Herefordshire.
In this county and also in Lancashire it was in days gone by usual for the wealthy to dispense oaten cakes, called soul-mass cakes, to the poor, who upon receiving them repeated the following couplet in acknowledgment:
“God have your soul
Beens and all.”
See Brand, Pop. Antiq. 1849, vol. i. p. 392.
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.