man or horse, or some device, with a stand projecting on all sides, but principally behind the figure. These were made of lead cast in moulds. They were shyed at with dumps from a small distance agreed upon by the parties, generally regulated by the size or weight of the dump, and the value of the cock. If the thrower overset or knocked down the cock, he won it; if he failed, he lost his dump. Shy for Shy.-This was played at by two boys, each having a cock placed at a certain distance, generally about four or five feet asunder, the players standing behind their cocks, and throwing alternately; a bit of stone or wood was generally used to throw with, and the cock was won by him who knocked it down. These games had their particular times or seasons; and when any game was out, as it was termed, it was lawful to steal the thing played with; this was called smugging, and it was expressed by the boys in a doggrel,— In the north of England Shrove Tuesday is called vulgarly Fasten's E'en; the succeeding day being Ash-Wednesday, the first day of the Lenten Fast.' At Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the great bell of St. Nicholas's church is tolled at twelve o'clock at noon on this day; shops are immediately shut up, offices closed, and all kinds of business ceases: a little carnival ensuing for the remaining part of the day. [At Hoddesdon, in Hertfordshire, the old curfew bell, which was anciently rung in that town for the extinction and relighting of "all fire and candle light," still exists, and has from time immemorial been regularly rung on the morning of Shrove Tuesday, at four o'clock, after which hour the inhabitants are at liberty to make and eat pancakes, until the 1 ["St. Taffy is no sooner gone, But Pancake day is coming on: Now days exceed the nights in length, And Titan's heat improves in strength." Poor Robin's Almanack, 1731.] bell rings at eight o'clock at night. This custom is observed so closely, that after that hour not a pancake remains in the town.] "Let glad Shrove Tuesday bring the pancake thin, Or fritter rich, with apples stored within." Oxford Sausage, p. 22. A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1790, p. 256 says that at Westminster School, upon Shrove Tuesday, the under clerk of the college enters the school, and preceded by the beadle and other officers, throws a large pancake over the bar which divides the upper from the under school. A gentleman, who was formerly one of the masters of that school, confirmed the anecdote to me, with this alteration, that the cook of the seminary brought it into the school, and threw it over the curtain which separated the forms of the upper from those of the under scholars. I have heard of a similar custom at Eton school. [At Baldock, in Hertfordshire, Shrove Tuesday is long anticipated by the children, who designate it as Dough-nut day; it being usual to make a good store of small cakes fried in hog's lard, placed over the fire in a brass skillet, called doughnuts, wherewith the youngsters are plentifully regaled. In Dorsetshire boys go round, begging for pancakes, singing, "I be come a shrovin Vor a little pankiak, A bit o' bread o' your biakin, Or a little truckle cheese o' your miakin. If you don't gi' me nothin, I'll rottle your door."] The manuscript in the British Museum before cited, Status Schola Etonensis, 1560, mentions a custom of that school on Shrove Tuesday, of the boys being allowed to play from eight o'clock for the whole day; and of the cook's coming in and fastening a pancake to a crow, which the young crows are calling upon, near it, at the school-door. "Die Martis Carnis-privii luditur ad horam octavam in totum diem: venit coquus, affigit laganum cornici juxta illud pullis corvorum invocantibus eum, ad ostium schola." The crows generally have hatched their young at this season.' 1" Most places in England have Eggs and Collops (slices of bacon) on Shrove Monday, Pancakes on Tuesday, and Fritters on the Wednesday in the same week for dinner."-Gent. Mag. Aug. 1790, p. 719. From The Westmoreland Dialect,' by A. Walker, 8vo., 1790, it appears that cock Shakespeare, in the following passage, alludes to the wellknown custom of having pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, in the following string of comparisons put into the mouth of the clown in All's Well that Ends Well." As fit as Tib's rush for Tib's forefinger, as a Pancake for Shrove Tuesday, a Morris for Mayday, &c. In Gayton's Pleasant Notes upon Don Quixot, 1654, p. 99, speaking of Sancho Panza's having converted a cassock into a wallet, our pleasant annotator observes, "It was ser viceable, after this greasie use, for nothing but to preach at a Carnivale or Shrove Tuesday, and to tosse Pancakes in after the exercise; or else (if it could have been conveighed thither) nothing more proper for the man that preaches the Cook's Sermon at Oxford, when that plump society rides upon their governours horses to fetch in the Enemie, the Flie." That there was such a custom at Oxford, let Peshall, in his history of that city, be a voucher, who, speaking of Saint Bartholomew's Hospital, p. 280, says, "To this Hospital cooks from Oxford flocked, bringing in on Whitsun-week the Fly." Aubrey saw this ceremony performed in 1642. He adds: "On Michaelmas-day they rode thither again, to convey the Fly away." (Remains of Gentilisme and Judaisme. MS. Lansd. 226.) In the Life of Anthony à Wood, p. 46, are some curious particulars relating to indignities shown at that time (1647) to freshmen at Oxford on Shrove Tuesday. A brass pot full of cawdle was made by the cook at the freshmen's charge, and set before the fire in the College-hall. "Afterwards every freshman, according to seniority, was to pluck off his gowne and band, and if possible to make himself look like a scoundrell. This done, they were conducted each after the other to the high table, and there made to stand on a forme placed thereon, from whence they were to speak their speech with an audible voice to the company which, if well done, the person that spoke it was to have a cup of caudle, and no salted drinke; if indifferently, some caudle and some salted drinke; but if dull, nothing was given to him but salted drink, or salt put in fighting and casting Pancakes are still practised on Shrove Tuesday in that county. Thus, p. 31, "Whaar ther wor tae be Cock-feightin, for it war Pankeak Tuesday." And p. 35, "We met sum Lads and Lasses gangin to kest their Pankeaks." It appears from Middleton's Masque of the World tossed at Tennis, which was printed in 1620, that batter was used on Shrove Tuesday at that time, no doubt for the purpose of making pancakes. College-beere, with Tucks' to boot. Afterwards, when they were to be admitted into the fraternity, the senior cook was to administer to them an oath over an old shoe, part of which runs thus: Item, tu jurabis, quod Penniless Bench non visitabis,' &c., after which, spoken with gravity, the freshman kist the shoe, put on his gowne and band, and took his place among the seniors." The Editor observes, p. 50: "The custom described above was not, it is probable, peculiar to Merton College. Perhaps it was once general, as striking traces of it may be found in many societies in Oxford, and in some a very near resemblance of it has been kept up till within these few years.' "The great bell which used to be rung on Shrove Tuesday, to call the people together for the purpose of confessing their sins, was called Pancake Bell, a name which it still retains in some places where this custom is still kept up."-Gent. Mag. 1790, p. 495. Macaulay, in his History and Antiquities of Claybrook, in Leicestershire, 1791, p. 128, says: "On Shrove Tuesday a bell rings at noon, which is meant as a signal for the people to begin frying their pancakes." 66 In a curious Tract, entitled A Vindication of the Letter out of the North, concerning Bishop Lake's Declaration of his dying in the belief of the Doctrine of Passive Obedience, 1690, p. 4, I find the subsequent passage: They have for a long time at York had a custom (which now challenges the privilege of a prescription) that all the apprentices, journeymen, and other servants of the town, had the liberty to go into the Cathedral, and ring the Pancake-bell (as we call it in the country) on Shrove Tuesday; and that being a time that a great many came out of the country to see the city (if not their friends) and church; to oblige the ordinary people, the Minster used to be left open that day, to let them go up to see the Lanthorn and Bells, which were sure to be pretty well exercised, and was thought a more innocent divertisement than being at the alehouse. But Dr. Lake, when he came first to reside there, was very much scandalized at this custom, and was resolved he would break it at first dash, although all 1 Tuck, i. e. set the nail of their thumb to their chin, just under the lip, and by the help of their other fingers under the chin, they would give a mark which sometimes would produce blood. his brethren of the clergy did dissuade him from it. He was resolved to make the experiment, for which he had like to have paid very dear, for I'le assure you it was very near costing him his life. However, he did make such a combustion and mutiny, that, I dare say, York never remembered nor saw the like, as many yet living can testify." Dr. Lake's zeal and courage on this occasion are more minutely detailed in A Defence of the Profession which the Right Reverend Lord Bishop of Chichester made upon his death-bed, concerning Passive Obedience, and the New Oaths: together with an account of some passages of his Lordship's life,' 1690, p. 4. The Pancake-bell, at this period, was probably_common everywhere. In Poor Robin, for 1684, we read, in February, "But hark, I hear the Pancake-bell, And fritters make a gallant smell." Taylor, the Water Poet, in his Jacke-a-Lent, Workes, 1630, i. 115, gives the following most curious account of Shrove Tuesday : : "Shrove Tuesday, at whose entrance in the morning, all the whole kingdom is in quiet, but by that time the clocke strikes eleven, which (by the helpe of a knavish sexton) is commonly before nine, then there is a bell rung, cal'd the Pancake-bell, the sound whereof makes thousands of people distracted, and forgetfull either of manner or humanitie; then there is a thing cald wheaten flowre, which the cookes doe mingle with water, egges, spice, and other tragicall, magicall inchantments, and then they put it by little and little into a frying-pan of boyling suet, where it makes a confused dismall hissing (like the Learnean snakes in the reeds of Acheron, Stix, or Phlegeton), untill, at last, by the skill of the Cooke, it is transform'd into the forme of a Flap-jack, cal'd a Pancake, which ominous incantation the ignorant people doe devoure very greedily." I know not well what he means by the following: "Then Tim Tatters (a most valiant villaine), with an ensigne made of a piece of a baker's mawkin,1 fixt upon a broome-staffe, he ["A cloth usually wetted and attached to a pole, to sweep clean a baker's oven. This word occurs in the dictionaries of Hollyband and Miege, and is still in use in the West of England."-Halliwell's Dictionary, p. 545.] |