Nov. 23.]
ST. CLEMENT’S DAY.
The festival day of St. Clement was formerly considered as the first day of winter, in which were comprised ninety-one days. From a State proclamation in 1540 it appears that processions of children were frequent on St. Clement’s Day; and, in consequence of a still more ancient custom of perambulating the streets on the night of this festival to beg drink for carousing, a pot was formerly marked against the 23rd of November upon the old runic or clog almanacs; but not upon all.—Med. Ævi Kalend. 1841, vol. i. p. 60.; Plot, History of Staffordshire, 1686, p. 430; see Gough’s Camden Brit. vol. ii. pt. xvi. p. 499.
Cambridgeshire.
The bakers of Cambridge hold an annual supper on St. Clement’s Day, which supper is called the “Baker’s Clem.”—N. & Q. 3rd S. vol. iv. p. 492.
Kent.
In Every Day Book (1826, vol. i. p. 1501) is the following account of an annual ceremony formerly celebrated on the evening of St. Clement’s Day, by the blacksmiths’ apprentices of the dockyard at Woolwich:—
One of the senior apprentices being chosen to serve as Old Clem (so called by them), is attired in a great coat, having his head covered with an oakum wig, face masked, and a long white beard; thus attired, he seats himself in a large wooden chair, chiefly covered with a sort of stuff called bunting, with a crown and anchor, made of wood, on the top and around it, four transparencies representing the “Blacksmiths’ Arms,” “Anchor Smiths at Work,” “Britannia with her Anchor,” and “Mount Etna.” He has before him a wooden anvil, and in his hands a pair of tongs and wooden hammer. A mate, also masked, attends him with a wooden sledge-hammer; he is also surrounded by a number of other attendants, some of whom carry torches, banners, flags, &c.; others, battle-axes, tomahawks, and other accoutrements of war. This procession, headed by a drum and fife, and six men with Old Clem mounted on their shoulders, proceed round the town, not forgetting to call on the blacksmiths and officers of the dockyard: here the money-box is pretty freely handed, after Old Clem and his mate have recited their speeches, which commence by the mate calling for order with,
“Gentlemen all, attention give,
And wish St. Clem long, long to live.”
Old Clem then recites the following speech:—