Bath.
Baptismal Superstition.—In the north of England, when several children are brought to be baptized at the same time, great anxiety is shown by the people lest the girls should take the precedence of the boys; in which case it is believed the latter, when arrived at man's estate, would be beardless.
E.H.A.
Rushbearing (Vol. i., p 259.).—Wednesday, July 21, 1847, Grasmere Church was decorated with ribbons, which had some reference to the rushbearing which had taken place on the preceding Sunday.
It takes place at Ambleside one Sunday later.
Extract from Black's "Guide to the Lakes," p. 43.
"An interesting ceremony takes place at Ambleside once every year, which the stranger may think himself fortunate in seeing, not so much for the mere sight itself, though that is pretty enough, as for its being the vestige of a very ancient observance. The ceremony alluded to is called Rushbearing. On the eve of the last Sunday in July, the village girls walk in procession to the chapel bearing garlands of flowers (formerly rushes), which are there tastefully disposed. After service, the day following, these are removed, and it is usual that a sermon, in allusion to the event, be preached. This observance is probably as remote as the age of Gregory IV., who is known to have recommended to the early disseminators of Christianity in this country, that on the anniversary of the dedication of churches wrested from the Pagans, the converts should build themselves huts of the boughs of trees about their churches, and celebrate the solemnities with religious feasting. In former times, the rushes were spread upon the floor of the sacred edifice, and the garlands remained until withered. Possibly the practice of covering the floors of buildings with rushes by way of protection against the damp earth, may have had something to do with keeping the custom in existence, long after the origin of the institution had been forgotten. The ceremony of Rushbearing has now fallen into complete disuse, except in a few secluded hamlets in Westmoreland, and in one or two other places in the kingdom; nor can that disuse be much regretted, since what was founded as a religious act, every where degenerated into an occasion for unseemly revelry, in fact, into a sort of rustic saturnalia. And yet, when we look at this remain of the olden time, as observed at Ambleside, we are tempted to say with the poet,—
"'Many precious rites
And customs of our rural ancestry
Are gone or stealing from us: this, I hope