Part 7 — MANNERS & CUSTOMS OF ALL NATIONS.
Reading edition
WATER AT SHAFTESBURY.
Motcomb, half a mile north from Shaftesbury, is noted for containing the wells from which the inhabitants of Shaftesbury are supplied with water. Great numbers of the inhabitants get their living by carrying water, for which they have three halfpence or twopence the horse load. On this account there is a particular custom yearly observed, according to ancient agreement, dated 1662, between the Lord of the Manor of Gillingham, and the Mayor and Burgesses of Shaftesbury. The Mayor is obliged, the Monday before Holy Thursday, to dress up a prize bezon, or bizant, somewhat like a May garland in form, with gold and peacocks' feathers, and carry to Enmori Green, half a mile below the town in Motcomb, as an acknowledgment for the water, together with a raw calf's head, a pair of gloves, a gallon of beer or ale, and two penny loaves of white wheaten bread, which the steward receives and carries away for his own use. The ceremony being over, the bizant is restored to the Mayor, and brought back by one of his officers with great solemnity. This bizant is generally so richly adorned with plate and jewels, borrowed from the neighbouring gentry, as to be worth not less than £1,500.
C. D.
TRINITY TERM ENDS 11th JUNE.
(For the Mirror.)
"On this day," says Brady, in his Calendaria, "Trinity Term ends; and immediately on the rising of the Court, commences that cessation from legal business emphatically denominated the 'long vacation,' or that space which our ancestors have wisely left undisturbed by law concerns, that the people may be the better able to attend to the different harvests throughout the kingdom. Thus the activity and bustle of the Inns of Court suddenly subside into a want of occupation, not unaptly displayed in the following anonymous parody:—"
"My lord now quits his venerable seat, The six clerk on his padlock turns the key, From business hurries to his snug retreat, And leaves vacation and the town to me." "Now all is hush'd—asleep the eye of care— And Lincoln's Inn a solemn stillness holds, Save where the porter whistles o'er the square, Or our dog barks, or basket-woman scolds:" "Save that from yonder pump and dusty stair The moping shoe-black and the laundrymaid Complain of such as from the town repair, And leave their little quarterage unpaid."
H. B. A.