garter at Westminster instead of Windsor, as was the case once or twice in the early part of Elizabeth's reign. Comp. Evelyn's Diary, April 23, 1667.

It seems to be the case that at ceremonial observances in St. George's Chapel at Windsor in the case of installations or otherwise the choristers demanded as a fee the King's spurs, which were redeemed by a pecuniary payment. In the Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VII., under 1495, we find: "To the children for the King's spoures, 4s.," and there are similar entries in the Expenses of Henry VIII. under 1530.

It appears that blue coats were formerly worn by people of fashion on St. George's Day. Hazlitt's Dodsley, x., 349. Among the Fins, whoever makes a riot on St. George's Day is in danger of suffering from storms and tempests.

Germanus, St., Bishop of Auxerre. Pennant remarks that the Church of Llanarmon in Denbighshire is dedicated to this personage, who with St. Lupus, says he, "contributed to gain the famous Victoria Alleluiatica over the Picts and Saxons near Mold." Tours in Wales, 1810, ii., 17. Owing to this circumstance it doubtless was that Bishop Germanus was a favourite in Wales, and had many churches dedicated to him. There were apparently two or three sainted persons of this name, nor is it clear to which Woodes refers where in his Conflict of Conscience, 1581, he makes one of the characters say:

the agew

"Sent Iob heale the pore, Sent Germayne." Ghosts. "A ghost," according to Grose, "is supposed to be the spirit of a person deceased, who is either commissioned to return for some especial errand, such as the discovery of a murder, to procure restitution of land or money unjustly withheld from an orphan or widow, or, having committed some injustice whilst living, cannot rest, till that is redressed. Sometimes the occasion of spirits revisiting this world is to inform their heir in what secret place, or private drawer in an old trunk, they had hidden the title deeds of the estate; or where, in troublesome times, they buried their money or plate. Some ghosts of murdered persons, whose bodies have been secretly buried, cannot be at ease till their bones have been taken up, and deposited in consecrated ground, with all the rites of Christian burial. This idea is the remain of a very old piece of heathen superstition: the ancients believed that Charon was not permitted to ferry over the ghosts of unburied persons, but that they wandered up and down

the banks of the river Styx for a hundred years, after which they were admitted to a passage. This is mentioned by Virgil: 'Hæc omnis quam cernis, inops inhumataque turba est:

Portitor ille, Charon; hi quos vehit un da, sepulti.

Nec ripas datur horrendas, et rauca, fluenta,

Transportare prius quam sedibus ossa quierunt.

Centum errant annos, volitantque hæc littora circum:

Tum, demum admissi, stagna exoptata revisunt.'

Sometimes ghosts

conse

appear in quence of an agreement made, whilst living, with some particular friend, that he who first died should appear to the survivor. Glanvil tells us of a ghost of a person who had lived but a disorderly kind of life, for which it was condemned to wander up and down the earth, in the company of evil spirits, till the Day of Judgment. In most of the relations of ghosts they are supposed to be mere aërial beings, without substance, and that they can pass through walls and other solid bodies at pleasure. A particular instance of this is given in Relation the 27th in Glanvil's Collection, where one David Hunter, neat-herd to the Bishop of Down and Connor, was for a long time haunted by the apparition of an old woman, whom he was by a secret impulse obliged to follow whenever she appeared, which he says he did for a considerable time, even if in bed with his wife; and because his wife could not hold him in his bed, she would go too, and walk after him till day, though she saw nothing; but his little dog was so well acquainted with the apparition, that he would follow it as well as his master. If a tree stood in her walk, he observed her always to go through it. Notwithstanding this seeming immateriality, this very ghost was not without some substance; for, having performed her errand, she desired Hunter to lift her from the ground, in the doing of which, he says, she felt just like a bag of feathers. We sometimes also read of ghosts striking violent blows; and that, if not made way for, they overturn all impediments, like a furious whirlwind. Glanvil mentions an instance of this, in Relation 17th of a Dutch lieutenant, who had the faculty of seeing ghosts; and who, being prevented making way for one which he mentioned to some friends as coming towards them, was, with his companions, violently thrown down, and sorely bruised. We further learn, by Relation 16th, that the hand of a ghost is as cold as a clod.'

་།།༔

hame and bisuje wantsanta being aoindromunts of foreign spar dad de piluleary governments, dond #plish spirits are fre 11, Ta line of an apparition, there fleidd pamtle in the room, it will strmly blue. this is so univers ally knowledged, that many eminent philhoogslose have busied themselves in Accounting to it, without once doubting Hs truth of the fact. Dogs too have the fouler of spoing spirits, as is instanced fu Pind tuntei's relation, above quoted; fu in that case they usually show signs by whining and creeping to Hot master for protection: and it is sally supposed that they often see for this mature when their owner thrie Beteg some persons, parlacja pövam Done on a Christmas Eve, The coming of a DA ALFONAali some time before its *** of bod and

RAINEE, MES, TILIA 12 * mart and HL and H/WT THE SCImse The + wulling a how's a CLI

ve te te executed, TAL HAR 272 frequency in a flash of fast some ghosts have WAL W, Yaserate a so desire the party to whom they appear to shut their eyes: TAM A departure is attended with Gen graful music. During the narration a ghost must by no means be interrupted by questions of any kind; so doing is extremely dangerous; if any doubla arise, they must be stated after the spirit has done its tale. Questions respecting its state, or the state of any of their former acquaintance, are offensive, and not often answered, spirits, perhaps, being restrained from divulging secrets of their prison-house. Occasionally spirits will even condescend to talk on common occurrences, as is instanced by Glanvil in the apparition of Major George Sydenham to Captain William Dyke, Re lation 10th. Wherein the Major reproved the Captain for suffering a sword be bad given him to grow rusty, saying, Captain, Captain, this sword did not used to be kept after this manner when it was mine. This attention to the state of the weapon was a remnant of the Major's fessional duty when living

the

It is somewhat remarkable the ghos do not go about their bustness like The persons of this word.

1414

མཡཏ ཙ རཙྩཾ ཡཱ ༢

&

dressing injured orphans or widows: when it seems as if the shortest and most certain way would be, to go to the person guilty of the injustice, and haunt him continually till he be terrified into a restitution. Nor are the pointing out lost writings generally managed in a more summary way, the ghost commonly applying to a third person, ignorant of the whole affair, and a stranger to all concerned. But it is presumptuous to scrutinize too far into these matters: Ghosts have undoubtedly forms and customs peculiar to themselves. If, after the first appearance, the persons employed neglect, or are prevented from, performing the message or business committed to their management, the ghost appears continually to them, at first with a discontented, next an angry, and at length with a furious countenance, threatening to tear them in pieces if the matter is not forthwith executed: sometimes terrifying them, as in Glanvil's Relation 26th, by appearing in many formidable shapes, and sometimes even striking them a violent blow. Of blows given by ghosts there are many instances, and some wherein they have been followed by an incurable lameness. It should have been observed that ghosts, in delivering their commissions, in order to ensure belief, communicate to the persons employed some secret, known only to the parties concerned and themselves, the relation of which always produces the effect intended. The business being completed, ghosts appear with a cheerful countenance, saying they shall now be at rest, and will never more disturb any one; and, thanking their agents, by way of reward communicate to them something relative to themselves, which they will never reveal. Sometimes ghosts appear, and disturb a house, without deigning to give any reason for so doing: with these the shortest and only way is to exorcise and eject them, or, as the vulgar term is, lay them. For this purpose there must be two or three clergymen, and the ceremony must be performed in Latin; a language that strikes the most audacious ghost with terror. A ghost may be laid for any term less than a hundred years, and in any place or body, full or empty; as, a solid oak-the pommel of a sword-a barrel of beer, if a yeoman or simple gentleman, or a pipe of wine, if an esquire or justice. But of all places the most common, and what a ghost least likes, is the Red Sea; it being related in many instances, that ghosts have most earnestly besought the exorcists not to confine them in that place. It is nevertheless considered as an indisputable fact,

the

that there are an infinite number laid there, perhaps from it being a safer prison than any other nearer at hand; though neither history nor tradition gives us any instance of ghosts escaping or returning from this kind of transportation before their time." It is to that be suspected of a ancient ideas ghost were as indefinite and loose as those now prevalent among us. St. John's Manners and Customs of Ancient Greece, 1842, i., 364, et seqq. The vulgar superstition, that ghosts walk about in white sheets or clothes seems to have had existence at an and the Tailor in "A C. Mery Talys," early date for in the story of the Miller 1526, the sexton mistakes the miller in

his white coat for the dead farmer's

troubled spirit risen from the grave. But in the "Awntyrs of Arthur at the Ternewathelyn" there is a description of an apparition, which proceeds on a somewhat more intelligent theory, so to speak: "Bare was hir body, and blak to the bane,

Vnbeclosut in a cloude, in clethyng. evyl clad;

Hit zaulut, hit zamurt, lyke a woman, Nauthyr of hyde, nyf of heue, no hyllyng hit had.

Alle gloet as the gledes, the gost qwere hit glidus,

Was vnbyclosut in a cloude, in clething vn-clere,

Was sette aure with serpentes, that sate to the sydus;

To telle the todus ther opon with tung were to tere."

Shakespear's ghosts excel all others. The terrible indeed is his forte. How awful is that description of the dead time of night, the season of their perambulation! "Tis now the very witching time of night,

I

When churchyards yawn, and hell itself breathes out

Contagion to this world."

append two other early notices :

"I know thee well, I heare the watchfull dogs,

With hollow howling tell of thy approach,

The lights burne dim, affrighted with thy presence:

And this distemper'd and tempestuous night

Tells me the ayre is troubled with some devill."

Merry Devil of Edmonton, 1608. "Ghosts never walk till after midnight, If I may believe my Grannam." Beaumont and Fletcher, Lovers Progress, act iv.

66

"The usual time at which ghosts make their appearance is midnight, and seldom before it is dark; though some audacious spirits have been said to appear even by day-light: but of this there are few instances, and those mostly ghosts who have been laid, perhaps in the Red Sea (of which more hereafter), and whose times of confinement were expired: these, like felons confined to the lighters, are said to return more troublesome and daring than before. No Ghosts can appear on Christmas Eve; this Shakespear has put into the mouth of one of his characters in Hamlet." Ghosts," Grose adds, 'commonly appear in the same dress they usually wore whilst living; though they are sometimes cloathed all in white; but that is chiefly the churchyard ghosts, who have no particular business, but seem to appear pro bono publico, or to scare drunken rustics from tumbling over their graves. I cannot learn that ghosts carry tapers in their hands, as they are sometimes depicted, though the room in which they appear, if without fire or candle, is frequently said to be as light as day. Dragging chains is not the fashion of English ghosts; chains and black vestments being chiefly the accoutrements of foreign spectres, seen in arbitrary governments; dead or alive, English spirits are free. If, during the time of an apparition, there is a lighted candle in the room, it will burn extremely blue this is so universally acknowledged, that many eminent philosophers have busied themselves in accounting for it, without once doubting the truth of the fact. Dogs too have the faculty of seeing spirits, as is instanced in David Hunter's relation, above quoted; but in that case they usually shew signs of terror, by whining and creeping to their master for protection: and it is generally supposed that they often see things of this nature when their owner cannot; there being some persons, particularly those born on a Christmas Eve, who cannot see spirits. The coming of a spirit is announced some time before its appearance, by a variety of loud and dreadful noises; sometimes rattling in the old hall like a coach and six, and rumbling up and down the staircase like the trundling of bowls or cannon balls. At length the door flies open, and the spectre stalks slowly up to the bed's foot, and opening the curtains, looks steadfastly at the person in bed by whom it is seen; a ghost being very rarely visible to more than one person, although there are several in company. It is here necessary to observe that it has been universally found by experience, as well as affirmed by divers apparitions themselves, that a

ghost has not the power to speak till it has been first spoken to; so, that, notwithstanding the urgency of the business on which it may come, every thing must stand still till the person visited can find sufficient courage to speak to it; an event that sometimes does not take place for many years. It has not been found that female ghosts are more loquacious than those of the male sex, both being equally restrained by this law. The mode of addressing a ghost is, by commanding it, in the name of the three persons of the Trinity, to tell you who it is, and what is its business; this it may be necessary to repeat three times; after which it will, in a low and hollow voice, declare its satisfaction at being spoken to, and desire the party addressing it not to be afraid, for it will do him no harm. This being premised, it commonly enters into its narrative, which being completed, and its request or commands given, with injunctions that they be immediately executed, it vanishes away, frequently in a flash of light; in which case some ghosts have been so considerate as to desire the party to whom they appear to shut their eyes: sometimes its departure is attended with delightful music. During the narration of its business, a ghost must by no means be interrupted by questions of any kind; so doing is extremely dangerous; if any doubts arise, they must be stated after the spirit has done its tale. Questions respecting its state, or the state of any of their former acquaintance, are offensive, and not often answered, spirits, perhaps, being restrained from divulging the secrets of their prison-house. Occasionally spirits will even condescend to talk on common occurrences, as is instanced by Glanvil in the apparition of Major George Sydenham to Captain William Dyke, Relation 10th. Wherein the Major reproved the Captain for suffering a sword he had given him to grow rusty, saying, 'Captain, Captain, this sword did not used to be kept after this manner when it was mine." This attention to the state of the weapon was a remnant of the Major's professional duty when living.

It is somewhat remarkable that ghosts do not go about their business like the persons of this world. In cases of murder, a ghost, instead of going to the next Justice of the Peace, and laying its information, or to the nearest relation of the person murdered, appears to some poor labourer who knows none of the parties, draws the curtains of some decrepit nurse or almswoman, or hovers about the place where his body is deposited. The same circuitous mode is pursued with respect to re