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
Richard Aldridge gave the interest of 200_l._, Three per Cent. Consols,
that the dividend should, for ever, be disposed of as follows:--1_l._
1_s._ to the vicar of the parish of St. Nicholas for performing morning
service annually in the parish church on the 21st of October, and
preaching a sermon in commemoration of the glorious victory obtained by
Lord Nelson over the combined fleets of France and Spain off Cape
Trafalgar, on the 21st of October 1805; 10_s._ 6_d._ equally between the
clerk and sexton for their attendance at such service and sermon. The
residue of the dividend to be applied to keeping a monument of his
friend in good condition, and the surplus after such repair to be given
to the poor on the 6th of December each year in coals and
garments.--Edwards, _Old English Customs and Charities_, 1842, p. 170.
OCT. 25.] ST. CRISPIN’S DAY.
In many places St. Crispin’s Day is a great holiday among the
shoemakers, and the origin of it is thus explained:--Two brothers,
Crispin and Crispinian, natives of Rome, having become converts to
Christianity, travelled to Soissons in France about the year 303, in
order to propagate the Christian faith. Being desirous, however, of
rendering themselves independent they gained a subsistence by making
shoes, with which it is said they furnished the poor at an extremely
small price, an angel, according to the legend, supplying them with
leather. They suffered martyrdom in the persecution under Maximian.
In _Time’s Telescope_ for 1816 it is observed that the shoemakers of the
present day are not far behind their predecessors in the manner of
keeping St. Crispin. From the highest to the lowest it is a day of
feasting and jollity. It is also observed as a festival with the
corporate body of cordwainers or shoemakers of London, but without any
sort of procession on the occasion.
NORTHUMBERLAND.
In the town of Hexham, the following custom is, or was, at one time
observed:--The shoemakers of the town meet and dine by previous
arrangements at some tavern; a King Crispin, queen, prince, and
princess, elected from members of their fraternity of families, being
present. They afterwards form in grand procession (the ladies and their
attendants excepted), and parade the streets with banners, music, &c.,
the royal party and suite gaily dressed in character. In the evening
they reassemble for dancing and other festivities. To his majesty and
consort, and their royal highnesses the prince and princess (the latter
usually a pretty girl), due regal homage is paid during that day.--_N. &
Q. 1st S._ vol. vi. p. 243.
At one time the cordwainers of Newcastle celebrated the festival of St.
Crispin by holding a coronation of their patron saint in the court of
the Freemen’s Hospital at the Westgate, and afterwards walking in
procession through the principal streets of the town. This caricature
show produced much laughter and mirth.--Mackenzie, _History of
Newcastle_, 1827, vol. i. p. 88.
SUSSEX.
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