Old Cumbria Gazetteer - Grasmere: Rushbearing 1780s


included in:-	St Oswald, Grasmere
	Grasmere: Rushbearing 1780s
locality:-	Grasmere
civil parish:-	Lakes (formerly Westmorland)
county:-	Cumbria
locality type:-	rushbearing
coordinates:-	NY336075
1Km square:-	NY3307
10Km square:-	NY30

evidence:-	old text:- Clarke 1787 item:- rushbearing
source data:-	Guide book, A Survey of the Lakes of Cumberland, Westmorland, and Lancashire, written and published by James Clarke, Penrith, Cumberland, and in London etc, 1787; published 1787-93. goto source Page 124:- "..." "I happened once to be here at what they call a Rush-bearing. This is an ancient annual custom, formerly pretty universal here, but now generally disused, and consisted of the following rural procession. About the latter end of September, a number of young women and girls (generally the whole parish,) go together, to the tops of the hills, to gather rushes; these they carry to the church, headed by one of the smartest girls in the company." "She who leads the procession is stiled the Queen, and carries in her hand a large garland, and the rest usually have nosegays. The Queen then goes and places her garland upon the pulpit, where it remains till after the next Sunday; the rest then strew their rushes upon the bottom of the pews, and at the church-door they are met by a fiddler, who plays before them to the public house, where the evening is spent in all kinds of rustic merriment. The origin of this custom seems to be to guard the people from suffering from the damp and cold of the church, which is neither flagged nor boarded." "I now come to a story which of all others I wish to conceal; yet it must be told, - must be read, - and (by Cumbrians at least) not only read but understood. Yet, after all this, it is no more than a pun, or rather three puns in one, - harmless, - inoffensive. Yet I would advise those readers who cannot relish a joke of every colour, forthwith to take a pair of compasses, and by their help cut out a paper, or papers, 7¼inches long, and 4 inches broad, viz. the exact dimensions of the ensuing paragraph, which I measured for that purpose; lay their paper over it, and then proceed with the book as if no such paragraph had ever been written, - verbum sapienti." "At one of those rushbearings her Majesty was attended to her own habitation by one of those blades who are called, (I know not why,) fine gentlemen. - (Here I drop a curtain for some months over my story, as I could say nothing consistent with historic modesty of what passed in the interim.) - Some time, however, (within nine months,) her majesty's waste underwent a visible alteration, and as the crime of manufacturing, (I mean without a licence,) an human creature was held almost equal to the demolishing of one, she was hurried before a neighbouring magistrate. The justice, when he had heard the information, put on his spectacles, (whether for inspection or not is a question which perhaps none but his Worship could answer:) "Well, wench," says he, elevating his eye-brows, and throwing himself back in his judicial chair, - "Well, wench, where were you got with child?" "At the Nick, Sur," replied the unfortunate fair one, with a low curtesy. The justice first surveyed the girl attentively, - then looked up, - then down, - then at the constable, - then at the delinquent again. "Nick!" - says he to himself, - "Nick! why I believe that is always the case." - "What do you say, hussy? - Where is that?" " Between the wike and the tail-end, Sur." - Gentle reader, make no comments on this story till thou hast looked at the ninth plate."

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