dark hair are in the habit of going from house to house, on that day, to take the New Year in; for which they are treated with liquor, and presented with a small gratuity. So far is the apprehension carried, that some families will not open the door to any one until satisfied by the voice that he is likely to bring the house a year's good luck by entering it.

The most kindly and charitable woman in a neighbourhood will strongly refuse to give any one a light on the morning of New Year's Day, as most unlucky to the one who gives it away.-Harland and Wilkinson's Lancashire FolkLore, 1867, p. 214.

ISLE OF MAN.

On this day an old custom, says Train in his History of the Isle of Man (1845, vol. ii. p. 115), is observed called the quaaltagh. In almost every parish throughout the island, a party of young men go from house to house singing the following rhyme:

"Again we assemble, a merry New Year
To wish to each one of the family here,
Whether man, woman, or girl, or boy,

That long life, and happiness, all may enjoy,
May they of potatoes and herrings have plenty,
With butter and cheese, and each other dainty;
And may their sleep never, by night or day,
Disturbed be by even the tooth of a flea;
Until at the Quaaltagh again we appear,
To wish you, as now, all a happy New Year."

When these lines are repeated at the door, the whole party are invited into the house to partake of the best the family can afford. On these occasions a person of dark complexion always enters first, as a light-haired male or female is deemed unlucky to be the first-foot or quaaltagh on New Year's morning. The actors of the quaaltagh do not assume fantastic habiliments like the mummers of England, or the guisards of Scotland, nor do they, like these rude performers of the Ancient Mysteries, appear ever to have been attended by minstrels playing on different kinds of musical instruments.

NORTHUMBERLAND.

The following extract, relating to Newcastle-on-Tyne, is taken from the North of England Advertiser of January 4th, 1873:

The children on New Year's morn are busy begging their New Year's gifts, saying, " Old Year out, New Year in ; please give us my New Year's gift;" or "A merry Christmas and a happy New Year;" followed by the usual appeal for a present. The first-foot is an important personage. If he should be a dark man, it is a sign of good luck; if a light one not so lucky; but alas! if a woman, the worst luck will befall the household. Similar to the first hearing of the cuckoo, it is of the greatest importance whether or not you have money in your pocket and your cupboard full on New Year's Day.

NOTTINGHAMSHIRE.

In this county it is considered unlucky to remove anything from a house until something has been brought in, and therefore, early in the morning, each member of the family carries some trifling thing in. In the neighbourhood of Newark, this rhyme is sung:

"Take out, and take in,

Bad luck is sure to begin;
But take in and take out,
Good luck will come about."

Jour. of Arch. Assoc. 1853, vol. viii. p. 231. Brand, in his Pop. Antiq. (1849, vol. i. p. 15), alludes to this custom as existing in Lincoln and its neighbourhood. The rhyme he quotes is slightly different from the above:

"Take out, then take in,

Bad luck will begin;
Take in, then take out,
Good luck comes in."

OXFORDSHIRE.

Pointer, in his Oxoniensis Academia (1749, p. 71), alludes to a custom, observed at Brasenose College, Oxford, of the Bachelors of Arts and Undergraduates belonging to the

college going in a body on New Year's Day to their Principal, and each presenting him with an epistle by way of a New Year's gift, wishing him a happy New Year.

We learn from the same writer, that it was formerly the practice at Queen's College to give a needle and thread. to the Fellows, being a rebus on their founder's name, Eglesfield, aiguille in French signifying a needle, and fil a thread (p. 38).

STAFFORDSHIRE.

A grotesque manorial custom is described as being kept up in the reign of Charles II., in connection with Hilton. There existed in that house a hollow brass image, about a foot high, representing a man kneeling in an indecorous position. It was known all over the country as Jack of Hilton. There were two apertures; one very small at the mouth, another about two-thirds of an inch in diameter at the back, and the interior would hold rather more than four pints of water, which, says Plot (History of Staffordshire, 1686, p. 433), 'when set to a strong fire, evaporates in the same manner as in an Æolopile, and vents itself at the mouth in a constant blast, blowing the fire so strongly that it is very audible, and makes a sensible impression in that part of the fire where the blast lights.'

The custom was this. An obligation lay upon the lord of the adjacent manor of Essington, every New Year's Day, to bring a goose to Hilton, and drive it three times round the hall-fire, which Jack of Hilton was all the time blowing by the discharge of his steam. He was then to carry the bird into the kitchen and deliver it to the cook; and when it was dressed he was to carry it in a dish to the table of his lord paramount, the lord of Hilton, receiving in return a dish of meat for his own mess.

An annual payment, called Moseley's Dole, was formerly made by the corporation, consisting of a penny a piece to all the inhabitants of Walsall, and of the adjoining parish of Rushall, which is supposed to have anciently formed part of that of Walsall.

Three persons were employed to make the distribution,

who began on New Year's Day, and went through the parishes, giving a penny to each inmate of every house, whether permanently or accidentally abiding there.

It is stated by Plot (History of Staffordshire), that the earliest mention of this dole is in the 36th Henry VIII., when 77. 10s. 9d. discharged it. The first trace of it, however, that is found in the documents of the corporation is in 1632, when its amount was 147. 9s. 4d. The amount increased gradually till 1799, when it was 601., and until the time of its cessation in 1825, it remained yearly about the same.

There are many traditions respecting the origin of this dole, but they all concur in attributing it to one Thomas Moseley, from whom an estate at Bascott in Warwickshire was derived. The donor, in granting this estate to the corporation, charged it with the annual payment of nine marks to the Abbot of Hales Owen, "who should keep one mark for his labours in distributing the remaining eight marks, at the obit of the said Thomas Moseley at Walsall, for the souls of the said Thomas and Margary his wife, and others; and this by the oversight of the Vicar of Walsall, and of all the chaplains of the Guild of St. John the Baptist, of the church of Walsall."

The eight marks above named were no doubt the origin of the dole, and would, before the Reformation, be amply sufficient to supply a penny a piece to all the parishioners, or at least to all who repaired to the church on the obit day, to pray for the donor and his wife-a superstitious custom which caused the estate to be seized by Henry VIII., when he suppressed the monasteries.-History of Staffordshire, White, 1857, p. 645; Old English Customs and "Charities, 1842, p. 55.

SUSSEX.

At Hastings, apples, nuts, oranges, &c., as well as money, are thrown out of the windows to be scrambled for by the fisher-boys and men. The custom is not kept up with the spirit of former days.

WARWICKSHIRE.

In the city of Coventry a sort of cake known by the name of God-cakes is sent. They are used by all classes, and vary in price from a halfpenny to one pound. They are invariably made in a triangular shape, an inch thick, and filled with a kind of mincemeat. So general is the use of them on the first day of the New Year, that the cheaper sorts are hawked about the streets as hot cross buns are on Good Friday in London. This custom seems peculiar to Coventry. -N. & Q. 2nd S. vol. ii. p. 229.

WORCESTERSHIRE.

A belief exists in this county, that if the carol singer who first comes to the door on New Year's morning be admitted at the front door, conducted through the house, and let out at the back the inmates will have good luck during the year.-N. & Q. 2nd S. vol. iii. p. 343.

YORKSHIRE.

The following quaint account of a whimsical custom formerly observed on New Year's Day is taken from Blount's Fragmenta Antiquitatis, 1815, p. 555:

Near Hutton Conyers there is a large common, called Hutton Conyers Moor, whereof William Aislabie, Esq., of Studley Royal (lord of the Manor of Hutton Conyers), is lord of the soil, and on which there is a large coneywarren belonging to the lord. The occupiers of messuages and cottages within the several towns of Hutton Conyers, Baldersby, Rainton, Dishforth, and Hewick, have right of estray for their sheep to certain limited boundaries on the common, and each township has a shepherd.

The lord's shepherd has a pre-eminence of tending his sheep on every part of the common; and wherever he herds the lord's sheep, the several other shepherds are to give way to him, and give up their hoofing-place so long as he pleases to depasture the lord's sheep thereon. The lord holds his court the first day in the year, to entitle those