The Whitsuntide hirings in Cumberland

Whit Monday · Cumberland

No longer kept

Farm servants in Cumberland were hired by the half year at Whitsuntide and Martinmas. Those looking for a place stood together in the market place, each with a bit of straw or a green sprig in the mouth to show it. When the market was over the girls walked slowly about the streets and the young men followed, each picking a sweetheart to take to a dancing room and treat to punch, wine and cake. They spent the afternoon and part of their half year’s wages in jigs and reels, and quarrels over a girl were settled with fists, the lasses sometimes joining in, before the fiddles struck up again.

Those who come to be hired stand in a body in the market-place, and to distinguish themselves hold a bit of straw or green sprig in their mouths.

From Hone's Every-Day Book, vol. 2, cols. 667-670. Read the original

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Folklore from the old calendars

The Chester Whitsun plays Still kept CheshireChester's mystery plays were said to have been written by Randall Higgenett, a monk of Chester Abbey, and played on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of Whitsun week.
The Eynsham timber No longer kept OxfordshireAt Eynsham the townspeople might cut down on Whit Monday as much timber as they could haul by hand into the abbey yard, the churchwardens first marking the trees.
The Greenhill Bower Still kept StaffordshireLichfield's show fair was held on Whit Monday, when members of the corporation and the town's best tradesmen walked in procession from the guildhall to Greenhill.
Flitting Day No longer kept ScotlandThe 25th of May, the old Whitsunday term, was the day most Scots changed house, since houses were let by the year and tenants decided at Candlemas whether to sit or flit.
Hocking and pigeon-holes at the Brentford Whitsun ale No longer kept MiddlesexA Brentford vestry of 1621 recorded that the townspeople had long met at Whitsuntide in their church house to eat and drink together, keeping up neighbourly feeling and raising a common stock for the church, the orphans and the poor.
The Boy’s Bailiff at Wenlock No longer kept ShropshireIn Whitsun week Much Wenlock kept a custom called the Boy's Bailiff.
The stick blow at the Lancashire Whitsun fair No longer kept LancashireAt Whitsuntide fairs in parts of Lancashire a trick was played in which one person held a stick over another's head and a third, unseen, struck the stick so that it came down smartly on the victim.
Peppard Revel No longer kept OxfordshireThe Reading Mercury of 24 May 1819 advertised Peppard Revel for Whit Monday.
Necton guild No longer kept NorfolkIn 1817 Major, later Colonel, Mason of Necton Hall set up a guild of rural sports on the afternoons of Whit Monday and Whit Tuesday, to gather the Whitsun holidays of the Norfolk villages at Necton.
Drop handkerchief at the Devon revels No longer kept DevonA correspondent remembered from his boyhood in Devon that at the fairs and revels of Easter and Whitsuntide young men and women formed a ring to play drop handkerchief.
Greenwich Fair No longer kept KentFor Londoners Whit Monday meant Greenwich Fair, and from early morning crowds poured along the Kent Road and down the river to it.

The Whitsuntide hirings in Cumberland

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