British Popular Customs, Present and Past. T. F. Thiselton-Dyer

I have taken notice of an annual display of morris-dancers at Claybrook, who come from the neighbouring villages of Sapcote and Sharnford.

Lincolnshire.

       Table of Contents

      A correspondent of the Book of Days, vol. i. p. 94, giving the following interesting account as to how Plough Monday was, in days gone by, celebrated in the county, says:—Rude though it was, the Plough procession threw a life into the dreary scenery of winter, as it came winding along the quiet rutted lanes, on its way from one village to another; for the ploughmen from many a surrounding hamlet and lonely farmhouse united in the celebration of Plough Monday. It was nothing unusual for at least a score of the “sons of the soil” to yoke themselves with ropes to the plough, having put on clean smock frocks in honour of the day. There was no limit to the number who joined in the morris-dance, and were partners with “Bessy,” who carried the money-box; and all these had ribbons in their hats, and pinned about them wherever there was room to display a bunch. Many a hardworking country Molly lent a helping hand in decorating out her Johnny for Plough Monday, and finished him with an admiring exclamation of “Lawks, John! thou does look smart, surely.” Some also wore small bunches of corn in their hats, from which the wheat was soon shaken out by the ungainly jumping which they called dancing. Occasionally, if the winter was severe, the procession was joined by threshers carrying their flails, reapers bearing their sickles, and carters with their long whips, which they were cracking to add to the noise, while even the smith and the miller were among the number, for the one sharpened the ploughshares and the other ground the corn; and Bessy rattled his box, and danced so high that he showed his worsted stockings and corduroy breeches; and very often, if there was a thaw, tucked up his gown skirts under his waistcoat, and shook the bonnet off his head, and disarranged the long ringlets that ought to have concealed his whiskers. For Bessy is to the procession of Plough Monday what the leading figurante is to an opera or ballet, and dances about as gracefully as the hippopotami described by Dr. Livingstone. But their rough antics were the cause of much laughter, and rarely do we ever remember hearing any coarse jest that would call up the angry blush to a modest cheek.

      No doubt they were called “plough-bullocks,” through drawing the plough, as bullocks were formerly used, and are still yoked to the plough in some parts of the country. The rubbishing verses they recited are not worth preserving, beyond the line, which graces many a public-house sign, “God speed the plough.” At the large farmhouse, besides money they obtained refreshment, and through the quantity of ale they thus drank during the day managed to get what they called “their load by night.” Even the poorest cottagers dropped a few pence into Bessy’s box.

      But the great event of the day was when they came before some house which bore signs that the owner was well-to-do in the world, and nothing was given to them. Bessy rattled his box, and the ploughmen danced, while the country lads blew the bullocks’ horns, or shouted with all their might; but if there was still no sign, no coming forth of either bread-and-cheese or ale, then the word was given, the ploughshare driven into the ground before the door or window, the whole twenty men yoked pulling like one, and in a minute or two the ground before the house was as brown, barren, and ridgy as a newly-ploughed field. But this was rarely done, for everybody gave something, and were it but little the men never murmured, though they might talk about the stinginess of the giver afterwards amongst themselves, more especially if the party was what they called “well off in the world.” We are not aware that the ploughmen were ever summoned to answer for such a breach of the law, for they believe, to use their own expressive language, “they can stand by it, and no law in the world can touch ’em, ’cause it’s an old charter;” and we are sure it would spoil their “folly to be wise.”

      One of the mummers generally wears a fox’s skin in the form of a hood; but beyond the laughter the tail that hangs down his back awakens by its motion as he dances, we are at a loss to find a meaning. Bessy formerly wore a bullock’s tail behind, under his gown, and which he held in his hand while dancing, but that appendage has not been worn of late.

Norfolk.

       Table of Contents

      Hone’s Year Book, p. 29, gives a quotation from a Briefe Relation, &c., 1646, wherein the writer says, that the Monday after Twelfth Day is called “Plowlick Monday” by the husbandmen in Norfolk, “because on that day they doe first begin to plough.”

Northamptonshire.

       Table of Contents

      In the northern and eastern parts of the county Plough Monday is more noticed than in the neighbourhood of Northampton. The pageant varies in different places; sometimes five persons precede the plough, which is drawn by a number of boys with their faces blackened and reddled. Formerly, when the pageant was of a more important character than now, the plough was drawn by oxen decorated with ribbons. The one who walks first in the procession is styled the Master, and is grotesquely attired, having on a large wig; two are gaily bedizened in women’s clothes; and two others have large hunches on their backs, on which is sewed the knave of hearts. These two are called Red Jacks, or fools. Each of the five carries a besom, and one of them a box, which he rattles assiduously among the spectators to obtain their donations, which are spent at night in conviviality and jollification. In some instances they plough up the soil in front of the houses of such persons as refuse their contributions. Before the inclosure of open fields, there was another custom in connection with the day. When the ploughman returned from his labours in the evening, the servant-maid used to meet him with a jug of toast and ale; and if he could succeed in throwing his plough-hatchet into the house before she reached the door, he was entitled to a cock to throw at Shrovetide; but if she was able to present him with the toast and ale first, then she gained the cock. (See page 38.)—Baker’s Northamptonshire Words and Phrases, 1854, ii. 1257.

Yorkshire.

       Table of Contents

      On the Monday after Twelfth Day, says Clarkson (Hist. of Richmond, 1821, p. 293), a number of young men from the country, yoked to a plough, drag it about the streets, begging money, in allusion to the labours of the plough having ceased in that severe weather. In like manner the watermen in London, when the Thames is covered with ice in hard frosts, haul a boat about the streets, to show that they are deprived of the means of earning their livelihood.

Jan. 10.]

       Table of Contents

Oxfordshire.

       Table of Contents

      Jan. 10.]

      Oxfordshire.

      Pointer, in his Oxoniensis Academia (1749, p. 96), alludes to a practice observed at St. John’s and Corpus Christi Colleges, Oxford, of having a speech spoken on this day, in laudem Laudi Archiepiscopi.

Jan. 12.]