arrived at man's
estate, would be beardless.

E.H.A.

_Rushbearing_ (Vol. i., p 259.).--Wednesday, July 21, 1847, Grasmere
Church was decorated with ribbons, which had some reference to the
rushbearing which had taken place on the preceding Sunday.

It takes place at Ambleside one Sunday later.

_Extract from Black's "Guide to the Lakes," p. 43._

"An interesting ceremony takes place at Ambleside once every
year, which the stranger may think himself fortunate in seeing,
not so much for the mere sight itself, though that is pretty
enough, as for its being the vestige of a very ancient
observance. The ceremony alluded to is called Rushbearing. On
the eve of the last Sunday in July, the village girls walk in
procession to the chapel bearing garlands of flowers (formerly
rushes), which are there tastefully disposed. After service, the
day following, these are removed, and it is usual that a sermon,
in allusion to the event, be preached. This observance is
probably as remote as the age of Gregory IV., who is known to
have recommended to the early disseminators of Christianity in
this country, that on the anniversary of the dedication of
churches wrested from the Pagans, the converts should build
themselves huts of the boughs of trees about their churches, and
celebrate the solemnities with religious feasting. In former
times, the rushes were spread upon the floor of the sacred
edifice, and the garlands remained until withered. Possibly the
practice of covering the floors of buildings with rushes by way
of protection against the damp earth, may have had something to
do with keeping the custom in existence, long after the origin
of the institution had been forgotten. The ceremony of
Rushbearing has now fallen into complete disuse, except in a few
secluded hamlets in Westmoreland, and in one or two other places
in the kingdom; nor can that disuse be much regretted, since
what was founded as a religious act, every where degenerated
into an occasion for unseemly revelry, in fact, into a sort of
rustic saturnalia. And yet, when we look at this remain of the
olden time, as observed at Ambleside, we are tempted to say with
the poet,--

"'Many precious rites
And customs of our rural ancestry
Are gone or stealing from us: _this_, I hope
Will last for ever.'"

*