Note E452 — 90.

"Plough Monday." "The Monday next after Twelfth-day, when our Northern plow-men beg plow-money to drink; and in some places if the plowman (after that day's work) come with his whip to the kitchin hatch, and cry 'cock in pot' before the maid says 'cock on the dung-hill,' he gains a cock on Shrove-Tuesday."—Coles' Dict. 1708. "Among the rural customs connected with the anniversary of Christmas were those of Plough-Monday, which fell on the first Monday after Twelfth-day. This was the holiday of the ploughmen, who used to go about from house to house begging for plough-money to drink. In the northern counties, where this practice was called the fool-plough (a corruption perhaps of yule-plough), a number of sword-dancers dragged about a plough, while one of the party, called the Bessey, was dressed for the occasion like an old woman; and another, who was the fool of the pageant, was almost covered with skins, and wore the tail of some animal dangling down his back. While the rest danced, one of these odd personages went among the spectators, rattling a box, and collecting small donations; and it is said that whosoever refused to pay had the plough dragged to his door and the soil of his threshold ploughed up."—Pict. Hist. of England, ii. 894.