it and share in the fun. At Ludlow, where all old customs seem to have a peculiar vitality, the observance of Bonfire Day' is still vigorously kept up. At an appointed hour in the evening a procession of men and boys walking two and two, and carrying lighted torches, starts from the Bridge Inn at the bottom of Corve Street, headed by a drum-and-fife band playing some lively tune (such as Shrewsbury Quarry), and marches through the Bull Ring in the centre of the town, over Ludford Bridge up to Whitcliff Hill outside the town, the appointed site of the bonfire. The 'Guy,' with a pipe in his mouth and a turnip lantern in his hand, is borne in a chair by four men in the midst of the procession, and duly burnt on the bonfire. If any well-known person in the place should happen to have excited the enmity of the populace, his effigy is substituted for, or added to that of Guy Fawkes. About 1870, an old gentleman in the neigh. bourhood died, and left his property away from his children, and the lawyer who made the will was burnt in effigy on Whitcliff the next Bonfire Day, to the usual accompaniment of squibs and fireballs.' These are bundles of tow about the size of a turnip saturated with turpentine and naphtha, or tar, and bound round with fine wire, leaving a projecting piece as a sort of handle. They will burn for several minutes, and are freely kicked and flung about on Bonfire Night in all directions. I have seen as many as a hundred flung high in the air at once,' says my informant, who was an eyewitness of the scene as lately as 1875: and the customs of 'Bonfire Night' at Ludlow are still in force. The Wellington Journal of Nov. 8th, 1884, says: All the display made on the night of the 5th was a procession carrying five effigies and accompanied by bearers of lighted

1 There is nothing more deeply rooted in the minds of our poor, than a horror of leaving property away from the nearest kindred, and a belief that such 'ill-gotten gains bring no good.' Two deaths happened at a certain house at short intervals. There'll never go no luck wi' the Lower 'Ouse,' was the comment. 'It didna goo to the right heir.' An old gentleman passed over his relations to leave his property to persons only slightly, if at all, akin to him. He was buried at a distance from the place where he had lived, and when his body was being taken away, at the confines of the parish the horses became restive, the door of the hearse flew open, and the coffin fell out. 'It seemed like as if he couldna go,' said the folk. 'You see, he hadna done right wi' his money.'

Chinese lanterns (torchlights being prohibited), and the whole headed by a drum-and fife band. The procession moved to the tune of the Rogues' March" up Corve Street to the Market Hall, through the Square, and down Broad Street to Ludford Bridge, where torches were lighted, and the crowd marched to Whitcliff, where the effigies were consumed by a bonfire, amidst fireworks and the shouts of the bystanders. No accident occurred, and all passed off peaceably.' This was more than the authorities had expected, for the previous number of the same paper states that at the last meeting of the Petty Sessions, sundry persons charged with creating a nuisance by letting off fireworks were remanded till after the 5th November, when other cases of the same sort might be expected to be brought before the magistrates, though I am told that the police do not interfere with the observance of Bonfire Day unless there is absolute necessity for doing so.

And 'tis tidings of comfort and joy!"

Old Carol (still occasionally sung in Shropshire).

HERE is one very pleasing feature in the old-fashioned customs of Shropshire (and, I doubt not, in those of

other counties also), namely, the fixed and settled habit of sharing the fruits of the earth with the poor. Each season as it came round had its own form of almsgiving. After harvest, came gleaning; after apple-gathering, souling. At Whitsuntide the poor women in some of the villages on Severn-side, below Bridgnorth, used to go begging milk to make puddings-May (Trimilci') being of course the month in which milk is most plentiful. After sheepshearing, in the Stretton valley, they came woolling,' and in the

See a

1 This was unfortunately omitted among Whitsuntide customs. description of it at Wootton Wawen in 1760, in Folklore Journal, Vol. I. p. 353.

Bishop's Castle neighbourhood, too, old John Thomas spoke of going about begging for 'whate an' 'ool.' The period of the wheat dole is at the approach of the feast next after the November thrashing, namely, the crowning festival of the year, 'Merry Christmas.'

On ST. THOMAS'S DAY, the 21st of December, every farmer set out in some convenient place a 'bag' (i. e. sack) of wheat for the portion of the poor and all the cottagers' wives went from house to house for miles round to get their share of the dole 'dealt'1 out by the farmers' wives and daughters, a pint or a quart to each comer, according to her poverty and the size of her family. The Pulverbatch folk used the corn thus obtained to make the Christmas 'batch,' or baking of bread: which must have been 'sharp work,' considering that only three clear days intervene between the dole-day and the festival. At Norbury, in Staffordshire, where the custom was kept up until 1875, the corn was said to be intended to make furmety for the Christmas feast. The Clun people used to get-or at any rate to expect a double dole, of wheat for themselves and barley for their pigs. They carried with them two small sacks to contain the different kinds. They also adopted a peculiar costume for the occasion, consisting of the oldest clothes in their possession, and, by preference, of their husbands' cast-off smock-frocks or coats.2 One cannot help thinking of the exchange of garments between men and women at the Roman winter festival of the Saturnalia.

The most noteworthy point about the custom is the number of different names by which it is known in different places. At Church Stretton, Pulverbatch, Much Wenlock, etc., it is called 'goin' aTummasin'. Farther south, in the Clee Hills (Abdon), it is 'gwine a-courantin':' near Bridgnorth (Eardington) it is 'goin' gōōdin'.' At Ellesmere, in the far north-west of the county, they speak of going 'clogging,' and at Clun, in the extreme south-west, the day

1 They may be heard to use this word in describing the custom.

2 At Eccleshall, Staffordshire, where the custom still prevails, and has degenerated into a universal licensed beggary for anything that can be got, the women get themselves up in large white aprons, shawls put on lengthwise, and cotton hoods, otherwise called sunbonnets; a costume which is never seen on any but begging expeditions, and which gives an ineffable air of combined poverty and respectability.

itself is called Clog-fair Day,' perhaps in allusion to the long walks it necessitates.1

:

Now-a-days, the St. Thomas's beggars frequently receive broken victuals or money instead of corn: for the custom still lingers, though without any great vitality, as only 'old-fashioned housekeepers' are now willing to give anything to the beggars. It is in fact a custom very likely to be abused and to degenerate into a nuisance: the strongest, who could walk farthest, getting the greatest number of doles; several members of a family going to the same house at different times in the day, and thus getting an unfair share and so forth. In the year 1870, the farmers around Clun determined to put a stop to the begging, and instead of giving to all comers, they agreed to send their contributions of corn to the Town Hall, to be distributed under proper supervision to the deserving poor, in proportion to the size of their families: an arrangement still carried on. A similar plan, only that the dole was given at the Church, was adopted at Holgate in Corve Dale many years before and I have little doubt that the absence of any St. Thomas's Day begging at Edgmond is due to the practice of reserving the money collected at the offertory (or a suitable proportion of it) till the approach of Christmas, when it is expended in warm clothing to be distributed by the Rector and Churchwardens on St. Thomas's Day. All over the county, old-fashioned Ladies Bountiful usually choose this day for the distribution of Christmas comforts,' and old parish legacies or benefactions,' in money or in kind, are commonly ordained to be given yearely on St. Thomas's Day to the Poore for Ever.'

Many good Christians will be surprised, and, I fear, shocked, to learn that the observance of the 25th of December as the Feast of the Nativity, does not rest on equally ancient or trustworthy authority with the observance of the Easter and Whitsuntide festivals at their respective seasons. The events commemorated on the two latter holy days coincided with the Jewish feasts of the Passover and Pentecost :

1 See Shropshire Word-Book for these various names. Gooding (the double o is pronounced long) is the name used for the custom in Bedfordshire (YearBook, 1596), Kent, Northants, and Staffordshire (HAZLITT'S BRAND, I. 246), Herts and Essex (BOHN'S BRAND, I. 456). It is also called Mumping (i. e. Begging) Day in Hertfordshire (Year-Book, 1479).