feaden roof were so decayed that presentments were made at the ordinary sessions that the whole building was a dangerous edifice, and a common nuisance; in consequence whereof it was again repaired, but not yet removed; the humour of the court was not yet ripe totally to erase that ancient monument of Popish adoration; many people still came secretly in the night to pay their devotions to the Blessed Virgin; but many more in the day most grossly abused her. On the 24th of December, 1600, a thorough reparation was completed; the whole cross, by order of court, was beautified, and nothing remained to be done but to remove the scaffolding, when very unexpectedly the image of the Blessed Virgin that had been again restored, was most shamefully defaced; the crown with which she was dignified was plucked from her head, her naked infant torn from her bosom; and a dagger was left sticking in her breast as an indelible mark of the rancour with which the man was possest, who in the zeal of bigotry, could thus tent his barbarity on a lifeless image. From this time till the year 1643, it seems to have undergone no considerable alteration; but when the Rebellion broke out, and men's minds began to be agitated with religious passions, this Cross became again the object of enthusiastical resentment. The short note which gave rise to this inquiry, and which is the only relation that I can find of the final demolition of this celebrated structure, is in these words: "The 2 of May, 1643, the crosse in Cheapeside was pulled downe, a troope of horse and two companies of foote wayted to garde it, and at the fall of the tope crosse dromes beat, trumpets blew, and multitudes of capes wayre throwne in the ayre, and a greate shoute of people with ioy. The 2 of May the Almanacke sayeth was the invention of the crosse. And 6 day at night was the leaden Popes burnt, in the place where it stood, with ringing of bells, and a greate acclamation, and no hurt done in all these actions.' Should any of your numerous correspondents be furnished with a more ample account of this memorable event, it would be an acceptable present to the public to communicate it through the channel of your Magazine. 1764, Suppl. I am, Sir, yours, D. Y. LVIII. The Phrase, a Month's mind to do a thing, illustrated. MR. URBAN, I DARE say you have frequently heard it said by those who have a great desire to have or to do something, that they have a month's mind to it, and it is probable that neither you nor any of your readers can account for the expression. I am not sure that I can do it perfectly myself, but I have something to communicate on the subject, that will perhaps afford entertainment, if not instruction. The following is an extract from the will of Thomas Windsor, Esq. which was dated in the year 1479: "Item, I will that I have brennyng, at my burying and funeral service, four tapers, and twenty-two torches of wax, every taper to conteyn the weight of ten pounds, and every torch sixteen pounds, which I will that twenty-four poor men, and well disposed, shall hold, as well at the tyme of my burying, as at my monethe's minde." "Item, I will, that after my monethe's minde done, the said four tapers be delivered to the church-wardens, &c." "And that there be 100 children within the age of 16 years to be at my monethe's minde, to pray for my soul.-That against my monethe's minde, the candles bren before the rude in the parish church." "Also, that at my monethe's minde, my executors provide 20 priests to sing placebo, dirige, &c." The Monethe's minde mentioned in this extract, was a service performed for the dead, one month after their decease; there were also Week's minds, and Year's minds, which were services for the dead performed at the end of a week and of a year. The word mind signified remembrance, a month's remembrance, after a month's mind, was a remembrance after a month, a year's mind, a remembrance after a year. The phrase month's mind survived the custom, of which it was the name, and the words being still remembered as coupled, when their original meaning was almost forgotten, it is, I think, easy to conceive that a person who had a strong desire to a thing, might instead of saying I have a mind to it, say I have a month's mind to it, as meaning something more. Yours, &c. 1765, Suppl. LIX. On the custom of adorning Churches with Evergreens. Har-b-rh, Dec. 12, 1765. MR. URBAN, IN the Palladium for 1765, was propounded by Mr. J. Lyon, of Margate, this query, "From whence is derived the custom of putting up laurel, box, holly, or ivy, in churches at Christmas; and what is the signification thereof?" And in the Palladium for 1766, we are told, that it was answered by Nobody. Having employed some thoughts on that subject, I should be glad (by means of your Magazine) to offer to the consideration of the curious the following conjecture. It seems very probable that the origin or first hint of the ancient custom of dressing our churches and houses at Christmas with evergreens, was owing to, or taken from certain expressions in the following prophecies of the coming of our Saviour: "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto a David a righteous branch*: For behold, I will bring forth my servant the brancht: Thus speaketh the Lord of Hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is the branch, and he shall grow up out of his place‡: At that time will I cause the branch of righteousness to grow up unto David. Thus saith the Lord God, I will also take of the highest branch of the high cedar, and will set it; I will crop off from the top of his young twigs, a tender one, and will plant it upon an high mountain, and eminent. In the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it; and it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedars In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious. For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground**; and the Lord shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth even for evertt. There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots‡‡, which * Jeremiah xxiii. 5. Jeremiah xxxiii. 15. ** Isaiah liii. 2. Zechariah iii. 8. tt Micah iv, 7. Zechariah vi. 12, Isaiah xi. 1. shall stand for an ensign of the people *; and my servant David shall be their prince for evert." For it must be allowed, that those passages and expressions in which our Saviour is represented under the type of a branch, a righteous branch, a bough, the branch of righte ousness, who will reign for ever, &c. in the above-mentioned clear and eminent prophecies, of his first appearance in the flesh, upon earth, are, in a most lively manner, brought to our memories, and strongly alluded to by those branches and boughs of evergreens, &c. with which our churches and houses are adorned, whose gay appearance and perpetual verdure in that dead season of the year, when all nature looks comfortless, dark and dreary, and when the rest of the vegetable world have lost their honours, does agreeably charm the unwearied beholder, and make a very suitable appendage to the universal joy which always attends the annual commemoration of that holy festival. It is not at all unlikely, but that this custom was farther intended as an allusion to those passages of the Prophet Isaiah, which foretell the felicities attending the coming of Christ, viz. "The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the firtree, the pine-tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary, (Isaiah Ix. 13.) Instead of the thorn, shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle-tree: and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off."‡ I am, Sir, &c. GOTHIC. P.S. I have met with another opinion concerning the ori gin of this ancient custom, which you have below, in the anonymous author's own words: "William of Malmsbury, in his book of Antiquities of Glastonbury, assures us, that Frecuphus affirms, in the fourth chapter of his second book, that Philip the Apostle, preaching the word of God in Gaul, which is now called France, chose out twelve of his disciples, whom he sent to Briton, to preach the word of life. He appointed over these as chief, Joseph of Arimathea, his dear friend, who buried our Lord, These, according to John Capgrave, who brings Milkin * Isaiah xi. 10. +Ezekiel xxxvii, 25. ‡ Isaiah lv. 13. and Marlin for vouchers, came into this land in the year of Christ's incarnation 36, in the time of Arviragus, who gave to them the isle of Avalon, where they built an oratory of wrythen wands, or boughs, which was the first christian church, if one may so call it, which was erected in Britain. We find this custom was followed in the first times, in building the christian churches in Britain, of boughs; and I am apt to think that the custom of adorning our churches at Christmas, as well as our houses with evergreens, proceeds from what has been related." 1765, Suppl. LX. Account of several British Antiquities, found near Chateris, in the Isle of Ely, in a letter from the late Dr. Stukeley to Mr. Peter Collinson, F.R.S, THE isle of Ely extends from Cotenham, Cambridgeshire, for forty miles in length, to the old river, called Nine, running eastward to Wisbech river, which divides it from Lincolnshire, therefore called Shire-drain. The isle is, for the most part, a vast fenny level, divided into many islets of high ground; some of gravelly soil, some of chalk; separated from one another, as well as from the continent, (if so we may express it) by impassable boggy ground, rivers, and large meres. These islands of firm ground, are well inhabited, have towns and fair churches, woods, pastures, and fresh springs, so that each, in summer time, is as a paradise detached from the rest of the busy world, The fenny parts were originally, for the main, drier, and better ground, than now. I have largely discussed this affair, in cap. iv. of my Medallic History of Carausius, Book II. on account of an artificial canal called Carsdike, which that emperor drew across it, to carry corn boats to the Scottish Pretenturæ, and of the many roads he made there. Before Roman times, we may be well assured the most ancient Britons, when they advanced so far northward as the isle of Ely, from the southern coasts of their first landing, would greedily seize upon these islets of high ground, so fortified with rivers and fens; and erect petty sovereignties there, in a soil so rich, and so secure; for each may be reckoned as a British oppidum according to Cæsar's |