CUSTOMS AT HARTLEPOOL.* (Durham.)

"THE first time a child visits a neighbour or relation, it is regularly presented with three things, salt, bread, and an egg; this practice however (not noticed by Bourne or Brand) is widely extended over the north of England. Valentine's Day is duly observed; the swains vent not their passions on sheets speckled with tinsel, and interlarded with Cupids, yet their epistles abound with the usual inflated hyperbole, which would not disgrace modern gallantry, and their Dulcineas are seldom deficient in comprehension. The solemnities practiced every where on Carling, Palm, and Easter Sundays, of which a full account is given in Brand's Popular Antiquities, are here most scrupulously observed.

A custom prevails on the Monday immediately following the latter festival for the men to take off the women's shoes or buckles, and on the Tuesday for the women to retaliate in like manner; these petty thefts are only to be redeemed by presents. The trifling sums obtained by

*Cuthbert Sharp's History of Hartlepool, 8vo. Durham, 1816.

I have already made mention of this custom, but repeat it rather than interrupt the current of our author's narrative.

this mutual and frequently provoked warfare, are generally expended in a merry-making towards the end of the week. Mell-suppers are customary in the neighbourhood at harvest-home; and Guisers, though their numbers are considerably diminished of late years, are still to be seen. On the approach of Christmas, carols are sung by the children; yule-clogs blaze on the eve of the nativity; and yule-cakes form an essential part of the evening's entertainment. The Christmas Box and New Year's Gifts are not forgotten; and detachments of sword-dancers perambulate the neighbourhood, exhibiting their feats of harmless warfare. The first Monday after Twelfth Day the Stot-Plough, a small anchor drawn by young men and boys, is paraded through the town. They stop at every door and beg a small donation; if successful, they salute the donor with three cheers; but if their request is refused, they plough up the front of the house, to the great annoyance of the inhabitants.

*

Waffs are still common, and few people die before their neighbours have seen their waffs glide softly by. Indeed some persons have seen their own waffs, and under the conviction that their own death was thereby predicted, have seldom recovered from the impression of the apparition.

A belief in Bad Prayers is still prevalent, and various arts practiced to render those prayers abortive.

* Or whiffs, as it is called in some parts of the country. Sharp says nothing about its meaning, but it is probably derived from Weffe, which, in the Promptorium Parvulorum, by Richard Frauncis, is explained to mean a vapour. This last word would seem to belong to Norfolk, for the author of the Promptorium, who was a Black Friar, tells us in the pröemium of his work, that he follows the Norfolk dialect, to which he had been used from his infancy. Thus much we learn from his prologue to the work in question-"Comitatus tamen Norfolchie modum loquendi solum sum secutus, quem solum ab infancia didici, et solotenus plenius perfectiusque cognovi."

The lake-wake, or watching with a corpse, is not entirely laid aside, though somewhat fallen into disuse. Funerals are attended, not only by the intimate friends and relations of the deceased, but by all those who wish to pay a melancholy tribute of respect to the memory of the deceased. The funeral procession is opened by singers chaunting appropriate psalms, followed by two young girls, dressed in white, whose business it is to attend to the wants and wishes of the mournful attendants, and are called servers.

Until of late years, when a young unmarried female was buried, a garland was carried before the corpse, and afterwards suspended in the church; at present only one remains there, formed of white paper cut in various shapes, apparently to resemble flowers; and in the centre is represented the figure of a human hand, on which is (are) written the name and age of the deceased."

119

THE MONTHS-AUGUST.

THIS month derives its name from the Romans, who so call it in honour of Augustus Cæsar, because he had then first entered upon his consulship, brought three triumphs into the city, subdued Egypt to the Roman dominion, and put an end to the civil war. Prior to that time it had been known as Sextilis, as being the sixth month from March which, I have already observed, was the beginning of the Roman year.

*

With the Anglo-Saxons it had the name of ARNMONATH, -Arn signifying, harvest; BARN-MONATH; HARVESTMONATH; and, according to Bede,† WOEDMONATH, or WEIDMONATH, i.e. Weedmonth, a name, which, as we have already seen, was also given to June.‡

"AUGUSTUS deinde est, qui SEXTILIS ante vocatus est, donec honori Augusti daretur ex senatusconsulto." Aur. Macrobii Satur nal: Lib. i. p. 261, 8vo. Bipont, 1788.

† De Temporum Ratione, cap. 13-De Mensibus Anglorum.

It may be as well in this place to notice some peculiarities of the Saxon calendar, which ought perhaps to have been mentioned before. From Bede (De Temporum Ratione, cap. 13), we learn that the Saxons commenced their year on the 25th December, and called it the Mother of Nights-Modrenech-and probably on account of the ceremonies then celebrated. When it was the common year, they gave three lunar months to each season; when it was the Embolismus they added the superfluous month to the summer, so that then three months were

The Corn now glows in all its golden or yellow hues, and the Amaranth is in full flower, sometimes called Love lies Bleeding, perhaps from the way in which its long spiral red flower-stalks fall down and lie on the ground. There is, however, another species called Princes Feather, with red leaves, the flowers of which are always erect. The holly hock shows itself in all its varieties, and continues blowing till the end of October, while the edges are full of the TOADFLAX with its tall pyramid-spikes of yellow flowers, and remain so till September. The Roundleaved Bellflower, which had begun to open its blossoms in July, now in a few days flowers abundantly, and throughout the whole Autumn decorates dry banks, ruined walls, and

called LIDA, and hence the year was named TRILIDI. In general, they divided the year into two equal seasons, of six months each,— summer and winter-giving the months with the longest days to summer; and those with the shortest to winter. Hence the month, in which the winter-season commenced, was called WINTERFYLLITH, the name being compounded of winter and full moon, because the winter began with the full moon of the same month.

I know not whether any of my readers will thank me for adding, that the Common Year is that which has only twelve lunar months, namely, 354 days" Communis Annus dicitur qui duodecim tantum lunas, hoc est dies 354, habet." (ISIDORI HISPAL. EPISC. ETYMOL, Lib.vi., cap.17.) while Embolismus is the year which has thirteen lunar months, namely, 364 days. It is so called because it fills up the number of Common Years, to which eleven lunar days are seen to be wanting. The two years may be thus found: if from the fourteenth moon of the preceding to the fourteenth of the following, there are three hundred and sixty four days, then it is the Embolismal year; if three hundred and fifty four, then it is the Common-" Embolismus annus est qui tredecim menses lunares, i.e. 364 dies, habere monstratur. Embolismus autem nomen Græcum est, quod interpretatur Latinè, superaugmentum, eò quòd expleat numerum annorum communium, quibus undecim lunares dies deesse cernuntur. Embolismi autem anni et communes sic inveniuntur. Si enim a decima quarta luna paschæ præcedentis usque ad decimam quartam sequentis, 364 dies fuerint, embolismalis annus est ; si 354, communis." Idem, p. 50.