An ancient custom still prevails in Chapel-en-le-Frith, Glossop, Hayfield, Mellor, Peak Forest and other places in the north of the county, I believe, of keeping the floor of the Church, and pews therein, constantly strewed or littered, with dried rushes: the process of renewing which annually, is called the rush bearing, and is usually accompanied by much ceremony. The rush bearing in Peak Forest,is held on Midsummer Eve, in each year.
In Chapel-en-le-Frith, I was informed, that their Rush-bearing usually takes place in the latter end of August, on public notice from the Churchwardens, of the rushes being mown and properly dried, in some marshy part of the Parish, where the young people assemble; and having loaded the rushes of carts, decorate the same with flowers and ribbons, and attend them in procession to the church; many of them buzzing and cracking whips by the side of the rush carts, on their way thither; and where every one present lends a hand, in carrying in and spreading the rushes.
Instead of the harvest home feasts of most districts, what is called (I don't know why) "Hare-getting" or "Hare-supper", is given by the corn farmers in some parts of Derbyshire, to their reapers, or shearers as they are here called, and their wives, on finishing the cutting of their corn; and it is usual for such shearers, "to give three cheers on first setting to", to shear or mow, and "three wheeps and a hallow", on finishing the cutting.
The superstitions and unfounded opinions formerly held by many in the Peak Hundreds, that the motions of hazel sticks held in the hand, or of meteors in the air, could point out the situations of veins of lead ore!; but which ore, the whistling of a miner could again drive away!, have already been mentioned in p316 of vol 1.; and so has the silly notion, that the blooming of pease could occasion fire-damp in mines, been mentioned in p 336; and that the castration of colts, calves &c. would prove fatal, when the moon was in certain signs of the Zodiac!
I have been told that the young children of Matlock, are yet often made to stare and tremble, at the relations by their more childish nurses and granddmothers, of the devouring feats of a former dragon of that place!. Satyrs, or imaginary wild-men, were confidently said, formerly, to inhabit Hobsthirst Rocks, on the N side of Fin Cop Hill, and I was myself gravely told, in Tansley, that fairy elves are still frequently heard to squeak!, in the damp cavities of the rocks, over which the water-fall in Lumsdale is projected.
Desperate football contests, or rather cudgelling fights, under this pretence, were some years ago common at the Ashover and other wakes; but such contests were come to be very harmlessly conducted, at the time of my survey; except in the streets of AllSaints, in the town of Derby, whose football outrages on Shrove Tuesday werre mentioned as the most disgraceful remains of former barbarism in the county. Throwing of quoits seemed a very prevalent amusement of the lower and more idle part of the manufacturing people, at the ale house doors, in the north of the county, about Sheffield in particular; often so near to the road and pathways, as to endanger passers-by.
The afternoons of particular fairs are more or less devoted to amusement and jollity, among the young folks; if this be the main purpose of the day, it is called a gig-fair. Strolling vagabonds, under the name of mountebanks, aften attend these fairs, and are improperly allowed also, to ramble at other times thro' the villages, not dispensing quack medicines,as formerly, by which the revenu might be benefited,, whatever became of people's healths, but for openly gambling, or holding "Little Goes!"; and shewing tumbling feats, only to collect together theirthoughtless dupes; surely these miscievous strollers ought to be supressed; Gipsies also, whose camps, or plundering quarters, I saw pitched in Butterly in Ashover, and in Kirk Hallam, while on my survey, ought no longer to be endured; the female wretches of these nefarious gangs, do inconcievable mischief, as fortune-tellers, among the daughters and servants of farmers and others, whose pilfering for rewarding these miscreants, too often lead to more serious stealings, for themselves.
Sitting in the parish or township stocks, a summary and wholesome mode of punishment, for the less heinous offences against good morals, seems here, and almost everywhere else, growing into entire disuse; altho', ridiculously enough, every country place continues religiously to uphold its stocks; on a great many occasions, when seeing them repairing or new ones erecting, or such as lately had been renewed, I have enquired, whether anyone in their place remembered a single instance of the stocks being used; but have almost invariably, except by very old persons, been answered in the negative.
The parish pounds, for stray or trespassing cattle, in the stony districtsof thecounty, are not, as is too common in similar situations elsewhere, inclosed by such high and close walls and doors, that poor animals, from not being seen therein by passers by, may suffer greatly by hunger and thirst, before their owners get to hear of their situation; but here, a proper portioon of the side next the public road, is enclosed by open rails, for admitting such view by travellers, of the imprisoned animals.
Many villages in Derbyshire have their small local prison, watch-house, cage, or lobby, as they are here sometimes called, built of brick or stone, in a circular or square form, and arched and topped conically or pyramidically with the same materials, in a very durable and secure manner.
The lord of the Manor of Ilkeston, maintains constantly a gallows (on which I could not learn that any one was ever hanged) near the Erewash River and county bounds, on the east of the town; in order as is said, that the inhabitants of the manor may avail themselves of a charter, by John of Gaunt, for paying only half of the usual tolls in any of the markets or fairs of the Kingdom.
No comments:
Post a Comment