for shoeing horses being converted into a commodious supper-room. In Sussex, it appears, the day has been, or used to be, commemorated chiefly by the supper. I do not think that effigies have been used in our neighbourhood; but one of our men, who has worked for a dockyard contractor at Woolwich, tells me that it was customary there to have 'Old Clem' dressed up, and carried in procession. The custom of firing the anvils with gunpowder was continued by our men on the saint's day, until forbidden by the authorities.'
SOME OLD FARMING CUSTOMS AND NOTIONS IN ABERDEENSHIRE.
N the day the plough was first put into the soil—"streekit," or "strykit"[1] after harvest—a few cakes of oaten bread were baked. To make them a little more dainty, they were commonly rubbed with cream before they were placed on "the girdle" over the fire to be baked. Cream, which, if scarce, was saved up with much care, was churned, and made into butter. When the bread and the butter were ready, the guidwife took some of them, along with a "kebback" and whisky, and went to the field to the ploughman,—commonly the guidman himself or a son, for in those old days in many districts each family tilled its own holding. He cut the cheese, and partook of the dainties carried to the field. A piece of the cakes was given to each horse, if the animal was accustomed to eat them. The whole household partook at supper of the bread, the butter, and the cheese.—(Told by one whose mother carried out the custom in Pitsligo, Aberdeenshire.)
2. Here is a somewhat different form of the ceremony, and it comes
- ↑ Folk-Lore of the North-East of Scotland, p. 181.
