242 Whalton and its Vicinity, by the Rev. J. E. Elliot. 



quent grafting of other races from the north and south, as well as 

 from Ireland, on the native stock — yet, to a comparatively re- 

 centperiod, still retained many features of the olden time. The 

 older inhabitants of the place still recur, with pleasure and fond 

 regret, to the more social customs of their youth. Then at 

 Christmas the Yule log was carefully selected by almost every 

 household, and lighted from what remained unconsumed of 

 that of the preceding year ; and the young men went about 

 from house to house exhibiting the intricate and graceful 

 evolutions of the sword dance, which is now, I regret to say, 

 almost entirely forgotten. At Easter again, horse-races formed 

 amusement which brought the people together, and helped to 

 promote good feeling and good fellowship. These festive 

 meetings were, according to my informants, conducted in an 

 innocent and orderly spirit ; and the church was usually so 

 well attended on Sundays, as sometimes to occasion disputes 

 for the possession of the pews. All this might lead to the 

 supposition of the existence of an Arcadian simplicity and 

 innocence, much superior to that of the present day. 

 But it is the privilege or weakness of the aged to be lauda- 

 tores temporis acti ; and a few admissions reluctantly made to 

 me by my informants help rather to dispel the pleasing illu- 

 sion. There were at the time I am speaking of (about sixty 

 years since) double the number of public-houses, and these 

 were, at least, as well attended as the church. In Whalton, 

 as in all of the adjoining villages, there was a cock-pit ; the 

 neighbourhood of which was kept in a state of frequent dis- 

 turbance by the quarrels and oaths of the parties engaged in 

 this cruel amusement ; and the parish register of the same 

 period shows an equal, if not larger proportion of irregular 

 births ; all tending to show that the influence of religious 

 principles, as measured by the standard of moral practice, 

 was, if anything, inferior to that of the present day. The last 

 of these social gatherings, that of the mid- summer bonefire, 

 which still subsists in Whalton, though shorn of much of its 

 original importance — connected as it probably is with those 

 early forms of worship, to which attention has recently been 

 directed, I have on that account reserved for more lengthened 

 notice. On Mid-summer's Eve, reckoned according to the old 

 style, it was formerly the custom of the inhabitants, young 

 and old, not only of Whalton but of most of the adjacent 

 villages, to collect a large cart-load of whins and other com- 



