Sebastian full of feathered shafts the dint of dart doth feel:
Then walketh Kathren with hir sworde in hande and cruel wheele:
The Challis and the Singing Cake with Barbara is led,
And sundrie other Pageants playde in worship of their bred.
Saint John before the Bred doth go, and poynting towards him,
Doth show the same to be the Lambe that takes away our sinne:
On whom two cladde in Angels’ shape to sundrie flowers fling
A number great of salving belles with pleasant sound doe ring.”
On the Feast of John the Baptist bonfires were lighted and the young people danced in the street, a survival of the midsummer rejoicings. Every house on this evening was decorated with leaves and branches, green birch, fennel, white lilies, St. John’s wort and garlands, with variegated lamps, which were hung up everywhere. There were miracle plays enacted in the summer on carts and wheeled machines. At Martinmas, 11th November, the beginning of winter, roast goose was eaten, and boys went about singing:
“It is the Day of Martilmass