Hunting the ram at Eton

Ascension Day · Eton College, Buckinghamshire

No longer kept

About Whitsuntide, on Holy Thursday as Aubrey thought, the Eton schoolboys hunted a ram until they killed it and then made a venison feast of it. Aubrey noted that the boys overheated themselves in the chase and caught the smallpox.

about Whitsuntide, I thinke on Holy-thursday, the schoole-boyes doe hunt a Ram, till they kill him; and then they have a venison-feast made of him

From Aubrey's Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme, p. 132. Read the original

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Folklore from the old calendars

The servants of the Lady May at Greenwich No longer kept Kent, LondonUnder Henry VII a band of gentlemen calling themselves servants of the Lady May promised to hold the royal park at Greenwich every afternoon from 14 May.
No work in the Penrhyn quarries on Ascension Day Lore and belief CaernarfonshireThe slate quarrymen at Lord Penrhyn's quarries near Bangor would not work on Ascension Day, believing an accident was certain if they did.
Seggs on the doorstep for Ascension No longer kept YorkshireNear York children used to lay rushes, called seggs, on their doorsteps to mark Ascension Day.
Beating the bounds Still kept EnglandOn Holy Thursday, or in Rogation week before it, the minister, parish officers and schoolboys walked the parish boundary, the boys striking the marks with peeled willow wands.
Well-dressing at Tissington Still kept DerbyshireOn Ascension Day the five wells of Tissington were dressed with boards spread with wet plaster and set with flowers into pictures, texts and patterns.
Holy Thursday wells at Brewood and Bilbrook No longer kept StaffordshirePlot saw the wells at Brewood and Bilbrook in Staffordshire adorned with boughs and flowers on Holy Thursday, a custom he said was kept at all the gospel places, wells, trees or hills, where the gospel was read on the bounds.
New College at the Bartlemas well No longer kept OxfordshireAubrey wrote about 1690 that the fellows of New College had gone every Holy Thursday, time out of mind, between eight and nine in the morning, to the hospital of St Bartholomew near Oxford.
The smock race at Newburn No longer kept Leinster, NorthumberlandBrockett's glossary of north-country words mentions the smock race on Ascension Day, run by young countrywomen for a fine holland smock trimmed with ribbons.
Baked peas at Evesham on Holy Thursday No longer kept WorcestershireBrand's servant Betty Jelkes, who had lived for some years at Evesham, told him of an old custom of the town's market gardens.
The Tyne barges on Ascension Day No longer kept NorthumberlandOn Ascension Day the magistrates, the River Jury and other officers of Newcastle kept an old custom of going the bounds of the town's jurisdiction on the river in their barges, to guard against encroachments.
Hailing the Lamb on Ascension morning Lore and belief DevonIn many villages round Exeter people went out on Ascension morning to hail the Lamb.
The Old Brine at Nantwich No longer kept CheshirePennant was told that the old people of Nantwich sang a hymn of thanksgiving on Ascension Day for the blessing of the brine that made the town's salt.
The Ince oatmeal dole No longer kept LancashireEdward Richardson, who owned an estate in the township of Ince, directed in 1784 that for fifty years after his death oatmeal should be given out to the poor of the neighbourhood on Ascension Day.
The unlucky day of 14 May at Logierait Lore and belief PerthshireIn the parish of Logierait in Perthshire, lucky and unlucky days were anxiously watched.

Hunting the ram at Eton

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