Bibliography of Nottinghamshire Folk Plays & Related Customs
M.H.Mason (1902)
Source:
M. H. Mason (Auth.)
NURSERY RHYMES AND Country Songs: BOTH TUNES AND WORDS FROM TRADITION [The Old Horse: Christmas Play from Notts.]
London, Metzler & Co., 1902, pp.49-50

This includes a song headed "The Old Horse: CHRISTMAS PLAY". There are two songs (32 lines) with tunes, and with three and four verses respectively. A footnote reads:- "It is an old Christmas custom in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire to go from house to house with the skull of a horse, painted black and red, and supported on a wooden fore-leg. A man in a stooping posture, and covered with a cloth, represents the body of the horse, and, from the inside, snaps its formidable jaws at the company. The custom also survives in South Wales, but the tune is different. There are many variations in the words. This is a Nottinghamshire version."

Index Terms:
Locations: Notts.; Derbys.; South Wales
Years: Publ. 1902
Subjects: Full Text; Tunes; Dramatised Songs; Christmas; Old Horse
People: Miss E. M. S. Scannell (Illus.)
Archives: Ref.: TD00078; Folk-lore Society Library
Indexed by Peter Millington. Last updated Nov.1987
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