In the Flowers of the Lives of the most renowned Saints, we read of St. David, that "he died 1st March, about A.D. 550, which day, not only in Wales, but all England over, is most famous in memorie of him. But in these our unhappy daies, the greatest part of this solemnitie consisteth in wearing of a greene Leeke, and it is a sufficient theme for a zealous Welshman to ground a quarrell against him that doth not honour his capp with the like ornament that day." Ursula is introduced in the old play of the Vow-breaker, or the Fayre Maid of Clifton, 1636, as telling Anne-"Thou marry German! His head's like a Welchman's crest on St. Davie's Day! He looks like a hoary frost in December! Now Venus blesse me, I'de rather ly by a statue!"

Owen, in his Cambrian Biography, 1803, p. 86, says: "In consequence of the romances of the middle ages which created the Seven Champions of Christendom, St. David has been dignified with the title of the Patron Saint of Wales : but this rank, however, is hardly known among the people of the Principality, being a title diffused among them from England in modern times. The writer of this account never heard of such a Patron Saint, nor of the Leek as his symbol, until he became acquainted therewith in London." He adds,

"The wearing of the Leek on Saint David's Day probably originated from the custom of Cymhortha, or the neighbourly aid practised among farmers, which is of various kinds. In some districts of South Wales, all the neighbours of a small farmer without means appoint a day when they all attend to plough his lands and the like; and at such a time it is a custom for each individual to bring his portion of Leeks, to be used in making pottage for the whole company; and they bring nothing else but the Leeks in particular for the occasion.' The reader is left to reconcile this passage with what has been already said upon the day.

For a Life of St. David, Patron Saint of Wales, who, according to a Welsh pedigree, was son of Caredig, Lord of Cardiganshire, and his mother Non, daughter of Ynyr, of Caer Gawch, see Anglia Sacra, vol. ii. The battle gained over the Saxons, by King Cadwallo, at Hethfield or Hatfield Chase, in Yorkshire, A.D. 633, is mentioned in Britannia Sancta, ii. 163; in Lewis's Hist. of Britain, pp. 215, 217; in Jeffrey of Monmouth, Engl. Translat. Book xii. chaps. 8 and 9; and in Carte's History of England, i. 228.

[An amusing account of the origin of the leek custom is given in Howell's Cambrian Superstitions. The Welsh in olden days were so infested by ourang-outangs, that they could obtain no peace by night nor day, and not being themselves able to extirpate them, they invited the English, who came, but through some mistake, killed several of the Welsh themselves, so that in order to distinguish them from the monkeys, they desired them at last to stick leeks in their hats!

The leek is thus mentioned in the Antidote against Melancholy, 1661, speaking of Welsh food, —

"And oat cake of Guarthenion,

With a goodly leek or onion,
To give as sweet a rellis

As e'er did harper Ellis."

The following amusing lines are found in Poor Robin's Almanack for 1757,

"The first of this month some do keep,

For honest Taff to wear his leek:
Who patron was, they say, of Wales,
And since that time, cuts plutter a nails,
Along the street this day doth strut
With hur green leek stuck in hur hat;
And if hur meet a shentleman,
Salutes in Welsh, and if hur can

Discourse in Welsh, then hur shall be

Amongst the greenhorn'd Taffys free."]

ST. PATRICK'S DAY.

THE Shamrock is said to be worn by the Irish upon the anniversary of this Saint, for the following reason. 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 afterwards worn upon this Saint's anniversary, to commemorate the event,1

"Chosen leaf

Of bard and chief,

Old Erin's native Shamrock."

The British Druids and bards had an extraordinary veneration for the number three. "The misletoe," says Vallancey, in his Grammar of the Irish Language, 66 was sacred to the

Druids, because not only its berries, but its leaves also, grow in clusters of three united to one stock. The Christian Irish hold the Seamroy sacred in like manner, because of three leaves united to one stalk." Spenser, in his view of the State of Ireland, 1596, ed. 1633, p. 72, speaking of "these late warres of Mounster," before, " a most rich and plentifull countrey, full of corne and cattle," says the inhabitants were reduced to such distress that, "if they found a plot of watercresses or Shamrocks, there they flocked as to a feast for the time."

Mr. Jones, in his Historical Account of the Welsh Bards, 1794, p. 13, tells us, in a note, that "St. Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland, is said to be the son of Calphurnius and Concha. He was born in the Vale of Rhos, in Pembrokeshire, about the year 373." Mr. Jones, however, gives another pedigree of this Saint, and makes him of Caernarvonshire. [In fact, the various biographies of this holy personage are most conflicting, some asserting that he was born in Scotland.] He adds: "His original Welsh name was Maenwyn, and his ecclesiastical name of Patricius was given him by Pope Celestine, when he consecrated him a Bishop, and sent him missioner into Ireland, to convert the Irish, in 433. When St. Patrick landed near Wicklow, the inhabitants were ready 'I found the following passage in Wyther's Abuses Stript and Whipt, 1613, p. 71:

"And, for my cloathing, in a mantle goe,

And feed on Sham-roots, as the Irish doe."

Between May Day and Harvest, "butter, new cheese and curds, and shamrocks, are the food of the meaner sort all this season," Sir Henry Piers's Description of West Meath, in Vallancey's Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis, No. 1, p. 121. "Seamroy, clover, trefoil, worn by Irishmen in their hats, by way of a cross, on St. Patrick's Day, in memory of that great saint," Irish-English Dictionary, in v.

to stone him for attempting an innovation in the religion of their ancestors. He requested to be heard, and explained unto them that God is an omnipotent, sacred spirit, who created heaven and earth, and that the Trinity is contained in the Unity; but they were reluctant to give credit to his words. St. Patrick, therefore, plucked a trefoil from the ground, and expostulated with the Hibernians: 'Is it not as possible for the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as for these three three leaves, to grow upon a single stalk?' Then the Irish were immediately convinced of their error, and were solemnly baptized by St. Patrick."

In Sir Thomas Overbury's Characters, when describing a Footman, he says, ""Tis impossible to draw his picture to the life, cause a man must take it as he's running; onely this horses are usually let bloud on St. Steven's Day: on S. Patrickes hee takes rest, and is drencht for all the yeare after, ed. 1615, sig. K 3."1

MID-LENT SUNDAY.

MOTHERING.

IN the former days of superstition, while that of the Roman Catholics was the established religion, it was the custom for people to visit their Mother-Church on Mid-Lent Sunday, and to make their offering at the high altar. Cowel, in his Law Dictionary, observes that the now remaining

1 Gainsford, in the Glory of England, or a true Description of many excellent Prerogatives and remarkable Blessings, whereby shee triumpheth over all the Nations in the World, 1619, speaking of the Irish, p. 150, says, "They use incantations and spells, wearing girdles of women's haire, and locks of their lover's. They are curious about their horses tending to witchcraft." Spenser also, in the work already quoted, at p. 41, says: "The Irish, at this day, (A.D. 1596,) when they goe to battaile, say certaine prayers or charmes to their swords, making a crosse therewith upon the earth, and thrusting the points of their blades into the ground, thinking thereby to have the better successe in fight. Also they use commonly to sweare by their swords." At p. 43 he adds: "The manner of their women's riding on the wrong side of the horse, I meane with their faces towards the right side, as the Irish use, is (as they say) old Spanish, and some say African, for amongst them the women (they say) use so to ride."

practice of Mothering, or going to visit parents upon MidLent Sunday, is owing to that good old custom. Nay, it seems to be called Mothering from the respect so paid to the Mother-Church, when the Epistle for the day was, with some allusion, Galat. iv. 21, "Jerusalem Mater omnium;" which Epistle for Mid-Lent Sunday we still retain, though we have forgotten the occasion of it.

The fourth Sunday in Lent, says Wheatly on the Common Prayer, 1848, p. 221, is generally called Mid-Lent, "though Bishop Sparrow, and some others, term it Dominica Refectionis, the Sunday of Refreshment; the reason of which, I suppose, is the Gospel for the day, which treats of our Saviour's miraculously feeding five thousand; or else, perhaps, from the first lesson in the morning, which gives us the story of Joseph's entertaining his brethren." He is of opinion, that "the appointment of these Scriptures upon this day might probably give the first rise to a custom still retained in many parts of England, and well known by the name of Mid-lenting or Mothering."1

The following is found in Herrick's Hesperides, p. 278:

"To Dianeme. A Ceremonie in Glocester.

"I'le to thee a Simnell bring,
'Gainst thou go'st a mothering;
So that, when she blesseth thee,
Half that blessing thou'lt give me."

:

In the Gentleman's Magazine for February, 1784, p. 98, Mr. Nichols tells us, "that whilst he was an apprentice, the custom was to visit his mother (who was a native of Nottinghamshire) on Midlent Sunday (thence called Mothering Sunday) for a regale of excellent furmety.'

[A mothering cake is thus alluded to in Collins's Miscellanies, 1762, p. 114,

Why, rot thee, Dick! see Dundry's Peak
Lucks like a shuggard Motherin-cake."

In Kelham's Dictionary of the Norman, or old French Language, Mid-Lent Sunday, Dominica Refectionis, is called Pasques Charnieulx. 2 Furmety is derived from frumentum, wheat. It is made of what is called, in a certain town in Yorkshire, "kneed wheat," or whole grains first boiled plump and soft, and then put into and boiled in milk, sweetened and spiced. In Ray's North Country Words, "to cree wheat or barley, is to boil it soft." See further in Halliwell's Dictionary, p. 383.