It is now generally known but as an unmeaning pageant still
practised in the northern and eastern parts of Lancashire, for the
purpose of levying contributions on the inhabitants. An immense banner,
of silk adorned with tinsel and gay devices, precedes the rush-cart,
wherein the rushes, neatly woven and smooth cut, are piled up and
decorated with flowers and ribands, in rustic taste. The cart, thus
laden, is drawn round to the dwellings of the principal inhabitants, by
morris-dancers, who perform an uncouth dance, attended by a man in
motley attire, a sort of nondescript, made up of the ancient fool and
Maid Marian. This personage jingles a horse-collar hung with bells,
which forms not an unsuitable accompaniment to the ceremony.
[35] See Note at the end.
[36] This person is supposed to be the writer of a curious satire (Harl.
MSS. 5191), called a Description of Scotland. Welden's name is not
attached to it in the MS., but it is duly ascribed to him by Sir Walter
Scott, in his description of Holyrood Chapel, in the _Antiquities of
Scotland_. Sir Anthony Weldon accompanied the king into Scotland; but
that he returned with him is not so certain, one of his letters saying
he should return by sea.
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