without distinguishing between the right use and the abuse of such entertainments, cavil at and malign them: yet must such be told that shows and sports have been countenanced in all ages, and that too by the best and wisest of states; and though it cannot be denied that they have sometimes been prostituted to the purposes of riot and debauchery, yet, were we to reprobate everything that has been thus abused, religion itself could not be retained: perhaps, indeed, we should be able to keep nothing. The common people, confined by daily labour, seem to require their proper intervals of relaxation; perhaps it is of the highest political utility to encourage innocent sports and games among them. The revival of many of these would, I think, be highly pertinent at this particular juncture, when the general spread of luxury and dissipation threatens more than at any preceding period to extinguish the character of our boasted national bravery. For the observation of an honest old writer, Stow (who tells us, speaking of the May games, Midsummer Eve rejoicings, &c., anciently used in the streets of London, "which open pastimes2 in my youth Discord they say doth so possesse the land, 'Tis thought they will not let the organs stand, And I have had report by those have seen them, They breake the windows 'cause the Saints are in them: ' I call to mind here the pleasing account Sterne has left us, in his Sentimental Journey, of the grace-dance after supper. I agree with that amiable writer in thinking that Religion may mix herself in the dance, and that innocent cheerfulness forms no inconsiderable part of devotion; such, indeed, cannot fail of being grateful to the Good Being, as it is a silent but eloquent mode of praising him. 2 "The youths of this city," he says, "have used on holidays, after evening prayer, at their master's door, to exercise their wasters and bucklers; and the maidens, one of them playing on a timbrel, in sight of their masters and dames, to dance for garlands hanged athwart the streets." Strype's edit. of Stow's Survey, book i. p. 251. † See more of the Puritan detestation of the Cross-form in the present volume, 156. being now supprest, worse practices within doors are to be feared,") may with too singular propriety be adopted on the most transient survey of our present popular manners.1 Bourne, my predecessor in this walk, has not, from whatever cause, done justice to the subject he undertook to treat of. Let it not be imputed to me that I am so vain as to think that I have exhausted it, for the utmost of my pretensions is to the merit of having endeavoured, by making additions and alterations, to methodise and improve it. I think it justice to add, too, that he was deserving of no small share of praise for his imperfect attempt, for "much is due to those who first broke the way to knowledge, and left only to their successors the task of smoothing it." New and very bright lights have appeared since his time. The English antique has become a general and fashionable study: and the discoveries of a chartered Society of Antiquaries, patronised by the best of monarchs, and boasting among its members some of the greatest ornaments of the British empire, have rendered the recesses both of Papal and Heathen Antiquities much easier of access. I shall presume to flatter myself that I have, in some measure, turned all these circumstances to advantage. I have gleaned passages that seemed to throw light upon the subject, as my numberless citations will evince, from an immense variety of volumes, both printed and manuscript; and those written too in several languages: in the doing of which, if I shall not be found to have deserved the praise of judgment, I must at least make pretensions to the merit of industry. Elegance of composition will hardly be expected in a work of this nature,2 which seems to stand much less in need of 1 The Rev. Mr. Ledwich, in his Statistical Account of the Parish of Aghaboe in the Queen's County, Ireland, 8vo. Dubl. 1796, tells us, p. 95: "A delineation of the customs and manners of the people of this parish would seem to be a proper and interesting addition to this work. This I should have attempted, did their peculiarity demand notice. The national character of the original natives is, with us, entirely lost. Their diversions of foot-ball and hurling are seldom practised, or their ancient customs at marriages and interments." It must not, however, be dissembled that the learned writer is of opinion that the change is for the better. 2 In general it may be observed that readers, provided with keen appetites for this kind of entertainment, must content themselves with the homely manner of serving it up to them. Indeed, squeamishness in this Attic wit than of Roman perseverance, or, if we glance at modern times, of Dutch assiduity. I shall offer many discoveries which are peculiarly my own, for there are not a few customs yet retained in the North, where I spent the earliest part of my life, of which I am persuaded the learned in the Southern parts of our island have hardly once heard mention, which is perhaps the sole cause why they have never before been investigated. I have, once for all, to premise that, in perusing the subsequent observations, the candid reader, who has never before considered this neglected subject, is particularly requested not to be rash in passing sentence; but to suspend his judgment, at least till he has carefully examined all the evidence; by which caution let it not be understood that my determinations are in any degree thought to be infallible, or that every decision to be found in the following pages is not amenable to higher authorities in the mean time prejudice may be forewarned, and it will apologise for many seemingly trivial reasons assigned for the beginning and transmitting of this or that popular notion or ceremony, to reflect that what may appear foolish to the enlightened understandings of men in the eighteenth century, wore a very different aspect when viewed through the gloom that prevailed in the seventh or eighth. : I should trespass on the patience of my reader were I to enumerate all the books I have consulted on this occasion : to which, however, I shall take care, in their proper places, to refer but I own myself under particular obligations to Durand's Ritual of Divine Offices, a work inimical to every idea of rational worship, but to the inquirer into the origin of our popular ceremonies, an invaluable magazine of the most interesting intelligence. I would style this performance the great Ceremonial Law of the Romanists, in comparison particular would, in a variety of instances, suit but ill with the study of the English Antique. For it must be confessed, that a great deal of wholesome meat of this sort has ever been brought on upon wooden platters, and very nice guests, it is to be feared, will think that our famous old cook, Thomas Hearne himself, was but a very slovenly and greasy kind of host. This curious book is the fountain-head of all ecclesiastical rites and ceremonies. It was printed at Mentz so early as 1459. See Fabricii Bibliotheca mediæ et infimæ Ætatis, edit. 8vo. 1734, vol. ii. p. 206, and Maittaire's Annales Typogr, vol. i. p. 271, pars prior. with which the Mosaic code is barren of rites and ceremonies. We stand amazed, on perusing it, at the enormous weight of a new yoke, which Holy Church, fabricating with her own hands, had imposed on her ancient devotees.' Yet the forgers of these shackles had artfully enough contrived to make them sit easy, by twisting flowers around them: dark as this picture, drawn by the pencil of gloomy Superstition, appeared upon the whole, yet was its deep shade in many places contrasted with pleasing lights. The calendar was crowded with Red-letter days, nominally, indeed, consecrated to saints, but which, by the encouragement of idleness and dissipation of manners, gave every kind of countenance to sinners. A profusion of childish rites, pageants, and ceremonies, diverted the attention of the people from the consideration of their real state, and kept them in humour, if it did not sometimes make them in love, with their slavish modes of worship. To the credit of our sensible and manly forefathers, they were among the first who felt the weight of this new and unnecessary yoke, and had spirit enough to throw it off. I have fortunately in my possession one of those ancient Roman calendars, of singular curiosity, which contains under the immoveable Feasts and Fasts (I regret much its silence on the moveable ones), a variety of brief observations, contributing not a little to the elucidation of many of our popular customs, and proving them to have been sent over from Rome, with Bulls, Indulgences, and other baubles, bartered, as it should seem, for our Peter-pence, by those who trafficked in spiritual merchandise from the continent. These I shall carefully translate (though in some places it is extremely difficult to render the very barbarous Latin in which they are written, the barbarity, brevity, and obscurity of which I fear the critic will think I have transfused into my own English), and lay before my reader, who will at once see and acknowledge their utility. A learned performance by a physician in the time of King James I, and dedicated to that monarch, is also luckily in my library: it is written in Latin, and entitled 'The Popedom, or It is but justice to own that the modern Roman Catholics disclaim the greater number of those superstitious notions and ceremonies, equally the misfortune and disgrace of our forefathers in the dark ages. PREFACE. the Origin and Increase of Depravity in Religion;' containing a very masterly parallel between the rites, notions, &c., of Heathen, and those of Papal Rome. The copious extracts from this work with which I shall adorn and enlighten the following pages will form their truest commendation, and supersede my poor encomiums. When I call Gray to remembrance, the Poet of Humanity, who, had he left no other works behind him, would have transmitted his name to immortality by Reflections,' written among the little tombstones of the vulgar in a country churchyard, I am urged by no false shame to apologise for the seeming unimportance of my subject. The antiquities of the common people cannot be studied without acquiring some useful knowledge of mankind; and it may be truly said, in this instance, that by the chemical process of philosophy, even wisdom may be extracted from the follies and superstitions of our forefathers.2 "Papatus, seu depravatæ Religionis Origo et Incrementum; summa fide diligentiaque e gentilitatis suæ fontibus eruta: ut fere nihil sit in hoc genus cultu, quod non sit promptum, ex hisce, meis reddere suis authoribus: ut restitutæ Evangelicæ Religionis, quam profitemur, simplicitas, fucis amotis, suam aliquando integritatem apud omnes testatam faciat per Thomam Moresinum Aberdonanum, Doctorem Medicum. Edinburgi excudebat Robertus Waldegrave, Typographus Regius, Anno M.D.XCIIII. Cum privilegio Regali." A small octavo: most extremely rare. 2 In the Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. ix. 8vo. Edinb. 1793, p. 253, parish of Clunie, co. of Perth, the inhabitants, we are told, "are not, as formerly, the dupes of superstitious credulity. Many old useless rites and ceremonies are laid aside. Little attention is paid to bug-bear tales. Superstitions, charms, and incantations have lost their power. Cats, hares, magpies, and old women cease to assume any other appearance than what nature has given them: and ghosts, goblins, witches, and fairies have relinquished the land." In the same volume, p. 328, parish of Tongland, co. of Kircudbright; from a statistical account of sixty or seventy years before, we learn that "the lower class in general were tainted strongly with superstitious sentiments and opinions, which had been transmitted down from one generation to another by tradition. They firmly believed in ghosts, hobgoblins, fairies, elves, witches, and wizards. These ghosts and spirits often appeared to them at night. They used many charms and incantations to preserve themselves, their cattle and houses, from the malevolence of witches, wizards, and evil spirits, and believed in the beneficial effects of these charms. They believed in lucky and unlucky days, and seasons in marrying or undertaking any important business. They frequently saw the devil, who made wicked attacks upon them when they were engaged in their religious exercises and acts of devotion. They believed in |