"Heus! Rogere, fer caballos; Limen amabile, Matris et oscula, Suaviter et repetamus. Domum, domum, &c. "Concinamus ad penates, Vox et audiatur; Phosphore! quid jubar, Gaudia nostra moratur. Domum, domum," &c. A spirited translation of this song occurs in the Gent. Mag. for March 1796, p. 209. See also Gent. Mag. for Dec. 1811, p. 503. [The Song of the Schoolboy at Christmas. From MS. Sloane, 1584, of the beginning of the sixteenth century, or latter part of the fifteenth, fol. 33, written in Lincolnshire or Nottinghamshire, perhaps, to judge by the mention of persons and places, in the neighbourhood of Grantham or Newark. "Ante finem termini baculus portamus, Capud hustiarii frangere debemus ; Si preceptor nos petit quo debemus ire, Ergo nos rogamus, hartly and holle, Ut isto die possimus to brek upe the scole."] Few schoolboys are ignorant that the first Monday after the holidays, when they are to return to school again, and produce or repeat the several tasks that had been set them, is called Black Monday. [This is alluded to in the following curious passage: "The month of January is like a tadpole which swims in the water in the summer time, with a broad, thick, plump head, but a small thin tail: for the month begins with New Years Day, which always comes before Christmass is out; and while Christmass lasts we expect good cheer, strong beer, warm fires, little work, or almost downright holydays. But after Twelfth Day, Christmass is visibly eclips'd and beclouded; then comes Black Monday for the schoolboys, and they as well as the rest must go to their daily labour; the husbandman to the field, the thrasher to the barn, the shoemaker to his garret, &c., that this may be call'd the small hungry cold end of January. But here the smith at his labour finds a sort of an advantage of the rest, for let him be hungry or thirsty, he may be warm if he is at work."-Poor Robin, 1735.] On the subject of school sports may be added that a silver arrow used formerly to be annually shot for by the scholars of the Free-school at Harrow. "Thursday, Aug 5, according to an ancient custom, a silver arrow, value 37., was shot for at the Butts on Harrow-on-the-Hill, by six youths of the Freeschool, in archery habits, and won by a son of Capt. Brown, commander of an East Indiaman. This diversion was the gift of John Lyon, Esq., founder of the said school." Gent. Mag. for Aug. 1731, p. 351. THE VESSEL-CUP. [THE week before Christmas, two dolls, one to represent the Virgin Mary, and the other the child, are carried about the villages, mostly by a poor woman or girl, who expects and gets a halfpenny at most houses, after exhibiting her images and a vessel-cup, as it is called, while she sings the following: "The first good joy that Mary had, it was the joy of one, The next good joy that Mary had, it was the joy of two, It brings, &c. The next good joy that Mary had, it was the joy of three, It brings, &c. The next good joy that Mary had, it was the joy of four, It brings, &c. The next good joy that Mary had, it was the joy of five, It brings, &c. GOING A GOODING AT ST. THOMAS'S DAY. The next good joy that Mary had, it was the joy of six, It brings, &c. The next good joy that Mary had, it was the joy of seven, To see her own Son Jesus to wear the crown of Heaven. It brings, &c." 455 This custom is called "going about with a vessel-cup." To send a "vessle-cup singer" away from your door unrequited (at least the first that comes), is to forfeit the luck of all the approaching year. Every family that can afford it have a cheese and yule-cake provided against Christmas; and it is considered very unlucky to cut either of them before that festival of all festivals. A tall mould candle, called a yule candle, is lighted, and set on the table; these candles are presented by the chandlers and grocers to their customers. The yule-log is bought of the carpenters' lads. It would be unlucky to light either of them before the time, or to stir the fire or candle during the supper; the candle must not be snuffed, neither must any one stir from the table till supper is ended. In these suppers it is considered unlucky to have an odd number at table. A fragment of the log is occasionally saved, and put under a bed, to remain till next Christmas: it secures the house from fire; a small piece of it thrown into a fire occurring at the house of a neighbour, will quell the raging flame. A piece of the candle should likewise be kept to ensure good luck. No person except boys must presume to go out of doors on the morning of this day, till the threshold has been consecrated by the footsteps of a male. The entrance of a woman on the morning of this day, as well as on that of the New Year, is considered the height of ill-luck.] GOING A GOODING AT ST. THOMAS'S DAY. I FIND some faint traces of a custom of going a gooding (as it is called) on St. Thomas's Day, which seems to have been done by women only, who, in return for the alms they received, appear to have presented their benefactors with sprigs of evergreens, probably to deck their houses with it at the ensuing festival. Perhaps this is only another name for the 456 GOING A GOODING AT ST. THOMAS'S DAY. Northern custom, to be presently noticed, of going about and crying Hagmena. About 1799 this custom of going a gooding was practised by the women no farther off than Pinner, thirteen miles from London. The Editor has been informed that it is still kept up in Kent, in the neighbourhood of Maidstone. In the Gent. Mag. for April 1794, p. 292, the writer, speaking of the preceding mild winter, says, "The women who went a gooding (as they call it in these parts) on St. Thomas's Day, might in return for alms, have presented their benefactors with sprigs of palm and bunches of primroses." [The following lively notice of St. Thomas's Day is extracted from the Chelmsford Chronicle of Dec. 21st, 1838: "Well, this is good Saint Thomas's Day. We have many Saints in the merry calendar. Saint Monday, for instance, has always a smile upon his face; but he is a lazy, loitering dog, too much addicted to lounges, pint-mugs, and ninepins. If he hath a splendid shilling in his purse, he is sure to be stretched on the taproom bench, and if his companion has emptied his pocket the day before, you may find him in the summer months wandering about the green fields of Essex, and humming "My heart's at the King' Head, my heart is not here- But St. Thomas is not of this class. Sometimes, it is true, 1 My servant, B. Jelkes, who is from Warwickshire, informs me that there is a custom in that county for the poor, on St. Thomas's Day, to go with a bag to beg corn of the farmers, which they call going a corning.— J. B. crackling of sticks in the kitchen, and even his breath, as he bids us welcome, is redolent in prospective of savoury things. But the Saint is short, very short-one of the tall brawny children of August would make four of him; he just steps into the world, and is gone again—and indeed, we must be gone too, or he will be off before us, and rushlight, cotton, mould, or gas, will be required for the perusal of our lucubrations." The following is taken from Mother Bunch's Closet Newly Broke Open, p. 5: 66 My daughter, I have another way to tell you who must be your husband; I have proved it true; and now is the best time of the year to try it: therefore observe what I say. Take a St. Thomas's onion, pare it, and lay it on a clean handkerchief under your pillow; put on a clean smock, and as you lie down, lay your arms abroad, and say these words: "Good St. Thomas, do me right, And bring me to my love this night, Then lying on thy back, with thy arms abroad, go to sleep as soon as possible, and in your first sleep, you shall dream of him who is to be your husband, and he will come and offer to kiss you."] HAGMENA. AUBANUS tells us that in Franconia, on the three Thursday nights preceding the Nativity of our Lord, it is customary for the youth of both sexes to go from house to house, knocking at the doors, singing their Christmas carols, and wishing a happy New Year. They get, in return, at the houses they stop at, pears, apples, nuts, and even money. Little troops "In trium quintarum feriarum noctibus, quæ proximè Domini nostri natalem præcedunt, utriusque sexus pueri domesticatim eunt januas pulsantes, cantantesque; futurum Salvatoris exortum annunciant et salubrem annum: unde ab his qui in ædibus sunt, pyra, poma, nuces, et nummos etiam percipiunt." p. 264. |