2 31, also xxvi.), and so it continued to be down to modern days, and even in Western Europe as frequently the sole source of water supply to a village or district. The association of a holy name with such spots was actuated, no doubt, by a desire to protect them from injury and pollution. At Rome Fontinalia was a religious feast, celebrated on the 13th of October, in honour of the nymphs of wells and fountains. The ceremony consisted in throwing nosegays into the fountains, and putting crowns of flowers upon the wells. We judge that the ancients discerned some supernatural influence behind these gifts of Nature. Horace, in one of his odes, made a solemn promise that he would make a present of a very fine kid, some sweet wine, and flowers, to a noble fountain in his own Sabine villa. See Ovid's "Fasti," lib. iii., 300: Ancient Greece, 1842, i., 367. All the ings, the Book of Genesis, that it was a freRomish service books contain the Bene-quent subject of contention (Genesis, xxi., dictio Salis et Aquæ. But the sanctification of water for medical and sanitary purposes was carried on to some considerable extent. The "Durham Ritual contains a benedictio for cases of sore eyes, bodily infirmity, &c. There seems to have been scarcely an article of use or consumption, which was not brought within the operation of holy water. Pennant communicated to Brand a MS. account of customs in North Wales, in which occurred the following passage: "If there be a Fynnon Vair, Well of our Lady or other Saint in the parish, the water that is used for baptism in the font is fetched thence. Old women are very fond of washing their eyes with the water after baptism. It is still a common article of popular belief in North Wales, even among educated people that the holy water used in baptism should never be thrown away afterwards, but should be employed to moisten some tree or shrub, to whose growth it is held to be propitious. The nurses and gossips in the same part of the country also maintain that a child should cry at the baptismal font, or it is a sign that it will not live. They will even pinch it, rather than the lucky omen should be wanting. Rose, in a note to his translation of "Amadis of Gaul, 1803, mentions that in the romance of "Petit Jean de Saintres," the king's chamber is "sprinkled at night with holy water as a protection against evil spirits." In the "Life of Henrietta Maria," 1669, p. 3, we read: "On the 25th of June, 1610, she was carried with her brother to perform the Ceremony of casting Holy-water on the corps of her dead father (Henry the Fourth of France), who was buried the 28th following." Comp. Orkneys. us, Mungo Park, in his " Travels," tells "At Baniseribe-a Slatee having seated himself upon a mat by the threshold of his door, a young woman (his intended bride) brought a little water in a calabash, and kneeling down before him, desired him to wash his hands: when he had done this, the girl, with a tear of joy sparkling in her eye, drank the water; this being considered as the greatest proof of her fidelity and love." Holy Wells and Fountains.— The custom of giving names to wells and fountains is of the most remote antiquity. In giving particular names to inanimate things it is obviously the principal intention to secure or distinguish the property of them. A well was a most valuable treasure in those dry and parched countries which composed the scene of the Patriarchal History, and therefore we find in one of the earliest of human writ "-Fonti rex Numa mactat ovem." Comp. Holy Thursday. In the Papal times there was a custom in this country, if a well had an awful situation, if its waters were bright and clear, or if it was considered as having a medicinal quality, to dedicate it to some saint, by honouring it with his name. We find that the superstitious adoration of fountains is forbidden so early as in the 16th of the canons made in the reign of Edgar, A.D. 960: as also in the canons of St. Anselm made in 1102. There are interdictions of this superstition in the laws of Canute, also preserved in Wheloc's edition of Lambarde's "Archaionomia," 1644. Fitzstephen, in his account of London in the time of Henry II., writes: "There are also about London, on the north of the suburbs, choice fountains of water, sweet, wholesome and clear, streaming forth among the glistering pebble-stones: in this number, Holy-well, Clerken-well, and Saint Clement's-well, are of most note, and frequented above the rest, when scholars and the youths of the city take the air abroad in the summer evenings." Our of holy wells, or such as had assigned them, British topography abounds with accounts by ancient superstition, most extraordinbeing worn out in a more enlightened age, ary properties. These ideas, so far from were long retained by the vulgar, not only in the distant provinces, but also close to the metropolis itself. The custom of affixing ladles of iron, &c. by a chain to wells, is of great antiquity. Strutt, in his "Anglo-Saxon Era," tells us, that Edwine caused ladles or cups of brass to be fastened to the clear springs and wells, for the refreshment of the passengers. Venerable Bede is his authority, Eccles. Hist. ii. 16. The passage is as follows: Tantum quoque rex idem utilitati suæ gentis consuluit, ut plerisque in locis ubi fontes lucidos juxta publicos viarum transitus conspexit, ibi ob refrigerium viantium erectis stipitibus et æneos caucos suspendi juberet, neque hos quisquam nisi ad usum necessarium contingere præ magnitudine vel timoris ejus auderet, vel amoris vellet." preva The present class of superstition appears to have been very lent in this island till the age before the Reformation, and is not even yet entirely extinguished among the Roman Catholics and the common people. In the parish of Ilam, Staffordshire, there used to be the tomb, well, and ash of St. Bertram, who was a worker of miracles in the county. The ash grew over the spring, and was regarded as inviolable. England's Gazetteer, 1751, v. Ilam. 323 shall uphold it, and the neighbouring Scotland.-Shaw, in his "History of Borlase observes: "A very singular manner of curing madness, mentioned by Carew in the parish of Altarnun-was to place the disordered in mind on the brink of a square pool, filled with water from St. Nun's Well. The patient, having no intimation of what was intended, was, by a sudden blow on the breast, tumbled into the pool, where he was tossed up and down by some persons of superior strength, till, being quite debilitated, his fury forsook him; he was then carried to Church, and certain masses sung over him. The Cor-wise thought a sovereign remedy for sore nish call this immersion Boossenning, from beuzi or bidhyzi in the Cornu-British and Armoric, signifying to dip or drown." Antiq. of Cornwall, 138. Nat. Hist. of Cornwall, 302; Carew's Survey, 1602, p. 123. "In thys estate rode lamentabillye, Tyll he approched, certes, sodenlye, The fontayn and well of Thursty Glad nesse (As said is, it came of the fayrie)." Romance of Partenay (or Melusine), circâ 1500, ed. Skeat, 18." "For to that holy wood is consecrate The nimble-footed fairies dance their times By the pale moonshine, dipping often- free From dying flesh and dull mortality-" Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdess (1610). I find the following recipe for making a holy well: "Let them finde out some strange water, some unheard of spring. It is an easie matter to discolour or alter the taste of it in some measure (it makes no matter how little). cures that it hath done. Beget a superReport strange stitious opinion of it. Good fellowship eyes, which, by frequent washing, was supposed to cure them. To shew their be propitious to continue the virtues of gratitude to the Saint, and that he might the waters, they put into the well presents, not indeed of any great value, or such as would have been of the least service to him, if he had stood in need of money, merciful apostle, who did not delight in but such as they conceived the good and costly oblations, could not fail to accept. needles, and rags taken from their cloaths. The presents generally given were pins, This may point out the superstition of those times. Kincardine. Comp. Blessing of Clouts. "Stat. Acc. of Scotl." vol. xviii., p. 630, Parish of Mary-kirk, co. It appears, that in the last century, it was usual at Nigg, co. Kincardine, in the month of May, for many of the lower ranks from around the adjacent city (Aberdeen) to come to drink of a well in the Bay of Nigg, called Downey Well; and, proceeding a little farther, to go over Downy-Hill, a green island in the sea, a narrow pass, the Brigge of ae Hair, to where young people cut their favourites' been the remains of some superstitious renames in the sward. It seems to have spect to the fountain and retreat of a reputed saint gone into an innocent amuseThe minister of Kirkmichael, Banffshire, ment. Stat. Acc. of Scotland, vii., 213. about the same time, made these general remarks on the subject: "The same credulity that gives hair-formed inhabitants to green hillocks and solitary groves, has given their portion of genii to rivers and fountains. The presiding spirit of that element, in Celtic mythology, was called Neithe. The primitive of this word signifies to wash or purify with water. To this day fountains are regarded with particular veneration over every part of the Highlands. The sick, who resort to them for health, address their vows to the presiding powers, and offer presents to conciliate their favour. These presents generally consist of a small piece of money, or a few fragrant flowers. The vulgar in many parts of the Highlands, even at present, not only pay a sacred regard to particular fountains, but are firmly persuaded that certain lakes are inhabited by spirits. In Strathspey there is a lake called Lochnan Spioradan, the Lake of Spirits. Two frequently make their appearance the Horse, and the Bull of the Water. The Mermaid is another. Before the rivers are swelled by heavy rains, she is frequently seen, and is always considered as a sure prognostication of drowning. In Celtic mythology to the above-named is a fourth spirit added. When the waters are agitated by a violent current of wind, and streams are swept from their surface and driven before the blast, or whirled in circling eddies aloft in the air, the vulgar, to this day, consider this phenomenon as the effect of the angry spirit operating upon that element. They call it by a very expressive name, the Mariach shine, or the Rider of the Storm." It is added: "Near the kirk of this parish there is (1794) a fountain, once highly celebrated, and antiently dedicated to St. Michael. Many a patient have its waters restored to health, and many more have attested the efficacy of their virtues. But, as the presiding power is sometimes capricious, and apt to desert his charge, it now lies neglected, choked with weeds, unhonoured and unfrequented. In better days it was not so; for the winged guardian, under the semblance of a fly, was never absent from his duty. If the sober matron wished to know the issue of her husband's ailment, or the love-sick nymph that of her languishing swain, they visited the Well of St. Michael. Every movement of the sympathetic fly was regarded in silent awe; and as he appeared cheerful or dejected, the anxious votaries drew their presages; their breasts vibrated with correspondent emotions. Like the Delai Lama of Thibet, or the King of Great Britain, whom a fiction of the English law supposes never to die, the Guardian Fly of the Well of St. Michael was believed to be exempted from the laws of mortality. | To the eye of ignorance he might sometimes appear dead, but agreeably to the Druidic system, it was only a transmigration into a similar form, which made little alteration on the real identity." "Not later than a fortnight ago," (it is added) "the writer of this account was much entertained to hear an old man lamenting with regret the degeneracy of the times; particularly the contempt in which objects of former veneration were held by the unthinking crowd. If the infirmities of years and the distance of his residence did not prevent him, he would still pay his devotional visits to the Well of St. Michael. He would clear the bed of its ouze, open a passage for the streamlet, plant the borders with fragrant flowers, and once more, as in the days of youth, enjoy the pleasure of seeing the Guardian Fly skim in sportive circles over the bubbling wave, and with its little proboscis imbibe the panacean dews." Ordiquhill, Banffshire. The Mineral Well, "dedicated to the Virgin Mary, was formerly, at certain seasons, much resorted to by the superstitious as well as the sick." " There are in Perthshire several wells and springs dedicated to St. Fillan, which are still places of pilgrimage and offerings, even among the Protestants. They are held powerful in cases of madness, and in cases of very late occurrence lunatics have been left all night bound to the holy stone, in confidence that the saint would cure and unloose them before morning." Stat. Acc., xvii., 377. Again: Parish of Little Dunkeld, Perthshire. "Here there are a fountain and the ruins of a chapel, both dedicated by antient superstition to St. Laurence"; and again: "Near Tarbat, (Synod of Ross), there is a plentiful spring of water, which continues to bear the name of Tobair Mhuir, or Mary's Well." Glenorchay and Inishail, Argyleshire. "Near the parish school, is the well of St. Connon," the tutelar saint of the county, memorable for the lightness and salubrity of its water." Trinity Gask, Perthshire. "The most noted well in the parish is at Trinity Gask. It is remarkable for the purity and lightness of its water; the spring is copious and perennial. Superstitions, aided by the interested artifices of Popish priests, raised, in times of ignorance and bigotry, this well to no small degree of celebrity. It was affirmed that every person who was baptized with the water would never be seized with the_plague. The extraordinary virtue of Trinity Gask Well has perished with the downfall of superstition." Stat. Acc. of Scotl., vi., 384, 431; viii., 351; xii., 464; xvi., xviii, 487. Martin observes, "Loch-siant Well in Skie is much frequented by strangers as well as by the inhabitants of the Isle, who generally believe it to be a specifick for several diseases; such as stitches, headaches, stone, consumptions, megrim. Several of the common people oblige themselves by a vow to come to this Well and make the ordinary tour about it, called dessil, which is performed thus: They move thrice round the well, proceeding sun-ways, from east to west, and so on. This is done after drinking of the water; and when one goes away from the well, it's a never failing custom to leave some small offering on the stone which covers the well. There is a small coppice near it, of which none of the natives dare venture to cut the least branch, for fear of some signal judgement to follow upon it." He also speaks of a well of similar quality, at which, after drinking, they make a tour and then leave an offering of some small token, such as a pin, needle, farthing, or the like, on the stone cover which is above the well. In the Antiquary for 1890, Mr. Hope printed a long series of notices of wells and fountains of reputed sanctity in different parts of the kingdom. It has been shown (ibid. 1884) that the practice of well-dressing, or decking the wells with garlands and flowers, inherited from the Roman Fontinalia, yet lingered in some parts of the country down to about 1830. It is to be regarded as one of the numberless vestiges and survivals of Paganism. See St. Andrew's Well, Bede's Well, Stones, and Waking the Well. denly troubled by meanes of a worme unknowne, that the same is a personall summons for some of them to depart out of the world." Dallaway, speaking of the Bosphorus, tells us "Frequent fountains are seen on the shore, of the purest water, to which is attached one of the strongest and most antient superstitions of the Greek Church. They are called 'ayasmà,' and to repeat certain prayers at stated seasons, and to drink deeply of them, is held to be a most salutary act of their religion. Constantinople, 1797, 144. Commander Cameron, in his well-known Narrative of a Journey across Africa, mentions several instances of the idolatrous veneration of the natives for springs, which they imagine to be the abidingplaces of spirits, and into which they cast a bead or so for the purpose of propitiation. as Honey Fair.-At Wrexham, in North Wales, this used, before the introduction of railways, to be held four times a year, and March Honey Fair lasted a fortnight. There were squares of shops, where the produce from various parts was on sale: The Birmingham Square, the Yorkshire Square, &c. All the shopkeepers in North Wales, as well private persons, attended to make purchases. Honey was almost exclusively the article offered; but Irish lace and Belfast linen were other specialities. At present the trade in honey is chiefly conducted on the two last Thursdays in September in the General Market as part of the business; the old Squares have been pulled down or converted to other purposes. Mr. John Bury of Wrexham's Letter to the Editor, 20 Feb., 1897. Honeymoon. The honeymoon does not seem to have been observed of old, and no stated time was understood to elapse between the nuptials and the reception of friends at home by the married couple. Thomas Copley, Esq., of Gatton, county Surrey, in a letter to Sir Thomas Cawarden, July 18th, 1558, says that he was going to be married on the Sunday following, and that on the Wednesday he should be happy to see Sir Thomas at Gatton, "at woh daie I thynke we shall come home." In the "Wright's Chast Wife," If any a poem supposed by Mr. Furnivall to have been written about 1462, it is said of the Wright and his magical rose garland: Camerarius gives us a minute account of presaging fountains: "I have heard a Prince say, that there is in his territories a fountaine that yeelds a current of water which runs continually; and ever when it decreaseth, it presageth dearnesse of victuals: but when it groweth drie, it signifieth a dearth. There is a fountaine in Glomutz, a citie of Misnia, a league from the river Elbis, which of itself making a pond, produceth oftentimes certaine strange effects, as the inhabitants of the country say, and many that have seene the same witnesse. When there was like to be a good and fruitful peace in all the places about, this fountaine would appeare covered with wheat, oats, and akornes, to the great joy of the countrey people that flock thether from all parts to see the same. cruell war doe threaten the countrey, the water is all thick with blood and with ashes, a certaine presage of miserie and ruine to come. In old times the Vandals Sorabes came everie yeare in great troupes to this wonderfull fountaine, where they sacrificed to their idols and enquired after the fruitfulnesse of the yeare following. And myselfe know some gentlemen that confesse, if a certaine fountaine (being otherwise very cleane and cleare), be sud "Of thys chaplett hym was fulle fayne, He weddyd her fulle sone, Whan they home come." This poem is laid in a humble sphere of life; and even now it is not usual for working folks to remain more than a few days away after the marriage, The French have the equivalent, which they know as Lune de Miel. Hoodman-Blind or Hooper's Hide. Variant names for blindman's buff. Nares, Gloss. in v. cites a passage, where the second name is figuratively applied. Hoop.--A boy's game from very ancient days. See St. John's Manners and Customs of Ancient Greece, 1842, i., 147-8. It probably evolved from the improved wheel, as that may have done from the mathematical circle. Hoop occurs among the puerile sports delineated in the Missal seen by Strutt in the possesion of Mr. Ives. It is also noticed by Charlotte Smith in her "Rural Walks": "Sweet age of blest delusion! blooming boys, Ah! revel long in childhood's thoughtless joys; With light and pliant spirits, that can stoop To follow sportively the rolling hoop; To watch the sleeping top with gay delight, Or mark with raptur'd gaze the sailing Or eagerly pursuing pleasure's call, ball !" and Gray recalls in his verses his youthful experiences in this direction at Eton. Some of the Latin poets allude to plectrum, or hoop-stick. Both hoop and conductor were originally of wood. Hop Queen.-See Harvest Lord and Lady. Hopscotch. A common children's game. See Halliwell in v. Horn. It is well known that the word horn in the sacred writings denotes fortitude and vigour of mind; and that in the classics personal courage (metaphorically from the pushing of horned animals) is intimated by horns. Horn is used vulgarly to signify the virile symbol: "His horn shall be exalted"; "The horn of my salvation," &c. Comp. Horns. Horn, Tenure by the. Compare Hazlitt's ed. of Blount's Tenures, 1874, pp. 248, 346. It may be added that at Queen's College, Oxford, there is a drinking horn, presented by the foundress, Philippa, queen of Edward III., holding two quarts Winchester measure, and securing the ownership of a manor in Dorsetshire. Horn-Book or Battledore.-See Halliwell in v., and the late Mr. A. W. Tuer's monograph. Horn Dance.-An amusement pursued at Abbot's Bromley, a village on the borders of Needwood Forest, in Staffordand illustrated in the Strand Magazine shire, since ancient times, and described for November, 1896. called Horn-Fair, held at Charlton, in Kent, on St. Luke's Day, the 18th October. It consisted of a riotous mob, who, after a Horn Fair.-Grose mentions a fair through the adjacent towns, met at Cucprinted summons dispersed kold's Point, near Deptford, and marched from thence in procession through that town and Greenwich to Charlton, with and at the fair there were sold rams' horns horns of different kinds upon their heads; and every sort of toy made of horn; even the ginger-bread figures had horns. A Church on the fair day. Tradition attrisermon used to be preached at Charlton butes the origin of this licentious fair to King John, who being detected in an adulterous amour, compounded for his crime by granting to the injured husband all the land from Charlton to Cuckold's Point, and established the fair as a tenure. It appears that it was the fashion in William Fuller's time to go to Horn Fair dressed in women's clothes. "I remember being there upon Horn Fair day, I was dressed in my land-lady's best gown, and other women's attire, and to Horn Fair we went, and as we were coming back by Hopping is derived from the A.-S. hoppan, to leap, or dance. Dancings in the North of England, and I believe (colloquially) in other parts, are called Hops. The word in its original meaning is preserved in grass-hopper. The word "hoppe" occurs in Chaucer, in the beginning of the "Cokes Tale." In many villages in the North of England these meetings are still kept up, under the name of Hoppings. We shall hope that the rejoicings on them are still restrained in general within the bounds of innocent festivity; though it is to be feared they sometimes prove fatal to the morals of our swains, and corrupt the innocence of our rustic maids. In "A Joco-serious Discourse between a Northumberland Gentleman and his Tenant" (by George Stuart), 1686, p. 32, we read: "To horse-race, fair, or hoppin go, There play our casts among the whip-water, all the cloaths were spoiled by dirty sters, Throw for the hammer, lowp for flippers, -for the Pigg, lye for the Whet- Or chuse what side to lay our betts on." water, &c., that was flung on us in an inundation, for which I was obliged to present her with two guineas, to make atonement for the damage sustained." &c. Life of W. Fuller, 1703, p. 122. In an extract from an old newspaper, I find it was formerly a custom for a procession |