men came and asked him to prescribe for a friend of theirs. Heconsented, but they saw him take the stone and look into it, and went away and told others. The doctors and the Government heard about it, and the man was imprisoned for two years. Sir J. Thurston was Governor at the time, and the teacher who told us the story thought that he had secured the stone.
Scraps of English Folklore, VII.
Cambridgeshire.
Plough Monday.—On the first Monday in Epiphany the men and boys went through Ickleton after dark cracking whips and dragging a huge log of wood or old wooden plough. They rang door bells, and asked for something for Plough Monday, It was said that, if people refused to give them anything, they attempted to plough up the doorstep or scraper with the improvised log plough. After the custom of dragging the log died out some years ago in the neighbourhood of Ickleton and Duxford, the men simply came round and said they were Mr. So and So's ploughmen, and v/ould thank you for a trifle for Plough Monday. The boys used also to come round, and I remember my father once saying,—"But you are not ploughmen," whereupon the prompt answer was,—"No, but we be harrer (harrow) boys."
Valentine's Day.—The children go round the village in couples,, or three or four together, and sing: —
"Good morning, Valentine,
Curl your locks as I do mine,
Two before and three behind,
So good morning, Valentine."[1]
Of course pennies or cakes or oranges are expected.
Shrove Tuesday.—The school children are allowed to play in vicarage meadow,—which adjoins garden at Duxford and is quite in the middle of the village,—and for this purpose they are allowed a special half-holiday from school. This meadow
- ↑ Brand, Observations on the Popular Antiquities etc. (1853), vol. i., p. 62; N. & Q., 6th S., vol. iii. (1881), pp. 150, 335.
