CHAPTER V

May Day customs-Magdalen College, Oxford Sweeps at Oxford and Cheltenham-Bampton customs-Charlton, Clifton, and Witney, OxonEdlesborough, Bucks-Hawick customs-Saltash, Cornwall-Minehead and Lancashire, Leicestershire, Cornwall, Gloucestershire, Northants customs-Old Maypole still standing-Gawthorpe, Yorks-St. Mary Cray.

FROM ancient times May Day has ever been the great rural festival, when the Maypole was erected on every village green and spring was ushered in with all the merriness of simple rustic revelry. In recent times we have witnessed a revival of the crowning of May Queens and of children dancing around Maypoles. The old ceremonies are closely imitated, but they lack the spontaneity of the ancient rural festivals, and we are concerned now with the actual survivals of old customs, rather than any modern imitations of the same. In many old-world villages and towns we find still the old May Day ceremonies lingering on, and some of these we will visit, and describe how the rustics still continue to "usher in the May."

At Oxford the custom of singing the May

Morning Hymn on the summit of the tower of Magdalen College by the choristers is regularly observed.

This is said to have taken the place of a requiem mass which in pre-Reformation days was performed on the same spot for the repose of the soul of Henry VII. The following are the words of the hymn :

"Te Deum Patrem colimus,
Te laudibus prosequimur,
Qui corpus cibo reficis
Cœlesti mentem gratia.

Te adoramus, O Jesu!
Te, Fili unigenite!

Tu, qui non dedignatus es
Subire claustra Virginis.

Actus in crucem factus es,
Irato Deo victima ;

Per te, Salvator unice,
Vitæ spes nobis rediit.

Tibi, æterne Spiritus,
Cujus afflatu peperit
Infantem Deum Maria,
Æternum benedicimus.

Triune Deus, hominum
Salutis Auctor optime,

Immensum hoc mysterium

Ovanti lingua canimus."

About 150 persons are usually present, and as the hour of five strikes the choir com

In the street and

mence to sing the hymn. on the bridge a large crowd of spectators assemble, many of whom blow horns and other hideous-sounding instruments, and at the conclusion of the hymn they disperse for the accustomed country-walk.

In the same city on May Day garlands are borne along the streets, and a "Jack-in-theGreen," with the accompaniment of about a dozen fantastically dressed men and women, is often seen. This procession is formed by the Sweeps, and consists of the following personages:

1. Jack-in-the-Green.

2. A "Lord" and "Lady," who are dressed in white and decorated with ribbons. The "Lady" carries a ladle, and the "Lord" a fryingpan.

3. A "Fool," dressed as fantastically as possible, who carries a bladder on a string, wherewith to belabour the bystanders.

4. A fiddler.

5. Two or three men who carry money

boxes.

6. A man with shovel and poker, which he uses as musical instruments.

The whole party, except the "Lady," have their faces blackened, and are decked with

ribbons and flowers. They sing the following song:

"Please to remember the chimney-sweeps ;

Please, kind sir, don't pass us by;

We're old sweeps and want a living,
Spare us a copper as in olden time.”

The chimney-sweeps of Cheltenham also hold high revels on May Day. The dancers have their faces blacked, and their band consists of a fiddle and tin-whistle. The centre of the group is formed by a large bush, or hollow cone bedecked with leaves, out of which peers the face of Jack-i'-the-Green. The dresses of the attendants are red, blue, and yellow, and they dance around the bush. The leader of the party is the clown, who wears a tall hat with a flapping crown, and a fantastical dress, and "fancies himself" greatly. There is also a man with a fool's cap, and black figures fastened on his white pinafore, and the representation of a gridiron. Two boys complete the group, one wearing a girl's hat adorned with flowers. They levy contributions by holding out iron ladles or spoons, and strike the bystanders with bladders fastened to a stick. Their performance consists in dancing and roaring. The Cambridge sweeps evidently used to have a similar festival, as the children still go round with a doll, hung in the midst of a hoop wreathed with flowers, singing the ditty—

"The first of May is garland day,
And chimney-sweepers' dancing day;
Curl your locks as I do mine,

One before and one behind."

At Bampton, Oxon, up to within forty or fifty years ago, a party of children used to go round the town on May Day, dressed in white, with red, white, and blue ribbons (these are now the colours of the Club). A boy, called the "Lord," carried a stick dressed with ribbons and flowers, which was called a "sword," and a collecting-box for pence. Two girls, known as the "Lady and her "Maid," carried on a stick between them the "garland," which was made of two hoops crossed, and covered with moss, flowers, and ribbons. The "Lady" also carried a mace,' a square piece of board mounted on a short staff, on the top of which were sweet-smelling herbs under a muslin cover, decorated with red, white, and blue ribbons and rosettes. The "Lord" and "Lady" were accompanied by a "Jack-inthe-Green." From time to time the "Lady" sang the following words :

"Ladies and gentlemen,

I wish you a happy May;
Please smell my mace

And kiss my face,

And then we'll show our garland."