In Yorkshire and the northern counties Palm Sunday is a day of great diversion, young and old amusing themselves with sprigs of willow, or in manufacturing palm-crosses, which are stuck up or suspended in houses. In the afternoon and evening a number of impudent girls and young men sally forth and assault all unprotected females whom they meet out of doors, seizing their shoes, and compelling them to redeem them with money. These disgraceful scenes are continued until Monday morning, when the girls extort money from the men by the same means; these depredations were formerly prolonged till Tuesday noon.--_Time’s Telescope_, 1822, p. 68. At Filey figs are also eaten on this day.--Cole, _History of Filey_, 1826, p. 135. WALES. In South Wales Palm Sunday goes by the name of Flowering Sunday, from the custom of persons assembling in the churchyards, and spreading fresh flowers upon the graves of friends and relatives.--TIMES, 13th April, 1868, p. 7. MARCH 16.] LANCASHIRE. A rural celebration used to be held at Poulton-in-the-Fylds on the Monday before Good Friday, by young men, under the name of “Jolly Lads,” who visited such houses as were likely to afford good entertainments, and excited mirth by their grotesque habits and discordant noises. This was evidently borrowed from the practice of the _pace_ or _pask eggers_, of other parts of the county, merely preceding instead of following Easter.--Baines, _Hist. of Lancashire_, 1836, vol. iv. p. 436. OXFORDSHIRE. Aubrey, in MS. Lansd., 231, gives the following: It is the custom for the boys and girls in country schools in several parts of Oxfordshire, at their breaking up in the week before Easter, to go in a gang from house to house, with little clacks of wood, and when they come to any door, there they fall a-beating their clacks, and singing this song: “Herrings, herrings, white and red, Ten a penny, Lent’s dead; Rise, dame, and give an egg, Or else a piece of bacon. One for Peter, two for Paul, Three for Jack a Lent’s all. Away, Lent, away!” They expect from every house some eggs, or a piece of bacon, which they carry baskets to receive, and feast upon at the week’s end. At first coming to the door, they all strike up very loud, “Herrings, herrings,” &c., often repeated. As soon as they receive any largess, they begin the chorus-- “Here sits a good wife, Pray God save her life; Set her upon a hod, And drive her to God.” But if they lose their expectation and must goe away empty, then, with a full cry,-- “Here sits a bad wife, The devil take her life; Set her upon a swivell, And send her to the devil.” And, in further indignation, they commonly cut the latch of the door, or stop the key-hole with dirt, or leave some more nasty token of displeasure.--Thom’s _Anecdotes and Traditions_, 1839, p. 113. MARCH 17.] ST. PATRICK’S DAY.