Hone's Every-Day Book

William Hone, The Every-Day Book, or Everlasting Calendar of Popular Amusements (2 vols, 1825-1827).

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Two volumes, 1825 to 1827. Later editions bind it with the Table Book, and old sets turn up second-hand.

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1 to 25 of 411 entries

1 January

Folklore from the old calendars

Juniper Smoke and the Dead and Living Ford No longer kept HighlandsHone gives an account from Stewart's Popular Superstitions of the Highlands of how the Strathdown Highlander let in the new year.
Lady Shelley’s New Year rewards at Maresfield No longer kept SussexEvery New Year's Day at Maresfield Park the industrious poor who had kept off parish relief were given prizes of up to two guineas.
New Clothes on New Year’s Day Lore and belief EnglandHone notes from Forster's Perennial Calendar that many people made a point of wearing something new on New Year's Day and thought it unlucky not to.
Riding the Stang on New Year’s Day No longer kept Cumberland, WestmorlandA writer in the Gentleman's Magazine of 1791 reported that in Westmorland and Cumberland crowds gathered early on New Year's morning carrying baskets and stangs, or stout poles.
The Falkirk Guisards No longer kept StirlingshireIn the Daft Days around the new year, bands of guisards went from house to house in Falkirk acting a short play in which Galgacus, the Caledonian chief, fights and kills Jack, a doctor haggles over his fee and raises him, and Judas comes round with the bag for money.
The Hutton Conyers Pie Court No longer kept YorkshireThe lord of the manor of Hutton Conyers held his court on the first day of the year, when the shepherds of six townships around the moor came to keep their right of sheep-walk.
The New Year Wassail Bowl Still kept Gloucestershire, Staffordshire, WarwickshireAt the New Year the head of an English household gathered his family round a bowl of spiced ale called lamb's wool and drank their health with the old greeting wass hael, and the bowl went round.

4 January, not tied to the day

5 January

Folklore from the old calendars

The Sieve of Candles No longer kept LeinsterSir Henry Piers, describing County Westmeath, wrote that on Twelfth Night eve the people raised a sieve full of oats as high as they could, with twelve candles set round it and a larger one in the middle, all lit.
Twelve fires against the smut at Pauntley No longer kept GloucestershireOn Twelfth Night eve the farm servants of Pauntley gathered in a field sown with wheat and lit twelve straw fires in a row to keep the smut off the crop.
Twelve Fires and the Ox’s Cake No longer kept Gloucestershire, HerefordshireOn Twelfth Night eve Herefordshire farmers and their servants lit twelve small fires and one large one on the highest part of a wheat field, drank old cider and hallooed, and fifty or sixty other fires might be seen at once across the country.
Wassailing the Apple Trees Still kept DevonOn Twelfth Night eve the Devon farmer took his men into the orchard with a pitcher of cider, and they circled one of the best-bearing trees and drank to it three times with a rhyme wishing it hats full, caps full and sacks full of apples.
Wassil Eve near Leeds No longer kept YorkshireMr Beckwith remembered in the Gentleman's Magazine of 1784 that near Leeds, when he was a boy, many families asked their relations, friends and neighbours in on the twelfth eve of Christmas for cards and a supper at which mince pies were essential.

6 January

Folklore from the old calendars

Cutting Off the Fiddler’s Head No longer kept Isle of ManWaldron's history of the Isle of Man says that through the twelve days of Christmas every barn was in use and every parish hired fiddlers at the public charge.
Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh Still kept LondonOn Twelfth Day the king used to go in procession with heralds and the knights of the Garter, Thistle and Bath to the Chapel Royal at St James's, and offer gold, frankincense and myrrh in imitation of the Magi.
Lobscouse and Ponsondie No longer kept CumberlandIn Cumberland and other northern parts of England, Twelfth Night ended the Christmas holidays with a dance in a large room from seven o'clock until twelve.
Nailing coat-tails at the Twelfth-cake shops No longer kept LondonOn Twelfth Night London boys crowded round the pastrycooks' windows, full of iced Twelfth-cakes, and nailed the coat-tails of onlookers to the window frames.
The Anti-Gregorians’ Old Christmas at Worcester No longer kept WorcestershireWhen the calendar changed in 1752, many country people round Worcester went on keeping Christmas by the old reckoning, which now fell on Twelfth Day.

Hone's Every-Day Book

1 January

4 January, not tied to the day

5 January

6 January

7 January, not tied to the day

Every new moon

11 January, not tied to the day

the first Monday on or after 7 January

14 January, not tied to the day

17 January, not tied to the day

17 January

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