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Updated: May 10, 2025
"And the good-natured fellow threw himself back in his chair, and fairly drew his hand across his eyes. "You would not have me be made to ride the Skimmington then," said the dame; "or parade me in a cart, with all the brass basins of the ward beating the march to Bridewell before me?" "I would sooner be carted to Tyburn myself," replied the penitent.
"She's me she's me even to the parasol my green parasol!" cried Lucetta with a wild laugh as she stepped in. She stood motionless for one second then fell heavily to the floor. Almost at the instant of her fall the rude music of the skimmington ceased. The roars of sarcastic laughter went off in ripples, and the trampling died out like the rustle of a spent wind.
Such was the state of things when the current affairs of Casterbridge were interrupted by an event of such magnitude that its influence reached to the lowest social stratum there, stirring the depths of its society simultaneously with the preparations for the skimmington.
This was barred, and while the landlady was unfastening it the conversation about the skimmington was continued in the sitting-room, and reached his ears. "What do they mean by a 'skimmity-ride'?" he asked. "O, sir!" said the landlady, swinging her long earrings with deprecating modesty; "'tis a' old foolish thing they do in these parts when a man's wife is well, not too particularly his own.
I was interested to read in Mr. Warde Fowler's Kingham Old and New an account of a peculiar ceremony called "Skimmington," by Mr. Hardy, in his Mayor of Casterbridge which took place in Kingham village. I have known of two similar cases, one in Surrey and one at Aldington, under the name of "rough music."
"Ah here's a respectable man coming that I know by sight. Have you," he inquired, addressing the nearing shape of Jopp, "have you seen any gang of fellows making a devil of a noise skimmington riding, or something of the sort?" "O no nothing, sir," Jopp replied, as if receiving the most singular news. "But I've not been far tonight, so perhaps " "Oh, 'twas here just here," said the magistrate.
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