310 A TOPOGRAPHICAL 



namely, the Thursday before Midlent Sunday, May 22, and August 

 24, for horses and cattle. 



A remarkable custom, called the Hobbyhorse Dance, is mentioned 

 by Dr. Plot, as having existed in this town within the memory of 

 many persons alive at the period when he wrote. It was a sort of 

 amusement which the inhabitants celebrated at Christmas, or New- 

 year's Day and Twelfth-day. On these occasions a person danced 

 through the principal street, carrying between his legs the figure 

 of a horse composed of thin boards. In his hands he bore a bow 

 and arrow, which last entered a hole in the bow, and stopping on 

 a shoulder in it, made a sort of snapping- noise as he drew it to and 

 fro, keeping time with the music. Five or six other individuals 

 danced along with this person, each carrying on his shoulder six 

 reindeers' heads, three of them painted white, and three red, with 

 the arms of the chief families who had at different times been pro- 

 prietors of the manor painted on the palms of them. " To this 

 hobbyhorse dance there also belonged a pot, which was kept by 

 turns by four or five of the chief of the town, whom we call Reeves, 

 who provided cakes and ale to put into this pot. All the people 

 who had any kindness for the good interest of the institution of the 

 sport giving pence a-piece for themselves and families, and so fo- 

 reigners too, that came to- see it ; with which money the charge of 

 the cakes and ale being defrayed, they not only repaired their 

 church, but kept their poor too, which charges are not now perhaps 

 so cheerfully born." 



This practice seems to have existed at other places besides Ab- 

 bots Bromley ; for we find hobbyhorse-money frequently mentioned 

 in the old parish books both of Stafford and Seighford. It conti- 

 nued in force till the era of the Civil wars between the Parliament 

 and the House of Stuart, at which time Sir Simon Degge informs 

 us, that he saw it often practised. The same author adds, in ano- 

 ther part of his work, " that they had something of the same kind 

 to get money for the repair of the church of Stafford, every common 

 council then collecting money from his friends; and whosoever 

 brought in the greatest sum to the hobbyhorse, was considered as 

 the man of best credit, so that they strove who should most im- 

 prove his interest : and, as he remembered, it was accounted for at 

 Christmas/'* 



BLITHEFIELD is a parish about two miles, west of Abbots Bromley. 



* Paroch. Antiq. Stafford MS. Cough's Caraden, Vol. II. p. 511. 



