"For he was laid in white Sheep's wool
New pulled from tanned Fells;
And o'er his Head hang'd Spiders webs
As they had been Bells.
Is this the Country Guise, thought he?
Then here I will not stay."
—Ballad, K. Alfred and the Shepherd.
"'Tis thy Country Guise, I see,
To be thus bluntish still."
—Ibid.
"The Norman guise was to walke and jet up and downe the streets."—Lambert's Peramb. of Kent, 1826, p. 320.
[E452] "Plough Monday." "The Monday next after Twelfth-day, when our Northern plow-men beg plow-money to drink; and in some places if the plowman (after that day's work) come with his whip to the kitchin hatch, and cry 'cock in pot' before the maid says 'cock on the dung-hill,' he gains a cock on Shrove-Tuesday."—Coles' Dict. 1708. "Among the rural customs connected with the anniversary of Christmas were those of Plough-Monday, which fell on the first Monday after Twelfth-day. This was the holiday of the ploughmen, who used to go about from house to house begging for plough-money to drink. In the northern counties, where this practice was called the fool-plough (a corruption perhaps of yule-plough), a number of sword-dancers dragged about a plough, while one of the party, called the Bessey, was dressed for the occasion like an old woman; and another, who was the fool of the pageant, was almost covered with skins, and wore the tail of some animal dangling down his back. While the rest danced, one of these odd personages went among the spectators, rattling a box, and collecting small donations; and it is said that whosoever refused to pay had the plough dragged to his door and the soil of his threshold ploughed up."—Pict. Hist. of England, ii. 894.
[E453] The Skreene was a wooden settee or settle, with a high back sufficient to screen the sitters from the outward air, and was in the time of our ancestors an invariable article of furniture near all kitchen fires, and is still seen in the kitchens of many of our old farm-houses in Cheshire. The meaning of the two lines:
"If ploughman get hatchet or whip to the skreene,
maides loseth their cock if no water be seene,"
is, "if the ploughman can get his whip, ploughstaff, hatchet, or anything he wants in the field to the fireside (screen being here equivalent to fireside) before the maid has got her kettle on, then she loses her Shrove-tide cock, which belongs wholly to the men."
[E454] "Shroftide." The Hen is hung at a Fellow's back who has also some Horse Bells about him, the rest of the Fellows are blinded, and have Boughs in their Hands, with which they chase this Fellow and his Hen about some large Court or small Enclosure. The Fellow with his Hen and Bells shifting as well as he can, they follow the sound, and sometimes hit him and his Hen, other times, if he can get behind one of them, they thresh one another well favour'dly; but the Jest is, the Maids are to blind the Fellows, which they do with their Aprons, and the cunning Baggages will endear their Sweet Hearts with a peeping hole, while the others look out as sharp to hinder it. After this the Hen is boil'd with Bacon, and store of Pancakes and Fritters are made. She that is noted for lying a Bed long or any other Miscarriage, hath the first Pancake presented to her, which most commonly falls to the Dog's share at last, for no one will own it their due.—T.R.
"Let glad Shrove Tuesday bring the pancake thin
Or fritters rich with apples stored within."
—Oxford Sausage.
[E455] "Wake Day." The Wake-day is the day on which the Parish Church was dedicated, called So, because the Night before it, they were used to watch till Morning in the Church and feasted all the next day. Waking in the Church was left off because of some abuses, and we see here it was converted to wakeing at the Oven.—T.R. "Similar to the church-ales, though of a still more ancient origin, were the Wakes. It had been the custom, on the dedication of a church, or the birth-day of a saint, for the people to assemble on the night previous, to hold a religious vigil in the open air; and, as they remained all night occupied in devotional exercises, this practice was called a wake. Such a method of spending the night, however, soon gave place to very different employments; and feasting, riot, and licentiousness became the prevailing characteristics of these vigils. These concourses, also, from every neighbouring town and parish, naturally suggested the expediency of improving such opportunities for the purposes of traffic; and hence the wakes gradually became fairs, which in some places they still continue to be."—Pict. Hist. of England, ii. 897.