ming from distant villages to take part.

At the time of the outcry against the custom it is interesting to find
one, William Denis of Pickering, writing to a friend and stating that
"this racing for the bride's garter and the taking of the same from the
leg of the bride, is one of the properest public functions we have so far
as modesty is concerned."

Elaborately worked garters were worn "by any lass who would be happy in
her love." The one illustrated here is drawn from a sketch given by
Calvert. It bears the date 1749 and the two spaces were for the initials
of the lovers.

A Pickering man named Tom Reid who was living in 1800 but was an old man
then, was in his day a noted runner and won many races. He must have owned
several of these garters which are now so difficult to find. It is said
that one of the vicars of Pickering did much to put an end to the belief
in the powers of the garters as charms, collecting them whenever he had an
opportunity. He also put his foot down on every form of superstition,
forbidding the old folk to tell their stories.

The village maidens considered it a most binding vow to remain true to
their sweethearts if they washed their garters in St Cedd's Well at
Lastingham on the eve of St Agnes. Other practices performed at the same
spot are, like the spectre of Sarkless Kitty, better forgotten.

There can be little doubt that the death blow to this mass of ignorant
superstition came with the religious revival brought about by the
Methodists. Despite the hostile reception they had in many places the
example of their Christian behaviour made itself felt, and as the years
went by parents became sufficiently ashamed of their old beliefs to give
up telling them to their children. This change took place between about
1800 and 1840, but the influences that lay behind it date from the days of
John Wesley.

The sports common in the early part of last century include:--

Fox-hunting.
Badger-drawing.
Duck hunting with dogs and sometimes duck and owl diving.
Cock-fighting.
Cock-throwing at Eastertide.
Bull baiting and sometimes ass baiting.
Squirrel-hunting.
Rat-worrying.

"To make it quite sure to you howe greatly cocking was in voge seventy
years agone," says Calvert, "I have heard my own grandfather tell how he
and others did match their cocks and fight em for secret sake in the crypt
of Lastingham Church."

The entrance to the crypt was not at that time in the centre of the nave,
an