power, to arrange the text of this recension agreeably to the principle of proportion or degree of contributory weight. The governing aim has been to accumulate and arrange to the best advantage and in the most convenient shape as large a body as possible of real or supposed matters of fact on all branches of the subject, with which I deal; and in re-editing the 1870 book, to adapt it to an improved state of knowledge, I trust I have been fairly successful. It is to be remarked that the moral and conclusion derived from a perusal of the following pages are not perhaps likely to be of a very flattering nature, so far as regards either the opinions and intelligence of former ages or their educational progress. Amid a vast amount of material and detail, which can hardly fail to prove entertaining and valuable, there is much, too much, even as we draw near to our own epoch, which bespeaks a prevalence of low mental development arising, no doubt, in great measure from a faulty system of teaching both in a secular and clerical direction. Modern principles of instruction will gradually extinguish most, if not all, of the foolish prejudices and superstitions recorded here, and while it will be an unquestionable blessing, that such a change should occur, it also seems desirable that we should possess in a tolerably complete shape the means of comparison between the Older and the Newer Life of this Empire. It is hardly too much to say that, in scrutinizing many of the headings in the Dictionary, the average reader may have to reflect, before he is assured that the views or accounts contained under them refer to the country known as Great Britain; yet how many of these customs and corruptions yet survive! Barnes Common, Surrey, September, 1904. W. C. H. NATIONAL FAITHS AND POPULAR CUSTOMS. Abbot of Bon Accord. The Aberdeen name for the Lord of Misrule. Abbot of Unreason. The Scotish name for the Lord of Misrule, q.v. In Scotland, where the Reformation took a nore severe and gloomy turn than in England, the Abbot of Unreason, as he was called, with other festive characters, was thought worthy to be suppressed by the Legislature as early as 1555. Jamieson seems to have thought, however, that the abolition of these sports was due rather to the excesses perpetrated in connection with them than to the Reformation. Perhaps this may be considered almost as a distinction without a difference. Abingdon, Berks. For a custom after the election of a mayor here, see the Gentleman's Magazine for Dec., 1782. Abraham-Men, itinerant beggars, who ranged town and country after the Dissolution of Monasteries and the absence of any other system of poor-relief. There is some illustration of this subject in Hazlitt's Popular Poetry, 1864-6, iv, 17 et. se., in Harman's Caveat, 1567, &c., Compare Tom of Bedlam. Advertisements and Bills. The Poster for a wide variety of purposes is known to have been in use in England, no less than in France and Germany, at an early period, and shared with the Cry and Proclamation the function of notifying approaching events or official ordinances. Hazlitt's Shakespear: The Man and the Writer, 2nd ed. 1903, pp. 102-3. This method of notification also prevailed toward the latter end of the reign of Elizabeth in respect to theatrical performances, which were announced on advertisements affixed to conspicuous places; but the modern play-bill was a much later comer. There is an Elizabethan broadside recently discovered among some old MSS., setting forth the particulars of a tilting match at Westminster, to be held in honour and vindication of a certain lady, whose beauty and accomplishments the challenger was prepared to defend against all opponents. Hazlitt's Collections and Notes, 1903, v. Gallophisus. Adventurer.-A partner in a voyage of discovery or colonization. Adventurers on return were persons who lent money before they started on one of these enterprizes, on condition that they should receive so much profit, if they returned home. Admiral of the Blue, a sobriquet for a tapster, from his blue apron. Compare, as to the blue apron, Hazlitt's Garden Literature, 1887, pp. 9-10. The gar dener and fruit-grower, however, still cling to blue paper, as a material for covering their baskets of produce. Adoption.-Several of our sovereigns adopted children offered to them, and then contributed toward their maintenance, but did not necessarily, or indeed usually, remove them from their parents' roof. Very numerous illustrations of this custom might be afforded. In the "Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York," May, 1502, we have, for instance, this entry: "Item the xijth day of May to Mawde Hamond for keping of hire child geven to the Quene for half a yere ended at Estre last past. . . . viijs." An ex Apiornis or Epiornis. tinct bird of Madagascar, of which an egg was discovered in an alluvial deposit in 1850, by M. d'Abbadie. It is said to be 13 or 14 inches long, and to have six times the capacity of that of the ostrich. The Epiornis seems to be identifiable with the Roc or Rukh, which is mentioned by Marco Polo. But it is doubtful whether this enormous creature really exceeded in size the great apteryx or moa of New Zealand, also extinct. A specimen of the egg was sold in London (November, 1899) for £44, described as about a yard in circumference, a foot in length, and of the capacity of 150 hens' eggs. Compare Roc. Aërolites, the modern name and view given to the medieval and ancient fire-balls, firedrakes, dracones volantes, thunderbolts, &c. Their nature is at present generally better understood, although we have yet to learn their exact origin. A very intelligent writer says, speaking of the matter of falling stars: Amongst our selves, when any such matter is found in the fields, the very countrey-men cry it fell from Heav'n and the staries, and as I remember call it the Spittle of the Starres." He adds: "An Ignis fatuus has been found fallen down in a slippery viscous substance full of white spots. They stay upon military ensigns and spears; because such are apt to stop and be tenacious of them. In the summer and hot regions they are more frequent, because the good concoction produces fatnesse." White's Peripatetical Institutions, 1656, p. 148. Compare Fire-drake. In an B official account of Bendothey, co. Perth, written in 1797, it is said: "The substance called shot stars is nothing else than frosted potatoes. A night of hard frost, in the end of autumn, in which those raeteors called fallen stars are seen, reduges the potatoe to the consistence of a jelly or soft pulp having no resemblance to a potato, except when parts of the skin of the potato adhere below undissolved. This pulp remains soft and fluid, when all things else in Nature are consolidated by frost for which reason it is greedily taken up by crows and other fowls when no other sustenance is to be had, so that it is often found by man in the actual circumstance of having fallen from above, having its parts scattered and dispersed by the fall, according to the law of falling bodies. This has given rise to the name and vulgar opinion concerning it." Stat. Acc. of Scotl., xix., 351. an Etites.The Atites, or Eagle Stone, was regarded as a charm of singular use to parturient women. Lemnius says: "It makes women that are slippery able to conceive, being bound to wrist of the left arm, by which from the the heart towards the Ring Finger, next to the little Finger, an artery runs: and if all the time the woman is great with child, this jewel be worn on those parts, it strengthens the child, and there is no fear of abortior or miscarrying." Occult Miracles of Nature, 1658. Lemnius tells us elsewhere, that P: 270. the jewel called Etites, found in 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." speaks of "Etites, called the Eagle's Lupton 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." where he says: "Let the woman that Elsetravels with her child, (is in labour) be girded with the skin that a serpent or snake casts off, and then she will quickly be delivered." Agatha's Letters, St.-Bishop Pilkington observes: "They be superstitious that put holiness in S. Agathes Letters for burning houses, thorne bushes for lightnings.' Burnynge of Paules Church in 1561, 88, 1563, 1. 8 and G. i. Afternoon Music. In Brooke's "Epithalamium," inserted in England's Helicon, 1614, we read: "Now whiles slow Howres doe feed the Times delay, Confus'd Discourse, with Musicke mizt among, Fills up the Semy-circle of the Day." Agnes Day or Eve, St.—(Jan. many "And on sweet St. Agnes' night Please you with the promis'd sight, Some of husbands, some of lovers, Which an empty dream discovers." the public stews before her execution; but She was condemned to be debauched in her virginity was miraculously preserved by lightning and thunder from Heaven. parents going to lament and pray at her About eight days after her execution, her tomb, they saw a vision of angels, among standing by her as white as snow, on which whom was their daughter, and a lamb account it is that in every graphic repreby her side. sentation of her there is a lamb pictured of this sort of divination, and Aubrey, in "Fair St. Agnes, play thy part, I have observed that in Cornwall, where we should speak of St. Agnes, they say St. Anne, as if the two names, if not persons, were the same. Yet females are sometimes christened Agnes Anne. Agues.-Aubrey furnishes an infallible receipt for the cure of an ague: Write this following spell in parchment, and wear it about your neck. It must be writ triangularly: ABRACADABRA ABRACADABR ABRACADAB ABRACADA ABRACAD ABRACA ABRAC ABRA ABR Ав A With this the writer affirms that one at Wells in Somersetshire had cured above a hundred of the disease. He gives another specific for the same purpose a little further on: "Gather cinquefoil in a good aspect of 4 to the and let the moone be in the mid-heaven, if you can, and take of the powder of it in white wine. If it be not thus gathered according to the rules of astrology; it hath little or no virtue in it. Other superstitious cures follow for the thrush, the toothache, the jaundice, bleeding, &c.-Miscellanies, ed. 1857, 133, 134, 137, where farther information may be found. Blagrave prescribes a cure of agues by a certain writing which the patient weareth, as follows: When Jesus went up to the Cross to be crucified, the Jews asked Him, saying, Art thou afraid? or hast thou the ague? Jesus answered and said, I am not afraid, neither have I the ague. All those which bear the name of Jesus about them shall not be afraid, nor yet have the ague. Amen, sweet Jesus, Amen, sweet Jehovah, Amen." He adds: "I have known many who have been cured of the ague by this writing only worn about them; and I had the receipt from one whose daughter was cured thereby, who had the ague upon her two years.' To this charact, then, may be given, on the joint authority of the old woman and our doctor, "Probatum est.' Astrological Practice d'Physic, p. 135. In Ashmole's Diary, 11 April, 1681, is preserved the following curious incident: "I took early in the morning a good dose of elixir, and hung three spiders about my neck, and they drove my ague away. Deo Gratias !" Ashmole was a judicial astrologer, and the patron of the renowned Mr. Lilly. Par nobile fratrum. In Pope's Memoirs of P. P. Clerk of the Parish, is the following :"The next chapter relates how he discovered a thief with a Bible and key, and experimented verses of the Psalms that had cured agues." Douce notes that, in his day, it was usual with many persons about Exeter, who had the ague, "to visit at dead of night the nearest cross road five different times, and there bury a new-laid egg. The visit is paid about an hour before the cold fit is expected; and they are persuaded that with the egg they shall bury the ague. If the experiment fail, (and the agitation it occasions may often render it successful) they attribute it to some unlucky accident that may have befallen them on the way. In the execution of this matter they observe the strictest silence, taking care not to speak to any one, whom they may happen to meet.Gentleman's Magazine, 1787, p. 719. I shall here note another remedy against the ague mentioned as above, viz., by breaking a salted cake of bran and giving it to a dog, when the fit comes on, by which means they suppose the malady to be transferred from them to the animal." Compare St. Germanus. a Aldate, St.-Hearne, in his Diary, informs us that this personage was bishop of Gloucester, living in the time of Hengist, whom he slew; and a part of Oxford is still named after him. But his ex285. istence is questionable. Diary, 1869, ii., แ Ale.-Ale, or eale, A.-S. (a form not yet obsolete) seems to be considered as significant in the present connection of nothing, more or less, than a merry-making. "That ALE is festival appears from its sense in composition," says Warton; as amongst others, in the words Leet-ale, Lamb-ale, Whitsun-ale, Clerk-ale, and Church-ale. Leet-ale, in some parts of England, signifies the dinner at a court-leet of a manor for the jury and customary tenants. Lambale is still used at the village of Kirtlington in Oxfordshire, for an annual feast or celebrity at lamb-shearing. Clerk-ale occurs in Aubrey's History of Wiltshire,' printed in 1847. Church-ale was a feast celebrated for the repair of the church, or in honour of the church saint. In Dodsworth's Manuscripts, there is an old indenture, made before the Reformation, which not only shews the design of the Churchale, but explains this particular use and application of the word ale. But Mr. Astle had a curious record about 1575, which proves the Bride-ale synonymous with the Weddyn-ale.* Bishop Tanner's MSS. additions to Cowel's 'Law Glossary,' in the Bodleian Library, is the following note from his own collec Among tions: A.D. 1468. Prior Cant. et Com- come and pay as before rehearsed." These missarii visitationem fecerunt (Diocesi different contributions were mostly, in a Cant. vacante per mortem archipiscopi) et greater or less degree, compulsory. But ibi publicatum erat, quod potationes fact the giveales were the legacies of individuals in ecclesiis, vulgariter dicta Yelealys, vel and differed from the Scotales in that they Bredealys, non essent ulterius in usu sub were entirely gratuitous; though some poena excommunicationis majoris.'". For might be in addition to a common giveale Scot-ales, give-ales, leet-ales, bride-ales, before established in the parish. The hisclerk-ales, &c., see 66 Archæol," vol. xii. p. tory of Kent gives many instances in the 11-77. In the MSS. Papers of Aubrey, parishes of Hoo, Snodland, Cowling, Waunder date of 1678, it is said that "in the teringbury, and others, e.g.,: "St. Easter Holidays, was the Clerk's ale for his Mary's, Hoo, Test. Will Hammond, Also private benefit and the solace of the neigh- I will that specially my feoffees and exors. bourhood." "Antiquarian Repertory." see that the Yeovale of St. James's be kept No. 26. Mr. Denne, in his "Account of, for ever, as it hath bin here aforetime.""" stone figures carved on the porch of Chalk Hoo, Alhallows, Test. John Devell. AllChurch, ("Archæol." vol. xii. p. 12,) soe I will that the geavalle of Alhalows in says: the Clerks' ale was the method Hoo have one acre of land after my wife's taken by the Clerks of parishes to collect decease to maintain it withall, called more readily their dues" In the Church Pilchland, and that it be done after Times about twenty years ago, appeared the custom of olde time." At Cowthe following account of the matter by ling, Test. Tho. Love and Tho. Tomys. Mr. Pope, which may be considered worth “I will that my wife Joane shall preservation:-"We read of Scotales and have house and my daur [? daywere] give-ales, appellations thought to be used land to keep or doe a yevall on St. James's synonymously; but their meanings are dis- day, to which yevall I bind it (the land) tinct. Scotales, as the word imports, were whosoever have it without end." Giveales maintained by contribution of those re- differ also materially from Scotales in their sorting to them. Thus the tenants of having been blended with notions of a South Malling in Essex, which belonged to superstitious tendency; for the bequest the Archibishop of Canterbury, were at was often to the light or altar of a saint, keeping of a court to entertain the lord or with directions to sing masses at the obit, his bailiff with a feast, or an ale, and the trental, or anniversary of the testator's stated quotas toward the charge were, death. Lands were settled for the perthat a man should pay 31d. for himself and petual payment of the legacies thus approhis wife, and a widow 14d. In Terring, Sus- priated. The parish of St. John, Thanet. sex, it was the custom to make up a Scot- is possessed of 15 acres acquired by a leale of sixteen pence halfpenny, and allow gacy bequeathed for a giveale by Ethelred out of each sixpence three halfpence to find Banen in 1513, who willed that "such a drink for the bailiff. There were also yearle yeovale should be maintayned while feasts in which the prefix Scot was the world endureth." omitted, and instead thereof, leet-ale, It was evident that bride - ale, a man in high glee over "a stoup of clerk - ale, and Church - ale, strong liquor To the first contributed all the was not an unusual sight within the precincts of a church. sidents the second At St. was defrayed by Mary's, Chalk, near Gravesend, William the relatives of the happy pair, who were May, in his will, 1512, gave, inter alia, To too poor to buy a wedding dinner. The every godchild he had in Kent 6 bushels of Clerk's-ale was at Easter, and was the barley; if 4 of them could bear him to the method taken to enable clerks of parishes church 6d. each his executors to buy 2 to collect the more readily their due. (Au- new torches for his burial, 2d. each to men brey's Hist., Wilts). From an old inden- to bear them. That his wife make every ture, before the Reformation, is seen the year for his soull an obit in bread 6 bushels design for a church-ale. "The parishion- of wheat, in drink 10 bushels of malt, in ers of Elveston and Okebrook (Derbyshire) cheese 20d., to give poor people for the agree jointly to brew four ales, and every health of his soull. His wife to continue ale of one quarter of malt betwixt this and the obit before rehearsed for evermore, the feast of St. John the Baptist next com- These give-ales on obsequies, as on dediing. That every inhabitant of Okebrook cations, allowed great freedom in sports, be there. That every husband and his dissolute dances in churches and churchwife shall pay twopence, and every cot-yards, and this is particularly instanced in tager one penny, and all profits and advantages shall be and remain to the use of the church of Elveston. the inhabitants of Elveston shall brew And eight ales betwixt this and the said feast of St. John, at which feasts or ales the inhabitants of Okebrook shall re the churchyard of St. Mary, Chalk. "The porch has a grotesque carving in the porprincipal is exercising his talents as a postrait of a jester grasping a jug, while his ture maker, and two other faces appear on whom the sculptor seems to have bestowed such an indelible smirk, that in spite of |