In olden time it would seem that a species of hydromancy was practised at wells. The Druids, as Borlase remarks, claimed the power of predicting events, not only from holy wells and running streams, but from rain and snow water, which, being stirred up after settlement by oak leaf or branch, or magic wand, yielded to the keen vision of the operators appearances that were profitably interpreted.

On Holy Thursday various rites apparently were performed at wells all over the kingdom. They were decorated with boughs of trees, garlands of tulips, and other floral devices. In some places, indeed, it was the practice, after daily prayers had been recited at the church, for the clergymen and choristers to pray and sing psalms at the wells. The Gentleman's Magazine for February 1794 records it to have prevailed from time immemorial at the village of Tissington in Derbyshire, a place remarkable for fine springs of water; and a writer in March of the same year deposes to its recent observance at Brewood and Bilbrook, in Staffordshire. Plott's History amply

confirms these brief references.

According to Deering's History, on Easter Monday the Mayor and Aldermen of Nottingham, together with their wives, at the conclusion of morning prayer used, in pursuance of a time-out-of-mind custom, to march from the town to St Anne's Well, having the town waits to play before them, and attended by all "the clothing" and their wives, (that is to say, those who have been sheriffs, and who ever after wear scarlet gowns), and by sundry other local officials, besides a multitude of private persons.

Leaving rags at wells was another singular species of popular superstition. Can it have originated from the practice of the Romish Church, which Hall ridicules in his Triumphs of Rome, of praying for "the blessing of clouts in the way of cure of diseases?" Not very long ago shreds or bits of rag might have been frequently observed upon the bushes overhanging a well on the road to Benton, a village near Newcastle-upon-Tyne, which from that circumstance was called the Rag-Well. This name is undoubtedly of long standing. Near it, about a mile from Newcastle, is another holy spring at Jesmond; to which and the local chapel pilgrimages were so frequent that one of the main streets of the great commercial town is supposed partly to have derived its name from an inn being situated in it, to which the pilgrims who flocked thither to receive the benefit of the holy water used to resort.

Grose mentions a well dedicated to St Oswald, near the foot ot Rosberry Topping between Alten and Newton in Yorkshire, of which it was believed that a shirt or shift taken off a sick person and thrown into it would shew whether the person would recover or die; recovery being signified by its floating, and death by the contrary. To reward the saint for his intelligence, they tore a bit off the shirt, and left it hanging on the briars thereabouts; where, says the writer of the MS, in the Cotton Library, "I have seen such numbers as might have made a fayre rheme in a paper myll."

Pennant records the popularity, in Scotland, of the wells of Spey and Drachaldy for the cure of various ailments, "small pieces of

money and bits of rags" being offered thereto; and Heron refers to a pool formed by the eddying round a rock of the river Fillan, in the vale of Strathfillan, as being the object of ancient superstition. Fillan was one of the saints who converted the early inhabitants of Caledonia from paganism, and the stream thereafter distinguished by his name was esteemed of sovereign virtue for the cure of madness. About two hundred persons thus afflicted were, according to Heron, annually conducted thither by their friends to partake of its salutary influence. The introductory ceremony was for the patient, attended by his friend, to pass thrice through a neighbouring cairn, on which was deposited "a simple offering of clothes, or perhaps a small bunch of heath." At one time, it was represented, more precious offerings used to be made. After this he was immersed thrice in the sacred pool; and then he was bound hand and foot and left for the night in an adjacent chapel. If the maniac was found loose in the morning, hopes were indulged of his complete recovery; if not, his cure was taken to be dubious. It is recorded that it sometimes happened that death released him, during his confinement, from the numerous ills of life.

Towards the end of the last century a chalybeate spring in the Moss of Melshach (in the parish of Kenethmont, Aberdeenshire) was in great reputation with the common people, its healing qualities extending even to brutes. It was the custom to leave at the well "part of the clothes of the sick and diseased, and harness of the cattle" in token of gratitude to the divinity; and these offerings continued to be presented in 1794, even although the superstitious principle had died

out.

Of a consecrated well in the island of St Kilda, called Tobirnimbuadh or the spring of divers virtues, Macaulay writes that near the fountain stood an altar, whereon the distressed votaries deposited their oblations; and, before they could hope to derive any profit from the sacred water, they were obliged to address the genius of the place with prayer. No one approached him with empty hands; but the devotees are represented to have been "abundantly frugal," their offerings being the poorest possible acknowledgments of a superior being who was the object either of hope or of fear. "Shells and pebbles, rags of linen, or stuffs worn out, pins, needles, or rusty nails," were generally the forms of tribute; copper coins of the smallest value occasionally, though rarely enough, being introduced.

St Tredwell's Loch in Orkney similarly was held to be medicinal. The diseased and infirm went about the loch, washing their bodies or parts thereof, and left behind them "old clouts and the like." As for the tradition that the stream became ensanguined before the occurrence of any disaster to the Royal family, we could find no ground to believe any such thing.

The Statistical Account specifies another fine spring-well called St John's Well, at Balmano in the parish of Mary-Kirk, Kincardineshire, which anciently enjoyed a high reputation. Rickety children were brought to be washed in its stream, and for sore eyes it was thought a sovereign remedy. Gratitude to the saint was expressed by presents put into the well, not indeed of any great value, or likely to be

of the least service to him if he were in need of money, but such as they conceived the good and merciful apostle, who delighted not in costly oblations, could not fail to accept; to wit, "pins, needles, and rags taken from their clothes."

The employment of rags as charms was not, however, confined to England, or even to Europe, for Hanway's Book of Travels into Persia tells of his arrival at a desolate caravanserai where nothing but water could be found. Here he observed a tree with a number of rags tied to the branches. "These were so many charms which passengers coming from Ghilan, a province remarkable for agues, had left there in a fond expectation of leaving their disease also in the same spot.” Park's testimony as to Africa is to the same effect. He speaks of a large tree, which the natives called Neema Taba, having a very singular appearance from being "covered with innumerable rags or scraps of cloth," which travellers across the wilderness had attached to the branches at various times. The custom, he represents, was so generally followed that no one went by it without affixing something; and, complying with the universal practice, Park himself suspended "a handsome piece of cloth on one of the boughs."

St Andrew's Well in the village of Shadar in the Isle of Lewis, one of the Western Islands of Scotland, Martin says was used by the vulgar natives as a test to determine the fate of the sick. "They send one with a wooden dish to bring some of the water to the patient; and if the dish, which is then laid softly upon the surface of the water, turn round sun-ways, they conclude that the patient will recover of that distemper; if otherwise, that he will die." According to the same authority, Loch-siant Well in Skye was much frequented both by the inhabitants and by strangers for its healing powers in the case of stitches, headaches, stone, consumption, and megrims. The lower orders bound themselves by vows to make the ordinary tour about it, to which they give the name of Dessil. After drinking of the water, they went thrice round the well," proceeding sun-ways, from east to west, and so on;" and upon departure they never failed to deposit some small offering on the stone covering it. A small coppice adjoining was regarded by the natives with such superstitious veneration that they did not dare to mutilate it in the least degree, “for fear of some signal judgment to follow upon it."

About a mile to the west of Jarrow, near Newcastle-upon-Tyne, is a well still called Bede's Well, to which it was the prevailing custom, even as late as 1740, to bring children troubled with disease or infirmity. A crooked pin was first put into it, and the well laved dry between each dipping. On Sundays twenty children have been brought together to be dipped in it; and on Midsummer Eve large numbers of neighbouring people resorted thither, bonfire and music marking the festivity.

Collinson mentions a well in the parish of Wembdon in Somersetshire, called St John's Well, to which an immense concourse of people resorted in 1464; and the tradition is that many, who had for years suffered from various bodily diseases which defied the skill of the medical faculty, were restored to their pristine health by the use of these waters, "after paying their due offerings."

The Irish Hudibras (1689) contains the following allusion to the Irish practice of visiting holy wells on the patron's day—

"Have you beheld when people pray
At St John's Well on Patron-Day,
By charm of Priest and Miracle,
To cure Diseases at this Well;

The Valley's fill'd with blind and lame,
Who go as limping as they came?"

Of St Mary's Well at Jesmond, which is said to have had as many steps leading down to it as there are articles in the creed, and to which we have before adverted, it should be added that Bourne says it dried up immediately upon its being enclosed for a bathing-place. Strange whispers, we learn, circulated through the village and its neighbourhood. The sanctity of the well being always held to be superior to ordinary wells, it was but natural that the failure of the water should be viewed as "a just revenge for so great a profanation:" but the miracle, alas! was of short duration, the water returning in as great volume as before.

Hasted writes of Nailbourns, or temporary land springs which are not unusual towards the east of Sittingbourne in Kent, that their times of eruption and periods of activity are very uncertain, but that their appearance is accepted by the rustics as premonitory of scarcity and dearness of corn and victuals.

Another curious custom is narrated in the Statistical Account by the minister of Unst in Shetland. Upon first approaching a copious spring called Yelaburn or Hiclaburn (the burn of health in that neighbourhood), the people used to throw three stones by way of tribute to the source of the salubrious waters. The result was that a considerable pile had thus been raised. The reputation of the spring, however, was on the decline towards the close of the last century, and the observance of the tribute relaxed accordingly.

Our passing reference to presaging fountains may be amplified by the minute account given of them by the author of The Living Librarie (1621)—

"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 itselfe 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. If any cruell War do threaten the Country, 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 fruitfulness of the yeare following. And myselfe know some Gentlemen that confesse, if a certaine Fountaine (being otherwise very cleane and cleare) be suddenly troubled by meanes of a Worme unknowne, that the same is a personall Summons for some of them to depart out of the world."

The practice of attaching ladles of iron and other metals to wells with chains is of great antiquity. Strutt in his Anglo-Saxon Æra quotes Bede in support of the assertion that Edwin caused ladles or cups of brass to be fastened to the clear springs and wells for the refreshment of passengers. The passage runs thus

"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 æreos caucos suspendi juberet, neque hos quisquam nisi ad usum necessarium contingere præ magnitudine vel timoris ejus auderet

vel amoris vellet."

A

SPORTS AND GAMES.

SUPERBLY illuminated MS. (now in the Bodleian) entitled "Romans du boin Roi Alexandre," of the date of 1343, supplies marginal representations of the following games

1. A Dance of Men and Women; the men in fancy dresses masked, one with a Stag's head, another with a Bear's, and a third with a Wolf's.

2. Cock-fighting. No appearance of artificial Spurs.

3. Hot-Cockles.

4. A Tub elevated on a Pole, and three naked Boys running at it with a long stick.

5. Playing at Chess. D. Jeu de Merilles.

6. Shooting at Rabbits, Fowls, &c., with long and cross Bows.

7. Fighting with Sword and round Buckler.

8. Playing at Bowls.

9. Whipping Tops, as at present.

10. Playing at Dice: one stakes his Cloak against the other's Money.

11. A Man leaping through a Hoop held by two Men, his Cloaths being placed on the other side for him to leap on.

12. Walking on Stilts.

13. Dogs sitting up; and a Man with a Stick commanding them.

14. A Man dancing, habited as a Stag, with a Drum before him.

15. Boy blindfold, others buffeting him with their hoods.

16. Boys, dressed up as dancing Dogs, passing by a Man seated in a Chair with a stick.

17. A Man, with a small Shield and Club, fighting a horse rearing up to fall upon him.

18. One Boy carrying another with his back upwards, as if to place him upon a pole and sort of cushion suspended by two Ropes carried on the Shoulders of two others.

19. Morris Dancers.

20. Balancing a Sword on the Finger, and a Wheel on the Shoulder.

21. A Boy seated on a Stool holding up his leg. Another in a sling, made by a rope round a pulley, holding up his foot, and swung by a third Boy, so that his foot may come in contact with the foot of the first Boy, who, if he did not receive the foot of the swinging Boy properly, would risk a severe blow on the body.

22. A dancing Bear, with a Man holding something not understood in his

hand.

23. Running at the Quintain on foot. A Man holds up the Bag of Sand.