HOKE-TIDE, a solemn festival celebrated for many ages in England, in memory of the great slaughter of the Danes in the time of king Ethelred, they having been in that reign almost all destroyed in one day in the different parts of the kingdom, and that principally by the women. This is still kept up in some counties, and the women bear the principal sway in it, stopping all passengers with ropes and chains, and exacting some small matter to make merry with.