And in "Rustica Nundina," 1730:

"Ad sua quisque redit; festivis Daphnen Amyntas Exonerat Xeniis, dandoque astringit Amores."

When these institutions were more general and more important, considerable sums were laid out by wealthier persons in this way. The first Earl of Bristol, in his Diary, 1735-6-8, notes sums of £6 15s. Od., £3 12s. Od., and £7 7s. Od., bestowed on members of his family for the purchase of fairings at Bury St. Edmunds. But of course, the more usual, and at least equally interesting and characteristic, home-bringings were of a humbler description, like that mentioned in the old song:

"O dear! what can the matter be? Johnny's so long at the fair:

He promis'd to buy me a bunch of blue ribbons

To tie up my bonnie brown hair." Fairy Rings.-The haunts of fairies were thought to have been groves, mountains, the southern sides of hills, and verdant meadows, where their diversion was dancing hand in hand in a circle, as alluded to by Shakespear in his "Midsummer Night's Dream." The traces of their tiny feet are supposed to remain visible on the grass long afterward, and are called fairy-rings or circles. spear's words are:

Shake

-Pastorals (Roxb. Lib. ed. i., 66). "They had fine musicke always among themselves," says an author already cited, 'and danced in a moon-shiny night, around, or in a ring, as one may see at this day upon every common in England where mushroomes grow." Round about our Coal Fire, p. 41. The author of "Mons Catherine" has not forgotten to notice these ringlets in his poem:

"Sive illic Lemurum populus sub nocte choreas

Plauserit exiguas, viridesque attriverit herbas."

wind."

See

They are also mentioned in George Smith's "Pastorals," 1770, p. 24. Olaus Magnus, "De Gentibus Sep"Similes illis tentrionalibus," writes: spectris, quæ in multis locis, præsertim nocturno tempore, suum saltatorium Orbem cum omnium Musarum concentu versare solent.' It appears that these dancers always parched up made the office of Puck to refresh it. the grass, and therefore it is properly Steevens's Note on Reed's edit. of Shakespear, 1803, vol. iv. p. 343. The most clear and earlier writers on the origin of fairy satisfactory remarks by rings are probably those of Dr. Wollaston, made during a few years' residence in the country. The cause of their appearance he ascribes to the growth of certain species of agaric, which so entirely absorb all nutriment from the soil beneath that the herbage is for a while destroyed. Mr. Herbert Spencer, following in the same track, shews that fairy rings are nothing more than the seeds shed by a particular kind of fungus, which, as Wollaston had previously observed, impoverishes the ground in which it grows to such an extent as to prevent the procreation of a new root in the second year. Thus the old fungus sheds its seed in a circular form, round it. But the same sort of process is and perishes, leaving only the ring formed observable of other species of vegetation, and in particular of the iris, which exhausts the soil in which it immediately grows, and throws out new roots beyond

in search of fresh nourishment. A learned German, Baron von Reichenbach, reducing this superstition to that level of scientific commonplace which has already degraded the nightmare into indigestion, and the dwarf into convulsions, is inclined to recognise in these fancied fairy-rings or dances nothing more than "the operation of the phenomenon termed 'the odylic light' emitted from magnetic substances." But it seems proper to mention that in the British Apollo," 1710, a physical cause was suspected, the rings being there assigned to the direct agency of lightning. In support of this hypothesis the reader may consult Priestley's "Present State

of Electricity." See also No. cxvii. P;

391, of the "Philosophical Transactions," where it is stated that Mr. Walker, walking abroad after a storm of thunder and lightning, observed a round circle of about four or five yards diameter, whose rim was about a foot broad, newly burnt bare, as appeared from the colour and brittleness of the grass roots. See "Gent. Mag." for Dec. 1790. But in fact, Brand himself says: Some ascribe the phænomenon of the circle or ring, supposed by the vulgar to be traced by the fairies in their dances, to the effects of lightning, as being frequently produced after storms of that kind, and by the colour and brittleness of the grass-roots when first observed. The "Athenian Oracle," mentions a popular belief that "if a house be built upon the ground where fairy rings are, whoever shall inhabit therein does wonderfully prosper."

Fairy Sparks, &c.-Certain luminous appearances, often seen on clothes in the night, are called in Kent fairy sparks or shell-fire, as Ray informs us in his "East and South Country Words." I was (says Brand) told by Mr. Pennant, that there is a substance found at great depths in crevices of lime-stone rocks, in sinking for lead ore, near Holywell, in Flintshire, which is called Menyn Tylna Teg, or fairies' butter. So also in Northumberland the common people call a certain fungous excrescence, sometimes found about the roots of old trees, fairy butter. After great rains, and in a certain degree of putrefaction, it is reduced to a consistency which, together with its colour, makes it not unlike butter, and hence the name.

Faith's, St., Day.-(October 6). See Love Charms.

Falling Stars.-See Aërolites.
Falstaff,

Death-Omens.

Shakespear's. See

Faring. This is mentioned as a popular game at cards, or dice, or both,

in the "English Courtier and the Countrey Gentleman," 1586.

Faro. Sometimes called Pharaoh. See Davis, Suppl. Glossary, 1881, p. 488. Fast and Loose. This game, played with a skewer and a leathern belt or girdle placed in folds edgewise on a table, is also known as Pricking at the Belt. A description of it by Sir John Hawkins occurs in a note to Davenport's City Night-Cap in Hazlitt's edition of Dodsley. It was a game at which vagrants (so-called gypsies) cheated common people out of their money. Comp. Nares, 1859, in v.

Fast-E'en Tuesday. See Shrove

Tuesday.

Faustus or Faust. See my National Tales and Legends, 1892, for the earliest attempt to place this story on its true footing.

Favours. In the "Defence of Conny-Catching," 1592, Signat, C 3, verso, is the following passage: Is there not heere resident about London, a crew of terryble hacksters in the habite of gentlemen wel appareled, and yet some weare bootes for want of stockings, with a locke worne at theyr lefte eare for their mistrisse favour." The subsequent is taken from Lodge's "Wit's Miserie," 1596, p. 47: "When he rides, you shall know him by his fan: and, if he walke abroad, and misse his mistres favour about his neck, arme, or thigh, he hangs the head like the soldier in the field that is disarmed." In Marston's "Dutch Courtezan," a pair of lovers are introduced plighting their troth as follows:

"Enter Freeville. Pages with torches. Enter Beatrice above." After some very impassioned conversation, Beatrice says: "I give you faith; and prethee, since, poore soule! I am so easie to beleeve thee, make it much more pitty to deceive me. Weare this slight favour in my remembrance" (throweth down a ring to him). "Freev. Which, when I part from, Hope, the best of life, ever part from me!

-Graceful mistresse, our nuptiall day holds.

"Beatrice. With happy Constancye a wished day."

Of gentlemen's presents on similar occasions, a lady, in Beaumont and Fletcher's F., 11, 390, says: Cupid's Revenge," 1615, Dyce's B. and

distributed in great abundance formerly, even at the marriages of persons of the first distinction. They were worn at the hat, (the gentlemens', I suppose), and consisted of ribbons of various colours. If I mistake not, white ribbons are the only ones used at present.

"What posies for our wedding-rings, What gloves we'll give, and ribbanings."

-Herrick.

Bride favours appear to have been worn by the peasantry of France on similar occasions on the arm. Favours are still assumed on a variety of occasions. Faw. See Gypsies.

Fawkes, Guy.—(Nov. 5). The ignorant processions of boys, who carry about the effigy of the unfortunate Yorkshire gentleman, sing the following verses, which are, perhaps, scarcely worth insertion on any other ground than the gradual evanescence of all our old vulgar usages: Remember, remember The fifth of November,

Gunpowder treason and plot :
I see no reason,
Why gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes Guy,

Hit him in the eye, etc.

The late Mr. Robert Davies, the scholarly Town Clerk of York, devoted a pamphlet to the family history of the Fawkes's of York, small 8vo., 1850. Good and sensible Bishop Sanderson exclaims: "God grant that we nor ours ever live to see November the fifth forgotten or the solemnity of it silenced." The figures of the Pope and the Devil were formerly burnt on this occasion. There is an account of the remarkable cavalcade on the evening of this day in the year 1679, at the time the Exclusion Bill was in agitation. The Pope, it should seem, was carried in a pageant representing a chair of state covered with scarlet, richly embroidered and fringed; and at his back, not an effigy, but a person representing the Devil, acting as his holiness's privy-councillor; and frequently caressing, hugging, and whispering him, and oftentimes instructing him aloud." The procession was set forth at Moorgate, and passed first to Aldgate, thence through Leadenhall Street, by the Royal Exchange and Cheapside to Temple Bar. The statue of the Queen on the inner or eastern side of Temple Bar having been conspicuously ornamented, the figure of the Pope was brought before it, when, after a song, partly alluding to the protection afforded by Elizabeth to Protestants, and partly to the existing circumstances of the times, a vast bonfire having been prepared "over

against the Inner Temple Gate, his holiness, after some compliments and reluctances, was decently toppled from all his grandeur into the impartial flames; the crafty Devil leaving his infallibilityship in the lurch, and laughing as heartily at his deserved ignominious end as subtle Jesuits do at the ruin of bigoted lay Catholics, whom themselves have drawn in." This enlightened demonstration was found so attractive, that, in 1680 it was repeated with additions. In 1715, the effigy of the old Pretender was burnt by the people, as well as those of the Pope and the Devil, on this anniversary, and the additional feature in the demonstration does not seem to have been given up, even when the Jacobite cause was finally abandoned. This is one of the grand days with the Societies of the Temple, when an extra bottle of wine is allowed to each mess in hall; it used to be observed as a holiday at some of the public schools and offices. Before the custom declined in popularity everywhere, it was the practice of the boys to dress up an image of Guy Fawkes, holding in one hand a dark lanthorn, and in the other a bundle of matches, and to carry it about the streets begging money in these words, " Pray remember Guy Fawkes!" In the evening there are bon fires, and these frightful figures are burnt in the midst of them. In Poor Robin for 1677 are the following observations: "Now boys with

Squibs and crackers play,
And bonfires' blaze
Turns night to day."

This old usage finds no favour with the High Church party at present so paramount, or with the community at large, and is in fact happily dying out.

Feathers. There is a well-known article of popular belief in some districts, particularly in the eastern counties, that the presence of game-feathers in a feather bed will prolong the agonies of death. There is a curious paper on this subject by Mr. Albert Way, in the fourth volume of "Notes and Queries." 1st series. The same idea is entertained in some parts of Yorkshire with regard to pigeon's feathers, and in Cumberland respecting those of the turkey. The objection to game feathers is widely prevalent, occurring in Derbyshire and in several parts of Wales; and I hardly think that the superstition can be explained on the utilitarian theory propounded by the writer in the "Athenæum,' "that none of these feathers are fit for use. being too hard and sharp in the barrel." It is impossible, according to Grose, for a person to die, while resting on a pillow stuffed with the feathers of a dove; but he will struggle with death in

as an

the most exquisite torture. The pillows of dying persons are therefore taken away, says he, when they appear in great agonies, lest they may have pigeons' feathers in them. A more ridiculous or degrading superstition can scarcely be imagined, and as to the removal of the pillow from under the head of a dying person, it is almost always followed by suffocation. Nurses, when they are not carefully watched, will snatch this support away suddenly, to accelerate the result, and save trouble. The "British Apollo" very properly characterizes this "old woman's story," and adds: "But the scent of pigeon's feathers is so strong, that they are not fit to make beds with, insomuch that the offence of their smell may be said (like other strong smells) to revive any body dying, and if troubled with hysteric fits. But as common practice, by reason of the nauseousness of the smell, has introduced a disuse of pigeons' feathers to make beds, so no experience doth or hath ever given us any example of the reality of the fact." Fernseed. The ancients, who often paid more attention to received opinions than to the evidence of their senses, believed that fern bore no seed (Pliny's "Nat. Hist.," by Holland, lib. xxvii. ch. 9). Our ancestors imagined that this plant produced seed which was invisible. Hence, from an extraordinary mode of reasoning, founded on the fantastic doctrine of signatures, they concluded that they who possessed the secret of wearing this seed about them would become invisible. This superstition Shakespear's good sense taught him to ridicule. It was also supposed to seed in a single night, and is called in Browne's Pastorals, 1614:

"The wond'rous one-night seeding

ferne."

Johnson the Botanist, in his edition of Gerarde, 1633, says: "Fern is one of those plants which have their seed on the back of the leaf, so small as to escape the sight. Those who perceived that fern was propagated by semination, and yet could never see the seed, were much at a loss for a solution of the difficulty; and, as wonder always endeavours to augment itself, they ascribed to fernseed many strange properties, some of which the rustick virgins have not yet forgotten or exploded." In a MS. of the time of Queen Elizabeth there is the following receipt: "Gather fearne-seed on Midsomer Eve betweene 11 and 12 noone and weare it about thee continually." It is said to be also gatherable at night. Fernseed, according to a passage quoted by Grose, was looked upon as having great magical powers, and must be gathered on

Midsummer Eve. A person who once went to gather it reported that the spirits whisked by his ears, and sometimes struck his hat and other parts of his body, and at length, when he thought he had got a good quantity of it, and secured it in papers and a box, when he came home, he found both empty. A respectable countryman at Heston, in Middlesex, informed Brand in June, 1793, that when he was a young man, he was often present at the ceremony of catching the fern-seed at midnight, on the eve of St. John Baptist. The attempt, he said, was often unsuccessful, for the seed was to fall into the plate of its own accord, and that too without shaking the plant. Dr. Rowe, of Launceston, apprised him, October 17th, 1790, of some rites with fern-seed which were still performed at that place. Mr. Couch Midsummer-day, of Bodmin observes: the feast, of the Summer Solstice, is marked only (among the Cornish tinners) by the elevation of a bush or a tall pole, on the highest eminence of the stream work."

"Peraventure

"Demonologia," Torreblanca, in his suspects those persons of witchcraft who gather fern - seed on this night. Lemnius tells us: 'They prepare fern gathered in a tempestuous night, cal'impostures." rue, trifoly, vervain, against magiIn "The Pylgremage of Pure Devotyon, newly translatyd into Englishe," is this passage: they ymagyne the symylytude of a tode to be there, evyn as we suppose when we egel, and evyn as chyldren (whiche they cutte the fearne-stalke there to be an se nat indede) in the clowdes, thynke hylles flammynge with fyre, and armyd they see dragones spyttynge fyre, and men encounterynge." Of course notion about fernseed is perfectly fanciful and equally groundless. Shakespear justly ridicules it in Henry IV., i., 2:

this

Fetch or Fetich. There are, says Grose, the exact figures and resemblances of persons then living, often seen not only by their friends at a distance, but many times by themselves: of which there are several instances in Aubrey's "Miscel lanies." These apparitions are called feiches, and in Cumberland swarths: they most commonly appear to distant friends and relations, at the very instant preceding the death of the person whose figure they put on. Sometimes there is a greater interval between the appearance and death. For a particular relation of the appearance of a fetch-light or deadman's candle, to a gentleman in Carmarthenshire, see the "Athenian Oracle," vol. i. pp. 76, 77, and ibid., vol. iii. p. 150; also, Aubrey's Miscellanies," P. 176; and Baxter's "World of Spirits,' 1691, pp. 131-137.

Field-Ale or Filkdale.-Refreshment furnished in the field or open air to bailiffs of hundreds, and supplied from funds contributed by the inhabitants of the particular hundred. It has long fallen into disuse. Tomlins, Law Dict., 1835, in v.

Field Mice.-The following illustration of the barbarous practice of enclosing field-mice was received by Mr. Brand in a letter, dated May 9, 1806, from Robt. Studley Vidal, Esq., of Cornborough near Bideford, a gentleman to whom he was much indebted for incidental information on the local customs of Devonshire :

"An usage of the superstitious kind has just come under my notice, and which, as the pen is in my hand, I will shortly describe, though I rather think it is not peculiar to these parts. A neighbour of mine, on examining his sheep the other day, found that one of them had entirely lost the use of its hinder parts. On seeing it I expressed an opinion that the animal must have received a blow across the back or some other sort of violence which had injured the spinal marrow, and thus rendered it paralytic: but I was soon given to understand that my remarks only served to prove how little I knew of country affairs, for that the affection of the sheep was nothing uncommon, and that the cause of it was well known,

namely a mouse having crept over its back. I could not but smile at the idea; which my instructor considering as a mark of incredulity, he proceeded very gravely to inform me that I should be convinced of the truth of what he said by the means which he would use to restore the animal; and which were never known to fail. He accordingly dispatched his people here and there in quest of a field mouse; and having procured one, he told me that he should carry it to a particular tree at hollow in the trunk, leave it there to some distance and, inclosing it within a perish. He further informed me that he should bring back some of the branches of the tree with him for the purpose of their sheep's back, and concluded by assuring being drawn now and then across the should soon be convinced of the efficacy of me, with a very scientific look, that I this process, for that, as soon as the poor devoted mouse had yielded up his life a prey to famine, the sheep would be restored to its former strength and vigour. I can, however, state with certainty, that mysterious sacrifice of the mouse. the sheep was not at all benefited by this tree, I find, is of the sort called witchelm or witch-hazel." It is more properly described as the wych elm or hazel. Fifollets or Feux Follets.-See Will o' the Wisp.

The

Fig Sunday.—A popular name for the Sunday before Easter, in allusion to Jesus Christ's alleged desire to eat that fruit on his way from Bethany. Brand says that it is known under this name in Northamptonshire and Hertfordshire. Miss Baker, writing in 1854, says: "It is the universal custom with both rich and poor to eat figs on this day. On the Saturday preceding this day, the market at Northampton is abundantly supplied with figs, and there are more purchased at this time than throughout the rest of the year: even the charity children in some places are regaled with them. Northampt. Gloss., 1854. A correspondent of Hone, in the "Year Book," col. 1593, remarks: "At Kempton in Hertfordshire, five miles from Hertford, it hath long been, and, for aught the writer knoweth, still is a custom for the inhabitants, rich and poor, great and small,' to eat figs on the Sunday before Easter, there termed Fig Sunday.' A dealer in 'groceries, resident at Kempton, affirmed to me from his own lengthy observations, that more figs are sold in the village the few days previous