Collectanea. 235
is called the " Camping Close," and I have been told that there was an old game called •' Camping," which was played on Shrove Tuesday. It seems to have rather resembled a game of Rugby football, without the ball. All the participators were ranged in two long lines facing each other, and at a given signal each man seems to have "gone for" his vis-a-vis, and serious damage usually resulted. My information on this point is rather vague and perhaps not very reliable.
At Duxford there were two churches, and the livings had been joined into one. The rector therefore lived at the rectory be- longing to the one church, and let the other residence (a vicarage) to my father. The Camping Close joined on to the vicarage garden, and I believe some part of it had, many years back, been taken in from the village green and enclosed in the vicarage grounds. It has been suggested that this was the reason for the Shrove Tuesday custom.
The Camping Close at Ickleton was a meadow adjoining the water-mill, and was thrown open to the children, exactly as at Duxford, on Shrove Tuesday, when an old woman residing at Ickleton always had a cake and sweet stall in the Close.
May Day. — The children brought round garlands, which usually consisted of a hoop covered with flowers, (generally wild flowers), and more often than not had a doll or dolls m the centre. Some- times there were two hoops set at right-angles to each other; sometimes a piece of cloth was stretched at the back, and some motto worked in flowers or letters in the centre, instead of the more usual doll. More often than not the children came round a few days before to beg for ribbons to adorn the garlands. Sometimes the boys carried poles with a bunch of flowers fastened at the top. The garlands were always suspended on a stout stick and covered with a white cloth, and carried by two of the children. When they reached a house, the cloth was thrown back, generally with an air of great triumph, and the children sang : —
" The first of May is garland day, So, please, I've brought my garland. First and second and third of May, Is chimney-sweepers' dancing-day. Ladies and gentlemen, I wish you a happy May, I've come to show my garland, because it is May Day."
