Rustic Speech and Folk-Lore

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By Elizabeth Mary Wright

Conversion of St. Paul, a day observed as a miners’ holiday. A water-pitcher is set up and pelted with stones till it is broken to pieces. A new one is then bought and carried to a public-house by the stone-throwing miners, to be filled and refilled with beer till the whole company is drunk. On the other hand, some people say the name Paul Pitcher’s Day originates with the custom of throwing broken pitchers against doors of dwelling-houses. Parties of lads used to go round to the different houses, shouting as they threw the sherd: Paul’s Eve, and here’s a heave. A mischievous game similar to certain Shrove Tuesday pastimes.

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