honour of our Ladye, busied himself from two of the clocke in the afternoone till foure, in climbing long ladders to stick up wax candles in the said Cathedral Church: the number of all the candles burnt that evening was two hundred and twenty, besides sixteen torches: sixty of those burning tapers and torches standing upon and near the high altar (as he calls it), where no man came nigh." Herrick, in his Hesperides," has two or three passages illustrating curiously enough the usages peculiar to this season. In the "Country Almanack" for 1676, under February, we read day." Martin, in his "Description of the Western Islands," mentions an ancient custom observed on the second of February: "The mistress and servants of each family take a sheaf of oats and dress it up in women's apparel, put it in a large basket, and lay a wooden club by it, and this they call a Briid's Bed; and then the mistress and servants cry three times," Briid is come, Briid is welcome." This they do just before going to bed, and when they rise in the morning they look among the ashes, expecting to see the impression of Briid's club there; which if they do, they reckon it a true presage of a good crop and prosperous year, and the contrary they take as an ill omen." There is a proverb: "If Candlemas day be fair and bright, If on Candlemas day it be shower and Winter is gone and will not come again." Which appears to point to the deceptive character of a premature season. The heavy winds which visit us during February and March are sometimes called "Candlemas-eve winds." Hospinian's account of this festival is remarkbaly brief; but as Naogeorgus in Googe's paraphrase is a little more explicit, his account may be here inserted. "Then comes the day wherein the Virgin offred Christ unto The Father chiefe, as Moyses law com- Then numbers great of Tapers large, Whose candell burnéth cleare and bright 66 Come, you whose loves are dead, Weep and wring Every hand, and every head For him that was of men most true." Melton says that "if a candel burne blew, it is a signe that there is a spirit in the house, or not farre from it." Astrologasthe' whimsical author makes Hero describe ter, 1620, p. 45. In "Ovid Travestie, 1673, her alarm to her lover in consequence of an omen she had seen in the candle: "For last night late to tell you true My candel as I sate burnt blew, Which put poor me in horrid fright, And expectation of black spright, With sawcer eyes, and horns and tail." But, in "A New Tricke to cheat the Divell," by Robert Davenport, 1639, the blue in the candle seems to be regarded as a portent of something different: Constable. My watch is set, charge given and all in peace, But by the burning of the candel blew, Which I by chance espyed through the lanthorne, And by the dropping of the Beadles nose, I smell a frost Goldsmith, in his "Vicar of Wakefield," "speaking of the waking dreams of his hero's daughters, says, 'The girls had their omens too, they saw rings in the candle." Willsford tells us:" If the flame of a candle, lamp, or any other fire does wave or wind itself, where there is no sensible or visible cause, expect some windy weather. When candles or lamps will not so readily kindle as at other times, it is a sign of wet weather neer at hand. When candles or lamps do sparkle and rise up with little fumes, or their wicks swell, with things on them (like mushrums) are all signs of ensuing wet weather." Nature's Secrets, 120. Boyle makes his 10th Meditation " upon a thief in a candle "- "which by its irregular way of making the flame blaze, melts down a good part of the tallow, and will soon spoil the rest, if the remains are not res cued by the removal of the Thief (as they | to turn aside through some by-path leading call it) in the candle." Occasional Reflections, 1665, p. 218. The fungous parcels, as Browne calls them, about the wicks of candles are commonly thought to foretell strangers. See Stranger. In the North, as well as in other parts of England, they are called letters at the candle, as if the forerunners of some strange news. These, says Browne, with his usual pedantry of style, which is so well atoned for by his good sense and learning, only indicate a moist and pluvious air, which hinders the avolation of the light and favillous particles, whereupon they settle upon the snast. That candles and lights, he observes also, burn blue and dim at the apparition of spirits, may be true, if the ambient air be full of sulphureous spirits, as it happens often in mines." The innkeepers and owners of brothels at Amsterdam are said to account these fungous parcels" lucky, when they burn long and brilliant, in which case they suppose them to bring customers. But when they soon go out, they imagine the customers already under their roofs will presently depart. They call these puffs of the candle good men.' Putanisme d'Amsterdam, 1681, p. 92. A spark at the candle is held to import that the party opposite to it will shortly receive a letter. to the church, the following corpse will be found to take exactly the same way. Sometimes these candles point out the places where persons shall sicken and die. They have also appeared on the bellies of pregnant women, previous to their delivery, and have predicted the drowning of persons passing a ford. Candle (Religious Use of).— It appears from "Scogin's Jests," 1626, that in Henry the Eighth's time it was the custom to set two burning candles over the dead body. The passage is curious, as illustrative of more customs than one: "On Maundy-Thursday, Scogin said to his chamber-fellow, we wil make our maundy, and eate and drink with advantage. Be it, said the scholar. On MaundyThursday at night they made such cheere that the scholler was drunke. Scogin then pulled off all the schollers clothes, and laid him stark naked on the rushes, and set a forme over him, and spread a coverlet over it, and set up two tallow candles in candlesticks over him, one at his head, the other at his feet, and ran from chamber to chamber, and told the fellowes of that place that his chamber-fellow was dead: and they asked of Scogin if he died of the pestilence? Scogin said: Candle Rent.-A due or impost pay-soule; and so they did. And when the scholno I pray you go up, and pray for his able at Cambridge in ancient times. Hist. of C. C. C., by Stokes, 1898, p. 29. But see Davies, Suppl. Glossary, 1881, p. 100, where the candle-rent seems to be satisfactorily explained. Candle (Corpse), or Winding Sheet. Corpse candles, says Grose, are very common appearances in the counties of Cardigan, Caermarthen, and Pembroke, and also in some other parts of Wales: they are called candles from their resemblance not to the body of the candle, but the fire; because that fire, says the honest Welchman, Mr. Davis, in a letter to Mr. Baxter, doth as much resemble material candle lights as eggs do eggs: saving that, in their journey, these candles are sometimes visible and sometimes disappear, especially if any one comes near to them, or in the way to meet them. On these occasions they vanish, but presently appear again behind the observer, and hold on their course. If a little candle is seen, of a pale bluish colour, then follows the corpse, either of an abortive, or some infant: if a larger one, then the corpse of some one come to age. If there be seen two, three, or more, of different sizes, some big, some small, then shall so many corpses pass together and of such ages or degrees. If two candles come from different places, and be seen to meet, the corpses will do the same; and if any of these candles be seen ler had slept his first sleepe, he began to turne himselfe, and cast down the forme and the candles. The fellowes of the house seeing that Scogin did run first out of the chamber, they and all that were in the chamber, one running and tumbling down on anothers neck, were afraid. The scholler, seeing them run so fast out of the chamber, followed them starke naked; and the fellowes seeing him runne after them like a ghost, some ran into their chambers, and some ran into one corner, and some into another. Scogin ran into the chamber to see that the candles should doe no harme, and at last fetcht up his chamber-fellow, which ran about naked like a madman, and brought him to bed; for which matter Scogin had rebuke." Hazlitt's Old English Jestbooks, ii., 55. In Herbert's "Country Parson," 1675, third impression, p 157, he tells us, "Another old custom (he had been speaking of processions) there is, of saying, when light is brought in, God send us the light of Heaven; and the parson likes this very well. Light is a great blessing, and as great as food, for which we give thanks: and those that think this superstitious, neither know superstition nor themselves." The following is from Copley's "Wits, Fits and Fancies," 1595: "A gentlewoman in extremitie of labour sware that if it pleased God she might es cape death for that once, she would never in all her life after hazard herselfe to the like daunger again; but being at last safely delivered, she then said to one of the midwives, So, now put out the holy candle, and keepe it till the next time." Comp. Churching and Funeral Customs. Candles (Time).-There were no clocks in England in King Alfred's time. He is said by his biographer Asser, who is supposed to have died in 910, to have measured his time by wax candles, marked with circular lines to distinguish the hour. Capon-Bell. The following passage is in Dekker's Strange Horse-Race," 1613. Speaking of "rich curmudgeons lying sick, he says: "Their sonnes and heires cursing as fast (as the mothers pray) until the great capon-bell ring out." this does not mean the passing bell, I cannot explain it. 66 If Cappy-Hole. This occurs, with other contemporary Scotish_amusements, in the Scotch Rogue, 1722. It is also mentioned in the Notes to "Ancient Scotish Poems" from the Bannatyne MS. 1770, p. 251. Cards, or the Books of the Four Kings. See Chatto's Facts and Speculations on the History of Playing Cards, 1848, Introductory Section. Cards seem to have evolved from chess, known in ancient times as Chaturanga, or the Four Rajas, which Edward I. learned to play in the Holy Land, and for which, in his wardrobe account, 8s. 5d. is delivered to him by Walter Sturton in 1278. The Arabians doubtless borrowed chess, if not cards, from India. Ducange cites card-playing as known to the modern Greeks in 1498; but it was familiar to Venice at a far earlier date, as in 1441 the Government of the Republic prohibited, on the prayer of the Painters' Gild, the importation of foreign cards, which paralysed the national trade. 1493 is the point of time fixed for their introduction into France in consequence of the necessity, after the King's seizure by sunstroke, for some amusement. This theory, however, is no doubt equally erroneous, since the cards described as being supplied to Charles VI. were evidently products belonging to a fairly advanced stage in the art, and, again, the French would have most probably received the idea from the Spanish Moors. The games alluded to in Benedictus Abbas, under the date 1190, did not include cards, which did not then exist in any shape, and were an accomplishment unknown to the ancient Greeks and Romans. But they may very well have played during the Crusades at various forms of dice. Cards are mentioned in the statute 11 Henry VII., c. 2 (1496). At a court held at Edgeware in 1551 two men were fined for playing at cards and draughts (ad pictas cartas et tabulas), which is a curious notice for so early a date, considering the presumed station of the offenders. Lysons' Environs, 1st edit., ii., 244. Richard Rice, in his Invective, 1579, has a curious passage on this subject: "Is the waie to attain godliness," he inquires, "by plaiyng, and sportyng, or resting of the wearie bones, with the bones of a paire of dice, or with a paire of cardes (otherwise nowe called the bookes of life) and though it be spoken but in iestyng, yet is it not altogether for naught, for the nature of some is to reste more in theim, and are more at quiete with the ace, kyng, queene, or varlet of spades, then thei can be with a spade to digge or delue honestly after Goddes preceptes for CARD-PLAYING. (From an ancient MS.) their hiryng: yea, and delighte quietlier in the ace, king, queene, or varlette of the hartes, then thei dooe in the booke of life." Sir David Lyndsay, in his Complaint, enumerates cards among the amusements of the Scotish Court under James IV. and V., even of a bishop, and in 1503, when the former prince waited on his consort in the Castle of Newbattle, it is said: "The Kynge came prively to the said castell, and entred within the chammer with a small cumpany, whar he founde the quene playing at the cardes." litt's Warton, 1871, iii., 243. Warton, in a note to Lyndsay's Works, observes: our Author's tragedie of Cardinal Betoun, a soliloquy spoken by the cardinal, he is made to declare that he played with the Haz In 90 be them names King (James IV.) for three thousand tion of soldiers, schollers, marchants, and crowns of gold in one night, at cartis and husbandmen. The popular character of dice." They (cards) are also mentioned in cards was the inducement to certain puban old anonymous Scotish poem of Cove-lishers to make them a vehicle of instructice. Dalrymple, Anc. Scot. Poems, 168. tion in history and other topics; and we Lyndsay, in his Satire of the Three have from the time of James II. nearly to Estates (1535) makes the parson say that our own packs illustrated in a variety of at various amusements, including cartis, ways, shewing historical episodes, leading he may above all others bear the prize. points in geography, and even the outlines Cards were, from numerous references, in of grammar. Card-tricks began at a very early deviation from the great vogue both in Scotland and on the Borders, even among the lower classes, in date to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. original and legitimate application of the The stakes in the case of the humbler play- objects, and Reginald Scot, in his Discoers were placks or hardheads, two coins of very, 1584, dedicates a section to the exposure of the frauds of sharpers of various very small value in the old Scotish cur"For types, among whom he tells us that there rency. Hall, of Cambridge, says: were some who affected, for the purpose of cardes, the philologie of them is not for an essay. A man's fancy would be sum'd up cosenage, to be drunk. In A Notable DisIrish One-andin cribbidge; gleeke requires a vigilant covery of Cosenage, 1592. Dequoy, Mummemory and a long purse; maw, a preg- chance, Catchdolt, or the of cheatnant agility; pichet, a various invention ; | Thirty, Non est possible, Dutch Noddy, are quoted as primero, a dextrous kinde of rashnesse, ing games of cards then in vogue. а note &c. Hora Vaciva, 1646, p. 150. Lord of Century of In- In the margin of the text names "the as Worcester includes in his " ventions," 1663, two which may be thought | describes to have been as well omitted. They refer such games as Conycatchers vse.' to cheating tricks with cards and dice. "White silk," says his lordship, "knotted in the fingers of a pair of white gloves, and so contrived without suspicion, that playing at primero at cards, one may without clogging his memory keep reckoning of all sixes, sevens and aces, which he hath discarded." Again, the writer says: most dexterous dicing box, with holes transparent, after the usual fashion, with a device so dexterous, that with a knock of it against the table the four good dice are fastened, and it looseneth four false dice Urquhart of made fit for his purpose. Cromarty observes: "Verily, I think they make use of Kings, as we do of CardKings in playing at the Hundred; any one whereof, if there be appearance of a better game without him, (and that the exchange of him for another incoming card is like to conduce more for drawing of the stake), is by good gamesters without Discovery, any ceremony discarded." 1657, p. 237. Mr. W. H. Allnutt, MS. diary of Oxford, found in ،، Games at of 1629 the following list: Chartes.-Ruffe, trumpe, slam'e, gleeke, Newcut, swigg, loadam, putt, primifisty, post and pair, bone-ace, anakin, seven sow has cardes one and thirty, my pig'd." Since Brand and Ellis wrote, several important works on this subject have appeared, particularly Singer's Researches, 1816, and Chatto's still more valuable work in 1848. See also P. Boiteau D'Ambly, Cartes a Jouer et la Cartomancie, 1854, and the late Lady Charlotte Schrei“Aber's monumental illustrated work. Copious notices of the different games will be found under their several heads and in the authorities there cited. In the 15th c. Italy had, besides chess, tables or backThese were gammon, and triumphs or tarocchi, cards, running in suits like ours. usually Cups, Swords, Coins, and Clubs. Of these the Tarrochi were the most modern, and were composed of a series of 22 painted or engraved figures. The gambling tables were universally frequented, and reckless speculation on the part of both sexes prevailed. At Venice díce were introduced at a very remote date-perhaps the twelfth century-and chess was a favourite game among the higher classes. Hazlitt's Venetian Republic, 1900, i., 560, 758; ii., 456. | | Care-Cloth. Among the AngloSaxons the nuptial benediction was performed under a veil or square piece of cloth, held at each corner by a tall man, over the bridegroom and bride, to conceal her virgin blushes: but if the bride was a widow, the veil was esteemed useless. Strutt's Planners and Customs, i., 76. The most rational explanation of the meaning of Care here is that suggested in the last edition of Nares, 1859, making it equivalent to the Fr. carré. But I am afraid that Palsgrave, 1530, is wrong, as he and Promptorium (ed. The earliest English example of an attempt to treat cards as an apologue appears to have been in the lost comedy of the Play of Cards, mentioned by Sir John Harington in his Apologie of Poetrie, accompanying his English Ariosto, 1591, in which, he tells us, is showed in Four Parasitical Knaves Four Principal Vocations of the Realme, videl. The voca- | the author of the Way, in voce) intend an altogether differ- | ent thing when they speak of Carde. See Scheller's Lex. art. Discerpiculum. According to the Sarum use, when there was a marriage before mass the parties kneeled together and had a fine linen cloth (called the care cloth) laid over their heads during the time of mass, till they received the benediction, and then were dismissed. In the Hereford Missal it is directed, that at a particular prayer the married couple shall prostrate themselves, while four clerks hold the pall, i.e., the care cloth over them. The rubric in the Sarum Missal is similar: "Prosternant se sponsus et sponsa in Oratione ad gradum Altaris: et tento pallio super eos, quod teneant quatuor Clerici in superpelliciis ad quatuor cornua." Missale ad Usum Sarum, 1494. The York Manual differs here:-"Missa dein celebratur, illis genuflectentibus sub Pallic super eos extento, quod teneant duo Clerici in Superpelliceis.' In the Appendix to Hearne's "Hist. and Antiq. of Glastonbury," p. 309, is preserved Formula antiqua nuptias in iis partibus Anglia (occidentalibus nimirum) quæ Ecclesiæ Her fordensis in ritibus Ecclesiasticis ordine sunt usi, celebrandi." The care-cloth seems to be described in the following passage: "Hæc Oratio S. propiciare Domini,' semper dicatur super Nubentes sub pallio prosternentes." Careing Fair. In the "Gentleman's Magazine" for 1785, p. 779, an advertisement, or printed paper, for the regulation of Newark Fair, is copied, which mentions that: " Careing Fair will be held on Friday before Careing Sunday"; and Mr. Nichols remarks on this passage, that he has heard an old Nottinghamshire couplet in the following words: "Care Sunday, Care away, Palm Sunday, and Easter-day." Carling, Carle or Care Sunday. See Passion Sunday. Carlings. The vulgar, in the North of England, and also in the Midland Counties, give the following names to the Sundays of Lent, the first of which is anony mous: "Tid, Mid, Misera, Carling, Palm, Paste Egg day." This couplet is differently given by a writer in the "Gentleman's Magazine," for 1788, as follows: "Tid, and Mid, and Misera, Carling, Palm, and Good-Pas-day." The abbreviated form here found may present the commencing words of the Psalms: Te Deum, Mi Deus, and Miserere mei. In the "Festa Anglo-Romana,' 1678, we are told that the first Sunday in Lent is called Quadragesima or In | vocavit; the second, Reminiscere; the third, Oculi; the fourth Latare; the fifth Judica; and the sixth Dominica Magna. Oculi, from the entrance of the 14th verse of the 25th Psalm. "Oculi mei semper ad Dominum, ," &c. Reminiscere, from the entrance of the 5th verse of Psalm 25, "Reminiscere Miserationum," &c., and so of the others. At Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and many other places in the North of England, and also in Lancashire and other counties, and in Scotland grey peas, after having been steeped a night in water, are fried with butter, given away, and eaten at a kind of entertainment on the Sunday preceding Palm Sunday, which was formerly called Care or Carle Sunday, as may be yet seen in some of our old almanacks. They are called carlings, probably, as we call the presents at fairs, fairings. In Yorkshire, as a clergyman of that county informed Brand, the rustics go to the publichouse of the village on this day, and spend each his carling-groat, i.e., that sum in drink, for the carlings are provided for them gratis; and, he added, that a popular notion prevails there that those who do not do this will be unsuccessful in their pursuits for the following year. So in the popular old Scotish song, Fy! let us all to the Briddel": "Ther'll be all the lads and the lasses Set down in the midst of the ha, With Sybows, and Risarts, and Carlings That are both sodden and ra." Sybows are onions; and risarts radishes. The practice was a very ancient one; it is mentioned by Skelton in his Colin Clout (about 1520): "Men call you therfor prophanes, To a pygge or to a gose." The above writer, in the "Gentleman's Magazine" for 1788, also gives a more particular account of the carlings or grey peas, and of the manner of dressing and eating them. See also "Gent. Mag." vol. lvi. p. 410, and Davis, Suppl. Glossary, 1881. Carol (Christmas). Dr. Furnivall thinks that the word Carol is derived from Corolla or Chorolla. Bishop Taylor observes that the "Gloria in Excelsis," the well-known hymn sung by the angels to the shepherds at our Lord's Nativity, was the earliest Christmas Carol. Bourne cites Durandus, to prove that in the earlier ages of the churches the bishops were accustomed on Christmas Day to sing carols among their clergy. This species of pious |