British Popular Customs, Present and Past. T. F. Thiselton-Dyer
Day, and that this custom had ceased early in the nineteenth century.
The New Year’s gifts, says Chambers (Book of Days, vol. i. p. 31), presented by individuals to each other were suited to sex, rank, situation, and circumstances. From Bishop Hall’s Satires (1598), it appears that the usual gift of tenantry in the country to their landlords was a capon; and Cowley, addressing the same class of society says:
“Ye used in the former days to fall
Prostrate to your landlord in his hall,
When with low legs, and in an humble guise,
Ye offer’d up a capon sacrifice
Unto his worship, at a New Year’s tide.”
Ben Jonson, in his Christmas Masque, among other characters introduces “New Year’s gift in a blue coat, serving-man like, with an orange, and a sprig of rosemary on his head, his hat full of brooches, with a collar of gingerbread, his torch-bearer carrying a marchpane, with a bottle of wine on either arm.” An orange stuck with cloves was a common present, and is explained by Lupton, who says that the flavour of the wine is improved, and the wine itself preserved from mouldiness, by an orange or lemon stuck with cloves being hung within the vessel, so as not to touch the liquor.
When pins were first invented, and brought into use about the beginning of the sixteenth century, they were a New Year’s gift very acceptable to ladies, instead of the wooden skewers which they had hitherto used. Sometimes, however, in lieu of pins, they received a composition in money, called pin money, an expression which has been extended to a sum of money secured by a husband on his marriage for the private expenses of his wife.
Gloves, too, were customary New Year’s gifts. They were far more expensive than nowadays, and occasionally a sum of money was given instead, which was called glove money.
A hundred years ago, the Poet Laureate not only wrote a New Year’s ode, by way of salutation to the sovereign and royal family, but those illustrious personages sat in state at St. James’s, and heard it, as it was sung by celebrated vocalists, for whom it had been composed by some expert in music. Now that the Laureate’s song would be worth the listening to, we have none written especially for the New Year. This musical festival has ceased to be.—N. & Q. 4th S. vol. xi. p. 8.
Latterly, New Year’s Day has been celebrated with but little public festivity, the only open joyous demonstration being the sound of merry peals from the church bells, as they ring out the Old and ring in the New Year.
Many persons make a point of wearing new clothes on this day, and consider any omission of the kind unlucky. At court it is one of the twelve Offering Days.—Med. Ævi Kalend. Hampson, 1841, vol. i. p 33.
In the North of England it is considered unlucky for any inmate to go out of the house until some one from without has entered it; and the first foot across the threshold is watched with great anxiety, the good or bad luck of the house during the year, depending on the first comer being a man or a woman.—N. & Q. 2nd S. vol. xi. p. 244.
Opening the Bible on this day is a superstitious practice observed in some parts of the country, and much credit is attached to it. It is usually set about with some little ceremony on the morning, before breakfast, as it must be performed fasting. The Bible is laid on the table unopened, and the parties who wish to consult it are then to open it in succession. They are not at liberty to choose any particular part of the book, but must open it at random. Wherever this may happen to be, the inquirer is to place his finger on any chapter contained in the two open pages, but without any previous perusal or examination. It is believed that the good or ill fortune, the happiness or the misery, of the consulting party, during the ensuing year, will be in some way or other described and foreshown by the contents of the chapter. The custom is called dipping.—Pop. Antiq. Brand, 1849, vol. i. p. 20; N. & Q. 2nd S. vol. xii. p. 303.
It is customary in some places for persons to carry about decorated apples, and present them to their friends. The apples have three skewers of wood stuck into them, so as to form a tripod foundation; and their sides are ornamented with oat grains, while various evergreens and berries adorn the top. A raisin is occasionally fastened on each oat grain, but this is probably an innovation.—N. & Q. 1st S. vol. i. p. 214.
In some parts of the county of Nottingham, on the first day of the New Year, troops of little children might be seen a few years ago, each bearing an orange, an apple, or a nutmeg, sometimes gilded, and stuck with cloves or rosemary, which they were carrying to their friends to ask their blessing; the present thus given was generally carefully reserved.—Jour. of the Archæological Association, 1853, vol. viii. p. 231.
Buckinghamshire.
It appears from a MS. in the British Museum (Status Scholæ Etonensis, A.D. 1560, MS. Brit. Mus. Donat. 4843, fol. 423), that the boys of Eton School used, on the day of the Circumcision, to play for little New Year’s gifts before and after supper; and that boys had a custom on that day, for good luck’s sake, of making verses, and sending them to the provost, masters, &c., as also of presenting them to each other.
Cumberland and Westmoreland.
Early in the morning the common people assemble together, carrying stangs and baskets. Any inhabitant, stranger, or whoever joins not this ruffian tribe in sacrificing to their favourite saint-day, if unfortunate enough to be met by any of the band, is immediately mounted across the stang (if a woman, she is basketed), and carried shoulder high to the nearest public house, where the payment of sixpence immediately liberates the prisoner. None, though ever so industriously inclined, are permitted to follow their respective avocations on that day.—Gent. Mag. 1791, vol. lxi. p. 1169.
Essex.
Formerly the bailiffs of Maldon sent on the first day of the year, to the king’s vice-admiral of Essex a present of oysters and wild fowl. Sir John Bramston notices the arrival of the gift on New Year’s Day (March 26), 1688, in his Autobiography, printed for the Camden Society in 1845.
Herefordshire.
At Bromyard and its neighbourhood, as twelve o’clock on the 31st of December draws near, and the last of the Christmas carols are heard without doors, and a pleasurable excitement is playing on the faces of the family around the last Christmas log within, a rush is made to the nearest spring of water, and whoever is fortunate enough to first bring in the “cream of the well,” as it is termed, and those who first taste of it, have “prospect of good luck through the forthcoming year.” Also, in the early hours of the New Year, after a funeral service has been said over “Old Tom” as the old year is called, at the public-houses and ale and cider stores, the streets are filled with boys and men, singing in the loudest tones possible:
“I wish you a merry Christmas
And a happy New Year,
A pocket full of money,
And a cellar full of beer,
And a good fat pig
To serve you all the year.
Ladies and gentlemen
Sat (sic) by the fire, Pity we poor boys Out in the mire.”
The Antiquary, 1873,