Lammas Day in England

1914

Lammas, as August 1 is popularly called, was formerly our national festival. It remains an important date, not only in Scotland, where this is a quarter day, but in many parts of rural England, where the pasture of "Lammas lands" belongs after August 1 to all parishioners who draw smoke, not through pipes, but chimneys.

"The word "Lammas" is a corruption of Loaf Mass, so-called because on this day it was once customary to present at church a loaf made from the new corn. Perhaps some relic of this custom still lingers among Sussex farmers, who try to get a loaf baked from the new wheat before the end of Goodwood week.

During the eighteenth century the Dissenters of London kept high festival on Lammas day to commemorate the death of Queen Anne. If she had lived they would have been deprived by the "Schism Bill" of the liberty of educating their own children. — London Chronicle.