Nottinghamshire Guardian (1909a)


Main Variant

Transcription

PLOUGH MONDAY.

The Folk Lore Journal for June. 1893, con-
tains a paper hy Mr. T. Fairman Ordish on "Eng-
lish Folk Drama." On the occasion of a corres-
ponding meeting of the F. L. Society, a version of
the Plough Monday play was exhibited for inspec-
tion, as well as the very interesting dress worn by
the actors of this version, as repeeted;y witnessed by
Mrs. Chaworth Musters at her residence, Wiverton
Hall, near Bingham. In the course of an accom-
panying letter, this lady wrote to Mr. Ordish:-
"I hope that if all is well another year, I may
have the pleasure of seeings some members of the
Folk Lore Socicty here for P1ough Monday, and
I hope the play will not die out in this Neighbour-
hood for long, as the actors this time were all
youths who had learned their parts by word of
mouth. I had some difficulty in getting a copy
of the words a few years ago, as it seems never to
have been written down, but I did get it, very ill-
spelt and difficult to make out, except that I heard
it several times; and I had it printed in the ap-
pendix of a Notts. story I wrote, so that it might
be preserved. The same version seems to be known
in Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, and Norampton-
shire. I wish I could have got a photograph of
the performers, but they could only come in the
evening, being farm labourers . . . .. Little boys
with ribbons on came round begging in all the
villages in the Vale of Belvoir here, on Plough
Monday, but no women or girls ever seem to take
part in it".