Co rresp ondence. 91
from servants and labourers. I only heard of carrying or burning effigies at Ludlow ; and personally I have only seen them in seaport towns (London being one). I have a childish, but dis- tinct, memory of parties of boys carrying effigies at Ilfracombe on 5th November, 1859. They brought them round to the houses, rang at the door, and asked for money for them ; as the girls did with dolls on the ist of May. One party, I remember, carried not an effigy, but a living man with his face blacked. What I noted on the south-east coast in 1894 will be found in Folklore, v., 38. A quo)idam " Bonfire Boy " of Hastings now tells me that the rhyme they sang at and about that date was as follows :
Remember, remember, the fifth of November,
Gunpowder treason and plot ; I see no reason why Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot. A stick and a stake For King George's sake,
Holla, boys ! holla, boys ! make the town ring ! Holla, boys ! holla, boys ! God save the King I Hip, hip, hooray !
They carried effigies and burnt them afterwards.
At Eastbourne, as he tells me from local knowledge, the festival is postponed till the 9th November (" Lord Mayor's Day "). The rhyme is practically the same as that I learnt at Ilfracombe ; but in Kensington, in 1901, I heard and saw boys carrying a "Guy" and singing the following debased formula :
Please to remember The fifth of November
Should never be forgot. Guy, Guy, Guy ! Hit 'im in the eye ! Stick 'im up the chimney-pots and there let 'im lie !
Others will no doubt be able to give further evidence of the local distribution of the effigy-burning. Guy Fawkes doubtless " took over " a pre-existent custom, but what ? And how is he related to the torchlight processions of some of our Northern fishermen ?
C. S. BURNE.
