"Come, bring my jerkin, Tibb, I'll to the Arvil,

Yon man's ded seny scoun, it makes me marvill."

-P. 58.

Hutchinson thus mentions the Arval

Dinner: "On the decease of any person possessed of valuable effects, the friends and neighbours of the family are invited to dinner on the day of interment, which is called the arthel or arvel dinner. Arthel is a British word, and is frequently more correctly written arddelw. In Wales it is written arddel. and signifies, according to Dr. Davies' Dictionary, asserere, to avouch. This custom seems of very distant antiquity, and was a solemn festival, made at the time of publicly exposing the corps, to exculpate the heir and those entitled to the possessions of the deceased, from fines and mulcts to the Lord of the Manor, and from all accusation of having used violence: so that the persons then convoked might avouch that the person died fairly and without suffering any personal injury. The dead were thus exhibited by antient nations, and perhaps the custom was introduced here by the Romans.-Northumberland, ii. 20. Compare Funeral Customs.

These funeral entertainments are of very old date. Cecrops is said to have instituted them for the purpose of renewing decayed friendship amongst old friends, &c.

Ascension Eve. By his will. proved in December, 1527, John Cole, of Thelnetham, Suffolk, directed that a certain farm-rent should be applied yearly to the purpose of providing a busshell and halffe of malte to be browne and a bushelle of whete to be baked to fynde a drinkinge upon Ascension Even everlastinge for ye parishe of Thelnetham to drinke at the crosse of Trappetes."

Ascension Day.-It was a general custom formerly, and is still [1903] observed in some country parishes, to go round the bounds and limits of the parish, on one of the three days before Holy Thursday, or the Feast of our Lord's Ascension, when the minister, accompanied by his churchwardens and parishioners, were wont to deprecate the vengeance of God, beg a blessing on the fruits of the earth. and preserve the rights and properties of the parish. It is the custom in many villages in the neighbourhood of Exeter to 'hail the Lamb,' upon Ascension morn. That the figure of a lamb actually appears in the east upon this morning is the popular persuasion: and so deeply is it rooted, that it hath frequently resisted (even in intelligent minds) the force of the strongest argument. The following supersti

tion relating to this day is found in Scot's "Discovery of Witchcraft," 1584: "In some countries they run out of the doors in time of tempest, blessing themselves with a cheese, whereupon was a cross made with a rope's-end upon Ascension Day."-"Item, to hang an egg laid on Ascension day in the roof of the house, preserveth the same from all hurts." "Yesterday being Ascension Day, work was entirely suspended at Lord Penrhyn's extensive slate quarries near Bangor. The cessation of work is not due to any religious regard for the day, but is attributable to a superstition, which has long lingered in the district, that if work is continued an accident is inevitable. Some years ago the management succeeded in overcoming this feeling and in inducing the men to work. But each year there was a serious accident, and now all the men keep at a distance from the quarries on Ascension Day is thus described in Googe's NaoDay."-Times, April 11, 1888. Ascension

georgus, 1570

"Then comes the day when Christ ascended to his fathers seate, Which day they also celebrate, with store of drink and meate.

Then every man some birde must eate, I know not to what ende,

And after dinner all to Church they come, and there attende.

The blocke that on the aultar still till then was seene to stande,

Is

drawne vp hie aboue the roofe, by ropes and force of hande:

The Priests aboute it rounde do stande, and chaunte it to the skie,

For all these mens religion great in singing most doth lie.

Then out of hande the dreadfull shape of Sathan downe they throw

Oft times, with fire burning bright, and dasht asunder tho,

The boyes with greedie eyes do watch, and on him straight they fall And beate him sore with rods, and breake him into peeces small. This done, the wafers downe doe cast, and singing Cakes the while, With Papers rounde amongst them put, the children to beguile.

With laughter great are all things done : and from the beames they let Great streames of water downe to fall, on whom they meane to wet.

And thus this solemne holiday, and hye renowmed feast,

And all their whole deuotion here is ended with a ieast."

The unique Venetian pageant, La Sensa, commenced on this day, and lasted a fortnight. It was a fair, where every description of property, including pictures by Titian and Tintoretto, were offered for

used this day in the Church of Rome, are made of the palms blessed the Palm Sunday before. In the "Festyvall," 1511, fol. 15, it is said: "Ye shall begyn your faste upon Ashe Wednesdaye. That daye must ye come to holy chirche and take ashes of the Preestes hondes, and thynke on the wordes well that he sayeth over your hedes, (Memento, homo, quia cinis es; et in cinerem reverteris), have mynde thou man, of ashes thou art comen, and to ashes thou shalte tourne agayne." 12 In a convocation held in the time of Henry the Eighth, mentioned in Fuller's "Church History," p. 222, Giving of ashes on Ash Wednesday, to put in remembrance every Christian man in the beginning of Lent and Pennance, that he is but ashes and earth, and thereto shall return &c., is reserved with some other rites and ceremonies, which survived the shock that at that remarkable era almost overthrew the whole pile of Catholic superstitions. In a proclamation, dated 26th Feb. 30 Henry VIII., we read: "On Ashe Wenisday it shall be declared, that these ashes be gyven, to put every Christian man in remembraunce of penaunce, at the begynnynge of Lent, and that he is but erthe and ashes." On the 9th March, 1550-1, a proclamation was published against the use of flesh on "" ymberyng days," as well as in Lent, &c. Mannerlye to take theyr ashes devoutly," is among the Roman Catholic customs censured by John Bale in his 'Declaration of Bonner's Articles," 1554, signat. D 4 verso, as is, ibid. D'2 verso, 'to conjure ashes." In The Doctrine of the Masse Book," 1554, fig. B 3 verso, we find translated the form of "The hallowing of the ashes." The Masse Book saith, that upon Ash-Wedensdaye, when the prieste hath absolved the people, &c.. then must there be made a blessynge of the ashes, by the Prieste, being turned towards the East. In the first prayer is this passage: "Vouchsafe to blesse and sanctifie these ashes, which because of humilitie and of holy religion for the clensyng out of our trespaces, thou hast appointed us to cary upon our heades after the manner of the Ninivites." And after directions to sprinkle the ashes with holy water, and another prayer, this Rubric is added: "Then let them distribute the ashes upon the heades of the Clarckes and of the lay people: the worthier persons makyng a sygne of the Crosse with the ashes, saying thus: Memento, homo, quod cinis,' &c.' In Bp. Bonner's "Injunctions," 1555, signat. A 1 verso, we read. "that the hallowed ashes gyven by the Priest to the people upon Ashe Wednisdaye, is to put the people in remembrance of penance at the begynnynge of Lent, and that their bodies ar but earth,

dust, and ashes." In Howes's edition of Stow's Annales," 1631, 1547-8, OCcurs: "The Wednesday following, commonly called Ash Wednesday, the use of giving ashes in the Church was also left throughout the whole Citie of London." Lord North, in his "Forest of Varieties," 1645, p. 165, in allusion to this custom, styles one of his essays, My Ashewednesday Ashes." The ancient discipline of sackcloth and ashes, on Ash Wednesday, is at present supplied in our Church by reading publicly on this day the curses denounced against impenitent sinners, when the people are directed to repeat an Amen at the end of each malediction. Enlightened as we now think ourselves there are many who consider the general avowal of the justice of God's wrath against impenitent sinners as cursing their neighbours: consequently, like good Christians, they keep away from church on the occasion.

"The peasantry of France," says the Morning Chronicle, March 10th, 1791, distinguish Ash Wednesday in

a

to

very singular manner. They carry an effigy of a similar description our Guy Faux round the adjacent villages, and collect money for his funeral, as this day, according to their creed, is the death of good living. After sundry absurd mummeries, the corpse is deposited in the earth." This may possibly be a relic of the same usage. Armstrong, in his "History of Minorca," says, During the carnival, the ladies amuse themselves in throwing oranges at their lovers: and he who has received one of these on his eye, from that moment, that he is a high favor has a tooth beat out by it, is convinced, him so much honour. Sometimes a good ourite with the fair one who has done hand-full of flour is thrown full in one's and is a favour that is quickly followed by eyes, which gives the utmost satisfaction, well know that the holydays of the antient others of a less trifling nature."—"We Romans were, like these carnivals, a mixture of devotion and debauchery." "This time of festivity is sacred to pleaing until Lent arrives, with the two sure, and it is sinful to exercise their callcurses of these people, abstinence and labour, in its train." Aubanus tells us of

day, when such young women, he says, as a custom in Franconia on Ash Wedneshave frequented the dances throughout the year are gathered together by young men, and, instead of horses, are yoked to plays: in this maner they are dragged a plough, upon which a piper sits and into some river or pool. He suspects this to have been a kind of self-enjoined voluntary penance for not having abstained from their favourite diversion on holidays, contrary to the injunctions of the Church.

Ashton Fagot.-At Lidiard Lawrence, between Bishop's Lidiard and Stokegomer, Somersetshire, it has been a custom at Christmas to burn what is known as the Ashton Fagot, perhaps a designation or name derived from Long Ashton in the same county. A quart of cyder was originally provided for those a limited company-who witnessed the ceremony, as the fagot, in reality a bundle of sticks hooped together, disappeared in the flames, the hoops successively bursting with the heat. The cyder seems to have developed into a carouse at the local inn, and as lately as 1902, one of the spectators was brought before the magistrates for disorderly conduct, and the Bench pronounced the custom a bad one. It has the aspect of being a form of the Yule-log. Ass. There is a superstition remaining among the vulgar concerning the ass, that the marks on the shoulders of that useful and much injured animal were given to it as memorials that our Saviour rode upon an ass. "The Asse," says Sir Thomas Browne, "having a peculiar mark of a Crosse made by a black list down his back, and another athwart, or at right angles down his shoulders, common opinion ascribes this figure unto a peculiar signation Since that beast had the honour to bear our Saviour on his back." In the "Athenæum," about forty years ago, appeared the following: The popular belief as to the origin of the mark across the back of the ass is mentioned by Sir Thomas Browne, in his 'Vulgar Errors,' and from whatever cause it may have arisen it is certain that the hairs taken from the part of the animal s marked are held in high estimation as a cure for the hooping-cough. In this metropolis, at least so lately as 1842, an elderly lady advised a friend who had a child dangerously ill with that complaint, to procure three such hairs, and hang them round the neck of the sufferer in a muslin bag. It was added that the animal from whom the hairs are taken for this purpose is never worth anything afterwards, and, consequently, great difficulty would be experienced in procuring them; and, further, that it was essential to the success of the charm that the sex of the animal, from whom the hairs were to be procured, should be the contrary to that of the party to be cured by them."

Assumption of the Virgin Mary (August 15). Naogeorgus describes the consecration of the herbs on this festival by the priests of Germany, and laments the nourishment of popular ignorance and prejudice by such means. as the herbs when blessed or sanctified were held to be efficacious in witchcraft and magic, and if cast into the fire, to afford protection from malignant influ

ences: "far otherwise," as the writer says truly enough, "than nature of the Worde of God doth tell."-Pop. Kingdom, by Barnaby Googe, 1570, p. 55. Bishop Hall, in his Triumphs of Rome, p. 58, also tells us, "that upon this day it was customary to implore blessings upon herbs, plants, roots, and fruits.'

Aston, Birmingham.—A writer in the "Gentleman's Magazine" for Fe bruary, 1795, gave the following account of a custom which took place annually on the 24th of December, at the house of a gentleman residing at Aston juxta Birmingham: "As soon as supper is over, a table is set in the hall. On it is placed a brown loaf, with twenty silver threepences stuck on the top of it, a tankard of ale, with pipes and tobacco: and the two oldest servants have chairs behind it, to sit as judges if they please. The steward brings the servants, both men and women, by one at a time, covered with a winnow-sheet, and lays their right hand on the loaf, exposing no other part of the body. The oldest of the two judges guesses at the person, by naming a name, then the younger judge, and lastly the oldest again. If they hit upon the right name, the steward leads the person back again; but, if they do not, he takes off the winnow-sheet. and the person receives a threepence, makes a low obeisance to the judges, but speaks not a word. When the second servant was brought, the younger judge guessed first and third; and this they did alternately till all the money was given away. Whatever servant had not slept in the house the preceding night forfeited his right to the money. No account is given of the origin of this strange custom, but it has been practiced ever since the family lived there. When the money is gone, the servants have full liberty to drink, dance, sing, and go to bed when they please." Can this be what Aubrey, in a passage elsewhere quoted from his "Natural History of Wiltshire," calls the sport of "Cob-loaf stealing?"

Astrologer. Fuller has this passage: "Lord, hereafter I will admire thee more and fear astrologers lesse: not affrighted with their doleful predictions of dearth and drought, collected from the Collections of the planets. Must the earth, of necessity be sad, because some illnatured starr is sullen? As if the grass could not grow without asking it leave. Whereas thy power, which made herbs before the stars, can preserve them without their propitious, yea, against their malignant aspects." Good thoughts in Bad Times, ed. 1669, p. 37. A prose writer of the same period observes: Surely all astrolgers are Erra Pater's disciples, and the Divil's professors, telling their opinions in spurious ænigmatical doubtful

tearmes, like the Oracle at Delphos. What a blind dotage and shamelesse impudence is in these men, who pretend to know more than saints and angels? Can they read other men's fates by those glorious characters the starres, being ignorant of their owne? Qui sibi nescius, cui præscius? Thracias the sooth-sayer, in the nine years drought of Egypt, came to Busiris the Tyrant and told him that Jupiter's wrath might bee expiated by sacrificing the blood of a stranger: the Tyrant asked him whether he was a stranger: he told him he was,

"Thou, quoth Busiris, shalt that
stranger bee,

Whose blood shall wet our soyle by
Destinie."

If all were served so, we should have none that would relye so confidently on the falshood of their Ephemerides, and in some manner shake off all divine providence, making themselves equal to God, between whom and man the greatest difference is taken away, if man should foreknow future events. Browne's Map of the Microcosme, 1646, sign. D 8 verso. Sir Aston Cokain, in his Poems, 1658, has a quip for the astrologers:

""

The quack astrologer has been thus portrayed: First, he gravely inquires the business, and by subtle questions pumps out certain particulars which he treasures up in his memory; next, he consults his old rusty clock, which has got a trick of lying as fast as its master, and amuses you for a quarter of an hour with scrawling out the all-revealing figure, and placing the planets in their respective pues; all which being dispatch'd you must lay down your money on his book, as you do the wedding fees to the parson at the delivery of the ring for 'tis a fundamental axiome in his art, that, without crossing his hand with silver no scheme can be radical: then he begins to tell you back your own tale in other language, and you take that for divination which is but repetition.. His groundless guesses he calls resolves, and compels the stars (like Knights o' th' Post) to depose things they know no more than the man i' the moon: as if Hell were accessory to all the cheating tricks Hell inspires him with. . . . He impairs God's universal monarchy, by making the stars sole keepers of the liberties of the sublunary world, and, not content they should domineer over naturals, will needs promote their tyranny in things artificial, too, asserting that all manufactures re

He, we are told, offers, for five pieces, to -Character of a Quack Astrologer: 1675. give you home with you a talisman against flies; a sigil to make you fortunate at gaming; and a spell that shall as certainly preserve you from being rob'd for the future; a sympathetical powder for the violent pains of the toothache." Ibid. sign. C. verso. Some years ago, a periodical entitled The Astrologer was set up in London, for the purpose of casting the horoscopes of correspondents, and furnishing intelligence connected with astrology. Its success was great; but in fact that very success it was, which killed it. The pressure of applicants was so enormous, it is said, that the post brought the letters for the editor in sacks, and the undertakwhen the belief in divination by the stars ing had to be given up. It is diffiuclt to say will be extinguished or expire: at present that belief is entertained by a numerous body of people, educated and uneducated, whose enthusiasm and credulity remain unabated. Henry, speaking of astrology, tells us, Nor did this passion for penetrating into futurity prevail only among the common people, but also among persons of the highest rank and greatest learning. All our kings, and many of our earls and great barons had their astrologers, who resided in their families, and were consulted by them in all undertakings of great importance. Of this," he says, we meet with a very curiMatthew Paris of the marriage of Fredeous example in the account given by rick Emperor of Germany and Isabella sister of Henry III. A.D. 1235. The great man kept these to cast the horoscopes of his children, discover the success of his designs, and the public events that were to happen." "Their predictions," he adds,

were couched in very general and artful terms."-History of Great Britain, iii., 515, and iv., 577. "Nocte vero prima qua concubit Imperator cum ea, noluit eam carnaliter cognoscere, donec competens hora ab astrologis ei nunciaretur." M.