British Popular Customs, Present and Past: Illustrating the Social and Domestic Manners of the People. Arranged According to the Calendar of the Year.Thiselton-Dyer, T. F. (Thomas Firminger)
History
British Popular Customs, Present and Past: Illustrating the Social and Domestic Manners of the People. Arranged According to the Calendar of the Year.
Thiselton-Dyer, T. F. (Thomas Firminger)
Folklore -- Great Britain; Great Britain -- Social life and customs
Formerly there existed at Frodsham the following custom:--In the
walking of the boundaries of the parish the “men of Frodsham” passed,
across the brook dividing it from Helsby (then in the adjoining parish
of Durham), the Frodsham banner to the “men of Helsby,” who in their
turn passed over the Helsby banner.
DERBYSHIRE.
One of the prettiest customs of the county of Derby is that of
well-dressing on Holy Thursday or Ascension Day at Tissington, near
Dovedale. In the village are five springs or wells, and these are
decorated with flowers, arranged in the most beautiful devices. Boards
are cut into arches, pediments, pinnacles, and other ornamental forms,
and are covered with moist clay to the thickness of about half-an-inch;
the flowers are cut off their stems and impressed into the clay as
closely together as possible, forming mottoes, borders, and other
devices; these are then placed over the wells, and it is impossible to
conceive a more beautiful appearance than they present, the water
gurgling from beneath them, and overhung by the fine foliage of the
numerous evergreens and forest trees by which they are surrounded. There
is one particular variety of the double daisy known to gardeners as the
Tissington daisy, which appears almost peculiar to the place, and is in
much repute for forming the letters of the texts and mottoes, with which
the wells are adorned. The day is observed as a complete holiday, and
the festival attracts a considerable number of visitors from all the
neighbouring towns and villages. Divine Service is performed in the
Church, and on its conclusion the minister and congregation join in
procession and visit each well. A portion of Scripture is read at each,
and a psalm or appropriate hymn is sung. The whole of the wells being
visited, and a prayer offered up, the company separate and, from the
absence of public-houses in the village, spend the rest of the day in
temperate enjoyment. The same custom was observed at Brewood and
Bilbrook, in the County of Stafford.--_Gent. Mag._ 1794, lxiv. pp. 115,
226; _Jour. of the Arch. Assoc._ 1852, vol. vii p. 205; vide _Times_,
May 19th, 1874.
DEVONSHIRE.
A correspondent of the _Gent. Mag._ (1787, vol. lvii, p. 718), says: It
is the custom in many villages in the neighbourhood of Exeter “to hail
the Lamb,” upon Ascension morn. That the figure of a lamb actually
appears in the east upon this morning is the popular persuasion; and so
deeply is it rooted, that it has frequently resisted (even in
intelligent minds) the force of the strongest argument.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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