power, to arrange the text of this recension agreeably to the principle of proportion or degree of contributory weight. The governing aim has been to accumulate and arrange to the best advantage and in the most convenient shape as large a body as possible of real or supposed matters of fact on all branches of the subject, with which I deal; and in re-editing the 1870 book, to adapt it to an improved state of knowledge, I trust I have been fairly successful. It is to be remarked that the moral and conclusion derived from a perusal of the following pages are not perhaps likely to be of a very flattering nature, so far as regards either the opinions and intelligence of former ages or their educational progress. Amid a vast amount of material and detail, which can hardly fail to prove entertaining and valuable, there is much, too much, even as we draw near to our own epoch, which bespeaks a prevalence of low mental development arising, no doubt, in great measure from a faulty system of teaching both in a secular and clerical direction. Modern principles of instruction will gradually extinguish most, if not all, of the foolish prejudices and superstitions recorded here, and while it will be an unquestionable blessing, that such a change should occur, it also seems desirable that we should possess in a tolerably complete shape the means of comparison between the Older and the Newer Life of this Empire. It is hardly too much to say that, in scrutinizing many of the headings in the Dictionary, the average reader may have to reflect, before he is assured that the views or accounts contained under them refer to the country known as Great Britain; yet how many of these customs and corruptions yet survive! Barnes Common, Surrey, September, 1904. W. C. H. NATIONAL FAITHS AND POPULAR CUSTOMS. The Abbot of Bon Accord. Aberdeen name for the Lord of Misrule. Abbot of Unreason. — The Scotish name for the Lord of Misrule, q.v. In Scotland, where the Reformation took a more severe and gloomy turn than in England, the Abbot of Unreason, as he was called, with other festive characters, was thought worthy to be suppressed by the Legislature as early as 1555. Jamieson seems to have thought, however, that the abolition of these sports was due rather to the excesses perpetrated in connection with them than to the Reformation. Perhaps this may be considered almost as a distinction without a difference. Abingdon, Berks. For a custom after the election of a mayor here, see the Gentleman's Magazine for Dec., 1782. Abraham-Men, itinerant beggars, who ranged town and country after the Dissolution of Monasteries and the absence of any other system of poor-relief. There is some illustration of this subject in Hazlitt's Popular Poetry, 1864-6, iv, 17 et. se., in Harman's Caveat, 1567, &c., Compare Tom of Bedlam. Advertisements and Bills. The Poster for a wide variety of purposes is known to have been in use in England, no less than in France and Germany, at an early period, and shared with the Cry and Proclamation the function of notifying approaching events or official ordinances. Hazlitt's Shakespear: The Man and the Writer, 2nd ed. 1903, pp. 102-3. This method of notification also prevailed toward the latter end of the reign of Elizabeth in respect to theatrical performances, which were announced on advertisements affixed to conspicuous places; but the modern play-bill was a much later comer. There is an Elizabethan broadside recently discovered among some old MSS., setting forth the particulars of a tilting match at Westminster, to be held in honour and vindication of a certain lady, whose beauty and accomplishments the challenger was prepared to defend against all opponents. Hazlitt's Collections and Notes, 1903, v. Gallophisus. Adventurer.-A partner in a voyage of discovery or colonization. Adventurers on return were persons who lent money before they started on one of these enterprizes, on condition that they should receive so much profit, if they returned home. Admiral of the Blue, a sobriquet for a tapster, from his blue apron. Compare, as to the blue apron, Hazlitt's Garden Literature, 1887, pp. 9-10. The gardener and fruit-grower, however, still cling to blue paper, as a material for covering their baskets of produce. Adoption.-Several of our sovereigns adopted children offered to them, and then contributed toward their maintenance, but did not necessarily, or indeed usually, remove them from their parents' roof. Very numerous illustrations of this custom might be afforded. In the "Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York," May, 1502, we have, for instance, this entry: "Item the xijth day of May to Mawde Hamond for keping of hire child geven to the Quene for half a yere ended at Estre last past. viijs." An ex Epiornis or Epiornis. tinct bird of Madagascar, of which an egg was discovered in an alluvial deposit in 1850, by M. d'Abbadie. It is said to be 13 or 14 inches long, and to have six times the capacity of that of the ostrich. The Epiornis seems to be identifiable with the Roc or Rukh, which is mentioned by Marco Polo. But it is doubtful whether this enormous creature really exceeded in size the great apteryx or moa of New Zealand, also extinct. A specimen of the egg was sold in London (November, 1899) for £44, described as about a yard in circumference, a foot in length, and of the capacity of 150 hens' eggs. Compare Roc. Aërolites, the modern name and view given to the medieval and ancient fire-balls, firedrakes, dracones volantes, thunderbolts, &c. Their nature is at present generally better understood, although we have yet to learn their exact origin. A very intelligent writer says, speaking of the matter of falling stars:"Amongst our selves, when any such matter is found in the fields, the very countrey-men cry it fell from Heav'n and the staries, and as I remember call it the Spittle of the Starres." He adds: "An Ignis fatuus has been found fallen down in a slippery viscous substance full of white spots. They stay upon military ensigns and spears: because such are apt to stop and be tenacious of them. In the summer and hot regions they are more frequent, because the good concoction produces fatnesse." White's Peripatetical Institutions, 1656, p. 148. Compare Fire-drake. In an B official account of Bendothey, co. Perth, written in 1797, it is said: "The substance called shot stars is nothing else than frosted potatoes. A night of hard frost, in the end of autumn, in which those meteors called fallen stars are seen, reduces the potatoe to the consistence of a jelly or soft pulp having no resemblance to a potato, except when parts of the skin of the potato adhere below undissolved. This pulp remains soft and fluid, when all things else in Nature are consolidated by frost for which reason it is greedily taken up by crows and other fowls when no other sustenance is to be had, so that it is often found by man in the actual circumstance of having fallen from above, having its parts scattered and dispersed by the fall, according to the law of falling bodies. This has given rise to the name and vulgar opinion concerning it." Stat. Acc. of Scotl., xix., 351. Atites. The Etites, or Eagle Stone, was regarded as a charm of singular use to parturient women. Lemnius says: "It makes women that are slippery able to conceive, being bound to the wrist of the left arm, by which from the heart towards the Ring Finger, next to the little Finger, an artery runs and if all the time the woman is great with child, this jewel be worn on those parts, it strengthens the child, and there is no fear of abortior or miscarrying."-Occult Miracles of Nature, 1658. p. 270. Lemnius tells us elsewhere, that "the jewel called Etites, found in an eagle's nest, that has rings with little stones within it, being applied to the thigh of one that is in labour, makes a speedy and easy delivery; which thing I have found true by experiment." Lupton speaks of Etites, called the Eagle's stone, tyed to the left arm or side; it brings this benefit to women with child, that they shall not be delivered before their time besides that, it brings love between the man and the wife: and if a woman have a painfull travail in the birth of her child, this stone tyed to her thigh, brings an easy and light birth." Else where he says: "Let the woman that travels with her child, (is in labour) be girded with the skin that a serpent or snake casts off, and then she will quickly be delivered." Agatha's Letters, St.-Bishop Pilkington observes: "They be superstitious that put holiness in S. Agathes Letters for burning houses, thorne bushes for lightnings." Burnynge of Paules Church in 1561, 88, 1563, I. 8 and G. i. Afternoon Music.In Brooke's "Epithalamium," inserted in England's Helicon, 1614, we read: "Now whiles slow Howres doe feed the Times delay, Confus'd Discourse, with Musicke mixt among, Fills up the Semy-circle of the Day." The Agnes Day or Eve, St.-(Jan. 21.) St. Agnes was a Roman virgin and martyr, who suffered in the tenth persecution under the Emperor Diocletian, A.D. 306. In the office for St. Agnes' Day in the "Missale ad usum Sarum," 1554, this passage occurs: "Hec est Virgo sapiens Dominus vigilantem invenit,' quam Gospel is the parable of the Virgins. The "Portiforium ad usum Sarum" declares that Agnes was the daughter of immaculate parents, Cujus mater Virgo est, cujus pater fæminam nescit, and that she was so deeply versed in magic, that it was said that Christ was her spouse. The festival of St. Agnes was not observed with much rigour in Germany in the time of Naogeorgus; but he describes the celebration at Rome on this anniversary as very solemn. It was customary to offer two lambs in remembrance of the legend at the high altar; these were taken by the priest and kept till shearing time, when their fleeces were used for palls. The same practice was noticed by Jephson the traveller in Italy in 1794. The life of this Saint was written by L. Sherling (i.e.. Daniel Pratt), in prose and verse, and printed in 1677. On the eve of her day many kinds of divination are practised by virgins to discover their future husbands. It is called fasting St. Agnes' Fast. The following lines of Ben Jonson allude to this: "And on sweet St. Agnes' night Please you with the promis'd sight, Some of husbands, some of lovers, Which an empty dream discovers." She was condemned to be debauched in the public stews before her execution; but her virginity was miraculously preserved by lightning and thunder from Heaven. About eight days after her execution, her parents going to lament and pray at her tomb, they saw a vision of angels, among whom was their daughter, and a lamb standing by her as white as snow, on which account it is that in every graphic representation of her there is a lamb pictured by her side. Burton, in his "Anatomy," also speaks of this sort of divination, and Aubrey, in his "Miscellanies," directs that "Upon St. Agnes' Night you take a row of pins, and pull out every one, one after another, saying a Pater Noster, sticking a pin in your sleeve, and you will dream of him or her you shall marry." This anniversary is known in connection with the celebrated poem by Keats. In the bishopric of Durham, the country people have the following address in use: "Fair St. Agnes, play thy part, I have observed that in Cornwall, where Agues.-Aubrey furnishes an infallible receipt for the cure of an ague: Write this following spell in parchment, and wear it about your neck. It must be writ triangularly: ABRACADABRA ABRACADA ABRACAD ABRACA ABRAC ABRA ABR Ав With this the writer affirms that one at Ashmole was a judicial astrologer, and the Aldate, St.-Hearne, in his Diary, informs us that this personage was a bishop of Gloucester, living in the time of Hengist, whom he slew; and a part of Oxford is still named after him. But his existence is questionable. Diary, 1869, ii., 285. Ale. Ale, or eale, A.-S. (a form not yet obsolete) seems to be considered as significant in the present connection of nothing, more or less, than a merry-making. "That ALE is festival appears from its sense in composition," says Warton; as amongst others, in the words Leet-ale, Lamb-ale, Whitsun-ale, Clerk-ale, and Church-ale. Leet-ale, in some parts of England, signifies the dinner at a court-leet of a manor for the jury and customary tenants. Lambale is still used at the village of Kirtlington in Oxfordshire, for an annual feast or celebrity at lamb-shearing. Clerk-ale occurs in Aubrey's History of Wiltshire,' printed in 1847. Church-ale was a feast celebrated for the repair of the church, or in honour of the church saint. In Dodsworth's Manuscripts, there is an old indenture, made before the Reformation, which not only shews the design of the Churchale, but explains this particular use and application of the word ale. But Mr. Astle had a curious record about 1575, which proves the Bride-ale synonymous with the Weddyn-ale.* Among Bishop Tanner's MSS. additions to Cowel's Law Glossary,' in the Bodleian Library, is the following note from his own collec have house and my daur [? daywere] land to keep or doe a yevall on St. James's day, to which yevall I bind it (the land) whosoever have it without end." Giveales differ also materially from Scotales in their having been blended with notions of a superstitious tendency; for the bequest was often to the light or altar of a saint, with directions to sing masses at the obit, trental, or anniversary of the testator's death. Lands were settled for the perpetual payment of the legacies thus appropriated. The parish of St. John, Thanet. is possessed of 15 acres acquired by a legacy bequeathed for a giveale by Ethelred Banen in 1513, who willed that "such a yearle yeovale should be maintayned while the world endureth." It was evident that tions: A.D. 1468. Prior Cant. et Com- come and pay as before rehearsed." These missarii visitationem fecerunt (Diocesi different contributions were mostly, in a Cant. vacante per mortem archipiscopi) et greater or less degree, compulsory. But ibi publicatum erat, quod potationes factæ the giveales were the legacies of individuals in ecclesiis, vulgariter dictæ Yelealys, vel and differed from the Scotales in that they Bredealys, non essent ulterius in usu sub were entirely gratuitous; though some pœna excommunicationis majoris.'". For might be in addition to a common giveale Scot-ales, give-ales, leet-ales, bride-ales, before established in the parish. The hisclerk-ales, &c., see Archæol," vol. xii. p. tory of Kent gives many instances in the 11-77. In the MSS. Papers of Aubrey, parishes of Hoo, Snodland, Cowling, Waunder date of 1678, it is said that "in the teringbury, and others, e.g., : "St. Easter Holidays, was the Clerk's ale for his Mary's, Hoo, Test. Will Hammond, 'Also private benefit and the solace of the neigh- I will that specially my feoffees and exors. bourhood." "Antiquarian Repertory." see that the Yeovale of St. James's be kept No. 26. Mr. Denne, in his "Account of for ever, as it hath bin here aforetime."" stone figures carved on the porch of Chalk Hoo, Alhallows, Test. John Devell. AllChurch, ("Archæol." vol. xii. p. 12,) soe I will that the geavalle of Alhalows in says: "the Clerks' ale was the method Hoo have one acre of land after my wife's taken by the Clerks of parishes to collect decease to maintain it withall, called more readily their dues." In the Church Pilchland, and that it be done after Times about twenty years ago, appeared the custom of olde time.' At Cowthe following account of the matter by ling, Test. Tho. Love and Tho. Tomys. Mr. Pope, which may be considered worth" I will that my wife Joane shall preservation:-" We read of Scotales and give-ales, appellations thought to be used synonymously; but their meanings are distinct. Scotales, as the word imports, were maintained by contribution of those resorting to them. Thus the tenants of South Malling in Essex, which belonged to the Archibishop of Canterbury, were at keeping of a court to entertain the lord or his bailiff with a feast, or an ale, and the stated quotas toward the charge were, that a man should pay 34d. for himself and his wife, and a widow 14d. In Terring, Sussex, it was the custom to make up a Scotale of sixteen pence halfpenny, and allow out of each sixpence three halfpence to find drink for the bailiff. There were also feasts in which the prefix Scot omitted, and instead thereof, leet-ale, bride - ale, clerk - ale, and Church - ale, To the first contributed all the sidents the second was defrayed by the relatives of the happy pair, who were too poor to buy a wedding dinner. The Clerk's-ale was at Easter, and was the method taken to enable clerks of parishes to collect the more readily their due. (Aubrey's Hist., Wilts). From an old indenture, before the Reformation, is seen the design for a church-ale. "The parishioners of Elveston and Okebrook (Derbyshire) agree jointly to brew four ales, and every ale of one quarter of malt betwixt this and the feast of St. John the Baptist next coming. That every inhabitant of Okebrook be there. That every husband and his wife shall pay twopence, and every cottager one penny, and all profits and advantages shall be and remain to the use of the church of Elveston. And the inhabitants of Elveston shall brew eight ales betwixt this and the said feast of St. John, at which feasts or ales the inhabitants of Okebrook shall was re a man in high glee over "a stoup of strong liquor was not an unusual sight within the precincts of a church. At St. Mary's, Chalk, near Gravesend, William May, in his will, 1512, gave, inter alia, To every godchild he had in Kent 6 bushels of barley; if 4 of them could bear him to the church 6d. each: his executors to buy 2 new torches for his burial, 2d. each to men to bear them. That his wife make every year for his soull an obit in bread 6 bushels of wheat, in drink 10 bushels of malt, in cheese 20d., to give poor people for the health of his soull. His wife to continue the obit before rehearsed for evermore, These give-ales on obsequies, as on dedications, allowed great freedom in sports, dissolute dances in churches and churchyards, and this is particularly instanced in the churchyard of St. Mary, Chalk. "The porch has a grotesque carving in the portrait of a jester grasping a jug, while his principal is exercising his talents as a posture maker, and two other faces appear on whom the sculptor seems to have bestowed such an indelible smirk, that in spite of |