John Galt's edition of Graydon's Memoirs 1822

John Galt edited Alexander Graydon’s Memoirs of a Life Chiefly Passed in Pennsylvania Within the Last Sixty Years.  which was published in January 1822 in Edinburgh by William Blackwood.  It had first been published in America and was a memoir by Alexander Graydon (1752-1818), an American writer who had fought against Britain during the American Revolution.  Graydon wrote mostly about his life and experiences, and his work was published in many journals of the time.

Galt’s edition received a very unfavourable review by the Quarterly Review (also known as the London Quarterly Review) which had previously given extremely negative comments of John Galt’s own work.  John Wilson Croker (1780-1857), at one time editor of the Quarterly Review was particularly known for slating Galt and his writing.  The review for the Memoirs reads - 

“He [Galt] now appears as the editor and eulogist of these Memoirs, which – not withstanding his high and solemn praise, both of their matter and manner – we venture to pronounce to be in matter almost worthless, and in manner wholly contemptible.  We scarcely remember to have met with an emptier pretender to literature, or a grosser apostate in politics.”

The writer goes on –

“We can honestly assure Mr Galt – without overrating his talents and taste in the least – that he is himself capable of adding a thousand times more lustre to the English language than the author of such an absurd farrago as he has here thought proper to reprint.”

Galt had a keen interest in America.  During the time he worked both in Greenock Custom House and for local firms Miller & Co and Robert Ewing, he would have been aware of how the relationship between the two countries could affect trade.  In 1820 he worked for claimants seeking compensation for losses they had sustained during the British/American War of 1812-1815.  He dedicated his edition of Graydon’s book to Richard Rush (1780-1859) who was the American Ambassador to Britain from 1818 to 1825.

Richard Rush - American Ambassador in Britain

In his dedication, Galt writes – 

“It is remarkable that a production so rich in the various excellencies of style, description, and impartiality, should not have been known to the collectors of American books in this country, especially as it is perhaps the best personal narrative which has yet appeared relative to the history of that great conflict which terminated in establishing the independence of the United States.”

John Galt's home in Greenock

The Galt family home in Greenock was at the corner of West Blackhall Street and Westburn Street.  It was here that John Galt died on this day in 1839.  A plaque on the building which now stands on the site reads –  “Here John Galt dwelt at his death 11 April 1839.”

The Galt family home at the corner of West Blackhall Street and Westburn Street

The original house was built by Galt’s father when he moved his family from Irvine to Greenock in 1789.  Galt’s father was a shipmaster and sailed from Greenock to the West Indies.  Captain Galt and his wife Agnes Thomson had four children – John was the eldest born in 1779, Agnes born in 1781, James born in 1783 and Thomas born in 1785.  The house had a garden which the young John enjoyed –

“Attached was a garden, in the decorations of which my taste for flowers suffered no interruption. For several years it afforded me agreeable employment, and I still recollect with pleasure the aspect of the borders when the sun was shining and the air clear.”

 

In later years, after the death of her parents, the house was occupied by John’s younger sister, Agnes who had married Robert Andrew Macfie. 

Galt and his wife, Elizabeth returned to Greenock in 1834 because they could no longer afford to stay in London and his sister had offered to share her home.  He had suffered from several strokes and was in very bad health.  By this time, the area around the house had become much busier.  Galt, in a letter to William Blackwood’s sons, Alexander and Robert, dated 15 August 1834 writes – 

“I find this house now so surrounded with others that I am going for privacy while the fine weather lasts to Gourock.”  

Gourock was, and still is, a lovely seaside town and many in Galt’s day visited “for their health”.  Unfortunately a short stay there did not improve Galt’s condition and he returned to Greenock. 

Increasingly unwell, Galt continued to produce work for various publications.  When he was unable to hold a pen, he employed someone to write to his dictation.  He also kept up his correspondence with friends and family. 

Plaque at the entrance to Inverkip Street cemetery

John Galt died in his family home in Greenock and was buried in Inverkip Street burying ground beside his parents and other members of his family.

Galt in The Lady's Magazine

The Lady’s Magazine or to give it its full name - Ladies’ Magazine and Museum of the Belles Lettres, Fine Arts, Music, Drama, Fashions etc - was published during the 1830s and contained articles on a variety of subjects as well as poetry and pictures of the latest fashions.  John Galt had several articles published in various volumes of the magazine. 

Fashion plate from Lady's Magazine 1833

The June 1833 edition contained a short story by John Galt called The Midgard, or the Sea-Serpent.  Midgard was the name of a huge sea serpent in Norse mythology.  An advertisement for the publication describing some of the other articles in the issue states – 

“Galt’s amusing fragment … ought to put us in good temper with all the others".

It is the story of a whaling ship’s encounters in Arctic waters with a sea-serpent or Midgard."  In true Galt fashion, we get a very down-to-earth and amusing description of the beast, given by Galt's narrator, Captain Lampet –

“When the weather cleared up we beheld ahead of us something that reminded me of Waterloo bridge as seen from Westminster, only much longer, and black, crossing the sea.  Not a man of board could make out what it was but being only south fifteen miles of the Pole we were prepared for wonders.  Still the sight was inexplicable; all around the sea was calm, and nothing could be seen but this black, up-and-down, zig-zag phenomenon on the water.”

Waterloo Bridge, London

The rest of the story includes sailing through an arch made by the serpent's body and finding the North Pole.  An interesting read!

During the 1820s and 30s there was a lot of interest in Arctic exploration due to Scottish naval officer Sir John Ross (1777-1856) and his various expeditions in the area which were widely reported in the press of the day.

Jams, jellies and marmlet

With the current controversy about marmalade it is interesting to note that John Galt wrote about "marmlet", the old Scottish word for marmalade in the Ayrshire Legatees which was published in 1821.  His wonderful character, Mrs Pringle, wife of the Rev Dr Zachariah Pringle of Garnock, packed some to take with her on a trip to London.  It was then considered a delicacy.  In Chapter 3, Letter 6,  Mrs Pringle writes from London to her friend Miss Mally Glencairn back in Garnock.  She tells her friend about the supplies she packed before leaving Garnock which she thought would be necessary in London including some muslin because she had heard that London shops –

“get all their fine muslins from Glasgow and Paisley; and in the same bocks [box] with them I packit a small crock of our ain excellent poudered butter, with a delap cheese, for I was told that such commodities are not to be had genuine in London. I likewise had in it a pot of marmlet [marmalade], which Miss Jenny Macbride gave me at Glasgow, assuring me that it was not only dentice [a delicacy], but a curiosity among the English."

18th century recipe for marmalade

Mrs Pringle tends to spell words as she would say them.  However, Mrs Pringle’s careful packing of necessities and delicacies suffered from the journey, as she goes on to describe –

"Howsomever, in the nailing of the bocks, which I did carefully with my oun hands, one of the nails gaed in a-jee, and broke the pot of marmlet, which by the jolting of the ship, ruined the muslin, rottened the peper round the goun, which the shivers cut into more than twenty great holes.  Over and above all, the crock with the butter was, no one can tell how, crackit, and the pickle lecking out and mixing with the seerip of the marmlet, spoilt the cheese.  In short, at the object I beheld when the bocks was opened, I could have ta’en to the greeting; but I behaved with more composity on the occasion than the doctor thought it was in the power of nature to do.”

Galt also refers to the popularity of jams and other preserves in the Annals of the Parish (Chapter 28, Year 1787) when the Rev Michah Balwhidder notes –

“I should not, in my notations, forget to mark a new luxury that got in among the commonality at this time.  By the opening of new roads, and the traffic thereon with carts and carriers, and by our young men that were sailors going to the Clyde and sailing to Jamaica and the West Indies, heaps of sugar and coffee-beans were brought home, while many, among the kail-stocks and cabbages in their yards had planted groset [gooseberry] and berry bushes; which two things happening together, the fashion to make jam and jelly, which hitherto had been only known in the kitchens and confectionaries of the gentry, came to be introduced into the clachan.”

Greenock Harbour

Certainly at that time, Greenock was one of the biggest importer of sugar from the West Indies.  John Galt's father had been the master of a ship trading with Jamaica, so Galt would have been very much aware of the effect such imports had on everyday life.  Along with the regular imports, of course there were other "unregulated" goods, which the Rev Balwhidder goes on to mention -

“All this, however, was not without a plausible pretext; for it was found that jelly was an excellent medicine for a sore throat, and jam a remedy as good as London candy for a cough, or a cold, or a shortness of breath.  I could not, however, say that this gave me so much concern as the smuggling trade, only it occasioned a great fasherie to Mrs Balwhidder; for, in the berry time, there was no end to the borrowing of her brass-pan to make jelly and jam, till Mrs Toddy of the Cross-Keys bought one, which in its turn, came into request, and saved ours.”

One of John Galt's great strengths as a writer is the way he uses ordinary people and households to illustrate the changes that were going on in local society and the wider world.  Marmlet - what a great word!

Galt's books - "the Larger Catechism of the Scottish language"

In John Galt's novel the Annals of the Parish - (p10, Year 1760), Thomas Thorl speaks to the Rev Micha Balwhidder -  

“Come in, sir, and ease yoursel’: this will never do: the clergy are God’s gorbies, and for their Master’s sake it behoves us to respect them.  There was no ane in the whole parish mair against you than mysel’; but this early visitation is a symptom of grace that I couldna have expectit from a bird out of the nest of patronage.”

The language used is everyday speech for Thorl. In the 1895 Blackwoods Edition of the Annals of the Parish, edited by David Storrar Meldrum, the author Samuel Rutherford Crockett (1859-1914) in his introduction, compares Galt's use of language with that of the Bard –

“Practically he [Galt] writes the Scots of Robert Burns.  His vocabulary is not so extensive, his adjectives scantly so trenchant.  He is by no means so “free in his discourse” as the poet.  But they are essentially shoots of the same stem.  They learned, as it were, at one parent’s knee.”

Crockett continues, comparing Galt's use of Scots with that of the Scottish authors Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) and Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) - 

"Galt’s variety of his Scottish tongue is full of fine old grandmotherly words, marrow with pith and sap.  Scott, like Stevenson, wrote his vernacular a little from the heights.  But Galt writes his Scots like one who has been cradled in it, who lisped it in the doorways and cried it to other loons across the street.  He lived among men and women who habitually spoke it.”

Another great example of the speech of Galt's ordinary, everyday folk can be found in The Entail (p120) when the Leddy speaks to Jamie Walkinshaw - 

“Haud your tongue, and dinna terrify folk wi’ ony sic impossibility!” exclaimed the Leddy – “Poor man, he has something else to think o’ at present.  Is no your aunty brought nigh unto the gates o’ death?  Would ye expek him to be thinking o’ marriage settlements and wedding banquets, when death’s so busy in his dwelling?  Ye’re an unfeeling creature, Jamie.  But the army’s the best place for sic graceless getts."

Crockett remarks on Galt's use of Scots - 

“Galt spares no pains to introduce every old and recondite Scots word he knows.  His books are, indeed, the Larger Catechism of the Scottish language, in so far that they are by no means written for those of weaker understanding.”

The language used by Galt in many of his works will be very familiar to a lot of Scottish people.  It makes his characters come to life and become more real - just by the way they use everyday language of their time and place.

Rev Dr Zachariah Pringle and Rumble John

John Galt’s novel, The Ayrshire Legatees (1821) tells the story of the Rev Dr Zachariah Pringle and his family as they visit London to receive a legacy left to them by a relative.  Dr Pringle is minister in the fictional village of Garnock in Ayrshire.  Galt describes Pringle and his preaching style at the beginning of the book -

“The doctor had been for many years the incumbent of Garnock, which is pleasantly situated between Irvine and Kilwinning, and, on account of the benevolence of his disposition, was much beloved by his parishioners.  Some of the pawkie among them used indeed to say, in answer to the godly of Kilmarnock, and other admirers of the late great John Russel of that formerly orthodox town, by whom Dr Pringle’s powers as a preacher were held in no particular estimation, - “He kens our poopit’s frail, and spar’st to save outlay to the heritors”. 

[Pawkie means wily or shrewd in Scots.  In Scotland the church “heritors” were local landowners responsible for the upkeep of the church building.]

So, who was this “late, great John Russel” of Kilmarnock mentioned by Galt?  Fans of the work of Scottish poet Robert Burns might recognise the name from his a few of his works.  He appears as “Black Russell” in The Holy Fair – 

But now the Lord’s ain trumpet touts,

Till a’ the hills are rairin,

And echoes back return the shouts;

Black Russell is na sparin;

His piercing words, like highlan’ swords,

Divide the joints an’ marrow;

His talk o’ Hell, whare devils dwell,

Our vera ‘sauls does harrow’

Wi’ fright that day! 

John Russel was minister of the chapel of ease in Kilmarnock which later became the High Kirk in Kilmarnock.  Russel had been ordained in 1774 and was a strong Calvinist, described as being -

 “of the sternest type, with a visage dark and morose and a tremendous voice; both combining to heighten the effect of his messages of wrath.”

Burns describes Russel's voice in The Twa Herds or The Holy Tulyie [noisy brawl]

“What herd like Russell tell’d his tale?

His voice was heard through muir and dale,

He kenn’d the Lord’s sheep, ilka tail,

O’er a’ the height;

And saw gin they were sick or hale,

At the first sight."

Robert Burns

Russell also gets a mention in Burns’ The Ordination which refers to a controversial essay by Dr William McGill (1732-1807) who was minister at Kilwinning and Ayr and admired by Robert Burns. He appears as Rumble John in another work - The Kirk of Scotland’s Alarm -

Rumble John! Rumble John, mount the steps with a groan,

Cry the book is with heresy cramm’d;

Then out wi’ your ladle, deal brimstone like aidle,

And roar ev’ry note of the damn’d.

Rumble John! And roar ev’ry note of the damn’d.

[Aidle in Scots means dirty water or liquid manure.]

Sabbath-breakers suffered particular from Russel's wrath – 

“on Sunday afternoons, armed with a formidable cudgel, he began his wonted rounds in pursuit of Sabbath-breaking strollers, his appearance in the street was the signal for an instant breaking-up and a disappearing within-doors of gossiping groups.”  

Again Robert Burns mentions Russel  in Epistle to John Goldie, Kilmarnock – John Goldie (1717-1811) was an Ayrshire man and friend of Burns.  Known as “the philosopher”.  He was the author of the controversial The Gospel Recovered From Its Captive State (1786).  Here Burns refers to Russel as “Black Jock”. 

“O Goudie, terror o’ the Whigs,

Dread o’blackcoats and rev’rend wigs!

Sour Bigotry, on her last legs,

Girns an’ looks back,

Wishing the ten Egyptian plagues

Wad seize you quick.

 

Poor gapin, glowrin Superstition!

Wae’s me, she’s in a sad condition;

Fie! Bring Black Jock, her state physician,

To see her water;

Alas, there’s ground o’ great suspicion

She’ll ne’er get better.

What a formidable character Rev John Russel must have been!

On their return from London, Dr Pringle and his family were warmly received by the congregation.  John Galt describes the minister’s reception at church that first Sunday – 

"The moment the  doctor made his appearance, his greeting and salutation was quite delightful; it was that of a father returned to his children, and a king to his people.”

What a lovely description by John Galt of a well-liked man’s return.

John Galt - making the reader his friend

The following is part of a review which appeared in The National Standard, of John Galt’s Stories of the Study published in 1833 -

“For this is one of the great charms of Mr Galt’s works, that he makes his reader his friend; he throws so much of his own shrewd, honest, and kindly character into the pages of his romances, […] that his readers become his friends.  What a multitude of friends must Mr Galt have gained!” 

Stories of the Study is a collection of tales of vary variable type and quality.  Many reviews at the time mention “The Greenwich Pensioner” and included a passage from it with the review.  Of this particular story Galt writes in Literary Life -

“On one occasion I was at Greenwich with two friends from the country; we were taken to see a blind sailor who had reached the antediluvian age of more than fivescore.  […] This old man was literally alone in the world; his patriarchal age, his solitary condition, and the asylum assigned to him, were interesting to the imagination, and, in thinking lately, I threw together the following imaginary narrative.”

Greenwich

Naturally, Galt's home town of Greenock gets a mention in the old mariner's tale - 

"Long ago, when America belonged to England, and we had beat the French in all the four quarters of the globe, the Virginy trade was briskest in the Clyde, and my father, who was an English sailor, went to look for bread at a town called Greenock, in the west of Scotland, where he was told berths were plentiful, and sailors in request.”

Interestingly the review appeared in the National Standard, or to give it its full name - The National Standard of Literature, Science, Music, Theatricals, and the Fine Arts was owned at the time by William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863) best known for his novel Vanity Fair, published around 1848 .  Thackeray bought the National Standard in 1833, but it only lasted until 1834 when he ran out of money!

However, the reviewer certainly seemed to have a knowledge of Galt's works and concludes - 

Mr Galt […] seems to suffer and expire with the heroes he depicts, 

and to kindle and melt with his reader.”

There are many more interesting tales in Stories of the Study!

Find out more about the Royal Hospital, Greenwich here.

John Galt's Southannan

Southannan (Galt writes as Southennan) in Ayrshire is a place that seems to have sparked the imagination of John Galt ever since he was a young boy.  Each year in his childhood the Galt family travelled by coach from Irvine to Greenock to visit relatives.  In his Autobiography, published in 1833 John Galt writes –

“I have continued to this day to cherish my early dreams about Southennan, undisturbed by any matter of fact; pausing occasionally in the journeys of my juvenility between Irvine and Greenock, to ponder of strange things amidst the solitude of the ruins.”

He goes on to describe the area – “The situation is lone and picturesque, at the foot of a green mountain, on a little plain spreading to the sea, with a garden extending southwards, which in my imagination is still in blossom as if I saw it in the spring of the year.  I could draw the landscape still, though years and days and sadder thinks have happened to me since I was there.”

Southannan (Southennan) Ayrshire map.

While the name Southannan can still be seen in maps of Ayrshire, the area has changed considerably since John Galt’s day.  Little remains of what must have been the romantic ruins seen by Galt in the early 19^th century.  An idea of what could be seen can be found in “The Ecclesiastical Architecture of Scotland” (1897) by MacGibbon & Ross.  Southannan Castle is described – 

“It has been an extensive structure having had a high enclosing wall, with a courtyard and an arched entrance porch to the west, defended with shot-holes.  There has been a considerable range of dwelling-house accommodation, two stories in height, along the north side, and smaller buildings on the east side, leaving a large courtyard in the centre, now forming the garden of the adjoining farmhouse.”

 In his Autobiography Galt writes -

“The origin of Southennan, is, to myself at least, interesting.  At a short distance on the south side of the village of Fairlie in Ayrshire, stands the ruins of the ancient house of Southennan.  I know nothing whatever of its history, but was told in my boyhood a vague tradition, which had something mysterious about it, and which still lingers in my recollection; namely, that the house belonged to a branch of the ancient noble family of Semple ; that the last inhabitants had been Roman Catholics, who went away into Spain at the period of the Reformation, and that they were never more heard of.”

MacGibbon & Ross write -   “The castle was much enlarged by Robert, fourth Lord Sempill, ambassador to the Court of Spain in 1596.” As Galt says, Southannan did belong to the Semple family, they had been granted the lands in 1504 by James IV.  

The Semples built a chapel dedicated to St Annan (Ennan, or Innan – patron saint of Irvine).  However Southannan fell into disrepair and as the report goes on to explain – “The old mansion was dismantled towards the end of last century, and the materials used in the erection of farm-buildings and dykes.  What remains are chiefly the outer walls to the north of the courtyard and some more ancient looking remnants at the east.” 

Galt also mentions Southannan in his 1821 novel The Ayrshire Legatees in the description of a journey by coach which the Pringle family take from Irvine to Greenock.  In a letter to her friend, Miss Rachel Pringle describes the journey from Kilbride on the road with views of the island of Cumbrae and writes:- “On the other side of the road, we saw the cloistered ruins of the religious house of Southennan, a nunnery in those days of romantic adventure, when to live was to enjoy a poetical element.”

In 1830 Galt published his novel Southennan - the story of a young man of that name and place who visits Edinburgh to witness the arrival of Mary Queen of Scots from France.  In that novel Southennan is described – 

“It was a quadrangular building, with an embattled gateway in the wall, which connected the two wings.  The orchard and garden lay along the south side of the green hills of Fairlie, at the bottom of which it stood, and on which a computable number of the beech and sycamore shook their heads few and far between.  About a score of the meagre and naked ash marked out where an avenue might have been.  On the northern side of the mansion a little sparkling brook ran, whispering from its rimples peace and felicity to the genius of the place.”

Passing these old ruins as a very young child obviously had a profound effect on John Galt.  With his fertile imagination it is easy to see how they led him to speculate and write about them many years later.

A Provost in poor clothing

“I have complained to you before of the shabby appearance of my things.”

This is a quote from a letter John Galt wrote to William Blackwood from London on 18 May 1822.  He was complaining about the quality of the edition of his novel The Provost which had just been issued by Blackwood.

Galt's main concern was the quality of the paper on which the book had been printed and he goes on to tell Blackwood that he is sending part of The Steamboat and makes a suggestion about its printing –

“I hope you will not grudge to give it better paper, for I am mortified to see The Provost in such poor clothing compared with Pen Owen.”

William Blackwood, Publisher

Quite an indignant response from John Galt in comparing the quality of paper of his own novel with that of another novel published by Blackwood the same year – Pen Owen.  Pen Owen is thought to have been written by either James or Theodore Hook, the sons of composer James Hook (1746-1827),  

Blackwood's edition of The Provost by John Galt

Read more about John Galt's novel The Provost and a real life Provost of Irvine here.

(Provost in Scotland is the equivalent of a Mayor.)

Lingo's Wedding - Galt's version

John Galt loved the theatre.  He wrote several works intended for the stage but perhaps the best known was actually a non-starter - he was too afraid of his mother's reaction to have it presented on stage!  It was a version of Lingo's Wedding.  The original Lingo's Wedding (1784), was a follow up to the Agreeable Surprise, a comic opera written by Irish playwright John O’Keffe (1747-1833).  The music for the work was written by composer and organist Samuel Arnold (1740-1802).  The Agreeable Surprise was written in 1781 and was a great success.  Lingo, a Latin teacher and parish clerk, was one of the characters in the comedy.  He was played, with great acclaim by William Henry Moss (1748-1817), actor and theatre manager.

William Henry Moss by John Kay

Galt writes in his Literary Life -

“Moss, so famous in London as Lingo, then an old man, came to Greenock with a company.  I became intimate with him, and being then reading of the prolific Lopez de Vega, wrote a farce in one day for him, exhibiting Lingo as a lover.  It was called Lingo’s Wedding, and he expressed himself much amused with it; but the fear of my mother came over me, and I prevented the performance, interdicting all mention of the subject in the most judicious filial manner.”  (Lope de Vega (1562-1635) was a Spanish playwright and poet.)  

From the Caledonian Mercury, April 1784

William H Moss came to Greenock in 1802 while Galt was still living at home.  At that time theatrical productions were performed at the Assembly Hall at the eastern end of Cathcart Street in Greenock.  

Galt continues to describe his version -

"Part of the original manuscript, since I commenced this work, has been recovered; and without any personal feeling on the subject at all, I do say that, as an effore to excite laughter at the expense of the understanding, it is not entirely a failure.  The character of Lingo seems to have been well preserved; and he has a rival in a Mr Ipsy Dixy, a lawyer, who is conceived with some drollery, and whom he characteristically always speaks of as Manylaws.  The charm of the piece, however, is a Miss Girzy, a Scotch cousin of Dominie Felix, to whom Lingo and the lawyer are paying their addresses.  Lady Grippy in “The Entail”, is a sound and sober personage compared to Miss Girzy.”  (Ipsy Dixy - from the Latin ipse dixit can be translated as a dogmatic or unproven statement.)

While his version of Lingo's Wedding was not produced on stage, Galt later went to to write several other works, some of which made it to various theatres, but with not much success.

Old Quarter Days

One of the interesting details in many of John Galt’s works are the different terms used which signify important times of the year.

Quarter days were important in the past.  Those four days, roughly three months apart, signified when rent was due, when servants were hired, term times and other important occasions.  They were also the days on which ministers stipends would be due. 

Candlemas – 2 February

Whitsunday – 15 May

Lammas – 1 August

Martinmas – 11 November

Originally these were Christian holy days – Candlemas was the feast of the purification.  Whitsunday was the feast of Pentecost, sometimes called White Sunday.  Lammas celebrated the first fruits of the harvest and Martinmas was the feast of St Martin of Tours.

In a letter to published William Blackwood dated June 1822, Galt writes -  

“Owing to the Whitsuntide holidays the printers have been all idle for the greatest part of this week”.

Other words are used for important dates, for example the time around Christmas was termed Yule and Pace was the word for Easter.

In Irvine, where John Galt was born, the feast of Marymass is still celebrated each year in August with a festival and procession.  Marymass was originally a celebration of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary (15 August).  After the Reformation it continued in a different form.