Abstract
Regional differences remain one of the unsolved mysteries of popular culture.1 Why do we find one cultural form — a shaming ritual, perhaps, or a popular sport — in one region, another in another? In early modern England there were many locally specific customs which were maintained by people of all ages. Keith Thomas has pointed out that in some areas schools had annual rituals which are rarely found elsewhere. In one such custom the boys once a year ‘barred out’ the masters and took over their school for the day. This custom was confined to northern England, and rarely occurred in the South. Why was this? Thomas has to confess that he is baffled, and falls back on the consoling reflection that the problem has defeated folklorists and anthropologists just as much as it has historians.2
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Bibliography
Popular Culture: General
John Aubrey, Three Prose Works, ed. John Buchanan-Brown (Fontwell: Centaur Press, 1972). Although chaotically arranged, Aubrey’s works contain much interesting information about popular customs.
Peter Burke, Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe (London: Temple Smith, 1978).
Edwin O. James, Seasonal Feasts and Festivals (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1961).
Barry Reay (ed.), Popular Culture in Seventeenth-Century England (London: Groom Helm, 1985).
Bob Scribner, ‘Is a History of Popular Culture Possible?’ History of European Ideas, x (1989), pp. 173–91.
David Underdown, ‘The Taming of the Scold: The Enforcement of Patriarchal Authority in Early Modern England’, in Anthony Fletcher and John Stevenson (eds), Order and Disorder in Early Modern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), pp. 116–36.
Regionalism and Culture
Richard Carew, Carew’s Survey of Cornwall (London: T. Bensley, 1811). One of the best of the early antiquarian studies of individual counties; contains a famous description of hurling.
Alan Everitt, Continuity and Colonization: The Evolution of Kentish Settlement (Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1986).
John Morrill, ‘The Ecology of Allegiance in the English Revolution’, Journal of British Studies, XXVI (1987), pp. 451–67. A sceptical view of the argument for regional culture. See also Underdown’s ‘Reply to John Morrill’ ibid., pp. 468–79.
Enid Porter, Cambridgeshire Customs and Folklore (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1969). One of many county folklore studies.
A. L. Rowse, Tudor Cornwall: Portrait of a Society (London: Jonathan Cape, 1941). A valuable supplement to Carew (above).
E. P. Thompson, Whigs and Hunters: The Origin of the Black Act (New York: Pantheon Books, 1975). A fine study of popular protest in the forests of southeastern England in the early eighteenth century.
David Underdown, Fire from Heaven: Life in an English Town in the Seventeenth Century (London: HarperCollins, 1992). Illustrates urban-rural tensions.
David Underdown, Revel, Riot and Rebellion: Popular Politics and Culture in England 1603–1660 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985).
Sport: General
Dennis Brailsford, Sport and Society: Elizabeth to Anne (London: Routledge, 1969).
Christina Hole, English Sports and Pastimes (London: B. T. Batsford, 1949).
Robert W. Malcolmson, Popular Recreations in English Society 1700–1850 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1973).
Cricket
Rowland Bowen, Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development throughout the World (London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1970). Perhaps the most complete history of the game, but contains some dubious speculations about its origins.
Christopher Brookes, English Cricket: The Game and its Players through the Ages (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1978). Contains the best social history of the game before 1800.
John Nyren, The Young Cricketer’s Tutor, ed. F. S. Ashley-Cooper (London: Gay & Bird, 1902). The classic description of the great Hambledon club of the 1770s. Selections often reprinted in cricket anthologies.
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© 1995 David Underdown
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Underdown, D. (1995). Regional Cultures? Local Variations in Popular Culture during the Early Modern Period. In: Harris, T. (eds) Popular Culture in England, c. 1500–1850. Themes in Focus. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-23971-9_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-23971-9_2
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