Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 23, 1912.djvu/221

 Collectanea. 199

little inn there, and receive a cake from him, after which they play a game of football, " which in connection with this commemoration of the ancient acknowledgment for rent or use of wharfage, is called the 'Pepper Ball.'"-

2. Troivbridge. — " Thread the Needle" was played by "lads and lasses " on the evening of Shrove Tuesday, and the rhyme sung which is given under Bradford-on-Avon.^

3. Loftglmdge Deverell. — " Thread the Needle " is still played all down the street, and the above rhyme sung, on Shrove Tuesday, the only time in the year when boys and girls play together. Some twenty years ago, women joined in the game. On ordinary days, girls play "Thread the Needle" to another rhyme : —

" How many miles to Bethlehem ? Three score and ten, Shall I get there by candlelight ? Yes, and back again. Lift up your gates as high as the sky, And let King George and his family pass by."

A third rhyme, said to be used casually, and not at any time when the game is played', is evidently connected with Shrove Tuesday doings : —

" Thread the needle, thread the needle, through the eye, eye, eye, eye ; Who likes pancakes ? I, I, I !"^

4. Westbury. — Some forty years ago, the church was clipped and the rhyme sung. There is no tradition of "Thread the Needle " or any other game.^

5. South Pethertoti. — Early in the last century, "the young folk of both sexes " used to meet on the afternoon or evening of Shrove Tuesday, after eating their pancakes. Starting from the market place, they would " Thread the Needle " through the streets, and then clipped the church.'^

"^ Quoted from P. Brannon by R. N. Worth, Tourisfs Guide to Dorsetshire,

P- 57-

p. 227.
 * Lady Gomme, op. cit., vol. ii., p. 230, quoting /V. aud Q. (5th S.), vol. xi.,

•Trom information given by Mr. J, U. Powell, of Boreham, near War- minster, in 1907.

■' So Miss D. Shorland, Westbury, who remembers it.

"Lady Gomme, op. cit., vol. ii., p. 231.