Shropshire.
In this county the inhabitants set on a board a high heap of small cakes, called soul-cakes, of which they offer one to every person who comes to the house on this day, and there is an old rhyme, which seems to have been sung by the family and guests:
“A soul-cake, a soul-cake;
Have mercy on all Christian souls for a soul-cake.”
Kennett’s Collections, MS. Bibl. Lansdown, No. 1039, vol. 105, p. 12.
The same custom is mentioned, and with very little variation, by Aubrey in the Remains of Gentilisme; see N. & Q. 4th S. vol. x. pp. 409, 525.