little ones from what they called in the provincial dialect Gwine a Shrovun, and they jogged merrily along hand in hand from one house to another to obtain their cakes; but, before receiving them, it was expected and deemed necessary that they should all sing together a song suitable to the occasion; those who sang the loudest were considered the best Shrovers, and sometimes had an extra cake bestowed on them; consequently, there was no want of noise (whatever there might have been of harmony) to endeavour to get another Shroving gift. There were many different versions of the song according to the parishes they lived in. The one generally sang by the children of the East Medina was as follows:

A Shrovun, a Shrovun,

I be cum a Shrovun,

A piece a bread, a piece a cheese,
A bit a your fat beyacun,
Or a dish of doughnuts,
Aal of your own meyacun!
A Shrovun, a Shrovun,
I be cum a Shrovun,
Nice meeat in a pie,
My mouth is verrey dry!
I wish a wuz zoo well a-wet,
I'd zing the louder for a nut !*
Chorus.

A Shrovun, a Shrovun,
We be cum a Shrovun !

The song of the children of the West Medina was different:

A Shrovun, a Shrovun,

I be cum a Shrovun,
Linen stuff es good enuff,

Vor we that cums a Shrovun.

* Composed of flour and lard, with plums in the middle, and made into round substances about the size of a cricket-ball. They were called nuts or dough-nuts, and quite peculiar to the Isle of Wight.

Vine veathers in a pie,
My mouth is verrey dry.
I wish a wuz zoo well a-wet,
Then I'd zing louder vor a nut!
Dame,* dame, a igg, a igg,†
Or a piece a beyacun.

Dro awaay the porridge pot,
Or crock to bwile the peeazun.
Vine veathers in a pie,
My mouth is verrey dry.

I wish a wuz zoo well a-wet,
Then I'd zing louder vor a nut!
Chorus.

A Shrovun, a Shrovun,

We be cum a Shrovun !

If the song was not given sufficiently loud, they were desired to sing it again. In that case it very rarely required a second repetition. When the Shrovers were more numerous than was anticipated, it not unfrequently happened that, before the time of the arrival of the latter parties, the Shrove-cakes had been expended; then dough-nuts, pancakes, bread and cheese, or bread and bacon, were given, or halfpence were substituted; but in no instance whatever were they sent from the door empty-handed. It is much to be regretted that this charitable custom should have become almost extinct; there being very few houses at the present time where they distribute Shrove-cakes.

"There was another very ancient custom somewhat similar to the Shroving, which has also nearly, if not quite, disappeared; probably it began to decay within the last half-century: this was a gift of cakes and ale to children on New Year's Day, who, like the Shrovers, went from house to house singing for them; but, if we may judge from the song, those children were for the most part from the towns and larger villages, as the

* Dame. The mistress of the house, if past the middle age, was called Dame, i. e. Madame. An egg an egg

I Throw away.

song begins, "A sale, a sale in our town;" there is no doubt but it was written for the occasion some centuries

since, when " a sale" was not a thing of such a common occurrence as now, and when there was one, it was often held in an open field in or near the town." So writes my kind and valued correspondent, Captain Henry Smith, but town is, I think, merely a provincialism for village. It is so, at least, in the North of England. As for the phrase a seyal, it seems to be a corruption of wassail, the original sense having been lost. The following was the song:

Chorus.

Chorus.

A seyal, a seyal in our town,

The cup es white and the eal es brown;
The cup es meyad from the ashen tree,
And the eal es brew'd vrom the good barlie.
Cake and eal, cake and eal,

A piece of cake and a cup of eal;
We zing merrily one and aal

For a piece

of cake and a cup of eal.

Little maid, little maid, troll the pin,*

Lift up the latch and we'll aal vall in;†

Ghee us a cake and zum eal that es brown,

And we dont keer a vig vor the seyal in the town.

W'ill zing merrily one and aal

Vor a cake and a cup of eal;

God be there and God be here,

We wish you aal a happy New Year.

The above was the original song, but within the last fifty or sixty years, as the custom began to fall off, the chorus or some other part was often omitted.

In

* That is, turn the pin inside the door in order to raise the latch. the old method of latching doors, there was a pin inside which was turned round to raise the latch. An old Isle of Wight song says,

Then John he arose,

And to the door goes,

And he trolled, and he trolled at the pin.

The lass she took the hint,

And to the door she went,

And she let her true love in.

"Aal vall in," stand in rank to receive in turn the cake and ale.

EASTER-GLOVES.

Love, to thee I send these gloves,
If you love me,
Leave out the G,

And make a pair of loves!

It appears from Hall's Satires, 1598, that it was customary to make presents of gloves at Easter. In Much Ado About Nothing, the Count sends Hero a pair of perfumed gloves, and they seem to have been a common present between lovers. In Devonshire, the young women thus address the first young man they happen to meet on St. Valentine's day

Good morrow, Valentine, I go to-day,
To wear for you what you must pay,
A pair of gloves next Easter-day.

In Oxfordshire I have heard the following lines intended, I believe, for the same festival:

The rose is red, the violet's blue,

The gilly-flower sweet, and so are you;
These are the words you bade me say
For a pair of new gloves on Easter-day.

LENT-CROCKING.

Parties of young people, during Lent, go to the most noted farmhouses, and sing, in order to obtain a crock or cake, an old song beginning

I see by the latch

There is something to catch;
I see by the string
The good dame's within;
Give a cake, for I've none;
At the door goes a stone.
Come give, and I'm gone.

"If invited in," says Mrs. Bray, "a cake, a cup of

cider, and a health followed.

If not invited in, the

sport consisted in battering the house door with stones, because not open to hospitality. Then the assailant would run away, be followed and caught, and brought back again as prisoner, and had to undergo the punishment of roasting the shoe. This consisted in an old shoe being hung up before the fire, which the culprit was obliged to keep in a constant whirl, roasting himself as well as the shoe, till some damsel took compassion on him, and let him go; in this case he was to treat her with a little present at the next fair."

CARE-SUNDAY.

Care Sunday, care away,

Palm Sunday and Easter-day.

Care-Sunday is the Sabbath next before Palm Sunday, and the second before Easter. Etymologists differ respecting the origin of the term. It is also called Carling-Sunday, and hence the Nottinghamshire couplet : Tid, Mid, Misera,

Carling, Palm, Paste-egg day.

APRIL-FOOL-DAY.

The custom of making fools on the 1st of April is one of the few old English merriments still in general vogue. We used to say on the occasion of having entrapped any one

Fool, fool, April fool,

You learn nought by going to school!

The legitimate period only extends to noon, and if any one makes an April-fool after that hour, the boy on whom the attempt is made, retorts with the distichApril-fool time's past and gone, You're the fool, and I'm none!