A writer in the Gentleman’s Magazine of 1791 reported that in Westmorland and Cumberland crowds gathered early on New Year’s morning carrying baskets and stangs, or stout poles. Anyone who would not join them, neighbour or stranger, was hoisted astride a stang and carried shoulder high to the nearest public house, where sixpence bought his release. Women were carried in the baskets instead. In the same country nobody was allowed to work on New Year’s Day, however industrious.
Riding the Stang on New Year’s Day
1 January · Westmorland and Cumberland
No longer kept
multitudes assemble early in the morning with baskets and "stangs," and whoever does not join them, whether inhabitant or stranger, is immediately mounted across the "stang," and carried, shoulder height, to the next public-house
From Hone's Every-Day Book, vol. 1, cols. 12-13. Read the original
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