Various References and Quotations about Morris Dancers Accompanying Rush Carts: Carrying Rushes to Church; The Morris-Dancers (continued)

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pp.49-51. The author of "Scarsdale" [Sir J.P.Kay-Shuttleworth, 1860] has given a graphic, but rather exagerated account of rush-bearings as they were celebrated fifty years ago.
... About thirty young men, with white shirts down to the waist, profusely adorned with gay ribbons, and with wreaths of flowers on their heads, were Detail from the Bury Cart, 1844 yoked in couples between two strong new ropes ... were engaged in practising some dances.
There was a similar band of young men yoked behind the cart. The young men took partners with
.. The prettiest country girls' for a country dance before the cart set out ...
but no morris is mentioned. Other Rochdale carts came from Hurstwood, Martinmere, Eastleton, Milnrow, Small bridge, Whitworth, Spotland and other villages, so that up to a dozen rush-carts assembled in Rochdale. Then:
... the gala of the rush-bearing was in the delirium of its frenzy, the rush-carts having assembled in the street opposite the Butts, each with its band in front, the order of procession extending over the bridge across the Roche, and a considerable distance up Yorkshire Street. Every band played with stentorian energy, 'Rule Britannia;' the young men drawing every cart vied with each other in the vigour and picturesque character of their dances ...

pp48-53 for scanned images?

There is a similar description for the Bury cart, again without an explicit mention of morris dancers in a "Pictorial History of Lancashire" from 1844, though the cart-pullers look like morris dancers and the belles are attached to the pull bars:
... The cart is drawn by thirty or forty young men, two and two, holding high above their heads poles, which are fastened by ropes on each side to the cart, there being to each pole about half-a-dozen bells. The young men, and in fact all the persons forming the procession, are most gaily dressed, the favourite style being straw hats with light blue ribbons, white shirt sleeves tied with many coloured ribbons, the brightest handkerchiefs possible for sashes (The brilliantly-striped silk scarves known as "Mogadors" were in great demand for this purpose), and ribbons again below the knee. The cart and its drawers are flanked by ten or twelve similarly dressed countrymen, each with a huge new cart whip, which they ply lustily about, and crack loudly in time to the merry tune of the musicians ...

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