Lancashire Folk-lore Part 26

[154] For the Simnel cakes of Shrewsbury, &c., see _Book of Days_, I.

336.

[155] Baines's _History of Lancas.h.i.+re_.

[156] _History of Manchester_, II. 265.

[157] Baines's _History of Lancas.h.i.+re_.

[158] H. T. Riley, in _Notes and Queries_, 2nd ser., ii. 320.

[159] _Pictorial History of Lancas.h.i.+re._

[160] Hone's _Every-Day Book_, ii. 450; Brand's _Popular Antiquities, &c._

[161] _Pictorial History of Lancas.h.i.+re._

[162] Baines's _History of Lancas.h.i.+re_.

[163] _Pictorial History of Lancas.h.i.+re._

[164] _History of Blackpool_, p. 92.

[165] _Browis_ or _brewis_ is broth or pottage; _frumenty_, is hulled wheat boiled in milk, and flavoured with cinnamon, sugar, allspice; and _jannocks_, oaten bread in large, coa.r.s.e loaves; _throdkins_, a cake made of oatmeal and bacon.

[166] Rev. W. Thornber's _History of Blackpool_.

[167] Hone's _Every-Day Book_, ii. 597.

[168] For the words of these songs, see Harland's _Ballads and Songs of Lancas.h.i.+re_, p. 116; and for words and music, Chambers's _Book of Days_, i. 546.

[169] A. B., Liverpool, in _Notes and Queries_, v. 581.

[170] Baines's _History of Lancas.h.i.+re_.

[171] These boughs, says Mr. Thornber, in his _History of Blackpool_, were emblematical of the character of the maiden thus conspicuously distinguished; an elder-bough for a scold, one of ash for a swearer, &c.

[172] _Pictorial History of Lancas.h.i.+re._

[173] Dugdale's _Monast. Anglic._, vol. vi. p. 906.

[174] _Farington Papers_, p. 128.

[175] _Gent. Mag._, vol. liii., for July, 1783, p. 578.

[176] M. F., in _Notes and Queries_, 3rd series, ii. 397.

[177] Aquinas, in _Notes and Queries_, 3rd series, v., April 2., 1864.

[178] Ed. _Notes and Queries_.

[179] Wellbank, in _Notes and Queries_, 2nd series, viii. 242.

[180] See _History of Blackpool_.

[181] Here is the specimen of one sung from house to house during Christmas:--

We're nather c.u.m to yare hase to beg nor to borrow, But we're c.u.m to yare hase to drive away o sorrow; A suop o' drink, as yau may think, for we're varra droy, We'll tell yau what we're c.u.m for--a piece o' Christmas poye.

[182] The mince-pie, made of a compound of Eastern productions, represented the offerings of the wise men who came from far to wors.h.i.+p the Saviour, bringing spices. Its old English coffin-shape was in imitation of the manger in which the infant Jesus was laid.

[183] We have not been able to find any account of this mode of catching larks, at least, under the name here given.

[184] The baker formerly gave his customers a baby of paste; and in my own recollection a cake, decorated with the head of a lamb, named "the Ewe loaf," was the Christmas present of bakers at Poulton. On Christmas Eve the houses were illuminated with candles of an enormous size.--W. T.

[185] From a family MS. of the Cunliffes, quoted in Baines's _Lancas.h.i.+re_, iii. 244.

EATING AND DRINKING CUSTOMS.

In many instances of particular Church Festivals, and of popular celebrations, we have already enumerated various viands appropriated to special occasions, as the turkey to New Year's Day; the pancake to Shrove-Tuesday; the simnel, carlins, bragot, and fig-pie to Mid-Lent Sunday; the goose to Michaelmas; frumenty, mince-pies, &c., to Christmas. A few remain, however, for notice here:--Eccles cakes, Ormskirk gingerbread, Everton toffy, and other sweet cakes have "all seasons for their own." The two rival shops in Eccles, on opposite sides of Church-street, the one called "The genuine Eccles cake shop, from over the way," and the other "The real Eccles cake shop, never removed,"

so much puzzle the stranger and visitor, that purchases are often made at both in order to secure the real, genuine, original article.

THE HAVERCAKE LADS.

Formerly the bread eaten by the labouring cla.s.ses in the parish of Rochdale and others in the east of Lancas.h.i.+re was oat-cake, which was also pretty generally in use in the west of Yorks.h.i.+re. A regiment of soldiers raised in these two adjoining districts at the beginning of the last war took the name of the "Havercake Lads," a.s.suming as their badge an oat cake [oats are called havers], which was placed (for the purpose of attracting recruits) on the point of the recruiting sergeant's sword.

Oat bread is still eaten in various manufacturing and hilly districts of Lancas.h.i.+re, but not nearly so generally as half a century ago.[186]

WOODEN SHOES AND OATEN BREAD OR JANNOCKS.

Both these are said to have been introduced by the Flemish immigrant weavers about the year 1567. Their sabots, however, were made entirely of wood, lined with a little lamb's skin, to protect the top of the foot; while the _clogs_ of the present day have strong leather tops [often bra.s.s clasps] and thick wooden soles. The kind of bread introduced by the Flemings into Bolton and other manufacturing districts of Lancas.h.i.+re was made of oatmeal in the form of a loaf, and called _jannock_; but the gradual change in manners and improvement in social condition have almost banished this food, and wheaten-bread and oat-cakes have almost altogether taken its place.

In the _Shepherd's Play_, performed at Chester in 1577, in honour of the visit to that city of the Earl of Derby, the third Shepherd says:--

And brave ale of Halton I have, And what meat I had to my hire; A pudding may no man deprave, And a _jannock_ of Lancaster-s.h.i.+re.

Jannock is now used in Leigh more commonly than in most other parts of Lancas.h.i.+re. Warrington ale was no less celebrated than Halton ale, and a song in praise of the former is printed in Harland's _Lancas.h.i.+re Ballads_.[187]

PORK PASTIES.

In West Houghton, at the annual feast or wakes, there is a singular local custom of making large flat pasties of pork, which are eaten in great quant.i.ties on the Wakes Sunday, with a liberal accompaniment of ale; and people resort to the village from all places for miles round, on this Sunday, just as they rush into Bury on Mid-Lent or Mothering Sunday to eat simnels and drink bragot ale.

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