rare old play,' but he does not betray any symptom of the knowledge of the names of their authors.

The interminable length and confusion of the notes, nine-tenths of which ought to have been incorporated in the text, and the immethodical manner in which Mr. Brand has treated his subject, are equally objectionable. In the original MS. 'he had not kept even to the chronological order of the feasts and fasts observed by his predecessor Bourne :' and for the arrangement which enables us to pick our way through the wilderness, we are indebted to Mr. Ellis, who undertook the labour of editing the performance. Some indulgence, however, is due to the inevitable imperfections of a posthumous work. Considered as the common-place book of a staunch and laborious antiquary, who devoted years of leisure to its compilation, these blemishes do not materially diminish its real value, though the author, as he felt and acknowledged, was endowed with no great share of critical acumen. And Mr. Brand's simplicity, which sometimes puts us in mind of good parson Adams, had induced us to lend no unwilling ear to his apologies.

In the first volume the days of more particular note in the calendar are taken in chronological order,' 'beginning with New Year's Eve,' and an account of the good old custom of 'Wassail,' which is yet retained in Gloucestershire, and some other remote parts of the kingdom, and ending with the 'dismal day' of 'Childemasse,' or the Holy Innocents. Dismal indeed it was, for in the morning our ancestors had a custom, which has fortunately become obsolete, of whipping up the children,' in order that 'the memorie of Herod's murder of the innocents might strike the closer:'-an ingenious application of Professor Feinagle's principles which was practised on other occasions.

Twelfth-day in Gloucestershire is also the name of another kind of Wassailing, as follows:

At the approach of the evening on the vigil of the Twelfth Day, the farmers with their servants meet together, and about six o'clock walk out to a field where wheat is growing. In the highest part of the ground, twelve small fires and one large one are lighted up. The attendants, headed by the master of the family, pledge the company in old cider, which circulates freely on these occasions. A circle is formed round the large fire, when a general shout and hallooing takes place, which you have answered from all the adjacent villages. Sometimes fifty or sixty of these fires may all be seen at once. This being finished, the company return home, where the good housewife and her maids are preparing a good supper. A large cake is always provided with a hole in the middle. After supper, the company all attend the bailiff (or head of the oxen) to the wain-house, where the following particulars are observed. The master, at the head of his friends, fills the cup, generally of strong ale, and stands opposite to the first or finest of

his oxen. He then pledges him in a curious toast, the company follow his example with all the other oxen, addressing each by his name. This being finished, the large cake is produced, and with much ceremony put on the horn of the first ox, through the hole above-mentioned. The ox is then tickled to make him toss his head: if he throws the cake behind, then it is the perquisite of the mistress; if be fore, the bailiff himself claims the prize. The company then return to the house, the doors of which they find locked, nor will they be opened until some joyous songs are sung. On their gaining admittance a scene of mirth and jollity ensues, and which lasts the greatest part of the night.'

The custom of drawing 'king and queen' seems to have prevailed in one shape or another in most parts of Europe; but the method by which the regal dignity is now confirmed is of late introduction. This important elevation was anciently conducted in a manner which obviated the suspicions of collusion on the part of the scrutineers, which now and then sets half the little conclave a pouting. Cut the cake,' says Melibus in the speeches to Queen Elizabeth at Sudley; 'cut the cake; who hath the beane shal be king, and where the peaze is she shall be queene.' Thus also in Herrick's Hesperides, an inexhaustible repertory of popular customs and allusions, with extracts from which Mr. Brand has often enlivened his pages:

Now, now the time comes,

With the cake full of plumbs,

When beane's the king and the sport here;
Besides, we must know,

The pea also,

Must revel as queen of the court here.

"In Normandy they place a child under the table which is covered in such a manner with the cloth that he cannot see what is doing; and when the cake is divided, one of the company taking up the first piece, cries out, "Fabo domine, pour qui?" The child answers "Pour le bon dieu." In this manner the pieces are allotted to the company. If the bean be found in the piece for the "bon dieu," the king is chosen by drawing long or short straws. Otherwise whoever gets the bean chooses the king or queen, according as the person happens to be a man or a woman.'

Choosing the king of the bean also formed a gambol at both the universities.

A piece of money was often substituted for the bean, as described in the Alexandrines of Barnaby Googe.

But who so chaunceth on the peece wherein the money lies,
Is counted king amongst them all, and is with shouts and cries
Exalted to the heavens up, who taking chalke in hande,

Doth make a crosse on every beame and rafters as they stande.'

These crosses had great virtue in scaring away 'cursed sprites and devils,' and in averting harm and ill-luck from the dwelling.

In Silesia the three kings and an angel parade the streets, chaunting a traditionary carol. The first verses of it would furnish Miss Edgeworth with an additional instance of the universality of what are most unjustly termed Irish bulls.

Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthazar, like many other saints, havé had the fortune to be mysticised. On the vigil of the feast their names written with blood on the forehead of the trembling inquirer, procured a vision of the time and manner of his death. And it was one of the three holy nights in which the magic pipe was prepared, whose music allured the worm employed in the ceremonies, which induced the pygmies of the wood to give up the wishingcap.* The star, as the legend tells, fell into a well in the holy land after it had performed its office, where it could be occasionally seen. The optical effects produced by deep wells may have laid the foundation for this fable. Under favourable circumstances, a star of the first magnitude may be reflected in the day-time from the surface of the waters.

The pagan origin of the customs observed on May-day is distinctly marked at the two extremities of this island they form a singular contrast. The stormy sky, and inhospitable soil, of the Celt, so frequently refused him the means of subsistence, that when he contemplated the return of the yeaning time and the harvest, it was to him a season of doubt and anxiety. On the Beltam-day, the highlander, faithful to the rites of his ancestors, still offers the consecrated cake to the fox, the hooded crow, and the eagle, the destroyers of his flocks and herds, and to the beings whom he reveres as their protectors. And the devoted person who draws the black lot is compelled to leap three times through the flames as a memorial of the ancient sacrifices. The youth of the year did not present the same apprehensions to the inhabitant of the

*This wishing cap, or cloud cap, is of frequent occurrence in the ancient Tentonic romances. In the Book of Heroes, the Little King Laurin wears it when he carries off the sister of Theodoric of Verona.

Kunig Laurin begunde
Grifen zü den malen sin
Darus nam er ein kepneliu
Darin verbannt er si ze hant
Und sinen güten schiltes rant

Do moht man in geschen niht.

In the Niebelungen, where it contributes so materially to the development of the ptory, it is found under the name of Tarnchappe.

Dú will was öch Sifrit der watliche man,

E daz ez ieman wisse, zü dem schisse gegan
Da er sin tarnchappen verborgen ligen vant
Darin slöf er vil schiere: do was er nieman bedhant.

genial shores of Italy. He did not supplicate the deities for blessings which he had no reason to fear they would withhold, and he rejoiced in the anticipation of them. However, when the classical festivities of the Floralia were introduced into this climate, it would have been desirable either to advance their place in the calendar, or to expel the King of the Fogs, who, according to the fairy tale of Madame d'Aunois, has held his court in England ever since he was jilted by his mistress. Milton, with the Ben venga Maggio,' of the Tuscan poet yet ringing in his ear, may have been inspired to 'Hail' the bounteous, flowery May;

who from her green lap throws

The yellow cowslip, and the pale primrose.

But we fear that even before the alteration of the style so beautifully lamented in 'The Tears of Old May-day,' she was but a sickly, hollow-cheeked damsel. Stubbs, in his declamation against 'Maie,' tells us that 'every parishe towne and village assemble themselves together, both men, women, and children, olde and yong, even all indifferently; and, either going all together or devidyng themselves into companies, they goe some to the woodes and groves, some to the hilles and mountaines, some to one place, and some to another, where they spende all the night in pastymes."' Yet we must not allow his invective as unexceptionable evidence of the mildness of the weather, which could allow of such cool and airy revels. He has evidently overcharged his picture, notwithstanding his boast of the 'credible reports' he had received 'from men of greate gravitie, credite, and reputation.' Another writer of the same age more considerately qualifies his account of the May games with if the skie clear up.' An 'if' of which we all feel the necessity.

The supposed cosmetic virtues of Maydew, when gathered before sun rise, are pretty generally remembered in the country. It was probably an allegory by which some village Zadig attempted to induce the maidens to attend to the wholesome observances of early rising and exercise.

The puritans fought a stubborn battle with the May poles, those 'heathenish vanities of superstition and wickedness,' whose fall is deplored by the author of Pasquil's Palinodia,' in verses of extraordinary harmony considering the time when they were composed.

'Happy the age, and harmlesse were the dayes,
For then true love and amity were found,

When every village did a May pole raise,
And Whitsun ales and May games did abound;
And all the lusty yonkers in a rout,

With merry lasses daunced the rod about;

Then friendship to the banquet bid the guests,
And poor men fared the better for their feasts.
Alas, poor May poles! what should be the cause
That you were almost banisht from the earth?
Who never were rebellious to the lawes,

Your greatest crime was honest, harmlesse mirth.'

The May poles never held up their heads again. The last upon record was that in May-fair, which was 'begged' by Sir Isaac Newton as a stand for his great telescope. The morrice dancers, and Friar Tuck, and Maid Marian rallied after the restoration, although somewhat shorn of their former glories:

For, oh! the hobby-horse was forgot.'

The merry troop was wandering up and down the country about twenty years ago; but these are sad degenerate times, and it is to be greatly feared that now they are only to be seen in Mr. Tollett's parlour window. Mr. Ellis has added some extracts from Mr. Douce's elaborate dissertation upon the May games, in illustrationof his text; but we must inform that gentleman, that, correct as Minsheu generally is, his authority for once is questionable. The Tarrasca was the dragon, and not the chevalet or hobby-horse. On Whitsunday, Mr. Brand has quoted the following verses from Barnaby Googe, which require some explanation.

'On Whitsunday whyte pigeons tame in strings from heaven flie, And one that framed is of wood, still hangeth in the skie; Thou seest how they with idols plaie, and teach the people to; None other wise than little gyrles with puppets use to do.'

It was the custom during this festival to suspend a silver dove from the roof of the church, and to let it slowly down during some part of the service, as an emblem of the descent of the Holy Ghost. In the churches in France, under the early races, the host was sometimes kept in a shrine made in the shape of a dove, and suspended over the altar.

At Christmas' we find an article of rustic superstition which is

new to us.

A superstitious notion prevails in the western parts of Devonshire, that at twelve o'clock at night, on Christmas eve, the oxen in the stalls are always found on their knees as in an attitude of devotion, and that since the alteration of the style they continue to do this only on the eve of Old Christmas-day. An honest countryman being on the edge of St. Stephen's down, near Launceston, Cornwall, informed me, Oct. 28th, 1790, that he once, with some others, made a trial of the truth of the above, and watching several oxen in their stalls at the above time, at twelve o'clock at night, they observed the two oldest oxen only fall upon their knees, and as he expressed it in the idiom of the country, make a cruel moan like Christian creatures.'