80 TUDOR HOUSES IN DORSET. 



quoits, skittles, tennis, paille-maille, golf, cricket and football. 

 A bull ring was in the square at Shaftesbury, where the town 

 hall stands. A description of a skittle frame of oak with the 

 rules cut on it and dated 1486 is in the Gent. Mag. Lib. p. 255. 

 There were also numerous indoor games, such as dicing, 

 carding, shovel board, billiards, chess, draughts, dominoes, 

 backgammon or tables. 



Country folk had numerous fairs, attended by strolling 

 players and puppet showmen, of which Hutchins enumerates 

 47 [I. Ivi]. Hiring of labourers and servants took place, as 

 well as the sale of horses, cattle, sheep, hogs, cheese and toys. 

 On May Day the maypole was decorated, as at Shillingstone, 

 and the dancing around it was a relic of pagan Floralia. 



At Shrove-tide Lent-crocking was still kept up in 1830 in 

 some of our villages. Parties of boys armed with a good stock 

 of potsherds visited the houses in the evening. Their leader 

 pronounced the following lines : 

 " I be come a shrovin, 

 Vor a little pankiak, 

 A bit o' bread o' your biakin, 

 Or a little truckle cheese o' your own miakin, 

 If you'll gi' me a little, I'll ax no more, 

 If you don't gi' me nothin, I'll rottle your door." 



The broken pots originally signified that as Lent was begun 

 they were of no use; and the cessation of flesh eating is 

 understood in the begging for pancakes and bread and cheese. 

 (Communicated by W. Barnes to Hone's Year Book IV, 1599). 

 See p. 1172 for a further letter of his on Dorset Customs, 

 including Harvest Home, Haymaking, Matrimonial oracles at 

 Midsummer Eve, Fairs and Perambulations. 



Hocktide was kept on the Monday or Tuesday following the 

 second Sunday after Easter Day, when the women on one day 

 roped in passers by and obtained coins for pious uses; and on 

 the other day it was the men's turn. 



At Whitsuntide Morris dancers performed. [Hutchiml. 121]. 



Midsummer Day. On the eve of 24th June bonfires were 

 lighted in West Cornwall, perhaps a survival of a Druid festival. 



