From Hone's The Everyday Book, London: 1830 -
"Easter Eggs. Another relic of the ancient times, are the eggs which pass about at Easter week under the name of pask, paste, or pace eggs.
Egg
exchange…a
custom still prevalent in some parts of Cumberland, although not as generally
attended to as it was twenty or thirty years ago [c1800]… sending reciprocal
presents of eggs, at Easter, to the children of families respectively, betwixt
whom any intimacy subsists. For some weeks preceding Good Friday the price of
eggs advances considerably, from the great demand occasioned by the custom
referred to.
Different
ways to make Easter Eggs
The
modes adopted to prepare the eggs for presentation are the following: there may
be others which have escaped my recollection.
Candle
wax
The
eggs being immersed in hot water for a few moments, the end of a common
tallow-candle is made use of to inscribe the names of individuals, dates of
particular events, &c. The warmth of the egg renders this a very easy
process. Thus inscribed, the egg is placed in a pan of hot water, saturated
with cochineal, or other dye-woods; the part over which the tallow has been
passed is impervious to the operation of the dye; and consequently when the egg
is removed from the pan, there appears no discolouration of the egg where the
inscription has been traced, but the egg presents a white inscription on a
coloured ground. The colour of course depends upon the taste of the person who
prepared the egg; but usually much variety of colour is made use of.
Scratching
Another
method of ornamenting "pace eggs" is, however, much neater, although
more laborious, than that with the tallow-candle. The egg being dyed, it may be
decorated in a very pretty manner, by means of a penknife, with which the dye
may be scraped off, leaving the design white, on a coloured ground. An egg is
frequently divided into compartments, which are filled up according to the
taste and skill of the designer. Generally 1) one compartment contains the name
and (being young and unsophisticated) also the age of the party for whom the
egg is intended. In another 2) is, perhaps, a landscape; and sometimes a cupid is
found lurking in a third: 3) so that these "pace eggs" become very
useful auxiliaries to the missives of St. Valentine. Nothing was more common in
the childhood of the writer, than to see a number of these eggs preserved very
carefully in the corner-cupboard; each egg being the occupant of a deep,
long-stemmed ale-glass, through which the inscription could be read without
removing it. Probably many of these eggs now remain in Cumberland, which would
afford as good evidence of dates in a court of justice, as a tombstone or a
family-bible.
Dyed
It
will be readily supposed that the majority of pace eggs are simply dyed; or
dotted with tallow to present a piebald or bird's-eye appearance. These are
designed for the junior boys ... they are hurled to swift destruction. In the process of dying
they are boiled pretty hard... [ EGG ROLL AND CRACKING/THROWING ]
Hard
boiled with onion skins
Pasch
eggs are to be found at Easter in different parts of the kingdom... and called paste eggs. One of his children brought to him a paste
egg at Easter, 1824, beautifully mottled with brown. It had been purposely
prepared for the child by the servant, by being boiled hard within the coat of
an onion, [ ONION SKIN EGGS ]which imparted to the shell the admired colour. Hard boiling is a
chief requisite in preparing the patch egg. In some parts they are variously
coloured with the juices of different herbs, and played with by boys, who roll
them on the grass, or toss them up for balls. Their more elegant preparation is
already described by our obliging correspondent, J. B.
Royal
gifts – leaf gold or stained
The
terms pace, paste, or pasch, are derived from paschal, which is a name given to Easter from its being the paschal
season. Four hundred eggs were bought for eighteen-pence in the time of Edward
I., as appears by a royal roll in the tower; from whence it also appears they
were purchased for the purpose of being boiled and stained, or covered with
leaf gold, and afterwards distributed to the royal household at Easter. They
were formerly consecrated, and the ritual of pope Paul V. for the use of
England, Scotland, and Ireland, contains the form of consecration. On Easter
eve and Easter day, the heads of families sent to the church large chargers,
filled with the hard boiled eggs, and there the "creature of eggs"
became sacred by virtue of holy water, crossing, and so on.
©2015 Patricia Bixler Reber
Hone, William. The Every Day
Book: Or, A Guide to the Year. Vol 2.
London: 1830
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