The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1903-08-01
RELICS OF THE PAST.

When the king at the recent PRIV
council selected new sheriffs for the
counties of England and Wales bv
prlcking hole with silver bodxin
opposite to each of the favored names
on the list, his majesty was CARVING
out one of quite a score of interesting Q
customs that still survive to link the
England OF 1903 with the England of
the middle ages.
!here IS hardly an important coun-
ty IN the land that does not cherish
some noteworthy custom hailing from
early days i'll English history. Prob
ABLY the most interesting feudal cere-
mony in existence is planting the
horngarth, an act of penance which
is now in its ninth century of com
memoration, and which has been car
Cdt a single preak.zs-ss=.-.4-lss-
The penance is for the death of a
hermit who sought to protect a
wounded boar but who was slain by
its ferocious pursuer. The horngarth,
or penny hedge, itself is formed by
planting a hedge of stakes in the tide
way, 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 time-worn horn, which
is IN accordance with the prescribed
stlpulations. The horn is good five
hundred years old, so it has seen con-
siderable service.
A very long way back in the his
tory of England was time when the
high festival of Ceres was exceeding
ly popular. To this day we have a
remnant of the mystic rites of the
Temple of Eleusis of the Greeks sur
viving in the form of the kern baby.
In various parts of the country kern
suppers are held to celebrate the con-
clusion of the harvest gathering, and
the hern-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 harvest festivals of
today as the representative of the an
cient Ceres.
The most ancient of customs is still
observed in Ireland on June Fl, and
in the Highlands of Scotland on May
I, 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 variety of ceremonies are gone
through.
Burning the clavie is another uni
que ceremony, whose origin goes back
far into the mists of antiquity. Prob
ably the rites still observed at Burg
head, on the Moray Firth, have been
performed since the days of the
Druids. A tar barrel is sawn in
anu IS ngnteu Win a piece or gIowlng
peat. The fiery clavie is born shoul-
der-high around the town limits in
grand procession and is placed finally
on an ancient freestone altar to burn
high over the waters of the Firth.
There are various minor weird cere-
monies observed as the clavie burns
away.
Perhaps even more singular are the
domestic fires of certain old-fashioned
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 hum
dreds of years and have warmed gen
Grafton after generation Of dwellers.
The Whitby district is rich in these,
and there is one at Osmotherley
which, it is claimed, has been burn
ing 500 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 a 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 imme
mortal custom, he throws dart into
the sea-a dart with head of gold
and a shaft of mahogany-saying
"I cast this javelin into the sea, and
declare that so far seaward as it falls
extends right and dominion of the
Corporation of Cork to and over the
harbor as we'll as the rivers, creeks
and bays within the same. "-LOndOn
DAILY Mail.