September 9.

September 9, 1759, died, at the age of eighty-six, Thomas Bradbury, an eminent dissenting minister, whose meeting-house, in New-street, Shoe-lane, was lawlessly He destroyed by Sacheverel's mob. preached many years in New-court, Carey-street, Lincoln's Inn-fields, where he was succeeded by Mr. Winter, whose brother married one of Mr. Bradbury's daughters. Mr. Bradbury was a man of superior abilities, and real piety with out bigotry. Mr. Granger saw a friendly letter from archbishop Wake to him, part of a correspondence between the metropolitan and this patriarch of the dissenters, which was creditable to their respective views of each other. The principles of the revolution, which called the house of Hanover to the throne, were warmly espoused, and firmly maintained, by Mr. Bradbury, both privately and in public. He was of a merry disposition; a social, pleasant companion, more famed for mirth than harangues, and had a good ear for music, with a fine strong voice. He was supposed to sing "The Roast beef of old England" better than any other man. "Such," says the Rev. Mr. Noble, "was brave old Tom Bradbury, a good preacher, and a facetious companion. It is not the cheerful man that disturbs the state, nor often the rich; but the sour, disappointed, needy man. Bradbury was happy in his temper, rich in the gifts of fortune, and possessed the esteem of a wide circle of friends. A perfect toleration would be an act of prudence as well as humanity; and, while the establishment is not invaded, it will always be advan tageous; for

Conscience is a thing, we know,
Like to a mastiff dog,

Which, if tied up, so fierce will grow,
He'll bite his very clog."

says,

usages were formerly more general all over England than they are at present, being become by time, necessity, or avarice, complex, confined, and altered. They are commonly insisted upon by the reapers as customary things, and a part of their due for their toils of harvest, and complied with by their masters, perhaps more through regard of interest than inclination. For, should they refuse them the pleasures of this much-expected time, this festal night, the youth especially, of both sexes, would decline serving him for the future, and employ their labors for others, who would promise them the rustic joys of the harvest supper, mirth, and music, dance, and song." He has other observations to the following effect. These feasts appear to be the relics of Pagan or Jewish ceremonies, and carry in them more meaning, and are of higher antiquity than is generally apprehended. We hear in different counties, and often in the same county, of mel-supper, churn-supper, harvest supper, harvest home, feast of ingathering. &c. The antiquity of the custom appears from Exod. xxiii.16. "The feast of harvest, the first fruits of thy labors, which thou hast sown in the field." The Jews celebrated the feast of harvest, by precept; and, prior to this, Gen. vi. 3, "Cain brought of the fruit of the ground, ard offering to the Lord."

Yet the offering of the first-fruits, it may well be supposed, was not peculiar to the Jews. Calimachus affirms that these primitæ were sent by the people of every nation to the temple of Apollo, in Delos, and by the Hyperboreans in articular, the most distant that enjoy the happiness of corn and harvest. Hero

dotus also mentions this annual custom of the Hyperboreans, remarking, that those of Delos talk of "Holy things tied up in a sheaf of wheat, conveyed from the Hyperboreans." The Jews, by command of their law, offered also a sheaf, Lev. xxiii. 10, "And shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf, the first fruits of your harvest, unto the priest.' may be looked upon as equivalent to a proof; for, as the offering and the feast appear to have been always and intimately connected, in countries affording records, so it is more than probable they were connected too in countries which had none, or none that survived to our times.

This

There seems great reason to conclude, that this feast, which was once sacred to Apollo, was constantly maintained, when

a far less valuable circumstance, i. e. Shouting the churn, is observed to this day by the reapers, and from so old an æra; for we read of this acclamation, [Isa. xvi. 9,]" For the shouting for thy summer fruits, and for thy harvest is fallen." And again, verse 10, "And in the vineyards there shall be no singing, neither shall there be shouting." Hence then, or from some of the Phoenician colonies, is our traditionary "shouting the churn." Bread or cakes composed part of the Hebrew offering, [Levit. xxiii. 13,] and a cake thrown upon the head of the victim was part of a Greek offering to Apollo, whose worship was formerly celebrated in Britain, where the May-pole yet continues one remain of it. This they adorned with garlands on May-day, to welcome the approach of Apollo, or the sun, towards the north, and to signify that the flowers were the product of his presence and influence. But, upon the progress of christianity, Apollo lost his divinity, and the adoration of his deity subsided. Yet so permanent is custom, that this rite of the harvest-supper, together with that of the May-pole, have been preserved in Britain; and what had been anciently offered to the god, the reapers prudently eat up themselves. At last, the use of the meal of new corn was neglected, and the supper, so far as meal was concerned, was made indifferently of old or new corn, as most agreeable to the founder.

The usage itself accounts for the name of mel-supper. Mel signifies meal, and the instrument also called with us a mell, wherewith corn was anciently reduced to meal, in a mortar. Provisions of meal or of corn in furmity, &c., composed by far the greatest part of these old country entertainments, perfectly conformably to the simplicity of early times and persons. And as the harvest was concluded with preparation of meal, ready for the mell, this came to mean the last of all things; as, when a horse comes last in a race, they often say in the north “he has got the mell."

The other names of this country festivity sufficiently explain themselves, except churn-supper. This is entirely different from the mel-supper; but they generally happen so near together that they are frequently confounded.

The

thurn-supper was always provided when all was shorn, but the mel-supper after all was got in. It was called the churn supper because, from immemorial times, it was

customary to produce in a churn a great quantity of cream, and to circulate it by dishfuls to each of the rustic company, who ate it with bread. Though this custom has been disused in many places, or is agreeably commuted for by ale, yet it survives still about Whitby and Scarborough, in the east, and round about Guisburn, &c., in Craven, in the west. But, perhaps a century or two more will put an end to it, and both the things and name shall die. Vicarious ale is now more approved, and the tankard almost every where politely preferred to the churn.

Churn, in our provincial pronunciation kern, is the Hebrew kern or kerin, from its being circular, like most horns; and it is the Latin corona, named so either from its radii, resembling horns, as on some very ancient coins, or from its encircling the head; so a ring of people is called corona. Also the Celtic koren, keren, corn, which continues according to its old pronunciation in Cornwall, &c., and our modern word horn is no more than this; the ancient hard sound of k in corn being softened into the aspirate h, as has been done in numberless instances. The Irish Celtæ also call a round stone clough crene when the variation is merely dialectic. Hence, too, our crane berries, i. e. round berries, from the Celtic adjective crene, round.

These particulars are derived, as before stated, from a dissertation by Eugene Aram, who, after an ingenious defence, was clearly convicted of a murder he had committed sixteen years before his trial, and suffered death for the crime.

"LARGESS."

[For the Year Book.]

It is, or lately was, a custom in Hert fordshire, for the men employed in getting in the corn, to meet in companies on the morning next after the "Harvest-home," for the purpose of perambulating the neighbourhood of their work, to "beg a fow-largess," as they term it. Each party is headed by a "lord o' th' harvest," who is generally spokesman for the rest. They solicit from all persons respectably attired, whom they may happen to meet; but they are more urgent in their requests at the dwellings of persons to whom their masters or themselves have been customers during the past year. In most instances" largess" is very liberally bestowed, both in money and ʼn kind; and

The sounds of rustic rejoicing, at the close of harvest, fall pleasantly upon the ear, and are affecting to the feelings of a kind-hearted traveller: he knows that pleasure prevails among the toil-worn laborers of a good-natured farmer.

Here, once a year, distinction lowers its crest,
The master, servant, and the merry guest,
Are equal all; and round the happy ring
The reaper's eyes exulting glances fling;
And, warmed with gratitude, he quits his
place,

With sun-burnt hands, and ale-enlivened face,
Refills the jug his honored host to tend,

To serve at once the master and the friend; Proud thus to meet his smiles, to share his tale,

His rats, his conversation, and his ale.

Bloomfield.

In some parts of Suffolk and Essex, after the Harvest-home feast, there still

remains the old custom of "Hallooing Largess." At the beginning of the reaping a leader is appointed. He is generally the best of the reapers, and called the Jord; and, when the labor of the harvest is over, he and the husbandmen are borne home upon the last load of grain. Their wives and children, and immediate friends, follow in procession, carrying the implements used during the harvest, with green boughs, a sheaf of wheat, and, perhaps, a flag or two made of handkerchiefs, and such other rude demonstrations of rejoicing as fancy may suggest, or convenience offer. With light hearts and smiling faces, and cheerful shouts, they proceed merrily along to the farmer's house, where a good substantial supper is provided for them, and to which are generally invited the neighbouring farmers. This is called the "Horkey," or Harvesthome. There

-first the fuelled chimney blazes wide; The tankards foam; and the strong table

"

Upon the breaking up of the "Horkey," the husbandmen of the farm assembie upon some near eminence, or conspicuous place, and lustily call out Holla, holla, holla,-Largess." The "Holla they repeat quick, reserving all their strength for the word "Largess," and on this word they dwell till their voice is exhausted. On a clear still night the shout of "largess" may be heard at a great distance, and the lengthened sound is very peculiar and pleasing. They repeat the shout as often as they have received merriment, which the "brown October" "largess," and then, with some parting often makes obstreporous, they close an evening, the anticipation of which had cheered the old, and delighted the young, throughout the toils of harvest.

Bloomfield has very pleasantly introduced the custom by a poem called the of "Wild flowers," from which the above "Horkey-night," in his beautiful garland refer readers fond of nature," though in two verses are extracted, and to which I simple guise." The custom is fast sinking; it only lingers among a few fariners who are old fashioned enough to bestow their the welkin ring with the shout of gratiLargess" freely, and who love to hear

66

tude.

[For the Year Book.] Above is a copy of a Farthing in my possession, inscribed on one side, "THIS FARTHING MADE FOR," on the other side, "CHERTSEY IN SURREY, 1668." As the inscription implies, it was once a current coin of the town: it is now very scarce.

Around the third bell of Chertsey church is the following inscription, in

ORA

"

monkish characters about an inch and a half high, "* PIA MENTE PRO NOBIS VIRGO * This bell MARIA was brought to the church of Chertsey from the monastery, which was established there in the year 666 upon the conversion of the Saxons from Paganism. Subsequently, that building was destroyed, and a new edifice erected by king Edgar, King Henry VI. was buried at Chertsey monastery, which in the reign of Henry VIII. finally underwent the fate of the religious houses.

Shakspeare frequently mentions Chertsey in Richard III. Thus, at the close of the scene with the lady Anne, he makes Richard say

Repair to Crosby place, Where-after I have solemnly interr'd, Athertsey monast'ry, this noble king, And wet his grave with my repentant tearsI will with all expedient duty see you.

Cowley, the poet, lived at Chertsey, in the Perch-house, the residence of the late chamberlain of London, Richard Clark, esq., who materially improved the estate. In the vicinity of the town is St. Ann's hill, on which was anciently a cell of worship attached to the monastery; near its site is the picturesque residence formerly the seat of the late right hon. Charles James Fox.

FARTHINGS.

A. R. SMITH.

A farthing is the fourth part of a penny. The Anglo-Saxon penny is known to have been as early as 688, and was perhaps earlier: it was of silver. The cross is said to have been deeply impressed upon it, that it might be divided into the half

ling, or halfpenny, and the fourth-ling, or fourth of a penny, now called farthing. There is a passage in Whitaker's Richmond, which shows that coins were halved and quartered, as the dollar is at this time in remote settlements of the United States in America.

In 1444, 23 Henry VI., a petition was presented to the House of Commons, stating, that for default of half-pence and farthings, men "travailling over Contrees, for part of their expences of necessitee, must depart our Soveraigne Lorde's coigne, that is to wete, a Peny in two peces, or elles forgo all the same Peny for the paiement of an Half-Peny." †

Henry I. first ordered half-pence and farthings to be made round. Before that time they had been made square.

duchess of Richmond, the monopoly of James I. granted by patent, to Frances, coining farthings for seventeen years. §

Queen Anne's Farthings.

It prevails, as a vulgar error, that a Queen Anne's Farthing is of immense value. Her farthing is scarce, but not valuable, unless in fine preservation. The only farthing issued in her reign bears her head, inscribed ANNA DEI GRATIA, and on the reverse BRITANNIA 1714. In

the finest condition it is not worth more than twenty shillings, or, with the broad rim, thirty shillings. There were patterns for farthings of her reign, which were not issued, one with Britannia under a portal, and another with Peace in a car, are rare, and valued at forty shillings. The rarest pattern is inscribed on the reverse BELLO ET PACE 1713. The field in the centre is sunk, the rims indented, to prevent casting in sand, and it has all the improvements so much boasted of as being the invention of Boulton in his last coinage of copper. ||

Fosbroke's Ency. of Antiquities.

+ Antiq. Repertory. Andrew's Hist. G. Britain.

Rymer. Fosbroke.