| [52] | Throw away. |
If the song was not given sufficiently loud, they were desired to sing it again. In that case it very rarely required a second repetition. When the Shrovers were more numerous than was anticipated, it not unfrequently happened that, before the time of the arrival of the latter parties, the Shrove-cakes had been expended; then dough-nuts, pancakes, bread and cheese, or bread and bacon, were given, or halfpence were substituted; but in no instance whatever were they sent from the door empty-handed. It is much to be regretted that this charitable custom should have become almost extinct; there being very few houses at the present time where they distribute Shrove-cakes.
"There was another very ancient custom somewhat similar to the Shroving, which has also nearly, if not quite, disappeared; probably it began to decay within the last half-century: this was a gift of cakes and ale to children on New Year's Day, who, like the Shrovers, went from house to house singing for them; but, if we may judge from the song, those children were for the most part from the towns and larger villages, as the song begins, "A sale, a sale in our town;" there is no doubt but it was written for the occasion some centuries since, when "a sale" was not a thing of such a common occurrence as now, and when there was one, it was often held in an open field in or near the town." So writes my kind and valued correspondent, Captain Henry Smith, but town is, I think, merely a provincialism for village. It is so, at least, in the North of England. As for the phrase a seyal, it seems to be a [corruption of] wassail, the original sense having been lost. The following was the song:
A seyal, a seyal in our town,
The cup es white and the eal es brown;
The cup es meyad from the ashen tree,
And the eal es brew'd vrom the good barlie.
Chorus. Cake and eal, cake and eal,
A piece of cake and a cup of eal;
We zing merrily one and aal
For a piece of cake and a cup of eal.
Little maid, little maid, troll the pin, [53]
Lift up the latch and we'll aal vall in; [54]
Ghee us a cake and zum eal that es brown,
And we dont keer a vig vor the seyal in the town.
Chorus. W'ill zing merrily one and aal
Vor a cake and a cup of eal;
God be there and God be here,
We wish you aal a happy New Year.
| [53] | That is, turn the pin inside the door in order to raise the latch. In the old method of latching doors, there was a pin inside which was turned round to raise the latch. An old Isle of Wight song says,— Then John he arose, And to the door goes, And he trolled, and he trolled at the pin. The lass she took the hint, And to the door she went, And she let her true love in. |
| [54] | "Aal vall in," stand in rank to receive in turn the cake and ale. |
The above was the original song, but within the last fifty or sixty years, as the custom began to fall off, the chorus or some other part was often omitted.
[EASTER-GLOVES.]
Love, to thee I send these gloves,
If you love me,
Leave out the G,
And make a pair of loves!
It appears from Hall's Satires, 1598, that it was customary to make presents of gloves at Easter. In Much Ado About Nothing, the Count sends Hero a pair of perfumed gloves, and they seem to have been a common present between lovers. In Devonshire, the young women thus address the first young man they happen to meet on St. Valentine's day—