the epithet low, alluded to the newness of life, which neophytes were exhorted to cultivate: they had been proud and haughty now they must be low, little, humble, mortified, &c. Another name for the Sunday in question is Quasimodo Sunday, from the first word in Latin opening the introit of the mass- -“Like new-born infants," &c. The Greek church also designates it the new (xon) Sunday, in allusion to the newness of life preached to the neophytes. These facts are noticed as tending to show that a prevailing thought, which may have been generative of the appellation of the Sunday, was the newness of life then preached. Hence Low Sunday. You were, neophytes, high and proud; you must now be low and humble.-Literary Gazette.] ST. URBAN'S DAY. MAY 25. UNDER St. Paul's Day, I have shown that it is customary in many parts of Germany to drag the image of St. Urban to the river, if on the day of his feast it happens to be foul weather. Aubanus tells us, that " upon St. Urban's Day all the vintners and masters of vineyards set a table either in the market-steed, or in some other open and public place, and covering it with fine napery, and strewing upon it greene leaves and sweete flowers, do place upon the table the image of that holy bishop, and then if the day be cleare and faire, they crown the image with greate store of wine; but if the weather prove rugged and rainie, they cast filth, mire, and puddle-water upon it; persuading themselves that, if that day be faire and calm, their grapes, which then begin to flourish, will prove good that year; but if it be stormie and tempestuous, they shall have a bad vintage." (p. 282.) The same anecdote is related in the Regnum Papisticum of Naogeorgus. ROYAL OAK DAY. On the 29th of May, the anniversary of the Restoration of Charles II., it is still customary, especially in the North of England, for the common people to wear in their hats the leaves of the oak, which are sometimes covered on the occasion with leaf-gold. This is done, as everybody knows, in commemoration of the marvellous escape of that monarch from those that were in pursuit of him, who passed under the very oak-tree in which he had secreted himself after the decisive battle of Worcester. 66 pro May the 29th," says the author of the Festa AngloRomana, "is celebrated upon a double account; first, in commemoration of the birth of our soveraign king Charles the Second, the princely son of his royal father Charles the First of happy memory, and Mary the daughter of Henry the Fourth, the French king, who was born the 29th day of May, 1630; and also, by Act of Parliament, 12 Car. II., by the passionate desires of the people, in memory of his most happy Restoration to his crown and dignity, after twelve years forced exile from his undoubted right, the crown of England, by barbarous rebels and regicides. And on the 8th of this month his Majesty was with universal joy and great acclamations claimed in London and Westminster, and after throughout all his dominions. The 16th he came to the Hague; the 23rd, with his two brothers, embarqued for England; and on the 25th he happily landed at Dover, being received by General Monk and some of the army; from whence he was, by several voluntary troops of the nobility and gentry, waited upon to Canterbury; and on the 29th, 1660, he made his magnificent entrance into that emporium of Europe, his stately and rich metropolis, the renowned City of London. On this very day also, 1662, the king came to Hampton Court with his queen Catherine, after his marriage at Portsmouth. This, as it is his birth-day, is one of his collar-days, without offering." It was the custom, some years back, to decorate the monument of Richard Penderell (in the church-yard of St. Giles in the Fields, London), on the 29th of May, with oakbranches; but, in proportion to the decay of popularity in kings, this practice has declined." (Caulfield's Memoirs of Remarkable Persons, p. 186.) Had Caulfield attributed the decline of this custom to the increasing distance of time from the event that first gave rise to it, he would perhaps have come much nearer to the truth. [It is to this day the prac tice to decorate the statue of Charles I. at Charing Cross with oak-leaves on this anniversary.] I remember the boys at Newcastle-upon-Tyne had formerly a taunting rhyme on this occasion, with which they used to insult such persons as they met on this day who had not oakleaves in their hats : There was a retort courteous by others, who contemptuously wore plane-tree leaves, which is of the same homely sort of stuff: "Plane-tree leaves; The Church-folk are thieves." Puerile and low as these and such-like sarcasms may appear, yet they breathe strongly that party spirit which they were intended to promote, and which it is the duty of every good citizen and real lover of his country to endeavour to suppress. The party spirit on this occasion showed itself very early: for in the curious tract entitled the Lord's loud Call to England, published by H. Jessey, 1660, p. 29, we read of the following judgment, as related by the Puritans, on an old woman for her loyalty: "An antient poor woman went from Wapping to London to buy flowers, about the 6th or 7th of May, 1660, to make garlands for the day of the king's proclamation (that is, May 8th), to gather the youths together to dance for the garland; and when she had bought the flowers, and was going homewards, a cart went over part of her body, and bruised her for it, just before the doors of such as she might vex thereby. But since she remains in a great deal of miserie by the bruise she had gotten, and cried out, the devil! saying, the devil had owned her a shame, and now thus he had paid her. It's judged at the writing hereof that she will never overgrow it." I find a note too in my MS. collections, but forget the authority, to the following effect: "Two soldiers were whipped almost to death, and turned out of the service, for wearing boughs in their hats on the 29th of May, 1716." The Royal Oak was standing in Dr. Stukeley's time, inclosed with a brick wall, but almost cut away in the middle by travellers whose curiosity led them to see it. The king, after the Restoration, reviewing the place, carried some of the acorns, and set them in St. James's Park or Garden, and used to water them himself. "A bow-shoot from Boscobel-house," says Dr. Stukeley (Itinerarium Curiosum, 1724, iii. p. 57), "just by a horse-track passing through the wood, stood the Royal Oak, into which the king and his companion, Colonel Carlos, climbed by means of the hen-roost ladder, when they judg'd it no longer safe to stay in the house; the family reaching them victuals with the nuthook. The tree is now enclosed in with a brick wall, the inside whereof is covered with lawrel, of which we may say, as Ovid did of that before the Augustan palace, 'mediamque tuebere quercum.' Close by its side grows a young thriving plant from one of its acorns. Over the door of the inclosure, I took this inscription in marble: Felicissimam arborem quam in asylum potentissimi Regis Caroli II. Deus O. M. per quem reges regnant hic crescere voluit, tam in perpetuam rei tantæ memoriam, quam specimen firmæ in reges fidei, muro cinctam posteris commendant Basilius et Jana Fitzherbert. Quercus amica Jovi."" In Carolina, or Loyal Poems, by Thomas Shipman, 1683, p. 53, are the following thoughts on this subject: "Blest Charles then to an oak his safety owes ; Boughs that for loyalty shall garlands give. "Let celebrated wits, with laurels crown'd, And wreaths of bays, boast their triumphant brows; In being honoured with these oaken boughs. "The Genii of the Druids hover'd here, Who under oaks did Britain's glories sing; They gladly came now to protect their king." [At Tiverton, Devon, on the 29th of May, it is customary for a number of young men, dressed in the style of the seven teenth century, and armed with swords, to parade the streets, and gather contributions from the inhabitants. At the head of the procession walks a man called Oliver, dressed in black, with his face and hands smeared over with soot and grease, and his body bound by a strong cord, the end of which is held by one of the men to prevent his running too far. After these come another troop, dressed in the same style, each man bearing a large branch of oak; four others, carrying a kind of throne made of oaken boughs, on which a child is seated, bring up the rear. A great deal of merriment is excited among the boys at the pranks of Master Oliver, who capers about in a most ludicrous manner. Some of them amuse themselves by casting dirt, whilst others, more mischievously inclined, throw stones at him. But woe betide the young urchin who is caught! His face assumes a most awful appearance from the soot and grease with which Oliver begrimes it, whilst his companions, who have been lucky enough to escape his clutches, testify their pleasure by loud shouts and acclamations. In the evening the whole party have a feast, the expenses of which are defrayed by the collection made in the morning. This custom is probably as old as 1660.] WHITSUN-ALE. FOR the church-ale, says Carew, in his Survey of Cornwall, p. 68, "two young men of the parish are yerely chosen by their last foregoers to be wardens, who, dividing the task, make collection among the parishioners of whatsoever provision it pleaseth them voluntarily to bestow. This they employ in brewing, baking, and other acates,' against Whitsontide; upon which holydays the neighbours meet at the church-house, and there merily feed on their owne victuals, contributing some petty portion to the stock, which, by many smalls, groweth to a meetly greatness: for there is entertayned a kind of emulation between these wardens, who, by his graciousness in gathering, and good husbandry in expending, can best advance the churches profit. Besides, the neighbour parishes at those times lovingly visit each one another, 1 Provisions. Halliwell's Dictionary, p. 13. |