2 TISSINGTON WELL-DRESSING. 



last was worked out almost entirely with elder catkins and 

 grey lichens, and was very effective. The same wells have for 

 years been decorated by the same families, and great pride 

 is taken in the execution of the various designs. 



There are five wells, called respectively the Hall Well, 

 opposite to the Hall, and only separated from the front gate 

 by the road which runs through the village; the Coffin Well, 

 so called from its suggestive shape; Hand's Well, named after 

 the family of Hand, who lived at the adjacent farm for some 

 two hundred years; the Town Well; and the Yew Tree Well. 

 This last name is quite modern; the w^ell used to be called 

 Goodwin's Well, from a family of that name who, till forty 

 or fifty years ago, owned, and lived in, the house close by. 



After a service in the Church, the clergy, choir, and congre- 

 gation go in procession to the wells. At each, a portion of 

 Scripture is read, or a Psalm chanted, and a hymn sung. At 

 the last well the hymn is usually the " Old Hundredth," and 

 then the Benediction is pronounced, and the crowd disperses. 



Everyone in the village keeps open house for his friends. 

 Neighbours from all the country side come for the festival, 

 and the day is observed as a holiday. Farm servants in the 

 district used always to stipulate, when hired, for leave to 

 attend the well-dressing. It is interesting to observe that, 

 unlike the " wakes " in most parts of the country, which have 

 degenerated into mere pleasure fairs, this festival has never 

 lost its religious character. The service in the Church and 

 the procession with its Psalms and hymns form the principal 

 part of the day's celebrations, and even now, when railways 

 bring more strangers into the village to see the decorations 

 at the wells, they, when Joining in the procession, catch some 

 of the reverent and attentive demeanour of those who, all their 

 lives, have been used to look on the well-dressing as a religious 

 festival. Long may the pretty old custom retain the simple 

 religious character which now marks it! 



Everjthing regarding the origin of the well-dressing is pure 

 conjecture. Tradition says that in the fifteenth or sixteenth 

 century there was a great drought in the land, and when every 



