A notice circulated in 1758 announced the yearly sports held on 22 May at Swalwell hopping, near Newcastle. It promised dancing for ribbons, grinning for tobacco, women’s races for smocks, ass races and footraces, and a man eating a live cock, feathers and all. Brockett explained that a hopping was a country wake or fair, named for the dancing that no feast could do without.
The Swalwell hopping
22 May · Swalwell, County Durham
No longer kept
On this day (May 22) the annual diversions at Swalwell will take place, which will consist of dancing for ribbons, grinning for tobacco, women running for smocks, ass races, foot courses by men
From Brockett's Glossary of North Country Words, p. 159. Read the original
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