should be observed and possible local reasons enquired into, before parallels are sought for farther afield.
To take another example,—the Horn Dance at Abbot's Bromley in Staffordshire takes place every year on the Monday after September 4th.[1] Six men carrying horns,—reindeers' horns,—and accompanied by a hobby-horse and a man carrying a cross-bow, and also (as usual) by a fool and a man in woman's clothing, dance a morris-dance in the streets of the town, and before the principal houses in the neighbourhood, after which money is collected from the spectators in an ancient wooden ladle. The "properties,"—horns, hobby-horse, cross-bow, and ladle,—are kept in the church tower from year to year. (The present leader, or, as they call him, the "father" of the band, is a man named Bentley. It gives an idea of the unchanging ways of the place to learn that a Bentley is entered as Constable of Abbot's Bromley in the Muster Roll of Henry VIII., 1539.)
The first notice we have of this dance is from Dr. Plot, the historian of Staffordshire, who wrote in 1686. In his time the horns were painted with the arms of the lords of the three manors included in the parish. He adds this curious information,—"To this Hobby Horse dance there also belong'd a Pot, which was kept by Turnes by 4 or 5 of the cheif of the Town, whom they call'd Reeves, who provided Cakes and Ale to put in this pot." Every householder contributed "pence a piece" to the expenses, and the fund raised by this means and by the contribution of "forraigners that came to see it" was applied to the repair of the church and the relief of the poor; in other words, it supplied the place of church-rate and poor-rate.[2]
- ↑ The date is now popularly supposed to be that of the Wake or Dedication Feast, but is noted in the Staffordshire Directory of 1861 as being that of the local fair. Henry III. granted the Abbots of Burton a fair at Abbot's Bromley on the Eve, Day, and Morrow of St. Bartholomew (August 24th). This is doubtless the same fair, reckoning the date by Old Style. The dedication of the Church is St. Nicholas (December 6th).
- ↑ See Note III., infra.
