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

Feb. 4.] ASH WEDNESDAY.

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      Feb. 4.]

      ASH WEDNESDAY.

      Among the Anglo-Saxons Ash Wednesday had its ceremonial of strewing ashes upon not merely the public penitent, but all; and thereby spoke its awful teachings and warnings unto all—unto the young and old—the guiltless and the guilty. As soon as none-song was over, that is, about mid-afternoon, the ashes were hallowed and then put upon each one’s forehead. From their own parish church the people then went in procession to some other church, and on coming back heard mass. Then, and only then, did such as were bound and able to fast take any kind of food.—D. Rock, The Church of our Fathers, 1849–53, vol. iii. part ii. p. 63.

      Formerly, on this day, boys used to go about clacking at doors, to get eggs or bits of bacon wherewith to make up a feast among themselves; and, when refused, would stop the keyhole up with dirt, and depart with a rhymed denunciation.—Book of Days, vol. i. p. 240. We learn also from Fosbroke’s British Monachism (1843) that in days gone by boys used on the evening of Ash Wednesday to run about with firebrands and torches.

      In former times during the season of Lent, an officer denominated “The King’s Cock-Crower” crowed the hour every night within the precincts of the palace, instead of proclaiming it in the ordinary manner. On the first Ash Wednesday after the accession of the House of Hanover, as the Prince of Wales, afterwards George II., was sitting down to supper, this officer suddenly entered the apartment, before the chaplain said grace, and crowed “past ten o’clock.” The astonished Prince, not understanding English, and mistaking the tremulation of the crow for mockery, concluded that this ceremony was intended as an insult, and instantly rose to resent it; when, with some difficulty, he was made to understand the nature of the custom, and that it was intended as a compliment, and according to court etiquette. From that period the custom was discontinued.

      

      The intention of crowing the hour of the night was no doubt intended to remind waking sinners of the august effect the third crowing of the cock had on the guilty Apostle St. Peter; and the limitation of the custom to the season of Lent was judiciously adopted; as, had the practice continued throughout the year, the impenitent would become as habituated and as indifferent to the crow of the mimic cock as they are to that of the real one, or to the cry of the watchmen. The adaptation to the precincts of the Court seems also to have had a view, as if the institutor (probably the Royal Confessor) had considered that the greater and more obdurate sinners resided within the purlieus of the palace.—Gent. Mag. 1785, vol. lv. p. 341.

      The beginning of Lent was at one time marked by a custom now fallen into disuse. A figure, made up of straw and cast-off clothes, was drawn or carried through the streets amid much noise and merriment; after which it was either burnt, shot at, or thrown down a chimney. This image was called “Jack o’Lent,” and was, according to some, intended to represent Judas Iscariot. Elderton, in a ballad, called Lenton Stuff, in a MS. in the Ashmolean Museum, thus concludes his account of Lent:

      “Then Jake a’ Lent comes justlynge in,

       With the hedpecce of a herynge,

       And saythe, repent yowe of yower syn,

       For shame, syrs, leve yower swerynge:

       And to Palme Sonday doethe he ryde,

       With sprots and herryngs by hys syde,

       And makes an end of Lenton tyde!”

      N. & Q. 1st S. vol. xii. p. 297.

      In Ben Jonson’s Tale of a Tub, occurs the following:

      —“On an Ash Wednesday,

       When thou didst stand six weeks the Jack o’ Lent,

       For boys to hurl three throws a penny at thee.”

      Brand’s Pop. Antiq. 1849, vol. i. p. 101.

      It was once customary for persons to wear black cloth during Lent. Roberts in his Cambrian Pop. Antiq. (1815, 112), says this usage was entirely laid aside in his time; but of late years it has been somewhat revived.

      

      It is observed by Mr. Fosbroke that ladies wore friars’ girdles during this season, and quoting from Camden’s Remains he tells us how Sir Thomas More, finding his lady scolding her servants during Lent, endeavoured to restrain her. “Tush, tush, my lord,” said she, “look, here is one step to heavenward,” showing him a friar’s girdle. “I fear me,” said he, “that one step will not bring you one step higher.”

      In a curious tract written about 1174 by FitzStephen, a monk of Canterbury, and entitled Descriptio Nobilissimæ Civitatis Londoniæ, there is an interesting account of the metropolis and its customs in Henry II.’s time. Speaking of the season of Lent the writer says, “Every Friday afternoon a company of young men ride out on horses fit for war and racing, and trained to the course. Then the citizens’ sons flock through the gates in troops, armed with lances and shields, and practise feats of arms; but the lances of the more youthful are not headed with iron. When the king lieth near, many courtiers, and young striplings from the families of the great, who have not yet attained the warlike girdle, resort to these exercises. The hope of victory inflames every one. Even the neighing and fierce horses shake their joints, chew their bridles, and cannot endure to stand still. At length they begin their race; afterwards the young men divide their troops and contend for mastery.”

Essex.

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      At Felstead the churchwardens distribute, as the gift of Lord Rich, seven barrels of white herrings and three barrels and a half of red on Ash Wednesday, and the six following Sundays, to ninety-two poor householders of the parish, selected by the churchwardens, in shares of eight white herrings and four red a piece. A list is kept of the persons receiving this donation, and they continue to receive it during their lives, unless they misconduct themselves or enter the workhouse.—Old English Customs and Charities, 1842, p. 9.

Norfolk.

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      P. Le Neve Foster, Esq., who in 1835 held the rectorial tithes of the parish of Great Witchingham, under a lease from the warden and fellows of New College, Oxford, was bound by a covenant contained therein, to provide and distribute to and amongst the poor inhabitants and parishioners, two seams of peas, containing in all sixteen bushels. The practice has been to give to every person who happens to be in the parish on Ash Wednesday, whether rich or poor, one quart of peas each.—Old English Customs and Charities, 1842, p. 34.

SCAMBLING DAYS.

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      The days so called were Mondays and Saturdays in Lent, when no regular meals were provided, and the members of our great families scambled. In the old household-book of the fifth Earl of Northumberland there is a particular section appointing the order of service for these days, and so regulating the licentious contentions of them. Shakespeare, in his play of Henry V. (act v. scene 2), makes King Henry say: “If ever thou be’st mine, Kate, I get thee with