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
About the middle of May there is an annual migration of young eels up
the Thames at Kingston. They appear in shoals, giving to the margin of
the river an appearance not altogether agreeable; but their origin and
destination are alike matter of conjecture. It is reasonably supposed
that these swarms migrate from the lakes in Richmond Park, where immense
numbers are annually bred, and that they descend the rivers, stocking
the creeks and streams for some miles above the town. There is generally
a crowd of eager men, women, and children, provided with every possible
vessel wherein to catch the slippery prey on the first intimation of
their approach; and the animated scene has caused the occasion to be
called Eel Fair.--Biden, _History of Kingston-upon-Thames_, 1852, p.
128.
MAY 17.] TRINITY SUNDAY.
Its observance is said to have first been established by Archbishop
Becket, soon after his consecration. “Hic post consecrationem suam
instituit festivitatem principalem S. Trinitatis annis singulis in
perpetuam celebrandam, quo die primam missam suam celebravit.”--Wharton,
H., _Anglia Sacra_, 1691, fol. pt. i. p. 8.
It is still customary for the judges and great law-officers of the
Crown, together with the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council, to
attend Divine Service at St. Paul’s Cathedral, and hear a sermon.
On Trinity Sunday, formerly, processions of children, with garlands of
flowers and ribbons, were common.--Timbs’ _Something for Everybody_,
1861, p. 83.
LINCOLNSHIRE.
The parish of Clee possesses a right of cutting rushes from a piece of
land, called “Bescars,” for the purpose of strewing the floor of the
church every Trinity Sunday. A small quantity of grass is annually cut
to preserve this right.--Edwards, _Old English Customs and Charities_,
p. 217.
NORTHUMBERLAND.
The following extract is taken from the Newcastle _Daily Journal_ of
June 17th, 1867:--
Yesterday being Trinity Sunday, in pursuance of a time-honoured custom,
the Master, Deputy-Master, and Brethren of the Ancient and Honourable
Corporation of the Trinity House attended officially in All Saints’
Parish Church, Newcastle. A noteworthy relic of the past in connection
with the service was the performance on the organ (on the entrance and
exit of the Master and Brethren) of the national air, ‘Rule Britannia.’
The rendering of a secular air--even as an evidence of respect--has been
objected to; but the organist cites the custom of half a century.
WILTSHIRE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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