Witherslack
Picture and text from The History of Witherslack, Meathop and Ulpha during the Twentieth Century, by Maureen James Ba Hons, 2000).
Jolly Boys (or Pace Eggers)
The Jolly Boys were revived in Witherslack in Holy Week before Easter in 1943 (From an unpublished version of the Pace Eggers Play by Edward Meryon Wilson). From an off print of Folk Lore, March 1938). Before that they were remembered in a fragmentary way until the Great War (1914-1918). The old men remembered how well received they were at the farms and given eggs, mince pies and money, silver as well as copper. The performance seems to have taken them not just all over Westmorland but Lancashire north of the Sands as well as further afield. At the beginning of the second world war many evacuees were sent to Witherslack, mostly from Liverpool and South Shields.
Originally Tosspot comes first to clear the way. He carried a stout stick with which he thumps the ground all around. He wore a top hat and his hump is made of a bundle of shavings. St George has a large helmet decorated with long streamers of coloured paper. He also wore a sash 'a la militaire' his upper lip is decorated with a burnt cork moustache and carries a sword of wood or hoop iron. The Turkish Knight is somewhat similarly equipped but his hand and face are completely blackened. Dr Brown wears a disguise suited to his profession: a large and extremely old-fashioned hat is usually regarded as essential. Molly Masket is dressed as an old woman and carries the basket containing eggs and other contributions. Other characters only take part in the final chorus such as Lord Nelson and Jolly Jack Tar.
THE PLAY
The hunchback seizes his staff and beating the floor with it, dances round till a sufficiently large circle is cleared for all the actors and says:-
Stir up the fire and strike a light
And see this bloody act tonight,
If you don't believe a word I say,
Step in St George and clear the way.
(St George:) In steps St George
A noble champion bold!
With my right hand and glittering sword
I've won three crowns of gold
Twas I who fought the fiery dragon
And brought him down by slaughter
And by these means I won the Queen
The King of Egypt's daughter.
The Turkish Knight steps in forward and begins:-
In steps I, bold Turk,
Black Morocco King
My sword and buckler by my side
And through the woods I ring
I'll stab thee in thy vital gorge.
I'm brave and that is what makes us good,
And through thy dearest body, George
I'll draw thy precious blood.
The challenge is accepted and the fight begins, but not without many more verses.
The turk is slain and a doctor is called for, after boasting about his travels, St George challenges the Doctor to revive the Turk.
'Here Jack, just take a little out of my bottle, and let it run down thy throttle, and if thou be not quite slain, rise up Jack and fight again'.
The Turk awakes saying he will have St George in another round.
The annual celebration of life was universal: fight, death, resurrection being the common factors. Then the whole company join in the following chorus, clasping hands and prancing round singing:
Here's two or three jolly boys all in one mind,
We've come a pace-egging and hope you'll prove kind
We hope you'll prove kind with your eggs and strong beer,
And we'll come no more nigh you, until next year.*
(*50 Years Ago - May 1993 from the Westmorland Gazette)
There were seven people in it with the presenter (see photo above): Winnie Butler (sitting in the front row), an evacuee billeted with the Wilson family of Fern Hill, Witherslack. From the photograph, Norman Marshall (an evacuee billetted with the Wallings at Halecote) was St George; Alan Pearson was Bold Slasher, and his sister Joan played the part of Johnny Jack. Sheila Thornburrow was Tosspot and Jean Walker was Old Miser. Words and music were written by Mrs Brunskill of Crosthwaite. They performed the play all round the village and collected £12 for the Red Cross.
Another girl who played it in later life was Mary Clifton (nee Benson) and it continued for a number of years. Another source of it is in Lancashire folk lore (How Bury Pace-Eggers Started at emrs.chm.bris.ac.uk - link no longer valid) which included clog dances, and songs, and it was started the Saturday before Easter and considered bad luck to continue after noon on Good Friday.
A NOTE ON PACE-EGGING AT DUFTON
This is from the Penrith Observer, December 14th 1954
Round and about Column by 'Beacon'
A recent reference to Mr John Lightburn's 90th birthday and the face that he used to go pace egging has brought an interesting letter from Major Harold Deighton, who sends me a copy of The Journal of the Lancashire Dialect Society for December 1952.
In this, Major Deighton has some fascinating facts about pace egging, an old North Westmorland custom which lingered on in the Dufton district almost to the end of the 19th Century.
Pace egg is, of course, really pasche (Easter) egg and a pace egger was one who went about singing and begging for Easter eggs in the week before Easter.
With the begging went a mumming called Jolly Boying, and says Major Deighton, the actors were disguised by blackened faces, coats worn inside out, false noses and whiskers.
The players in this mumming were two or three Jolly Boys, Lord Nelson, Jolly Jack Tar, Bonny Young Lad, Old Tosspot and Old Miser.
A typical scene for the play would be a farmhouse kitchen with the family gathered round the fire for the night.
"Suddenly the door-sneck would be lifted, and the pace-eggers would enter, tree Jolly Boys with fiddle, concertina, and voices rendering the opening verse of the pace-egging song, which was completed as they march round the supper table.
Here come two or three Jolly Boys, all in one mind,
We've come a pace-egging - I hope you'll prove kind.
I hope you'll prove kind with your eggs and strong beer,
And we'll come no more near you until the next year.
The third line gives the key to the original purpose of the visit - the collection of eggs and beer for the better celebration of Eastertide.
In our account of Mr Lightburn's birthday we fell into an error in saying that he remembered the taste of the 'mulled' ale which was a feature of pace-egging.
For mulled ale read mould ale - a sustaining hot drink, which was also much used at funerals.
Major Deighton gives the recipe supplied by Mrs J Beadle of Murton, Appleby, and if any of my readers decide to try it I should like to hear from them afterwards.
Here it is:
Take one gallon of ale, and 12 to 14 eggs.
Beat the eggs up in a basin.
When the ale is at boiling point (not boiling) put the eggs in and stir well so that it does not curd, add ginger, nutmeg and sugar to taste.
I am told that this recipe is still used every Easter at Murton. In the old days it will have strengthened the mourners and bearers as they struggled along the corpse roads of North Westmorland.
Major Deighton writes apropos of this: "There is a little known corpse road at Mildam, Dufton and tradition has it that once a corpse had to be brought from a moorland farm nine miles away, the coffin being lashed to the back of a stout horse.
"On arrival at Dutton (Dufton? - Alan) the mourners decided to 'hev yan' at the inn, leaving the horse outside. The mould ale detained them a good while, and while waiting something happened to 'flay the nag' which galloped the nine miles home with the corpse."
GRASMERE
The Grasmere pace-egging play was incorporated into the script of one of the Grasmere Dialect plays.