'a request or challenge to drink a glass of Buz. This term signifies a challenge to a person to pour out all the wine in the bottle into his glass, the challenger undertaking to drink it, should it prove more than the glass would hold. It is also a term commonly said to one who hesitates to empty a bottle that is nearly out. We are told of it as being a college expression; intimating a threat, in the way of pleasantry, to black the person's face with a burnt cork, should he flinch or fail to empty the bottle. Possibly it may have been derived from the German "buzzen," sordes auferre, q. d. "Off with the Lees From off this brier pluck a white rose with me, Warburton says, "This is given as the original of the two badges of the house of York and Lancaster, whether truly or not is no great matter. But the proverbial expression of saying a thing under the Rose, I am persuaded, came from thence. When the nation had ranged itself into two great factions, under the white and red rose, and were perpetually plotting and counter-plotting against one another, then when a matter of faction was communi cated by either party to his friend in the same quarrel, it was natural for him to meaning that, as it concerned the faction, add, that he said it under the Rose; it was religiously to be kept secret. Upon Warburton's supposition, Mr. Upton, another of Shakspeare's commentators, says: "This is ingenious! What pity that it is not learned too! The rose (as the fables say) was the symbol of silence, and consecrated by Cupid to Harpocrates, to conceal the lewd pranks of his mother. So common a book as Lloyd's Dictionary might have instructed Dr. Warburton in this: Huic Harpocrati Cupido Veneris filius parentis suæ rosam dedit in munus, ut scilicet si quid licentius dictum, vel actum sit in convivio, sciant tacenda esse omnia. Atque idcirco veteres ad finem convivii sub rosa, Anglicè under the rose, transacta esse omnia ante digressum contestabantur; There is sufficient respecting this fes- cujus formæ vis eadem esset, atque ista tival in the Every-Day Book. at bottom."* December 26.-Day breaks sets Twilight ends. December 27. ST. JOHN. h. m. 6 0 8 7 3 53 6 If the reader have a dread of poisoning, and faith in preservatives, the Every-Day Book, on St. John's Day will supply a recipe for marvellous wine-manchets. Brand. Μισῶμνάμονα συμπόταν. Probant hanc Harpocrati matris dona dicavit amor. Newton, in his "Herball to the Bible," 1587, says: 66 I will heere adde a common countrey custome that is used to be done with the Rose. When pleasaunt and merry companions doe friendly meete together to make goode cheere, as soone as their feast or banket is ended, they give faithfull promise mutually one to another, that whosoever hath been merrily spoken by any in that assembly, should be wrapped up in silence, and not to be carried out of the doores. For the assurance and performance whereof, the tearme which they use, is, that all things there saide must be taken as spoken under the rose. Whereupon they use in their parlors and dining rooms to hang roses over their tables, to put the companie in memorie of secrecie, and not rashly or indiscreetly to clatter and blab out what they heare-protesting that all was spoken under the Rose." Peacham in 66 The Truth of our Times, 1638," mentions this saying, and the convenient practice "in many places, as well in England as in the Low Countries," of painting a rose. He deduces the origin of the saying from the authority cited by Upton in his stricture on Warburton * Aeromancy, or divining by the air. Hydromancy, by water. Theomancy, pretending to divine by the revelation of the Spirit, and by the Scriptures, or Word of God. Dæmonomancy, by the suggestions of evil dæmons, or devils. Idolomancy, by idols, images, figures. Psychomancy, by men's souls, affections, wills, religious or moral dispositions. Antinopomancy, by the entrails of men, women, and children. Theriomancy, by beasts. * Brand. Alphitomancy, by meal, flour, or bran. Crithomancy, by grain or corn. Alectromancy, by cocks and hens. Gyromancy, by rounds or circles. Lampadomancy, by candles and lamps. Nagomancy, or Necromancy, by inspecting, consulting, and divining by, with, or from the dead. In Holiday's "Marriage of the Arts" is introduced a species of divination not in the above ample list of them, intitled Anthropomancie. A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine, for March, 1731, introduces " a person surprising a lady and her company in close cabal over their coffee; the rest very intent upon one, who, by her dress and intelligence, he guessed was a tirewoman to which she added the secret of divining by coffee-grounds; she was then in full inspiration, and with much solemnity observing the atoms round the cup on one hand sat a widow, on the other a maiden lady, both attentive to the predictions to be given of their future fate. The lady (his acquaintance), though married, was no less earnest in contemplating her cup, than the other two. They assured him that every cast of the cup a picture of all one's life to come; and every transaction and circumstance is delineated with the exactest certainty." is The same practice is noticed in the Connoisseur, No. 56, where a girl is engaged in divining of what rank her husband shall be. She says, "I have seen him several times in coffee-grounds, with a sword by his side; and he was once at the bottom of a tea cup, in a coach and six, with two footmen behind it." In the life of Harvey, the famous conjurer of Dublin, 8vo, 1728, we read of "Immersion of wooden bowls in water, sinking incharmed and inchanted amulets under water, or burying them under a stone in a grave in a church-yard." Among love divinations may be reckoned the dumb cake, so called because it was to be made without speaking, and afterwards the parties were to go backwards up the stairs to bed, and put the cake under their pillows, when they were to dream of their lovers. There is a prodigious variy of these divinations, alphabetically enumerated and explained, in "Foricii Bibliographia Antiquaria." See also Potter's Grecian Antiquities. John of Salisbury enumerates no fewer than thirteen different kinds of diviners, or fortune tellers, who (in his time) pretended to foretel future events, some by one means, and some by another. CHIROMANCY-DIVINATION BY PAL MISTRY. According to Indagine's "Book of Palmestry and Physiognomy, translated by Fabian Withers," 8vo. 1656, the lines in the palm of the hand are distinguished by formal names, such as the table line, or line of fortune, the line of life or of the heart, the middle natural line, the line of the liver or stomach, &c. &c. &c., the triangle, the quadrangle. The thumb too, and fingers, have their "hills" given them, from the tops of which manual diviners pretended they had a prospect of futurity. The little finger they call the ear finger, because it was commonly used by our ancestors to make clean the ears; a practice which does no great honor to their delicacy. Gaule, in his "Mag-astro-mancer posed and puzzled," tells us, tha the lines spreading at the bottom joint of the thumb signify contentions; the line above the middle of the thumb, if it meet round about, portends a hanging destiny; many lines transverse upon the last joint of the fore-finger denote riches by inheritance; right lines there, a jovial nature; lines in the points of the middle finger (like a gridiron) a melancholy wit, and unhappy; if the sign on the little finger be conspicuous, they denote a good wit and eloquent, but the contrary, if obscure. Equal lines upon the first joint of the ring-finger are made of a happy wit. Cornelius Agrippa, in his Vanity of Sciences, says that chiromancy "fancies seven mountains in the palm of a man's hand, according to the number of the seven planets; and, by the lines which are there to be seen, judges of the complexion, condition, and fortune of the person; imagining the harmonious disposition of the lines to be, as it were, certain celestial characters stampt upon us by God and nature." Agrippa gives a catalogue of great names of such authors as have written on this science falsely so called, but observes that "none of them have been able to make any further progress than conjecture, and observation of experience. Now that there is no certainty in these conjectures and observations is manifest from thence, because they are figments grounded upon the will; and about which the masters thereof of equal learning and authority do very much differ." Dr. Ferrand, in his Love's Melancholy, 1640, tells us that "no man professeth publickely this cheating art, but theeves, rogues, and beggarly rascals; which are now every where knowne by the name of It may be well to observe the date of Bohemians, Egyptians, and Caramaras." this reprobation of fortune-telling by the hand. We have still fortune-tellers of this class. MINSTER CHURCH, ISLE OF THANET, KENT. Minster, about two miles distant from Ramsgate, derives importance from its celebrated abbey for veiled virgins, founded by Domneva queen of the Mercians in 670. Remains of this edifice still exist; and bear the name of Minster court. This is the mansion-house of the manor of Minster. The north front has a fine Gothic doorway, with its arch and ornaments entire. The church is considered the most ancient in Thanet. It is a very fine structure: the chancel and transept are of pure Gothic architecture; the nave is Saxon. The chancel is lighted by several lancet windows, and has eighteen collegiate stalls in good preservation. At the west end is a handsome tower and leaded steeple, with a clock and five bells. On the top of the spire was formerly a globe, and upon that a wooden cross covered with lead, over which was a vane, and above that an iron cross ; until about 1647, Richard Culmer, commonly called "Blue Dick, fixed ladders, before day, by moonlight, and hired two men of the parish to go up and demolish the ball and crosses as "monuments of idolatry." Dr. Meric Casaubon became vicar of this parish in 1634, and held the vicarage until it was sequestered by the parliament in 1644, when Richard Culmer was appointed in his stead. Ebbs Fleet, in this parish, seems to have been the usual landing-place from the sea upon the isle of Thanet. At this spot the two Saxon chiefs, Hengist and Horsa, landed with their forces in 385, when, according to Gildas "they first fixed their terrible claws on the eastern part of the isle of Great Britain, as if they were about to fight for the country, but in reality to lay siege to it and destroy it." Here, in 596, Austin, called the apostle of the English, landed. Here, likewise, landed from France, St. Mildred the second abbess of Minster. "Chieftain, quit the joyous feast! And the chieftain arın'd, and the horn was blown, "Prince! thy father's deeds are told, In the bower and in the hold! Give our bards a tale of thee!" And the prince came arm'd, like a leader's son, "Mother! stay thou not thy boy! Britain calls the strong in heart!" And the bended bow and the voice pass'd on, MRS. HEMANS. |