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
At Sevenoaks the children carry their tasteful boughs and garlands from
door to door. The boughs consist of a bunch of greenery and wild flowers
tied at the end of a stick, which is carried perpendicularly. The
garlands are formed of two hoops interlaced cross-wise, and covered with
blue and yellow flowers from the woods and hedges. Sometimes the
garlands are fastened at the end of a stick carried perpendicularly, and
sometimes hanging from the centre of a stick borne horizontally by two
children. Either way the effect is pleasing, and fully worth the few
pence which the appeal of “May-day, garland-day! please to remember the
May-bough!” makes one contribute.--_N. & Q. 4th S._ vol. iii. p. 424.
LANCASHIRE.
In most places it is customary for each driver of a team to decorate his
horses with gaudy ribbons on May-day. In Liverpool and Birkenhead,
however, where some thousands of men are employed as carters, this
May-day dressing has grown into a most imposing institution. Every
driver of a team in and around the docks appears to enter into rivalry
with his neighbours, and the consequence is that most of the horses are
gaily dressed and expensively decorated. The drivers put on their new
suits, covered with white linen slops, and sport new whips in honour of
the occasion. Some of the embellishments for the horses are of a most
costly character; not a few are disposed in most admirable taste; and in
several instances they amount to actual art-exhibitions, since the carts
are filled with the articles in which their owners deal. Real and
artificial flowers are disposed in wreaths and other forms upon
different parts of the harness, and brilliant velvet cloths, worked in
silver and gold, are thrown over the loins of the horses; and if their
owners are of sufficient standing to bear coats-of-arms, these are
emblazoned upon the cloths, surrounded with many curious and artistic
devices. Not only are the men interested in these displays, but wives
and daughters, mistresses and servants, vie with each other as to who
shall produce the most gorgeous exhibition. A few years ago the
Corporation of Liverpool exhibited no fewer than one hundred and
sixty-six horses in the procession, the first cart containing all the
implements used by the scavenging department, most artistically
arranged. The railway companies, the brewers, the spirit-merchants, and
all the principal dock-carriers, &c., send their teams with samples of
produce to swell the procession. After parading the principal streets,
headed by bands of music and banners, the horses are taken home to their
respective stables, and public drinks are given to the carters by the
Corporation, the railway companies, and other extensive firms. The Mayor
and other members of the Corporation attend these annual feasts, and
after the repasts are ended the carters are usually addressed by some
popular speaker, and much good advice is frequently given them.--Harland
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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