Page:Lancashire Legends, Traditions, Pageants, Sports, Etc., with an Appendix Containing a Rare Tract.djvu/128

 might arise. The authority of the lord was not acceptable to some of the inhabitants, and consequently on the first day of the fair they used to assemble in large crowds, many being armed with whips, and others with large quantities of acorns which they had procured from the neighbouring woods. This was intended as a protest against the claims of the lord of the manor for the time being; and on the first horses, cows, sheep, or pigs, making their appearance on the ground, some of the men cracked their whips, others pelted the cattle with the acorns, and the rest shouted with a deafening noise, "First horse," "First cow," "First sheep," "First pig." At a later period this rough commencement degenerated into mere juvenile sport, and was finally discontinued long before the fair was removed to Knot Mill.

GYST-ALES, GUISINGS, OR MARLINGS—THE ASHTON GYST-ALE.

gyst-ale, or guising feast, was an annual festival of the town of Ashton-under-Lyne. It appears from the rental of Sir John de Assheton, compiled A.D. 1422, that a sum of twenty shillings was paid to him as lord of the manor for the privilege of holding this feast by its then conductors. The persons named in the roll as having paid three shillings and fourpence each are:—"Margret, that was the wife of Hobbe the Kynges (of Misrule); Hobbe Adamson; Roger the Baxter; Robert Somayster, Jenkyn of the Wode; and Thomas of Curtnal." The meaning of the term gyst-ale is involved in some obscurity, and the custom itself is not mentioned by either Brand or Ellis in their collections of popular antiquities. Most probably the payments mentioned above were for the gyst,