Druidical Pilgrimage to Stanton Drew.
On Wednesday the brethren of the Mona Lodge, No. 10, and Royal Arch Chapter, No. 2, of Ancient Druids, paid a pilgrimage – the first, we believe, that has been paid for over thirty years – to the Druidical remains at Stanton Drew. [...] Upon an application being made to the owner of the property, P. Eaton Coates, Esq., for his permission, it was kindly and courteously conceded by that gentleman, who only attached one condition to the concession, that it should not be extended beyond Druids and their friends, and that no public announcement should be made in the newspapers. We believe that the promise was religiously kept by the brotherhood, but, as to carry out the necessary arrangements with perfect secrecy was a matter of impossibility, tidings of the contemplated ceremony got abroad in the villages, and the consequence was a very considerable gathering.
There’s a list of the procession, including various people in costumes with wands, and (curiously) a number of people bearing bibles on velvet cushions.
[...] Truth compels us to say that the procession did not appear to impress the rustic population in the way that had been probably anticipated. Their ignorance of the rites and solemnities of Druidism caused them to laugh at many of its mystic ceremonies, while they were perverse in assigning to some of the principal officers characters not at all pertinent to them. For instance, the ‘Guardian’ who wore a hairy cap of exceedingly antique mould, and a petticoat of curious plaid, and who bore a huge knotted club, was supposed by many of them to be an embodiment of Robinson Crusoe. The master of the ceremonies, with his dazzling crimson collars, cocked hat, and colossal silver badges, [was set down as] the Lord Mayor of London’s state footman.
There was a dinner afterwards in a decorated barn and also a band of blind musicians played for dancing: “the company tripped it on the light fantastic toe with a vigour that one would scarcely have expected, with the thermometer standing at 81 in the shade.” A fun day out reported in the Bristol Mercury, 26th July 1856.