as they call him, some emblem of the trade of
the couple last married in the old year. If
they were spinners, it would be three
"cobbs," or bits of paper in the shape of
them; if they were cotton-masters, it would
be the same thing only smaller; or an awl
for a shoemaker. Respectable parties usually
pay well to be let alone, and now the police
walk in the procession, or else the people
used to throw sludge and dirt at anybody who
would not give them money; but they dare
not now. The whole thing has quite fallen
away from what it was."

I received another version of the " Black
Lad " from a young woman, who told me:
"That formerly he was a sort of hermit
gentleman, who lived up at the Hall and
who used to go about clothed in black velvet,
and had a passage under ground leading from
the Hall."

"Was he a good man?" I inquired.

"Oh dear no, ma'am, quite the contrary;
he was a murderous kind of man who did
great harm to poor people. He was killed,
they say, by a woman, and left word to have
the procession every year in memory of
him."

"And what becomes of the figure when the
procession is over? " I asked.

"Why generally the people take off the
best of its clothes and set it up in the market
place, and shoot or make away with it by
burning." She, also, spoke with regret of
the " black velvet," and lamented that it
was now replaced by nothing better than
"sacking."

All I heard gave me a great desire to
assist at the ceremony of " Riding the Black
Lad." My ideas of what was to be expected
were heightened by rumours that the figure
of the Black Lad was actually " on view;
and that policemen had to guard the doors to
keep the peace.

Easter Monday came at last—a lovely day
of real old-fashioned Easter weather. The
whole town was in a state of lively agitation,
and was crowded with country people from
many miles round.

At half-past two in the afternoon, the
procession started from the market-place. It
consisted first of the effigy of the Knight of
Ashton; but it was not either black velvet
nor black sackcloth—indeed it was not black
at all—but the figure of quite a flesh coloured
young man, looking like one of those wax
ideals in hair-dressers' windows, attired in
steel breastplate, plumed helmet, and a flowing
mantle of black velvet. Two men walked
beside the figure, and held it on the back of
a sedate black cart-horse. A band of music
came next; and around and on all sides in no
particular order, was a mob of several
hundred persons who manifested the greatest
delight. Everybody who was not in the
streets turned out upon their door steps or
appeared at their windows to see the Black
Lad, as he passed along.

I must confess to a certain disappointment
at seeing such a modernised version of an
old custom; but a woman who canvassed
my admiration, assured me " that it was the
handsomest Black Lad she had ever seen,
and she had seen a score in that market-
place."

The origin of this ceremony has been the
subject of many disputes and conjectures;
but the following is, I believe, an account of
the true origin, and is supported by Dr.
Hibbert:—

Sir John de Assheton was the head of the
Assheton family, living in the old hall, and
possessing the Manor of Ashton, in the reign
of Henry the Fourth by whom he was
knighted. He died in the reign of Henry
the Sixth, leaving a numerous family. He
bequeathed to his two sons by a second
marriage, Rauf and Robin, amongst other
possessions, a large portion of low wet land in
the neighbourhood of Ashton, called the "sour
carr," the "guld-rode," and " stane ryuges,"
for the term of their natural lives, with the
privilege of "guld-riding."

"Sour carr," signifies poor impoverished
land, and the " privilege of guld-riding" is a
custom of great antiquity, at least in Scotland,
where it existed as early as the days of
King Kenneth. It was intended to prevent
lands from being overrun with the weeds
called gools, or gulds—what we now name
corn marigolds, from their bright yellow
colour—and which were reckoned so destructive
to the growth of corn, that very effectual
methods had to be adopted to force the
tenants to extirpate them. A fine was
imposed on all persons holding land for every
stock of gool found growing in their fields on
a certain day; and the gool-riders were those
appointed to ride through the lands and to
search for gool and carry the law into execution.
It is evident that a wide scope for
tyranny was thus enjoyed by these
gool-riders. The effects of the law were, however,
salutary enough, so far as the land was
concerned; and the lords of the manor took care
to keep up the practice rigidly, wherever such
a regulation existed.

Rauf of Assheton was page to Henry the
Sixth, and married a rich heiress, daughter
to the Lord of the Manor of Middleton;
consequently the people of Ashton did not
consider that he had any right to rule over or
interfere with them—his elder brother being
their natural lord. But Rauf of Assheton was
a stern man, who pushed his fortune and
allowed none of his rights to fall into disuse.
He was in great favour with Edward the
Fourth, from whom he received knighthood,
and who also made him Lieutenant of the
Tower, and Vice-constable of the kingdom.
Invested with such powers, he committed
great excesses and oppressions in his own
part of the kingdom. It was for his rigorous
guld-riding, that he was especially
execrated by the inhabitants of Ashton. It was