Page:Notes on the folk-lore of the northern counties of England and the borders.djvu/95

Rh year. The last glass of wine or spirits drained from the last bottle on New Year’s Eve or Day is called the “lucky glass.” It brings good fortune to whoever comes in for it, and if an unmarried person drinks it he will be the first to marry among the company. You must take note what is the Christian name of the first person you see of the opposite sex on New Year’s Day: it will be that of the future husband or wife.

On New Year’s Day much importance is attached to the first foot which crosses the threshold. That of a fair man is luckier than of a dark one, but (alas for the chivalry of the North!) should it be a woman’s, some misfortune may certainly be looked for. The servant-girls are desirous that their “first foot” should be a lover, and sometimes they insure it by admitting him as soon as the New Year is rung in. They arrange, too, that he should bring something with him into the house, for, as the Lincolnshire rhyme runs:—

A friend tells me, that in the western part of the county of Durham he has known a man to be specially retained as “first-foot,” or “Lucky-bird,” as they call him in Yorkshire; his guerdon being a glass of spirits; but it was not necessary that he should be a bachelor. The man took care to be at the house by 5 o’clock in the morning, which insured his being the earliest visitor. This custom prevails through all our northern counties.

At Stamfordham, in Northumberland, the first-foot must be a bachelor. He generally brings in a shovelful of coals, but, unfortunately, whisky is coming into fashion as his offering. One inhabitant of the village, I scarcely know why, was considered a lucky “first-foot,” and he always went in that capacity to the blacksmith’s house hard by. One year some one else was, by accident, first-foot. This was considered an ill omen, and accordingly, during the following hay harvest, the house was