The joyful tidings of the defeat of the Spanish armada arrived on Michaelmas day, and were communicated to Queen Elizabeth whilst at dinner partaking of a goose; but there is evidence to prove that this custom was practised long before the destruction of the Spanish armada. Brand, in his Popular Antiquities, traces it as far back as the tenth year of the reign of King Edward IV. WELSH LEEK AS A BADGE OF HONOUR. Upon the first of March King Cadwallo met a Saxon army in the field. In order to distinguish his men from their enemies, he, from an adjoining field of leeks, placed one in each of their hats; and having gained a signal and decisive victory over the Saxons, the leek became the future badge of honour among the Welsh, and particularly worn on the 1st of March, or St. David's day. SHAMROCK, THE IRISH BADGE OF HONOUR. The wild trefoil was very highly regarded in the superstitions of the ancient Druids, and has still medicinal virtues of a particular kind accredited to it by the more remote Highlanders of Scotland, where it is culled according to the ancient rites. "In the list of plants," says a Scotch statistical writer, "must be reckoned the seamrog, or the wild trefoil, in great estimation of old by the Druids. It is still considered as an anodyne in the diseases of cattle; from this circumstance it has derived its name, seimh, in the Gaelic, signifying pacific or soothing. When gathered, it is plucked with the left hand, The person thus employed must be silent, and never look back till the business be finished." This is the seamrog, or shamrog, worn by Irishmen in their hats, as O'Brien says, "by way of a cross on St. Patrick's day, in memory of this great saint." It is said, that when St. Patrick landed near Wicklow to convert the Irish in 433, the Pagan inhabitants were ready to stone him; he requested to be heard, and endeavoured to explain God to them as the Trinity in Unity, but they could not understand him; till plucking a trefoil, or shamrog, from the ground, he said, “Is it not as possible for the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as for these three leaves, to grow upon a single stalk?" "Then," says Brand, "the Irish were immediately convinced, and became converts to Christianity; and, in memory of which event, the Irish have ever since worn the shamrog, or shamrock, as a badge of honour." THE SCOTTISH THISTLE. The origin of the national badge is thus handed down by tradition: When the Danes invaded Scotland, it was deemed unwarlike to attack an enemy in the darkness of night, instead of a pitched battle by day; but, on one occasion, the invaders, resolved to avail themselves of stratagem, and, in order to prevent their tramp from being heard, they marched barefooted. They had thus neared the Scottish force unobserved, when a Dane unluckily stepped with his foot upon a superbly prickled thistle, and uttered a cry of pain, which discovered the assailants to the Scots, who ran to their arms, and defeated the foe with great slaughter. The thistle was immediately adopted as the insignia of Scotland. ELECTION RIBBONS. 66 These party emblems were first introduced, March 14th, 1681. -The Protestant Intelligencer states, after mentioning the parliament that was held at Oxford this year, on which occasion the representatives of the city of London assembled at Guildhall on the 17th of March, for the purpose of commencing their journey. Many of the citizens met them there, intending to accompany them part of their way, together with others who were deputed to go to Oxford as a sort of council to the city members. Some of our ingenious London weavers had against this day contrived a very fine fancy, that is, a blue satin ribbon, having these words plainly and legibly wrought upon it, 'No Popery,'' No Slavery,' which, being tied up in knots, were worn in the hats of the horsemen who accompanied our members." Such was the origin of wearing ribbons on electioneering occasions. PERAMBULATING PARISHES ON ASCENSION DAY. This custom is of considerable antiquity. Spelman thinks it was derived from the heathens, and that it is an imitation of the feast called Terminalia, which was observed in the month of February, in honour of the god Terminius, who was supposed to preside over bounds and limits, and to punish all unlawful usurpations of land. In making the parochial perambulations in this country on Ascension day, the minister, accompanied by the churchwardens and parishioners, used to deprecate the vengeance of God, by a blessing on the fruits of the earth, and implore him to preserve the rights of the parish. This custom is thus noticed by Withers in his Emblems: "That every man might keep his own possessions, (With zealous prayers and many a praiseful cheer) And well-known marks (which sacrilegious hands And many brawls, now rife, were then unknown." In Lysons' Environs of London, in the Churchwarden's Book: of Children, there is the following: 1670. Spent at perambulation dinner Given to the boys that were whipt.. THE PASSING BELL. £3 10 0 The passing bell, so called, because the defunct has passed from one state to another, owes its origin to an idea of sanctity attached to bells by the early Romanists, who believed that the sound of these holy instruments of percussion, actually drove the devil away from the soul of the departing Christian. Durand, who flourished about the end of the twelfth century, tells us in his Rationale, "when any one is dying, bells must be tolled, that the people may put up their prayers; twice for a woman, and thrice for a man; if for a clergyman, as many times as he had orders; and, at the conclusion, a peal on all the bells, to distinguish the quality of the person for whom the people are to put up their prayers. A bell too must be rung when the corpse is conducted to church, and during the bringing it out of the church to the grave." "Come list and hark, the bell doth toll Whom even now those ominous fowle, Lament; hark! I hear the wilde wolfe howle CHIMES. Rape of Lucrece. "How sweet the tuneful bells responsive peal! When by my native streams, in life's fair prime, The sounds of joy once heard, and heard no more.” * Besides the common way of tolling bells, there is also a ringing, which is a kind of chimes used on various occasions in token of *Written at Ostend, July 22, 1787. joy. This ringing prevails in no country so much as in England, where it is a kind of diversion, and, for a piece of money, any one may have a peal. On this account it is that England is called the “ringing island." Chimes are something very different, and much more musical; there is not a town in all the Netherlands without them, being an invention of that country. The chimes at Copenhagen are one of the finest sets in all Europe; but the inhabitants, from a pertinacious fondness for old things, or the badness of their ear, do not like them so well as the old ones, which were destroyed by a conflagration. OUTLAWRY. 66 Some may derive the antiquity of Outlawry from Cain, who for the murder of his brother, was, as it were, out of the protection of the law; or, as the ancient English would say, a friendless man;" however, although we cannot ascend so high as Cain, certain it is, that this kind of punishment is very ancient, for Cæsar, speaking of the Druids, saith thus-"Whoever he is that obeys not their sentence, they forbid him their sacrifices, which is amongst them the most grievous of punishments; for they who are thus interdicted, are accounted in the number of the most impious and wicked,-all people shunning them, and refusing their conversation, lest they should receive damage by the infection thereof; nor is justice to be afforded them at their desire, nor any honour allowed unto them." Bracton describes the nature of our English outlawry thus :"When any person is outlawed justly, and according to the law of the land, let us see what he suffers by this his outlawry, if after the first summons he doth not appear. First, therefore, be it known, he forfeits his country and the kingdom, and becometh a banished man, such an one as the English call utlaugh; but anciently they had wont to call him 'a friendless man,' whereby it seemeth he forfeiteth his friends, so that if, after such outlawry and expulsion, any one shall willingly give him food, and entertain him, or knowingly converse with him in any sort whatever, or shall shelter him and hide him, he is to undergo the same punishment as the person outlawed ought to do, which is to lose all his goods, and also his life, unless it please the king to be more merciful to him," &c. CARVING AT TABLE BY LADIES. This custom, Verstegan says, originated among our Saxon ancestors, and the title of lady sprung from this office; as laford, or loafgiver (now lord), was so called from his maintaining a number of dependants; so leaf-dian or loaf-dian, i. e., loaf-server, is the origin of lady, she serving it to the guests. GAMMON OF BACON AT EASTER. Drake, in his "Shakspeare and his Times," says, the custom of eating a gammon of bacon at Easter, still maintained in some parts of England, is founded on the abhorrence our forefathers thought proper to express, in that way, towards the Jews at the season of commemorating the resurrection. EPPING HUNT. Fitzstephen informs us, that the hunting at Epping and round London at Easter time, commenced in 1226, when King Henry III. confirmed to the citizens of London free warren, or liberty to hunt a circuit about their city, in the warren of Staines, Hainhault* forest, &c.; and in ancient times the lord mayor, aldermen, and corporation, attended by a due number of their constituents, availed themselves of this right of chase in solemn guise. PETER PENCE. The popular name of an impost otherwise termed "the fee of Rome;" originally a voluntary offer by the faithful to the see of Rome, afterwards a due levied in various amounts from every house or family in a country. Peter pence were paid in France, Poland, and other countries. In England, this tax was recognised by the Norman laws of William the Conqueror. Edward III. discontinued the payment when the popes resided at Avignon, but it was afterwards revived and finally ceased in the reign of Henry VIII. NIGHTLY WATCH. The curfew bell was commanded by William the Conqueror to be nightly rung at eight o'clock, as a warning or command, that all people should then put out their fires and lights, and continued throughout the realm till the time of Henry I., when Stow says, "that it followed, by reason of warres within the realme, that many men gave themselves up to robbery and murders in the night." It appears that the city of London was subject to these disorders till 1253, when Henry III. commanded watches to be kept in the cities and borough towns for the preservation of the peace; and further, that if from that time any murder or robbery was committed, the town in which it was done should be liable to the damages thereof. Such was the origin of the Nightly Watch. *What is now called Epping Forest, was formerly a part of the Forest of Hainhault. |