A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



of Parliament Street until 1780, when it was 

 ordered to be taken down by one of the over- 

 seers of the highways for that year. In 1907 

 a successful attempt was made to revive the 

 custom of braiding the May-pole on the village 

 green at Clifton. At Edwinstowe and other 

 Nottinghamshire villages it was the custom on 

 May-day morning for young men and maidens 

 to gather ferns and flowers and branches from 

 the forest and decorate the houses of their lovers 

 and neighbours before they were up. In most 

 towns and villages there was a milkmaids' dance. 

 The milkmaids borrowed all the tankards and 

 salvers they could, and building these into a 

 pyramid on their pails danced with them on 

 their heads from door to door, receiving small 

 gratuities from their customers. 



Plough Monday, commonly known in Not- 

 tinghamshire as Plough Bullock Day, was re- 

 garded as an important carnival by farm labourers. 

 During the day the boys, adorned with paper 

 finery, and their cheeks dyed a deep red, paraded 

 the villages, soliciting contributions with the 

 request ' Remember the Plough Bullocks.' In 

 the evening the men, elaborately and fantastically 

 attired, and often dragging a plough with them, 

 visited the residences of tradesmen and farmers 

 in a body, singing the words : 



My back is made of iron, my boots are made 



of steel, 

 And if you don't believe it, put your hands 



on and feel. 



Sometimes, when they were refused presents, 

 they would plough up the ground round the 

 door. In South Nottinghamshire they recited a 

 novel play, of which the following is the first 

 verse : 



In comes bold Anthony 

 As bold as a mantle tree. 

 I am come to show you sport, activity. 

 A room, a room, a gallant room, 

 And give us leave to sport, 

 For in this house I do resort ; 

 It is a merry day. 



Step in, the King of England, and boldly 

 clear the way. 



Then entered the representative of the king, 

 while other characters were St. George, Selina, 

 and a doctor. Washington Irving describes one 

 of these rude pageants that he witnessed at 

 Newstead Abbey. Here in the servants' hall 

 appeared a set of rustics, dressed in some attempt 

 at antique style. One was the clown or fool of the 

 party, and the rest were decorated with ribbons 

 and armed with wooden swords. The leader 

 recited the old ballad of St. George and the 

 Dragon, his companions accompanying the reci- 

 tation with some rude attempt at acting, while 

 the clown cut all sorts of antics. To these 



succeeded a set of Morris dancers, among whom 

 were Robin Hood and Marian, the latter re- 

 presented by a smooth-faced boy. There was 

 also Beelzebub, equipped with a broom and 

 accompanied by his wife Bessy, a termagant old 

 beldam. 



An old pastime which existed on ' Oak and 

 Nettle Day,' the agth of May, has now died 

 out. Bands of youths, with their button-holes 

 adorned with sprigs of oak and each carrying a 

 bunch of nettles, sallied forth in the morning 

 and bade all persons whom they met to ' show 

 the oak.' If they failed, their faces, hands, 

 and necks were well ' nettled.' The rejoicings 

 and sports peculiar to Whitsuntide have all dis- 

 appeared. One of them, at least, that of drink- 

 ing, feasting, and gambling known as Whitsun 

 ale under the auspices and for the benefit of the 

 Church, is well banished into the limbo of the 

 past. A game called Eakring ball-play took place 

 every Easter Tuesday at that village. It derived 

 its name from the fact that it was anciently a 

 great meeting for the trial of skill in the game of 

 football, and such a firm hold did the game take 

 on the peasants of the district that they even 

 kicked the ball to and from church on Sunday. 

 So vigorously were the contests waged that some- 

 times the kicking of a football changed into the 

 kicking of shins. On Midsummer's Eve bon- 

 fires were lighted and were accompanied by rustic 

 games, one of which was the very ancient 

 pastime of leaping to and fro across the burning 

 pile. 



Dancing and other games in churchyards 

 continued in many parts of England till recent 

 years, but so far back as the 1 4th century it was 

 necessary to order their discontinuance at Work- 

 sop. The following is quoted in White's 

 Dukery Records under the year 1365 : 'An 

 order to the parishioners of Worksop to desist 

 from wrestling, archery, indecent dancing, and 

 singing in the churchyard.' 2 Archery, which is 

 here mentioned, was, of course, in ancient times 

 a popular sport. In the Nottingham Borough 

 records there is an account of an arbitration upon 

 a wager at archery on 2 April 1464, when it 

 was ' ordained, arbitrated, and decided ' that a 

 glover should give 5*. $d. to two other persons 

 immediately after the arbitration. 



Wrestling, too, retained its popularity in this 

 county well into the igth century. About the 

 middle of the 1 8th century it was as popular as 

 cricket is at the present time, and there was keen 

 rivalry between the different parishes and coun- 

 ties. It received a great stimulus from Sir 

 Thomas Parkyns of Bunny Hall, who wrote 

 The Inn Play: or Cornish Hugg Wrestler. Digested 



1 Reg. Abp. Thoresby, fasti Ebor. i, 462. 



412 



