Of OXFO%T>-SHn{E. 201 



23. For whom heretofore there was fome reward always ap- 

 pointed, Eo tempore (fays Matthew Varis) Juvenes Londinenfes, 

 ftatuto Favonepro bravio, ad Vadium quod Quintena vulgariter did- 

 tur, vires propria*, is* Equorum curfu*, funt experti : Wherein it 

 feems the Kings fervants oppofing them were forely beaten ; for 

 which; upon complaint, the King fined the City v . Whence one 

 may gather that it was once a tryal of Man-hood between two 

 parties ; fince that, a conteft amon^ft friends who fhould wear the 

 gay garland, but now only in requeft at Marriages, and fet up in 

 the way for young men to ride at as they carry home the Bride, he 

 that breaks the board being counted the beft man. 



24. To which may be added the obfervation of Hoc-day, 

 Hockcday, Hoke-day, Hake-tide, Hoke-Mcnday and Hoke-Tuefday 1 

 by all agreed to be a Fejlival celebrated in memory of the great 

 flaughterof the D^es-in the time of King Ethel) ed, they being 

 all (lain throughout England 'in one day, and in great part by wo~ 

 men q ; whence it came to pafs, that the women to this day bear 

 the chief rule in this Feasl, flopping all paffagcs with ropes and 

 chains, and laying hold on paffengers, and exacting fome fmall 

 mater of them, with part whereof they make merry, and part 

 they difpofe of topiom ufes, fuch as reparation of their Church, 

 isrc 



25. For which very reafon fome have thought it to be called 

 Hoke-Tide, from the German or High -Dutch, ^oge?ett, i.e. Tern- 

 put Convivii, a time of Feafting ; or the Saxon frozen, which 

 fignifies a Solemn Feaft ; or perhaps rather from the Anglo-Saxon, 

 fceage ti6, i. e. a high Time, or high Day : Others that thought the 

 name refpefted the contempt that the Danes now lay under, a- 

 mongft whom is M.r.Lambard,thought it fo called,^**// frucxcuer&aes, 

 /'. e. Dies Marti* irriforiut \ perhaps rather from Dopan temnere : 

 And others, that refpe&ed the manner of the celebration of the 

 Feasl, chofe rather to derive it from the German I^OCfeeil, which 

 fignifies obfidere,cingere, incubare\ to compafs about, lay hold 

 off, isrc. as the women do on the men upon this day. 



26. And as about the name, fo about the time Authors differ 

 much, fome making Hoke-day to be the Tuefday, and others the 

 Monday fourteenth night after Eafter, and none of them on the 



p Matth. Parii fub initium An. 1253. edit Watfiand,p-%6-i,. 1 Vtd.Watfii Glojjarium in Mat. Paris. 

 '' Perambulation of Kent, in Sandwich, Vid. Spelman. GSoJfarium inverbo. 



C c Danes 



