Page:Lancashire Legends, Traditions, Pageants, Sports, Etc., with an Appendix Containing a Rare Tract.djvu/130

 dressed in their best attire. These were formed into a procession by a master of the ceremonies, locally termed the King. Another principal attendant was the Fool, dressed in a grotesque cap, a hideous grinning mask, a long tail hanging behind, and a bell with which he commanded attention when announcements were to be made. In an early period of these guisings the fool was usually mounted on a hobby-horse, and indulged in grotesque pranks at he passed along. Hence we obtained the term "hob-riding," and more recently the proverbial expression of "riding one's hobby to death."

In the manor roll from which we have previously quoted, "Jack the mercer" is inserted as having paid the lord of the manor the annual sum of 6s. 8d. for the privilege of hob-riding; and the office appears to have become a lucrative one, when rivalry between towns and villages was excited. On such occasions the residents spared neither time nor expense to outshine their neighbours, and it will be seen in a subsequent article that a single village has been known to expend several thousand pounds on this unmeaning pageant.

WAITS AT BURNLEY. about three weeks before Christmas the inhabitants of Burnley and the neighbourhood are almost nightly roused from their slumbers by the "Christmas waits." Two men generally go together. They parade the streets and lanes, playing Christmas tunes on fiddles, or any other instruments they prefer. On stopping at any person's door they generally play some favourite air, and then wish the family a "Merry Christmas when it comes," and "hope that all are well within." These good wishes are followed up by the following ditty, chanted to a quaint old air by both performers:—