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Reminiscences and Desultory Notes of Morpeth Social 

 Customs* now obsolete. By Wm. Woodman, Morpeth. 



" Old times were changed, old maimers gone." — 



Lay of Last Minstrel, Introduction. 



Births, Christenings, &c. — A huge Cheshire cheese and a 

 spiced rye loaf quite as large as the cheese were provided, which 

 the doctor cut immediately after the birth ; afterwards the 

 friends and acquaintances of the parents were invited to visit 

 the house, and partake of the bread and cheese. 



On the christening day, the nurse carrying the child had in 

 one hand slices of bread and cheese, which she gave to the first 

 person met on the road to the church. On the child's first call 

 at a house, an egg, a piece of bread and salt were given to it.f 



Marriage. — A veil, white favours, an old shoe thrown after 

 the bride : showers of rice are a modern innovation. After ap- 

 pearing at church, the bride with her maids received company ; in 

 the evening the bridegroom's male friends called and drank wine. 



Funerals — Montague Williams, in his Reminiscences, says 

 that in the London Hospital, is a wing built and supported by 

 the Rothschilds for Jews, and that on the death of an inmate a 

 " watcher" (an officer appointed for the purpose) takes possession 

 of the body, and " watches " by it until the burial. This would 

 carry the custom back to pre-Christian times. We all remember 

 the Irish Wakes, which is watching the dead ; — nor in England 

 is the custom quite extinct. | 



* All the customs are within my recollection, except those of the Lord 

 of Misrule, etc.. Bull-baiting and Midsummer fires. — W.W. 



t Sometimes called the Aamus or Almous=alms. 



;|: " If a corpse were left in a house with the door ajar, it was supposed 

 to be at the hazard of being carried off by malevolent aprights ; — the 

 spiritual part being separated from the corporal, and the latter no longer 

 hallowed by the blessing pronounced at baptism, it was supposed to be 

 incapable of invoking the aid of higher powers, and was therefore exposed 

 to the machinations of the imps of darkness, unless carefully watched and 

 guarded by the living. The custom once established, continues, though 

 people are no longer under the influence of the superstition from which it 

 originated." — Chambers' Journal, 15th Sept. 1832. 



Like the door ajar, there is still an objection to an open window in a 

 hoTise in which there is a corpae. 



