“But it would make a stranger laugh
To see th’ English hang poor Taff:
A pair of breeches, and a coat,
Hat, shoes, and stockings, and what not,
All stuffed with hay to represent
The Cambrian hero thereby meant:
With sword sometimes three inches broad,
And other armour made of wood,
They drag hur to some publick tree,
And hang hur up in effigy.”
To this custom Pepys probably alludes in his Diary for 1667 (Bohn’s Edition, 1858, vol. iii. p. 761):
“In Mark Lane I do observe (it being St. David’s Day) the picture of a man dressed like a Welshman, hanging by the neck upon one of the poles that stand out at the top of the merchant’s houses, in full proportion; and very handsomely done, which is one of the oddest sights I have seen a good while.”
Brand, in his Pop. Antiq. (1849, vol. i. p. 105), thinks that from this custom arose the practice, at one time in vogue amongst pastrycooks, of hanging or skewering taffies or Welshmen of gingerbread for sale on St. David’s Day.
The goat has by time-honoured custom been attached to the regiment of the Royal Welsh (23rd) Fusiliers, and the following extract, taken from the Graphic (No. 171, March, 8th, 1873), shows how St. David’s Day is observed by the officers and men of this regiment:
The drum-major, as well as every man in the regiment, wears a leek in his busby; the goat is dressed with rosettes and ribbons of red and blue. The officers have a party, and the drum-major, accompanied by the goat, marches round the table after dinner, carrying a plate of leeks, of which he offers one to each officer or guest who has never eaten one before, and who is bound to eat it up, standing on his chair, with one foot on the table, while a drummer beats a roll behind his chair. All the toasts given are coupled with the name of St. David, nor is the memory of Toby Purcell forgotten. This worthy was gazetted major of the regiment when it was first raised, and was killed in the Battle of the Boyne.
Middlesex.
St. David’s Day is observed in London, says Hampson (Med. Ævi Kalend. vol. i. p. 168), by the Charitable Society of Ancient Britons, who were established in 1714, in behalf of the Welsh Charity School in Gray’s Inn Road. On this occasion each man wears an artificial leek in his hat.
Oxfordshire.
On St. David’s Day at Jesus College, Oxford, an immense silver gilt bowl, containing ten gallons, which was presented to the College by Sir Watkin Williams Wynne in 1732, is filled with “swig,” and handed round to those who are invited to sit at the festive and hospitable board.—Hone’s Year Book, 1838, p. 265.