ing Popish superstitions: "Their Breviaries, Bulles, hallowed beans, Exorcisms, Pictures, curious Crosses, Fables, and Bables." Democritus to the Reader, p. 29. edit. fol. Oxf. 1632. Bale, in his "Yet a Course at the Romysh Foxe," &c. Signat. L. 11, attributes to Pope Euticianus, "the blessynge of Benes upon the Aultar."

In the "Anniversary Calendar," there is an amusing extract from Teonge's " Diary" (1676), giving an account of a cake they made on board his ship off the Morea. He (Teonge) says: "The cake was cut into several pieces, and all put into a napkin, out of which every one took his piece, as out of a lottery, then each piece was broken to see what was in it, which caused much laughter to see our lieutenant prove the cuckold." Probably the piece which contained the bean is referred to. In "A World of Wonders," 1607, a translation by R. C from H. Stephanus, "Apologie d'Herodote," there are some curious extracts from the " Quadragesimale Spirituale," 1565. Thus, chap. 2: "After the sallad (eaten in Lent at the first service) we eate fried Beanes, by which we understand confession. When we would have beanes well sodden, we lay them in steepe, for otherwise they will never seeth kindly. Therefore, if we purpose to amend our faults, it is not sufficient barely to confesse them at all adventure, but we must let our confession lie in steepe in the water of Meditation." "And a little after: We do not use to seeth ten or twelve beanes together, but as many as we mean to eate: no more must we let our confession steepe, that is, meditate, upon ten or twelve sinnes onely, neither for ten or twelve dayes, but upor all the sinnes that ever we committed, even from our birth, if it were possible to remember them" Chap. 3: Strained Pease (Madames) are not to be forgotten. You know how to handle them so well, that they will be delicate and pleasant to the tast. By these strained pease our allegorizing flute pipeth nothing else but true contrition of heart." "River-water, which continually moveth, runneth, and floweth, is very good for the seething of pease. We must (I say) have contrition for our sins and take the running water, that is, the teares of the heart, which must runne and come even into the eyes." The soft beans are much to our purpose: why soft, but for the purpose of eating? Thus our peas on this occasion are steeped in water. In the "Roman Calendar," I find it observed on this day, that a dole is made of soft beans." I can hardly entertain a doubt but that our custom is derived hence. It was usual amongst the Romanists to give away beans in the doles at funerals: it was also a rite in the

funeral ceremonies of heathen Rome. Why we have substituted peas I know not, unless it was because they are a pulse somewhat fitter to be eaten at this season of the year. They are given away in a kind of dole at this day. Our popish ancestors celebrated (as it were by anticipation) the funeral of our Lord on Care Sunday, with many superstitious usages, of which this only, it should seem, has travelled down to us. Durandus tells us, that on Passion Sunday "the Church began her public grief, remembering the mystery of the Cross, the vinegar, the gall, the reed, the spear," &c. Among the Cries of Paris," a poem composed by Guillaume de Villeneuve in the thirteenth century, and printed at the end of the poem printed by Barbazan. Ordene de Chevalerie, beans for Twelfth Day are mentioned: "Gastel à feve orrois crier." There is a very curious account in Le Roux, Dictionnaire Comique, tom. ii., p 431, of the French ceremony of the "Roi de la Feve," which explains Jordaen's fine picture of "Le Roi boit." Bufalde de Verville "Palais des Curieux," edit. 1612, p. 90. See also Pasquier, Recherches de la France, p. 375. To the account given by Le Roux of the French way of choosing King and Queen, may be added, that in Normandy they place a child under the table, which is covered in such a manner with the cloth that he cannot see what he is doing; and when the cake is divided, one of the company, taking up the first piece, cries out, "Fabe Domini pour qui?" The child answers, "Pour le bon Dieu : " and 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. Whoever gets the bean chooses the King or Queen, according as it happens to be man woman. Urquhart of Cromarty says, ("Discovery of a most exquisite jewel, &c." 1651, p. 237): "Verily, I think they make use of Kings-as the French on the Epiphany-day use their Roy de la fehve, or King of the Bean; whom after they have honoured with drinking of his health, and shouting aloud "Le Roy boit, Le Roy boit," they make pay for all the reckoning; not leaving him sometimes one peny, rather than that the exorbitancie of their debosh should not be satisfied to the full." And elsewhere (Stephanus, World of Wonders, transl. by R. C. p. 189), we read of a Curate, "who having taken his preparations over evening, when all men cry (as the manner is) the King drinketh, chanting his Masse the next morning, fell asleep in his Memento; and when he awoke, added with a loud voice, The King drinketh."

or

There is a great deal of learning

in Erasmus's Adages concerning the religious use of beans, which were thought to belong to the dead. An observation which he gives us of Pliny, concerning Pythagoras's interdiction of this pulse, is highly remarkable. It is "that beans contain the souls of the dead." For which cause also they were used in the Parentalia. Plutarch also, he tells us, held that pulse to be of the highest efficacy for invoking the manes. Ridiculous and absurd as these superstitions may appear, it is yet certain that our Carlings deduce their origin thence. Erasmi Adag. in "A fabis abstineto, Edit. fol. Aurel. Allob. 1606, p. 1906; and Spencer "De Legibus Hebræorum," lib. i. p. 1154. But the latter seems to have thought that the reason for the Pythagorean doctrine was the use of beans and other vegetables at funeral repasts, and their consequent pollution. In the Lemura, which was observed the 9th of May, every other night for three times, to pacify the ghosts of the dead, the Romans threw beans on the fire of the altar to drive them out of their houses. There were several religious uses of pulse, particularly beans, among the Romans. Hence Pliny says, "in eâdem peculiaris Religio." Thus in Ovid's Fasti," B. v. I. 435, where he is describing some superstitious rites for appeasing the dead:

"Quumque manus puras fontana proluit unda;

Vertitur, et nigras accipit ore fabas. Aversusque jacit: sed dum jacit, Hæc

ego mitto

His, inquit, redimo meque meosque fabis."

Thus also in Book ii. 1. 575:

"Tum cantata ligat cum fusco licia plumbo:

Et septem nigras versat in ore fabas."

Bear the Bell, To.--A writer in the "Gentleman's Magazine says: "A bell was a common prize: a little golden bell was the reward of victory in 1607 at the races near York; whence came the proverb for success of any kind, to bear away the bell. Lord North alludes to this custom :

"Jockey and his horse were by their Master sent

To put in for the Bell-
Thus right, and each to other fitted

well,

They are to run, and cannot misse the

Bell."

Forest of Varieties, 1645, p. 175. Another old writer remarks: "Whoever bears the bell away, yet they will ever carry the clapper. Paradoxical Assertions, by R. H., 1664, p. 4.

Bear-Baiting. Bear-baiting appears anciently to have been one of the Christmas sports with our nobility. "Our nobility," says Pennant, in the "Zoology,' "also kept their bear-ward. Twenty shillings was the annual reward of that officer from his lord, the fifth Earl of Northumberland, when he comyth to my Lorde in Cristmas, with his Lordshippes beestes for making of his Lordschip pastyme the said twelve days.'" Gilpin, in his "Life of Cranmer," tells us : "Bear baiting, brutal as it was, was by no means an amusement of the lower people only. An odd incident furnishes us with the proof of this. An important controversial manuscript was sent by Archbishop Cranmer across the Thames. The person entrusted bade his waterman keep off from the tumult occasioned by baiting a bear on the river before the King; he rowed however too near, and the persecuted animal overset the boat by trying to board it. The manuscript, lost in the confusion, floated away, and fell into the hands of a priest, who, by being told that it belonged to a Privy Counsellor, was terrified from making use of it, which might have been fatal to the head of the Reformed Party." In a Proclamation "to avoyd the abhominable place called the Stewes," dated April 13, 37 Hen. 8, we read as follows: Finallie to th' intent all resort should be eschued to the said place, the Kings Majestie straightlie chargeth and comaundeth that from the feast of Easter next ensuing, there shall noe beare-baiting be used in that Rowe, called London Bridge, whereby the accusor in any place on that side the Bridge tomed assemblies may be in that place clearly abolished and extinct, upon like paine as well to them that keepe the beares and dogges, whych have byn used to that purpose, as to all such as will resort to see the same." Lily the grammarian's Antibossicon, an Accompanying attack on Whittinton the grammarian, printed in 1521, is a woodcut, three times repeated, of a bear worried by six dogs. Maitland, in his Printed Books at Lambeth, 1843, pp. Early 18, has done his best to explain the allegory and the origin of the terms. In Laneham's "Letter from Kenilworth," 1575, we have the following curious picture of 2 bear-baiting, in a letter to Mr. Martin, a mercer of London :

316

foorth intoo the Coourt, the dogs set too "Well, syr, the Bearz wear brought them, too argu the points eeuen face to face; they had learned counsell allso a both partz: what may they be coounted parciall that are retaind but to a syde? I ween no. Very feers both ton and toother & eager in argument: if the dog

question the accuracy of it. "The beauer, when hee heares the houndes, he knows for what they hunt, and immediately to secure his skinne, he biteth of his stones. Nature hath taught both it and vs how to preserve ourselves." -Tuvill's Essays, 1609, I. 3 verso.

many

Bed.-Ady says: "It appeareth still among common silly country people, how they had learned charms by tradition from Popish times, for curing cattel, men women, and children; for churning of butter, for baking their bread, and other occasions; one or two whereof I will rehearse only, for brevity. An old woman in Essex, who was living in my time, she had also lived in Queen Maries time, had learned thence many Popish charms, one whereof was this; every night when she lay down to sleep she charmed her bed, saying:

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, The bed be blest that I lye on;' and this would she repeat three times, reposing great confidence therein, because (as she said) she had been taught it, when she was a young maid, by the Church-men of those times. - Candle in the Dark, 1659, p. 58. This idea may have had its germ in St. John's Gospel, xx., 12. In Cornwall, an experiment was once made on some poor, who were coaxed with great difficulty into confessing what they said the last thing before they got into bed, and it was a varied and extended form of the above, namely:

"Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Bless the bed that I lie on. Four Angels around my bed. One to foot, and one to head, And two to carry me when I'm dead." Bede's-Well.-About a mile to the west of Jarrow (near Newcastle-uponTyne), 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, music, &c.-Brand's Newcastle, ii., 54.

Bedfellow.-Men used formerly to sleep together, even those of rank, as Henry V. and Lord Scroop, and it was so abroad. We find Charles VIII. of France and the Duke of Orleans occupying the same bed. See Hazlitt's l'enetian Republic, 1900, ii., 43. Compare an interesting note in Nares, 1859 in v., Halliwell's Dict., 1860, in v. and Span Counter, infrá.

Beer. "A booke howe to brewe Stationers' Hall in 1591, but is not all sortes of beere,' was licensed at at present known. See Hazlitt's Bibl. Coll. Gen. Index, Beer, Gallobelgicus, Three halfpenny Wine, and Y-Worth. beer and single beer are mentioned in the Churchwardens' and Chamberlain's Accounts of Kingston, Surrey, 24 Hen. VII., and provided for the enterHood. A kilderkin of each cost together tainment at the King-Game and Robin 2s. 4d. The term Doctor Double Ale is applied to a dissolute person in a poem printed by Hazlitt (Popular Poetry, iii., 296, et seqq.) The subjoined passage seems to be nothing more than an alliteration intended to convey a complete devotion to beer-he wants nothing but the ale-tap and toast, till he is laid under the turf:

wine

"Call me the sonne of Beere, and then confine Me to the tap, the tost, the turfe; let Ne'er shine upon me." well's Dict. in v. Putting a cold iron Hesperides, 1648, p. 87. Comp. Hallibar upon the barrels, to preserve the beer from being soured by thunder, has been noticed in another section. This is particularly practiced in Kent and Herefordshire.

Bees. A vulgar prejudice prevails in many places of England that when bees. owner of them will die soon after. remove or go away from their hives, the Α clergyman in Devonshire informed Mr. Brand, about 1790, that when a Devonian makes a purchase of bees, the payment is never made in money, but in things, corn for instance, to the value of the sum agreed upon. And the bees are never removed but on a Good Friday. In "The Living Librarie," translated by John Molle, 1621, we read: "Who would beleeve without superstition (if experience did not make it credible), that most commonly all the bees die in their hives if the master or mistress of the house chance to die, except the hives be presently removed into some other place. And yet I know this hath hapned to folke no way stained with superstition." Hilman observes, respecting bees: "The tinkling after them with a warming pan, frying pan, or kettle, is of good use to let the neighbours know you have a swarm in the air, which you

claim wherever it lights; but I believe of very little purpose to the reclaiming the bees, who are thought to delight in no noise but their own.' "-Tusser Redivivus, 1710, ed. 1744, p. 42. I found the followin the " Argus,' a London newspaper, Sept. 13, 1790: "A superstitious custom prevails at every funeral in Devonshire, of turning round the beehives that belonged to the deceased, if he had any, and that at the moment the corpse is carrying out of the house. At a funeral some time since at Cullompton, of a rich old farmer, a laughable circumstance of this sort occurred for just as the corpse was placed in the herse, and the horsemen, to a large number, were drawn up in order for the procession of the funeral, a person called out, Turn the bees,' when a servant who had no knowledge of such a custom, instead of turning the hives about, lifted them up, and then laid them down on their sides. The bees, thus hastily invaded, instantly attacked and fastened on the horses and their riders. It was in vain they galloped off, the bees as precipitately followed, and left their stings as marks of their indignation. A general confusion took place, attended with loss of hats, wigs, &c., and the corpse during the conflict was left unattended; nor was it till after a considerable time that the funeral attendants could be rallied, in order to proceed to the interment of their deceased friend." The necessity of inviting bees to the funeral of their late owner, having previously apprised them of his decease, and of clothing the hive in mourning, is a very common and familiar superstition still, or at least very recently, cherished in many parts of England. The correspondents of "Notes and Queries" have contributed to assemble very numerous examples of its existence. The bees are thought to have a prescience of the death of their master; but formal notice of the event, and a summons or request to serve his successor, are thought to be essential to the preservation and welfare of the insects.

Beggar my Neighbour. A well-known simple game at cards, where the two players divide the pack, and the winner is the one, who succeeds in getting the majority of court cards, especially knaves. Whether Taylor, the water-poet, intended the allusion to it in his Motto, 1621, seriously, he cites it there.

And see

Davis, Suppl. Glossary, 1881, in v. Beggar's Bush Fair.—This was a fair held at Rye in Sussex on St. Bartholomew's Day, by virtue of a charter granted in 1290 by Edward I. It was not originally appointed for that date, but was altered to it in 1305; the mayor used to be chosen on the same anniversary. Beg

gar's Bush_lay just above the hospital grounds; the fair was limited to stalls kept by small pedlars, and has been long discontinued. While it lasted the lord of the manor of Brede claimed, through his steward, a trifling fee from each stallkeeper by way of nominal rent; but he ceased to attend in consequence of having been once roughly handled, and driven out of the place. A ring which, so late as 1878, was still to be seen in a field near the King's Head Inn, was the last memento of the practice of bull-baiting, formerly usual on this occasion. The last bull-baiting is said to have been about 1808. It seems very probable that Beaumont and Fletcher's play of Beggar's Bush, printed in the folio of 1647, but acted as early as 1622, was so called from the locality near Rye, as Fletcher was a | Rye man.

Beggar's Clack-Dish. — The beggars, it is observable, two or three centuries ago, used to proclaim their want by a wooden dish with a moveable cover, which they clacked, to shew that their vessel was empty. This appears from a passage quoted on another occasion by Grey. Grey's assertion may be supported by the following passage in Middleton's Family of Love, 1608:

"Ger. can you think I get my living
by a bell and a clack-dish?
Dryfat. By a bell and a clack-dish?
How's that?

Ger. Why, by begging, Sir," &c. And by a stage direction in the second part of Heywood's "Edward IV." 1600: Enter Mrs. Blague, poorly drest, begging with her basket and clap-dish."

Belfry. Election of a mayor there. See Brightlingsea.

Bell, Book, and Candle. The solemn form of excommunication under the Romish Church.-See Nares, 1859, in v.

Bell Corn.-A small perquisite belonging to the clerk of certain parishes in North Wales. Pennant's Whiteford and Holywell, 1796, p. 100. It seems to have been connected with the service for ringing the Passing and other bells.

Bellman. See Nares, Glossary, 1859, in v., where his function in blessing sleepers as he passed their doors on his round, is noticed.

Bellman of the Doad. Till the middle of the 18th century, a person called the Bell-man of the Dead went about the streets of Paris, dressed in a deacon's robe, ornamented with deaths' heads, bones, and tears, ringing a bell, and exclaiming,

66

Awake, you that sleep! and pray to God for the dead!" This custom prevailed still longer in some of the provinces, where