L.Jewitt (1853)
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CUSTOMS AND SPORTS OF NOTTINGHAM. 229
ON ANCIENT CUSTOMS AND SPORTS OF THE
COUNTY OF NOTTINGHAM.
BY LLEWELLYNN JEWITT, ESQ.
HAVING been requested by the council to follow up the
papers which I have had the honour of reading before previous
congresses, on the sports and customs of the counties
of Chester and Derby, by one on those connected with the
county of Nottingham, I have thrown together - too hastily
I fear for the interest of the subject - a few notes on some
of the more prominent sports and pastimes, manners, and
customs, of this district, which I trust may be the means
of inducing others of our friends to give us more extended
notices; as it must be evident to every archaeologist and
230 ANCIENT CUSTOMS AND SPORTS
historian that to these remnants of the habits of our early
forefathers, we are indebted for the transmission of much
that is valuable, and of which we have no other record re-
maining. Truly may it be said, that to traditional and
customal records is owing most that is curious and valu-
able in the history of the past ages - for to them do we
look for the elucidation of many doubtful points, and
for the filling up of numerous "gaps" in history, which,
but for their help, would yet remain open.
Nottinghamshire is so closely and intimately connected
with the adjoining county of Derby, that their sports and
customs are in many respects identical with each other.
It will therefore be unnecessary to enter at any length
into those I have before described, but to pay more atten-
tion to those which are peculiar to the district in which
we are now assembled.
Of the new year's customs, the wassail was until recently
observed to a considerable extent in this county. This
friendly and neighbour-loving custom was observed by the
young women of the village, who accustomed themselves to
go about from door to door on new year's eve, neatly dressed
for the occasion, and bearing a bowl richly decorated with
evergreens and ribbands, and filled with a compound of
ale, roasted apples and toast, and seasoned with nutmeg
and sugar. The bowl was offered to the inmates, with
the singing of the following amongst other verses :-
"Good master, at your door,
Our wassail we begin;
We all are maidens poor,
So we pray you let us in,
And drink our wassail.
All hail wassail!
Wassail, wassail!
And drink our wassail!"
On this night, in many parts of the county as well as in
Derbyshire, a muffled peal is rung on the church bells
until twelve o clock, when the bandages are removed from the
bells whilst the clock is striking, and a merry peal is in-
stantly struck up;- this is called "ringing the old year
out and the new year in." On the first day of the year,
new year's gifts were, and I believe still are, general; in-
deed gifts at all seasons appear to be so well appreciated
OF THE COUNTY OF NOTTINGHAM. 231
in this county, that there is little fear of this custom be-
coming, obsolete.
In some parts of the county troops of little children
might be seen, a few; years since, each bearing an orange,
an apple, or a nutmeg, sometimes gilded and stuck with
cloves or rosemary, which they were carrying to their
friends to ask their blessing; the present thus given was
generally carefully preserved. On this day it is considered
unlucky to remove anything from a house until something
has been brought in; and therefore each member of the
family carries some trifling thing in early in the morning.
In the neighbourhood of Newark I have heard this
rhyme:-
"Take out, and take in,
Bad luck is sure to begin;
But take in, and take out,
Good luck will come about."
And there is a common belief in some parts of the county,
not at all flattering to the gallantry of the inhabitants,
that if a female be the first person to enter a house on new
year's morning, ill luck for the rest of the year is sure to
follow. On Twelfth-day the customs appear to have been
very similar to those in the adjoining counties; kings and
queens were chosen, and the evening spent in joy and mer-
riment, the Twelfth cake being borne in with much cere-
mony.
On Candlemas eve it was formerly customary, in the villages
bordering on the Trent, to decorate the churches,
and indeed houses, with branches of box, and to light up
a number of candles in the evening, as being the last day
of Christmas rejoicings - "On Candlemas day throw candles
away", is a popular proverb for the following day.
On Valentine's day the usual custom of sending anonymous
scraps of poetry, is still to a considerable extent in-
dulged in in this county, and many are the anxious thoughts
and importunate inquiries after the real author of these
harmless perpetrations: well might it be said by an ancient
writer, that "poets this day shall get mightily by their
pamphlets, for an hundred of elaborate lines shall be lesse
esteemed in London than an hundred of Walfleet oysters
at Cambridge"; for no writings are more ephemeral than
they are. Drawing lots or billets, for valentines, is still a
232 ANCIENT CUSTOMS AND SPORTS
custom in the neighbourhood of Mansfield, where a few
young men and maidens meet together, and having put
each their own name on a slip of paper, they are all placed
together in a hat or basket, and. drawn in regular rotation.
Should a young man draw a girl's name, and she his, it is
considered ominous, and not unfrequently ends in real
love and a wedding.
The sports appertaining to Shrove-tide were anciently
much in use in various parts of Nottinghamshire: these
consisted of cock-fighting, throwing at the cock, threshing
the fat hen, and other such-like cruel and unmanly diver-
sions; but besides these there are happily other customs of
this season, of a much more rational character, and which
bid fair to be preserved so long as the Nottinghamshire
people love good living; these are, the eating of pancakes
and fritters, - which are so universally relished in this neigh-
bourhood, that for some time before Shrove Tuesday the
prices of eggs and milk are said to rise considerably.
"It was the day whereon Loth rich and poore
Are chiefly feasted on the self-same dish,
When every paunch, till it can hold no more,
Is fritter filled, as well as heart can wish:
And every man and mayde doe take their turne,
And tosse their pancakes up, for fear they burne;
And all the kitchen doth with laughter sound,
To see the pancakes fall upon the ground." 1
On mid-Lent, "Careing" or "Mothering" Sunday, mo-
thering cakes used to be presented to parents when asking
their blessing; on these occasions a feast of furmety
was usually prepared, as was also the good old dish
of "carlings", or peas fried in butter, pepper, and salt.
This custom was formerly very general in Newark, and
one of its fairs was named "Careing fair," and held OIl
the Friday before Careing Sunday.
"Care Sunday, care away,
Palm Sunday and Easter day",
is an old Nottinghamshire couplet alluding to this day.
On Palm Sunday the usual triumphal carrying of the
palm branches was and is pretty general throughout the
1 Pasquil's Palinodia, 1634.
OF THE COUNTY OF NOTTINGHAM. 233
county; and on All-Fools' Day I believe there are as many
unfortunate victims yet made as was ever the case.
On Good Friday, "Hot-cross buns" are prepared and
eaten in almost every household; and if we may judge by
the avidity with which they are devoured, the people of
this county must be lucky indeed, for it is a general be-
lief amongst them that those who partake of the buns
will have good fortune for the rest of the year.
"Good Friday comes this month, the old woman runs,
With on a penny, two a penny, hot-cross buns;
Whose virtue is, if you'll believe what's said,
They'll not grow mouldy like the common bread." 1
At Easter, pasch eggs are still occasionally prepared,
and in some parts of the county, I have seen festoons of
these ornaments decorating the rooms of cottages. On the
Yorkshire side of the county, the tansy pudding is still
prepared:-
"On Easter Sunday be the pudding seen,
To which the tansy lends her sober green."
On Easter Monday, the mayor and aldermen of Nottingham,
with their wives, used formerly to attend divine
service, and then march in solemn procession to St. Ann's
Well, attended by the "clothing" and their wives, with
the officers of the town, preceded by the town waits, and
followed by a number of the inhabitants. The custom of
blessing wells obtained in other parts of the county; and,
at Newark was a celebrated well, said to have been pec-
uliarly efficacious in the cure of leprosy; this well is said to
have had its origin in the death of a true lover, who was
slain on the spot, and in the ballad which commemorates
the event, the murderer, as a punishment, is sorely afflicted
with leprosy; but having repented, is told by St. Catherine
in a vision that he can only be cleansed by the waters
caused to flow by the death of sir Everard; he then per-
forms a weary pilgrimage to the spot, and is ,restored to
health and a godly life. There is also a well of note at
Southwell.
In Rogation week the bounds of many of the parishes
are still beaten with as much pomp by the beadle, and as
1 Poor Robin.
234 ANCIENT CUSTOMS AND SPORTS
much noise by the urchins who follow him, as was ever
the case; and it is believed that if an egg which is laid on
Ascension-day be placed in the roof of a house, the build-
ing will be preserved from fire and other calamities.
The May-day customs are in many respects similar to those
of other counties, but Nottinghamshire has the honor of
being the parent of most of the happy sports which charac-
terize this joyous period of the year, from the fact of most
of the May-day games having had their origin in the
world-famous Robin Hood, whose existence and renown
are so intimately connected with this district. His con-
nexion with "merry Sherwood" and the sheriff of Notting-
ham, have been universal themes for centuries; and these
and the "Miller of Mansfield", and the "wise men of
Gotham", have done more towards making this county
famous, than all the rest of the ballads and popular litera-
ture put together. May-poles and morris dances were
formerly very general, and the characters of Robin Hood,
Little John, Friar Tuck, Maid Marion, and the Hobby
Horse, were well sustained. The Maypoles were sometimes
very elegantly ornamented, and surmounted by flags and
streamers of various colours. One was, not many years
ago, remaining by Hucknall Folkard, and at the top were
portions of the ironwork and decorations, still in being.
The origin of the May-day games and their connexion
with Robin Hood, is a subject of great interest, but I shall
refrain from entering upon it in this paper, because our
talented friend Mr. Gutch will, in his promised paper on
that chieftain, do him infinitely more justice than I could
hope to do, and will, I am sure, thank me for not intrench-
ing on ground which he will so much more ably occupy.
The morris dance was unquestionably one of the most popu-
lar of the many games incident to this season, and was
very generally prevalent throughout this county; and
many are the ballads dedicated to its observance. The
following is of 1614:-
"It was my hap of late by chance
To meet a country morris dance,
When, chiefest of them all, the foole
Plaid with a ladle and a toole;
When every younker shak't his bels . . .
OF THE COUNTY OF NOTTINGHAM. 235
And fine Maid Marion, with her smoile,
Showed how a rascal plaid the roile,
And when the hobby-horse did wihy,
Then all the wenches gave a tihy," etc.
May-day, although a day of general holiday and rejoicing,
is nevertheless considered, as is the whole of the month,
unlucky for marriage, and I believe few are celebrated on
this day; - more weddings, I apprehend, being hastened, so
as to be over before this day, than postponed until June.
This does not apply to divinations for future partners, for
in some parts of the county it is, usual to prepare a sweet
mixture on the 1st of May, composed of new milk; cakes,
wine and spice, and for the assembled company to fish
with a ladle for a ring and a sixpence which have been
dropped into the bowl; the young man who gains the
ring, and the young woman the sixpence, being supposed
to be intended for each other.
On Royal Oak day (May 29th), branches of that tree
are still carried in procession, and decorate many of the
signs of public houses in Nottingham and elsewhere.
The Whitsuntide sports have much degenerated; and
now, instead of a renewed Morris and Whitsun ales, a dance
in a public-house parlour, to the tones of a strolling French
piano, and an immoderate indulgence in Newark ales, are
pretty generally substituted. Bonfires were sometimes
lighted on Midsummer's eve, and the assembled people
leaped and re-leaped over them with considerable agility.
Fern-seed was also gathered on this evening for the purposes
of divination, and was said to be very efficacious in
causing the future husband to appear to his expecting
mistress. Deering says, that in Nottingham on this even-
ing, -
"They keep a general watch ... to which every inhabitant of any ability
sets forth a man, as well voluntaries as those who are charged with arms,
with such munition as they have; some pikes, some muskets; calivers, or
other guns, some partisans, or halberts, and such as have armour send their
servants in their armour. The number of these are yearly about two hun-
dred, who at sun-setting meet on the Row, the most open part of the town,
where the mayor's serjeant-at-mace gives them an oath, the tenor whereof
followeth in these words: 'You shall well and truly keep this town till
to-morrow at the sun-rising; you shall come into no house without
license or cause reasonable. Of all manner of casualties, of fire, of cry-
VOL. VIII. 31
236 ANCIENT CUSTOMS AND SPORTS
ing of children, you shall due warning make to the parties, as the case
shall require. You shall due search make of all manner of affrays,
bloudsheds, outcrys, and all other things that be suspected, etc.,' which
done they all march in orderly array through the principal streets of the
town, and then they are sorted into several companies, and designed to
several parts of the town, where they are to keep the watch until the sun
dismisses them in the morning. In this business the fashion is for every
watchman to wear a garland, made in the fashion of a crown imperial,
bedecked with flowers of various kinds, some natural some artificial,
bought and kept for that purpose, as also ribbands, jewels; and for the
better garnishing whereof, the townsmen use the day before to ransack the
gardens of all the gentlemen within six or seven miles round Notting-
ham, besides what the town itself affords them; their greatest ambition
being to outdo one another in the bravery of their garlands."
This custom appears to have been general in Notting-
ham in the reign of Charles I.
The custom of eating geese at Michaelmas is very gene-
ral in this county, and the mayor of Nottingham formerly
appears to have given a feast of "hot roasted geese" on the
last day of his mayoralty previous to the election of his
successor. At Nottingham, the great autumnal fair is
called "goose fair", and it formerly continued for twenty-
one days; this fair, although now gradually losing favour,
was, until lately, one of the largest and most important in
this part of the kingdom, and was looked forward to with
great anxiety by all the country round, as one of the princ-
ipal holidays of the year. It has more than once been
celebrated in song, and there is a curious black-letter
ballad in the Roxburghe collection, entitled "The Un-
consionable Batchelors of Darby: or the Yong Lasses
pawned by their Sweet-hearts for a large reckning, at
Nottingham Goose-Fair, where, poor Susan was forced to
pay the shot"; which recounts in quaint language the
disasters of the day. It is a popular belief, that if you
eat goose on Michaelmas-day you will not want money
until that time next year; and this belief may in some
measure account for the general desire to ensure so good
a dinner.
The feast of All Hallows is the season for divinations
all over the kingdom, and Nottinghamshire has never
been behind its neighbours in this species of superstition.
If a girl had two lovers, and wished to know which
OF THE COUNTY OF NOTTINGHAM. 237
would be the most constant, she procured two brown
apple pippins, and, sticking one on each cheek (after, hav-
ing named them from her lovers), while she repeated this
couplet,-
"Pippen, pippen, I stick thee there,
That that is true thou mayst declare",
patiently awaited until one fell off, when the unfortunate
swain whose name it bore, was instantly discarded as being
unfaithful. I suspect, however, that a voluntary move-
ment of the cheek may in some instances have rendered
the fall or the least loved rival more a matter of choice
than of accident: it is to this custom that Gay has thus
alluded:-
"See from the core two kernels now I take:
This on my cheek for Lubberkin is worn,
And Booby Clod on t'other side is borne;
But Booby Clod soon falls upon the ground,
A certain token that his love's unsound;
"While Lubberkin sticks firmly to the last;
Oh! were his lips to mine but joined so fast!"
Several other divinations and charms were practised in
this county for the same purpose, but the above is still in
much repute in the neighbourhood of Lenton.
On the 5th of November bonfires are lighted, and Guys
paraded through the streets; and on St. Thomas's day
the boys go from house to house begging a "Thomasin",
as before described.
The Christmas festivities are nearly synonymous with
those described at Derby; the houses are decorated, with
holly, ivy, and miseltoe; the mummers, or guisors, pass
from house to house, and still perform their play of St.
George with all the precision and care of a band of regu-
larly organized "strolling players"; the yule log still burns
as brightly as ever on the hearths of the cottages; Christ-
mas carols are sung about the streets, Christmas boxes
collected with as much ardour as could possibly have been
shown by our ancestors; and the roast-beef, the plum-
pudding, and the home-brewed ale, have not yet fallen
into disrepute. At Nottingham, on Christmas-eve as well
as in many of the villages, it is customary to roast apples
on a string until they drop into a bowl of hot spiced ale,
238 ANCIENT CUSTOMS AND SPORTS
which is placed to receive them; this, from the softness of
the beverage, is called "lamb's wool"; to this Shakespeare
alludes thus :-
"Sometimes lurk I in a gossip's bowl,
In very likeness of a roasted crab;
And when she drinks, against her lips I bob,
And on her withered dewlap pour the ale."
There is a very pretty custom, now nearly obsolete, but
which I have noticed in this county as well as in Derby-
shire, of bearing the "vessel", or, more properly, the wassail-
cup, at Christmas. This consists of a box containing two
dolls, dressed up to represent the Virgin and the infant
Christ, decorated with ribbands and surrounded by flowers
and apples; the box had usually a glass lid, was covered
over by a white napkin, and carried from door to door on
the arms of a woman; on the top, or in the box, a china
basin was placed; and the bearer, on reaching a house;
uncovered the box and sang the "Seven Joys of the
Virgin".
The carrying of this wassail cup was usually a fortu-
nate speculation, as it was considered so unlucky to send
one away unrequited, that but few could be found whose
temerity was so great as to deter them from giving some
halfpence to the singer. On Plough Monday, as well as
during the Christmas holidays, the plough bullocks are
still to be seen in various parts of the county. This ex-
tremely picturesque and popular custom, - with its plough,
drawn by farmer's men, gaily dressed in ribbands, its
drivers, with their long wands and bladders, its sword-
dancers, its fool and its celebrated Bessy, and hobby-
horse, - I have described in my Derbyshire paper; 1 it will
therefore be sufficient to say, that amongst other places
the neighbourhoods of Newstead, Mansfield, and Southwell,
are still famous for its observance, and that it has
been well described by Washington Irving in his New-
stead Abbey.
Country wakes, or feasts, on the saint's day to which
the parish church is dedicated, are kept up with much
rejoicing; these were formerly accompanied by bull and
1 See vol. vii, pp. 199-210.
OF THE COUNTY OF NOTTINGHAM. 239
bear-baitings; cock-fighting, and other unmanly sports,
which are now happily abolished. Amongst other customs
prevalent in this county, the "groaning-cake" or "groan-
ing cheese",were formerly made against the birth of a
child; and to be cut for the first time on that occasion. If
a cheese, it was usual to pierce it in the middle when the
child was born, and to keep cutting from the centre until
the circular rind only was left; and through this the infant
was to be passed at its christening, The groaning-cheese
is alluded to in an old play of the "Nottinghamshire
Trajedy of the Fayre Mayde of Clifton".
In Mansfield and other places, "statutes" or hiring-
fairs were held, when it was usual for the servant men
and maids who were "out of place", to arrange themselves
in rows, with a ribband, leaf, or other distinctive mark to
show they were on hire. The farmers and housekeepers then
passed along the rows, making inquiries and examining
appearances until satisfied with someone, when a bargain
was immediately struck, and ratified by the gift of a
shilling as "earnest" money.
Hawking was formerly a very prevalent sport in this
county, and the manor of Radeclyve was held by the
service of mewing a goshawk. There are also some
curious superstitions and legends connected with this
sport, and with some fine old trees at Welbeck and at
Clipstone.
Many other customs were and are still observed in this
district, which, did time permit of their notice, would be
found to be equally as interesting and curious as any of
those I have mentioned; but enough may, I hope, have
been said to create an interest in the subject, and to
awaken a feeling of reverence for those living links of our
forefathers which the remnants of their manners and cus-
toms remaining at the present day present, and which
recall to us their domestic habits and religious supersti-
tions, much more vividly than all the pages of written
history to which we can refer.
The customs of different localities vary in many import-
ant particulars from each other, and, as I have before
observed, it is only by careful collection, comparison, and
analogy, that the historical student is enabled to trace the
true origin of each, and to assign to each fragment thus
240 EXCAVATIONS NEAR THE ROMAN WALL
procured its proper place in history. I would therefore
venture earnestly to urge on our friends in this county
and elsewhere, the importance of forwarding notices of
such remains of ancient manners and customs as may
come under their observation, in order that they may be
properly recorded and preserved. |
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