Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 23, 1912.djvu/223

 Collectanea. 201

Fair, throwing at cocks, shinney or hockey, and "Whipping-Toms." ^^ The latter custom was put down by the Leicester Improvement Act of 1846; but the people were reluctant to get rid of it, as some tenure was supposed to be maintained by it. Local tradition also said that it was done to commemorate the expulsion of the Danes from Leicester, on Hoke Day, a.d. 1002.

" Whipping-Toms " began at one o'clock. Two, three, or more men, armed with cart-whips, and with a handkerchief tied over one eye, were let loose upon the people to flog anyone within the precincts of the Newark, a bellman giving the signal for the attack. They were not by custom allowed to whip above the knee, and anyone kneeling down was spared.^- The Newark, just out- side the old city walls, is an open space round which stand the Collegiate Church, the houses of the Canons, Trinity Hospital (the scene of "Thread the Needle") founded as an almshouse in 1330, and the Castle View, on the northward side of the Castle. The Newark was until recent times extra-parochial, and was in the liberties which extended half a mile round the town;^^ it lay therefore between the city walls and St. Mary's Field on the south- west of the city.

10. MinchinJiampton. — "Thread the Needle" was played through the streets at dusk on Easter Monday, until about thirty- five years ago. People of all ages took part in it, and one old woman was always sought out to begin the game. They started from the gates of the Park formerly attached to the Manor House; the afternoon and evening had been spent in this Park, many games being played, three of which were peculiar to Easter Mon- day. These three were :

{a) "Jumping Bushes." Each girl took with her to the Park three sticks, specially cut, then set them up like a cat-gallows and jumped over them.

{b) " Bundle of Matches," a winding-up game in which at the end everyone jumped up and down crying, — "A bundle of matches !"

{c) "Crooked Mustard," a serpentine game played by girls only, winding in a long string in and out between three of their

^^ W. Hone, I'he Year Book, p. 270.

^'-J. Throsby, The History eic. of Leicester etc. (1791), p. 356.

"Sir L. Gomme, Governance of London (1907), p. 223.