it is the custom in this village

It Is the Custom in This VillageAuthor(s): Judith AllenSource: Folklore, Vol. 92, No. 1 (1981), pp. 67-76Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Folklore Enterprises, Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1260253 .

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Folklore vol. 92:i, 1981 67

'It is the Custom in this Village'

JUDITH ALLEN

THE village of Whittlesford lies seven miles south of Cambridge on a branch of the River Cam, not far from the Suffolk, Essex and Hertfordshire borders. In the nineteenth century it was largely a mixed agricultural community and supported one general store run by the Maynard family. It was to this family, in 1828, that there was born a son, George Nathan, who, in 1880, was to be appointed the first paid curator of the nearby Saffron Walden Museum. Under his father's guidance, George grew up to be a keen observer of village life. As early as 1856 he had started to collect material for what is now known as the Maynard Collection, though the bulk of the work was done after he became curator. There are a few papers still held in the Saffron Walden Museum, but the main part of the Collection is on loan to the County Record Office, Cam- bridge. It consists of twelve MS volumes of notes, drawings, clippings and original documents; it draws on earlier notes, on diaries (including his father's, now lost), and on reminiscences of old people. While his main interests were natural history and antiquities, he observed and commented on many aspects of village life, including some of the folk customs remembered from his child- hood in the village. Two of the most interesting accounts are in fact extracts from his father's (Nathan's) diaries for the 1830s and 1840s. They are worth quoting in full, with the original spelling and punctuation. '

HARVEST HOME The first describes the Harvest Home (M/V/18B-D):

1 September 1835. Oslars Horky-load has just gone past . . . The Lord walked in front with a large cocked hat on, such as captains in the navy wear with a long staff cap and all decorated with flowers, The Lady (a man in womans clothes) rode on the near fore horse, and four men on the other horses- the whole with flags and the horses with ribbons and flowers-The load was very high and so were the boughs on top. I threw up half a pail of water and was obliged to exert my whole strength to do so.-I shall never forget riding on a load of this description, it was in company with Ebenezer Hollick2 by agreement and a pretty sort of sport it was, for they threw all sorts of water at us,-any thing they got at. and some said that there was rotten eggs thrown, I know there was stinck enough- what a luxury it seemed when a dash of clean wholesome water came slap in my face. We went the whole circuit of the village having come with the load from 'Whiteland,' round by 'Whippity' & Rayners,3 down to the 'Lodge' and then to the farm-yard brother Robert came with a pail full of clean water quite unawares and dashed the whole contents full in my face.-I shall never forget the beautiful refreshing smell of it, altho' it ran down me in all directions and out at the bottom of my trowsers.-after we had dressed and cleaned ourselves we had a beautiful supper. Brother David was there.-He sang 'Hal the Woodman.' & when he got to 'a cake and rasher for his face4 with ale that makes the weary blest.' he gave it up & set Robert and me to sing the remainder:- Old Charles Nunn was there, he must have been near four score years old. Some of the company pressed him to sing and I think he began about fifty times to sing 'within a mile of Edinbro' '-It was this mans eldest son who they now call 'Old Charles Nunn' that was Lord this evening. he is a very droll pleasant fellow, he sang a very good comic song at the Horkey I am speaking of-something about



68 JUDITH ALLEN

the 'old bitch of a filly pitched me plump into a mud cart and there was I singing fall-de-lall' etc- This was a famous feast, I remember there was two rooms full of guests-The Lodge servants generally went-the wine and cake too we had: Gardener Brown and Old Fordham (the coachman) were there-Tom Nunn (the man they call Bandy) he is the son of the Lord today, he sung a song in redicule of the new marriage act which came out about that time and was repealed after being in force for a few weeks only-the burden was 'for you cannot get married until you are turned 21 sirs!' 5

This account is supplemented by George Maynard's comments. He says that in Whittlesford and the surrounding area the word 'horkey/hawkey' referred both to the procession and to the feast, whereas in Hertfordshire it referred to the feast only. In his village there was great competition among the men to see whose Horkey would create the greatest sensation (M/V/19). The man chosen to be the Lord was the best reaper or mower and set the pace for the rest. The next best man was chosen for the queen or Lady of the Harvest. The rest of the harvest workers were carried home on the last load, which was decorated with flags (albeit primitive ones fashioned from handkerchieves) apd green boughs. Sometimes a sheaf of corn was raised in the centre of the green boughs. The men were hidden among the boughs, blowing horns and shouting 'Hawkey home, hurrah! Hawkey home! Water, more Water!' A fuller version of this is (M/V/32):

Harvest home! harvest home! We've ploughed we've mowed We've reaped we've mowed [? sowed] We've brought home every load Hip hip hooray now harvest's done Water more water, now the corn is home.

This was the signal for the inhabitants along the route to come out and throw pails of water up to try and drench the men on the top of the load. As far as Maynard knew, this custom existed only in the Whittlesford area.

During the processioh stops were made at the public houses and beer houses and the men would usually get 'a little of old barleycorn or nutbrown,' as well as the water for their outsides, 'so between internal and external wet they are pretty well drenched' (M/V/20). The perambulation culminated in the feast, usually of roast beef and plum pudding. In addition to the songs his father mentions, Maynard says (M/V/18) that the Whittlesford men often sang the following well-known harvest song:

Here's a health to our Master The founder of our feast We hope his soul to God will go When he do get his rest.

CHORUS So drink boys drink And see you do not spill For if ye do ye shall drink two For that be master's will.

May everything now prosper That he do take in hand For we be all his servants As works at his command.



IT IS THE CUSTOM IN THIS VILLAGE 69

Here's a health unto our mistress That giveth us good ale We hope she'll live for many a year To cheer us without fail.

She is the best provider In all the country round So take your cup and drink it up None like her can be found.

The custom of asking for largesse at harvest time seems to be quite separate from the hawkey procession. After the harvest the lord would go round the village, to the tradesmen and other inhabitants, for gifts of money which he would demand with the formula 'I'd thank ye for a trifle for largesse.' Usually bread and cheese and a cask of ale were bought and the harvest workers would congregate at one of the cottages, or at a beer house, and sit up half the night eating and drinking.

Maynard also gives a detailed account of the East Anglian custom of obtaining the largesse in the harvest field (M/V/30-1). He quotes this from Major Moore's Suffolk Glossary and the account is very similar to that quoted in Folklore,6 for Norfolk. In these counties the reapers would ask if 'you chuse to have it hallered.' If so, the men formed a ring, holding hands and bowing their heads to the centre. One man stood apart and called loudly, 'Hollar Lar! Hollar Lar! Hollar Lar!-jees.' The men in the ring 'lengthen out o - o - o - o with a low sonorous note and incline their heads and then throwing the head up vociferate a - a - a - ah!' This was repeated three times for one shilling and was the estab- lished exchange in Suffolk. Maynard had obviously heard this himself for he notes that the ceremony carried far on a clear still night, 'and the lengthened sound is very peculiar and pleasing.'

THREAD THE NEEDLE The second extract is merely dated 1846 arid begins by identifying the piece

of land called 'Camping Close', a five-acre field close to the centre of the village (M/VII/7).

In this I suppose villagers used to play at the game called camping. It is always used at the present time on Shrove Tuesday by the children who play at the game which they call 'Thread the Needle' or 'Pig in the Gutter' which is thus performed. A number of them having collected together, they separate into twos and each pair supply themselves with a long pliable stick or withy generally a long shoot of the blackberry bush (Rubus coesius) with the thorns cut off.-They then place themselves in a double row with the withy errected in a kind of arch between them, thus a long avenue is formed, the last pair now drop their bow, and run up the arcade until they reach the other extremity where they again erect their arch the first pair are followed in quick succession by the next until half of them are in motion-Thus they perambulate the close many times, all the time uttering the following couplet:-

Open your eye, open your eye Let the king and me come by.

The account is accompanied by a delightful water-colour painted by George Maynard. It shows an arcade often pairs of children (boys paired with girls, and boys and girls alternating down each side); one couple is running down the



70 JUDITH ALLEN

arcade trailing the branch between them. One couple seems to be putting the final touches to their branch before joining in and some older girls and young children are preparing other branches. If the Maynard family was typical, the children took part in this game from about the age of 9. A diary extract for 1837 (M/VII/6) notes that Nathan, who had himself played Thread the Needle as a boy, sent his son, George, then aged nine, to join in for the first time. Already, in 1837, the custom was passing.

Maynard quotes other instances of this game, and more are collected in Folklore.7 In all the other instances it is played either at Easter or in May. It is always perambulatory, often round the streets, and sometimes also associated with 'Church clipping.' In Evesham the custom continued into the twentieth century, but Maynard knew of it through May's History of Evesham, published in 1845. Here it was played through the streets on Easter Monday, the arches were made by linked arms, and the rhyme was:

Open the gates as high as the sky And let victorious troops pass by.8

Forming the arches with the arms seems to be the more usual custom. Enid Porter9 refers to a diary for 1830-6 where the game is so described as played through the streets of Cambridge. Other rhymes were possible, and Notes and Queries vol. 4 1st series, p.140, gives the following rhyme as belonging to the 'old game of thread the needle:'

How many miles to Hebron Three score and ten Shall I be there by midnight Yes and back again Then thread the needle etc.

The only instance of Pig in the Gutter that I have found is that mentioned by Maynard himself which he takes from Notes and Queries for 17.11.1883 quoting the Herts and Essex Observer for 5 May 1883. This contained an account of Pig in the Gutter played in Saffron Walden on 1 May by about 300 boys, from 7.30 to 8.30 p.m. There are no details of this game, but Maynard says it was quite different from Thread the Needle.

For some of the other customs in the village, we have Maynard's own notes. He was a regular reader of Notes and Queries, and in addition he owned or had access to many contemporary publications, including Ditchfield's Old English Customs (1896), Forby's Vocabulary of East Anglia (1830), Brand's Popular Antiquities (Ed. Hazlitt 1870), and Hone's Every Day Book. Drawing on these sources, and on his own observations, he describes local customs, gives variants from other parts of the country, and attempts some historical settings. Since he does not always identify his sources very clearly ('an early writer says . . .'), nor does he always differentiate clearly between quoted matter and his own observation, it is not always possible to determine exactly what took place at Whittlesford.

PLOUGH MONDAY A particular case in point is the description of the Plough Monday activities

which occurs in two places in the collection. Volume VII, pages 128-9, contains




notes, a pencil sketch and a newspaper cutting; volume V, page 56, has a water- colour based on the sketch, and some further notes. The notes seem to be based on his father's diary (now lost), and an unidentified published source referring to the custom as practised in the north of England. The dating is confused; the sketch depicts Plough Monday at Whittlesford in 1850, but was not necessarily drawn then. George Maynard may even have been away from the village then, possibly completing his apprenticeship, since his name does not appear on the census return for 1851. The water-colour is dated 1870 but is based on the sketch, and the article contained in the newspaper cutting is dated 14 January 1892 and appears to be based on the manuscript notes. One of these notes is a fragment pasted to p.129 of volume VII. On one side is the note on Plough Monday, and on the other the account of Thread the Needle which appears above. The handwriting on this fragment differs from George's and makes use of the old fashioned long double s. It is, I think, Nathan's hand, and the fragment part of the original diary. If so, it can be dated to 1846 by the Thread the Needle account. George quotes it almost verbatim in the newspaper article, but with no indication of relative dating. Here is Nathan's account:

Some years ago the plough boys made it a rule on Plough Mondays to affix a number of boys to a plough and draw it round the village and if they did not receive a small trifle at houses where they called they would plough a furrow in the path before the door or perhaps plough the scraper up but now they only go round in the dark of the evening with a number of whips which they continue to crack amidst a number of wooys and Gee ups.

By this it would seem that the custom was dying out by 1846. But it must have survived, at least to some extent, since George quotes his father as saying that in 1853 the boys would mark their faces with black spots made with soot. They would then go to the more respectable people's doors calling out 'tid de rol, tid de rol' and ask for a gratuity. The newspaper article notes that the custom had its origin in pre-Reformation times and denotes the start of the agricultural year after the festivities of Christmas, falling as it does on the first Monday after Twelfth Night. The article also says that 'A rope was tied to the framework of the plough and guided by about twenty men. One guided the handles, another cracked a whip, and another clanked the bell.' Apart from the fact that boys, not men, draw the plough, all these features can be seen in the sketch, but it is not clear how much is based on personal observation and how much is recon- structed from other accounts. I think it is reasonable to assume, however, that the custom did continue in Whittlesford, in some form, until the 1870s, the time depicted in the water-colour.

GANGING BEER One popular Whittlesford custom which survived until the middle of the

nineteenth century was the annual ration of Ganging Beer.10 In pre-enclosure times it was often the custom to supply those beating the bounds with beer, bread and cheese. Until the village was enclosed beating the bounds was necessary to define the parish boundary, and was doubtless thirsty work. Maynard does not say if the perambulation was still performed in Whittlesford, but the custom of supplying the beer (known in Whittlesford as Ganging Beer) remained even after the enclosure of 1812. The procedure was not straight-



72 JUDITH ALLEN

forward, since the malt for the beer was a payment in lieu of the right to the aftermath of a piece of land in the neighbouring parish of Sawston. The land was called variously 'Askams,' 'Bones Meadow,' or 'the Ganging Ground' (M/I/235) The Whittlesford parishioners had originally taken the aftermath, and Maynard quotes an undated occasion when they had been so close-fisted that they would not even allow the horse carting the aftermath (hay in this case) to drop his head and feed from it (M/XII/237). At some point, instead of the aftermath, the villagers took an annual payment of a quarter of malt, Whittles- ford parish supplied the hops, and the resulting beer was distributed annually to every member of the parish, man, woman, and child. A list of the recipients survives for the year 1833, when 458 pints were distributed (M/VII/143).

The custom survived the enclosure of the village but in 1842 and 1843 no beer was brewed nor malt demanded and there was a controversy over who was to pay for the hops. By 1850 agreement had been reached with the agent of the Huddleston family (owners of the field) to pay ?3 per annum in lieu of the malt, on the condition that it should not be given away in beer. On 25 February 1850 three years' arrears totalling ?9, was paid out to 121 poor people of Whittles- ford (M/VII/138). Thereafter Huddleston's agent refused to pay out unless he had legal authority from the parish and, as this was not forthcoming, the custom lapsed beyond recovery.

MAY DAY The Maynard Collection gives May Day customs in considerable detail, but, as

with Plough Monday customs, much of it is unidentified quoted matter. The following is the only substantial account that can be firmly attributed to Whittlesford (M/XII/386ff). It includes an interesting comment, not Maynard's, revealing contemporary attitudes to folk customs.

May-Day-the 1st of May or Garland Day. It is the custom in this village and the neighbouring villages for the young girls of the place to

perambulate the village with their dolls dressed up with flowers etc. and call them 'May ladies.' They separate themselves into groups of about half a dozen and two of the party carry the doll or May Lady suspended upon a stick or thin pole amidst a bower of flowers formed with their hoops.- over this they form a canopy or covering-and calling at the houses of the principal inhabitants ask whether the resident would like to see their May Queen, and if so they withdraw the covering for the purpose of inspection, for which they expect a small gratuity as a reward. In Vol. VII and page 118 of my manuscripts I give a drawing of a party of the children of the village exhibiting their May Queens at the door of my Mothers house, in memory of one of the innocent customs of the village- all of which are rapidly passing away. I endorse the sentiments expressed by a writer who says 'I value every custom that tends to infuse poetical feelings into the ways and manners of the common people and to sweeten and soften the rudeness of rustic manners without destroying their simplicity. Indeed it is to the decline of this happy simplicity that the decline of this custom may be traced; and the rural dance on the village green and the homely may-day pageant have gradually disappeared in proportion as the peasantry have become expensive and artificial in their pleasure, and too knowing for simple enjoyment. Some attempts have been made of late years by men of both taste and learning to rally back the popular feeling to these standards of primitive simplicity; but the time is gone by-the feeling has become chilled by habits of gain and traffic and little is now heard of may-day festivities ...

This account is not dated, but the sketch to which Maynard refers is dated 1876. Maynard says the garland is made by crossing two hoops, but the illustration

only shows one. The doll itself is finely dressed and decked with flowers and ribbons. The rhyme used to ask for money at the houses was a traditional one:




First and second and third of May Are chimney sweepers dancing day I wish you ladies and gentlemen a happy May And I've come to show you my garlands Surrounding the queen of May.11

It seems fairly clear that the accounts of bringing in the Maypole, and of the dances round it, and of the elaborate bowers of branches, do not refer to Whittlesford. There is no mention of the village having had a Maypole, but there is an oblique reference to May dances in a narrative poem written for and recited at the Working Men's Hall in the village in 1866 by Maynard's uncle Robert (M/XII/36). The reference is to an old oak tree that stood outside the guild hall in the centre of the village. The girls would fling their garlands on it as they danced in a ring round its trunk.

The villagers did, however, gather branches of May, presumably to decorate their doors and windows in the traditional manner; Maynard notes that the blossom was rarely out by the first of May, but that under the old calendar, which brought May Day 12 days later, it was usually just out.

The detailed account that Maynard gives of the Robin Hood plays which were' often performed on May Day seems to be copied, though there is no indication of the provenance (M/VII/120ff). There is nothing to suggest they were performed at Whittlesford, nor is it certain that the morris dancers mentioned on page 119 of Vol. VII were part of the Whittlesford custom. In all, the village seems to have celebrated the day in fairly simple fashion.

THE GINGERBREAD STALL Just over a month later came one of the highlights of the village year, the

feast which took place on 11 June and the two following days. By 1880 it had developed into a lively affair with 'flying horses, two worked by steam and one by Horse' (M/IV/390). Also from Volume IV is an undated account of the gingerbread stall at the Whittlesford feast:

When I was a boy, one of the principal shows of the feast at Whittlesford was Rollingsons Ginger- bread stall. This was a display of flat Gingerbread Cake of all dimensions from about as large as your hand to some about a foot in diameter in all kinds of devices, made in flat moulds, from a paste the ingredients of which principally consisted of flour, sugar and treacle-it was of a dark brown colour-ornamented with pieces of gold foil or Dutch Metal dabbed on-and if tradition is to be credited a lick of the tongue preceded the application of the foil. There was a better which was made of flour, butter, ground ginger lemon rind, nutmeg and white sugar. The common sort was that mostly sold at this feast, where large quantities were sold, and disposed of by the purchasers as fairings among their friends.12 One of the most popular devices for these gingerbread cakes, perhaps, was the Cock in Breeches. This was given very frequently.(so says a writer) as a sort of make-weight to good customers. This gift naturally lent itself to small jokes; for since the world was young who is to wear the breeches and rule the roost has afforded a theme for mild pleasantries.

CATCHING AN OWL One such 'mild pleasantry,' of a practical nature, is recounted, together with

a delightful water-colour sketch, in Volume V of the Collection (p.58):

The joke of 'Catching an Owl' . . . is sometimes practiced in this village, upon a simple rustic .. representing to him that an owl frequents such a barn, making him anxious for its capture . .. and for the purpose he has lent to him by the horsekeeper a chaff seive while this . . . is being arranged, one



74 JUDITH ALLEN

other of the party climbs to the upper beam of the barn, here he has in readiness a pail of water. presently the dupe with the rest of the party make their appearance, the spot is pointed out to him where the owl sits. In the dusk of the evening he fancies he sees it and with both hands, he raises the seive above his head; as he stands elevated upon a cask or ladder and is just in the act of captur- ing his prize; when low! instead of an owl the whole contents of the pail come flop into the seive, which not being waterproof of course the dupe gets it in the form of an excellent shower bath to the immeasurable mirth of the rest of the party.

How such a practical joke ever came to be perpetrated more than once is not revealed, but the account is described as 'an old custom in Whittlesford and its neighbourhood.'

RESTORATION DAY There is one custom of which even the memory seems to have died out, that of

commemorating the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. Enid Porter 13 makes no mention of it, and Maynard himself in his undated note says it was some time since the custom had been practised. The brief account is from the uncatalogued Maynard Collection still in the Saffron Walden Museum:

Some time since it was the custom in this village and neighbourhood for the parish clerk or some one person to place in a conspicuous part of the dwelling house of each of the principal inhabitants of the village, a bough of oak in commemoration of the restoration of King Charles II to the throne of England in 1660 and also to commemorate the concealment afforded to the king in an oak tree.

HOP-SCOTCH As well as the special festivals, Maynard took note of some of the more every-

day happenings. He describes the game of Hop-skotch in some detail (M/VII/53):

The manner in which the game is played in this village and neighbourhood is as follows:-

- - - -- LIMn* A f

OOM---I

a parallelogram about four or five feet wide and twelve or fifteen in length is made with a piece of chalk upon the ground, and divided laterally into eighteen or twenty different compartments which are called beds, some of them being larger than others. The players are each of them provided with a piece of tile, or any other flat material of the like kind which they cast by the hand from end no 1 into the different beds in regular succession, and every time the tile is cast, the player's business is to hop upon one leg after it, and drive it out of the boundaries at the end where he stood to throw it; for if it passes out at the sides, or rested upon one of the marks it was necessary for the cast to be repeated. The boy or Girl who performs the whole of this operation by the fewest casts of the tile was the conqueror.

It seems clear that both Nathan and his son George were only interested in folklore to the extent of observing the obvious customs of the village. There seems to have been no attempt to explore the more hidden world that undoubtedly existed. Hints of this world are given, however, in two accounts




of events which did become public. Both these are well recorded in Enid Porter's book14 and concern the belief in witches, which survived until 1878; and the death and marriage divinations associated with St. Mark's Eve. Maynard's account of St. Mark's Eve refers to the early nineteenth century, by which time some members of the community could regard the custom as a joke, while others still took the matter seriously.

BLESSING AS A CURE There is a further glimpse of this more private life of the villagers in the

account, copied from Nathan's diary, of the widespread belief in the healing powers of local 'blessers' or 'charmers.' This is Nathan's account dated 1834 (M/V/101):

8 March Whilst working in my garden yesterday a goosberry thorn ran with great violence into the knuckle joint of the middle finger of my left hand. It was quite painful last night and I rubbed it with bathing spirits. This morning it felt about the same-but in the course of the day it was so painful that I was forced to poultice it and it is still so painful that I can scarcely bear it. As a proof of the ignorance and superstition of the inhabitants of this village nothing further need be said than that no fewer than five of them all at different times in the course of this day have advised me to have my hand blessed as a means of curing it. It appears there is a man named Charles Litchfield15 who.does this and has so they say performed some wonderful cures. he is an ignorant labourer Sunday 9th . . . my hand scarcely any better two more persons advise me to have it blest by Litch- field-one woman said she knew a person who went to him at Linton 16 when he was at work there to have a thorn blest. and another was quite struck to think I would not believe anything about it- March 10 Hand no better. Two more fools advise blessing. March 1 1-Hand a little better-one fool says she would have it blessed because if there is no thorn in it, it certainly will do good. Oct 12- Hand very little better today-Pain abated, but still a good deal of inflamation and much swolen- Three more fools as I call them-one at Hinxton. There is a blesser or charmer there also-Oct 13. Hand a little better. One of the fools asked me if I had had it blessed. Oct 14 My hand is rather better today. I can use it more it begins to be stronger and not so full of pain-one more fool today.

This account is interesting, both for the extent to which the local labouring class believed in blessing as a cure (at least 14 people advocated it), and for Maynard's attitude to the belief. His scepticism, which he obviously communi- cated, would undoubtedly have inhibited the villagers from revealing more of their other beliefs and superstitions. None the less, these contemporary and near-contemporary accounts give a vivid insight into the richness and variety of the customs that enlivened the year.

NOTES

I am grateful to Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge, and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation for the Studentship during which this paper was written; also to the Cambridge Folklore Society for encouragement and advice.

1. Unless otherwise stated references are to the C.R.O. Collection, Cambridge, and are to M[aynard]/Vol number/page number.

2. Old Esquire Hollick, aged 82 in 1823, the year to which this harvest can be dated (from the reference to legislation at the end of the account). On the old squire's death in 1828 his nephew, also Ebenezer Hollick, became agent for the estate; and this Ebenezer's daughter, Mary, had married Nathan Maynard's brother David in 1820.

3. Whitelands: a field near the parish boundary with Thriplow. Whippity: a road in the village; Rayners: a farmstead.



76 JUDITH ALLEN

4. The original (a transcription of the Diary entry) is ink over pencil, and this is possibly a mis- reading for 'fare' or 'feast.'

5. This must refer to 4G.4.c.76 (July 1823) section XXIII which, while it did not actually forbid marriage under 21, attached severe penalties to those who falsely claimed they were over 21 at their marriage.

6. Volume V, 1894, p.169. 7. Volume 23, 1912, pp.196-7. 8. Or 'Victoria's' (Folklore, volume 23, 1912) pp.196-7. 9. Cambridgeshire Customs and Folklore, London 1969, p.217. 10. Sources for this custom are M/VII/137ff. and M/I/235ff. 11. M/VII/124. 12. From this point on the account is on a separate piece of paper and has, together with the

sketch, obviously been copied, though Maynard does not identify his source. One cannot be certain that the Cock in Breeches was actually sold at Whittlesford Feast.

13. op. cit. 14. Ibid., witchcraft p.175; St. Mark's Eve pp.109-10. 15. An agricultural labourer who managed to keep just above the poverty line, though lack of

work caused him to take occasional work on the roads. 16. A large village about 7 miles away.



it is the custom in this village

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