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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 injunetions 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.

"The usual time at which ghosts | ghost has not the power to speak till it 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." 66 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

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In cases

It is somewhat remarkable that ghosts do not go about their business like the persons of this world. 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

The

ings on vellum found, but those on paper | certainty, that the gallows stood on the decayed. Clarke divided the money, and site of a portion of Connaught Square; acted exactly as the ghost of the murdered but I am not aware that the precise spot man directed him to do, and the latter has been settled beyond dispute. A cor"lookt chearfully upon him, and gave respondent of "Current "Notes" for him thankes, and said now he should be August 1856, quotes Burton the Leicesat rest, and spoke to those other persons tershire historian's account of this cerewhich were of his generation, relations, mony. "At the Hospital of St. Giles in but they had not courage to answer; but the Fields, without the bar of the old Clarke talked for them." Morgan, the Temple, London, and the Domus Converwriter of the letter, in which this story sorum (now the Rolls), the prisoners conappears, quite believed in the account, veyed from the City of London towards and he says, alluding to the money: "It Teybourne, there to be executed for treamust be coyne of Hen. 4 time and will sons, felonies, or other trespasses, were come amongst the goldsmiths one time or presented with a great bowle of ale thereother, if care be taken in it; methinks it of to drinke at their pleasure, as to be should make some noise in Southwarke, their last refreshing in this life." and might be found out there. He (Clarke) writer goes on to say that Parton, in his hath several brothers in London whom he account of St. Giles's Hospital and Parwas wth; perhaps some discovery may be ish, 1822, refers to this as a peculiar cusmade from them of the place. I tom; but he points out that "the custom had this story from Mr. Clarke himself." was not so peculiar, but appears to have Original letter from Fr. Morgan at been an observance of Popish times." He Kingsthorpe near Northton (Northamp- seems rather to mean Catholic counton) to a correspondent at Garraway's tries, for the period, of which he had Coffee-house, printed in A. R. ed. 1808, been before speaking, was antecedent, of vol. iv. p. 635-7. "Tout est prodige course, to the Reformation, and he just pour l'ignorance, qui, dans le cercle étroit afterwards cites some examples of a simide ses habitudes, voit le cercle ou se meut lar usage among the French in the XVth l'univers. Pour le philosophe, il n'y a century. Churchyard also refers to it in pas de prodiges: une naissance monstru- his "Mirror and Manners of Men," 1594: euse, l'eboulement subit de la roche la plus "Trusting in friendship makes some be dure, resultent, il le sait, de causes aussi trust up, naturelles, aussi necessaires, que le retour alternatif du jour et de la nuit."-Salverte, Des Sciences Occultes, p. 7.

Gifts. See Nails.

Giles's, St., Day. (September 1.) An account of this Saint and of the origin of the consecration of the 1st of September to his memory in our calendar, may be found in the "Book of Days." Many

churches bear his name. There is the following description in Machyn's "Diary," of the procession in the city of London in 1556, round the parish of St. Giles, Cripplegate: "The furst day of September was Sant Gylles day, and ther was a goodly processyon abowt the parryche with the whettes (waits), and the canepe borne, and the sacrament, and ther was a goodly masse songe as has bene hard; and master Thomas Greuelle, waxchandler, mad a grett dener for master Garter (lord mayor) and my lade, and master Machylle the shreyffe and ys wyff, and boyth the chamburlayns, and mony worshefull men and women at dener, and the whettes playng and dyver odur mynstrelles, for ther was a grett dener." Brand has observed silence respecting St. Giles's Bowl, the flagon or jug of ale, which was in the old times presented to the condemned convict at St. Giles's Hospital, on the road to Tyburn. It appears to be established with tolerable

Or ride in a cart to kis Saint Giles his cup.

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In Lyndsay's time, and long before, the inhabitants of Edinburgh used Day, what the poet calls "an auld stock to carry about the town, on St. Giles's which they bore in procession at Babylon. image," ," and likens to the image of Bell, The passage is in the " printed about 1554: Monarke," first

"On thare feist day, all creature may

se:

Thay beir an auld stock image throuch yo toun,

With talbrone, trompet, schalme, and clarioun,

Quhilk hes bene vsit mony one zeir bigone:

With priestis and freris, in to processioun,

Siclyke as bell wes borne throuch Babilone.''

"The arm-bone of St. Giles," observes Mr. D. Laing, "was regarded as a relique

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the day's proceedings.

of inestimable value, when brought to this | tainers. Sports and a dinner wound up country by William Prestoun of Gourtoun, who bequeathed it to our mother kirk of Sant Gele of Edynburgh,' 11th of January, 1454-5." Notes to reprint of Mr. "Dundee Psalms," 1868, p. 257. Laing refers us to the "Charters of the Collegiate Church of St. Giles." Bann. Club, 1859.

Giles's, St., Fair.

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One of the chief fairs was that of St. Giles's Hill or Down, near Winchester: the Conqueror instituted it and gave it as a kind of revenue to the Bishop of Winchester. It was at first for three days, but afterwards, by Henry III., prolonged to sixteen days. Its jurisdiction extended seven miles round, and comprehended even Southampton, then a capital and trading town. Merchants who sold wares at that time within that circuit forfeited them to the bishop. Officers were placed at a siderable distance, at bridges and other avenues of access to the fair, to exact toll of all merchandize passing that way. In the meantime, all shops in the city of Winchester were shut. A court, called the Pavilion, composed of the bishop's justiciaries and other officers, had power to try causes of various sorts for seven miles round. The bishop had a toll of every load or parcel of goods passing through the gates of the city. Giles's Eve the Mayor, bailiffs, and citiOn St. zens of Winchester delivered the keys of the four gates to the bishop's officers. Many and extraordinary were the privileges granted to the bishop on this occasion, all tending to obstruct trade and to oppress the people. Numerous foreign merchants frequented this fair; and several streets were formed in it, assigned to the sale of different commodities. The surrounding monasteries had shops or houses in these streets, used only at the fair; which they held under the bishop, and often let by lease for a term of years. Different counties had their different stations. In the Revenue Roll of William of Waynflete, An. 1471, this fair appears to have greatly decayed; in which, among other proofs, a district of the fair is mentioned as being unoccupied : Ubi Homines Cornubiæ stare solebant."

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Gilligate, Durham. The septennial Capital Court of the Marquess of Londonderry for the borough and manor of Gilligate the ancient name for that part of Durham city now called Gilesgate was held May 8, 1902. After the officials had been chosen, and local differences righted, the steward and his suite, with a crowd of the inhabitants, proceeded to perambulate the boundaries, in the course of which many curious gifts have to be provided by his lordship's re

Gimmai Ring. -See Rings and compare Nares, Glossary, 1859, in v. Ginger. See Nuptial Usages. Girdle. See Lying-In.

Gisborough, co. York. In an old account of the Lordship of Gisborough, Yorkshire, and the adjoining coast, speaking of the fishermen, it is stated, that " upon St. Peters Daye they invite their friends and kinsfolk to a festyvall kept after their fashion with a free hearte and noe shew of nigardnesse: that daye their boates are dressed curiously for the shewe, their mastes are painted, and certain rytes observed amongste them, with sprinkling their prowes with good liquor, sold with them at a groate the quarte, which custome or superstition suckt from their auncestors, even contynueth_down unto this present time." Antiq. Repertory, iii., 304.

Glass, Looking.-Potter says: "When divination by water was performed with a looking-glass, it was called catoptromancy: sometimes they (the Greeks) dipped a looking glass into the would become of a sick person: for as he water, when they desired to know what looked well or ill in the glass, accordingly Sometimes, also, glasses were used and the they presumed of his future condition. images of what should happen, without water. Greek Antiquities, i., 350. Douce's MSS. notes add that "washing hands in the same water is said to forbode a quarrell." "Some magicians," writes an old author, "being curious to find out by help water, a thiefe that lies hidden, make of a looking-glass, or a glasse-viall full of choyce of young maides, or boyes unpolluted, to discerne therein those images or sights which a person defiled cannot see. Bodin, in the third book of his "Dæmonomachia," chap. 3, reporteth that in his time there was at Thoulouse a certain Portugais, who shewed within a boyes naile things that were hidden. And he added that God hath expressly forbidden that none should worship the Stone of Imagination. His opinion is that this Imagination or Adoration (for so expoundeth he the first verse of the 26th chapter of Leviticus, where he speaketh of the idoll, the graven image, and the painted stone) was smooth and cleare as a looking-glasse, wherein they saw certaine images or sights of which they enquired after the things hidden. In our time conjurers use christall, calling the divination chrystallomantia, or onychomantia, in which, after they have rubbed one of the nayles of their fingers, or a piece of chrystall, they utter I know not

what words, and they call a boy that is pure and no way corrupted, to see therein that which they require, as the same Bodin doth also make mention." Molle's Living Librarie, 1621, p. 2.

In the "Marriage of the Arts," by Barten Holiday, 1618, is this: "I have often heard them say, 'tis ill luck to see one's face in a glass by candle-light." Among unlucky portents must also be noticed the strong objection which persons even of enlightened views and good position in society still have to allow a young baby to see itself in the glass. The reason is not particularly obvious; but in such a case perhaps a lady's reason ought to be accounted suffiWhen a looking glass is broken, it is an omen that the party to whom it belongs will lose his best friend. See the Greek Scholia on the Nubes of Aristophanes, p. 169. Grose tells us that "Breaking a looking glass betokens a mortality in the family, commonly the master."

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Glastonbury Thorn.-Collinson, speaking of Glastonbury, says: west from the town is Wearyall Hill, an eminence so-called (if we will believe the monkish writers) from St. Joseph and his companions sitting down here, all weary with their journey. Here St. Joseph struck his stick into the earth, which, although a dry hawthorn stick, thenceforth grew, and constantly budded on Christmas-Day. It had two trunks or bodies till the time of Queen Elizabeth, when a Puritan exterminated one, and left the other, which was the size of a common man, to be viewed in wonder by strangers; and the blossoms thereof were esteemed such curiosities by people of all nations, that the Bristol merchants made a traffick of them, and exported them into foreign parts. In the Great Rebellion, during the time of King Charles I., the remaining trunk of this tree was also cut down: but other trees from its branches are still growing in many gardens of Glastonbury and in the different nurseries of this kingdom. It is probable that the monks of Glastonbury procured this tree from Palestine, where abundance of the same sort grew, and flower about the same time. Where this thorn grew is said to have been a nunnery dedicated to St. Peter, without the Pale of Weriel Park, belonging to the Abbey, It is strange to say how much this tree was sought after by the credulous; and though a common thorn, Queen Anne, King James, and many of the nobility of the realm, even when the times of monkish superstition had ceased, gave large sums of money for small cuttings from the original." Somersetshire, ii., 265.

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I have no doubt but that the early blossoming of the Glastonbury Thorn was owing to a natural cause. It is mentioned by Gerard and Parkinson in their herbals. Camden also notices it. Ashmole tells us that he had often heard it spoken of, "and by some who have seen it whilst it flourished at Glastonbury." He adds: Upon St. Stephen's Day, Anno 1672, Mr. Stainsby (an ingenious enquirer after things worthy memorial) brought me a branch of hawthorne having green leaves, faire buds, and full flowers, all thick and very beautifull, and (which is more notable) many of the hawes and berries upon it red and plump, some of which branch is yet preserved in the plant booke of my collection. This he had from a hawthorne tree now growing at Sir Lancelote Lake's house, near Edgworth (Edgeware) in Middlesex, concerning which, falling after into the company of the said knight, 7 July, 1673, he told me that the tree, whence this branch was plucked, grew from a slip taken from the Glastonbury Thorn about sixty years since, which is now a bigg tree, and flowers every winter about Christmas." Appendix to Hearne's Antiquities of Glastonbury, p. 303. Sir Thomas Browne remarks: Certainly many precocious trees, and such as spring in the winter, may be found in England. Most trees sprout in the fall of the leaf or autumn, and if not kept back by cold and outward causes, would leaf about the solstice. Now if it happen that any be so strongly constituted as to make this good against the power of winter, they may produce their leaves or blossoms at that season, and perform that in some singles which is observable in whole kinds: as in ivy, which blossoms and bears at least twice a year, and once in the winter: as also in Furze, which flowereth in that season. "" "This tree," says Worlidge, flourished many years in Wilton Garden, near Salisbury, and, gether so exact to a day as its original I suppose, is there yet; but is not altofrom whence it came was reported to be; it's probable the faith of our ancestors might contribute much towards its certainty of time. For imagination doth operate on inanimate things, as some have observed.'

p. 88.

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Systema Horticultura, 1677,

In the metrical life of Joseph of Arimathea, probably written in the reign of Henry VII., three hawthorns are mentioned:

"Thre hawthornes also that groweth in werall

Do burge and bere grene leaves at Christmas

As fresshe as other in May whan y nightyngale

Wrestes out her notes musicall as pure as glas

Of al wodes and forestes she is ye chefe chauntres

In wynter to synge yf it were her nature

In werall she might haue a playne place On those hawthornes to shewe her notes clere."

Lyfe of Joseph of Arimathea, 1520, sig. B 2. Dr. Leighton, writing to Cromwell about 1537, says: Pleesith it your worship to understand that yester night we came from Glastonbury to Bristow? I here send you for relicks two flowers wrapped up in black sarcenet, that on Christmas even will spring and burgen, and bear flowers." Manningham, in his Diary, May 2, 1602, records, apparently as something of which he had heard, that "At Glastonbury there are certaine bushes which beare May flowers at Christmas and in January.'

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the following irony on the alteration of the stile in 1752: "It is well known that the correction of the Calendar was enacted by Pope Gregory the thirteenth, and that the Reformed Churches have, with a proper spirit of opposition, adhered to the old calculation of the Emperor Julius Cæsar, who was by no means a Papist. Nearly two years ago the Popish Calendar was brought in (I hope by persons well affected). Certain it is that the Glastonbury Thorn has preserved its inflexibility, and observed its old anniversary. Many thousand spectators visited it on the parliamentary Christmas Day-not a bud was to be seen!-on the true nativity it was covered with blossome. One must be an infidel indeed to spurn at such authority.' Paper of March 8, 1753. The following account was communicated to the "Gentleman's Magazine for January, 1753, by a correspondent at Quainton, in Buckinghamshire : "Above two thousand people came here this night with lanthorns and candles, to view a black thorn which grows in this neighbourhood, and which was remembered (this year only) to be a slip from the famous Glastonbury Thorn, that always budded on the 24th, was full blown the next day, and went all off at night; but the people finding no appearance of a bud, 'twas agreed by all, that Dec. 25th, N.S. could not be the right Christmas Day, and accordingly refused going to church, and treating their friends on that day as usual: at length the affair became so serious, that the ministers of the neighbouring villages, in order to appease the people, thought_it_prudent to give notice, that the old Christmas Day should be kept holy as before.

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vast concourse of people attended the noted thorns at Glastonbury on Christmas Eve, new style; but to their great disappointment, there was no appearance of its blowing, which made them watch it narrowly the 5th of January, the Christmas Day old style, when it blowed as usual."

Gleek. A game at cards, played by three persons with 44 cards. See Halliwell in v. The game of cleke, for which in the Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VII., under September 15, 1503, one Weston receives £2 on the King's account, was apparently our gleek. In Gayton's "Notes on Don Quixote," 1654, is the following: "A lady once requesting a gentleman to play at gleeke, was refused, but civilly, and upon three reasons: the first whereof, madam, said the gentleman, is I have no money. Her ladyship knew that was so materiall and sufficient, that she desired him to keep the other two reasons to himself." Under date of Jan. 13, 1661-2, Pepys wrote: "My aunt Wright and my wife and I to cards, she teaching us to play at Gleeke, which is a pretty game; but I love not my aunt so far as to be troubled with it." However, on the 17th of the following month the Diarist was sufficiently composed to play at it, and won 9s. 6d. clear-"the most that ever I won in my life. I pray God it may not tempt me to play again." There is no farther reference to it. are told that the Lord Keeper Guildford was fond of this and other similar amusements. The best account of this amusement is in Cotgrave's Wits Interpreter, 1655.

We

Gloves. Felix, in his Anglo-Saxon Life of St. Guthlac, Hermit of Crowland, circâ A.D. 749, mentions the use of gloves as a covering for the hand in chap. xi., and it is related of the consort of Domenigo Selvo, Doge of Venice (1071-84) that she always wore gloves. Hazlitt's Venetian Republic, 1900, ii., 767-8. Gloves were in use in France in the beginning of the ninth century. Johannes de Garlandia in his Dictionary, (13th century), speaks of the glovers of Paris as cheating the scholars by selling them gloves of inferior material. He describes them as of lambskin, fox-fur, and rabbit's-skin; and he refers to leathern mittens. Wright's Vocabularies, 1857, p. 124; see also Fairholt's Costume in England, 1860, p. 460463; and Hazlitt's Livery Companies, 1892, pp. 520-3. In the "Year Book of Edw. 11302, it is laid down that, in cases of acquittal of a charge of manslaughter, the prisoner was obliged to pay a fee to the justices' clerk in the form of a pair of gloves, besides the fees to the marshal. A good deal of interesting and authentic in

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