Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 26, 1915.djvu/107

 Collectanea. 97

Plum, plum, cherry, cherry,

All good things to make us merry.

Up the ladder and down the pan.

Give us a red apple and we'll be gone.

Missis and Master, sit by the fire.

While we poor children are trudging in the mire,

All for the apples that grow on the tree.

So Missis and Master, come listen to me."

On Christmas Eve bees sing in the hive. An old man, born 1S2S, said he had heard them many a time, and ahvays went down the garden to listen, as long as he kept bees.

You must always wear some new article of clothing on Christ- mas Day or the birds will soil your clothes.

At Bromsgrove the church is dedicated to St. John Baptist, and on June 24th there is a fair held just outside the churchyard. Hiring was done until a few years ago. There are two local sayings about this Fair — "There is always a thunderstorm at Bromsgrove Fair," and " The cuckoo goes to Bromsgrove Fair to buy him a horse, and to Pershore Fair to buy him a saddle, and then he flies away."

Gingerbread used to be a great feature of the day.

At Evesham "Thread the needle" Avas played on Easter Mon- day within living memory by people of all ages, men and women.

J. B. Partridge.

It is curious that in the Shipston-on-Stour district, in which thirteen is in most things regarded as an unlucky number, thirteen should be considered, and from time immemorial has been con- sidered, the most lucky number, and therefore the only right one for the eggs to be placed under a sitting hen.

F. S. Potter.