their Holy-days, we find a * Week set apart at Harvest; of which our Harvest-Home, and Mell-Supper, in the North, are the only Remains. *Elstob. Append. P. 30. Here end the Antiquitates Vulgares. OBSERVATIONS ON CHAP. XXXI. VACINA, (aliter Vacuna, a vacando, the tutelar Deity, as it were, of Rest and Ease) among the Antients, was the Name of the Goddess to whom the Rustics sacrificed at the Conclusion of Harvest. Moresin tells us, that Popery, in Imitation of this, brings home her Chaplets of Corn, which she suspends on Poles; that Offerings are made on the Altars of her tutelar Gods, while Thanks are returned for the collected Stores, and Prayers are put up for future Rest and Ease. Images too of Straw, or Stubble, he tells us, are wont to be carried about on this occasion; and in England he himself saw the Country People bringing home in a Cart (I sup * Vacina Dea, cui sacrificabant Agricolæ messe peracta: Papatus fert domum spiceas Coronas, quas à tignis suspendit, nunc altaribus suorum Tutelarium offerunt, gratias agunt pro collectis frugibus & otium precantur. Alii stramineas statuas circumferunt. Anglos vidi spiceam ferre domum in Rheda Imaginem circum cantantibus promiscuê viris et fœminis, præcedente tibicine aut Tympano. Deprav. Rel. Orig. in verbo Facina. pose pose from the Field) a Figure made of Corn, round which Men and Women promiscuously singing, followed a Piper or a Drum.-A Vestige of this Custom is still preserved in some Places in the North Not Half a Century ago they used every where to dress up something, similar to the Figure above described, at the End of Harvest, which was called a Kern Baby. I had this Information from an old Woman at a Village in Northumberland.— The Reader may perhaps smile, but I am not ashamed of my Evidence. In a Case of this Nature old Women are respectable Authorities.--This northern Word is plainly a Corruption of Corn Baby or Image, as is the Kern or Churn Supper, of Corn Supper*. This Feast is undoubtedly of the most remote Antiquityt. That Men in all Nations, where Agriculture flourished, should have expressed their Joy on this Occasion by some outward Ceremony, * This, as Mr. Bourne tells us, is called also a Mell-Supper, plainly I think from the French Mesler, to mingle or mix together, the Master and Servants sitting promiscuously at the same Table: All being upon an equal footing, or, as our Northern vulgar idiom has it," Hail-Fellow well met."- Amell is commonly used here for betwixt or among.' I find indeed that many of our Northumbrian rustic and vulgar Words are derived to us from the French: Perhaps we have not imported them from the first Market, but have had them at second Hand from the Scots, a People that in former Times were greatly connected with that Nation. In the antient Roman Calendar so often cited, I find the following Observations on the eleventh of June (the Harvests in Italy are much earlier than with us): "The Season of Reapers, and their Custom with rustic Pomp.” Messorum æstas, et eorum consuetudo cum agresti pompar has its Foundation in the Nature of Things: Sowing is Hope; Reaping, Fruition of the expected Good. To the Husbandman, whom the Fear of Wet, Blights, &c. had harassed with great Anxiety, the Completion of his Wishes could not fail of im parting an enviable gust of Delight.--Festivity is but the reflex of inward Joy, and it could hardly fail of being produced on this Occasion, which is a temporary suspension of every Care. The Respect, shewn to Servants * at this Season, seems to have sprung from a grateful Sense of their *Mr. Pennant informs us, that a Custom prevails in Gloucestershire on the Twelfth-day, or on the Epiphany in the Evening: All the Servants of every particular Farmer assemble together in one of the Fields that has been sown with Wheat; on the Border of which, in the most conspicuous or most elevated Place, they make twelve Fires of Straw in a Row; around one of which, made larger than the Rest, they drink a cheerful Glass of Cyder to their Master's Health, success to the future Harvest, &c. then returning home, they feast on Cakes made of Carraways, &c. soaked in Cyder, which they claim as a Reward for their past Labours in sowing the Grain. This, he observes, seems to resemble a Custom of the antient Danes, who in their Addresses to their rural Deities, emptied on every Invocation a Cup in Honour of them. Niordi et Freja memoria poculis recolebatur, anna ut ipsis contingeret felicitas, frugumque et reliquæ annouæ uberrimus proventus. Worm. Monun ent. Dan. lib. 1. p. 28. See Note in Pennant's Tour, p. 91. Dr. Johnson tells us that he saw the Harvest of a small Field in one of the western Islands :--The Strokes of the Sickle were timed by the Modulation of the Harvest Song, in which all their Voices were united:-They accompany in the Highlands every Action which can be done in equal Time with an appropriate Strain, which has, they say, not much Meaning, but its Effects are Regularity and Chearfulness. The antient proceleusmatic Song, by which the Rowers of Gallies were animated, may be supposed to have been of this Kind. There is now an Oar Song used by the Hebridians. Thus far the learned Traveller. Our Sailors at Newcastle, in heaving their Anchors, &c. use a Song of this Kind. good good Services.-Every thing depends at this Juncture upon their Labour and Dispatch.. Different Places adopt different Ceremonies: There is a Sport on this Occasion in Hertfordshire, called, "crying the Mare," when the Reapers tie together the Tops of the last Blades of Corn, which is Mare; and standing at some Distance, throw their Sickles at it, and he who cuts the Knot, has the Prize, with Acclamations and good Cheer.* Vide Bailey. Mr. Thomson has left us a beautiful Description of this annual Festivity of Harvest-home.-His Words are these: 86 66 The Harvest-Treasures all Now gather'd in, beyond the Rage of Storms, Shook to the Wind their Cares. The toil-strung Youth, * Mr. Blount tells us farther, "That after the Knot is cut, then "they cry with a loud Voice three Times,. "I have her." Others answer, as many Times, "What have you ?”—A Mare, a Mare, a Mare: "Whose is she?" thrice also. J. B. (naming the Owner "three Times) Whither will you send her? To Jo. a Nicks, (naming some Neighbour, who has not all his Corn reaped) then they all "shout three Times, and so the Ceremony ends with good Cheer. "In Yorkshire, upon the like Occasion, they have a Harvest "Dame; in Bedfordshire, a Jack and a Gill." 66 Darts not unmeaning Looks; and where her Eye |