Chambers's Book of Days

Robert Chambers, The Book of Days: A Miscellany of Popular Antiquities in Connection with the Calendar (2 vols, 1862-1864).

By tag

Get a copy

Two volumes, 1862 to 1864. Facsimile reprints are easy to find, and original sets turn up second-hand.

We may earn a small commission if you buy through these links.

276 to 300 of 439 entries

18 July, not tied to the day

Folklore from the old calendars

Burning Fern for Rain Lore and belief Scotland, StaffordshireA letter of 1 August 1636 from the Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery to the high sheriff of Staffordshire said that the king was about to pass through the county.
Doggett’s Coat and Badge Still kept LondonThomas Dogget, a Dublin-born comic actor and a keen supporter of the Hanoverian succession, gave a waterman's coat and silver badge to be rowed for on 1 August 1715, the first anniversary of George I's accession, and at his death left money to keep the prize going for ever.
Glove Silver No longer kept England, SuffolkIt was once the custom in England to give servants money on Lammas Day to buy gloves, which was called glove silver, in the teeth of the proverb that a cat in mittens catches no mice.
Lammas Towers No longer kept East Lothian, Midlothian, West LothianUntil about the middle of the eighteenth century the cowherds of Lothian kept Lammas with towers.
Lammas, the Loaf-Mass No longer kept England, YorkshireThe first of August stands in the old almanacs as Lammas Day, and was also called the Gule of August.