collegiate Church, a fine ancient building, was one continued blaze of light all the afternoon with an immense number of candles. The following is from Herrick's Hesperides 66 CEREMONIES FOR CANDLEMASS EVE. "Down with the Rosemary and Bayes, Down with the Misleto; Instead of Holly, now up-raise The greener Box (for show). The Holly hitherto did sway; Let Box now domineere Until the dancing Easter Day, Or Easter's Eve appeare. Then youthful Box, which now hath grace Your houses to renew, Again Grown old, surrender must his place When Yew is out, then Birch comes And many flowers beside; Green Rushes then, and sweetest With cooler Oaken boughs, Thus times do shift; each thing his turne does hold; "Down with the Rosemary, and so Wherewith ye drest the Christmas Hall : That so the superstitious find No one least branch there left behind: For look how many leaves there be Neglected there (Maids, trust to me), So many Goblins you shall see." The subsequent Ceremonies for Candlemasse Day are also mentioned Also "Kindle the Christmas brand, and then Till sunne-set let it burne; Part must be kept wherewith to teend "End now the White Loafe and the Pye, "There is a general tradition," says Sir Thomas Browne, "in most parts of Europe that inferreth the coldnesse of succeeding winter from the shining of the sun on Candlemas Day, according to the proverbiall distich "Si Sol splendescat Mariâ purificante, Major erit glacies post festum quam fuit ante." In the Country Almanack for 1676, under February, we read— Are now expected, and esteem'd no woe; If Phoebus shews his face the second day." : Martin, in his Description of the Western Islands (1716), 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 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." Candlemas candle-carrying in England was abolished by an Order of Council passed in the second year of Edward VI. ST BLAZE'S DAY. February 3. QLAZE, says Hospinian, was Bishop of Sebastia in Armenia, who, Diocletian and into a cave, leading the life of a hermit, and wrought cures on men and beasts. Upon his discovery he was cast into prison, and, for refusing to sacrifice to Jupiter, was cruelly beaten, and finally martyred under Licinius in 316, being tormented with iron nails and tooth-combs. Sore throats were especially within the range of his healing powers. Minshew, in his Dictionary, under the word Hocke-tide, speaks of "St Blaze his Day, about Candlemass, when country women goe about and make good cheere; and, if they find any of their neighbour women a spinning that day, they burne and make a blaze of fire of the distaffe, and thereof called S. Blaze his Day." Dr Percy, in his Notes to the Northumberland Household Book, tells us: "The anniversary of St Blasius is the 3d of February, when it is still the custom in many parts of England to light up fires on the hills on St Blayse night: a custom anciently taken up, perhaps for no better reason than the jingling resemblance of his name to the word Blaze." Scot, in his Discovery of Witchcraft (1665), gives us a Charm used in the Romish Church upon St Blaze's Day, that will fetch a thorn out * Ray, in his Collection of Proverbs, has reserved two relating to this day. "On Candlemass Day, throw Candle and Candlestick away :" and "Sow or set Beans in Candlemass Waddle." In Somersetshire, Waddle means Wanę at the Moon. of any place of one's body, a bone out of the throat, &c., to wit, "Call upon God, and remember St Blaze." Naogeorgus has the following account "Then followeth good Sir Blaze, who doth a waxen Candell give, I divers barrels oft have seene, drawne out of water cleare, VALEN VALENTINE'S DAY. LENTINE was a presbyter of the Church who suffered martyrdom under the Emperor Claudius about 270. "It is a ceremony," says Bourne, "never omitted among the vulgar to draw lots, which they term Valentines, on the eve before Valentine Day. The names of a select number of one sex are, by an equal number of the other, put into some vessel; and after that, every one draws a name, which for the present is called their Valentine, and is looked upon as a good omen of their being man and wife afterwards." He adds there is a rural tradition that on this day every bird chooses its mate,* and concludes that perhaps the youthful part of the world hath first practised this custom, so common at this season. It was once thought this custom might have been the remains of an ancient practice in the Church of Rome on this day, of choosing patrons for the ensuing year (and that, because ghosts were thought to walk on the night of this Day, or about this time), and that Gallantry had taken it up when Superstition at the Reformation had been compelled to let it fall. Since that time unquestionable authority has been found to evince that the custom of choosing Valentines was a sport practised in the houses of the gentry in England as early as the year 1476. In the old Romish Calendar is the following observation on the 14th of February "Manes nocte vagari creduntur." Lydgate, the Monk of Bury, makes mention, as follows, in a poem written by him in praise of Queen Catherine, consort to Henry V. * Shakespeare, in his Midsummer Night's Dream, alludes to the old saying that birds begin to couple on St Valentine's Day -"Saint Valentine is past; Begin these wood-birds but to couple now?" Takyng theyre choyse as theyr sort doth falle : But I love oon whiche excellith alle." In the Catalogue of the Poetical Devises by the same poet (1602), occurs one with the title of Chusing Loves on S. Valentine's Day. Herrick has the following in his Hesperides "TO HIS VALENTINE, ON S. VALENTINE'S DAY. "Oft have I heard both Youth and Virgins say, When I shall couple with my Valentine." In Dudley Lord North's Forest of Varieties (1645), in a letter to his brother, he says: "A Lady of wit and qualitie, whom you well knew, would never put herself to the chance of a Valentine, saying that shee would never couple herselfe, but by choyce. The custome and charge of Valentines is not ill left, with many other such costly and idle customes, which by a tacit generall consent wee lay downe as obsolete." In Carolina, or Loyal Poems, by Thomas Shipman, is a copy of verses entitled "The Rescue, 1672. To Mrs D. C. whose name being left after drawing Valentines and cast into the fire, was snatcht out”"I, like the Angel, did aspire Your Name to rescue from the fire. In the British Apollo (1708) we read— "Why Valentine's a day to choose The question with an answer close, In the same work (1709)—— "Question. In choosing valentines (according to custom) is not the party choosing (be it man or woman) to make a present to the party chosen? "Answer. We think it more proper to say, drawing of valentines, since the most customary way is for each to take his or her lot. And Chance cannot be termed Choice. According to this method, the obligations are equal; and therefore it was formerly the custom mutually to present, but now it is cus tomary only for the Gentlemen." We have searched the Legend of St Valentine, but there is no occurrence in his life that could have given rise to this ceremony. Wheatley tells us that St Valentine "was a man of most admirable parts, and so famous for his love and charity that the custom of choosing Valentines upon his festival (which is still practised) took its rise from thence." But the explanation is hardly satisfactory. Were not all the saints famous for their love and charity? Surely he does not mean that we should take the word love here to imply gallantry? Pennant, in his Tour in Scotland, affirms that in February young persons draw Valentines, from which they collect their future fortune in the nuptial state; and Goldsmith, in the Vicar of Wakefield, describing rustic manners, says they sent true-love knots on Valentine morning. Owen, in The Unmasking of all Popish Monks, Friers, and Jesuits (1628), speaking of its being "now among the papists as it was heretofore among the heathen people," says the former "have as many saints, which they honour as gods, and every one have their several charge assigned unto them by God, for the succour of men, women, and children, yea over Countries, Commonwealths, Cities, Provinces, and Churches; nay, to help Oves et boves et cætera pecora campi ;" and among others he instances "S. Valentine for Lovers." Moresin tells us that at this festival the men used to make the women presents, as, upon another occasion, the women used to do to the men but that presents were made reciprocally on this day in Scotland. Gay has left us a poetical description of some rural ceremonies used on the morning of this day "Last Valentine, the day when birds of kind To milk my kine (for so should house-wives do). Grose explains Valentine to mean the first woman seen by a man, or man seen by a woman, on the 14th of February. Butler, in his Lives of the Saints, says: "To abolish the heathens' lewd, superstitious custom of Boys drawing the names of Girls, in honour of their goddess Februata Juno, on the 15th of February, several zealous Pastors substituted the names of Saints in billets given on that day." St Frances de Sales, he says, "severely forbad the custom of Valentines, or giving Boys in writing the names of Girls to be admired and attended on by them; and, to abolish it, he changed it into giving billets with the names of certain Saints, for them to honour and imitate in a particular manner." A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine (1779) mentions a sort of sport used in Kent during the month of February, where the girls were burning in triumph a figure which they had stolen from the boys, called a Holly-Boy, whilst the boys were doing the same with another figure called an Ivy-Girl. We find the following curious species of divination in the Connoisseur, as practised on Valentine's Day or Eve: "Last Friday was Valentine Day, and the night before I got five bay-leaves, and pinned |