Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 28, 1917.djvu/206

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Catalogue of Brand Material.

Ecclesiastical (Guild) accounts

settled, 1449 et sqq. - Dean and Chapter purchased new

spinning-wheels for workhouse

poor -

Kept as high festival with many

lights ; query if dues paid ? Christmas bell-ringing begun

LOCALITY.

South Staffs. (Walsall).

Peterborough.

Halesowen Abbey. ^ Bucks. (EUesborough).

IRELAND.

Observanxe.

" Women and girls fast ; the girls to get husbands, the women to get better ones "

Reference ?

MAN. I. Observance. locality.

Fair held, Dec. 6th (Nov. 24th,O.S.), hen killed, carried through fair with dirge, as in funeral proces- sion, " wake " held over her. Ale drunk at public house. Next day, mourners went to the pubhc-house to " peel " (pluck) the hen. Head and feet cut off and buried. More drink. Say- ing about a man not sober after the fair. " Oh, he has been to peel the hen " - - - - Colby.

II. Legends.

Formerly all quarrels were inade up this day ; each party

plucked and buried a few feathers in token of covenant. Fair founded beside St. Katharine's Church, and ceremony

instituted by Katharine, spinster heiress of Colby Mooar, to-

preserve her memory. Healing Well on fair-ground, another, same ded. at Port

Erin.

Prenionstratensian house. Legally in Salop, locally in Worcestershire.