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).

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

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326 to 350 of 439 entries

9 September, not tied to the day

Folklore from the old calendars

Crying Largess No longer kept East Anglia, Essex, HertfordshireIn Suffolk the harvest lord would leave the field to ask any passer-by for a largess, then stand his reapers in a ring and call from a gate post while they answered with a groan and then three great shouts.
Crying the Mare No longer kept Hertfordshire, ShropshireIn Hertfordshire and Shropshire the reapers left the last few stalks standing and tied them up as the mare, then threw their sickles at it until one cut it down.
Crying the Neck Still kept Devon, West CountryIn Devon the last handful of standing corn was called the nack or neck.
Harvest Home and the Hock Cart No longer kept EnglandIn the southern counties the reapers chose a lord of the harvest to bargain with the farmer and lead the work, and in Buckinghamshire a lady as well, with fines for anyone who got the order of drinking wrong.
The Corn Baby and the Mell Supper No longer kept Northern EnglandIn the north of England the harvest feast was the mell supper.
The Cripple Goat No longer kept Inner HebridesOn Skye the farmer who finished his harvest first sent the last handful he had cut to the next farmer still at work, calling it the cripple goat.
The Kirn No longer kept ScotlandIn Scotland the words harvest home were unknown, and the feast at the end of harvest was the kirn or kirn supper, thought to be named from the churn of cream served at it.

Folklore from the old calendars

Black Shuck Lore and belief Cambridgeshire, NorfolkChambers found a belief in a spectral black dog in almost every county: large, shaggy, with fiery eyes, haunting places where evil had been done.
Gabriel’s Hounds Lore and belief Northern England, YorkshirePacks of phantom hounds were believed to pass overhead on dark, cloudy nights, heard yelping but seldom seen.
Lady Howard’s Hound Lore and belief DevonLady Howard of Fitzford, a beautiful and wealthy Devon woman of the time of James I, was said to have been cruel to her only daughter and to have married four times.
The Black Dog at Tring Lore and belief HertfordshireIn 1751 an old woman suspected of witchcraft was drowned in the parish of Tring, and the chimney-sweep who led the attack was hanged and left on a gibbet near the spot.
The Black Dog in the Gap Lore and belief BuckinghamshireA cowman from a village near Aylesbury took a short cut to his cows through a gap in a neighbour's hedge, until one night he found it filled by a huge black dog with fiery eyes that grew bigger as he watched.
The Black Dog of Lyme Regis Lore and belief DorsetAt a farmhouse about a mile from Lyme Regis, a black dog used to take the seat opposite the farmer in the chimney corner every evening, and he let it be.
The Devil’s Dandy-dogs Lore and belief CornwallIn Cornwall the phantom pack heard in the sky on wild nights was called the Devil and his Dandy-dogs.