[239]. Quoted by J. Brand, Popular Antiquities, i. 246 (ed. Bohn).
[240]. T. F. Thiselton Dyer, British Popular Customs (London, 1876), p. 254.
[241]. W. Borlase, The Natural History of Cornwall (Oxford, 1758), p. 294.
[242]. J. Brand, op. cit. i. 212 sq.
[243]. T. F. Thiselton Dyer, Popular British Customs, p. 233.
[244]. R. Chambers, Book of Days (London and Edinburgh, 1886), i. 578; T. F. Thiselton Dyer, op. cit. pp. 237 sq.
[245]. W. Hone, Every Day Book (London, N.D.), ii. 615 sq.; T. F. Thiselton Dyer, British Popular Customs, pp. 251 sq. At Polebrook in Northamptonshire the verses sung by the children on their rounds include two which are almost identical with those sung at Abingdon in Berkshire. See Dyer, op. cit. pp. 255 sq. The same verses were formerly sung on May Day at Hitchin in Hertfordshire (Hone, Every Day Book, i. 567 sq.; Dyer, op. cit. pp. 240 sq.).
[246]. Dyer, op. cit. p. 263.
[247]. Percy Manning, in Folk-lore, iv. (1893) pp. 403 sq.
[248]. Id., in Folk-lore, viii. (1897) p. 308. Customs of the same sort are reported also from Combe, Headington, and Islip, all in Oxfordshire (Dyer, British Popular Customs, pp. 261 sq.). See below, pp. [90] sq.