April 30.]

ASCENSION DAY.

In England Ascension Day has been known as “Bounds Thursday,” from beating the bounds of the parish, transferred by a corruption of Rogation processions to this day.—Kalendar of English Church, 1865, p. 72.

Buckinghamshire.

In the parish of Edgcott there was about an acre of land, let at 3l. a year, called “Gang Monday land,” which was left to the parish officers to provide cakes and beer for those who took part in the annual perambulation of the parish.

At Clifton Reynes, in the same county, a bequest of land for a similar purpose directs that one small loaf, a piece of cheese, and a pint of ale should be given to every married person, and half a pint of ale to every unmarried person resident in Clifton, when they walked the parish boundaries in Rogation Week.—Old English Customs and Charities, pp. 120, 122.

Cheshire.

Pennant, in his Tour from Chester to London (1811, p. 40), tells us that on Ascension Day the old inhabitants of Nantwich piously sang a hymn of thanksgiving for the blessing of the Brine. A very ancient pit, called the Old Brine, was also held in great veneration, and till within these few years was annually on this festival decked with flowers and garlands, and was encircled by a jovial band of young people, celebrating the day with song and dance. Aubrey (in MS. Lansd. 231) says, in Cheshire, when they went in perambulation, they did blesse the springs, i.e. they did read a gospel at them, and did believe the water was the better.

Formerly there existed at Frodsham the following custom:—In the walking of the boundaries of the parish the “men of Frodsham” passed, across the brook dividing it from Helsby (then in the adjoining parish of Durham), the Frodsham banner to the “men of Helsby,” who in their turn passed over the Helsby banner.

Derbyshire.

One of the prettiest customs of the county of Derby is that of well-dressing on Holy Thursday or Ascension Day at Tissington, near Dovedale. In the village are five springs or wells, and these are decorated with flowers, arranged in the most beautiful devices. Boards are cut into arches, pediments, pinnacles, and other ornamental forms, and are covered with moist clay to the thickness of about half-an-inch; the flowers are cut off their stems and impressed into the clay as closely together as possible, forming mottoes, borders, and other devices; these are then placed over the wells, and it is impossible to conceive a more beautiful appearance than they present, the water gurgling from beneath them, and overhung by the fine foliage of the numerous evergreens and forest trees by which they are surrounded. There is one particular variety of the double daisy known to gardeners as the Tissington daisy, which appears almost peculiar to the place, and is in much repute for forming the letters of the texts and mottoes, with which the wells are adorned. The day is observed as a complete holiday, and the festival attracts a considerable number of visitors from all the neighbouring towns and villages. Divine Service is performed in the Church, and on its conclusion the minister and congregation join in procession and visit each well. A portion of Scripture is read at each, and a psalm or appropriate hymn is sung. The whole of the wells being visited, and a prayer offered up, the company separate and, from the absence of public-houses in the village, spend the rest of the day in temperate enjoyment. The same custom was observed at Brewood and Bilbrook, in the County of Stafford.—Gent. Mag. 1794, lxiv. pp. 115, 226; Jour. of the Arch. Assoc. 1852, vol. vii p. 205; vide Times, May 19th, 1874.

Devonshire.

A correspondent of the Gent. Mag. (1787, vol. lvii, p. 718), says: It is the custom in many villages in the neighbourhood of Exeter “to hail the Lamb,” upon Ascension morn. That the figure of a lamb actually appears in the east upon this morning is the popular persuasion; and so deeply is it rooted, that it has frequently resisted (even in intelligent minds) the force of the strongest argument.

At Exeter, says Heath in his Account of the Islands of Scilly (1750, p. 128), the boys have a custom of throwing water, that is, of damming up the channel in the streets, at going the bounds of the several parishes in the city, and of splashing the water upon the people passing by. Neighbours as well as strangers, are forced to compound hostilities by giving the boys of each parish money to pass without ducking; each parish asserting its own prerogative in this respect.

Essex.

The Oyster Fishery has always formed a valuable part of the privileges and trading property of the town of Colchester. Richard I. granted to the burgesses the fishery of the River Colne, from the North Bridge as far as Westnesse; and this grant was confirmed to them by subsequent charters, especially that of Edward IV. This fishery includes not merely the plain course of the Colne, but all the creeks, &c., with which it communicates: that is to say, the entire Colne Water, as it is commonly called. It is, moreover, proved by records that the burgesses of Colchester are legally entitled to the sole right of fishing in this water, to the exclusion of all others not licensed and authorized by them; “and have, and ever had, the full, sole, and absolute power to have, take, and dispose of to their own use, all oysters and other fish within the said river or water.” There are some parishes adjoining the water whose inhabitants are admitted, upon licence from the mayor, to fish and dredge oysters therein, these parishes being Brightlingsea, Wivenhoe, and East Doniland. For the better preservation of this privilege Courts of Admiralty or Conservancy have been customarily held on Colne Water; at which all offences committed within the limits of the aquatic royalty are presented by a jury, and fines exacted on the offenders. In March or April yearly, proclamation is made by the legal authorities on the water near Mersea Stone, “that the River Colne is shut, and that all persons are forbidden to dredge, or take any oysters out of the said river or the creeks thereto appertaining before the feast of St. Mary Magdalen, the 22nd of July.” This is called Setting (i.e. Shutting) the Colne.—Cromwell, History of Colchester, 1825, pp. 289-294.

Lancashire.

Under the name of Richardson’s Charity, a distribution takes place at Ince on the feast of the Ascension, of five loads of oatmeal, each load weighing two hundred and forty pounds. Three loads are given to the poor of the township of Ince, one to the poor of Abram, and the other to the poor of Hindley.—Old English Customs and Charities, p. 36.

Middlesex.

In St. Magnus and other city churches in London, the clergy are presented with ribbons, cakes, and silk staylaces.—N. & Q. 1st S. vol. ix. p. 9.

Northamptonshire.

It is customary to go in triennial processions on Holy Thursday, to perambulate the parishes and beat the boundaries, for the purpose of marking and retaining possession; hence the ceremony is called possessioning. The parochial authorities are accompanied by other inhabitants and a number of boys, to whom it is customary to distribute buns, &c., in order to impress it upon their memory should the boundaries at any future period be disputed.—Baker, Glossary of Northamptonshire Words and Phrases, vol. ii. p. 131.

In the town of Northampton the ceremony of beating the bounds is termed “beating the cross.”

Northumberland.

On Ascension Day, says Mackenzie in his History of Newcastle (1827, vol. ii. p. 744), every year the mayor and burgesses of Newcastle survey the boundaries of the River Tyne. This annual festive expedition starts at the Mansion-House Quay, and proceeds to or near the place in the sea called Sparhawk, and returns up the river to the utmost limits of the Corporation at Hedivin Streams. They are accompanied by the brethren of the Trinity House and the River Jury in their barges.

Brockett mentions the smock-race on Ascension Day, a race run by females for a smock. These races were frequent among the young country wenches in the north. The prize, a fine Holland chemise, was usually decorated with ribbons. The sport is practised at Newburn, near Newcastle.—Brand, Pop. Antiq. 1849, vol. i. p. 210.

Nottinghamshire.

In Rogation week the bounds of many of the parishes are still beaten with as much pomp by the beadle as ever; and it is believed that if an egg which is laid on Ascension Day be placed in the roof of a house, the building will be preserved from fire and other calamities.—Jour. of Arch. Assoc., 1853, vol. viii. p. 233.

Oxfordshire.

At Oxford the little crosses cut in the stones of buildings to denote the division of the parishes are whitened with chalk. Great numbers of boys, with peeled willow rods in their hands, accompany the minister in the procession.—Brand, Pop. Antiq. 1849, vol. i. p. 200.

Aubrey, in his Remains of Gentilism and Judaism, says: “The fellows of New College have, time out of mind, every Holy Thursday, betwixt the hours of eight and nine, goune to the hospital called Bart’lemews neer Oxford, when they retire into the chapell, and certaine prayers are read, and an antheme sung, from thence they goe to the upper end of the grove adjoining to the chapell (the way being before them strewed with flowers by the poor people of the hospitall), they place themselves round about the spring there, where they warble forth melodiously a song of three, four, or five parts; which being performed they refresh themselves with a morning’s draught there, and retire to Oxford before sermon.”

Staffordshire.

Formerly, at Lichfield, the clergyman of the parish, accompanied by the churchwardens and sidesmen and followed by a concourse of children bearing green boughs, repaired to different reservoirs of water and there read the gospel for the day, after which they were regaled with cakes and ale; during the ceremony the door of every house was decorated with an elm bough. This custom was founded on one of the early institutions of Christianity, that of blessing the springs and wells.—Account of Lichfield, 1818-19, p. 133.

Suffolk.

By his will, proved in December 1527, John Cole of Thelnetham, directed that a certain farm-rent should be applied yearly to the purpose of providing “a bushell and halffe of malte to be browne, and a bushell of whete to be baked to fynde a drinkinge upon Ascension Even everlastinge for ye parishe of Thelnetham to drinke at the Cross of Trappetes.”

Worcestershire.

At Evesham it is customary for the master-gardeners to give their work-people a treat of baked peas, both white and grey (and pork), every year on Holy Thursday.—Brand, Pop. Antiq. 1849, vol. i. p. 208.