The sectional arrangement, which has hitherto prevailed in regard to the book, unavoidably interfered with its use as a ready means of acquiring the desired particulars about any given subject, more especially as it constituted one of the exigencies of such a method to repeat in substance, even in the laboriously revised text of 1870, certain statements and, which was yet more inconvenient, to make it necessary for the referrer to collect the full detail, of which he might be in search, from two or three divisions of the three-volume work, under which they were perhaps not inappropriately ranged.

The new plan has been one of Disintegration and Redistribution, and will have, it is trusted, the effect of bringing more promptly and handily within reach the details connected with the enormous number of subjects, with which the Dictionary deals. At the same time, an excess in the way of subdivisions of matter or entries has been, so far as possible, avoided, as such a course has a necessary tendency to scatter references up and down the volume, and to interfere with the view of a subject in all its bearings.

By reason of the new lexicographical form, which the Popular Antiquities takes, a very considerable body of additional matter has been introduced from a wide variety of sources, sometimes, in justice to those authorities, in an abbreviated form with a reference. But, as a rule, the accounts of customs and other topics, where they occurred in the Editor's Brand of 1870, were already more copious and satisfactory. Nothing, however, has been taken from other works, unless it was directly connected with the subject-matter of the present undertaking.

In the edition of 1870 I thought it desirable to intersperse occasional quotations and extracts from modern sources, in order to shew the survival of customs and beliefs, and this feature has now been considerably developed, as it seemed of importance and interest as establishing the two-sided aspect of these matters in a large number of instances and the fact, not always realized, that we have

not yet, after all these centuries and in the face of our boasted education and enlightenment, outlived the prejudices of our

ancestors.

Numerous cross-references will be observed to the Glossary of Nares, 1859, the Dictionary of Halliwell, 1860, and Davis's Supplementary Glossary, 1881. The Editor did not see the utility of repeating or borrowing information elsewhere so readily accessible, and in some cases of a glossarial character rather than cognate to the immediate object. The value of this class of entry lies in its collateral service as a sort of index to the body of facts or statements readable elsewhere.

Two other publications by the present writer run on very parallel lines his edition of Blount's Jocular Tenures, 1874, and of Ray's Proverbs (second and improved edition), 1882. Many collateral illustrations of the topics embraced in the volume before us occur in those two works, to which I must frequently content myself with directing the reader.

Since the first recension of the archæological labours of Blount, Bourne, Brand, and Ellis was published by me, the critical and comparative study of Popular Mythology has, under the auspices of the Folk-Lore Society, been elevated into a science. It was impracticable, even had it been expedient and proper, to incorporate with these pages facts and opinions based on this higher and deeper view of the topics before me, and my volume has to recommend itself to attention and favour mainly as a repository, more or less methodically assorted, of all the substantive information, which it has been in my power to collect and to reduce, in this second essay, to a reformed system.

There may be said perhaps to be three periods or stages of development in the case of our national popular archæology: 1. the early school of lexicography and writing, when philology and etymology were very imperfectly understood: 2. the age of the more

modern antiquaries and glossarists when this study was placed on a very improved footing, but was still limited to superficial or prima facie evidence: and 3. the quite recent Folk-Lore movement, when in all these matters a latent sense is sought and sometimes found.

Whatever view may be taken of a large proportion of the obsolete or moribund usages and superstitions, of which the following pages attempt to constitute a record, it is certain that on two broad and solid grounds they deserve and demand commemoration. For in the first place they very importantly illustrate the writings and policy of our ancestors alike in their absolute and in their relative aspects, and secondly they render it more possible for us to judge the amount and degree of progress in knowledge and culture, which have been attained in the intervening time, and of which we are in actual enjoyment.

It is quite a moot question indeed, if not something more, whether the stricter scientific platform will ever extinguish or indeed seriously affect the public interest in this class of antiquities as described in the ordinary fashion on more or less uncultured lines.

In reference to some of the authorities quoted it may be desirable to meet the allegation that they are too slight and untrustworthy, by pointing out that for the immediate and special purpose, authenticity and bona fides being presumed and granted, the minor popular writers are precisely the class of witnesses and vouchers, which we require to assist us in elucidating the statements and views of those of a higher reach.

The authors quoted naturally and necessarily often belong to the school brought up side by side with the notions and beliefs, of which I am treating, and in not a few cases were partakers of them. It is necessary, however, to guard against accepting secondary or unscientific testimony for more than it is in its nature worth, and it is on that account that I have endeavoured, so far as it lay in my

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 more 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. haps 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.

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 gardener 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 Per-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." Apiornis or Epiornis. An extinct 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.

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. sc., 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 Čry 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.

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