Northumberland.
It is customary on this day to dress out stools with a cushion of flowers. A layer of clay is placed on the stool, and therein is stuck, with great regularity, an arrangement of all kinds of flowers, so close as to form a beautiful cushion. These are exhibited at the doors of houses in the villages, and at the ends of streets and cross lanes of larger towns, where the attendants beg money from passengers to enable them to have an evening fête and dancing.
This custom is evidently derived from the “Ludi Compitalii” of the Romans; this appellation was taken from the compita, or cross lanes, where they were instituted and celebrated by the multitude assembled before the building of Rome. It was the feast of the lares, or household gods, who presided as well over houses as streets.—Hutchinson’s History of Northumberland.