March 1.]

SIMNEL SUNDAY.

Simnel Sunday is better known as Mid-Lent or Mothering Sunday, and was so called because large cakes called Simnels were made on this day.

Bailey in his Dictionary (fol. 1764, by Scott,) says, Simnel is probably derived from the Latin Simila, fine flour, and means a sort of cake, or bun, made of fine flour, spice, &c.

Frequent mention is made of the Simnel in the household allowances of Henry the First.

“Cancellarius v solidos in die et i Siminellum dominicum, et ii salum, et i sextarium de vino claro, et i sext. de vino expensabili, et unum grossum cereum, et xl frusta Candell.”—Libr. Nigr. Scaccarii, p. 341.

The “Siminellum Dominicum,” Hearne thinks, was a better kind of bread[20] and that “Siminellum Salum,” from sal, cibus, victus, was the ordinary bread; if it be not the Latin Salis (Siminellum Salinum), in which case it denotes that more salt is contained in it than in the other. If the derivation from Simnel be not satisfactory, perhaps the Anglo-Saxon symbel, a feast or banquet, whence simbel, dÆg, a festival day, may suffice.—Med. Ævi Kalend. vol. i. p. 177.

At Bury, in Lancashire, from time beyond memory, thousands of persons come from all parts, and eat “simnels” on Simnel Sunday. Formerly, nearly every shop was open, quite in defiance of the law respecting the closing during “service,” but of late, through the improved state of public opinion, the disorderly scenes to which the custom gave rise have been partially amended. Efforts have been repeatedly made to put a stop to the practice altogether, but in vain. The clergy, headed by the rector, and the ministers of all denominations (save the Romanists) have drawn up protests and printed appeals against this desecration, but, as just stated, with scarcely any visible effect.

It is not a little singular that the practice of assembling in one town, upon one day—the middle Sunday in Lent, to eat simnel cake, is a practice confined to Bury. Much labour has been expended to trace the origin of this custom, but without success.—Gent. Mag. (New Series) 1866, vol. i. p. 535; Baines, History of Lancashire, 1836, vol. ii. p. 776.

Herrick in his Hesperides has the following:

Again, the bread called “simnel bread” is mentioned by Jehoshaphat Aspin, in his Pictures of Manners, &c., of England, p. 126, who quotes from a statute of 51st of Henry III.:—A farthing symnel (a sort of small cake, twice baked, and also called a cracknel) should weigh two ounces less than the wastel (a kind of cake made with honey, or with meal and oil).

Curious are some of the tales which have arisen to explain the meaning of the name simnel. Some pretend that the father of Lambert Simnel, the well-known pretender in the reign of Henry VII., was a baker, and the first maker of simnels, and that, in consequence of the celebrity he gained by the acts of his son, his cakes have retained his name. There is a story current in Shropshire, which is more picturesque. Long ago there lived an honest old couple, boasting the names of Simon and Nelly, but their surnames are not known. It was their custom at Easter to gather their children about them, and thus meet together once a year under the old homestead. The fasting season of Lent was just ending, but they had still left some of the unleavened dough which had been from time to time converted into bread during the forty days. Nelly was a careful woman, and it grieved her to waste anything, so she suggested that they should use the remains of the lenten dough, for the basis of a cake to regale the assembled family. Simon readily agreed to the proposal, and further reminded his partner that there were still some remains of their Christmas plum-pudding hoarded up in the cupboard, and that this might form the interior, and be an agreeable surprise to the young people when they had made their way through the less tasty crust. So far all things went on harmoniously; but when the cake was made, a subject of violent discord arose, Sim insisting that it should be boiled, while Nell no less obstinately contended that it should be baked. The dispute ran from words to blows, for Nell not choosing to let her province in the household be thus interfered with, jumped up, and threw the stool she was sitting on at Sim, who, on his part, seized a besom, and applied it with right good will to the head and shoulders of his spouse. She now seized the broom, and the battle became so warm, that it might have had a very serious result, had not Nell proposed as a compromise that the cake should be boiled first and afterwards baked. This Sim acceded to, for he had no wish for further acquaintance with the heavy end of the broom. Accordingly, the big pot was set on the fire, and the stool broken up and thrown on to boil it, whilst the besom and broom furnished fuel for the oven. Some eggs, which had been broken in the scuffle, were used to coat the outside of the pudding when boiled, which gave it the shining gloss it possesses as a cake. This new and remarkable production in the art of confectionery became known by the name of the cake of Simon and Nelly, but soon only the first half of each name was alone preserved and joined together, and it has ever since been known as the cake of Sim-Nel or Simnel.—Book of Days, vol. i. p. 337.

Mothering Sunday.

—In many parts of England it was formerly customary for servants, apprentices, and others to carry presents to their parents on this day. This practice was called Going a-Mothering, and originated in the offerings made on this day at the mother-church.

In the Gent. Mag. (vol. liv. p. 98) a correspondent tells us that whilst he was an apprentice the custom was to visit his mother on Mid-Lent Sunday (thence called Mothering Sunday) for a regale of excellent furmety.[21]

Another correspondent of the same journal for May (vol. liv. p. 343) says, “I happened to reside last year near Chepstow, in Monmouthshire; and there, for the first time, heard of Mothering Sunday. My inquiries into the origin and meaning of it were fruitless; but the practice thereabouts was for servants and apprentices on Mid-Lent Sunday to visit their parents, and make them a present of money, a trinket, or some nice eatable; and they are anxious not to fail in this custom.”

A mothering-cake is alluded to in Collins’s Miscellanies, 1762, p. 114:

A sort of spiced ale called Braggot, Bragget, or Braggat, was used in many parts of Lancashire on these visits of relations, whence the day was called Braggot Sunday.

In Nares’ Glossary (Halliwell and Wright, 1859, vol. i. p. 102) the following receipt for making bragget is given from the Haven of Health, chap. 239, p. 268:

Take three or four galons of good ale, or more as you please, two dayes or three after it is densed, and put it into a pot by itselfe; then draw forth a pottle thereof, and put to it a quart of good English honey, and set them over the fire in a vessell, and let them boyle faire and softly, and alwayes as any froth ariseth skumme it away, and so clarifie it, and when it is well clarified, take it off the fire and let it coole, and put thereto of pepper a pennyworth, cloves, mace, ginger, nutmegs, cinamon, of each two pennyworth, beaten to powder, stir them well together, and set them over the fire to boyle againe awhile, then bring milke warme, put it to the reste, and stirre alltogether, and let it stand two or three daies, and put barme upon it, and drink it at your pleasure.

Minshen in his Ductor in Linguas (1617, p. 50) tells us that Braggot is composed of two Welsh words, BrÄg, malt, and Gots, honeycombs.

In Ben Jonson’s masque of the Metamorphosed Gipsies is the following reference to this word:

On this day also boys went about in ancient times into the villages with a figure of death made of straw, from whence they were generally driven by the country people, who disliked it as an ominous appearance, while some gave them money to get the mawkin carried off. Its precise meaning under that form is doubtful, though it seems likely to have purported the death of winter, and to have been only a part of another ceremony conducted by a larger number of boys, from whom the death carriers were a detachment, and who consisted of a large assemblage carrying two figures to represent Spring and Winter. These two figures they bore about, and fought; in the fight, Summer or Spring got the victory over Winter, and thus was allegorized the departure or burial of the death of the year, and its commencement or revival as Spring.—Every Day Book, vol. i. p. 358.

In the north of England, and also in the Midland Counties, the following names are given to the Sundays of Lent, the first of which however is anonymous:

Another version of this couplet is given in the Gent. Mag., 1788, vol. lviii. p. 288.

The first three names are no doubt corruptions of some part of the ancient Latin service or psalms used on each.—Brand’s Pop. Antiq. 1849, vol. i. p. 116; see the Festa Anglo-Romana, 1678.

In the Gent. Mag. (1785, p. 779) an advertisement for the regulation of Newark fair is quoted, which mentions that “Careing Fair will be held on Friday before Careing Sunday;” and Nichols remarks on this passage that he had heard the following old Nottinghamshire couplet:

Lancashire.

Fig-pies, or, as they are called in this country, “fag-pies,” are, or were, eaten on a Sunday in Lent, thence known as Fag-pie Sunday.—N. & Q. 2nd S. vol. i. p. 322.

Staffordshire.

Fig-pie Wake is kept in the parish of Draycot-in-the-Moors and in the neighbouring villages on Mid-Lent Sunday. The fig-pies are made of dry figs, sugar, treacle, spice, etc.; they are rather too luscious for those who are not “to the manner born.” But yet on this Sunday, the friends of the parishioners come to visit them, and to eat their fig-pies.—N. & Q. 2nd S. vol, i. p. 227.