On the fifth Sunday in Lent, Carling Sunday, the villagers prepared a feast, consisting chiefly of peas, first steeped in water, and afterwards fried in butter, which were eaten on the afternoon of that day. Small troops or companies of pace-egg mummers went from house to house in Passion week enacting a short dramatic piece, and afterwards soliciting money, or, in some cases, eggs, from their audience. The _dramatis personæ_ usually represented St. George, the champion of England; a Turk, dressed in national costume; the Doctor, of the quack fraternity; the Fool; and one or two others. In the play, the Turk was wounded by St. George, and being left for dead upon the field, guarded by the Fool, was restored to health and strength by the Doctor, who opportunely arrived, and concluded his self-laudatory harangue over the body of the apparently defunct Turk, thus:— “Here, Jack, take a little out of my bottle, And let it run down thy throttle; If thou be not quite slain, Rise, Jack, and fight again.” Easter mumming is now rapidly becoming obsolete, and at present amounts to nothing more entertaining than the recital of a few weak, almost meaningless, rhymes, by, usually, five young boys, decorated with ribbons and coloured paper, and supposed to represent Lord Nelson, a Jack-Tar, a Lovely Youth, Old Toss-pot, and Old Bessy Branbags. “Lifting at Easter” was an old-established practice, existing in the villages, of hoisting individuals in the air, either in a chair or by any other means that might be convenient, until they purchased their release by payment of a forfeit, generally some small coin. On Ascension-day the parochial schoolmaster conducted his pupils, armed with peeled willow wands, round the limits of the parish, and each pupil struck the various boundary marks with his stick as he passed them. All-Hallows’ E’en was the time when the young people tested the durability of love or friendship by burning nuts:— “Two hazel nuts I threw into the flame, And to each nut I gave a sweetheart’s name: This with the loudest bounce, me sore amazed, That in a flame of brightest colour blazed; As blazed the nut, so may thy passion grow, For ’twas thy nut that did so brightly glow!”[51] Other pastimes contributed to the evening’s amusement, such as “ducking for apples,” and “snatch apple”—a tub, in the former case, having been nearly filled with water, and the fruit placed in it, each in turn, with hands bound behind them, endeavoured to seize the prize with the teeth; in the latter game, an apple was fastened to one extremity of a rod and a lighted candle to the other, the whole being suspended by a string from the ceiling, and the players, bound as before, snapped at the apple, and avoided the flame as well as they were able.