and the burning of "guys" are still kept up merrily, but few know the
origin of the festivities or concern themselves about it. Soul cakes
and souling still linger on in Cheshire, and cattering and clemmening
on the feasts of St. Catherine and St. Clement are still observed in
East Sussex.

Very remarkable are the local customs which linger on in some of our
towns and villages and are not confined to any special day in the
year. Thus, at Abbots Ann, near Andover, the good people hang up
effigies of arms and hands in memory of girls who died unmarried, and
gloves and garlands of roses are sometimes hung for the same purpose.
The Dunmow Flitch is a well-known matrimonial prize for happy couples
who have never quarrelled during the first year of their wedded life;
while a Skimmerton expresses popular indignation against quarrelsome
or licentious husbands and wives.

Many folk-customs linger around wells and springs, the haunts of
nymphs and sylvan deities who must be propitiated by votive offerings
and are revengeful when neglected. Pins, nails, and rags are still
offered, and the custom of "well-dressing," shorn of its pagan
associations and adapted to Christian usage, exists in all its glory
at Tissington, Youlgrave, Derby, and several other places.

The three great events of human life--birth, marriage, and death--have
naturally drawn around them some of the most curious beliefs. These
are too numerous to be recorded here, and I must again refer the
curious reader to my book on old-time customs. We should like to dwell
upon the most remarkable of the customs that prevail in the City of
London, in the halls of the Livery Companies, as well as in some of
the ancient boroughs of England, but this record would require too