Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1903-10-08
RELICS OF THE PAST.
Quaint Customs and Ceremonies
Which Endure In England.

When the king at the recent privy
council selected new sheriffs for the
counties of England and Wales by
priclling a hole with a silver bodkin
opposite to each Of the favored names
on the list, his majesty was carrying
out one Of quite a score Of interesting
customs that still survive to link the
England of 1903 with the England Of
the middle ages.
There Is hardly an important coun-
ty in the land that does not cherish
some noteworthy custom hailing from
early days in English history. Proba
bly, the most interesting feudal cere-
mony in existence is planting the
horngarth, an act of penance which
is new in its ninth century Of COM
memoration, and which has been car
ried out every year at Withby without
a single break.
The penance is for the death Of
hermit who sought to protect wound
ed boar but who was slain by its
ferocious pursuer. The horngarth, or
penny hedge, itself is formed by plant
ing a hedge OF stakes in the tideway,
in the upper part Of Whitby harbor,
in the presence Of the lord of the
manor. When the penny hedge is
complete, three blasts are blown on
an antiquated timeworn horn, which
is in accordance with the prescribed
stipulatiOns. This horn is a good five
hundred years old, so it has seen con-
siderable service.
a very long way back in the history
of England was a time when the high
festival Of Ceres was exceedingly
popular. TO this day we have a rem
nant Of the mystic rites of the Tenn
pie of Eleusis Of the Greeks surviving
in the form Of the kern-baby. In vari-
GUS parts Of the country kern suppers
are held to celebrate the conclusion OF
the harvest gathering, and the kern
baby is carried on high by the reapers.
The baby is a straw image, made from
the last sheaf of the harvest, adorned
with flowers and with ears OF grain.
Really the kern-baby appears at har-
vest festivals of to-day as the repre-
sentative of the ancient Ceres.
The most ancient of customs Is still
observed in Ireland on June 81. and
In the Highlands of Scotland on May
1, according to the old reckoning.
This is beltein. the festival in con-
nection with sun worship; fires are
kindled on the summit Of the hills,
and a variety of ceremonies are gone
through.
Burning the clavie is another unique
ceremony, whose origin goes back far
into the mists of antiquity. Probably
the rites still observed at Burghead,
on the Moray Firth have been per-
formed since the days of the Druids.
A tar barrel is sawn in halves, one
half is fled with tar-coyered fuel Civ
en- by the townsfolk, and is lighted
with a piece of glowing peat The
fiery clavie is borne shOulder-high
around the town limits in grand pro-
cession and is placed finally on an
ancient freestone altar to burn high
over the waters of the Firth. There
are various minor weird ceremonies
observed as the clavie burns away.
PERHAPS even more singular are the
domestic fires of certain Oldfashioned
farm houses on the Yorkshire dales.
These peat fires are vertiable links
with the past, as they never go out.
Some have been kept alight for hun
dreds of years and have warmed gen.
Grafton after generation of dYellers.
The Whitby district is rich in these,
and there is one at Osmotherley |
which. it is claimed, has been burn
ing 800 years.
A handsome quintain is to be seen
on the village green at Offham, in |
Kent. The local custom is to hoist |
married men who are not fathers to |
its top and then to set the quintain
revolving rapidly.
Throwing the dart is picturesque |
custom which is observed in Cork.
Every third year the chief magistrate
proceeds to the mouth of Cork Har-
Dor in full state Following immemo-
rial. CUSTOM he throws a dart into the
sea-a dart with a head Of gold and
shaft of mahogany-saying: Il cast
this javelin into the sea, and declare
that 90 far seaward as it falls extends
the right and dominion of the Cor
poration of Cork to and over the har-
Dor as we'll as the rivers, creeks and
bays within the same.-London Daily
Mail.