin Hood-like clothes, originated in the May festival. And the name of Maybrough, which, unlike that of its neighbour, the Round Table, is not modern, identifies that structure with the ceremonies of the same time.

On the first of May is still observed in Ireland the custom of going into the fields, and drinking whiskey mixed with milk taken direct from the cow. The mixture is called syllabub, and the kind of Maying to which it belongs, though once more general in England, is in later times only heard of in Northumberland and Cornwall.

The only surviving Maying custom of these counties now is the "shaking bottle" carried by children, and so called from the rule laid down by the Newcastle apothecary-" when taken, to be well shaken." The liquor it contains is a solution of Spanish licorice in water, which is supped, or "sucked" from the bottle; and the custom, though kept up for weeks, evidently belongs to May, as said in the children's rhyme:

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The first of May

Is shaking-bottle day.

Spanish and water," it is said, is good for coughs—a utilitarian explanation of too late a date, which will not account for the syllabub. Both syllabub and Spanish and water appear to be appropriate substitutes for the mead in which the Norsemen drank the minni (memory) of the Gods at their festivities.

Many other customs took refuge with the great May festival, but this did not save them. Amongst the rest, the holy wells, in the last period of their existence, are invariably heard of in May. May geslings, the making of which is identical with that of April fools, are still to be heard of, on the first of May.

from the bridge. Hereupon, after holding a council of war, the fleets moved up under the bridge, laid their cables round the piles, and rowed back with all force. The piles were thus shaken, so that from the weight of men, stones and other weapons, the bridge gave way, and fell into the river. So says Ottar Swarte:

London Bridge is broken down,

Gold is won and bright renown; etc.

See the Chronicle of the Kings of Norway, by Snorro Sturleson.

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The annual ceremony of Rushbearing survives in the villages of Warcop and Ambleside. The custom, it appears, was revived in the last century at Great Musgrave, but did not long continue. St. Peter's day (June 29th), on which the rushbearing takes place at Warcop, is kept as an entire holiday. The garlands are borne in procession by the children to church, where service is said; and at two o'clock commence certain "sports," consisting of a hound trail, a boy's foot-race, a men's foot-race, pole-leaping, long-leaping, and trotting, which fill up the afternoon. According to the description given of the custom as it was observed at Ambleside, 1856, the garlands to the number of one hundred and ten, made of rushes, ferns, mosses and flowers, were deposited in the church on Saturday, where they remained during divine service next day. On Monday, at four o'clock, the garlands were removed, and carried in procession by the children, for whom refreshments were kindly provided. The origin of the ceremony belongs to the time when rushes were the covering of the floors of houses and churches, and when other carpets were not, the intention being to bless the rushes on the day of the patron saint.

Martindale Cherry Sunday, and Longwathby Plum Sunday are still observed by the assembling of persons from the country around at the places named, on the Sundays when cherries and plums are ripe. There is nothing very mystic in the observances; they consist in eating a considerable quantity of the fruit from which the Sunday receives its name, and in more or less patronage of the publichouses.

The Kurn, or Kurn-winning (see page 87), the Harvest Home of the north, takes the place of the more ancient and solemn returning of thanks at the ingathering of the crops.

All Hallow E'en has no custom pertaining to it. There is recorded in Hutchinson, as a Whitbeck superstition, that on this night the bull lies with his face to the quarter from which the prevailing wind of winter will blow.

The approach of Christmas is not so surely heralded by nipping frosts and showers of snow, as by the song of the children, who go from house to house whistling their shrill notes through pitiless

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