Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 23, 1912.djvu/474

 450 Collectanea.

October.-^ This manor had formerly an open-air manor-court at Radford Bridge, a mile out of Alvechurch village.'-^

April I. — At Rand wick, children go out on April ist to get " May," as they call the young green of the beech. You are called " a fool " if you cannot show some. This seems like a transference from May Day ; -^ but Miss Fennemore is quite certain that the day thus observed is April i, and says that in sheltered spots a bit of green beech is generally to be found by that date.

May Day. — i. Manorial. The court leet of the manor of Min- chinhampton is held early in May. The jury swear allegiance to the lord of the manor, and appoint a hayward to take charge of the beasts on the Common. On Old May Day (May 13) some 600 cattle and horses are branded and turned out after being off the Common from the end of March, while the grass grows.

ii. May walking. Here, as elsewhere, one of the most im- portant days in the yearly round of the Common Field system has its popular festival. Round Minchinhampton,-" people rise early on the first Sunday in May, and go out into the lanes and over the Common. When I went myself, in 1907, on a cold and frosty morning, I saw two or three hundred men, women, and children. Gathering branches to take home was put a stop to, some years ago, as people would enter gardens, damaging trees and bushes. They seem to have done this as if it were a kind of right. At Avening, the " May walkers " not only entered gardens and carried off flowers etc., but they would also unhang the garden gates. " They were particularly down on gates," says Mr. Frost, whose gate was always thrown into the brook ! Lads at Nailsworth still take home short bits of stick on May Sunday, and make them into whistles. "^

'^■^ I have these details from family tradition, one of my uncles having been
 * • Mayor " of Alvechurch.

'^^Sir L. Gomme, Primitive Folk-Moots, p. 221.

2® See May houghing below.

2'' Miss Fennemore says that the "May walking" at Randwick is of quite recent origin, and was never heard of in her youth.

"8 See W. Henderson, Notes on the Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties oj Englatid and the Borders, Folk-Lore Society ed. 1879, p. 86.