The year book of daily recreation and information concerning remarkable men and manners, times and seasons, solemnities and merry-makings, antiquities and novelties on the plan of the 'Every-day book and table book.' / By William Hone.

  • William Hone
Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The year book of daily recreation and information concerning remarkable men and manners, times and seasons, solemnities and merry-makings, antiquities and novelties on the plan of the 'Every-day book and table book.' / By William Hone. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    59 been” says Mr. Brand “a frequent spec- tator of this dance, which is now, or was very lately, performed with few or no al- terations in Northumberland and the ad- joining counties: one difference however is observable in our Northern sword dancers, that, when the Swords are form- ed into a figure, they lay them down upon the ground and dance round them.’ A YORKSHIRE PLOUGH-DAY. Tt is the custom in the North Riding of Yorkshire, when a new tenant enters on a farm, for his neighbours to give him what is called a plough-day ; that is the use of all their ploughs, and the labor of all their ploughmen and plough horses, on a fixed day, to prepare the ground for sow- ing the grain. The following provision for a plough-day was actually made for such an occasion by a farmer’s wife near Guesborough in 1808. Twelve bushels of wheat were ground, and made into seventeen white loaves and fifty-one dumplings. In the dumplings were forty-two pounds of currants, and fourteen pounds of raisins. Seven pounds of sugar, with a proportionate quantity of vinegar and melted butter, composed the sauce for the dumplings. One hundred and ninety-six pounds of beef, with a farther quantity which the farmer’s wife had not received the account of when she related the circumstance, suc- ceeded the dumplings, and to this was ad- ded two large hams, and fourteen pounds of peas, made into puddings. Three large Cheshire cheeses, and two home-made ones weighing twenty eight pounds each, concluded this miglity repast, which was washed down with ninety-nine gallons of ale, and two of rum. At this ploughing there were about eighty ploughs. * . ih MB Gaol. WN. h. m. January 7.—Day breaks . 5 57 punirises.:2. ait) tn Seiad eoresetsing 7 50. 4500 Twilight ends . 6:63 Groundsel in flower, and more or less, daily, throughout the year. * This account, extracted from Miss Hut- ton’s “‘ Oakward Hall’’ is obligingly communi- cated by a known and greatly respected cor- respondent who authenticates the fact. Panuary 8. On the 8th of January, 1668, Mr. Evelyn says, in his diary, “I saw deep and prodigious gaming at the groom porter’s; vast heaps of gold squandered away ina vain and profuse manner. This I looked on as a horrid vice, and unsuit- able in a Christian court.” To what has been stated previously, concerning this play at the groom-porter’s, may be added, that the groom-porter is still an officer of Montague, in one of her Town Eclogues (Thursday) thus mentions the practice :— At the groom-porter’s batter’d bullies play» Some dukes at Mary-bone bowl time away. The Groom Porter. Chamberlayne says, “ The office of groom-porter is to see the king’s lodging furnished with tables, chairs, stools, firing ; to provide cards, dice, &c.; to decide disputes arising at cards, dice, bowlings, &e. * Henry Fitzalan, earl of Arundel, lord chamberlain to Henry VIII. from 1526 to 1530, compiled a book of directions for the service of the king’s chambers, and the duties of the officers, in which is set forth “ the roome and service belonging to a groome-porter to do,” to the following effect :— First, a groom-porter ought to bring ladders for the hanging of the king’s chambers [with tapestry, &c.] To bring in tables, forms, tressels, and stools, strand for beds, rushes [for strewing the floors], and all other such necessaries belonging to the chambers, as the gentleman-usher shall command: he is also to bring to the chamber door, and have ready there, all manner of fuel, as wood and coals; and to have always ready, torches, sises, and other lights for the king’s chambers; he is further to see that the keeper sweep and clean the floors, walls, windows, and roofs of all dirt and cobwebs, before any of the king’s staff come within the said chambers wherefore he hath his fee.+ The groom-porter’s is referred to as a place of excessive play, in the statutes of Eltham, for the government of the privy- chamber of Henry VIII., in the seventeenth year of his reign, 1525, or 6. One of these ordinances directs that the privy- chamber shall be “ kept honestly” in the e e * Present state of G. Britain, 1735. + Autiq. Rep. iii. 201.
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