from their enemies by wearing the leek; a regulation which, in conjunction with his prayers, enabled them to defeat the foe.

Coarse and ignorant ridicule of national peculiarities has always been a characteristic of the English populace, who bestowed their taunts as freely upon their fellow-subjects as upon foreigners-a failing which, though it may be softened in modern times, is by no means extinct. Formerly it was the custom with the London populace, on St. David's Day, to insult the Welsh by dressing up a man of straw to represent a Cambrian hero, which was carried in procession, and then hung in some conspicuous place; a provocation which probably did not always pass unavenged by the choleric sons of the principality. St. David's Day in London is now only celebrated by the society of Ancient Britons, who dine together to promote subscriptions for the Welsh Charity-school in Gray's-inn-road-a pleasant and laudable substitution for the old Catholic observances and the later fooleries of the mob, by which the anniversary has been celebrated, or rather disgraced.

ST. PATRICK'S DAY, 17th March.-The following reason is assigned for wearing the shamrock on this day: when the saint preached the gospel to the Pagan Irish, he illustrated the doctrine of the Trinity by showing them a trefoil, or three-leaved grass with one stalk, which operating to their conviction, the shamrock, which is a bundle of this grass, was ever afterward worn upon the saint's anniversary to commemorate the event. The natives of the sister island who reside in London now confer honour upon themselves and upon the day by dining together, and promoting donations for the cause of charity and the education of their poorer fellow-countrymen.

LADY DAY, 25th March. The Roman Catholic feast of the Annunciation is commonly thus called in England. It is the high festival of Catholicism, which, in consequence of the extreme honours it pays to the Virgin Mary, has been sometimes termed the "Marian religion." At Rome it is celebrated with every possible magnificence and solemnity. In England it is only remembered as the first quarter-day in the year, and is therefore only kept by landlords and tenants.

PALM SUNDAY.-The Sabbath before Easter is thus

Ꮮ

denominated, because the boughs of palm-trees were carried in procession, in imitation of those which the children of Israel strewed before Christ. It was observed by the Catholics with much pomp and ceremony, the sacrament being carried upon an ass in solemn procession, accompanied by the choir and preceded by people strewing branches and flowers, all which Dr. Fulke thus stigmatizes: "Your Palm Sunday procession was horrible idolatry, turning the whole mystery of Christ's riding to Jerusalem to a May-game and pageant play.' Henry VIII. declared that the bearing of palms upon Palm Sunday was to be continued; and it appears that they were borne in England till the second year of Edward VI. Palm Sunday still remains in our calendars; in country places the children go out early in the morning to gather branches of the willow or sallow, with their gray velvet-looking buds, the only substitute for palm which our fields afford at this early season; and in Coventgarden market there may be still found a basket-woman or two with palm, as they call it, for which they find a few customers on the Saturday before Palm Sunday. This remnant of the olden times will probably soon disappear altogether.

MAUNDY THURSDAY, or the Thursday before Easter, has much exercised the ingenuity of antiquaries to account for its name, which however seems to have been derived from the old Saxon word mand or maund, signifying a basket, whence alms came to be called maundie. Thus then Maundy Thursday, the day preceding Good Friday, on which the king distributes alms to a certain number of poor persons at Whitehall, is so called from the maunds in which the gifts were contained. In imitation of Christ washing his disciples' feet, the kings and queens of England anciently washed and kissed the feet of as many poor men and women as they were years old, besides bestowing their maundy on each. James II. is said to have been the last of our monarchs who performed this ceremony in person. It was afterward done by the almoner, and is now discontinued. The present donations consist of fish, meat, bread, and ale, in the morning, to which are added silver pennies and clothing in the afternoon, after the evening service.

GOOD FRIDAY.-On this day was anciently performed the popish ceremony of creeping to the cross, in which, as it

appears from an old book of the ceremonial of the kings of England, the monarchs were accustomed to take a part, as well as the queen and her ladies. The image of the crucifix being dressed up so as to represent the Saviour, worship was made to it, accompanied with various offerings and superstitious observances. Nor was this all, for according to Googe's English version of Naogeorgus

Another image doe they get, like one but newly dead,

With legges stretch'd out at length, and handes upon his body spreade,
And him with pompe and sacred song they beare unto his grave,
His body all being wrapt in lawne, and silks and sarcenet brave;
And down they kneele and kiss the grounde, their hands held up abrod,
And knocking on their breastes, they make this wooden block a god.

All this profane mummery having long since been swept away, we retain none of the external observances of Good Friday except the hot-cross-buns, the edible part of the old celebrations having, as usual, survived all the others. These buns are the ecclesiastical eulogia, or consecrated loaves, formerly bestowed in the church as alms, or given to those who from any impediment could not receive the host, and which were marked with a cross, like the buns that have succeeded to them. Mr. Bryant deduces the Good Friday bun from the bonn or sacred bread which used to be offered to the Pagan gods, even so far back as the time of Cecrops. ALL FOOLS' DAY, 1st April.-Antiquarians have puzzled themselves and their readers in the attempt to account for the custom of fool-making; but their researches seem to have established nothing except that the practice is very ancient and very general. Not only in various parts of Europe does it obtain, but according to Colonel Pearce, it is in full force among the Hindoos at the celebration of their Huli festival, which is kept on the 31st of March. We have before us a great display of learning in various profound theories upon the subject, but as we have already intimated that they lead to no satisfactory or even plausible conclusion, we shall not further agitate the question, lest our readers should suspect that we mean to illustrate the practices of the day at their expense.

EASTER DAY, a festival instituted to commemorate the resurrection of our Saviour, occurs on the first Sunday after the full moon which happens upon or next after the 21st

day of March; and if the full moon happen upon a Sunday, Easter Day is the Sunday after. The name is derived from our Saxon ancestors, who at this season held a great festival in honour of the goddess Easter, probably the Astarte of the eastern nations. It has ever been considered by the church as a season of great festivity, and was signalized by extraordinary dramatic worship, with appropriate scenery, machinery, dresses, and decorations; the theatrical representations taking place in the churches, and the monks being the actors. Among many of the old trivial observances of this day we may note that the custom of eating a gammon of bacon, still preserved in many parts of England, was intended to show an abhorrence of Judaism at this solemn commemoration of the Lord's resurrection. Eggs, sometimes stained of a red colour to symbolize the shedding of the Saviour's blood, were commonly given at Easter, a custom which the learned De Gebelin, in his religious History of the Calendar, tells us may be traced up to the theology and philosophy of the Egytians, Persians, Gauls, Greeks, Romans, and other nations. Tansy cakes and puddings, in reference to the bitter herbs used by the Jews at this season, were eaten at Easter, and formed a common prize in the foot-races and games of hand-ball that prevailed at this season. Durand tell us that on Easter Tuesday wives used to beat their husbands; on the day following the husbands their wives. Probably both parties knew their deserts, and this was intended as a mutual punishment and atonement for their Greenwich-park and other pranks and misdeeds on the previous day.

CHAPTER XI.

Holyday Notices concluded.

"Come, let us go while we are in our prime,
And take the harmless follie of the time;
We shall grow old apace, and die
Before we know our liberty.

Our life is short, and our days run
As fast away as does the sunne,
And, as a vapour or a drop of rain,
Once lost can ne'er be found again;
So when or you or I are made
A fable, song, or fleeting shade,
All love, all liking, all delight

Lies drown'd with us in endless night.

Then, while time serves, and we are but decaying,
Come, my Corinna, come, let's go a Maying."

Herrick

NOTHING less than a new chapter will satisfy us. It would have chilled our glowing hearts, it would have been felt as a profanation, had we, under the same section of our little work that detailed the miserable mistakes of God-dishonouring and man-degrading superstition, attempted to describe the inimitable and transcendent glories of MAYDAY, the great and beneficent festival of all-loving Nature. Disappear! vanish! begone from our pages for awhile, ye paltry pomps and idle mummeries of human institution! Avaunt for a brief space, all rites, ceremonies, sects, distinctions, that have sown disunion and hatred among men! -be dumb and stand rebuked! ye pseudo-champions of Omnipotence, teachers of the omniscient Deity, who, making gods of yourselves, and climbing impiously into the judgment-seat, dare to pronounce upon your fellow-mortals, telling us who shall be saved and who shall be condemned. Learn humility and forbearance if ye can, for such is wisdom-learn charity and universal love, for such is Christianity, from this great festival of Nature, not narrowed by bigotry and intolerance to one sect, one religion, or even one nation, but diffused over the whole earth, as if our com