June 24.] MIDSUMMER DAY—ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST’S DAY.

June 24.]

MIDSUMMER DAY— ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST’S DAY.

The general customs connected with this season commenced on the preceding evening.—See Midsummer Eve.

Buckinghamshire.

The Status Scholæ Etonensis, A.D. 1560 (MS. Addit. Brit. Mus. 4813), says: “Mense Junii, in Festo Natalis D. Johannis post matutinas preces, dum consuetudo floruit accedebant omnes scholastici ad rogum extructum in orientali regione templi, ubi reverenter a symphoniacis cantatis tribus Antiphonis, et pueris in ordine stantibus venitur ad merendam.”

Cambridgeshire.

On a common called Midsummer Green, in the parish of Barnwell, an annual fair is held, commencing on Midsummer Day, and continuing for a fortnight. This fair is supposed to have originated with the assemblages of children at this place on the eve of St. John the Baptist’s Day, whose yearly gatherings being attended by a considerable concourse of people, attracted the notice of some pedlars, who began to dispose of their merchandise on this spot as early as the reign of Henry I. The articles brought for sale are chiefly earthen-wares, whence the festival has attained the name of Pot fair. The fair is proclaimed on the eve of Midsummer Day by the heads of the University, first in the middle of the village, and afterwards on the green where it is celebrated. It appears to have assumed its legal form in the reign of Henry III.—Brayley and Britton, Beauties of England and Wales, 1809, vol. ii. p. 110.

Cheshire.

In former times there was a privilege of licensing the minstrels, peculiar to the ancient family of Dutton. The original grant came from Earl Randal Blundeville to Roger Lacy, constable of Chester; and his son, John Lacy, assigned the privilege to the family of Dutton. The anniversary of this solemnity was constantly celebrated on the festival of St. John the Baptist by a regular procession of all the minstrels to the church of this tutelary saint in the city of Chester. But after having been constantly observed for at least 550 years, it seems to have been discontinued in 1758; and, as an instance how sacred these exclusive privileges were esteemed by legislative wisdom, the Act of the 29th of Elizabeth, which declares all itinerant minstrels to be vagabonds, particularly excepts the minstrel-jurisdiction of John Dutton, of Dutton in Cheshire, Esq.—Gower, Materials for a History of Cheshire, 1771, p. 67.

Cornwall.

Hitchins, in his History of Cornwall (1824, vol. i. p. 717), says: Midsummer Day is considered as a high holiday, on which either a pole is erected, decorated with garlands, or some flags displayed, to denote the sanctity of the time. This custom has prevailed from time immemorial, of which it is scarcely possible to trace the origin.

Devonshire.

Lynton revel begins on the first Sunday after Midsummer Day. It formerly lasted a week. As in the days before the Reformation, revels until lately began on a Sunday in Lynton and Lynmouth, a barrel of beer having been placed near the church gate in readiness for the people coming out of church, who partook of a glass and a cake, called revel cake, made with dark flour, currants, and carraway seeds. Wrestling formed a chief feature in the amusements, and large sums were raised by subscription to purchase prizes. However odd it may appear, it is not more than twenty years since the silver spoons, bought as prizes to be wrestled for, were exhibited hung in front of the gallery in Countisbury Church during divine service on Revel Sunday. Of late years, however, owing to the prevalence of drunkenness, especially on the Sunday afternoon, the respectable inhabitants have set their faces against these revels, which have now dwindled into insignificance. The collusion which sprang up among the wrestlers to share the prizes, without their being won by a real trial of skill and strength, hastened also greatly to abate the enthusiasm of the subscribers, so that of late the prizes have not been beyond a few shillings collected from the people on the ground. This of itself has given a death-blow to the revel.—Cooper, Guide to Lynton and Lynmouth, 1853, p. 38.

Isle of Man.

On this day a tent is erected on the summit of the Tynwald Hill (called also Cronk-y-Keeillown, i.e., St. John’s Church Hill, a mound said to have been originally brought from each of the seventeen parishes of the island), and preparations are made for the reception of the officers of state, according to ancient custom. Early in the morning the Governor proceeds from Castletown under a military escort to St. John’s Chapel, situated a few hundred yards to the eastward of the Tynwald Hill. Here he is received by the Bishop, the Council, the clergy, and the keys, and all attend Divine service in the chapel, the Government chaplain officiating. This ended, they march in a procession from the chapel to the mount, the military formed in line on each side of the green turf walk. The clergy take the lead, next comes the Vicar-General, and the two Deemsters, then the bearer of the sword of state in front of the Governor, who is succeeded by the Clerk of the Rolls, the twenty-four keys, and the captains of the different parishes.

The ceremony of the Tynwald Hill is thus stated in the Lex Scripta of the Isle of Man, as given for law to Sir John Stanley, in 1417:

“This is the constitution of old time, how yee should be governed on the Tinwald day. First you shall come thither in your royal array, as a king ought to do by the prerogatives and royalties of the land of Mann, and upon the hill of Tinwald sitt in a chair covered with a royal cloath and quishions, and your visage in the east, and your sword before you, holden with the point upward. Your Barrons in the third degree sitting beside you, and your beneficed men and your Deemsters before you sitting, and your clarke, your knight, esquires, and yeomen about you in the third degree, and the worthiest men in your land to be called in before your Deemsters, if you will ask anything of them, and to hear the government of your land and your will; and the Commons to stand without the circle of the hill, with three clearkes in their surplices, and your Deemsters shall call the coroner of Glanfaba, and he shall call in all the coroners of Man, and their yardes in their hands, with their weapons upon them, either sword or axe; and the moares, that is to witt of every sheading; then the chief coroner, that is, the coroner of Glanfaba, shall make affence upon pain of life or lyme, that no man make a disturbance or stirr in the time Tinwald, or any murmur, or rising in the King’s presence, upon pain of hanging and drawing; and then to proceed in your matters whatsoever you have to doe, in felonie or treason, or other matters that touch the government of your land of Manne.”—Cumming’s History of the Isle of Man, 1848, pp. 185, 186.

Middlesex.

“There is this solemn and charitable custom in y^e Ch. of St. Mary-Hill, London. On the next Sunday after Midsummer Day, every year, the fellowship of the Porters of y^e City of London, time out of mind, come to this church in y^e morning, and whilst the Psalms are reading, they group two and two towards the rails of y^e Communion table, where are set two basons; and there they make their offering, and so return to the body of y^e Church again. After then the inhabitants of y^e parish and their wives, and others also then at church, make their offering likewise; and the money so offered is given to the poor decrepit Porters of the said fellowship for their better subsistence.”—Newcomb’s MS. Collect., cited by Bishop Kennett.

Northamptonshire.

It was the custom to strew the church of Middleton Chenduit, in summer, with hay gathered from six or seven swaths in Ash Meadow, which were given for this purpose. In the winter the rector found straw.—Bridges’s History of Northamptonshire, 1791, vol. i. p. 187.

Northumberland.

It is customary on this day to dress out stools with a cushion of flowers. A layer of clay is placed on the stool, and therein is stuck, with great regularity, an arrangement of all kinds of flowers, so close as to form a beautiful cushion. These are exhibited at the doors of houses in the villages, and at the ends of streets and cross lanes of larger towns, where the attendants beg money from passengers to enable them to have an evening fête and dancing.

This custom is evidently derived from the “Ludi Compitalii” of the Romans; this appellation was taken from the compita, or cross lanes, where they were instituted and celebrated by the multitude assembled before the building of Rome. It was the feast of the lares, or household gods, who presided as well over houses as streets.—Hutchinson’s History of Northumberland.

Oxfordshire.

The following notice of a curious custom, formerly observed at Magdalen College, Oxford, is taken from the Life of Bishop Horne, by the Rev. William Jones (Works, vol. xii. p. 131):—“A letter of July the 25th, 1755, informed me that Mr. Horne, according to an established custom at Magdalen College, in Oxford, had begun to preach before the University, on the day of St. John the Baptist. For the preaching of this annual sermon, a permanent pulpit of stone is inserted into a corner of the first quadrangle; and so long as the stone pulpit was in use (of which I have been a witness), the quadrangle was furnished round the sides with a large fence of green boughs, that the preaching might more nearly resemble that of John the Baptist in the wilderness; and a pleasant sight it was: but for many years the custom has been discontinued, and the assembly have thought it safer to take shelter under the roof of the chapel.”

At the mowing of Revel-mede, a meadow between Bicester and Wendlebury, most of the different kinds of rural sports were usually practised; and in such repute was the holiday, that booths and stalls were erected as if it had been a fair. The origin of the custom is unknown; but as the amusements took place at the time when the meadow became subject to commonage, some have supposed it originated in the rejoicings of the villagers on that account. These sports entirely ceased on the enclosure of Chesterton field.—Dunkin, History of Bicester, 1816, p. 269.

Somersetshire.

Collinson, in his History of the County of Somerset (1791, vol. iii. p. 586), gives an account of a custom that was celebrated on the Saturday before old Midsummer Day in the parishes of Congresbury and Puxton, at two large pieces of common land, called East and West Dolemoors. These, he says, were divided into single acres, each bearing a peculiar and different mark cut on the turf, such as a horn, four oxen and a mare, two oxen and a mare, pole-axe, cross, dung-fork, oven, duck’s nest, hand reel, and hare’s tail. On the Saturday before old Midsummer Day, several proprietors of estates in the parishes of Congresbury, Puxton, and Week St. Lawrence, or their tenants, assembled on the commons. A number of apples were previously prepared, marked in the same manner with the before-mentioned acres, which were distributed by a young lad to each of the commoners from a bag or hat. At the close of the distribution, each person repaired to his allotment as his apple directed him, and took possession for the ensuing year. An adjournment then took place to the house of the overseer of Dolemoors (an officer annually elected from the tenants), where four acres, reserved for the purpose of paying expenses, were let by inch of candle, and the remainder of the day was spent in sociability and hearty mirth.

Wiltshire.

At Chiltern there is a sport widely practised by the boys, which they call “egg-hopping.” At the commencement of summer the lads forage the woods in quest of birds’ eggs. These, when found, they place on the road at distances apart in proportion to the rarity or abundance of the species of egg. The hopper is then blindfolded, and he endeavours to break as many as he can in a certain number of jumps. The universality of the game, and the existence of various superstitions, combined with their refusal to part with the eggs for money, would warrant a supposition that some superstition is connected with it.—N. & Q. 3rd. S. vol. iv. p. 492.

Yorkshire.

Old Midsummer Day, says Cole (History of Scalby, 1829, p. 44), is, at Scalby, a kind of gala time, when the sports, as they are termed, take place, consisting of the most rustic description of amusements, such as donkey-racing, &c., and when booths are erected for the accommodation of the several visitors, and the village presents a motley fair-like appearance.

IRELAND.

Co. Cork.

A pilgrimage to the source of the River Lee is one frequently performed by two very different classes of persons—the superstitious and the curious; the first led by a traditional sanctity attached to the place, the latter by the reputed sublimity of its scenery, and a desire of witnessing the religious assemblies and ceremonies of the peasantry. The scenery of Gougaun lake is bold and rugged, surrounded by rocky and barren mountains; in its centre is a small and solitary island, connected with the shore by a narrow artificial causeway, constructed to facilitate the rites of religious devotees, who annually flock thither on the 24th June (St. John’s Day), and the celebration of a pious festival. The principal building on the island is a rudely formed circular wall of considerable solidity, in the thickness of which are nine arched recesses or cells, called chapels, severally dedicated to particular saints, with a plain flag-stone set up in each as an altar.

On the celebration of the religious meeting these cells are filled with men and women in various acts of devotion, almost all of them on their knees. Croker, in his Researches in the South of Ireland (1824, p. 275), describing one of these pilgrimages, says: To a piece of rusty iron considerable importance seems to have been attached; it passed from one devotee to another with much ceremony. The form consisted in placing it three times, with a short prayer[72] across the head of the nearest person to whom it was then handed, and who went through the same ceremony with the next to him, and thus it circulated from one to the other. The banks of the lake were the scenes of merry-making. Almost every tent had its piper, two or three young men and women dancing the jig.

Co. Limerick.

At one time, the tradesmen of Limerick marched, on Midsummer Day, arranged under their respective leaders, decorated with sashes, ribbons, and flowers, and accompanied with a band of musicians, and the shouts of the delighted populace, through the principal streets of the city, while their merry-men played a thousand antic tricks, and the day generally ended in a terrible fight between the Garryowen and Thomond-gate boys (the tradesmen of the north and south suburbs).—Fitzgerald and Macgregor’s History of Limerick, 1827, p. 540.