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240 in the darkness, generally unrecognised. People are, of course, apt to forget the custom at the right moment, and so have their houses filled with rubbish, which it must have taken much pains to collect and prepare secretly, beforehand. I have failed to discover either the origin or meaning of this custom, called drowin o' cloam; but it is evidently allied to one practised in this neighbourhood on the same night—that of throwing a handful of stones at the door.

I am indebted to my friend, the Rev. Rowland Newman, Rector of Hawkridge, for the following: "The custom of throwing old clome on the Monday night before Shrove Tuesday is still continued in our village. Why it is done I cannot find out. The words they say when it is thrown at the door or inside the house are:

"The young men that are in the house (if there are any) rush out and try to collar the invaders, and if they are successful in their catch, they bring the prey inside and black his face with soot. After that they give him a pancake."

it was in February, 1858, that Crewkerne was "erected" into a Magisterial Division, which included Crewkerne and ten of the neighbouring parishes; and that it was at the first Court held under what the local newspaper called "This inestimable boon" that two little boys were charged with having done malicious injury to the door of the National Schoolrooms by throwing dirt against it on the evening of Shrove Tuesday. Mr. Jolliffe, for the plaintiffs, said that the offence arose out of a curious custom existing at Crewkerne of throwing stones against people's doors on what the boys called "Sharp Tuesday." P.S. Spearing stated that he had received complaints from several parties of their having experienced a similar annoyance on the same evening from boys going about