Folklore of West Country

Ascension Day

Folklore from the old calendars

Blooding the hounds on Cranborne Chase No longer kept Dorset, WiltshireEvery 29th of May the buck-hunters of Cranborne Chase met with oak boughs in their hats to show their loyalty and hunted young male deer to enter the young hounds.
Lawless Day at Exeter No longer kept DevonMany people in Exeter believed that on 29 May the law took no notice of any breach of the peace short of downright riot, so the day was called Lawless Day.
May babies at Starcross No longer kept DevonAround Starcross the children marked Oak Apple Day by carrying May babies, small dolls neatly dressed and decked with flowers.
Oliver at Tiverton No longer kept DevonA correspondent told Hone that at Tiverton on 29 May young men dressed in the style of the seventeenth century and armed with swords paraded the streets collecting money.

Folklore from the old calendars

Fires to bless the apples No longer kept Herefordshire, SomersetOn Midsummer Eve people in Herefordshire and Somerset lit fires in the fields and along the lanes to bless the apples.
Letters in a basin on Midsummer Eve Lore and belief DorsetA Dorset girl who wanted her husband's initial wrote the alphabet on scraps of paper at bedtime and floated them face down in a basin of water.
Midsummer torches in Cornwall No longer kept CornwallBorlase, quoted by Hone, wrote that on Midsummer Eve the Cornish people lit bonfires and walked round them with torches tarred and pitched at the end.
Shoes in the form of a T Lore and belief DorsetA Dorset man writing for the Year Book said Midsummer Eve was the great night for girls to find out whom they would marry.
Snake stones at Midsummer Lore and belief Cornwall, Scotland, WalesBorlase found it a common belief in most of Wales, throughout Scotland and in Cornwall that about Midsummer Eve snakes met together in companies.
The black dog at Whiteborough No longer kept CornwallBrand recorded that a Midsummer bonfire was once made on Whiteborough, a burial mound on St Stephen's Down near Launceston.