THE EVERY-DAY BOOK AND TABLE BOOK; OR, EVERLASTING CALENDAR OF POPULAR AMUSEMENTS, SPORTS, PASTIMES, CEREMONIES, MANNERS, CUSTOMS, AND EVENTS, INCIDENT TO Each of the Three Hundred and Sixty-five Days, IN PAST AND PRESENT TIMES; FORMING A COMPLETE HISTORY OF THE YEAR, MONTHS, AND SEASONS, AND A PERPETUAL KEY TO THE ALMANAC; INCLUDING ACCOUNTS OF THE WEATHER, RULES FOR HEALTH AND CONDUCT, REMARKABLE AND IMPORTANT ANECDOTES, FACTS, AND NOTICES, IN CHRONOLOGY, ANTIQUITIES, TOPO- GRAPHY, BIOGRAPHY, NATURAL HISTORY, ART, SCIENCE, AND GENERAL LITERATURE; DERIVED FROM THE MOST AUTHENTIC SOURCES, AND VALUABLE ORIGINAL COMMUNI- CATIONS, WITH POETICAL ELUCIDATIONS, FOR DAILY USE AND DIVERSION.
Reading edition
BY WILLIAM HONE.
I tell of festivals, and fairs, and plays, Of merriment, and mirth, and bonfire blaze; I tell of Christmas-mummings, new year’s day, Of twelfth-night king and queen, and children’s play; I tell of valentines, and true-love’s-knots, Of omens, cunning men, and drawing lots:
I tell of brooks, of blossoms, birds and bowers, Of April, May, of June, and July-flowers; I tell of May-poles, hock-carts, wassails, wakes, Of bridegrooms, brides, and of their bridal cakes; I tell of groves, of twilights, and I sing The court of Mab, and of the fairy king.
Herrick.
WITH FOUR HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SIX ENGRAVINGS.
IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. II.
LONDON: PRINTED FOR THOMAS TEGG, 73, CHEAPSIDE.
LONDON: J. HADDON, PRINTER, CASTLE STREET, FINSBURY.
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL OF DARLINGTON,
LORD LIEUTENANT AND VICE-ADMIRAL OF THE COUNTY PALATINE OF DURHAM, &c. &c. &c.
My Lord,
To your Lordship—as an encourager of the old country sports and usages chiefly treated of in my book, and as a maintainer of the ancient hospitality so closely connected with them, which associated the Peasantry of this land with its Nobles, in bonds which degraded neither—
I RESPECTFULLY DEDICATE THIS VOLUME;
not unmindful of your Lordship’s peculiar kindness to me under difficulties, and not unmoved by the pride which I shall have in subscribing myself,
MY LORD,
YOUR LORDSHIP’S HIGHLY HONOURED,
MOST OBEDIENT,
AND VERY HUMBLE SERVANT,
WILLIAM HONE.
February 27, 1827.