Celebrations for the Earl of Rone now take place over the Whitsun holiday, or Spring Holiday, as it has become otherwise known and attracts visitors from all over the world to Combe Martin.

Hunting The Earl of Rone
According to history, the rebel Earl of Tyrone, Hugh O'Neill, fled England in 1607 and died peacefully in Rome in 1616. He never went anywhere near Devon. But according to legend O'Neill was shipwrecked off Ilfracombe on his way to the continent. He managed to make it ashore, and went to ground in Lady's Wood near Combe Martin, living on the ships' biscuits which he had salvaged from the wreck. Rumours about the renegade leaked out and O'Neill was tracked down and captured by a contingent of grenadiers.

This fable forms the basis of the Ascension Day custom of Hunting the Earl of Rone at Combe Martin. A group of men dressed as grenadiers, with beribboned hats and masks, marched to Lady's Wood, followed by a crowd of spectators. There they searched high and low for the errant Earl before finding him in hiding – conveniently for the spectators. O'Neill, aka Rone, is represented by a man with a straw-stuffed jacket and a necklace of 12 ships' biscuits. With him in the wood were his faithful friends: the Fool, and The Mapper - a fast-moving, jaw-snapping Hobby Horse. Once the Earl had been discovered, the grenadiers sat him back-to-front on a donkey, which also sported a string of sea-biscuits as a fashion accessory. The procession then heads for the sea. Every now and then the Grenadiers fire their guns, and the Earl is 'killed' until the Fool and Mapper revived him. Money is coaxed from the crowd along the way: non-payment might incur an on-the-spot fine, threat of a dousing with dirty water, or a savaging by the Mapper. Pubs are visited along the way; and in 1837 pub number three proved the downfall for one reveller. He fell down the step and broke his neck. Not even the Fool and Mapper could cure a genuine death. It was this tragic accident that gave the custom's opponents the excuse they had been looking for in order to kill off this unique blurring of mock-hunt, mumming play, and apocryphal local legend.

That politically correctly named 'Spring Holiday' now manages to be celebrated just a few short weeks from Midsummer and illustrates to how people have diverged from the natural wisdom of their ancestors in recognising the seasons.

Midsummer Day is the Feast of the Nativity of St John the Baptist, that great saint who was the herald of Our Lord, and whose festival, unlike those of other saints, commemorates his birth rather than his death and entry into Paradise. It falls only three days after the Summer Solstice the day on which the sun reaches its highest glory, and thereafter begins to decline, and in the liturgical calendar, it is equated with it.

Midsummer Day- custom; to dress out stools with a cushion of flowers.

A layer of clay is placed on the stool and therein is stuck with great regularity an arrangement of all kinds of flowers so close as to form a beautiful cushion. These are exhibited at the doors of houses in the villages, and at the ends of streets and cross-lanes of larger towns. Attendants beg money from passers-by to enable them have an evening feast and dancing. This custom is derived from the Ludi Compitalii of the Romans; the word was taken from the Compita or cross lanes, where the custom was celebrated by the multitude assembled before the building of Rome. It was the Feast of the Lares or Household Gods, who also presided over houses as streets. This mode of adorning the seat or couch of the Lare was beautiful, and the idea of reposing, them on aromatic flowers, and beds of roses, was excellent. seeking to gain money for a merry night is a ‘modern’ addition to these old customs.

Gifts; According to the Roman Calendar – Midsummer Eve was a time for the sharing/giving of spices, garlands, taken to friends in processions, feasting and dancing and gathering in fern, probably for the seeds.

Garland hoops; made, and rolled down from hill tops = the sun (circular) about to diminish in strength – a reminder of times when wheels bound with straw and tow were set alight, and rolled down steep hillsides into the valley below.

Midsummer Eve

Passing Spirits

Any person fasting on Midsummer 'Eve, and sitting in the church porch will, at midnight, see the spirits of the persons of that parish who will die that year, come and knock at the church door, in the order and succession in which they will die. This superstition was more generally practiced, and, still is in many parts, on the Eve of St. Mark., 24th April.

One midsummer eve, a group of watchers set out to disprove the tradition; One of these watchers fell into a sound sleep so that he could not be waked. Whilst he was asleep his spirit was the first one seen by the rest of the companions, knocking at the church door. They ran off. Leaving the sleeping man, who didn’t wake until dawn. Cold and uncomfortable, he went home. He died just over seven months later.

Another report was made by a lady whose sister died one Christmas who swore that she had been told by her sister that the woman had watched at the church porch on Midsummer’s Eve that year, to see who was going to die in the parish, and had seen her own apparition.

Marriage

An unmarried woman should fast on Midsummer Eve and, at midnight, lay a clean cloth on the table, with bread cheese, ale, and glasses and sit down as if about to eat. If she leaves the street door open, the person whom she will later marry will appear to come into the room, acknowledge her by bowing, and after filling a glass with ale, will leave the drink un tasted, and depart after bowing again.

Midsummer Eve Fires

Midsummer ; anciently, was a fire-festival of great importance when, through countless centuries, the sun was ritually strengthened by bonfires burning everywhere on Midsummer Eve, by torchlight processions, through the streets, by flaming tar-barrels, and in some districts, by wheels bound with straw and tow, set alight, and rolled down steep hillsides into the valley below. All this was said in the Middle Ages to be done in honour of St John, but in fact, the fire ceremonies were much older than this. In pre-Christian times, they were lit to give magical aid to the sun who now, in the full tide of summer, began to wane, they were also lit, then as later, to drive out evil, and to bring fertility and prosperity to men, crops, and herds.

Vergil suggests – Our midsummer fires seem to have come from the sacrifices of Ceres, the Goddess of Corn that men did solemnise with fires, trusting that they would receive a bountiful crop.

The custom leaping over or through the fires is a vestige of the ordeal where the ability to pass through fire unharmed was proof of innocence, or virginity. The elderly of both sexes used to jump through the fires so both innocence and virginity must have been recognised.

Three kinds of fire kindled;

One with wood and bones, the St John’s fire – to honour the martyr, body burned – ashes scattered to the wind so that he would not rise on the day of salvation.

One with clean wood and no bones, the wodefire – to sit by and to be seen from a distance = beacons;

One with, predominantly, only bones – the bonefire – to guard against the dragons, that feared the smell of burning bones.

In many areas on St John's Eve, bonfires were lit on the windward side of fields so that the life-giving smoke might blow over the crops, and blazing gorse or furze was carried round the cattle in the fold to protect them from disease or misfortunes. People danced round the fires on the hills, or the village greens; young men leapt through the flames as a purifying and strengthening rite, and cattle were driven over the dying embers to pre- serve them from the murrain.

© Roy & Ursula Radford