Folklore of the South East

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1 May

Folklore from the old calendars

A show of ladies in Hyde Park on May Day No longer kept LondonThe London season was reckoned to begin on the first of May, when fashionable society crowded into Hyde Park, the Mall and Spring Garden.
Cows’ horns on May night at Oxford No longer kept OxfordshireAubrey noted that the boys of Oxford blew cows' horns and hollow canes all through the night before May Day.
Dining with Duke Humphrey No longer kept LondonIn old St Paul's stood the tomb of Sir John Beauchamp, which the ignorant called the tomb of Humphrey, the good Duke of Gloucester, though he lay at St Albans.
Henry VIII goes a-Maying on Shooter’s Hill No longer kept Kent, LondonStow wrote that on May morning every Londoner who could walked out into the meadows and woods to enjoy the flowers and the birdsong.
Horses for the Kings of Cologne on May Day No longer kept BerkshireOn May Day 1499 the parish of St Laurence in Reading paid for fodder for the horses of the Kings of Cologne, the three Wise Men of its King play.
May branches at Eton No longer kept BuckinghamshireA manuscript account of Eton School in 1560 says that on the day of St Philip and St James, 1 May, the boys who wished might rise at four o'clock, if the weather was fair and the master allowed it, to gather May branches, provided they could do it without wetting their feet.
May Fair in Piccadilly No longer kept LondonThe fair that gave Mayfair its name was held near Piccadilly through the month of May.
May-day garlands at Sevenoaks No longer kept KentThe children of Sevenoaks carried May boughs and garlands from door to door, calling "May-day, garland-day!" for a few pence.
Mrs Montagu’s dinner for the sweeps No longer kept LondonEvery May Day Elizabeth Montagu, the bluestocking hostess, gave a dinner for the chimney sweeps of London at her house in Portman Square.
My lord and my lady at Baldock No longer kept HertfordshireOn May morning the poor women of Baldock dressed up straw and rag effigies of a lord and lady in their husbands' and their own Sunday clothes and sat them side by side outside the cottage door.
Parish garlands in the Oxford churches No longer kept OxfordshireOn May Day the young maids of every Oxford parish carried their parish garland of flowers about the streets and afterwards hung it up in their church.
Robin Hood’s bower at Abingdon No longer kept BerkshireIn 1566 the churchwardens of St Helen's, Abingdon, paid eighteen pence for putting up Robin Hood's bower.
The battle on Rochester bridge No longer kept KentIreland's Views of the Medway tells of a yearly May Day fight on Rochester bridge between the boys of Frindsbury and the boys of the neighbouring town of Strood.
The great shaft of Cornhill No longer kept LondonSt Andrew Undershaft takes its name from the great maypole that was set up every May morning in the street outside its south door, taller than the church steeple.
The Headington garlands No longer kept OxfordshireL.
The Hitchin Mayers No longer kept HertfordshireA letter from Hitchin in 1823 told Hone how, soon after three on May morning, townspeople and labourers paraded the streets singing the Mayers' Song and fixed large branches of may to the doors of nearly every respectable house.
The hobby horse on May Day at St Mary’s, Reading No longer kept BerkshireIn 1557, in the brief return of the old ways under Queen Mary, the parish of St Mary in Reading paid minstrels and a hobby horse to perform on May Day.
The Magdalen tower on May morning Still kept OxfordshireOn May Day the choristers of Magdalen College gathered at the top of the college tower to usher in the spring.
The master sweeps’ May-day dinner No longer kept LondonOn 1 May 1826 the new United Society of Master Chimney Sweepers gave its apprentices a dinner at the Eyre Arms in St John's Wood instead of letting them go about the streets for money, and handbills warned householders not to give to the sweeps' May-day collections.
The milkmaids’ cow with gilded horns No longer kept LondonSome London milkmaids went round their customers on May Day with a cow instead of the usual pyramid of borrowed silver plate.
The milkmaids’ garland No longer kept LondonOn May Day the London milkmaids went round their customers' houses in their best clothes, dancing to a fiddle or pipe and tabor for the annual present.
The Paddington May-dance No longer kept London, MiddlesexHone remembered Jack-o'-the-Greens, figures dressed out in ribbons and flowers from the village May games, coming into the London suburbs to dance.
The printers’ May feast at Stationers’ Hall No longer kept LondonRandle Holme wrote in 1688 that the journeymen printers, with the letter founders and ink makers, held a general feast every year at Stationers' Hall on or about May Day, paid for by half a crown from each guest.
The Raine’s school bride No longer kept LondonA correspondent told Hone that every May Day a girl from Raine's charity school at St George in the East, near London, was chosen to be married.

Folklore of the South East

1 May

1 May, not tied to the day

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