Old Customs.

"King Cador saw a pretty maid:King Cador would have kissed her:The damsel slipt aside and said—'King Cador, you have miss'd her.'"

(And echo answered—"Cador-mister.")

As to the etymology of the parish of Oddingley, Dr. Nash informs us that Odd and Dingley, two Saxon giants, were said to have fought upon the common at that place, till the former, beginning to feel anxious for his own personal comfort, roared out—

"O Dingley, Dingley, spare my breath:It shall be called Oddingley heath."

Oddo and Doddo were two powerful dukes of the Mercian kingdom, whose history is connected with that of several towns in this district, and they were buried in Pershore church. Oddingley, however, most probably means "the field of Oding."

In Areley Kings churchyard is a curious monument formed of sandstone blocks, like a portion of a wall, being part of the ancient fence; it bears this inscription in old capitals:

"Lithologema quare?Reponitvr Sir Harry."

Sir Harry Coningsby, who is thus commemorated, lived in a moated grange in Herefordshire, and was early left a widower, with one child, a daughter, on whom all his happiness was centred. He was standing one day at an open window with the child in his arms, when, in some playful action, she threw herself out of her father's arms, and fell into the moat beneath, where life soon became extinct. The wretched parent could no longer bear to reside at that fatal spot, and removed into Worcestershire, to a house called "The Sturt," in Areley Kings, where he led a solitary life, went usually by the name of "Sir Harry," and when he died was buried in a corner of the churchyard, the epitaph beingcarved on that part of the churchyard wall which formed Sir Harry's "pane.[8]" A walnut tree was planted close to the grave, and the boys of the parish were to have the walnuts, and crack them on "Sir Harry's" gravestone; but the tree was cut down by the late rector.

[8]The term "pane" means that portion of the churchyard fence which was allotted to each parishioner to keep in repair.

The ancient parish of King's Norton keeps up the memory of two traditions—first, that Queen Elizabeth once slept in a large and picturesque building still shown there; and second, that some centuries ago, letters were usually directed to "BirminghamnearKingsnorton." Droitwich likewise boasts of having, in some remote period, been a town of so much more importance than Worcester, that the latter was known chiefly by its vicinity to the former. There is indeed every probability that the salt springs of Droitwich were worked by the earliest settlers in this island.

The register of Broughton Hackett is said by Nash to contain an entry, that in the reign of Queen Anne the minister of that parish was tried, convicted, and executed, for baking his shepherd's boy in an oven!

There is a tradition at Birtsmorton that Cardinal Wolsey was once a servant in the Court-house of that parish.

Tibberton also has its traditions. It is said there that one Roger Tandy (temp.James I) was so very strong, that being at Sir John Pakington's, at Westwood, he took up a hogshead full of beer, drank out of the bunghole, and set it down again, without resting it on his knee or elsewhere. Also that one Hugh Pescod,alias"the little Turk," in the time of Oliver Cromwell, was hung up by the neck for half-an-hour by some Parliamentarian soldiers, and being cut down and thrown into a saw-pit, he recovered; in memory of which era in his history he planted some elm trees near his orchard at Wood Green.

At Dudley there is a tradition that many years ago a giant lived in Dudley castle, as did also one in the castle of Birmingham. The Birmingham giant had done suit and service to the Dudley giant for many years, but growing fat he began to kick, and refused to serve the Dudley giant longer. A furious dispute thereupon broke out; the Dudley giant in his rage threw a large stone all the way from Dudley at the Birmingham giant, and demolished his castle and killed him. Some of his surviving followers erected a stone in the lane as a memento of prowess and rage, and called it the war stone, whence the name Warstone Lane. When the lord of Dudley castle began the dispute which ended in the ruin of the lord of Birmingham, the latter had a large and deep hole made in the castle yard, in the which were buried the treasures and the muniments of his house, with a full charge to his familiar spirit—every great man in those days had one—to watch over them until better days came and justice were done to him. Some years ago, as a gentleman was digging a well in his garden he came unexpectedly upon a strong box. He began to dig round it, and had got it slung in ropes for the purpose of hauling it up, when an ugly dwarf jumped upon it (no one seeing where he came from or went to), exclaiming, "That's mine." Immediately all the earth fell in the hole he had made. He tried many times to get the box, but every time the same thing occurred, so he gave up the attempt in despair. My grandmother has often told me she did not know the gentleman, but she had frequently seen the pick and spade with which the hole had been made.—J. Vernal.

St. Augustine's Oak—the celebrated tree under which the "Apostle of the English" is said to have held a conference with the British bishops—has been claimed by many places in this county as a plant of Worcestershire growth: Rock and Alfrick, a place called "The Apostle's Oak," near Stanford Bridge, the Mitre Oak at Hartlebury, and other places, have been pointed out, but the record left of the site of this famous oak is so vague that any attempt at fixing it must be mere matter of conjecture. Some have supposed that the parish of Rock, whose original name was derived from the Saxon word signifying an oak, must have been the site, as Dr. Nash informs us that there was a hollow oak there held in great veneration by the country people, and called by them "The Apostle's Oak." When the turnpike was first erected, it served as a habitation for the keeper, and through his carelessness was burnt down.

Itis an ancient custom at Norton, near Evesham, on the 28th of December (Innocents' Day) to ring a muffled peal, in token of sorrow for the slaughter of the hapless "babes of Bethlehem," and, immediately afterwards, an unmuffled peal, in manifestation of joy for the deliverance and escape of the infant Saviour.

At Huddington church a custom prevails not to ring the bell for service till the clergyman appears in sight—which probably originated in that interesting period of church discipline when congregations were not always sure of a parson till they had caught him.

The number of godfathers and godmothers to attend at baptisms was fixed at Worcester, at a synod held in 1240, when the same provision was made as is now required by our rubric, viz., "That there should be for every male child that is to be baptized two godfathers and one godmother, and for every female one godfather and two godmothers."

The custom of "crabbing the parson" was observed till lately at St. Kenelm's chapelry, near Stourbridge. It was the practice for the villagers, and all who chose, to arm themselves with crabs on the wake Sunday, and as the parson approached the church they were plentifully and vigorously discharged at him in the most approved mode of "horizontal firing" until he reached the haven of the church porch. The substitution of sticks and stones for crabs led to the suppression of the practice. It is said that the origin of this curious game was at some "time immemorial," when a certain clergyman who served this chapel abstracted some dumplings from a pot at a farmhouse near and deposited them in the sleeves of his surplice, from which they rolled out during service time on the head of the clerk, who, thinking himself insulted, retaliated upon the parson by pelting him with a quantity of crabs which he had accidentally got in his pocket.

Two ancient customs are observed at Worcester Cathedral—first, the separation of men from the women; and second, the division of the morning service into two. The allotment to each sex of a distinct place in the church was very strictlyobserved among the primitive Christians, and Geoffrey of Monmouth states that the Britons observed the ancient custom of Troy, by which the men and women used to celebrate their festivals apart. There is an oldjeu d'espritin relation to the custom at Worcester:

"The churches in general, we everywhere find,Are places where men to the women are joined;At Worcester, it seems, they are more cruel hearted,For men and their wives are brought here to be parted."

As to the division of the morning service (one portion being performed between eight and nine o'clock; and the Litany, Communion, and sermon, from eleven to one), it is to be observed that these services were originally intended to be distinct, so that the curate might have time between them to receive the names of those who intended to communicate. The Communion Office still everywhere retains the old name of "the second service;" and Bishop Overal imputes it to the negligence of ministers and the carelessness of the people that they are huddled together into one office. (See Wheatley on the Common Prayer.)

The neighbourhood of Abberton, Flyford Flavel, Wick, Naunton Beauchamp, and other rural parishes in that district, celebrate weddings by serenading the house of the newly-married pair at night, and firing off guns, pistols, or any other instrument which will explode. Some parties at Wick were not long ago summoned before the magistrates for having participated in one of these popping-bouts, but the indignation of the district was greatly aroused by their being mulcted in certain expenses and ordered to discontinue the practice, for it is believed to be nearly "as old as Adam," and as indispensable a ceremony as the marriage vow itself.

At Broadwas, at all funerals, the bearers invariably set down the coffin in the middle of the lane leading to the church, and forming a circle around it, they all bow most reverentially—a remnant, no doubt, of those ceremonies observed in Catholic days, to mark respect for the departed and to bid him farewell.

Brand, in his "Popular Antiquities," states that a servant, named Betty Jelkes, who lived several years at Evesham, informed him of an ancient custom at that place for the master-gardeners to give their workpeople a treat of baked peas, both white and grey, and pork, annually on Holy Thursday.

On Ascension Day the inhabitants of Nantwich formerly assembled and sang a hymn of thanksgiving for the blessings of brine, and a very ancient pit there was held in great veneration and bedecked with boughs, flowers, and garlands; a jovial band of young people encircled the place, celebrating the occasion with song and dance. The custom also was yearly observed at Droitwich, on St. Richard's Day. This "Saint Richard" was Richard de Burford, Bishop of Chichester, who was born at Droitwich about the year 1200. Leland says that the principal salt springs "did fayle in the tyme of Richard de la Wich, or Burford, Bishop of Chichester; and that after, by his intercession, it was restored to the profit of the ould course; such (he adds) is the superstition of the people. In token whereof, or for the honour that the Wichemen and saulters bear unto this Richard, their countrieman, they used of late tymes on his daye to hange about the sault springe or well, once a yeere, with tapestrie, and to have drinking games or revels at it." One year "in thePresbyterian time (as Aubrey hath it) it was discontinued, and after that the spring shrank up or dried up for some time; so afterwards they revived their annual custom, notwithstanding the power of Parliament and the soldiers, and the salt water returned again and still continues."

The 5th of November—so long celebrated as

"The day that God did preventTo blow up his king and parliament,"

—is still faintly remembered among us by means of squibs and crackers stealthily discharged by mischievous boys in the streets. The good old system of bonfires—always a most popular mode of rejoicing—would probably not have been abandoned but for the numerous conflagrations it must have occasioned at a time when thatch generally covered our houses. In 1789, the Worcester corporation caused the bellman to cry down bonfires, although previous to that time the expense of providing fuel, and drink to hand round to the happy spectators, had been regularly defrayed out of the civic purse. Last year (1855) the notoriety of the day was partly revived, though on another account—namely, its being the first anniversary of the battle of Inkermann.

is wonderfully shorn of its honours since people have generally taken to read history, and have learned how little reason they have to bless the memory of the Stuarts. The marvellous escape of Charles II, when his pursuers passed under the oak tree in which he was secreted after the battle of Worcester, is now only commemorated in the city which boasts of being "faithful" to its kings whether theirmemory be odorous or not, by some half-dozen boughs of oak being affixed over as many doorways in different streets.

Midlent, or, as it is called in Worcestershire, "Mothering Sunday," is still observed as a minor festival, upon which all the children and grand-children visit their parents, and the pride of the feast is invariably a loin of veal.

The first of April, too, is not forgotten by the young fry, as "April fool day;" when all sorts of traps are set to make each other look ridiculous.

The old custom of drinking healths is on the decline. In a book of rhymes, published about 1660, in "a catch made before the king's coming to Worcester with the Scottish army," is the following:

"Each man upon his backShall swallow his sack,This health will endure no shrinking;The rest shall dance roundHim that lies on the ground:'Fore me this is excellent drinking."

The May-pole, it has been already stated, is still in existence at Offenham, Hartlebury, Bayton, &c. Thomas Hall, a puritanical writer (1660), author of the "Downfall of May Games," says—"The most of these May-poles are stollen, yet they give out that the poles are given them. There were two May-poles set up in my parish (Kingsnorton);the one was stollen, and the other was given by a profest Papist. That which was stollen was said to bee given, when 'twas proved to their faces that 'twas stollen, and they were made to acknowledge their offence. This pole that was stolen was rated at five shillings: if all the poles, one with another, were so rated, which was stollen this May, what a considerable sum would it amount to! Fightings and bloodshed are usual at such meetings, insomuch that 'tis a common saying, that 'tis no festival unless there bee some fightings."

"Heaving" or "lifting" at Easter has not long been discontinued at Worcester, the locality where the writer last heard of its performance being in Birdport and Dolday. On Easter Monday the women would surround any man who happened to be passing by, and by their joint efforts lift him up in the air, and on the next day the men did the same to the women. The only mode of escaping this kind of elevation was by "forking out" (as they term it in the classical phraseology of that neighbourhood) a certain sum to be spent in drink. At Hartlebury, a few years back, the farmhouse mistress would give the male servant a treat on Easter Tuesday, to heave the female servant, for she superstitiously believed that it would prevent the female servant from breaking the crocks during the ensuing year. At Kidderminster, on Easter Monday, the women would deck themselves gaily for the occasion, dress a chair with ribbons, and place a rope across the street to prevent the escape of any unfortunate man who chanced to pass that way. He was then seized, placed in the chair, elevated up on high, turned round three times, set down again, and was then kissed by all the women. He was also expected to pay something towards the evening's entertainments of tea and dancing. Next daythe women were heaved by the men. This custom was observed in the streets till about a dozen years ago, and even to a later period in the factories and public-houses in Kidderminster. Heaving was no doubt originally designed to represent the resurrection.

is one of the best preserved customs of the middle ages, and will probably last as long as "young men and maidens" have a tender regard for each other. The first woman seen by a man on the morning of this day, orvice versa, is called their Valentine, though the parties never see each other again. Since the establishment of the penny postage system and the cheapening of paper and print, the custom of sending Valentines has been much on the increase, some of our Worcester booksellers having found the trade sufficiently important to warrant the insertion of advertisements in the newspapers announcing a varied stock of these little missives on hand; while the progress of education and taste among the people is shown by the elegance with which some of the amatory designs are "got up." There is no satisfactory account of the origin of this custom, which has been proved to have existed at least five centuries ago. In the life of St. Valentine there is nothing that could have given rise to it. There was a rural tradition that on this day every bird chose its mate:

"Look how, my dear, the feather'd kind,By mutual caresses joined,Bill, and seem to teach us twoWhat we to love and custom owe.Shall only you and I forbearTo meet and make a happy pair?Shall we alone delay to live?This day an age of bliss may give.But ah! when I the proffer make,Still coyly you refuse to take;My heart I dedicate in vain,The too mean present you disdain.Yet, since the solemn time allowsTo choose the object of our vows,Boldly I dare profess my flame,Proud to be yours by any name."

"Look how, my dear, the feather'd kind,By mutual caresses joined,Bill, and seem to teach us twoWhat we to love and custom owe.

Shall only you and I forbearTo meet and make a happy pair?Shall we alone delay to live?This day an age of bliss may give.

But ah! when I the proffer make,Still coyly you refuse to take;My heart I dedicate in vain,The too mean present you disdain.

Yet, since the solemn time allowsTo choose the object of our vows,Boldly I dare profess my flame,Proud to be yours by any name."

is still resorted to by the boatmen of the Severn and the canals, whenever the frost interrupts their ordinary occupation, on which occasion small parties of them, dressed up fantastically with ribbons, and carrying short sticks, which they strike together in time with parts of the dance, perform in the streets, soliciting alms. The Morris Dancers made a considerable figure in the parochial festivals of the olden times. It is said the custom was introduced by the Moors into Spain. A few years ago a dance was performed in Herefordshire by eight men whose united ages amounted to eight hundred years; and Sir William Temple mentions that in a certain year of King James's reign there were ten men in Herefordshire who went about that county as Morris Dancers whose ages altogether numbered twelve hundred years! 'Tis not so much (says he) that so many in one county should live to that age, as that they should be in vigour and humour to travel and dance.

linger yet among us, but their operations are confined to an early serenading of the citizens with soft music a few mornings in the Christmas time. Formerly the Worcester Corporation kept a "company of waites," paying them wagesand dressing them in livery (cock'd hats and blue coats or cloaks), to be ready to play on all public occasions; but towards the close of the last century they were gradually superseded by another order of minstrels, "ye drums and fifes." Busby, in his Dictionary of Music, says the term "wayghts or waites" formerly signified "hautboys," and, what is remarkable, has no singular number. From the instruments, its signification was for a time transferred to the performers themselves; who, being in the habit of parading the streets by night with their music, occasioned the name to be applied generally to all musicians who followed a similar practice; hence those persons who annually, at the approach of Christmas, salute us with their nocturnal concerts, were, and are to this day, called Wayghts.

still is occasionally rung at St. Helen's church, in this city, and at Bewdley and King's Norton, also at Pershore from October till March. At Evesham it is rung in the fine old bell-tower at eight o'clock every evening, except on Saturdays, when it is rung at seven o'clock during the Christmas holidays—the week before and the week after Christmas Day it is rung at seven o'clock; and probably at other old towns in the county which I have not ascertained; but the perpetuation of the old custom seems to be dependent solely on the poor ringers' respect for ancient usages, as they apparently get no money for their pains. At St. Helen's, after ringing the eight o'clock bell, it was usual to strike upon it the number of the day of the month.

At St. Martin's church, a few weeks before Christmas, a bell is nightly rung, the expense of which, I believe, is provided for under the will of one Sir Robert Berkeley, Knight, who left a fund for bell-ringing on certain days, and to purchase bell-ropes. The bell at St. Martin's is called "the plum-pudding bell," probably in allusion to the approaching Christmas festivities, as the "pancake bell" was formerly rung in many places at Easter. In most old towns, as at Worcester and Bewdley, a very early morning bell was formerly rung, probably for the purpose of waking up apprentices and arousing the working classes generally, as also school-boys to their studies; but these parties are now mainly left to manage their early rising as they can, unless some friendly factory bell be at hand. There was also a passing bell, tolled while persons were dying. In the articles of visitation for the diocese of Worcester in 1662 occurs the following: "Doth the parish clerk or sexton take care to admonish the living, by tolling of a passing bell, of any that are dying, thereby to meditate of their own deaths, and to commend the other's weak condition to the mercy of God?"

"Catherning," or "Cattaring,"—that is, the observance of St. Catharine's Day (Nov. 25) has not yet gone out of remembrance in Worcestershire. It was formerly the custom of the Dean and Chapter—that day being the last of their audit—to distribute amongst the inhabitants of the College precincts a rich compound of wine, spices, &c., called "the Cattern bowl." A modified edition of the custom, I believe, is still observed. At Leigh, Harvington, Offenham, and other parishes, the young people had a custom of going round to the houses and asking for apples and beer, using a doggrel rhyme on the occasion which differs in most places, and St. Thomas's and old Christmas Day are sometimes selected for the purpose. The St. Thomas's Day perambulation is insome places called "Going a gooding." The rhyme or carol more usually sung on St. Catharine's Day began thus:

"Catt'n and Clement comes year by year,Some of yr apples and some of yr beer;Some for Peter, some for Paul,Some for Him who made us all.Peter was a good old man,For his sake give us some:Some of the best and none of the worst,And God will send yr souls to roost."

Concluding thus:

"Up the ladder and down with the can,Give me red apples and I'll begone."

The ladder alluding to the store of apples, generally kept in a loft; and the can, doubtless, to the same going down into the cellar for the beer. In some districts of the county the following doggrel is repeated:

"St. Clements! St. Clements! A cat by the ear!A good red apple—a pint o' beer!Some o' your mutton, some o' yourvale! [veal]If it's good, gie us adale, [deal]If itsnaught, gie us somesaut! [salt]Butler, butler, fill the bowl—If you fill it of the best,God will send your soul to rest;But if you fill it of the small,The Devil take butler, bowl, and all!"

A correspondent states that this custom originated, or was revived, when Queen Elizabeth visited Worcester, the inhabitants sparing no expense to give her Majesty a gracious reception upon St. Catharine's Day, when a number of apples were strung before the fire and the citizens went with a can from house to house, begging apples and beer, and repeating the above lines.

At Kidderminster is a whimsical charity for the benefit of the inhabitants of Church Street. Mr. Brecknall, a bachelor, in 1778, bequeathed a farthing loaf and twopenny cake annually to everysingleperson born in that street who should apply for it on the 21st of June; the applicant is eligible during the whole of his or her life, or in whatever part of the world residing. The mere residents of Church Street, if not born there, are also entitled to a cake, but their claim is forfeited when they leave the street. The recipients make themselves truly "jolly" on the night of the distribution.—In the same town the inhabitants formerly assembled at a particular hour on Michaelmas Day, on the occasion of the election of a bailiff, which was announced by the ringing of the town-house bell, and during one hour—termed "lawless hour"—the poorer classes amused themselves by throwing cabbage-stalks at each other, while the higher classes threw apples. Sometimes the apples were thrown from windows, to be scuffled for, and many a black eye was the consequence of this fruit being used as a projectile. After a whole street had been amused by this practical fun, it was given out by some leader of the mob what locality was next to be favoured, and thither they all proceeded at once. This custom was observed within the last twenty years.

On the second Sunday in July there was a custom at Chaddesley Corbett to put strangers "through the whoop." I cannot ascertain exactly what this practice was, as the inhabitants from whom I have sought information fight exceedingly shy of it, and some even deny the existence of the custom; but one gentleman informs me that it was usualon that day for the lower order of the parishioners to play some practical joke—anything which first presented itself to their imaginations—upon whatever stranger happened to come within their boundary.

There is a curious tenure at Inkberrow. The manor and advowson were granted by Philip and Mary to an ancestor of the present Lord Abergavenny, on condition that in default of male issue the same should revert to the Crown. Up to the present time, however, there has been no lack of males in the family, and the present noble lord "hath his quiver full" of promising sons.

Among the colliers in the north of this county, as also that singular race of beings known as the "Lye-wasters," near Stourbridge, the custom is observed of adopting nicknames, so that they are but very little known by their Christian or surnames, and an officer who goes to serve a writ or summons has a task which he finds himself unable to perform. Amusing instances are given in "The Rambler," vol. ii, p. 80, and vol. iii, p. 253.

At Halesowen, in former times, the celebration of bride-ales or love-ales, at a wedding, prevailed, and led to such disorder that during the reign of Elizabeth it was found necessary by the Borough Court to make some most stringent orders thereon. The custom was for the bride to sell a quantity of ale, for which she received, by way of contribution, whatever handsome price the friends assembled chose to pay; the object being to assist the young people in commencinghousekeeping. The custom is now reversed, for the entertainment to be given by young married people to their friends is at present a serious item.

The way of relieving parochial paupers at Harvington in the seventeenth century was by assigning them for certain days to any of the inhabitants who would employ them. An entry occurs in the parish register thus:

"April 6, 1697. A particular of the several days as Thomas Godfrey is to worke with the persons under written, for which they are to give him 8d. a day, or if they doe not employ him, 4d. per day; to begin from the 6th of April, 1697, and soe to goe thro' the towne as thus:"

Then follows a list of thirty-six persons who were to employ the said Thomas Godfrey, giving him a month's intermission at harvest time.

On the confines of Worcestershire, towards Ledbury, it was some years ago the custom, on Twelfth Night, for the farmers to make twelve fires upon the head (east side) of one of their wheat fields. One of these fires was larger than the others, which they called "Old Meg," and around this the farm servants, with their families and friends, congregated to drink warm cider, with plum-cake toasted in it, and with loud hurrahs wishing success to the master and his crops; then they proceeded to the cow-house, which had been nicely cleaned for the occasion, and the cows had also been cleaned and tied up, being allowed a good supply of their best provender. A large plum-cake, bound round with tape, was stuck on the horns of the best cow, and buckets of cider with plum-cake were carried in. Each person present then drank to the health of the cow, using this doggrel:

"Here's to thee, Ball, and to thy white horn;Pray God send thy master a good crop of corn,Of wheat, rye, and barley, and all sorts of grain,And at this time twelve months we meet here again.The leaves they are green,The nuts they are brown,They all hang so highThat they cannot come down.They cannot come down until the next year,So thee eat thy oats and we'll drink our beer" (or cider, as the case might be.)

Then the cowman went up to the cow, and caused her by some movement to shake her head, and if the cake tumbled over in front of her it belonged to the cowman; if it fell behind, it became the property of the dairymaid. The party then retired to the house, and made the evening jolly, never concluding the festivity without a dance. I have heard that to this day the custom of lighting twelve fires on the same night still prevails at Preston, near Ledbury, and other places. A correspondent informs me that he remembers a custom similar to the above being observed in the neighbourhood of Tenbury on Christmas Eve, and that Neen Sollars was the last parish in which he witnessed it.

The twelve fires on the eve of Twelfth Day, kindled with great rejoicing before a pole wrapped up in straw, called "the old woman," in a field that has been sown with grain, are supposed to be the remains of some heathen ceremony derived from the Romans or Saxons, allusive to Ceres and the months, but afterwards adopted to a holiday season of the Christian year. This practice (as the Rev. J. Webb, of Tretire, near Ross, informs us) is still continued in parts of Herefordshire.

It is the custom at the present day in some parishes in Worcestershire (Longdon for instance) for boys and girls togo early on New Year's morning to all the farmhouses and say as follows, all in one breath:

"Bud well, bear well,God send you fare well,Every sprig and every sprayA bushel of apples next New Year's Day.Morning, master and mistress,A happy New Year,A pocket full of money,A cellar full of beer.Please to give me a New Year's gift."

A clergyman in Worcestershire communicated to the editor of "Brand's Antiquities" the following doggrel lines, but the occasion and use of them appear to be unknown, and it is not unlikely that some corruption has crept into them:

"Wassail brews good ale,Good ale for Wassail;Wassail comes too soonIn the wane of the moon."

In the neighbourhood towards Ledbury it was customary for the farmers to complete wheat-sowing by what was called Allontide (Allhallows)—Nov. 1st. If they had finished by the previous night, a cake was divided between the dairymaid and the waggoner. If the latter could succeed in going into the kitchen by a certain hour at night, and cracking his whip three times, the cake belonged to him; but if the dairymaid, by any means in her power, could prevent the performance of the whip ceremony, she claimed one half of the cake. The maid was on the look-out an hour or so before the required time, and the wits of both parties were on the alert to counteract each other's movements, affording much amusement to the rustic spectators. Respecting the period for the completion of wheat-sowing, the following old saying prevailed in the above district many years ago:

"At Michaelmas fair (Oct. 2)The wheat should hide a hare."

Everybody knows that in the present day they do not begin sowing till after that date.

Old Christmas is still observed, especially in the western parts of the county. In old-fashioned farmhouses the misletoe remains till the following Christmas Eve, when it is burned, and a fresh bough put up.

though nearly banished by the advance of education and improved manners, is occasionally performed in the secluded parts of this district. The usage is, that when a male stranger has to pass through the hop ground, he is seized by the women of the picking party, and threatened to be pitched into the crib (an article like a large cradle or child's crib, into which the hops are picked), and then to be smothered with the caresses of all the oldest and most snuffy women present, unless he will "shell out" something handsome to be spent in liquor. If he be young and cleanly, the chances are ten to one that he prefers paying the fine. Sometimes respectable women have been cribbed; but in all instances that have been brought before the magistrates, the law's supremacy over absurd custom has been vindicated.

Under the head of "Holy Thursday and its old customs at Worcester" the "Worcester Herald" of May 27, 1854, contained the following sketch, which is worthy of a place here:

The ancient custom of "processioning," or "beating the bounds," on Ascension Day, it seems, has not yet become a dead letter in this city. The parishes of All Saints andSt. Clement are among the most determined upholders of antiquity in this respect; and although it is but seldom that either parish rejoices in these "free-and-easy" carnivals, there are, nevertheless, a few jovial spirits left in each, who occasionally become so overcharged with a desire for practical fun and adventure that "go it they must," and straightway the venerable custom of "beating the bounds" is as good an excuse as any other for indulging their appetite. The practice, we believe, has not been observed in the parish of All Saints for ten years past, till Thursday last, when it came off with all thateclatand superabundance of relish which had been accumulating during the interval of a decade of years. The steeple being, of course, the rallying point, the party met in the morning at the vestry-room, from whence sallied the Rev. Dr. Bartlett, the curate, Messrs. H. Davis and E. Clarke, churchwardens, Messrs. Hill and William Hole, overseers, and a party of about twenty parishioners, accompanied by a shoal of larkish striplings—a body which considerably augmented during the line of route—vires acquirit eundo. Down Quay Street they went and down the steps towards a boat, but not without misgivings did the party cast their eyes aloft to the rough-and-ready customers assembled on the bridge, under the centre arch of which the "processioners" were doomed to go. Two policemen had been impressed into the boat for purposes of defence, but what is a policeman more than any other mortal under the combined influences of a cataract of mud and water? And what avails a staff, sword, or dagger, when the enemy grins upon you from a perpendicular height of some twenty or thirty feet? Accordingly the party went through the ordeal with all the calm courage of victims whose only consolation is, that when custom sanctions, neither law nor personal comfort is accounted as of the slightest consequence. Onthe whole they escaped as well as could have been expected, having encountered only a little water, mud, and a few et ceteras. Thence they proceeded, and cast anchor in Dolday Bay, and after landing there, our informant assures us, "the game was tremendous." Six or seven shillings' worth of buns were scattered, about to produce some scrambling among the boys, and the consequences, as might be supposed, were a considerable exhibition of juvenile activity, amid which dirt and rubbish "around their heads were flying;" and one venerable dame, declaring she had nothing else to part with, discharged the contents of her teapot so effectually as to plaster up the eye of our informant, who insists upon it that hecouldn't seewhy the old lady should have resorted to such extremities for putting him into hot water. Dolday and the Butts were passed, and the interior of eight or ten houses inspected, the wall of the Independent Chapel, Angel Street, scaled, and the Crown yard reached, when another drenching shower slightly damped the ardour of the borderers; but, like Cromwell's Invincibles, armed to the teeth with pluck, on they went, through Mr. Loxley's house and back premises, down Powick Lane, through Tanner's yard, and so back to the vestry, where progress was duly recorded in the books. We should not omit to state that the chaplain, who accompanied the party, had done his best to turn the old ceremony to good account, by delivering appropriate addresses, &c., at various points on the line of route. On again emerging from the vestry, a final salutation was given to the explorers by the assembled crowd, in which the policemen got thoroughly rinsed; a worthy Boniface, known as "The old fellow," was prostrated to the ground, in which position he shouted most piteously, "Blow me if I ain't blinded;" and an overseer was so roughly handled, that his usual amiable temper became ruffled, and he swore a deadly oath, that if they gave himthree months for it, he would punch the head of the first fellow he caught. The boys were treated to a scrambling for pence, and so ended the out-door performances. After the fatigues of the day, a jolly party of about twenty-five sat down to dinner at Mr. Hill's, the Herefordshire House, Newport Street, whose admirable catering soon made them forget the mishaps of the morning, and a very pleasant evening was spent.

The St. Clement's officials (Mr. Bozward, churchwarden, Messrs. Spilsbury and Fenn, overseers) and a number of the parishioners, armed with a flag and a bough of oak, took to the water like ducks, from Tearne's meadow, near the Dog and Duck, passed down the middle of the Severn to the Watermen's Chapel, where they landed to take in a part of the Cattle Market and the site of the old parish church; embarked once more, passed the Rubicon of the centre arch of the bridge, landed on the west side of the river, opposite the Cathedral, and performed all the remainder by land. The usual ablutions, bedaubings, scramblings, and so forth, were not forgotten. Afterwards the party dined at the very comfortable hostelry of the Dog and Duck.

A word or two on the origin of the above old ceremony may not be misplaced here. We find that formerly it was the custom to go round the bounds and limits of the parish on one of the three days before Holy Thursday, or the feast of Ascension, when the minister, accompanied by the churchwardens and parishioners, was wont to deprecate the vengeance of God, beg a blessing on the fruits of the earth, and to preserve the rights and properties of the parish. To this Wither alludes in his "Emblems" (1636), as follows:

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