the Doore bound about with a white linnen Cloth, and I marvelled what the reason of it should be. Fab. Are you such a stranger in this Countrey that you doe not know the reason of that? doe you not knowe that it is a Signe that there is a Woman lying in where that is?"

Poor Robin in his Almanack for the Year 1676, noting the expenses of breeding wives to their husbands, introduces the following items

"For a Nurse, the Child to dandle,

Sugar, Sope, Spic'd Pots, and Candle,
A Groaning Chair, and eke a Cradle.
Blanckets of a several scantling
Therein for to wrap the bantling:
Sweetmeats from Comfit-makers trade
When the Child's a Christian made-
Pincushions and such other knacks
A Child-bed Woman always lacks,
Caudles, Grewels, costly Jellies, &c."

The reference to the groaning chair is explained by an essayist in the Gentleman's Magazine for May 1732, to be the chair in which the matron sits to receive visits of congratulation. This, he observes, is a kind of female ovation due to every good woman who goes through such imminent perils in the service of her country.

Bartholinus relates that the Danish women, before putting the newly-born infant into the cradle, place thereby or over the door, as amulets to protect the child from hurt by the evil spirit, garlic, salt, bread and steel, or some cutting instrument of that metal.

Something like this obtained in England. Gregory, in his Posthuma, mentions "an ordinarie Superstition of the old Wives, who dare not intrust a Childe in a Cradle by itself alone without a Candle.” he attributes to their fear of Night-Hags.

This

In Scotland, children dying unbaptized (called Tarans) were supposed to wander in woods and solitudes, lamenting their hard fate, and were said to be often seen. In the North of England it is thought very unlucky to go over their graves. It is vulgarly called going over unchristened ground."

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In the Gentle Shepherd, Bauldy, describing Mause as a witch, says of her

"At midnight hours o'er the Kirk-yard she raves,

And howks unchristen'd Weans out of their Graves."

In the Highlands of Scotland, according to Pennant, children are watched till the christening is over, lest they should be stolen or changed by the fairies; who are reputed to be able to substitute their weakly and starveling elves for the more robust offspring of men only before baptism.

To this notion Shakespeare alludes when he makes Henry IV., comparing Hotspur with his own profligate son, exclaim―

"O that it could be proved

That some night-tripping Fairy had exchanged,

In Cradle-clothes our Children where they lay,
And call'd mine Percy, his Plantagenet !

Then would I have his Harry, and he mine."

Spenser has the like thought in the Faery Queene

"From thence a Fairy thee unweeting reft
There as thou slep'st in tender swadling band,

And her base Elfin brood there for the left,

Such men do CHANGELINGS call, so chang'd by Fairy theft."

The word CHANGELING, in its modern acceptation, implies one almost an idiot; evincing what was once the popular creed on this subject, for as all the fairy children were a little backward of their tongue and seemingly idiots, therefore stunted and idiotic children were supposed changelings.

Pennant, in his History of Whiteford, relates of "the Fairy Oak,” of which he supplies an illustration—

"In this very century, a poor Cottager, who lived near the spot, had a Child who grew uncommonly peevish. The parents attributed this to the Fairies, and imagined that it was a CHANGELING. They put the child in a Cradle, and left it all night beneath the Tree, hoping that the tylwydd teg, or Fairy family, or the Fairy folk, would restore their own before morning. When morning came, they found the Child perfectly quiet; so they went away with it, quite confirmed in their belief."

:

Waldron, in his Description of the Isle of Man, gives this personal testimony: "I was prevailed upon myself to go and see a Child, who, they told me, was one of these Changelings, and indeed must own was not a little surprised as well as shocked at the sight. Nothing under Heaven could have a more beautiful face but tho' between five and six years old, and seemingly healthy, he was so far from being able to walk or stand, that he could not so much as move any one joint: his limbs were vastly long for his age, but smaller than an Infant's of six months his complexion was perfectly delicate, and he had the finest hair in the world he never spoke nor cryed, eat scarce any thing, and was very seldom seen to smile; but if any one called him a Fairy-Elf he would frown, and fix his eyes so earnestly on those who said it, as if he would look them through. His Mother, or at least his supposed Mother, being very poor, frequently went out a Chairing, and left him a whole day together: the neighbours out of curiosity, have often looked in at the window to see how he behaved when alone, which, whenever they did, they were sure to find him laughing, and in the utmost delight. This made them judge that he was not without Company more pleasing to him than any mortal's could be; and what made this conjecture seem the more reasonable, was, that if he were left ever so dirty, the Woman, at her return, saw him with a clean face, and his hair combed with the utmost exactness and nicety.”

He also mentions the case of a woman, "who, being great with Child, and expecting every moment the good hour, as she lay awake one night in her bed, saw seven or eight little Women come into her Chamber, one of whom had an Infant in her arms. They were

followed by a Man of the same size, in the habit of a Minister." A mock Christening ensued, and "they baptized the Infant by the name of Joan, which made her know she was pregnant of a Girl, as it proved a few days after, when she was delivered."

It used to be the ancient custom to give a large entertainment as well at the churching as at the christening.

In Whitaker's History of Craven, Master John Norton "gate leave of my old Lord to have half a Stagg for his Wife's Churching." On which a note proceeds: "Hence it appears that Thanksgivings after Child-Birth were anciently celebrated with feasting. For this Custom there is a still older authority: In iib Hogsheveds Vini albi empt apud Ebor. erga purificationem Dominæ, tam post partum Mag'ri mei nuper de Clifford, quam_post partum Mag'ri* mei nunc de Clifford. lxvis. viijd. (Compotus Tho. Dom. Clifford ao 15 Hen. VI. or 1437).” Harrison, in his Description of Britain in Holinshed's Chronicles, complains of the excessive feasting at "Purifications of Women,” and

otherwise.

In the pleasant Historie of Thomas of Reading (1632) we read : "Sutton's Wife of Salisbury, which had lately bin delivered of a Sonne, against her going to Church prepared great cheare: at what time Simon's Wife of Southampton came thither, and so did divers others of the Clothiers Wives, onely to make merry at this ChurchingFeast."

In The Batchellor's Banquet (1677), the lady is introduced telling her husband: "You willed me (I was sent for) to go to Mistress M. Churching; and when I came thither I found great Cheer and no small company of Wives." She is further asked: "If I had ever a new Gown to be churched in."

Among Shipman's Poems (1683), is one dated 1667 and entitled The Churching Feast,-to S Clifford Clifton for a fat Doe.

Julia's Churching, or Purification, however, in Herrick's Hesperides, makes no mention of the churching entertainment

"Put on thy Holy Fillitings and so

To th' Temple with the sober Midwife go.
Attended thus (in a most solemn wise)

By those who serve the Child-bed misteries.

Burn first thine Incense; next, when as thou see'st
The candid Stole thrown o'er the pious Priest;
With reverend Curtsies come, and to him bring
Thy free (and not decurted) offering.

All Rites well ended, with faire auspice come
(As to the breaking of a Bride-Cake) home :
Where ceremonious Hymen shall for thee
Provide a second Epithalamie."

An original black-letter proclamation, dated the 16th of November, 30 Hen. VIII., among many "laudable Ceremonies and Rytes

Master is here used in the Scottish sense for the heir apparent of the family.

enjoined to be retained, specifies "Ceremonies used at Purification of Women delyvered of Chylde, and offerynge of theyr Crysomes."

In a rare book entitled A Parte of a Register, contayninge sundrie memorable Matters, written by divers godly and learned in our time, which stande for and desire the Reformation of our Church, in discipline and ceremonies, accordinge to the pure Worde of God and the Lawe of our Lande (said by Dr Bancroft to have been printed at Edinburgh by Robert Waldegrave, who printed most of the Puritan books and libels in the latter end of Queen Elizabeth's reign), in a list of "grosse poyntes of Poperie, evident to all Men" is enumerated the following: "The Churching of Women with this Psalme, that the Sunne and Moone shall not burne them;" again: "The Offeringe of the Woman at hir Churching."

Lupton's first book of Notable Things (1660) has it: “If a Man be the first that a Woman meets after she comes out of the Church, when she is newly churched, it signifies that her next Child will be a Boy: if she meet a Woman, then a Wench is likely to be her next Child. This is credibly reported to me to be true."

In the Statistical Account of Scotland, under parish of Monquhitter, we read: "It was most unhappy for a Woman, after bringing forth a Child, to offer a visit, or for her Neighbours to receive it, till she had been duly churched. How strongly did this enforce gratitude to the Supreme Being for a safe delivery? On the day when such a Woman was Churched, every Family, favoured with a call, were bound to set Meat and Drink before her: and when they omitted to do so, they and theirs were to be loaded with her hunger. What was this but an obligation on all who had it in their power to do the needful to prevent a feeble Woman from fainting for want?"

CHRISTENING CUSTOMS.

Moresinus relates a remarkable custom, of which he was an eyewitness in Scotland. On their return from church, they take, says he, the newly-baptized infant, and vibrate it three or four times gently over a flame, saying thrice : "Let the Flame consume thee now or never."

"The same lustration, by carrying of fire," says Borlase, quoting from Martin's Western Islands, "is performed round about women after child-bearing, and round about children before they are christened, as an effectual means to preserve both the mother and infant from the power of evil spirits.”

It is notable that there was a feast at Athens called Amphidromia, kept by private families on the fifth day after the birth of the child, when it was the custom for the gossips to run round the fire with the infant in their arms; after which, having delivered it to the nurse, they were entertained with feasting and dancing.

Grose records the superstition that the child who does not cry when sprinkled in baptism will not live; and he adds another idea equally well founded, that children prematurely wise are not long-lived-that is, they rarely reach maturity; a sentiment put by Shakespeare into the mouth of Richard III.

In Memorable Things noted in the Description of the World, we read: "About children's necks the wild Irish hung the beginning of St John's Gospel, a crooked nail of an horse-shoe, or a piece of a wolve's-skin; and both the sucking child and nurse were girt with girdles finely plated with woman's hair: so far they wandered into the ways of errour, in making these arms the strength of their healths."* Also: "Of the same people Solinus affirmeth that they are so given to war that the mother, at the birth of a man child, feedeth the first meat into her infant's mouth upon the point of her husband's sword, and with heathenish imprecations wishes that it may dye no otherwise then in war, or by sword."+ Giraldus Cambrensis deposes: “At the baptizing of the infants of the wild Irish, their manner was not to dip their right arms into the water, that so as they thought they might give a more deep and incurable blow." Here is a proof that anciently the whole body of the child was commonly immersed in the baptismal font.

In the Statistical Account of Scotland (1793) we learn that the inhabitants of Kirkwall and St Ola "would consider it as an unhappy omen, were they by any means disappointed in getting themselves married, or their children baptized, on the very day which they had previously fixed in their mind for that purpose.'

Of the parish of Kilfinan, in Argyleshire, we read: "There is one pernicious practice that prevails much in this parish, which took its rise from this source, which is, that of carrying their children out to baptism on the first or second day after birth. Many of them, although they had it in their option to have their children baptized in their own houses, by waiting one day, prefer carrying them seven or eight miles to church in the worst weather in December or January; by which folly they too often sacrifice the lives of their infants to the phantom of superstition."

The minister of the parishes of South Ronaldsay and Burray, two of the Orkney Islands, describing the manners of the inhabitants, says: "Within these last seven years, the Minister has been twice interrupted in administering Baptism to a female child, before the male child, who was baptized immediately after. When the service was over, he was gravely told he had done very wrong, for, as the female child was first baptized, she would, on her coming to the years of discretion, most certainly have a strong beard, and the boy would have none."

So also the minister of Logierait, in Perthshire : "When a child was baptized privately, it was, not long since, customary to put the child upon a clean basket, having a cloth previously spread over it, with bread and cheese put into the cloth; and thus to move the basket three times successively round the iron crook, which hangs over the fire, from the roof of the house, for the purpose of supporting the pots when water is boiled, or victuals are prepared. This might be

Camden moreover relates that, "if a child is at any time out of order, they sprinkle it with the stalest urine they can get."

+ Pennant informs us that in the Highlands midwives give new-born babes a small spoonful of earth and whisky, as the first food they take.