The Long Stratton wheels, on the other hand,
have a pin passing through the centre which holds them together, and
around which they revolve, each of them independently. To the same pin
is attached the forked end of a long pendent handle, which was held by
the sexton. Each wheel is pierced with three holes through which strings
were passed, the total number coinciding with that of the six feasts
sacred to Mary, or possibly to the six days of the week excluding
Sunday, which did not rank as a fast day.
The instrument was worked in the following manner. Should a devout
person desire to keep a Lady Fast, he or she repaired to the church to
determine by the aid of the wheel which of the days or anniversaries
should be observed. Thereupon the sexton took the wheel, which he either
hung up or held at arm's length by means of a ring at the termination of
the handle. He then set the wheel in motion, and the votary, standing
by, caught at the strings as they spun round. Whichever string was
caught decided the question on what day the fast was to be begun,
whether on the feast of the Annunciation or that of the Assumption, or
any other of the six feasts, or days of the week, of which the several
strings were emblematical. The feast of the Assumption was known as Lady
Day in Harvest, being observed on the fifteenth of August.
The compromise, which we style the Reformation, at first inclined to the
retention of the Saturday fast; and, indeed, the legislature interfered
to enforce its more regular observance.
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