AY: _Pastorals._

Though Hallowe'en is decidedly a country festival, in the
seventeenth century young gentlemen in London chose a Master of the
Revels, and held masques and dances with their friends on this
night.

In central and southern England the ecclesiastical side of
Hallowtide is stressed.

Bread or cake has till recently (1898) been as much a part of
Hallowe'en preparations as plum pudding at Christmas. Probably this
originated from an autumn baking of bread from the new grain. In
Yorkshire each person gets a triangular seed-cake, and the evening
is called "cake night."

"Wife, some time this weeke, if the wether hold cleere,
An end of wheat-sowing we make for this yeare.
Remember you, therefore, though I do it not,
The seed-cake, the Pasties, and Furmentie-pot."

TUSSER: _Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry_, 1580.

Cakes appear also at the vigil of All Souls', the next day. At a
gathering they lie in a heap for the guests to take. In return they
are supposed to say prayers for the dead.

"A Soule-cake, a Soule-cake; have mercy on
all Christen souls for a Soule-cake."

_Old Saying._

The poor in Staffordshire and Shropshire went about singing for
soul-cakes or money, promising to pray and to spend the alms in
masses for the dead. The cakes were called Soul-mass or "somas"
cakes.

"Soul! Soul! for a soul-cake;
Pray, good mistress, for a soul-cake.
One for Peter, two for Paul,
Three for them who made us all."

_Notes and Queries._

In Dorsetshire Hallowe'en was celebrated by the ringing of bells in
memory of the dead. King Henry VIII and later Queen Elizabeth
issued commands against this practice.

In Lancashire in the early nineteenth century people used to go
about begging for candles to drive away the gatherings of witches.
If the lights were kept burning till midnight, no evil influence
could remain near.

In Derbyshire, central England, torches of straw were carried about
the stacks on All Souls' Eve, not to drive away evil spirits, as in
Scotland, but to light souls through Purgatory.

Like the Bretons, the English have the superstition that the dead
return on Hallowe'en.

"'Why do you wait at your door, woman,
Alone in the night?'
'I am waiting for one who will come, stranger,
To show him a light.
He will see me afar on the road,