Cock in the pot on Plough Monday

Tusser counted Plough Monday among the ploughman’s feast days, and Tusser Redivivus of 1744 explained the rhyme that went with it. That morning the men and maids raced to be up first: if the ploughman could get his whip, plough-staff, hatchet or any tool he wanted in the field to the fireside before the maid had her kettle on, she lost her Shrovetide cock to the men. Coles describes another version, in which the ploughman came to the kitchen hatch with his whip after the day’s work and won a cock for Shrove Tuesday if he cried cock in pot before the maid could cry cock on the dunghill. The day ended with a good supper and strong drink, and in Norfolk, a note of 1646 says, the husbandmen called it Plowlick Monday because they then first began to plough.