other customs, many of which still survive, are the results of a compromise. The Christian teachers found the people so wedded to their old rights and usages, that it was vain to hope for the complete abandonment of their long-cherished practices. Hence the old Pagan customs were shorn of their idolatry, and transferred to the Christian festivals. Nor is it uncommon to find survivals of old forms of nature-worship, of various cults of hero or demigod, of propitiatory offerings to the spirits of woods and streams, just as we find the old Norse legends of Loki and Heimdal and Sigyn on the Saxon crosses at Gosforth, blended with the triumphs of Christianity over the prostrate Pagan deities. Sometimes local customs owe their origin to the popular will in some places, and have become part of the local law. In some cases we find that a particular custom, which seems strange and remarkable, is but a variation of some well-ascertained folk custom which once extended over a wide area. Other popular customs are only observed in one particular place, and owe their origin to some ascertained historical event.1 They are frequently very extraordinary, and cause us to wonder how the wit of man ever invented such 1 Presidential address to Folk-Lore Society, by Mr. J. L. Gomme. strange modes of expressing its ideas and feelings. We wonder, too, how they could have been preserved so long amid the many changes of our social life. We have festival customs, ceremonial customs, and sports and games, to which English folk have ever clung with fond affection. The Church has preserved for us many of our festival customs; ceremonial customs have been guarded by legal enactments, and become connected with all the chief events in human life. Hence we have a mass of customs associated with all our social institutions which will repay our careful examination and close scrutiny. Existing superstitions, as shown forth by examples of amazing credulity, will find no place in these pages; we must leave to others to record the cases of modern witchcraft, fortune-telling, planet-ruling, and such wonder-working powers, startling to the philosopher of the nineteenth century, who believed that all superstitions had been killed by modern culture and enlightenment. We seek only the ancient customs which survive in town or hamlet, in church or court, where, if our readers will bear us company, we can show to them the strange performance and wild, rude ceremony, and try to discover the origin and meaning of that which we behold. One request I fain would utter: "Villagers and most worthy townsfolk of England, we know that old customs are dying fast, that old practices are falling into disuse; let them not die, I would beseech you—at least not before these pages are written, lest our good friends whom I shall venture to bring with me to visit you should go away disappointed, and lest hereafter you should mourn the loss of those things which now appear to your enlightened minds of little value or interest." Most of the local time-honoured customs of Old England are connected with the Church's Calendar. The Church always was the centre of the life of the old village, and the social amusements and holiday observances were associated with the principal feasts and festivals of the Church. Fairs are still held in most places on the festival of the saint to whom the parish church is dedicated. Christmas, Easter, Ascension Day, Whitsuntide, still bring with them their accustomed modes of popular celebration. We propose to follow the course that the Calendar lays down for us, and notice all the remarkable observances which have long ago been incorporated in old English life; and as innocent associations of a simpler, perhaps a happier time, it would be a pity if ever they were allowed altogether to disappear. CHAPTER I Christmas customs-Mumming —Folk-drama in ALL the old poets sing in praise of the great festival of the Saviour's birth, which, according to Herrick, "sees December turned to May," and makes "the chilling winter's morn smile like a field beset with corn.' Sir Walter Scott bewails the decline of the ancient modes of celebrating the festival, and says "England was merry England when Old Christmas brought his sports again; The "Lord of Misrule" has been dead many years and been decently buried, though when alive he did not always merit that epithet. The Yule-log is no longer drawn in state into the baron's hall, but we have still some fragments of ancient revels preserved in the mummers' curious performance. "Mumming" is supposed to be derived from the Danish word mumme, or momme in Dutch, and signifies to disguise oneself with a mask. Dr. Johnson defines a mummer as one who performs frolics in a personated dress. Modern mummers usually do not wear masks, but they dress themselves up in a strange garb resembling sheep-skins, except that instead of wool they have coloured paper cut into ribbons. The headgear is elaborately covered with the same material. The dress of the characters is varied to suit their parts. They have frills over the knees in a fashion somewhat similar to that represented in some pictures of the time of Charles II. Their weapons are wooden swords, but "King George" usually sports an iron one fashioned by the village blacksmith. I have repeatedly witnessed the performance of Berkshire mummers, which is probably the remnant of some ancient mystery" play, which time and the memories of old Berkshire folk have considerably altered. There was a celebrated pageant of St. |