Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/118

 When the offender happened to be some woman, who had inflicted chastisement on the person of her spouse, the rhyme was altered to suit her sex, and asserted that "he was a coward, and she was an ass." The remains of stocks in various states of preservation, are still to be seen in many old villages, and their use is of too recent a date to require any elucidation in this volume.

On the fifth Sunday in Lent, Carling Sunday, the villagers prepared a feast, consisting chiefly of peas, first steeped in water, and afterwards fried in butter, which were eaten on the afternoon of that day. Small troops or companies of pace-egg mummers went from house to house in Passion week enacting a short dramatic piece, and afterwards soliciting money, or, in some cases, eggs, from their audience. The dramatis personæ usually represented St. George, the champion of England; a Turk, dressed in national costume; the Doctor, of the quack fraternity; the Fool; and one or two others. In the play, the Turk was wounded by St. George, and being left for dead upon the field, guarded by the Fool, was restored to health and strength by the Doctor, who opportunely arrived, and concluded his self-laudatory harangue over the body of the apparently defunct Turk, thus:—

"Here, Jack, take a little out of my bottle, And let it run down thy throttle; If thou be not quite slain, Rise, Jack, and fight again."

Easter mumming is now rapidly becoming obsolete, and at present amounts to nothing more entertaining than the recital of a few weak, almost meaningless, rhymes, by, usually, five young boys, decorated with ribbons and coloured paper, and supposed to represent Lord Nelson, a Jack-Tar, a Lovely Youth, Old Toss-pot, and Old Bessy Branbags.

"Lifting at Easter" was an old-established practice, existing in the villages, of hoisting individuals in the air, either in a chair or by any other means that might be convenient, until they purchased their release by payment of a forfeit, generally some small coin. On Ascension-day the parochial schoolmaster conducted his pupils, armed with peeled willow wands, round the limits of the parish, and each pupil struck the various