Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 21, 1910.djvu/35

 Rh ringers themselves used once to perform the dance, and also that a man with a "besom" (broom) used to lead the procession, sweeping the crowd out of the way. The villagers call the riders the King and Queen, but the ringers themselves speak of "the man that carries the garland" and "the lady." The "garland" is neither a simple wreath or circlet, nor the combination of transverse circles which is the ordinary form of May-garland in England. It is a dome-shaped crown with seven arches, and the apex is formed by a nosegay called the "queen" (or "quane"), of which more anon. The crown is so large that it covers the wearer down to the hips as he sits on horseback. His appearance naturally suggested to Mr, Addy a comparison with the German spring-festivals, in which a "Grass-King," or "Green George," or other such character, is escorted round the town or district encased in a covering of leaves and branches.

Now dressing up a man in greenery is not the usual type of May-celebration in England, except among the chimney-sweeps. Nor is it common to the whole of the Peak district. Far from that, May Day is there observed only by the most conservative part of the population, the children, who keep it in the characteristic old English fashion, by setting up a Maypole and dancing round it, (cf. Folk-Lore, vol. xvi., p. 461); and, whether the 29th of May is observed or the 1st, it is kept in the same way, and by the children only. Why should Castleton differ from its neighbours, and why should its festival resemble a German rather than an English rite? Is there anything in the circumstances of the place to account for these peculiarities?

We may reasonably look for traces of extreme antiquity in the folklore of the Peak District. The evidence of barrows, roads, and other remains shows that it was already inhabited in Roman and even in pre-Roman times, and it seems to have retained a continuous existence