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

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SCOTLAND.

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      Jan. 12.]

      SCOTLAND.

      This day is observed by the people of Halkirk, as New Year’s Day, a time when servants are too apt to spend their hard-earned penny in drink and other equally useless purposes.—Stat. Acc. of Scotland, 1845, vol. xv. p. 75.

Jan. 13.] ST. HILARY’S DAY.

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      Jan. 13.]

      ST. HILARY’S DAY.

      St. Hilary is memorable in the annals of Richmond, in the county of York, as on the anniversary of his festival the mayor is chosen for the ensuing year, which causes it to be observed as a jubilee-day among the friends, and those concerned in corporation matters.

      St. Hilary likewise gives name to one of the four seasons of the year when the courts of justice are opened.—Clarkson’s Hist. of Richmond, 1821, p. 293.

Jan. 14.] MALLARD NIGHT.

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      Jan. 14.]

      MALLARD NIGHT.

Oxfordshire.

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      This day was formerly celebrated in All Souls College, Oxford, in commemoration of the discovery of a very large mallard or drake in a drain, when digging for the foundation of the college; and though this observance no longer exists, yet on one of the college “gaudies” there is sung in memory of the occurrence a very old song called “The swapping, swapping mallard.”

      “THE MERRY OLD SONG OF THE ALL SOULS MALLARD.

      “Griffin, bustard, turkey, capon,

       Let other hungry mortals gape on;

       And on the bones their stomach fall hard,

       But let All Souls’ men have their Mallard.

Oh! by the blood of King Edward,[9] Oh! by the blood of King Edward, It was a swapping, swapping Mallard.

      The Romans once admired a gander

       More than they did their chief commander;

       Because he saved, if some don’t fool us,

       The place that’s called th’ ‘head of Tolus.’

      Oh! by the blood of King Edward, &c.

      The poets feign Jove turned a swan,

       But let them prove it if they can;

       As for our proof, ’tis not at all hard,

       For it was a swapping, swapping Mallard.

      Oh! by the blood of King Edward, &c.

      Therefore let us sing and dance a galliard,

       To the remembrance of the Mallard;

       And as the Mallard dives in pool,

       Let us dabble, dive, and duck in bowl.

      Oh! by the blood of King Edward,

       Oh! by the blood of King Edward,

       It was a swapping, swapping Mallard.”

[9] The allusion to King Edward is surely an anachronism, as King Henry VI. was reigning at the time of the foundation of the college.—Book of Days, vol. i. p. 114.

      When Pointer wrote his Oxoniensis Academia (1749), he committed a grave offence by insinuating that this immortalised mallard was no other than a goose. The insinuation produced a reply from Dr. Buckler, replete with irresistible irony; but Pointer met a partisan in Mr. Bilson, chaplain of All Souls, who issued a folio sheet entitled ‘Proposals for printing by subscription the History of the Mallardians,’ with the figure of a cat prefixed, said to have been found starved in the college library.—Hist. of Co. of Oxford, 1852, p. 144.

Jan. 17.] SEPTUAGESIMA.

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      Jan. 17.]

      SEPTUAGESIMA.

      Septuagesima occurs between this day and February the 22nd, according as the Paschal full moon falls. It was formerly distinguished by a strange ceremony, denominated the Funeral of Alleluia. On the Saturday of Septuagesima, at nones, the choristers assembled in the great vestiary of the cathedral, and there arranged the ceremony. Having finished the last benedicamus, they advanced with crosses, torches, holy waters, and incense, carrying a turf in the manner of a coffin, passed through the choir, and went howling to the cloister as far as the place of interment; and then having sprinkled the water and censed the place, returned by the same road.—Fosbroke’s British Monachism, 1843, p. 56.

Jan. 20.] ST. AGNES’ EVE.

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      Jan. 20.]

      ST. AGNES’ EVE.

      This night was formerly much venerated by young maidens who wished to know when and whom they should marry. It was required that on this day they should not eat, which was called “fasting St. Agnes’ fast.” Keats has made this custom the subject of one of his poems. The following are a few stanzas from it:

      “St. Agnes’s Eve! Ah, bitter chill it was!

       The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold;

       The hare limp’d trembling through the frozen grass,

       And silent was the flock in woolly fold.

      ***** *

      They told me how, upon St. Agnes’s Eve

       Young virgins might have visions of delight;

       And soft adorings from their loves receive,

       Upon the honey’d middle of the night,

       If ceremonies due they did aright;

       As supperless to bed they must retire,

       And couch supine their beauties, lilywhite;

       Nor look behind, nor sideways, but require

       Of Heaven, with upward eyes, for all that they desire.

      ***** *

      Her