bonfires on St. John s Eve, and an old 
author informs us that there was formerly 
at Whiteborough, a tumulous on St. 
Stephen’s down near Launcetown in Corn¬ 
wall. A large summer pole was fixed in 
the center, round which the fuel was heap¬ 
ed up. It had a large bush on the top of 
it. Around this were parties of wrestlers 
contending for small prizes. 
An honest countryman who had often 
been present at these merriments, informed 
the old author, that at one of them an evil 
spirit had appeared in the shape of a black 
dog, since which none could wrestle, even 
in jest, without receiving hurt; in conse¬ 
quence of which wrestling was, in a great 
measure, laid aside. The rustics believed 
that giants were buried in these tumuli, 
and nothing would tempt them to be so 
sacrilegious as to disturb their bones. 
“In Northumberland, it is customary on 
this day to dress out stools with a cushion 
of flowers. A layer of clay is placed on the 
stool, and therein is stuck, with great reg¬ 
ularity, an arrangement of all kinds of 
flowers, so close as to form a beautiful 
cushion. These are exhibited at the doors 
of houses in the villages and at the ends of 
streets and cross lanes of larger towns, 
where the attendants beg money from 
passengers to enable them to have an eve¬ 
ning of feast and dancing” 
A number of ancient writers mention the 
game of “Stool Ball,” but they appear to 
have left no description of the game. We 
are informed by Dr. Johnson that it was 
a play where balls were driven from stool 
to stool; and yet so wise a man as he, has left 
no record what was the manner of playing 
it, or to what purpose; possibly because he 
may have thought every one knew—or he 
may not have known himself. It seems 
that was a game more appropriate to the 
women than to the men, but occasionally 
played by both sexes, as appears from the 
following song, which occurs in a very old 
drama: 
“Down in a vale, on a summer’s day, 
All the lads and lasses met to be merry; 
A match for kisses at stool ball to play. 
And for cakes and ale, and cider and 
perry. 
Chorus. Come one, come all, great. 
small, short, tall, away to stool ball.” 
Who can tell but with many innovations, 
changes and modifications, the modern 
croquet and lawn tennis may have evolved 
from this stool ball ? 
We close our article for this month with 
an old, but interesting account of a quaint 
custom of Somertshire, England. In the 
parishes of Congesbury and Puxton, are 
two large pieces of common land, called 
East and West Dalemoors ("from the Saxon. 
dal, which signifies a share or portion) 
which are divided into single acres, each 
bearing a peculiar and different mark cut 
in the turf, such as a horn, four oxen and 
a mare, a pole-axe, cross, fork, oven, duck’s 
nest, hand reel and hare’s tail. On the 
Saturday before Old Mid-summer, several 
proprietors of the estates in the parishes of 
the places named, or their tenants, assemble 
on the commons. A number of apples are 
previously prepared, marked in the same 
manner as the before mentioned acres, 
which are distributed by a young lad to 
each of the commoners,, from a bag or hat. 
At the close of the distribution each person 
repairs to his allotment as his apple directs 
him, and takes possession for the ensuing 
year. An adjournment then takes place to 
the house of the overseer of Dalemoors— 
an officer annually elected from the ten¬ 
ants—where four acres, reserved for the 
purpose of paying expenses, are let by inch 
of candle, and the remainder of the day is 
spent in that sociability and hearty mirth 
so congenial to the soul of [a Somertshire 
yeoman. 
Cabbage Maggots. 
BY A. G. TILLINOHAST. 
The large cabbage maggot, which is grow¬ 
ing so troublesome of late all over the 
country, is not the small maggot treated of 
in the “Manual of Vegetable Plants,” or at 
least I have one here that is not, this mag¬ 
got infests che roots of large cabbage, even 
after they are heading. It destroys the 
roots and the cabbage wilts and dies, if the 
weather is dry. During wet weather new 
rootlets will grow and the cabbage survives. 
The chrysalis or pupce of this maggot is 
as large as a grain of wheat, which it much 
