2-979-787 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"Clemening" in Staffordshire, 1857. 'Old customs still work in many of our country parishes; and, ere they succumb to the progress of civilisation, it becomes the duty of the journalist to take note of them. We are this day enabled to illustrate one curious custom - that of "Clemening" which is still observed in many villages of Worcessterhire and Staffordshire...St. Clement's-day falls on the 23rd of November...The children go the round of the parish begging apples, but open to receive anything else, and singing a doggerel form of words...Our Illustration is from a Sketch by Cuthbert Bede, taken on St. Clement's-day last. The farmhouse to which the children have come "Clemening" is the Mere, in the parish of Enville, a remarkably fine and well preserved specimen of Elizabethan architecture. It is built of red brick, with stone dressings, and is on the estate of the Earl of Stamford and Warrington'. From "Illustrated London News", 1857.