OBSERVATIONS ON THE POPULAR ANTIQUITIES OF GREAT BRITAIN

1. Spelman, in his Glossary, v. Wak, derives the word Wake from the Saxon Wak, signifying drunkenness. His words are, "Sunt celebritates bacchanales sub fructuum temporibus, ab occidulis et borealibus Anglis pagatim habitse. Bacchanales dixi ex nomine: nam Wak, Sax. est temulentia." With all deference to so great a name, I think Spelman is evidently mistaken, and that he even contradicts himself, when he tells us that on the Sunday after the Enccenia, or Feast of the Dedication of the Church, a great multitude both of grown and young persons were wont to meet about break of day, shouting Holy Wakes! Holy Wakes! "Die dominica post Encreniam seu Festum Dedicationis Ecclesiae cujusvis villse convenire solet in aurora magna hominum juvenumque multitude, et canora voce Holy Wakes! Holy Wakes! exclamando designare," &c. (Gloss. 1664, p. 562.) Strutt gives us a quotation on this subject from Dugdale's Warwickshire, from an old MS. legend of St. John the Baptist, which entirely overthrows the etymology of ivake given by Spelman: "And ye shal understond and know how the evyns were furst found in old time. In the begynniug of holy Chirche, it was so that the pepul cam to the chirche with candellys brennyng, and wold wake and coome with light toward to the chirche in their devotions; and after they fell to lecherie and songs, daunces, harping, piping, and also to glotony and sinne, and so turned the bolinesse to cursydnees: wherfore holy Faders ordenned the pepul to leve that Waking and to fast the Evyn. But it is called Vigilia, that is waking in English, and it is called Evyn, for at evyn they were wont to come to chirche."

2. The Paganalia, or country feasts of the Heathens, were of the same stamp with this of the wake. Spelman says: "Haec eadem sunt quae apud Ethnicos Paganalia dicebantur."

3. St. Michael, for instance. Of saints it has been observed by antiquaries that few churches or none are anywhere found honoured with the name of St. Barnabas, except one at Rome.

4. "Ut die dedicationis, vel natalitiis sanctorum Martyrum, quorum illic reliquiae ponuntur, tabernacula siba circa easdem ecclesias, quse ex fanis commutatge sunt de ramis arborum faciant," &c. (Bed. i. 30.)

5. This injunction, says Borlase, in his Account of Cornwall, was never universally complied with, custom in this case prevailing against the law of the land.

6. Hopping is derived from the Anglo-Saxon hoppan, to leap or dance, which Skinner deduces from the Dutch huppe, coxendix (whence also our hip). "Haec enim saltitatio, qua corpus in altum tollitur ope robustissimorum illorum musculorum, qui ossibus femoris et coxendicis movendis dicati sunt, praecipue peragitur." Skinner, in v. Hop. Dancings in the north of England, and in some other parts, are called hops.

7. Compare Ducange: "Juncus majoribus festis sparsus in ecclesia et alibi, Consuetud. MSS. S. Augustini Lemovic. f. 14. In festo S. Augustini praepositus debet recipere juncum qni debetur ex consuetudine ad parandum chorura et capitulum. Codex MS. Montis S. Michaelis annorum circ. 400. Eleemosynarius tenetur etiam in venire juncum in magriis festivitatibus in choro et in claustro." Naogeorgus thus describes this custom:

8. "Patres familiarum, et frugibus et fructibus jam coactis, passim cum servis vescerentur, cum quibus patientiam laboris in colendo rure toleraverant." Macrob. Saturnal. Die prim. cap. 10. "Antiquitus consuetude fuit apud Gentiles, quod hoc mense servi, pastores, et ancillae quadam libertate fuerentur; et cum dominis suis dominarentur, et cum eis facerent festa et convivia, post collectas messes." Durand. Rat. vi. c. 86.

9. "Et pro collectis frugibus Deo gratise agebantur. Quern morem Ethnici postea ab iis mutuati sunt." Hospin. de Orig. Fest. Jud. Stukius Antiq. Conviv. p. 63. Theophylact mentions "Scenopegia, quod celebrant in gratiarum actionem propter convectas fruges in mense Septembri. Tune enim gratias agebant Deo, convectis omnibus fructibus," &c. Theoph. in 7 cap. Joan.

10. Here a note informs us: "This ancient custom is, to this day, faintly preserved all over Scotland, by what we call the Corn Lady, or Maiden, in a small packet of grain, which is hung up when the "reapers have finished."

12. See Blount; who tells us further, that "After the knot is cut, then they cry with a loud voice, three times, 'I have her!' Others answer, as many times, 'What have you?' 'A mare! a mare! a mare!' 'Whose is she?' thrice also. J. B. (naming the owner three times.) 'Whither will you send her?' 'To J. a Nicks' (naming some neighbour who has not all his corn reaped); then they all shout three times, and so the ceremony ends with good cheer. In Yorkshire, upon the like occasion, they have a Harvest Dame, in Bedfordshire, a Jack and a Gill."

13. I once thought that the Northern name of the entertainment given on this occasion, i.e. MELL-SUPPER, was derived from the French word mesler, to mingle or mix together, the master and servant sitting promiscuously at the same table; but some, to whose opinion I pay great deference, would rather deduce it from the Teutonic word mehl, farina, or meal. It has been also suggested to me, that it might come from the Med-syp., i.e. the Reward Supper. All being upon an equal footing, or, as the Northern vulgar idiom has it, "Hail fellow well met." Amell, in the North, also is commonly used for betwixt, or among. I find, indeed, that many of our Northumbrian rustic or vulgar words are derived to us from the French. Perhaps we have not imported them from the first market, but have had them at second-hand from the Scots, a people who in former times were greatly connected with that nation. In a letter dated Aug. 12, 1786, by Samuel Pegge, he says: "The most obvious interpretation of the term Mell-supper, seems to insinuate that it is the Meal-supper, from the Teutonic word mehl (farina)." In another letter, dated Aug. 28, 1786, he cites Cowel's Interpreter, in v. Med-syp. i.e. the Reward Supper, as thinking it may also be deduced from that. The Rev. Mr. Drake, Vicar of Isleworth, supposes it means the Meal-supper, by way of eminence.

14. In so great a variety of conjectures concerning the true etymon of Mell-supper, it will not be the less dangerous to hazard another. There is an old word for a contest, i.e. melle, which the glossary to Gawin Douglas derives from the French mellec, Lat. inf. set. melleia et melletum, i.e. certamen. Now, it is well known, that when a set of reapers are drawing near to a conclusion, the parties upon different ridges have frequently a very sharp contest which shall be first done. This contest is mentioned in the above glossary, under the name of Kemping, which is explained "the contending of shearers or reapers in harvest." The following is from Hutchinson's Durham, ii. 583, Parish of Easington: "In this part of the country are retained some ancient customs, evidently derived from the Romans, particularly that of dressing up a figure of Ceres, during harvest, which is placed in the field while the reapers are labouring, and brought home on the last evening of reaping, with music and great acclamation. After this a feast is made, called the Mell-supper, from the ancient sacrifice of mingling the new meal." Dr. Jamieson, in his Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language, v. MELL, says: "MELL, a company." "A dozen or twenty men will sometimes go in and stand abreast in the stream, at this kind of fishing, called heaving or hauling, up to the middle, in strong running water, for three or four hours together: a company of this kind is called a Mell." P. Dornock, Dumfr. Statist. Acc. ii. 16.

15. "Apud Latinos oves tondere, ut et sementem facere omnino non fuit licitum, priusquam Catulalio, hoc est, ex cane sacrum fieret: ut Gyraldus testatur de Diis gentium. Ex his ergo omnibus constat illam ovium tonsuram (quam Luna decrescente a veteribus fieri fuisse solitam M. Varro testatur: de tempore autem oves lavandi et tondendi, vide Plin. lib. xviii. c. 17) magna cum festivitate, laetitia, atque conviviis fuisse celebratam; id quod mirum non est. Nam in animalibus primum non sine causa putant oves assumptas, et propter utilitatem et propter placiditatem: maxime enim hse natura quiets et aptissimte ad vitarn hominum. Ad cibum enim lac et caseum adhibitum: ad corpus vestitum et pelles attulerunt. Itaque cum in illis tot presertim numero tondendis plurimum pastoribus atque famulis esset laboris exantlandum, justa profecto de causa patres-familias atque Domini illos conviviali hujusmodi laetitia recreare rursus atque exhilarare voluerunt." Antiq. Conviv. p. 62.

16. "In Scotia anno salutis 1203, Gulielmus Rex primorum regni sui concilium cogit, cui etiam interfuit, pontificius legatus, in quo decretum est, ut Saturni dies ab hora 12 meridiei sacer esset, neque quisquara res profanas exerceret, quemadmodum aliis quoque festis diebus vetitum id erat. Idque carapanae pulsu populo indicaretur, ac postea sacris rebus, ut diebus festis operam darint, concionibus interessent, vesperas audirent, idque in diem Iuna3 facerent, constituta transgressoribus gravi poena." Boet. lib. xiii. de Scot, ex Hospinian. p. 176.

17. "Dies Sabbathi ab ipsa diei Saturni hora pomeridiana tertia, usque in lunaris diei diluculum festus agitator," &c. Selden, Angl. lib. ii. cap. 6.

18. In the year 1332, at a provincial Council, held by Archbishop Mepham, at Mayfield, after complaint made, that instead of fasting upon the vigils, they ran out to all the excesses of riot, &c., it was appointed among many other things relative to holy-days, that, "The solemnity for Sunday should begin upon Saturday in the evening, and not before, to prevent the misconstruction of keeping a Judaical Sabbath." See Collier's Eccl. Hist., i. 531,

19. "Rustica fabula de natura mensis. Nomina rustica dierum, qui sequentur in Aprili, seu ultimi sint Martii."

20. At the end of an old MS. mentioned in the Duke de la Valiere's Catalogue, i. 44 (Add.), there is a part of a Calendar in which the following unlucky days are noticed: "Januar. iiii. Non. [10th] Dies ater et nefastus. viii. ld. [25th] Dies ater et nefastus. Mar. vi. Non. [10th] non est bonum nugere [q. nubere?] Jan. iiii. Kal. [2nd] Dies ater."

"Sed et circa dies injecta est animis religio. Inde dies nefasti, qui [Greek] Graecis, quibus iter, aut aliquid alicujus momenti indipisci, periculosura existimatur." "De quibus diebus faustis aut infaustis, multa, Hesiodus [Greek], et Virgilius primo Georgicon. Quam scrupulosam superstitionem, sese illigantem delira formidine, daranat Apostolus ad Galatas. 4. Observatis dies, et menses, et tempora, et annos: metuo ne incassum circa vos me fatigaverim.'' Pet. Moliuasi Vates, p. 155.

"January.
February.
March.
April.
May.
June.
July.
August.
September.
October.
November.
December.

Prima dies mensis, et septima truncat ut ensis.
Quarta subit mortem, prosternit tertia fortem.
Primus mandentem, disrumpit quarta bibentem.
Derms et undenus est mortis vulnere plenus.
Tertius occidit, et septimus ora relidit.
Denus pallescit, quindenus fredera nescit.
Ter-decimus mactat, Julij denus labefactat.
Prima necat fortem, prosternit secunda cohortem.
Tertia Septembris et denus fert mala membris.
Tertius et denus est, sicut mors alienus.
Scorpius est quintus, et tertius e nece cinctus.
Septimus exanguis, virosus denus et anguis."]

22. So, xiv. 541, Parish of Forglen, Banffshire: "There are happy and unhappy days for beginning any undertaking. Thus few would choose to be married here on Friday, though it is the ordinary day in other quarters of the church." Ibid. xv. 258, Parish of Monzie, co. Perth; "The inhabitants are stated to be not entirely free of superstition. Lucky and unlucky days, and feet, are still attended to, especially about the end and beginning of the year. No person will be proclaimed for marriage in the end of one year, or even quarter of the year, and be married in the beginning of the next." Ibid. xxi. 148: "Lucky and unlucky days, dreams, and omens, are still too much observed by the country people: but in this respect the meanest Christian far surpasses, in strength of mind, Gibbon's all-accomplished and philosophic Julian."

23. What follows, in this passage, is an exception from the general time of cock-crowing:

24. "Aurora itaque superveniente, cum omnis haec ab oculis evanisset daemonum multitude." Cass. Coll. viii. c. 16. Thus the Ghost in Hamlet:

25. 1. After midnight. 2. Cock-crow. 3. The space between the first cock-crow and break of day. 4. The dawn of the morning. 5. Morning. 6. Noon. 7. Afternoon. 8. Sunset. 9. Twilight. 10. Evening. 11. Candle-time. 12. Bed-time. 13. The dead of the night. The Church of Rome made four nocturnal vigils: the conticinium, gallicinium or cock-crow, intempestum, and antelucinum. Durand. de Nocturnis. There is a curious discourse on the ancient divisions of the night and the day in Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, i. 223 et seq.

26. "The lyon hath an antipathy with the cocke, especially of the game; one reason is, because he sees him commonly with his crowne on his head, while princes commonly are jealous of each other. Some say because he presumes to come into his presence booted and spurred, contrary to the law in court. But I thinke rather because he meetes with a lyon's heart in so weake a body." See A Strange Metamorphosis of Man transformed into a Wildernesse, deciphered in Characters, 1634.

27. In the Statistical Account of Scotland, vi. 614, in the account of Edinburgh, we read: "In 1763 there was no such diversion as public cock-fighting at Edinburgh. In 1783 there were many public cock-fighting matches, or maim, as they were technically termed; and a regular cock-pit was built for the accommodation of this school of gambling and cruelty, where every distinction of rank and character is levelled. In 1790 the cockpit continued to be frequented."

28. The modern manner of preparing is thus described in the Musae Anglicanae, 1689, ii. 86:

29. "Interque se fratres dissidebant, puerili primum certaraine, edendis Coturnicum pugnis, gallinaceorumque conflictibus, ac puerorum colluctationibus exorta discordia." Herodian, iii. sect. 33.

30. Hence Pliny's expression, "gallorura, seu gladiatorum;" and that of Columella, "rixosarum avium lanistae:" lanista being the proper term for the master of the gladiators.

31. Fitzstephen's words are: "Praeterea quotannis, die qua dicitur Carnilevaria singuli pueri suos apportant magistro suo gallos gallinaceos pugnaces, et totum illud antemeridianum datur ludo puerorum vacantium spectare in scholis suorum p^agnas gallorum." See Dr. Pegge's edit. 1772, p. 74.

32. The Cockpit, it seems, was the school, and the master was the comptroller and director of the sport.

33. King Henry VIII. See Maitland, p. 1343. It appears that James I. was remarkably fond of cock-fighting.

34. Pliny mentions the spur, and calls it telum, but the gafle is a mere modern invention, as likewise is the great, and I suppose necessary, exactness in matching them. The Asiatics, however, use spurs that act on each side like a lancet, and which almost immediately decide the battle. Hence they are never permitted by the modern cock-lighters.

35. In the old Herbals we find descriptions of a herb entitled the Ladies Bed-straw. It appears that even so late as Henry VIII.'s time there were directions for certain persons to examine every night the straw of the King's bed, that no daggers might be concealed therein. In Plaine Percevall, the Peace-maker of England, printed in the time of Queen Elizabeth, we find an expression which strongly marks the general use of straw in beds during that reign: "These high-flying sparks will light on the heads of us all, and kindle in our bed-straw."

36. Levinus Lemnius, English translat. fol. 1658, p. 270, tells us, that "the jewel called Ætites, found in an eagle's nest, that has rings with little stones within it, being applied to the thigh of one that is in labour, makes a speedy and easy delivery; which thing I have found true by experiment." Lupton, in his second book of Notable Things, 52, says: "Æitites, called the Eagle's stone, tyed to the left arm or side; it brings this benefit to women with child, that they shall not be delivered before their time: besides that, it brings love between the man and the wife; and if a woman have a painfull travail in the birth of her child, this stone, tyed to her thigh, brings an easy and light birth." Ibid. Book iv. 27: "Let the woman that travels with her child (is in her labour) be girded with the skin that a serpent or snake casts off, and then she will quickly be delivered." Tortola.

37. The following customs of childbirth are noticed in the Traite des Superstitions of M. Thiers, i. 320 : "Lors qu'une femme est preste d'accoucher, prendre sa ceinture, aller a 1'Eglise, Her la cloche avec cette ceinture et la faire sonner trois coups afin que cette femme accouche heureusement. Martin de Aries, Archidiacre de Pampelonne (Tract. de Superstition.) asseure que cette superstition est fort en usage dans tout son pais: 'Superstitiosum est quod fere in omni hac nostra patria observatur, ut dum femina est propinqua partui, novam (zonam?) vel corrigiam qua praecingitur, accipientes, ad ecclesiam occurrunt, et cymbalum modo quo possunt corrigia ilia vel zona circumdant, et ter percutientes cymbalum, sonum ilium credunt valere ad prosperum partum, quod est superstitiosum et vanum.'" Ibid. p. 327: "Quand une femme est en mal d'enfant, luy faire mettre le haut de chausse de son mari, afin qu'elle accouche sans douleur." Ibid. p. 329: "Mettre les pieds et les mains des enfans dans la glace, ou, s'il n'y a point de glace, dans 1'eau froide, aussi-tost qu'ils sont nez et avant qu'ils ayent receu le baptesme, pour empescher, qu'ils n'ayent 1'onglee aux pieds ou aux mains: et leur faire boire du vin aussitost qu'ils son venus au monde, pour empecher qu'ils ne s'enyvrent." Ibid. p. 327: "Fendre un chesne, et faire passer trois fois un enfans par dedans, afin de la guerir de la hergne. Le pere et la mere de 1'enfant doivent estre a chacun un coste du chesne." Ibid. p. 332: "Percer le toit de la maison d'une femme qui est en travail d'enfant, avec une pierre, ou avec une fleche, dont on aura tue trois animaux, s'avoir un homme, un sanglier, et une ourse, de trois divers coups, pour la faire aussi-tost acooucher: ce qui arrive encore plus asseurement quand on perce la maison avec la hache ou le sabre d'un soldat arrache du corps d'un homme, avant qu'il soit tonabe par terre." Ibid. p. 334: "Chasser les mouches lorsqu'une femme est en travail d'enfant, de crainte qu'elle n'accouche d'une fille."

38. [In some parts of the north of England, at the birth of a child, the first slice of the Groaning Cake is cut into small pieces, and well shaken in the smock of the howdie wife: or should a man attend on the occasion, it undergoes the same process in the shirt of the accoucheur.]

39. An essayist in the Gent. Mag. for May 1732, ii. 740, observes: "Among the women there is the groaning chair, in which the matron sits to receive visits of congratulation. This is a kind of female ovation due to every good woman who goes through such eminent perils in the service of her country."

40. In his Century of rare Anatomical Histories, p. 19, "Mulierculae superstitiosse nostrates statim antequam infantem nuper natum in cunis reponunt, huic Caprimulgo (a spirit so called that is supposed to hurt infants) occurrunt allio, sale, pane et chalybe, vel instrumento incisorio ex chalybe, sive in cunis posito, sive supra ostium." We read also in Bartholinus's treatise de Puerperio Veterum, p. 157, "Pueris, sive ante lustrationem sive post, dormientibus Caprimulgus insidiatur et Lilith, item sagae seu stryges variis fascinis, quae vel allio, vel alysso, vel re turpi in collo ex annulo appensa abiguntur. Res ilia turpis non Satyri fuit species, sed Priapi. Fascinus erat res turpicula e collo pueris appensa, teste Varrone." Lib. vi.

41. See Dr. Whitaker's History of Craven, p. 220, where Master John Norton "gate leave of my old lord to have half a stagg for his wife's churching:" on which he observes in a note, "Hence it appears that thanksgivings after child-birth were antiently celebrated with feasting." For this custom I have a still older authority: "In duobus hogsheveds vini albi empt. apud Ebor. erga Purificationem Dominse, tarn post partum Magistri mei nuper de Clifford, quam post partum Magistri mei nunc de Clifford, lxvis. viid." Compotus Tho. Dom. Clifford a 15 Hen. VI. or 1437.

42. "Atque hodie recens baptizatos infantes (ut vidi fieri ab anicula in Scotia olim qui sui papatus reliquias saperet) statim atque domum redierint in liinine oblatis eduliis bene venire dicunt, statimque importatos, anicula, sive obstetrix fuerit, fasciis involutes accipit, et per flammam ter quaterve leniter vibrant, verbis his additis, 'Jam te flamma, si unquam, absumat, terque verba repetunt.'" Papatus, p. 72.

43. In Memorable Things noted in the Description of the World, 8vo. p. 113, we read: "About children's necks the wild Irish hung the beginning of St. John's Gospel, a crooked nail of a horse-shoe, or a piece of a wolve's skin, and both the sucking child and nurse were girt with girdles finely plated with woman's hair: so far they wandered into the ways of errour, in making these arms the strength of their healths." Ibid. p. Ill, it is said: "Of the same people Solinus affirmeth, that they are so given to war, that the mother, at the birth of a man child, feedeth the first meat into her infant's mouth upon the point of her husband's sword, and with heathenish imprecations wishes that it may dye no otherwise then in war, or by sword." Giraldus Cambrensis saith, "At the baptizing of the infants of the wild Irish, their manner was not to dip their right arms into the water, that so as they thought they might give a more deep arid incurable blow." Here is a proof that the whole body of the child was anciently commonly immersed in the baptismal font. See also Cough's edit, of Camden, 1789, iii. 658. Camden relates, in addition to this, that "if a child is at any time out of order, they sprinkle it with the stalest urine they can get." The following singular superstition concerning a child's bread and butter will be thought uncommonly singular: "Si puerulo panis cadat in butyrum, indicium [est] vita infortunatae, si in alteram faciem, fortunatae." Pet. Molinrei Vates, p. 154.

51. M. Stevenson, in the Twelve Moneths, 1661, p. 37, speaking of the month of August, observes: "The new wheat makes the gossips cake, and the bride-cup is carried above the heads of the whole parish."

52. In Strype, i. 215, A.D. 1560, it is said to have been enjoined that, "to avoid contention, let the curate have the value of the chrisome, not under the value of 4d. and above as they can agree, and as the state of the parents may require." In the account of Dunton church, in Barnstable Hundred, in Morant's Essex, i. 219, is the following remark: "Here has been a custom, time out of mind, at the churching of a woman, for her to give a white cambric handkerchief to the minister as an offering. This is observed by Mr. Lewis in his History of the Isle of Thanet, where the same custom is kept up." In Articles to be inquired of in Chichester Diocese, A.D. 1638, occurs the following: "Doth the woman who is to be churched use the ancient accustomed habit in such cases, with a white veil ***rchiefe upon her head?"

53. "Hand-faestniny, promissio, quae fit stipulata manu, sive cives fidem suam principi spondeant, sive mutuam inter se, matrimonium inituri, a phrasi fiesta hand, quae notat dextram dextrae jungere." Glossar. Suio-Gothicum, auctore I. Ihre in voce. Vid. ibid, in v. Brollop, Brudkaup.

54. The dialogue between Kitty and Filbert, in the What d'ye call it, by Gay, is much to our purpose:

55. A MS. in the Harleian Library, No. 980, cited by Strutt, states that, "by the civil law, whatsoever is given ex sponsalitia largitate, betwixt them that are promised in marriage, hath a condition (for the most part silent) that it may be had again if marriage ensue not; but if the man should have had a kiss for his money, he should lose one half of that which he gave. Yet, with the woman it is otherwise, for, kissing is not kissing, whatsoever she gave, she may ask and have it again. However, this extends only to gloves, rings, bracelets, and such like small wares." Manners and Customs, iii. 153.

56. It appears from other passages in this play that one of these rings was worn by Sebastian's father, the other by Almeyda's mother, as pledges of love. Sebastian pulls off his, which had been put on his finger by his dying father; Almeyda does the same with hers, which had been given her by her mother at parting; and Alvarez unscrews both the rings, and fits one half to the other.

57. "St. Martin's rings were imitations of gold ones, made with copper, and gilt. They may have been so called from the makers or vendors of them residing within the collegiate church of St. Martin's-le-Grand." Halliwell's Dictionary, p. 543.

59. "Dans le diocese de Bourdeaux on donnoit, comme en Orient, au futur epoux et a la future epouse, chacun un anneau en les epousant. Au moins cela est-il prescrit par le Rituel de Bourdeaux (pp. 98, 99) de 1596. Benedictio annulorum. Benedic Domine, hos annulos, &c. Aspergat sacerdos annulos arras et circumstantes aqua benedicta. Deinde sacerdos accipit alterura annulum inter primes tres digitos, dicens, Benedic Domine hunc annulum, &c., et wfigit ilium in digitum quartum dextrce manus sponsi, dicens, In nomine Patris, &c. Pari modo alterum annulum accipit et benedicit ut supra, et tradit eum sponso, qui accipiens ilium tribus diffitis, infigit ilium in quarto digito manus dextera ipsius sponsce, &c." Traite des Superstitions, iv. 512. The following, too, occurs, ibid. p. 513: "Certaines gens en vue de se garentir de malefice, font benir plusieurs anneaux, quand ils trouvent des pretres asses ignorans, ou asses complaisans pour le faire, et les mettent tous dans le doigt annulaire de la maine gauche ou de la main droite de leurs epouses, car en certains dioceses c'est a la main droite, et en d'autres c'est a la main gauche, qu'on le donne aux nouvelles mariees, quoique le quatrieme Concile Provincial de Milan en 1576, ordonne qu'on le mette a la main gauche (Constit. p. 3, n. 9). Mais ils ne scauroient mettre ce mauvais moien en pratique sans tomber dans la superstition de la value observance, et dans celle de observance des rencontres."

60. [In the south of Scotland the superstition about the cod with nine peas in it is equally prevalent; and the present statement will explain a line in a beautiful Scottish pastoral, perhaps little understood:

61. "Annulus sponsa dono mittebatur a viro qui pronubus dictus. Alex, ab Alexandra, lib. ii. c. 5. Et, mediants annulo contrahitur matrimonium papanorum." Moresini Papatus, p. 12. It is farther observable that the joivdny together of the right hands in the marriage ceremony is from the same authority: "Dextra data, acceptaque invicem, Persae et Assyrii foedus matrimonii ineunt. Alex, ab Alexandra, lib. ii. cap. 5. Papatus retinet." Ibid. p. 501.

62. Quintus Curtius tells us, lib. i. de Gest. Alexandri M., "Et rex medio cupiditatis ardore jussit afferri patrio more PANEM (hoc erat apud Macedones sanctissifnum coeuntium pignus) quern divisum gladio uterque libabat."

63. The following extract is from an old grant, cited in Du Gauge's Glossary, v. Confarreatio: "Miciacum concedimus et quicquid est fisci nostri intra fluminum alveos et per sanctam confarreationem et annulum inexceptionaliter tradimus."

64. It was also a Hebrew custom. See Selden's Uxor Hebraica, lib. ii. cap. xv. Opera, iii. 633. In the same volume, p. 668, is a passage much to our purpose: "Quanquam sacra quae fuere in confarreatione paganica, utpote Christianismo plane adversantia, sub ejusdem initia, etiam apud Paganos evanuere nihilominus farris ipsius usus aliquis solennis in libis conficiendis, diffringendis, communicandis, locis saltern in nonnullis semper obtinuit. Certe frequentissimus apud Anglos est et antiquitus fuit liborum admodum grandium in nuptiis usus, quae BRIDECAKES, id est, liba sponsalitia seu nuptialia appellitant. Ea quae turn a sponsis ipsis confecta turn ab propinquis amicisque solenniter muneri nuptial! data."

65. In Swinburne's Treatise of Spousals, p. 207, we read: "The first inventor of the ring, as is reported (he cites Alberic de Rosa in suo Dictionar. v. Annulus), was one Prometheus. The workman which made it was Tubal-Cain: and Tubal-Cain, by the counsel of our first parent Adam (as my author telleth me), gave it unto his son to this end, that therewith he should espouse a wife like as Abraham delivered unto his servants bracelets and ear-rings of gold. The form of the ring being circular, that is, round and without end, importeth thus much, that their mutual love and hearty affection should roundly flow from the one to the other as in a circle, and that continually and for ever."

67. That this custom prevailed in France appears from the following passage in Du Breul's Theatre des Antiquitez de Paris, 1622, p. 90: "Quant a la Cour de l'Official, il se presente quelquns personnes qui ont forfaict a leur honneur, la chose estant averee, si Ton ny peult remedier autrement pour sauver l'honneur des maisons, Ton a accoustomee d'amener en ladicte eglise l'homme et la femme qui ont forfaict en leur honneur, et la estans conduicts par deux sergents (au cas qu'ils n'y veulent venir de leur bonne volonte) ilsont espousez ensemble par le cure dudict lieu avec un anneau depaille: leur enjoignant de vivre en paix et amitie, et ainsi couvrir 1'honneur des parens et amis ausquels ils appartiennent, et sauver leurs ames du danger ou ils s'estoient mis par leur peche et offense." One of the Constitutions of Richard Bishop of Salisbury, in 1217, cited by Du Cange, in his Glossary, v. Annulus, says: "Nee quisquam annulum dejunco vel quacunque vili materia vel pretiosa, jocando manibus innectat muliercularum, ut liberius cum eis fornicetur: ne dum jocari se putat, honoribus matrimonialibus se astringat." Douce refers Shakespeare's expression, "Tib's rush for Tom's forefinger," which has so long puzzled the commentators, to this custom. "L'official marie dans l'eglise de St. Marine ceux qui out forfait a leur honneur, ou ils sont epouses ensemble par le cure du lieu avec un anneau de paille." Sausal, Antiq. de Paris, i. 429. "Pour faire observer, sans doute," adds the editor of Le Voyageur a Paris, iii. 156, "au mari, combien etoit fragile la vertu de celle qu'il choisissait." Compare also the Traite des Superstitions, par M. Thiers, iii. 462, where Bishop Poore's Constitution is also quoted.

68. Gramin. Island., p. 4: "In his autem monumentis, ut in id genus fere omnibus, inscriptionum Runae in nodis sive gyris nodorum insculptae leguntur, propterea quod apud veteres septentrionales gentes nodus amoris, fidei, amicitiae symbolum fuisse videtur, ut quod insolubilem pictatis et affectus nexum significavit. Hinc apud boreales Anglos, Scotosque, qui Danorum veterum turn sermonem, turn mores magna ex parte adhuc retinent, nodus in gyros curiose ductus, fidei et promissionis quam Amasius et Amasia dare solent invicem, symbolum servatur, quodque ideo vocant a true-love knot, a veteri Danico trulofa fidem do. Hinc etiam apud Anglos Scotosque consuetudo reportandi capitalia donata curiose in gyros nodosque torta a solennibus nuptiis plane quasi symbola insolubilis fidei et affectus, quse sponsum inter et sponsam esse debent." Many of these Runic knots are engraved in Sturleson's History of Stockholm. The following is found in Selden's Uxor Hebraica (Opera, iii. 670): "Quin et post benedictionem per vittae candidae permissione et purpureae unum invicem vinculum (modum amatorium, a true-loves knot), copulabantur, inquit Isidorus, videlicet, ue compagem conjugalis unitatis disrumpant."

70. "Antequam eatur ad templum Jentaculum sponsse et invitatis apporiitur, serta atque corollae distribuuntur. Postea certo ordine viri prim tun cum sponso, deinde puellae cum sponsa in templum procedunt." Antiquitat. Convivial. foL 68.

71. "Paranymphi ejusmodi seu sponsi amici appellantur etiam vtol [Greek] (Matth. ix. 1ft) filii thalami nuptialis; qua de re optime vir praestantissimus Hugo Grotius. Singulare habetur et apud nos nomen ejusmodi eorum quos bride-knights, id est, ministros sponsalitios qui sponsam deducere solent, appellitamus." Seldeni Uxor Hebraica, Opera, iii. 638.

72. "In Anglia servatur ut duo pueri velut paranymphi, id est, auspices, qui olim pro nuptiis celebrandis auspicia capiebant, nubentem ad templum et inde domum duo viri deducant, et tertius loco facis, vasculum aureum, vel argenteum praeferat." This was called "the bride-cup." So we read in the account of the marriage of John Newchombe (cited by Strutt, ut supra), where, speaking of the bride's being led to church, it is added by the writer that "there was a fair bride-cup of silver-gilt, carried before her, wherein was a goodly branch of rosemary, gilded very fair, and hung about with silken ribbands of all colours." It is remarkable that Strutt (i. 77) should be at a loss to explain a man with a cup in his hand, in plate xiii. fig. 1, representing a marriage.

73. "In Anglia adhuc duo pueri mediam in templum, praecedcnte tibicirvedeferunt nupturam, duo conjugati referunt, his, tempore prandii, ob praestitam operam nova nupta dat chirothecas." Papatus, pp. 114-5.

75. See Ben Jonson's Tale of a Tub, where Turf, speaking of the intended bridegroom's first arrival, says: "Look, an the wenches ha' not found un out, and do present un with a van of rosemary, and bays enough to vill a bow-pott, or trim the head of my best vore-horse; we shall all ha' bride-laces, or points, I zee." Similar to this, in the Marrow of Complements, 1655, p. 49, a rustic lover tells his mistress that, at their wedding, "Wee'l have rosemary and bayes to vill a bow-pot, and with the zame He trim that vorehead of my best vore-horse." In the Knight of the Burning Pestle, act v. sc. 1, we read: "I will have no great store of company at the wedding, a couple of neighbours and their wives, and we will have a capon in stewed broth, with marrow, and a good piece of beef stuck with rosemary."

76. Seldini Uxor Hebraica, Opera, iii. 655. "Coronarum nuptialium mentio occurrit apud veteres paganos, quae item in ornamentis sponsorum Ebraicis, ut supra ostendimus."

77. Seldeni Uxor Hebraica, Opera iii. 661. "Coronas tenent a tergo paranymphi, quae capitibus sponsorum iterum a sacerdote non sine benedic-tione solenni aptantur." The form is given, p. 667: "Benedic, Domine, annulum istum et coronam istam, ut sicut annulus circumdat digitum hominis et corona caput, ita gratia Spiritus Sancti circumdet sponsum et sponsam, ut videant filios et filias usque ad tertiuru aut quartam generationem," &c.

78. Polydore Vergil. "Spicea autem corona (interdum florea) sponsa redimita, caput, praesertim ruri deducitur, vel manu gerit ipsam coronam." Compare Langley's transl. f. 9.

Concerning the crowns or garlands used by brides, see Leland, Col. v. 332. In the Dialogue of Dives and Pauper, 1493, "The sixte precepte, chap. 2," is the following curious passage: "Thre ornamentys longe pryncypaly to a wyfe: A rynge on hir fynger, a broch on hir brest, and a garland on hir hede. The ringe betokenethe true love, as I have seyd; the broch betokennethe clennesse in herte and chastitye that she oweth to have; the GARLANDE bytokeneth gladnesse and the dignitye of the sacrament of wedlok."

79. From the information of a person at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, who had often seen it done. A clergyman in Yorkshire told me that to prevent this very indecent assault, it is usual for the bride to give garters out of her bosom. I have sometimes thought this a fragment of the ancient ceremony of loosening the virgin zone, or girdle, a custom that needs no explanation. Compare also the British Apollo, 1710, iii. No. 91.

80. From passages in different works, it should seem that the striving for garters was originally after the bride had been put to bed. See Folly in Print, or a Book of Rhymes, p. 121; Stephens's Character of a Plaine Countrey Bride, p. 359; the old song of Arthur of Bradley; and a Sing-Song on Clarinda's Wedding, in R. Fletcher's Poems, 1656, p. 230. See also Ritson's Ancient Songs, 1792, p. 297.

81. In a curious manuscript in my possession, entitled A Monthes Jorney into Fraunce: Observations on it, 4to. without, date, but bearing internal evidence of having been written in the time of Charles the First (soon after his marriage with Henrietta Maria), and that the writer was a Regent M. A. of the University of Oxford, p. 82, is the following passage: "A scholler of the university never disfurnished so many of his friendes to provide for his jorney, as they (the French) doe neighbours, to adorne their weddings. At my being at Pontoise, I sawe mistres bryde returne from the church. The day before shee had beene somewhat of the condition of a kitchen wench, but now so tricked up with SCARFES, rings, and crosse-garters, that you never saw a Whitsun-lady better rigged. I should much have applauded the fellowes fortune, if he could have maryed the cloathes but (God be mercifull to hym!) he is chayned to the wench; much joy may they have together, most peerlesse couple, Hymen Hymenaei, Hymen, Hymen O Hymenaee! The match was now knytt up amongst them. I would have a French man marie none but a French woman."

82. See Mr. Douce's Essay on this subject in the Archaeologia of the Soc. of Antiq. vol. xii. In a book of some curiosity, entitled the French Garden, for English Ladyes and Gentlewomen to walke in, 1621, in a dialogue describing a lady's dress, the mistress thus addresses her waiting-woman: "Give me my girdle, and see that all the furniture be at it; looke if my cizers, the pincers, the pen-knife, the knife to close letters, with the bodkin, the ear-picker, and the scale be in the case: where is my purse to weare upon my gowne?"

83. Thus as to another part of the dress, in the old play of the Witch of Edmonton, 1658, p. 13, Old Carter tells his daughter and her sweetheart: "Your marriage-money shall be receiv'd before your wedding-shoes can be pulled on. Blessing on you both." So in Dekker's Match me in London: "I thinke your wedding-shoes have not been oft unty'd." Down answers, "Some three times."

84. Chaucer's Miller of Trumpington is represented as wearing a Sheffield knife:

and it is observable that all the portraits of Chaucer give him a knife hanging at his breast. I have an old print of a female foreigner, entitled "Forma Pallii mulieris Clevensis euntis ad forum," in which are delineated, as hanging from her girdle, her purse, her keys, and two sheathed knives. Among the women's trinkets about A.D. 1560, in the Four P's of John Heywood, occur:

"An olde marchant had hanging at his girdle, a pouch, a spectacle-case, a punniard, a pen and inckhorne, and a handkertcher, with many other trinkets besides, which a merry companion seeing, said it was like a habberdasher's shop of small ware's." Wits, Fits, and Fancies, 1614, p. 177.

85. In true Missale ad Usum Ecclesiae Sarisburiensis, 1555: "Statuantur vir et mulier ante ostium ecclesiae, sive in faciem ecclesiae, coram Deo et sacerdote et populo." See also the "Formula" in the Appendix to Hearne's Hist. and Antiq. of Glastonb. p. 309.

86. We read in Bridge's History of Northamptonshire, i. 135, that "Robert Fitz Roger, in the 6th Ed. I. entered into an engagement with Robert de Tybetot to marry, within a limited time, John, his son and heir, to Hawisia, the daughter of the said Robert de Tybetot, to endow her at the church-door, on her wedding day, with lands amounting to the value of one hundred pounds per annum."

87. "Post missam, panis, et vinum, vel aliud bonum potabile in vasculo proferatur, et gustent in nomine Domini, sacerdote primo sic dicente, 'Dominus vobiscum.'"

88. "Benedicatur panis et vinum vel aliud quid potabile in vasculo, et gustent in nomine Domini, sacerdote dicente, 'Dominus vobiscum.'" The form of benediction ran thus: "Benedic, Domine, panem istum et hunc potum et hoc vasculum, sicut benedixisti quinque panes in Deserto et sex hydrias in Chanaan Galileae, ut sint sani et sobrii atque immaculati omnes gustantes ex iis," &c.

89. In Coates's History of Reading, p. 225, under the year 1561, in the churchwardens' accounts of St. Lawrence's parish, is the following entry: "Bryde-past. It. receyved of John Radleye, vis. viijd." A note says: "Probably the wafers, which, together with sweet wine, were given after the solemnization of the marriage." See the account of the ceremony of the marriage between Frederick Count Palatine of the Rhine and the Princess Elizabeth; eldest daughter of King James the first, on St. Valentine's day, 1613, in Leland's Collectanea, vi. 335. So, at the marriage of Queen Mary and Philip of Spain, "wine and sops were hallowed." Leland, iv. 400.

90. This custom, too, has its traces in Gentilism. It is of high antiquity, says Malone, for it subsisted among our Gothic ancestors: "Ingressus domum convivialem sponsus cum pronubo suo, sumpto poculo, quod maritale, vocant, ac paucis a pronubo de mutato vitae genere prefatis, in signum constantiae, virtutis, defensionis et tutelae, propinat sponsae et simul morgennaticam (dotalitium ob virginitatem) promittit, quod ipsa grato animo recolens, pari ratione et modo, paulo post mutato in uxorium habitum operculo capitis, ingressa, poculum ut nostrates vocant, uxorium leviter delibans, amorem, fidem, diligentiam, et subjectionem promittit." Stiernhook de Jure Sueorum et Gothorum vetusto, 4to. 1672, p. 163.

91. Thus the York Missal: "Accipiat sponsus pacem (the pax) a sacerdote, et ferat sponsas, osculans earn, et nerainem alium, nee ipse nee ipsa."

92. 4to. Par. 1553, Kubrick, fol. 69: "Surgant ambo, sponsus et sponsa, et accipiat sponsus pacem a sacerdote, et ferat sponsse, osculans earn, et neminem alium, nee ipse nee ipsa."

93. Vaughan, in his Golden Grove, 1608, says: "Among the Romans, the future couple sent certain pledges one to another, which, most commonly, they themselves afterwards being present, would confirme with a religious kisse"

94. Nor is the nuptial kiss an English ceremony only. In the Dissertations sur les Antiquites de Russie, by Dr. Guthrie, already quoted, we have the following section among the marriage ceremonies, p. 129: "Kitra, ou baser d'amour des Grecs. Apres que la benediction nuptiale a declare les jeunes epoux mari et femme, ce caractere leur donne le droit de suivre une coutume aussi singuliere qu'ancienne, qui consiste a se donner le kitra des Grecs, ou le fameux baiser d'antiquite, si emblematique de 1'amour et de 1'attachement, dont Theocrite parle dans la cinquieme idylle, ou il represente une jeune nymphe qui se plaint amerement de son amant Alcippes; parce que 1'ingrat, a qui elle a bien voulu donner un baiser, a dedaigne de jouir de cette faveur selon la raaniere usitee, c'est-a-dire, en la prenant par les oreilles. Tibulle, dans sa cinquierae elegie, liv. II., et Ciceron dans sa vingt-septieme epitre familiere, citent pareillement ce temoignage curieux de 1'amour, que nous trouvons encore en usage parmi les paysans Russes, lorsqu'une fois engages par le lien du manage ils se donnent le premier baiser conjugal."

95. Blount in v. In the Hereford Missal it is directed that at a particular prayer the married couple shall prostrate themselves, while four clerks hold the pall, i.e. the care cloth over them. See the Appendix to Hearne's Glastonbury, p. 309 et seq. The Rubric in the Sarum Manual is somewhat different: "Prosternat se sponsus et sponsa in oratione ad gradum altaris, extenso super eos pallio, quod teneant quatuor clerici per quatuor cornua in superpelliciis." The York Manual also differs here: "Missa dein celehratur, illis genuflectentibus sub pallio super eos extento, quod teneant duo clerici in superpelliceis."

96. Something like this care cloth is used by the modern Jews, from whom it has probably been derived into the Christian church: "There is a square vestment called Taleth, with pendents about it, put over the head of the bridegroom and the bride together." See Leo Modena's Rites of the Jews, by Chilmead, 1650, p. 176. Levi, in his Succinct Account of the Rites and Ceremonies of the Jews as observed by them in their different dispersions throughout the World at this present time, p. 132, speaks of a "velvet canopy." He adds, that when the priest has taken the glass of wine into his hand, he says as follows: "Blessed art thou, Lord-our God! King of the universe, the creator of the fruit of the vine. Blessed art thou, O Lord our God! King of the universe, who hath sanctified us with his commandments, and hath forbid us fornication, and hath prohibited unto us the betrothed, but hath allowed unto us those that are married unto us by the means of the CANOPY and the wedding-ring: blessed art thou, Lord! the sanctifier of his people Israel, by the means of the CANOPY and wedlock."

97. I know not the meaning of the following lines in Christopher Brooke's Epthalamium:

98. We learn from Loccenius that penny bridals were common in Sweden. The custom has probably existed from an early period. "In nonnullis locis sumtus nuptialis ab invitatis hospitibns in cranio vel collectis solent adjuvari ac sublevari: qunm plures unam facilius, quam unus et solus seipsum impensis majori instruere possit." Antiq. Suio-Goth., p. 109.

99. In the Glossarium Suio-Gothicura, auctore I. Hire, fol. Upsaliae, 1769, we read: "BRUDSKAL. Gifwa i Brudskdlen dicitur de erano vel munere collectitio quod sponsae die nuptiarum a convivis in pateram mittitur, habito antea brevi sermone a praesente sacerdote. Nescio, an hue quicquam faciat tributum illud, quod in Gallia sponsae dabatur escuellatta dictum, et de quo Du-Fresne in Gloss. Lat." Ibid. v. JUL. p. 1005: HEMKOMOL, convivium quod novi conjuges in suis eedibus instruunt."

100. Compare Jamieson's Etymolog. Dict, of the Scottish Language, v. Bruse. I know not whether the following passage is to be referred to this, or is given only as describing the bridegroom's awkwardness in supping broth. New Essayes and Characters, by John Stephens, 1631, p. 353, speaking of a plain country bridegroom, the author says: "Although he points out his bravery with ribbands, yet hath he no vaine glory; for he coutemnes fine cloathes with dropping pottage in his bosome."

101. "Ce sont des insolences, plutot que des superstitions, que ce qui se pratique en certains lieux, ou l'on a de coutume de jetter de l'eau benite sur les personnes qui viennent de fiancer, lorsqu'elles sortent de 1'eglise; de les battre, quand ils sont d'une autre paroisse; de les enfermer dans les eglises; d'exiger cfelles de l'argent pour boire; de les prendre par la foi du corps, et de les porter dans les cabarets; de les insulter; et de faire de grands bruits, de grandes huees, et des charivaris, quand elles refusent de donner de l'argent a ceux qui leur en demandent. Mais ces insolences sont proscrites." Traite des Superstitions, par Jean Baptiste Tluers, 12mo. Par, 1704, iii. 477.

102. Torches are used at Turkish marriages: thus Selden, "Deductio sequitur in domum, nee sine facibus, et sponsa matri sponsa traditur. Quamprimum vero sponsa cubiculum ingreditur, maritus pede suo uxoris pedem tangit statimque amho recluduntur." Uxor Hebraica. (Opera, iii. 686.)

103. In Herrick's Hesperides, p. 2,58, are ten short songs, or rather choral gratulations, entitled, "Counubii Floras, or the Well-Wishes at Wedding."

104. It appears from the Account of the Marriage Ceremonials of Philip Herbert and the Lady Susan, in the time of James I., that in grand weddings it was usual to have a masque at night. "At night there was a masque in the hall."

105. In Strype's Annals of the Reformation, ii. 394, anno 1575, among the various sports, &c. used to entertain Queen Elizabeth at Kenilworth Castle, he tells us: "That afternoon (as the relator expresseth it), in honour of this Kenilworth Castle, and of God and St. Kenelme (whose day by the kalendar this was), was a solemn country bridal, with running at quintin." The queen stayed here nineteen days.

106. "Quanquam Plinius, lib. xv. cap. 22, causas alias adfert, quam ob rera nuces in nuptialibus ceremoniis consueverint antiquitus adhiberi; sed praestat ipsius referre verba: Nuces, inquit, juglandes quanquam et ipsse nuptialium Fescenninorum comites, multum pineis minores universitate, eaedemque portione ampliores nucleo. Nee non et honor his nature peuliaris, gemino protectis operimento, pulvinati primum calycis, raox lignei putaminis. Quse causa eas nuptiis fecit religiosas, tot modis foetu munito: quod est verisimilius," &c. See Erasmus on the proverb, "Nuces relinere." Adag. fol. Col. Allobr. 1606, col. 1356. The Roman boys had port or other with nuts, to which Horace refers in these words:

107. Vallancey adds: "This is now played as a game by the youths of both sexes in Ireland. The Irish Seic Seona (Shec Shona) was readily turned into Jack Stones by an English ear, by which name this game is now known by the English in Ireland. It has another name among the vulgar, viz. Gob-stones."

108. Antiquitat. Convivial., f. 229. There was an ancient superstition, that for a bride to have good fortune it was necessary at her marriage that she should enter the house under two drawn swords placed in the manner of a St. Andrew's cross. "Si sponsa debet habere bonam fortunam, oportet quod in nuptiis ingrediatur domum sub duobus evaginatis gladiis, positis ad moduin crucis S. Andres." Delrio Disquisit. Magic, p. 454, from Beezius.

109. "Tempus quoque nuptiarum celebrandarum," says Stuckius, "cerium a veteribus definitum et constitutum esse invenio. Concilii Ilerdensis, xxxiii. 9, 4. Et in Decreto Ivonis, lib. 6, non oportet a Septuagesima usque in Octavam Paschae, et tribus Hebdomadihus ante Festivitatem S. Joannis Baptists, et ab adventu Domini usque post Epiphaniam, nuptias celebrare. Quod si factum fuerit, separentur." Antiquitat. Conviv. p. 72. See also the Formula in the Append, to Hearne's Hist. and Antiq. of Glastonbury, p. 309.

110. "The bryde anoynted the poostes of the doores with swyne's grease, because she thought by that meanes to dryve awaye all misfortune, whereof she had her name in Latin, 'Uxor ab ungendo.'" Langley's transl. of Polyd. Vergil, f. 9.

111. It is so called by Smollet in his Humphrey Clinker, and also hinted at by Herrick in his Hesperides, p. 132:

112. I found the subsequent clause in a curious MS. in the Cotton Library, Vitell. E. 5. entitled, Excerpta ex quodam antiquo registro prioris de Tyriemouth, remanente apud comitem Northumbrian de Baroniis et Feodis: Rentale de Tynemuth, fact urn A.D. 1378. "Omnes tenentes de Tynemouth, cum contigerit, solvent Layrewite filiabus vel ancillis suis et etiam Merchet pro filiabus suis maritandis."

113. Blount's Jocular Tenures, by Beckwith, 1784, p. 296. A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1751, xxi. 248, attributes the origin of this ceremony to an ancient institution of the Lord Fitzwatter, in the reign of King Henry III., who ordered that "whatever married man did not repent of his marriage, or quarrel with his wife, in a year and a day after it, should go to his priory, and demand the bacon, on his swearing to the truth, kneeling on two stones in the churchyard." The form and ceremony of the claim, as made in 1701 by William Parsley, of Much Easton, in the county of Essex, butcher, and Jane his wife, is detailed in the same page.

114. This punishment, however, seems only to have been inflicted on those who, availing themselves of the beauty of their wives, made a profit of their prostitution. See Colmenar's Delices de 1'Espagne et du Portugal, where, speaking of the manners of the Spaniards, v. 839, he says: "Lorsqu'un homme surprend sa femme en adultere, il peut la tuer avec son corrupteur, et l'impunite lui est assuree. Mais si, sachant que sa femme lui fait porter les cornes, il le souffre pour en tirer quelque profit, lorsque on vient a le decouvrir, on le saisit lui et sa femme, on les met ehacun a chevauchon sur un ane, on lui attache a la tete une belle grand paire de cornes, avec des sonnettes, en cet etat on 1'expose en montre au peuple. La femme est obligee de fouetter son mari, et elle est fouettee en meme temps par le bourreau." This account is also accompanied by a print.

117. In Spain it is a crime as such punishable by the laws to put up horns against a neighbour's house, as to have written a libel against him.

118. In the Blazon of Jealousie, 1615, p. 57, we are told a very different story of a swan. "The tale of the su-anne about Windsor finding a strange cocke with his mate, and how far he swam after the other to kill it, and then, returning hacke, slew his hen also (this being a certain truth, and not many yeers done upon this our Thames), is so well knowne to many gentlemen, and to most watermen of this river, as it were needlesse to use any more words about the same."

119. "The lightness of his wife shines through it, and yet cannot he see, though he have his own lantern to light him." Shaks. This joke seems evidently to have been taken from that of Plautus: "Quo ambulas tu, qui Vulcanum in cornu conclusum geris?" (Amph. act i. sc. 1), and much improved. We need not doubt that a joke was here intended by Plautus; for the proverbial term of horns for cuckoldom is very ancient, as appears by Artemidorus, who says: "[Greek]." [Greek]. lib, ii. cap. 12. And he copied from those before him.

120. "Here," says Jamieson, "we have evidently the remains of a very ancient custom. The Goths were wont to erect what they called nidstaeng, or the pole of infamy, with the most dire imprecations against the person who was thought to deserve this punishment; Isl. nidstong. He who was subjected to this dishonour was called niding, to which the English word infamous most nearly corresponds; for he could not make oath in any cause. The celebrated Islandic bard, Egill Skallagrim, having performed this tremendous ceremony at the expense of Eric Bloddox, King of Norway, who, as he supposed, had highly injured him, Eric soon after became hated by all, and was obliged to fly from his dominions, v. 0l. Lex. Run. v. nijd. The form of imprecation is quoted by Callender, ut supra. It may be added, that the custom of 'riding the stang' seems also to have been known in Scandinavia; for Seren gives stonghesten as signifying the rod, or roddle-horse; v. rod."

121. Arga, in Sir Henry Spelman's Glossary, is rendered by curruca and cucurbita, i.e. cuckold, or coucold. For the French call a gourd, coucord; and we only change their r into 1, as we say Coriander for their Coliander, coronel for their colonel, &c. Such a blockhead, then, that hath caput eucurbitinum, is called arga, as Paul. Diacon. de Gest. Longobard., perhaps from the Greek [Gr.], i.e. one that doth not his work or business, and so corbita in LL. Longobard. signifies advoutery and whoredom, which Martinus derives from [Gr.], a tree of a saddle, and says kurba in the Sclavonian signifies a lewd woman, as kurvin, to bow down, c., from curvare, as fornication from fornix, and probably hence comes our word pumpkin for a silly rude fellow.

122. Thus described in the Connoisseur, No. 56: "I got up last May morning, and went into the fields to hear the cuckoo, and when I pulled off my left shoe I found a hair in it exactly the same colour with his."

123. In Paradoxical Assertions and Philosophical Problems, by R. H., 8vo. Lond. 1664, p. 5, "Why cuckolds are said to wear horns?" we read: "Is not this monster said to wear the horns because other men with their two fore-fingers point and make horns at him?" Ibid. p. 28: "Why the abused husband is called cuckold? Since Plautus wittily, and with more reason, calls the adulterer, and not him whose wife is adulterated, cuculum, the cuckold, because he gets children on others' wives, which the credulous father believes his own: why should not he then that corrupts another man's wife be rather called the cuckow, for he sits and sings merrily whilst his eggs are hatched by his neighbour's hens?"

124. In his Asinaria, v. 2, he makes a woman thus speak of her husband: "Ac etiam cubat cuculus, surge, amator, i domum;" and again: "Cano capite te cuculum uxor domum exlustris rapit." And yet in another place, viz. the Pseudolus, i. 1, where Pseudolus says to Callidorus, "Quid fles, cucule?" the above sense is out of the question, and it is to be taken merely as a term of reproach. Horace certainly uses the word as it is explained by Pliny in the passage already given, and the conclusion there drawn appears to be that which best reconciles the more modern sense of the term being likewise supported by a note in the Variorum Horace:

"Cuculum credi supposititios adsciscere pullos, quod enim sit timidus, et defendendi impar, cum etiam a minimis velli avibus. Avis autem quas pullos ipsius rapiunt suos ejicere, eo quod cuculi pullus sit elegans." Antigoni Carystii Hist. Mirabilium, 4to. 1619. The application of the above passage to our use of the word cuckold, as connected with the cuckoo, is, that the husband, timid, and incapable of protecting his honour, like that bird, is called by its name and thus converted into an object of contempt and derision. "Curuca, avis quse alienos pullos nutrit. Currucare, aliquem currucam facere ejus violando uxorem." Vetus Glossar. inter MSS. Bernens. vide Sinnei Catal., i. 412.

125. I find the following most spirited invective against the pernicious vice in Cotgrave's English Treasury of Wit and Language, 1655, p. 136:

126. "His gowned brothers follow him, and bring him to his long home. A short peale closeth up his funeral-pile." An hospital man, in Whimsies, or a New Cast of Characters, 12mo. 1631, p. 64. See Ibid. p. 206.

127. The following is a passage in Stubbs's Anatomie of Abuses, 1585, p. 75 He is relating the dreadful end of a swearer in Lincolnshire. "At the last, the people perceiving his ende to approche, caused the bell to tolle; who, hearing the bell toll for him, rushed up in his bed very vehemently."

128. Cassation has this taunt against the Protestants: "Though," says he, "the English now deny that prayers are of any service to the dead, yet I could meet with no other account of this ceremony than that it was a custom of the old church of England, i.e. the church of Rome. Et talis ritus etiam de praesenti servatur in Anglia, ut cum quis decessit, statim campana propriae illius parochiae speciali quodam modo sonat per aliquod temporis spatium. Quamvis Angli negent modo orationes et suffragia defunctis proficua : non aliam tamen in hoc ab illis rationem potui percipere, quam quod talis sonus sit ritus antiquae ecclesiae Anglicanae,'" Cassal. de Vet. Sac. Christ. Rit. p. 241. Bourne, Antiq. Vulg. ch. i. Cassalion should have consulted Durand's Rationale.

129. Durandus says: "Item ut daemones tinnitu campanarum, Christianos ad preces concitantium, terreantur. Formula vero baptizandi seu benedicendi campanas antiqua est." Rationale, lib. C. xxii. sec. 6.

130. Grose tells us of another remarkable superstition: that "It is impossible for a person to die whilst resting on a pillow stuffed with the feathers of a dove; but that he will struggle with death in the most exquisite torture. The pillows of dying persons are therefore frequently taken away, when they appear in great agonies, lest they may have pigeon's feathers in them."

131. "Unde dicunt in proverbio Deus miserere animabus dixit Oswaldus, cadens in terram." Bed. Hist. Eccl. 1. iii. c. 12.

132. "Haec, tune in dormitorio sororum pausans, exaudivit subito in aere notum campanae sonum quo ad orationes excitari vel convocari solebant, cum quis eorum de seculo fuisset evocatus. Quod cum ilia audisset, suscitavit cunctas sorores, et in ecclesiam convocatas, orationibus et psalmis pro anima matris operam dare monuit." Bed. Eccles. Hist. lib. iv. cap. 23.

133. In a Funeral Oration made the 14th daye of January by John Hoper, the yeare of oure Salvation 1549, 12mo. 1550, occurs this singular passage: "Theyr remedyes be folyshe and to be mocked at, as the ryngynge of belles, to ease the pay ne of the dead, wythe other," as if the purpose of tolling the passing-bell had been intended to give an easy passage to the dying person. The following passage is from Veron's Hunting of Purgatory to Death, 1561, f. 60: "If they shoulde tolle theyr belles (as they did in good Kynge Edwardes dayes) when any bodye is drawing to his ende and departinge out of this worlde, for to cause all inenne to praye unto God for him, that of his accustomed goodnesse and mercye, he should vouchsafe to receave him unto his rnercye, forgevinge him all his sinnes: their ringinge shuld have better appearance and should be more conformable to the aunciente catholicke churche." In the Diarey of Robert Birrel, preserved in Fragments of Scottish History, 1798, is the following curious entry: "1566. The 25 of October, vord came to the toune of Edinburge, from the queine, yat her majestic was deadly seike, and desyrit ye bells to be runge, and all ye peopill to resort to ye kirk to pray for her, for she wes so seike that none lipned her life," i.e. expected her to live.

135. "Verum aliquo moriente, campanae debent pulsari; ut populus hue audiens, oret pro illo. Pro muliere quidem bis, pro eo quod invenit asperitatera. Primo enirn fecit hominem alienum a Deo, quare secunda dies non habuit benedictionem. Pro viro verb ter pulsatur, quia primo inventa est in homine Trinitas: primo enim formatus est Adam de terra, deinde mulier ex Adam, postea homo creatus est ab utroque, et ita est ibi Trini-tas. Si autem clericus sit, tot vicibus simpulsatur, quot ordines habuit ipse. Ad nltimum verb compulsari debet cum omnibus campanis, ut ita sciat populus pro quo sit orandum. Debet etiam compulsari quando ducitur ad ecclesiam, et quando de ecclesia ad tumulum deportatur." Durandi Rationale, lib. i. c. 4, 13. A similar passage is found in an old English Homily for Trinity Sunday. See Strutt's Manners and Customs, iii. 176: "The fourme of the Trinity was founden in manne, that was Adam our forefadir, of earth oon personne, and Eve of Adam the secunde persone; and of them both was the third persone. At the death of a manne three bellis shulde be rorige, as his knyll, in worscheppe of the Trinetee, and for a womanne, who was the secunde persone of the Trinetee two bellis should be rungen."

136. See some curious particulars upon the subject of bells in Sir Henry Spelman's History of Sacrilege, p. 284, et seq. The same learned writer, in his Glossary, in v. Campana, has preserved two monkish lines on the subject of the ancient offices of bells:

I find the following monkish rhymes on hells in a Helpe to Discourse, 1633, p. 63, in which the first of these lines is repeated:

137. "Nolae etymologiam in obscuro positara esse, affirmare ausim; etsi .nonnulli, ut Polydorus Virgilius de Inventoribus Rerum, lib. iii. cap. 18, et alii tintinnabulura dici Nolam credederint, a Nola Campaniae urbe, cujus episcopus Paulinus nola;, sive campanae inventor fuerit: qua in re hallucinantur, nam ante Paulinum Episcopum Nolanum, de quo Gennadius in additamentis ad D. Hyeronymi librum de viris illustribus scribens niliil tale profert, Noise mentionem fecit Quintilianus, qui Domitiani imperatoris retate floruit. Satis enim illud tritum est sermone proverbium. In cubi culo Nola." Magius de Tintinnabulis, pp. 7, 8. Cf. Spelman in v, Ccuupana.

138. "Cum vero post haec Johannes Papa in urbem rediisset, contigit primariam Laterenensis ecclesiae campanam mirse magnitudinis, recens sere fusam super campanile elevari, quam prius idem pontifex sacris ritibus Deo consecravit atque Johannis nomine nuncupavit." Baronii Annal. a Spondano, A.D. 968, p. 871.

139. Delrio, in his Magical Disquisitions, lib. vi. p. 527, denies that bells were baptized: "Recte docuit Cardinalis Hosius campanas non baptizari sed benedici. Legant ipsum Pontificale Romanum: de baptismo nihil invenient. Legant Alcuinum Flaccum et reperient haec verba, 'Neque novum videri debet campanas denedicere et ungere et eis nomen imponere.' En tibi vere et integre ritum totum, an hoc est baptizare?"

140. "Fecit ipse fieri duas magnas campanas quas Bartholomaeum et Bettelmum cognominavit, et duas medias quas Turketulum et Tatvinum vocavit, et duas minores quas Pegam et Begam appellavit. Fecerat antea fieri Dominus Turketulus Abbas uftam maximam campanam nomine Guthlacum, quse cum predictis campanis fuit composita fiebat mirabilis harmonia, nee erat tune talis consonantia campanarum in tota Anglia." Historia Ingulphi, Rerum Anglicar. Script. Vet. 1684, i. 53.

141. Durand tells us, "In festis quae ad gratiam pertinent, campanae tumultuosius tinniunt et prolixius concrepant." Rationale, lib. i. cap. 4, 12.

142. "Campanarum pulsatio in adventu episcoporum et abbatum in ecclesias qu iis subditse sunt, in charta compositionis inter archiepiscopum Cantuar. et abbat. S. Aug. Cantuar." apud Will. Thorn, p. 1882, 1883. Mon. Ang. tom. iii. p. 164. Matth. Paris, an. 1245, p. 463, &c. See Du Cange, voce Campana. "Tradit continuator Nangii, an. 1378. Carolum IV. imperatorem cum in Galliam verfit, nullo campanarum sonitu exceptum in urbibus, quod id sit signum dominii: Et est assavoir que en la dite Ville, et semblablement par toutes les autres villes, ou il a este, tant en venant a Paris, comme en son retour, il n'a este receu en quelque Eglise a procession, ni cloches sonnees a son venir, ne fait aucun signe de quelque domination ne seigneurie," &c. Vide Du Cange, Gloss, ut supra.

143. Bishop Kennet, in one of his manuscripts, says: "Non pulsare carapanas in adventu episcopi signum contemptus et vilipendii manifeste, pro quo vicarius citatur ad respondend: Anno 1444, Reg. Alnewyk Episc. Line."

144. In Campanologia, or the Art of Ringing, 1753, p. 200, we have: "A funeral or dead peal. It being customary not only in this city of London, upon the death of any person that is a member of any of the honourable societies of ringers therein, but likewise in most counties and towns in England (not only upon the death of a ringer, but likewise of any young man or woman), at the funeral of every such person to ring a peal; which peal ought to be different from those for mirth and recreation (as the musick at the funeral of any master of musick, or the ceremony at the funeral of any person belonging to military discipline), and may be performed two different ways: the one is by ringing the bells round at a set pull, thereby keeping them up so as to delay their striking, that there may be the distance of three notes at least (according to the true compass of ringing upon other occasions) between bell and bell; and having gone round one whole pull every bell (except the tenor), to set and stand, whilst the tenor rings one pull in the same compass as before; and this is to be done whilst the person deceased is bringing to the ground; and after he is interred, to ring a short peal of round ringing, or changes in true time and compass, and so conclude. The other way is called buffeting the bells, that is, by tying pieces of leather, old hat, or any other thing that is pretty thick, round the ball of the clapper of each bell, and then by ringing them as before is shown, they make a most doleful and mournful sound: concluding with a short peal after the funeral is over (the clappers being clear as at other times): which way of buffeting is most practised in this city of London."

145. [We are indebted for some of our additions to this article to a very valuable paper on the subject by Mr. Syer Cuming.]

146. Henry, in his History of Britain, 4to. iii. 567, tells us, "The custom of covering up their fires about sunset in summer, and about eight at night in winter, at the ringing of a bell called the couvre-feu or curfew bell, is supposed by some to have been introduced by William I., and imposed upon the English as a badge of servitude. But this opinion doth not seem to be well founded; for there is sufficient evidence that the same custom prevailed in France, Spain, Italy, Scotland, and probably in all the countries of Europe, in this period, and was intended as a precaution against fires, which were then very frequent and very fatal, when so many houses were built of wood."

147. Dr. Jamieson says: "This ancient custom most probably originated from a silly superstition with respect to the danger of a corpse being carried off by some of the agents of the invisible world, or exposed to the ominous liberties of brute animals. But, in itself, it is certainly a decent and proper one; because of the possibility of the person, considered as dead, being only in a swoon. Whatever was the original design, the likivake seems to have very early degenerated into a scene of festivity extremely incongruous to the melancholy occasion."

149. See also the Survey of the South of Ireland, 8vo. p. 210. In the Gent. Mag. for August 1771, xli. 351, it is said of a girl who was killed by lightning in Ireland, that she could not be waited within doors, an expression which is explained as alluding to a custom among the Irish of dressing their dead in their best clothes, to receive as many visitors as please to see them; and this is called keeping their wake. The corpse of this girl, it seems, was so offensive, that this ceremony could not be performed within doors.

Hutchinson, in his History of Cumberland, i. 553, speaking of the parish of Whitbeck, says: "People always keep wake with the dead." In the Statistical Account of Scotland, parish of Cruden, Aberdeenshire, v. 435, we read: "Of all those who attended the late-u-ake of a person who died of a putrid fever, not one escaped catching the infection." And a note tells us that the late-wake is a practice common in many parts of Scotland, and not yet exploded here, of people sitting up all night with the corpse in the chamber of the deceased. Ibid. xv. 372, parish of Campsie, co. Stirling, we read: "It was customary for them to have at least two lyke-wakes (the corpse being kept two nights before the interment), where the young neighbours watched the corpse, being merry or sorrowful, according to the situation or rank of the deceased." Waldron, in his Description of the Isle of Man, p. 170, says that "when a person dies, several of his acquaintance come to sit up with him, which they call the wake. The clerk of the parish is obliged to sing a psalm, in which all the company join; and after that they begin some pastime to divert themselves, having strong beer and tobacco allowed them in great plenty. This is a custom borrowed from the Irish, as indeed are many others much in fashion with them."

"The lik-wake is retained in Sweden, where it is called wakstuga, from wak-a, to watch, and perhaps stnga, a room, an apartment, or cottage. Ihre observes, that 'although these wakes should be dedicated to the contemplation of our mortality, they have been generally passed in plays and compotations, whence they were prohibited in public edicts.' v. Wake." Jamieson.

150. Durand cites one of the ancient councils, in which it is observed that psalms were wont to be sung, not only when the corpse was conducted to church, but that the ancients watched on the night before the burial, and spent the vigil in singing psalms. "Porro observandum est, nedum psalmos cani consuetum, cum funus ducitur, sed etiam nocte qua praecedit funus, veteres vigilasse nocturnasque vigilias canendis psalmis egisse." p. 232. So also St. Gregory, in the epistle treating of the death of his sister Macrina, says: "Cum igitur nocturna pervigilatio, ut in martyrum celebritate canendis psalmis perfecta esset, et crepusculum advenisset/' &c. ibid. It appears that among the primitive Christians the corpse was sometimes kept four days. Pelagia, in Gregory of Turon. requests of her son, "ne earn ante diem quartum sepeliret."

151. To streek, to expand, or stretch out, from the Anglo-Saxon rtiecan, extendere. See Benson's Anglo-Saxon Vocabulary, in v. A streeking-board is that on which they stretch out and compose the limbs of the dead body.

152. The face-cloth, too, is of great antiquity. Strutt tells us that after the closing of the eyes, &c. a linen cloth was put over the face of the deceased. Thus we are told that "Henry IV., in his last illness, seeming to be dead, his chamberlain covered his face with a linen cloth." Engl. Æra, p. 105.

153. Misson, in his Travels in England, translated by Ozell, p. 89, mentions, under the head of Funerals, "the washing the body thoroughly clean, and shaving it, if it be a man, and his beard be grown during his sickness."

154. Stafford, in his Niobe, or his Age of Teares, 1611, p. 162, says: "I am so great an enemy to ceremonies, as that I would onelie wish to have that one ceremonie at my buriall, which I had at my birth, I mean swadlirff, and yet I am indifferent for that too."

155. "Quinetiam sanctorum corpora, manibus erectis supinisque excipere, occludere oculos, ora obturare, decenter ornare, lavare accurate, et liuteo funebri involvere," &c. Durand. de Ritibus, p. 224. We have the very coffin of the present age described in Durand. "Corpus lotum et sindone obvolutum, ac loculo conditum, veteres in coenaculis, seu tricliniis exponebant." p. 225. Loculus is a box or chest. Thus in old registers I find coffins called kists, i.e. chests. See Gough's Sepulchr. Monuments, ii. Introd. p. 5.

"The custome is to spread abroad White linens, grac'd with splendour pure." Beaumont.

156. In Articles to be enquired of within the Archdeaconry of Yorke, by the Churchwardens and Sworne Men, A.D. 163, I find the following curious item: "Whether at the death of any, there be any superstitious burning of candles over the corpse in the day, after it be light."

157. "Salem abhorre constat diabolum, et ratione optima nititur, quia sal aeternitatis est et immortalitatis signum, neque putredine neque corruptione infestatur unquam, sed ipse ab his omnia vendicat." Moresini Papatus, p. 154. Considered in reference to this symbolical explication, how beautiful is that expression, "Ye are the salt of the earth!" Reginald Scot, in his Discourse concerning Devils and Spirits, p. 16, cites Bodin, as telling us that "the devil loveth no salt in his meat, for that is a sign of eternity, and used by God's commandment in all sacrifices." Douce says, the custom of putting a plate of salt upon corpses is still retained in many parts of England, and particularly in Leicestershire, hut it is not done for the reason here given. The pewter plate and salt are laid on the corpse with an intent to hinder air from getting into the bowels, and swelling up the belly, so as to occasion either a bursting, or, at least, a difficulty in closing the coffin. See Gent. Mag. for 1785, lv. 603, 760.

158. "Lucerna, seu candela mortuis cadaveribus semper apponitur in domibus et templis, quamdiu supra terram sunt, et frequenter toto anno post humationem. An hinc ducto more, oculo, vel lucerna incensa veterea Egyptii vitam significabant, unde veteres soliti sunt lucernas ardentes sepulchris imponere, hac saltern ratione significantes se mortuorum quamdiu possent vitas producturos." Moresini Papatus, p. 89. "Jubet papa cadaveris expiationes fieri, ut quod valde immundum est, aspergatur aqua benedicta, thurificetur, exorcisetur sacris orationibus, illustretur sacris luminibus, quousque supra terram fuerit," &c. Ibid. p. 26.

159. "Convivia funebria Cecrops primus instituit prudenter, ut amici arnicitiam fortasse remissam renovarent, et pro uno defuncto acquirerent his mediis plures amicos, &c. In Anglia ita strenue hanc curam obeunt, ut viliori pretio constet elocatio filifle, quam uxoris mortua inhuniatio." Moresini Papatus, &c. p. 44.

160. Gough, in the introduction to the second volume of his Sepulchral Monuments, p. 6, says: "An entertainment, or supper, which the Greeks called [Gr.], and Cicero circompotatio, made a part of a funeral, whence our practice of giving wine and cake among the rich, and ale among the poor." The ancients had several kinds of suppers made in honour of the deceased. First, that which was laid upon the funeral pile, such as we find in the 23d book of Homer, and the 6th Æneid of Virgil; Catullus, Ep. lv.; Ovid, Fasti, ii. Secondly, the supper given to the friends and relations at their return from the funeral, as in the 24th book of Homer's Iliad, in honour of Hector. This kind of supper is mentioned in Lucian's treatise of Grief, and Cicero's third book of Laws. Thirdly, the silicernium, a supper laid at the sepulchre, called [Gr.]. Others will have it to be a meeting of the very old relations, who went in a very solemn manner after the funeral, and took their leaves one of the other, as if they were never to meet again. The fourth was called epulum novendiale.

161. "In northern customs duty was exprest
        To friends departed by their fun'ral feast.
        Tho' I've consulted Hollingshead and Stow,
        I find it very difficult to know
        Who, to refresh th' attendants to the grave,
        Burnt claret first, or Naples-hisket gave."
                King's Art of Cookery, p. 65.

162. See also Hayward's Life and Reigne of King Henry IV., 4to. 1599, p. 135: "Then hee (King Richard II.) was conveyed to Langley Abby in Buckinghamshire, and there obscurely interred, without the charge of a dinner for celebrating the funeral."

163. [Until the time of Cuthbert, Archbishop of Canterbury, whose pontificate began A.D. 740, and ended in 748, the custom of burying within the precincts of towns and cities did not prevail. Vide Matt. Parker's Antiq. p. 91, and Staveley's Hist. of Churches, p. 26.]

164. [It was the practice among the Romans to lay the dead body in the porch of their houses, near the threshold, that passengers might inspect it, and be satisfied whether there were any signs of a violent death. For the benefit of a clearer view, the corpse was set in the position here mentioned, the feet towards the door; which custom Perseus thus alludes to in his third Satire:

This mode of placing the dead was likewise in use among the Greeks Hom. II. xix. v. 212.]

165. "E.g. at Llanggors, where Mr. Gwin, the minister, about 1640, could not hinder the performance of this ancient custome."

166. MS. Lansd. 226, fol. 116. In another page Aubrey says: "A.D. 1686. This custom is used to this day in North Wales;" where milk seems to have been the substitute for beer.

167. See Collier's Ecclesiastical History, i. 487: Mortuaries were called by our Saxon ancestors saul foeat; (soul shot, or payment). See a curious account of them in Dugdale's History of Warwickshire, 1st edit. p. 679. See also Cowel's Law Interpreter, in voce; and Selden's History of Tithes, p. 287.

168. Graves were anciently called pyttes. See Strutt's Manners and Customs, iii. 172.

170. "Praecedenti pompa funebri, vivi sequuntur, tanquam haud multo post morituri." Alex, ab Alexand. iii. 67. Polyd. Verg. lib. vi. c. 10, p. 405. So, in Langley's translation of Polydore Vergil, fol. 128, we read: "In burials the old rite was that the ded corpse was borne afore, and the people folowed after, as one should saie we shall dye and folowe after hym, as their laste wordes to the coarse did pretende. For thei used to saie, when it was buried, on this wise, Farewell, wee come after thee, and of the folowyng of the multitude thei were called exequies."

173. The reader conversant in the classics will call to mind here the beautiful thought in the idyllium on Bion, by Moschus, iii. 1, 100; though the fine spirit of it will evaporate when we apply it to the Christian doctrine of the resurrection. The antithesis will be destroyed. We quote from the translation by Fawkes:

174. "Esedera quoque, vel laurus, et hujusmodi, quae semper servant virorem, in sarcophago corpori substernuntur; ad significandum quod, si nioriuntur in Christo, vivere non desinent." In some places, he says that coals, holy water, and frankincense are put into the grave. "Carbones in testimonium quod terra ilia ad communes usus amplius redigi uon potest. Plus enim durat carbo sub terra quam aliud." The holy water was to drive away the devils; the frankincense to counteract the ill smells of the body. Durandi Rationale, lib. vii. cap. 35, 38. In the old play of the Fatall Dowry, 1632, act ii. sc. 1, are some curious thoughts on this subject, spoken at the funeral of a marshal in the army, who died in debt, on account of which the corpse was arrested:

175. In Magna Carta, &c., 1566, Secunda Pars veterum Statutorum, I find the statute, "Ne rector prosternet arbores in cemiterio; Quoniam inter rectores ecclesiarum et suos parochianos super arboribus crescentibus in cemiterio altercationes oriri sepius intelleximus, utrisque ad se pertinere contendentibus: hujusmodi altercationis dubium declarare juris scripti potius quam statuti juris estimamus. Nam cum cemiterium maxime dedicatum solum sit ecclesie, et quicquid plantatur solo, cedat; sequitur necessarie arbores ipsos debere inter facultates ecclesiasticas numerari, de quibus laicis nulla est attributa facultas disponendi: sed sicut sacra Scriptura testatur, soils sacerdotibus dispositis cura indiscussa a Deo commissa decet: verum arbores ipse propter ventorum impetus ne ecclesiis noceant, SEPE plantantur. Prohibemus, ne ecclesiarum rectores ipsas presumant prosternere indistincte, nisi cum cancellus ecclesie necessaria indigeat refectione. Nee in alias usus aliqualiter convertantur, preterquam si navis ecclesie indiguerit similiter refectione: et rectores parocbianis indigentibus eis earitative de arboris ipsis duxerint largiendis, quod fieri non precipimus, sed cum factum fuerit, commendamus."

176. Drayton, who is so accurate with regard to British antiquities, informs us, Polyolbion, 26, that the best bows were made of Spanish yew:

By 5 Edw. IV. ch. 4 (Irish Statutes), every Englishman is obliged to have "a bow in his house of his own length, either of yew, wych, hazel, ash, or awburn," probably alder.

178. "The New Forest, and Brockenhurst in particular (as we learn from its name), being formerly so famous for the production of yews, it might be a matter of wonder that so few remained to the present day, did we not recollect that the old English yeomanry were supplied from this tree with those excellent bows which rendered them the best and most dreaded archers in Europe. This constant and universal demand for yew produced in time such a scarcity, that recourse was had to foreign countries for a supply; and the importation of them was enjoined by express acts of parliament passed for that purpose. Stat. Edw. IV. c. 2, 1 Rich. III. c. ii.''

180. "Yew at length became so scarce (as I have hinted in a preceding note), that to prevent a too great consumption of it, bowyers were directed to make four bows of witch-hazel, ash, or elm, to one of yew. And no person under seventeen, unless possessed of moveables worth forty marks, or the son of parents having an estate of ten pounds per annum, might shoot with a yew bow." Grose's Milit. Antiq. i. 142.

181. For the reverence paid to trees by the Gauls, see Pliny, lib. xvi. c. 34. Also, a learned disquisition on this subject in Keysler's Ant. Select. Septen. (Hanover, 1720,) p. 70 et infra. The difficulty of extirpating this ill-directed veneration was very great. "Diu etiam post Christi inductam religionem arborum, et lucorum cultum adeo invaluisse ac viguisse in Germania, Italia, Gallia, 'aliisque provinciis constat, ut in eo evellendo multum insudarint pontifices regesque," &c. Du Fresne's Gloss, i. 193, in 7. Arlores Sacr.

182. "The yew was a funereal tree, the companion of the grave, among the Celtic tribes. 'Here,' says the bard, speaking of two departed lovers, 4 rest & their dust, Cuthullin! These lonely yews sprang from their tomb, and shade them from the storm!'" Ossian, i. 240.

183. It is doubtful whether the cypress was meant by the ancients to be an emblem of an immortal state, or of annihilation after death, since the properties of the tree apply, happily enough, to each. The cypress was used on funereal occasions, say the commentators, "vel quia cariem non sentit, ad gloria? immortalitatem significandam; vel quia semel excisa, non renascitur, ad mortem exprimendam." Vide Servius in Mn. III. 1. 64, and the Delphin edit, on the same passage.

184. Lysons, in the first volume of the Magna Britannia, pp. 254, 578, 643, 681, notices several yew-trees of enormous growth in the counties of Berks and Bucks; particularly one at Wyrardisbury, in the latter county, which, at six feet from the ground, measures thirty feet five inches in girth. There is a yew-tree of vast bulk at Ifley, in Oxfordshire, supposed to be coeval with the church, which is known to have been erected in the twelfth century. Others of great age may be seen in various parts of England.

185. Levi, describing the rites and ceremonies of the Jews as they exist at present, says, p. 169: "The corpse is carried forward to the grave and interred by some of the society; and as they go forth from the burying ground, they pluck some grass and say, 'They shall spring forth from the city, as the grass of the earth:' meaning at the day of the resurrection."

186. Bourne (chap, iii.) cites Socrates, telling us "that when the body of Babylas the martyr was removed by the order of Julian the Apostate, the Christians, with their women and children, rejoiced and sung psalms all the way as they bore the corpse from Dauphne to Antioch. Thus was Paula buried at Bethlehem, and thus did St. Anthony bury Paul the hennite."

187. The following passage is curious on the subject of singing psalms before the corpse: "Cantilena feralis per Antiphonas in pompa funebri et fano debacchata hinc est. Inter Graecos demortui cadavere deposito in inferiori domus aula ad portam, et peractis caeteris ceremoniis, cantores funerales accedunt et [Gr.] canunt, quibus per intervalla respondebant domesticae servse, cum assistentium corona, neque solum domi, sed usque ad sepulchrum praecedebant feretrum ita canentes." Guichard, lib. ii cap. 2, Funeral, apud Moresini Papatum, &c. p. 32.

188. The author of the Survey of the South of Ireland, pp. 206, 209, tells us: "It is the custom of this country to conduct their dead to the grave in all the parade they can display; and as they pass through any town, or meet any remarkable person, they set up their howl. The conclamatio among the Romans coincides with the Irish cry. The 'Mulieres praeficae' exactly correspond with the women who lead the Irish hand, and who make an outcry too outrageous for real grief.

That this custom was Phoenician we may learn from Virgil, who was very correct in the costume of his characters. The conclamatio over the Phoenician Dido, as described by him, is similar to the Irish cry:

The very word "ululatus," or "hulluloo," and the Greek word of the same import, have all a strong affinity to each other.

190. "Dum autem funus efferebatur, faces praeferebantur. Constanta corpus delatum fuisse nocturnis cantionibus et cereorum ignibus," &c. Durand. de Ritibus, p. 228. "Gallos funus honorifice curasse et multitudinem luminum, splendorem sibi etiam per diem vendicantem, repercusso olis radio repulsisse," &c. Ibid.

191. Gregorii Opuscula, p. 112. See also Gough's Introd. to vol. ii. Sepulchral Monuments in Great Britain, p. 7: "Among the Romans public funerals were celebrated in the day; private burials at night: and both were accompanied with torches." Female Mentor, ii. 196. "All funerals," says Adam, in his Roman Antiquities, 1792, p. 476, "used anciently to be solemnized in the night-time with torches, that they might not fall in the way of magistrates and priests, who were supposed to be violated by seeing a corpse, so that they could not perform sacred rites till they were purified by an expiatory sacrifice. Serv. in Virg. xi. 143; Donat. Ter. And. i. 1, 81. Thus, to diminish the expenses of funerals, it was ordained by Demetrius Phalerius at Athens, Cic. de Legg. ii. 26, according to an ancient law which seems to have fallen into desuetude, Demosth. adv. Macartatum, p. 666. Hence funus, a funeral, from funes accensi, Isid. xi. 2, xx. 10, or funalia, funales cerei, cerece faces, candelce, torches, candles or tapers, originally made of small ropes or cords (funes vel funiculi), covered with wax or tallow (sevum vel sebum). Serv. ibid, et Æn. i. 727; Val. Max. iii. ; 6, 4; Var. de Vit. Pop. R. But in after ages public funerals (funera indictiva) were celebrated in the day-time, at an early hour in the forenoon, as it is thought from Plutarch, in Syl., with torches also. Serv. in Virg. Æn. vi. 224; Tac. Ann. iii. 4. Private or ordinary funerals (tacita) were always at night. Fest. in Vespilones."

193. "Ceterum priusquam corpus humo injecta contegatur, defuuctus oratione funebri laudabatur." Durand, p. 236.

194. "Induebantur atris vestibus, praesertim apud Gallos: hunc tamen lugubrem et atrum amictum videturim probare Cyprian., Serm. de Mortalitate." Durand. de Rit. p. 225. Cyprian's words are: "Cum sciamus fratres nostros accersione dominica de seculo liberates, non amitti sed praemitti, non sunt nobis hie accipiendce atrae vestes, quando illi ibi indumenta alba jam sumpserint."

195. In a rare book on dreams, by Thomas Hill, 6. L is the following passage: "To a sicke person to have or weare on white garments doothe promyse death, for that dead bodyes bee caryed foorth in white clothes. And to weare on a blacke garmente, it doothe promyse, for the more parte, healthe to a sicke person, for that not dead personnes, but suche as mourne for the deade, do use to be clothed in blacke."

196. In Sir John Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland, ii. 80, the minister of Galston, in Ayrshire, informs us, "It is usual for even the women to attend funerals in the village, drest in black or red cloaks."

197. "In nobilibus, aureutn velaraentum superferetrum, quo corpus obtegeretur, apponi consuetum." Durand. p. 225.

198. "Paulam translatam fuisse episcoporum manibus, cervicem feretro subjicientibus." Durand, p. 227. From this it appears too that the corpse was carried shoulder-height, as the term now is.

199. Mr. Pennant's MS. says: "At Skiv'og, from the park to the church I have seen the bier carried by the next of kin, husband, brothers, and father-in-law. All along from the house to the churchyard, at every cross-way, the bier is laid down, and the Lord's prayer rehearsed, and so when they first come into the churchyard, before any of the verses appointed in the service be said. There is a custom of ringing a little bell before the corpse, from the house to the churchyard. (Dymerchion.) Some particular places are called resting-places. Skyv'og. When a corpse is carried to church from any part of the town, the bearers take care to carry it so that the corpse may be on the right hand, though the way be nearer, and it be less trouble to go on the other side; nor will they bring the corpse through any other way than the south gate. If it should happen to rain while the corpse is carried to the church, it is reckoned to bode well to the deceased, whose bier is wet with the dew of heaven. At church the evening service is read, with the office of burial. The minister goes to the altar, and there says the Lord's prayer, with one of the prayers appointed to be read at the grave: after which the congregation offer upon the altar, or on a little board for that purpose fixed to the rails of the altar, their benevolence to the officiating minister. A friend of the deceased is appointed to stand at the altar, observing who gives, and how much. When all have given he counts the money with the minister, and signifies the sum to the congregation, thanking them all for their good will."

200. In another part of the Statistical Account of Scotland, vii. 622, Dundonald parish, Ayrshire, we read: "Country burials are not well regulated. The company are invited at eleven o'clock forenoon, hut they are probably not all arrived at two. Till of late a pipe and tobacco was provided for every one of the company; but this custom is entirely laid aside."

201. [Greek] Homilia xxxii. in Matthei cap. non.

202. "Preteria convocabantur et invitabantur necdum sacerdotes et religiosi, sed et egeni pauperes." Durand. Had our famous poet, Mr. Pope, an eye to this in ordering, by will, poor men to support his pall? By the will of William de Montacute, Earl of Salisbury, executed April 29, 1397, he directs "that twenty-five shillings should be daily distributed among three hundred poor people from the time of his death to the arrival of his body at the conventual church of Bustlesham, in which it was to be deposited." See Warner's Topographical Remarks, relating to the South-western parts of Hampshire, ii. 73.

204. Mr, Lysons, in his Environs of London, iii. 341, speaking of some lands said to have been given by two maiden gentlewomen to the parish of Paddington, for the purpose of distributing bread, cheese, and beer among the inhabitants on the Sunday before Christmas-day, tells us that they are now let at 21 per annum, and that "the bread was formerly thrown from the church-steeple to be scrambled for, and part of it is still distributed in that way."

206. "The auncient fathers, being veri desirous to move their audience unto charitye and almose dedes, did exhorte them to refresh the poore and to give almoses in the funeralles, and yeares myndes of their frendes and kynnesfolkes, in stedde of the bankettes that the paynymes and heathen were wont to make at suche doinges, and in stedde of the meates that they did bring to their sepulchres and graves." The Huntyng of Purgatory, by Veron, 1561, f. 106.

207. "Moerin ssepe animas irais excire sepulchris, vidi." Virg. Bucol. viii. 98.

Admonit. ad Gent, p., 37. The learned Mede observes, from a passage of this same ancient father, "that the heathens supposed the presence and power of daemons (for so the Greeks called the souls of men departed) at their coffins and sepulchres, as though there always remained some natural tie between the deceased and their relicts."

208. "Caemeteria hinc sunt. Lycurgus, omni superstitione suhlata, et ut vanse superstitionis omnem eveleret e mentibus suorum formidinem, inhumari intra urbem et sepulchra extrtii circa deorum templa," &c. Papatus, p. 40.

209. "In coemeteriis pontificiis, boni, quos putant, ad austrurn et oriens, reliqui, qui aut supplicio affecti, aut sibi vim fecissent, et id genus ad septentrionem sepeliantur, ut frequens olim Scotis fait mos." Moresini Papatus, p. 157.

210. I find in Durandi Rationale, lib. vii. De Officio Mortuorum, cap. 35-39, the following: "Debet autem quis sic sepeliri, ut capite ad occidentem posito, pedes dirigat ad orientem, in quo quasi ipsa positione orat: et innuit quod promptus est, ut de occasu festinet ad ortum: de mundo ad seculum."

211. A correspondent says: "Die an old maid, and be buried with my face downwards." I have seen this expression in some work by Waldron.

212. "Infantumque animae flentes in limine primo:
        Quos dulcis vitae exortis: et ab ubere raptos,
        Abstulit atra dies, et funere mersit acerbo.
        Proxima deinde tenent moesti loca, qui sibi letum
        Insontes peperere manu, lucemque perosi
        Projecere animas." Virg. Æn. vi. 427.

213. The following is an extract from the old Register-book of Christ Church, in Hampshire: "April 14, 1604. Christian Steevens, the wife of Thomas Steevens, was buried in child-birth, and buried by women, for she was a Papishe." Warner's Topographical Remarks relating to the South-Western Parts of Hampshire, ii. 130.

214. Cicero, de Legibus, xi. "Lapidea mensa terra operitur humato corpore hominis qui aliquo sit numero, quae contineat laudem et nomen raortui incisum. Mos retinetur." Moresini Papatus, p. 86.

215. Coles, in his Introduction to the Knowledge of Plants (probably speaking of the metropolis only), p. 64, says: "It is not very long since the customs of setting up garlands in churches hath been left off with us."

216. "Fuit quoque mos ad capita virginum apponendi florum coronas," &c. Cass. de Vet. Sac. Christi, p. 334.

217. "Some say no evil thing that walks by night,
        In fog or fire, by lake or moorish fen,
        Blue meagre hag, or stubborn unlaid ghost,
        That breaks his magic chains at curfew-time,
        No goblin, or swart faery of the mine,
        Hath hurtful power o'er true virginity." Milton's Comus.

218. "KRANS, sertum. Isl. et Belg. id. Germ. Krantz. Helvigius natum putat a [Gr.]; alii a cranium; Wachterus a C. B. crwnn, rotundus, quum circular figura caput ambiat." Hire, Gloss. Suio-Goth. i. 1156.

219. This perhaps explains the following passage in the Horn Exalted, or Room for Cuckolds, 1661, p. 10: "Our garlands in the winter, and at virgins' funerals, are they not made of horns?" An Italian is speaking.

220. "Cum igitur infans vel puer baptizatus, defunctus fuerit ante usum rationis, induitur juxta astatem, et imponitur ei corona de floribm, sen de herbis aromaticis et odoriferis, in signum integritatis carnis et virginitatis" See the Ordo Baptizandi, &c., pro Anglia, Hibernia, et Scotia. 12mo. Par. 1636, p. 97.

221. Pennant's MS. says that in North Wales "the people kneel and say the Lord's prayer on the graves of their dead friends for some Sundays after their interment; and this is done generally upon their first coming to church, and, after that, they dress the grave with flowers. Llanvechan."

222. "Nec ego floribus tumulum ejus aspergam, sed spiritum ejus Christi odore perfundam; spargant alii plenis lilia calathis; nobis lilium est Christus: hoc reliquias ejus sacrabo." Ambros. Orat. Funebr. de Obitu Valentin.

223. "Casteri mariti super tumulos conjugum spargunt violas, rosas, lilia, floresque purpureos, et dolorem pectoris his officiis consolantur; Pammachius noster sanctam favillam ossaque veneranda eleemosynse balsamis rigat." Hieron. Epist. ad Pammachium de Obitu Uxoris.

224. "Condito et curato funere solebant nonnulli antiquitus tumulum floribus adspergere." Durand, p. 237. In Huss. Dissert. Acad. de antiquis Humandi Ritibus, 12mo. Upsaliae, 1698, p. 44, we read: "Violis quoque et floribus tumulos suos exornasse Christianos ex Prudentii hyrano in exaquiis defunctorum Ambrosii et Hieronorai edocemur. Neque alium in finem hoc factum est, quam ut spem resurrectionis testatum redderent, quod sicuti flores verno tempore renascuntur, ita et nos die avairavat sumus redituri."

225. "Sepnlchra funeralibus expletis quandoque floribus odoramentisque fuisse sparsa legimus. Idemque mos cum in plerisque regionibus Italiae, turn maxime in subjectis Appennino collibus, Romandiolae alicubi setate nostra servatur. Adhibita sunt post funeralia in templis ornamenta, clypei, cororue, et hujusmodi donaria, quod nostra quoque aetas in nobilibus et honoratis viris servat." Moresini Papatus, p. 156. Hence our custom of hanging up over the tombs of knights, &c., banners, spurs, and other insignia of their order. "Flores et serta, educto cadavere, certatim injiciebant Athenienses. Guichard, lib. ii. cap. 3, Funeral. Retinent Papani morem." Ibid. p. 61.

226. Bishop Gibson is also cited as an authority for this practice by Mr. Strutt, in his Manners and Customs, Anglo-Saxon, i. 69. See also Bray's History of Surrey, ii. 165. I do not find that the custom is at present retained.

227. That is, the Mind, q. Myndyng Days, Bede, Hist. Eccl. lib. iv. ca. 30. Commemorationis Dies.

228. The following is in Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, i. 230: "By saying they have a month's mind to it, they anciently must undoubtedly mean that, if they had what they so much longed for, it would (hyperbolically speaking) do them as much good (they thought) as they believed a month's mind, or service said once a month (could they afford to have it), would benefit their souls after their decease."

229. "I shulde speake nothing, in the mean season, of the costly feastes and bankettes that are commonly made unto the priestes (whiche come to suche doinges from all partes, as ravens do to a deade carcase) in their buryinges, moneths mindes and yeares myndes." Veron's Huntyng of Purgatory, 1561, f. 36.

230. The following is from Langley's abridgement of Polidore Vergil, f. 109: "The manner of turnyng our faces into the easte when wee praie, is taken of the old Ethnikes, whiche, as Apuleius rememhereth, used to loke eastwarde and salute the sonne: we take it in a custom to put us in remernbraunce that Christe is the sonne of righteousnes, that discloseth all secretes."

232. St. Damascen (lib. iv. c. 14, Orthod. Fid.) therefore tells us that because the Scriptures say that God planted Paradise in Eden towards the east, where he placed the man which he had formed, whom he punished with banishment upon his transgression, and made him dwell over against Paradise in the western part, we therefore pray (says he), being in quest of our ancient country, and, as it were, panting after it, do worship God that way.

233. "Bede (in Die Sanct. Paschae, tom, vii.) says, that as the holy women entered at the eastern part into the circular house hewn out in the rock, they saw the angel sitting at the south part of the place where the body of Jesus had lain, i.e. at his right hand; for undoubtedly his body, having its face upwards, and the head to the west, must have its right hand to the south." Bourne, chap. v.

234. "Aulam regiam, id est, ecclesiam ingredientes ad altare inclinamus, quod quasi regem milites adoramus: seterni enim regis milites sumus." Durandi Rationale, p. 226.

235. Moresini Papatus, p. 117. He goes on: "Orientem in solem convertitur, ut jam dixi, qui deos salutat aut orat apud nos, et Apul. ait, 2 Metam. Tune in orientem obversus vel incrementa solis Augusti tacitus imprecatus, &c. Polyd. lib. 5, cap. 9, Invent. Orientem respicit precaturus, et imagines oriens spectant, ut ingredientes preces eo versum ferant ad ritum Persarum, qui soletn orientem venerati sunt. Plut. in Numa. Deus interdicit Judaeis oriente, prohibet imagines. Exod. 20; Levit. 26; Deut. 5; Esa. 40. Coel. autem lib. vii. cap. 2, ant. lect. dicit, jam illud veteris fuit superstitionis, quod in Asclepio Mercurius scribit, deum adorantes, si medius affulserit dies in austrum convert; si vero dies sit occiduus, in occasum: si se time primum promat sol, exortiva est spectanda. Vigilius Papa, anno Christi 554, jussit sacrificulum sacrificantem missam ad ortum solis oculos dirigete. Insuper qui precabantur ad orientem conversi, erecto vultu, manibus passis, expansis et in coelum sublatis ac protensis orabant. Virg. 8 Æneid. Ovid. lib. 4, Fast. Vitruvius, lib. 4, cap. 5. Tertul. in Apol. Apul. lib 2, Metam. Clemens, lib. 7. Stromaton. eodeinque conversa templa fuisse Plutarch, in Numa docet. Juvenal, Satyr. 10. Apul. lib. de Mundo. Virgil, lib. 2 et 3 Æneid. Haec omnia retinet Papatus; vide Justinum, lib. 18, et lege dist. 11, can. ecclesiasticum, haec instituta Sixto 11, adscribunt. Szeg. in Spec."

236. So, in a Character of England as it was lately presented in a letter to a Nobleman of France, 1659, p. 13: "I have beheld a whole congregation sitting on their * * * * with their hats on at the reading of the Psalms, and yet bareheaded when they sing them."

237. See this subject before noticed, in the present volume, p. 6. The witty author of the History of Birmingham, p. 113, speaking of St. Bartholomew's Chapel there, observes: "The chancel hath this singular difference from others, that it veres toward the north. Whether the projector committed an error I leave to the critics. It was the general practice of the pagan church to fix their altar, upon which they sacrificed, in the east, towards the rising sun, the object of worship. The Christian church, in the time of the Romans, immediately succeeded the pagan, and scrupulously adopted the same method; which has been strictly adhered to. By what obligation the Christian is bound to follow the pagan, or wherein a church would be injured by being directed to any of the thirty-two points of the compass, is doubtful. Certain it is, if the chancel of Bartholomew's had tended due east, the eye would have been exceedingly hurt, and the builder would have raised an object of ridicule for ages. The ground will admit of no situation but that in which the church now stands. But the inconsiderate architect of Deritend chapel, anxious to catch the eastern point, lost the line of the street; we may therefore justly pronounce he sacrificed to the east." Deritend chapel is another place of public worship in the same town.

238. Strutt, who has cited William of Malmesbury for this custom, is not quite correct in his translation of the passage, which is as follows: "In tantum et in frivolis pacis sequax, ut quia compatriotae, in tahernis convenientes, jamque temulenti pro modo bibendi contenderent, ipse clavos argenteos vel aureos vasis affigi jusserit, ut dum metam suam quisque cognoscent, non plus subserviente verecundia vel ipse appeteret, vel alium appetere cogeret." Scriptores post Bedam, p. 56.

239. Douce conceives the expression to drink "supernaculum" means to drink to the nail, as above explained. Nagel in German means a nail or pin. He adds: "See the article Ad pinnas bibere in Cowel's Law Dictionary, and Grose's Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, v. Pin." "Ut presbyteri non eant ad potationes, nee ad pinnas bibant." Concil. Londinens. A.D. 1 102, apud Spelman, ii. 24. Johnson very properly translates this: "That priests go not to drinking bouts, nor drink to pegs." Compare also Gent. Mag. for October, 1768, lxviii. 475.

240. Beaker, a bowl or dish for containing liquor: probably from the Italian licchiere, patera, scyphus. Dr. Johnson defines it "a cup with the spout in the form of a bird's beak," but gives us no proof that such was the form of the beaker in ancient times.

241. "Upse-Dutch, a heavy kind of Dutch beer, formerly much used in England: Upse-Freese, a similar drink imported from Friesland: To drink upse-Dutch, to drink swinishly, like a Dutchman." Halliwell's Dictionary, p. 905.

242. It is singular that a part of this should have been borrowed from Pierce Pennilesse, his Supplication to the Divell, by Thomas Nash, Gent., 1595, "Nowe he is nobody that cannot drinke Supernagulum, carouse the Hunter's Hoope, quaffe Upse freze Crosse, with healths, gloves, mumpes, polockes, and a thousand such domineering inventions."

243. Sir Frederick Morton Eden, in his State of the Poor, 1797, i. 560, gives us the following passage from Fergusson's Farmer's Ingle:

After explaining oy, in a note, to signify grandchild, from the Gaelic ogha, he tells us, "A by is the feast a person, who is about to leave a place, gives to his friends before his departure. The metaphorical application of the word in the above passage is eminently beautiful and happy."

244. "BEVERAGE, Beverege, or Beveridge, reward, consequence. 'Tis a word now in use for a refreshment between dinner and supper; and we use the word when any one pays for wearing new clothes, &c." Hearne's Glossary to Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle, in v. Grose says, "There is a kind of beverage called Foot-ale, required from one entering on a new occupation." If I mistake not, this is called in some places, "to set your footing."

245. Dr. Jamieson notices Whigmeleerie as the name of a ridiculous game which was occasionally used in Angus at a drinking club. A pin was stuck in the centre of a circle, from which there were as many radii as there were persons in the company, with the name of each person at the radius opposite to him. On the pin an index was placed, and moved round by every one in his turn; and at whatsoever person's radius it stopped, he was obliged to drink off his glass. Whigmeleeries are "whims, fancies, crotchets."

246. Pasquier, in his Recherches, p. 501, mentions that Mary, Queen of Scots, previously to her execution, drank to all her attendants, desiring them to pledge her. See what the same author has said in p. 785 of his work concerning this custom. See also the Fabliaux of M. Le Grand, tom. i. p. 119, and his Histoire de la Vie privee des Francois, iii. 270. The custom of pledging is to be found in the ancient romance of Ogie Danoit, where Charlemagne pledges himself for Ogie. See Tressan, Corps d'Extraits de Romans de Chevalerie, ii. 77.

248. How exceedingly similar to our modern custom of saying to each of the company in turn, "Give us a lady to toast," is the following:

251. Whence can the following custom of health-drinking have taken its rise? In a Journey from London to Scarborough, 1734, p. 4, speaking of Ware, the writer says: "The great bed here merits not half its fame, having only given rise to a fine allusion in the Recruiting Officer, of its being less than the bed of honour, where thousands may lie without touching one another. It is kept at the Old Crown Inn, and will hold a dozen people, heads and tails. They have a ceremony at showing it of drinking a small can of beer, and repeating some health, which 1 have already forgot."

252. When the lady in Hudibras, II. i. 855, is endeavouring to persuade her lover to whip himself for her sake, she uses the following words, which intimate a different origin for the custom of toasting:

253. I have a little pleasant dissertation in Latin, entitled De Supernaculo Anglorum, 4to. Lips. 1746. In page 8 is the following passage: "Est autem Anglis supernaculum ritus in conviviis circulatim ita bibendi ut poculo exhausto, ac super unguern excusso, residuoque delincto, ne guttulam quidem superesse, compotoribus demonstretur." In the same work, p. 6, is given the etymology of the word: "Est autem illud vox hybrida, ex Latina praepositione 'super' et Germano 'nagel' (a nail) composita, qui mos, nova vocabiila fingendi Anglis potissimum usitatus est, vocemque supernaculi apud eosdem produxit."

254. Bingham, as cited by Bourne, chap. xviii. has a quotation from St. Austin, on Superstitious Observations, among which, he says: "You are told in a fit of convulsions or shortness of breath, to hold your left thumb with your right hand."

255. Bumpers are of great antiquity. Thus Paulus Warnefridus is cited in Du Gauge's Glossary, telling us, in lib. v. de Gestis Langobard. cap. 2: "Cumque ii qui diversi generis potiones et a rege deferebant, de verbo regis eum rogarent, ut totam fialam biberet, ille in honorem regis se totam bibere promittens, parum aqua libabat de argenteo calice." Vide Martial, lib. i. Ep. 72, lib. viii. 51, &c.

256. Upton gives us the following remarks on the bishop's criticism: "This is ingenious! What pity that it is not learned too! The rose (as the fables say) was the symbol of silence, and consecrated by Cupid to Harpocrates, to conceal the lewd pranks of his mother. So common a book as Lloyd's Dictionary might have instructed Dr. Warburton in this: 'Huic Harpocrati Cupido Veneris films parentis suae rosam dedit in munus, ut scilicet, si quid licentius dictum, vel actum sit in convivio, sciant lacenda esse omnia. Atque idcirco veteres ad finem convivii sub rosa, Anglice under the rose, transacta esse omnia ante digressum contestabautur; cujus formae vis eadem esset, atque ista Mio-tfyij/a/jova ffvpirorav. Probant hanc rem versus qui reperiuntur in marmore:

257. It is, "This foolish custom is said to have originated in the days of good Queen Bess, thus: When great chimneys were in fashion, there was, at each corner of the hearth or grate, a small elevated projection called the hob, and behind it a seat. In winter time the beer was placed on the hob to warm, and the cold beer was set on a small table, said to have been called the nob; so that the question 'Will you have hob or nob!' seems only to have meant, 'Will you have warm or cold beer?' i.e. beer from the hob, or beer from the nob," and Malone adds a passage from Holinshed's History of Ireland: "The citizens in their rage shot habbe or nabbe at random."

259. M. Mason asks in a note, "Is not this the original of our hob nob, or challenge to drink a glass of wine at dinner? The phrase occurs in Ben Jonson's Tale of a Tub:

260. In a curious book entitled a Character of England, as it was lately presented in a Letter to a Nobleman of France, with Reflections upon Gallus Castratus, (attributed to John Evelyn,) 1659, the author, speaking of taverns, says, p. 31: "Your L. will not believe me that the ladies of greatest quality suffer themselves to be treated in one of these taverns, but you will be more astonisht when I assure you that they drink their crowned cups roundly, strain healths through their smocks, daunce after the fiddle, kiss freely, and term it an honourable treat." At p. 37 we are told, there is "a sort of perfect debauchees, who style themselves Hectors, that in their mad and unheard of revels pierce their veins to quaff their own blood, which some of them have drank to that excess, that they died of the intemperance." At p. 36 we read: "I don't remember, my lord, ever to have known (or very rarely) a health drank in France, no, not the king's; and if we say, a votre santt, Monsieur, it neither expects pledge or ceremony. 'Tis here so the custome to drink to every one at the table, that by the time a gentleman has done his duty to the whole company, he is ready to fall asleep, whereas with us, we salute the whole table with a single glass only."

261. In Nash's Christ's Teares over Jerusalem, 1613, p. 145, speaking of the head-dresses of London ladies, he says: "Even as angels are painted in church windowes, with glorious golden fronts, besette with sunnebeames, so beset they their foreheads on either side with glorious borrowed gleamy bushes; which, rightly interpreted, should signify beauty to sell, since a bush is not else hanged forth, but to invite men to buy. And in Italy, when they sette any beast to sale, they crovme his head with garlands, and bedeck it with gaudy blossoms, as full as ever it may stick."

262. In the First Part of Antonio and Melida, Marston's Works, 1633, we read: "As well knowen by my wit, as an ale-house by a red lattice." So, in a Fine Companion, one of Shakerley Marmion's plays: "A water-man's widow at the sign of the Red Lattice in Southwark." Again, in Arden of Faversham, 1592: "His sign pulled down, and his lattice born away." Again, in the Miseries of Inforc'd Marriage, 1607: "'Tis treason to the red lattice, enemy to the sign post."

263. There is a curious letter in the Gent. Mag. for Sept. 1770, xl. 403, on the original of signs denoting trades.

265. His majesty in the course of his work informs us, "that some of the gentry of the land bestowed (at that time) three, some four hundred pounds a yeere upon this precious stink!" An incredible sum, especially when we consider the value of money in his time. They could not surely have been sterling, but Scottish pounds.

266. Bourne, in his Antiquitates Vulgares, chap, viii., enumerates "St. John's, St. Mary Magdalen's, St. Mary's Well," &c. To these may be added many others. Thus, in the Muses Threnodie, St. Conil's Well, in Scotland. "This well, dedicated to St. Conwall, whose anniversary was celebrated on the 18th of May, is near to Ruthven Castle, or Hunting Tower. It is sufficient to serve the town of Perth with pure, wholesome water, if it were brought down by pipes. In the days of superstition this well was much resorted to." p. 175, note.

267. Bourne's Antiq. Vulg. ut supra. I found on a visit to the source of the New River between Hertford and Ware, in August, 1793, an old stone inscribed "Chadwell" a corruption, no doubt, of St. Chad's Well. So copious a spring could not fail of attracting the notice of the inhabitants in the earliest times, who accordingly dedicated it to St. Chad, never once dreaming, perhaps, that in succeeding ages it should be converted to so beneficial a purpose as to supply more than half the capital of England with one of the most indispensable necessaries of human life.

268. An account of a miracle pretended to have been recently wrought at this well will be found in a pamphlet entitled, Authentic Documentsr relative to the miraculous Cure of Winefrid White, of Wolverhampton, at St. Winefrid's Well, alias Holywell, in Flintshire, on the 28th of June, 1805; with Observations thereon, by the R. R. J M , D.D. V.A. F.S.A. Lond., and C. Acad. Rome," 1806.

269. Concerning fountain superstitions, see the authorities quoted by Ihre in his Gloss. Suio-Goth. tom. i. p. 1042, under Offekaslla. See also Lindebrogii Codex Legum Antiquorura, p. 1402, and Hearne's pref. to Rob. Glouc. p. 47. In Muratori, Antiq. Italicae Medii Ævi, tom. v. fol. Mil. 1741, p. 66; c. Diss. de superstitionum semine in obscuris Italiae saeculis, we read: "Sub regibus Langobardis eo audaciae processerat inconsulta rudis popelli credulitas, ut arbores quasdam (sanctivas appellabant) summa in veneratione haberent, veluti sacras, neque ab iis tantum exscindendis aut tondendis abstinerent, sed etiam iis adorationis signa exhiberent. Idem quoque fontibus nonnullis proestabant. Deumne, ejusque sanctos, an daemones, ibi colerent, exploratum minime est. Quum tamen ejusmodi superstitiosi cultus Paganiae interdum appellentur ab antiquis, idcirco par est credere Paganismi reliquias fuisse."

270. Baxter, in his World of Spirits, p. 157, says: "When I was a schoolboy at Oundle, in Northamptonshire, about the Scots coming into England, I heard a well, in one Dob's yard, drum like any drum beating a march. I heard it at a distance: then I went and put my head into the mouth of the well and heard it distinctly, and nobody in the well. It lasted several days and nights, so as all the country people came to hear it. And so it drummed on several changes of times. When King Charles the Second died I went to the Oundle carrier at the Ram Inn, in Smithfield, who told me their well had drummed, and many people came to hear it. And, I heard, it drummed once since."

271. Johnson's collection of Eccl. Laws, Canons, &c., sub an. DCCCCLX. 16: "That every priest industriously advance Christianity, and extinguish heathenism, and forbid the worship of fountains, and necromancy, and auguries," &c.

272. Ibid. A.D. MCII. can. 26: "Let no one attribute reverence or sanctity to a dead body, or a fountain, or other thing (as it sometimes is, to our knowledge), without the bishop's authority." There are interdictions of this superstition in the laws of King Canute also preserved, in Wheloc's edition of Lambard's Archaionomia, 1644, p. 108: [Greek], &c. The Lansdowne MS. 465, however, "Pontificate ad usum Ecclesise Romans et Anglicana," fol. 193 gives the form of benediction for a new well.

273. At the village of Tissington, in the county of Derby, a place remarkable for fine springs of water, it has been the custom time immemorial. See Gent. Mag. for Feb. 1794, lxiv. 115. Another writer, ibid. March, 1794, p. 226, says: "The same custom was observed of late years, if not at the present time at Brewood and Bilbrook, two places in the county of Stafford."

274. Grose, from a MS. in the Cotton library marked Julius F. vi., tells us: "Between the towns of Alten and Newton, near the foot of Rosberrye Toppinge, there is a well dedicated to St. Oswald. The neighbours have an opinion that a shirt or shift taken off a sick person and thrown into that well will show whether the person will recover or die: for, if it floated, it denoted the recovery of the party; if it sunk, there remained no hope of their life: and to reward the saint for his intelligence, they tear off a rag of the shirt, and leave it hanging on the briers thereabouts; where," says the writer, "I have seen such numbers as might have made a faire rheme in a paper-mill."

275. "St. Mary's Well, in this village (Jesmond), which is said to have had as many steps down to it as there are articles in the Creed, was lately inclosed by Mr. Coulson for a bathing-place; which was no sooner done than the water left it. This occasioned strange whispers in the village and the adjacent places. The well was always esteemed of more sanctity than common wells, and therefore the failing of the water could be looked upon as nothing less than a just revenge for so great a profanation. But, alas! the miracle's at an end, for the water returned a while ago in as great abundance as ever." Thus far Bourne.

276. "About a mile to the west of Jarrow (near Newcastle-upon-Tyne) there is a well still called Bede's Well, to which as late as the year 1740 it was a prevailing custom to bring children troubled with any disease or infirmity; a crooked pin was put in, and the well laved dry between each dipping. My informant has seen twenty children brought together on a Sunday to be dipped in this well, at which also, on Midsummer Eve, there was a great resort of neighbouring people, with bonfires, musick, &c." Brand's History of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, ii. 54.

278. The custom of affixing ladles of iron, &c. by a chain, to wells, is of great antiquity. Strutt, in his Anglo-Saxon Era, tells us, that Edwine caused ladles or cups of brass to be fastened to the clear springs and wells, for the refreshment of the passengers. Venerable Bede is his authority, Eccl. Hist. ii. 16. The passage is as follows: "Tantum quoque rex idem utilitati suas gentis consul nit, ut plerisque in locis ubi iontes lucidos juxta publicos viarum transitus conspexit, ibi ob refrigerium viantium erectis stipitibus et aereos caucos suspendi juberet, neque hos quisquam nisi ad usum necessarium contingere prae magnitudine vel tinioris ejus auderet, vel amoris vellet."

279. See the Dramatic Works of Philip Massinger, 1779, i. 167, whence these extracts are quoted. Barley-break is several times alluded to in Massinger's Plays. See also Browne's Britannia's Pastorals, published in 1614, book i. song 3, p. 76.

280. A pleasant writer in the Gent. Mag. for February, 1738, viii. 80, says that "blindman's-buff was a ridicule upon Henry VIII. and Wolsey; where the cardinal minister was bewildering his master with treaty upon treaty with several princes, leaving him to catch whom he could, till at last he caught his minister, and gave him up to be buffeted. When this reign was farther advanced, and many of the abbey-lands had been alienated, but the clergy still retained some power, the play most in fashion was, I am upon the friar's ground, picking of gold and silver"

281. A marginal note says: "In the very widest part of the Strand. The Duke of Grafton was big and extremely robust. He had hid his blue ribband before he took the coach, so that the coachman did not know him."

282. Description of London, edited by Dr. Pegge, 1772, p. 50. In Misson's Memoirs and Observations in his Travels over England, pp. 24-26, are some remarks on the manner of bull-baiting as it was practised in the time of King William III.

283. The subsequent extract from the same proclamation will be thought curious: "Furthermore his majestie straightlie chargeth and commandeth that all such householders as, under the name of baudes, have kept the notable and marked houses, and knowne hosteries, for the said evill disposed persons, that is to saie, such householders as do inhabite the houses whited and painted, with signes on the front for a token of the aaid houses, shall avoyd with bagge and baggage, before the feast of Easter next comyng, upon paine of like punishment, at the kings majesties will and pleasure."

284. There is an account of this accident in Stubbes' Anatomie of Abuses, 1585, p. 118.

285. In the Life of the Scotch Rogue, 1722, p. 7, the following sports occur: "I was but a sorry proficient in learning: being readier at CAT AND DOUG, cappy-hole, riding the hurley hacket, playing at cyles and dams, spang-bodle, wrestling, and foot-ball (and such other sports as we use in our country), than at my book." Cappy-hole is also mentioned in the notes to Bannatyne's Scottish Poems, p. 251, where play at the trulis likewise occurs. This last is supposed to resemble T. totum, which is like a spindle. Trouil is spindle.

286. In the Sanctuarie of Salvation, &c., translated from the Latin of Leviaus Lemnius by Henry Kinder, 8vo. Lond. pr. by H. Singleton, p. 144 we read these bones are called "huckle-bones, or coytes."

287. For farther information relating to this game, as played by the ancients, the reader may consult Joannis Meursii Ludibunda, sive de Ludis Grecorum, Liber singularis, 8vo. Lugd. Bat. 1625, p. 7, v. [Greek]: and Dan. Souterii Palamedes, p. 81; but more particularly, I Tali ed altri Strumenti lusori degli antichi Romani, discritti da Francesco de 'Ficoroni, 4to. Rom. 1734.

288. "Draw-gloves; a game played by holding up the fingers representing words by their different positions, as we say, talking with the fingers." Halliwell's Dictionary, p. 316.

289. See Strutt's Sports and Pastimes, p. 8; Jamieson's Etym. Dict, in voce. In the Gentleman's Magazine for February, 1795, p. 145, mention is made of shinty match, a game also peculiar to North Britain, something: similar to the golf. Dr. Jamieson calls "shinty an inferior species of golf, generally played at by young people." He adds, "in London this game is called hackie. It seems to be the same which is designed not in Gloucest.; the name being borrowed from the ball, which is made of a knotty piece of wood. Gl. Grose." Etym. Dict. v. Shinty.

290. See also Menestrier, Traite des Tournois, p. 346. In Paullinus de Candore, p. 264, we read: "In Dania, tetnpore quadragesimal! Dolgre rustici in insula Amack, anserem (candidum ego vidi), fune ailigatum, iuque sublimi pendentem, habeat, ad quern citatis equis certatim properant, quique caput ei prius alruperit, victor evasit." Concerning the practice of swarming up a pole after a goose placed at top, see Sauval, Antiquitis de Paris, ii. 696.,

291. Our author appears to be mistaken in his etymology when he derives wad from weed, a garment. Had he consulted Lye (Junii Etymologicon), he would have found "wad Scoti dicunt pro wedd pactum; and "wedd" rendered "pactum, sponsio; A.S. pet est pignus vel pactum, ac peculiari acceptione pactum sponsalitium, vel dos." Hence our word wedding for a marriage.

292. See the Harl. MS. Brit. Mus. 4898, p. 599. Among the royal goods at Theobald's, in the same volume, p. 440, one billiard-board brought 110s.

293. Paper windmills are seen in the hands of the younger sort of children in Mr. Ives's missal.

295. Cornelius Scriblerus, in his Instructions concerning the Plays and Playthings to be used by his son Martin, says: "I would not have Martin as yet to scourge a top, till I am better informed whether the trochus which was recommended by Cato be really our present top, or rather the hoop which the boys drive with a stick." Pope's Works, vi. 115.

296. In the Statistical Account of Scotland, xxi. 145, parish of Monquhitter, under "Amusements," we are told: "People who are not regularly and profitably employed, rejoice in a holiday as the means of throwing off that languor which oppresses the mind, and of exerting their active powers. So it was with our fathers. They frequently met to exert their strength in wrestling, in casting the hammer, and in throwing the stone, their agility at foot-ball, and their dexterity at coits and penny-stone."

297. "A lady once requesting a gentleman to play at gleeke, was refused, but civilly, and upon three reasons: the first whereof, madam, said the gentleman, is, I have no money. Her ladyship knew that was so material I and sufficient, that she desired him to keep the other two reasons to himself." Gayton's Festivous Notes upon Don Quixote, 1654, p. 14.

The author of the Character of a Quack Astrologer, 1673, speaking of "Itch of picture in the front," says: "This sets off the pamphlet in a country fair, as the horse sells the better for the ribbon wherewith a jockey tyes up his tail." The custom of attaching brooms to the mast-heads of ships, or other vessels, on sale (inquired after in the Gent. Mag. for August, 1799, p. 653), has been before noticed.

300. In the Revenue Roll of William of Waynflete, an. 1471, this fair appears to have greatly decayed; in which, among other proofs, a district of the fair is mentioned as being unoccupied: "Ubi homines cornubiae stare solebant."

301. The articles are "wine, wax, beiffes, multons, wheite, & malt." This proves that fairs still continued to be the principal marts for purchasing necessaries in large quantities, which now are supplied by frequent trading towns: and the mention of beiffes and multous (which are salted oxen and sheep) shows that at so late a period they knew little of breeding cattle.

302. "Expositas late cami prope flumina merces,
        Divitiasque loci, vicosque, hominumque labores,
        Sparsaque per virides passim magalia campos."
                                        Nundinse Sturbrigienses.

John Bale, in his Declaration of Bonner's Articles, f. 21, mentions "the baker's boye's crye, betwixte hys two bread panners in Sturbridge fayre. By and bears awaye, steale and runne awaye, &c."

303. See Warton's History of Eng. Poet. i. 279. Fosbrooke, in his British Monachism, ii. 217, tells us: "much quarrelling and fighting sometimes attended the monastic fairs, held in the churchyard:" and Dr. Henry, iv. 205 (where much is said upon these fairs), observes from Muratori, that "When a fair was held within the precincts of a cathedral or monastery, it was not uncommon to oblige every "man to take an oath at the gate before he was admitted, that he would neither lie, nor steal, nor cheat while he continued in the fair."

304. Pitching-pence were paid in fairs and markets for every bag of corn, &c. See Coles' Dictionary.

305. Thus, in Du Cange's Glossary: "Festum, nundinae quae in festis patronorum vulgo fiunt." Bishop Kennett, in the glossary to his Parochial Antiquities, tells us, v. Feria, that from the solemn feasting at wakes and fairs came the word fare, provision, good fare, to fare well. Hospinian de Orig. Festor. Christian, fol. 161, speaking of wakes, observes: "Accessit etiam mercatus, ut circa templa, necnon in templis et coemeteriis forum rerum venalium videas." Gibbon, in his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, x. 377, ed. 1790, tells us that, on account of the frequent pilgrimages to Jerusalem between the seventh and eleventh centuries, an annual fair was instituted on Mount Calvary. The ancient northern nations held annual Ice-Fairs. See Olaus Magnus. We too have heard of ice-fairs on the river Thames.

306. Or rather, perhaps, the court of pie-powder means the court of pedlers. See the subsequent evidences: "Gif ane stranger merchand travelland throw the realme, havand na land, nor residence, nor dwelling within the schirefdome, bot vaigand fra ane place to ane other, quha therefore is called pied puldreux or dustifute," &c. Regiam Majestatem, 4to. Edinb. 1774, p. 261. So, chap. cxl. p. 265, ibid.: "Anend ane fairand-man or dustifute." So again, in the table, p. 432, ibid.: "Dustiofute, ane pedder, or cremar, quha hes na certaine dwelling-place, quhere he may dicht the dust from his feet,'' &c. Barrington, on the Ancient Statutes, p. 423, observes that, "In the Burrow Laws of Scotland an alien merchant is called pied-puldreaux, and likewise ane farand-man, or a man who frequents fairs." The court of pie-powder is, therefore, to determine disputes between those who resort to fairs and these kind of pedlers who generally attend them. Pied-pulderaux, in old French, signifies a pedler, who gets his livelihood by vending his goods where he can, without any certain or fixed residence.

307. "Ad sua quisque redit; festivis Daphnen Amyntas Exonerat zeniis, dandoque astringit amores." See Rustic Nundinae, Woodward's Poems, 1730, p. 232.

308. "Notetur etiara Norvegis et Islandis peculiarem numerandi rationem in usu esse per additionem vocum Tolfroedr, Tolfrced, vel Tolfroet, quae decera significare faciunt duodecim; centum, centum et viginti; mille, mille et cc., &c. Causa istius computationis haec est, quod apud istas gentes duplex est decas, nempe minor caeteris nationibus communis, decent continens unitates: et major continens xii., i.e. tolf, unitates. Inde addita voce Tolfrcedr, vel Tolfraed, centuria non decies decem, sed decies duo-decim, i.e. cxx. continet, et chilias non decies centum, sed decies cxx. i.e. mille et cc. continet." Haec "autem computandi ratio per majores decades, quae duodecim unitates continent, apud nos etiamnum usurpatur in computandis certis rebus per duodenum numerum, quern dozen, Suecice dusin, Gallice douzain, vocamus; quinimo in numeris, ponderibus, et mensuris multarum rerum, ut ex mercatoribus, et vehiculariis accepi, centuria apud nos etiamnum semper praesumitur significare majorem, sive Tolfnedicam illam centuriam, quae ex decies xii. conflatur, scilicet cxx. Sic Arngrim Jonas in Crymogasa, sive rerum Island, lib. 1, cap. viii., hundrad centum sonat, sed quadam consuetudine plus continet nempe 120. Inde etiamnum apud nos vetus istud de centenario numero: Five score of men, money, and pins: six score of all other things" Gram. Isl. p. 43.

309. In Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland, i. 187, the minister of Parton, under the head of "Population," tells us: "A few years ago a man died above ninety, who about eight months before his death, got a complete set of new teeth, which he employed till near his last breath to excellent purpose. He was four times married, had children by all his wives, and, at the baptism of his last child, which happened not a year before his death, with an air of complacency expressed his thankfulness to his Maker for having 'at last sent him the cled score' i.e. twenty-one."

310. In the British Apollo, 1708, vol. i. No. 1, supernumerary for April, we are told, "The opinion of fairies has been asserted by Pliny and several historians, and Aristotle himself gave some countenance to it, whose words are these: "[Greek], &c., i.e. Hic locus est quern incolunt pygmei, non est fabula, sed pusillum genus ut aiunt: wherein Aristotle plays the sophist. For though by 'non est fabula' he seems at first to confirm it, yet, coming in at last with his 'ut aiunt,' he shakes the belief he had before put upon it. Our society, therefore, are of opinion that Homer was the first author of this conceit, who often used similes, as welt to delight the ear as to illustrate his matter; and in his third Iliad compares the Trojans to cranes, when they descend against fairies. So that that which was only a pleasant fiction in the fountain became a solemn story in the stream, and current still among us." In the same work, vol. i. No. 25, fairy-rings are ascribed to lightning.

311. [It seems extraordinary that an opinion so unreasonable should have been suffered to remain without correction. The so-called fairies of the middle ages, indeed, bore some resemblance to the oriental creations, but no comparison whatever is afforded between them and the beings of our vernacular mythology.]

312. ["Ritson refers to Homer, by way of giving the fairies a respectable antiquity, but the original will bear no interpretation of the kind; and although Chapman and Pope have represented them at Sipylus, these must give place to the goddess-nymphs dancing their mazy rings on the beds of the Achelous. We can dispense with some other learning of the same kind, and be well contented with a less remote antiquity." Halliwell's Illustrations of Fairy Mythology, 1845.]

313. The account given of them by Moresin (Papatus, p. 139) favours this etymology. "Papatus," says he, "credit albatas mulieres et id genus larvas," &c.

314. "My grandmother," says the author of Round about our Coal Fire, p. 42, "has often told me of fairies dancing upon our green, and that they were little creatures clothed in green."

315. Thus in Olaus Magnus de Gentibus Septentrionalibus: "Similes illis spectris, quse in multis locis, praesertim nocturno tempore, suum saltatorium orbem cum omnium musarum consentu versare solent." It appears from the same author, that these dancers always parched up the grass, and therefore it is properly made the office of Puck to refresh it. Ibid. p. 410: "Vero saltum adeo profunde in terram impresserant, ut locus insigni ardore orbiculariter peresus. non parit arenti redivivum cespite graraen."

316. [Brand originally quoted this from A Pleasant Grove of New Fancies, 8vo. Lond. 1657, p. 67, where it was of course taken from Herrick's Hesperides, 1648.]

317. Puttenham, in the Arte of English Poesie, 1589, p. 144, mentions this as an opinion of the nurses. It is also noticed, in an allusion to fairy mythology, in the Irish Hudibras, 1689, p. 122:

318. "In Ireland they frequently lay bannocks, a kind of oaten cakes, in the way of travellers over the mountains: and if they do not accept of the intended favour, they seldom escape a hearty beating or something worse." Grose.

319. The Scottish Encyclopaedia, in verbo, says: The belief of fairies still subsists in many parts of our own country. The 'Swart Fairy of the Mine' (of German extraction) has scarce yet quitted our subterraneous works. The Germans believed in two species of fairies of the mine, one fierce and malevolent, the other a gentle race, appearing like little old men dressed like miners, and not much above two feet high."

320. Grose quotes Mr. John Lewis, in his correspondence with Mr. Baxter, describing them as little statured, and about half a yard long; and adding that at this very instant there are miners on a discovery of a vein of metal on his own lands, and that two of them are ready to make oath they have heard these knockers in the day-time.

321. Surely, says Douce, this etymology can only have arisen from an accidental coincidence between the two terms fairies and brownies. The word we have immediately from the French. Whence they had it the reader may possibly learn from Menage and other etymologists. See Ducange, v. Fadus, Fada.

322. [Elfshot arrow-heads of stone, supposed by the vulgar to be shot by fairies at the cattle, which cause them to be diseased; the part affected is rubbed with the stone which caused the injury (if it can be found), and it is put into a gallon or two of water, which water the animal is made to take, if it is considered that fever arise therefrom, as a cure.]

323. "Wred eld vocatur ignis qui ex attritu duorum lignorum elicitur, et quia superstitiosis varie usurpari dicitur." Ihre, Glossar. Suio-Goth., fol. Upsal. 1769, in verbo.

324. St. Hascka is said by her prayers to have made stinking butter sweet. See the Bollandists under Januar. 26, as cited by Patrick in his Devotions of the Romish Church, p. 37.

325. In Lodge's Wit's Miserie, 1596, p. 62, is the following passage: "His haires are curl'd and full of elves-locks, and nitty for want of kembing." He is speaking of "a ruffian, a swash-buckler, and a braggart." In Wit and Fancy in a Maze, p. 12, "My guts, quoth Soto, are contorted like a dragon's tayle, in elf-knots, as if some tripe-wife had tack't them together for chitterlings."

326. 'It is almost unnecessary to observe that this is the well-known ballad printed by Percy,' a better copy of which is given from early MISS, in Halliwell's Illustrations of Fairy Mythology, 1845.

327. In plain English, I should suspect that spirits of a different sort from fairies had taken the honest clergyman by the head, and, though he has omitted the circumstance in his marvellous narration, I have no doubt but that the good man saw double on the occasion, and that his own mare, not fairies, landed him safe at his own door.

328. "The Queen of Fairie, mentioned in Jean Weir's indictment, is probably the same sovereign with the Queen of Elf-land, who makes a figure in the case of Alison Pearson, 15th May, 1588; which I believe w the first of the kind in the record." Additions and Notes to Maclaurin's Arguments and Decisions in remarkable Cases. Law Courts, Scotland, 1774, p. 726.

329. [Here follows a stanza we have quoted previously, at p. 483. The reader is referred to Halliwell's Illustrations of Fairy Mythology, p. 168, where a copy is printed from MSS., containing the following additional stanza:

which Dr. Johnson explains: "I look towards his feet to see if, according to the common opinion, his feet be cloven."

331. There is a popular superstition relative to goats : they are supposed never to be seen for twenty-four hours together; and that once in that space, they pay a visit to the devil in order to have their beards combed. This is common both in England and Scotland.

332. It is observed in the Connoisseur, No. 109, that "the famous Sir Thomas Browne refuted the generally-received opinion, that the devil is black, has horns* upon his head, wears a long curling tail and a cloven stump : nay has even denied that, wheresoever he goes, he always leaves a smell of brimstone behind him."

Sir Thomas Browne informs us, "that the Moors describe the devil and terrible objects white.'' Vulgar Errors, p. 281. In Sphinx and Oedipus, or a Helpe to Discourse, 8vo. Lond. 1632, p. 271, we read, that "the devil never appears in the shape of a dove, or a lamb, but in those of goats, dogs, and cats, or such like; and that to the witch of Edmunton he appeared in the shape of a dog, and called his name Dora."

333. Mede, Disc. 40. Grose says, "Although the devil can partly transform himself into a variety of shapes, he cannot change his cloven foot, which will always mark him under every appearance."

We may observe on this passage, however, that he was called Old Nick many ages before the famous, or rather infamous Nicholas Machiavel was born.

335. See Lye's Junii Etymolog. in v. Nick. A writer in the Gent. Mag. for March 1777, xlvii. 119, says: Nobody has accounted for the devil's having the name of Old Nick. Keysler de Dea Nehalunia, p. 33, and Antiq. Septentr. p. 261, mentions a deity of the waters worshipped by the ancient Germans and Danes under the name of Nocka, or Nifren, styled in the Edda Nilcur, which he derives from the German Nugen, answering to the Latin necare. Wormius 'Mon. Dan.' p. 17, says the redness in the faces of drowned persons was ascribed to this deity's sucking their blood out at their nostrils. Wasthovius, Pref. ad Vit. Sanctorum, and Loccenius, Antiq. Sueo-Goth., p. 17, call him Neccus, and quote from a Belgo-Gallic dictionary, Necer spiritus aquaticus, and Necce necare. The Islandic dictionary in Hickes, Thesaur., p. iii. p. 85, renders Nikur bell a aquatica. Lastly, Rudbekius, Atlant. p. i. c. vii. 5, p. 192, and c. xxx. p. 719, mentions a notion prevalent among his countrymen, that Neckur, who governed the sea, assumed the form of various animals, or of a horseman, or of a man in a boat. He supposes him the same with Odin; but the above authorities are sufficient to evince that he was the Northern Neptune, or some subordinate sea-god of a noxious disposition. It is not unlikely but the name of this evil spirit might, as Christianity prevailed in these northern nations, be transferred to the Father of evil."

336. [A paper on this subject in the Athenaeum, No. 983, derives the term from the antiquw hostis of the early Latin fathers, and gives us some learned remarks on the origin of these terms.]

337. "Quoniam creberrima fama est, multique se expertos, vel ab iis, qui expert! essent, de quorum fide dubitandum non est, audisse confirmant sylvanos et faunos, quos vulgo incubos vocant, improbos saepe extitisse mulieribus et earum appetisse ac peregisse concubitum: et quosdam daemones quos Dusios nuncupant Galli, hanc assidue immunditiam et tentare et efficere, plures talesque asseverant, ut hoc negare impudentiae videatur; non hinc audeo aliquid temere definire, utrum aliqui spiritus elemento aereo corporati, possint etiam hanc pati libidinem, ut quomodo possunt, sentientibus feminis misceantur." Cap. 23.