LAMMAS DAY.
Gule of August, or Lammas Day, is variously explained. Gule, from the Celtic or British Wyl or Gule, signifies a festival or holiday, and explains Gule of August to mean the holiday of St. Peter ad vincula in this month, when the people of England, in Roman Catholic times, paid their Peter-pence. Lammas is, by some, derived from lamb-masse, because on that day the tenants who held lands of the cathedral church in York, which is dedicated to St. Peter ad vincula, were bound by their tenure to bring a live lamb into the church at high mass. Others derive it from the Saxon word Hlafmaesse, signifying loaf-mass or bread-mass, because on this day our forefathers made an offering of bread from new wheat. Blount says, “Lammas Day, the 1st of August, otherwise called the Gule or Yule of August, which may be a corruption of the British word Gwul Awst, signifying the 1st of August.” Blount further says, “that Lammas is called Alaf-Mass, that is, loaf or bread mass, which signifies a feast of thanksgiving for the first fruits of the corn. It was observed with bread of new wheat; and in some places tenants were bound to bring new wheat to their lord on or before the 1st of August. New wheat is called Lammas wheat.” Vallancey further affirms that this day was dedicated to the fruits of the soil; that Laeith was the day of the obligation of grain, particularly of wheat, and that Mas signifies fruits of all kinds, especially the acorn, whence the word “mast.”
Lammas is one of the four cross-quarter days of the year, as they are now denominated. Whitsuntide was formerly the first, Lammas the second, Martinmas the third, and Candlemas the last. Some rents are yet payable at these ancient quarter-days in England, and they continue general in Scotland.—Timbs, Things not Generally Known, 1856, p. 154; see Soane’s New Curiosities of Literature, vol ii. p. 123; Brand’s Pop. Antiq. 1849, vol. i. p. 347.
It was once customary in England to give money to servants on Lammas Day, to buy gloves; hence the term glove-silver. It is mentioned among the ancient customs of the Abbey of St. Edmund, in which the clerk of the cellarer had 2d., the cellarer’s squire, 11d., the granger, 11d., and the cowherd a penny.—Med. Ævi Kalend. vol. i. p. 334.
Devonshire.
The charter for Exeter Lammas Fair is perpetuated by a glove of immense size, stuffed and carried through the city on a very long pole, decorated with ribbons, flowers, &c., and attended with music, parish beadles, and the nobility. It is afterwards placed on the top of the Guildhall, and then the fair commences; on the taking down of the glove the fair terminates.—Every Day Book, vol. ii. p. 1059.
Isle of Man.
The first Sunday in August is called, by the Manks peasantry, yn chied doonaght a ouyr. On that day they crowd in great numbers to the tops of the highest hills, in the north to the summit of Snafeld, and in the south to the top of Barule. Others visit the sanative wells of the island, which are held in the highest estimation. The veneration with which the Pagan deities were regarded having been transferred along with their fanes and fountains to Christian saints, sanctified and sanative wells became the resort of the pious pilgrim, and by the credulous invalid libations and devotions were, according to ancient practice, performed at these holy springs, which were believed to be guarded by presiding powers to whom offerings were left by the visitants. Many a wonderful cure is said to have been effected by the waters of St. Catherine’s Well at Port Erin; by the Chibbyr Parick, or well of St. Patrick, on the west end of the hill of Lhargey-graue; by Lord Henry’s Well on the south beach of Laxey, and by the well at Peel, also dedicated to St. Patrick, which, says the tradition, just sprang forth where St. Patrick was prompted by Divine instinct to impress the sign of the cross on the ground. Many extraordinary properties were ascribed to the Nunnery Well, but the most celebrated in modern times for its medicinal virtues is the fine spring which issues from the rocks of the bold promontory called Maughold Head, and which is dedicated to the saint of the name, who, it appears, had blessed the well and endowed it with certain healing virtues. On this account it is yet resorted to, as was the pool of Siloam of old, by every invalid who believes in its efficacy.
On the first Sunday in August the natives, according to ancient custom, still make a pilgrimage to drink its waters; and it is held to be of the greatest importance to certain females to enjoy the beverage when seated in a place called the saint’s chair, which the saint, for the accommodation of succeeding generations, obligingly placed immediately contiguous.—Bennet, Sketches of the Isle of Man, 1829, p. 65; Waldron, Description of Isle of Man, p. 151; Train, History of the Isle of Man, 1845, vol. ii. p. 121.