Page:Lancashire Legends, Traditions, Pageants, Sports, Etc., with an Appendix Containing a Rare Tract.djvu/153

 rushes never appear in the Kirkham register after 1634, when the church was flagged for the first time. The custom was, however, observed till of late years in Penwortham Church. The festival of rush-bearing does not always, however, coincide with the feast of the dedication. At Altcar the church is dedicated to St Michael (Sept. 29), yet the rush-bearing is celebrated in July. Mr Roby speaks of it as an unmeaning pageant still practised in the northern and eastern parts of Lancashire, for the purpose of levying contributions. The rush-cart, preceded by a large silk banner, and decorated with flowers, ribbons, &c., is drawn round to the dwellings of the principal inhabitants by morrice-dancers, who perform an uncouth dance, one of the mummers being a man in motley attire, a sort of compound of the ancient fool and of Maid Marion; who jingles a horse-collar hung with bells, and makes jokes with the bystanders. The rush-bearing is still kept up with much ceremony at Ambleside.

WAKES AND RUSH-BEARINGS ON THE LANCASHIRE AND YORKSHIRE BORDER. village festival which, in most counties of England, takes place on the anniversary of the day when the parish church was consecrated, or on the day of the saint to whom it is dedicated, is kept here at a different time and in a different manner than in any other county I have lived in. At the approach of autumn, when rushes are in full length, certain days are set apart for the different towns and villages in the neighbourhood of Saddleworth, when all work is stopped, and everybody rejoices and makes merry. Some young men of the parish load a hand-cart with rushes, sometimes ten to