tained by the Britons, under the command of a famous general, known vulgarly by the name of St David. The Britons wore a Leek in their hats to distinguish their friends from their enemies in the heat of the battle."

"Tradition's tale

Recounting, tells how fam'd Menevia's Priest
Marshall'd his Britons, and the Saxon host
Discomfited; how the green Leek his bands
Distinguish'd, since by Britons annual worn,
Commemorates their tutelary Saint."

CAMBRIA, a poem, by RICH. HOLT (1759).

Misson says, speaking of the Welsh: "On the day of St David, their Patron, they formerly gained a victory over the English, and in the battle every man distinguish'd himself by wearing a Leek in his hat; and, ever since, they never fail to wear a Leek on that day. The King himself is so complaisant as to bear them company."

In the Royal Apophthegms of King James (1658) we find the following in the first page: "The Welchmen, in commemoration of the Great Fight by the Black Prince of Wales, do wear LEEKS as their chosen ensign :" and the Episcopal Almanack for 1677 states that St David, who was of royal extraction, and uncle to King Arthur, "died, aged a hundred and forty-six years, on the first of March, still celebrated by the Welsh, perchance to perpetuate the memory of his abstinence, whose contented mind made many a favourite meal on such roots of the earth."*

The commemoration of the British victory, however, appears to afford the best solution of wearing the leek.

In The Bishop's Last Good-night (1642), the fourteenth stanza runs thus

"Landaff, provide for St David's Day,

Lest the Leeke and Red-herring run away :
Are you resolved to go or stay?

You are called for, Landaff,
Come in, Landaff."

Ray has the following proverb

"Upon St David's Day, put oats and barley in the clay."

But

In Shakespeare's King Henry V., Gower asks Fluellen, why wear you your Leek to-day? Saint Davy's Day is past." From Fluellen's reply we gather that he wore his leek in consequence of an affront he had received but the day before from Pistol, whom he afterwards compels to eat the leek, skin and all, in revenge for the insult; quaintly observing to him, "When you take occasions to see Leeks hereafter, I pray you, mock at them, that is all." Gower too upbraids

In The Flowers of the Lives of the most renowned Saincts of England, Scotland, and Ireland (Douay, 1632), is this passage: "Their ordinary diet was so farre from all delights, that only bread, herbes, and pure water, were the chiefest dainties which quenched their hunger and thirst.'

Pistol for mocking “at an ancient tradition-begun upon an honourable respect, and worn as a memorable trophy of predeceased valour.” In The Flowers of the Lives of the most renowned Saincts, quoted before, we read of St David that "he died 1st March, about A.D. 550, which day, not only in Wales, but all England over, is most famous in memorie of him. But in these our unhappy daies, the greatest part of his solemnitie consisteth in wearing of a greene Leeke, and it is a sufficient theame for a zealous Welchman to ground a quarrell against him that doth not honour his capp with the like ornament that day.” Ursula is introduced in the old play of The Vow-breaker, or, The Fayre Maid of Clifton (1636), as telling Anne, "Thou marry German! His head's like a Welchman's crest on St Davie's Day! He looks like a hoary frost in December! Now, Venus blesse me! rather ly by a statue."

I'de

Owen, in his Cambrian Biography (1803), says: "In consequence of the Romances of the Middle Ages which created the Seven Champions of Christendom, St David has been dignified with the title of the Patron Saint of Wales: but this rank, however, is hardly known among the people of the Principality, being a title diffused among them from England in modern times. The writer of this account never heard of such a Patron Saint, nor of the Leek as his symbol, until he became acquainted therewith in London." He adds: "The wearing of the Leek on St David's Day probably originated from the custom of Cymhortha, or the neighbourly aid practised among farmers, which is of various kinds. In some districts of South Wales, all the neighbours of a small farmer without means, appoint a day when they all attend to plough his land, and the like; and at such a time it is a custom for each individual to bring his portion of Leeks, to be used in making pottage for the whole company: and they bring nothing else but the Leeks in particular for the occasion."

The reader is left to reconcile this passage with all that has been already said upon the day; but it has been conjectured, on the presumption that the Druids were a branch of the Phoenician priesthood, that leeks were a Druidic symbol employed in honour of the British Ceudven or Ceres. The leek was worshipped at Ascalon, even as in Egypt. Leeks and onions were deposited in the sacred chests of the mysteries both of Isis and Ceres, the Ceudven of the Druids; and leeks are among the Egyptian hieroglyphics. These accordances have been pronounced to be worthy of an ancient Briton's consideration.

THE

ST PATRICK'S DAY.

17th March.

HE shamrock is said to be worn by the Irish, upon the anniversary of this saint, for the following reason: When the saint preached the gospel to the pagan Irish, he illustrated the doctrine of the Trinity by showing them a trefoil, or three-leaved grass with one stalk, which operating to their conviction, the shamrock, which is a

bundle of this grass, was ever afterwards worn upon the saint's anniversary, to commemorate the event.*

Jones, in a note in his Historical Account of the Welsh Bards (1794), tells us that "St Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland, is said to be the son of Calphurnius and Concha. He was born in the Vale of Rhôs, in Pembrokeshire, about the year 373." (Jones, however, gives another pedigree of this saint, and makes him of Caernarvonshire.) He adds: "His original Welsh name was Maenwyn, and his ecclesiastical name of Patricius was given him by Pope Celestine, when he consecrated him a Bishop, and sent him missioner into Ireland to convert the Irish, in 432. When St Patrick landed near Wicklow, the inhabitants were ready to stone him for attempting an innovation in the religion of their ancestors. He requested to be heard, and explained unto them that God is an omnipotent, sacred spirit, who created heaven and earth, and that the Trinity is contained in the Unity but they were reluctant to give credit to his words. Patrick, therefore, plucked a trefoil from the ground, and expostulated with the Hibernians, 'Is it not as possible for the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as for these three leaves, to grow upon a single stalk?' Then the Irish were immediately convinced of their error, and were solemnly baptized by St Patrick."

St

In Overbury's Characters, describing a footman, he says: "'Tis impossible to draw his picture to the life, cause a man must take it as he's running; only this, horses are usually let bloud on St Steven's Day on St Patrick's he takes rest, and is drencht for all the yeare after."

IN

MID-LENT SUNDAY.

MOTHERING.

́N former days it was the custom for people to visit their MotherChurch on Mid-Lent Sunday, and to make their offerings at the high altar.

Cowel, in his Law Dictionary, observes that the now remaining practice of Mothering, or going to visit parents upon Mid-Lent Sunday, is really owing to that good old custom. Nay, it seems to be called Mothering from the respect so paid to the Mother-Church, when the The following passage is in Wither's Abuses stript and whipt (1613)— "And, for my cloathing, in a mantle goe,

64

And feed on Sham-roots, as the Irish doe."

'Seamroy, clover, trefoil, worn by Irishmen in their hats, by way of a cross, on St Patrick's Day, in memory of that great saint." Irish-English Dictionary, in verbo.

66

The British Druids and Bards had an extraordinary veneration for the number three. "The Mistletoe," says Vallancey, in his Grammar of the Irish Language, was sacred to the Druids, because not only its berries, but its leaves also, grow in clusters of three united to one stock. The Christian Irish held the Seamroy sacred in like manner, because of three leaves united to one stalk."

Epistle for the day was, with some allusion, Gal. iv. 21, "Jerusalem Mater omnium;" which Epistle for Mid-Lent Sunday we still retain, though we have forgotten the occasion of it.

The fourth Sunday in Lent, says Wheatley on the Common Prayer, is generally called Mid-Lent, "though Bishop Sparrow, and some others, term it Dominica Refectionis, the Sunday of Refreshment: the reason of which, I suppose, is the Gospel for the day, which treats of our Saviour's miraculously feeding five thousand; or else, perhaps, from the first lesson in the morning, which gives us the story of Joseph's entertaining his brethren." He is of opinion that "the appointment of these Scriptures upon this day might probably give the first rise to a custom still retained in many parts of England, and well known by the name of Mid-lenting or Mothering."

In Kelham's Dictionary of the Norman, or old French language, Mid-Lent Sunday, Dominica Refectionis, is called nieula.”

The following is in Herrick

TO DIANEME.

A Ceremonie in Glocester.

"I'll to thee a Simnell bring,
'Gainst thou go'st a mothering;
So that, when she blesseth thee,

Half that blessing thou'lt give me."

Pasques Char

In the Gentleman's Magazine for February 1784, Nichols, writing in the character of a Nottinghamshire correspondent, tells us that whilst he was an apprentice, the custom was to visit his mother (who was a native of Nottinghamshire) on Mid-Lent Sunday (thence called Mothering Sunday) for a regale of excellent furmety.*

Another writer in the same volume tells us: "I happened to reside last year near Chepstow, in Monmouthshire; and there, for the first time, heard of Mothering Sunday. My inquiries into the origin and meaning of it were fruitless: but the practice thereabouts was for all servants and apprentices, on Mid-Lent Sunday, to visit their parents,

Furmety is derived from frumentum, wheat. It is made of what is called in a certain town in Yorkshire, "kneed wheat," or whole grains first boiled plump and soft, and then put into and boiled in milk, sweetened and spiced. In Ray's North Country Words, "to cree wheat or barley, is to boil it soft." A correspondent in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1783, says: "Some things customary probably refer simply to the idea of feasting or mortification, according to the season and occasion. Of these, perhaps, are Lamb's Wool on Christmas Eve, Furmety on Mothering Sunday, Braggot (which is a mixture of ale, sugar, and spices) at the Festival of Easter, and Cross-buns, Saffroncakes, or Symnels, in Passion week, though these being, formerly at least, unleavened, may have a retrospect to the unleavened bread of the Jews, in the same manner as Lamb at Easter to the Paschal Lamb."

Macaulay, in his History and Antiquities of Claybrook, Leicestershire (1791), says: "Nor must I omit to observe that by many of the parishioners due respect is paid to Mothering Sunday."

and mthem out of their houses. Why we have sne nice eatable; and they abear, unless it was because they are a pul

In a at this season of the year. They are of King Edward I. in his eightecis day. Our popish ancestors celiid-Lent Sunday

the funeral of our Lord on this

usages, of which this only, inny.

andus tells us that on

Query-Whether af rememberitre substitutes for furmenty, or carlings, which are eaten at present in the North of England on the following Sunday, commonly called Passion Sunday, but, by the vulgar in those parts, Carling Sunday.

There was a singular rite in Franconia, on the Sunday called Lætare, or Mid-Lent Sunday. This was called the Expulsion of Death. It is thus described: In the middle of Lent the youth make an image of straw in the form of Death, as it is usually depicted. This they suspend on a pole, and carry about with acclamations to the neighbouring villages. Some receive this pageant kindly, and, after refreshing those that bring it with milk, peas, and dried pears, the usual diet of the season, send it home again. Others, thinking it a presage of something bad, or ominous of speedy death, forcibly drive it away from their respective districts.

OF CARLINGS.*

At Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and many other places in the North of England, grey peas, after having been steeped all night in water, are fried with butter, given away, and eaten at a kind of entertainment on the Sunday preceding Palm Sunday, which was formerly called Care, or Carle Sunday, as may be yet seen in some of our old almanacs. They are called Carlings, probably, as we call the presents at fairs, Fairings.

Marshal, in his Observations on the Saxon Gospels, elucidates the old name (Care) of this Sunday in Lent. He tells us that the Friday on which Christ was crucified is called in German, both Gute Freytag and Carr Fryetag; that the word Karr signifies a satisfaction for a fine or penalty; and that Care, or Carr Sunday, was not unknown to the English in his time, at least to such as lived among old people in the country.t

* In Randal Holme's Academy of Armory and Blazon (1688), Book III. cap. 3, occurs the following

"Carle Sunday is the second Sunday before Easter, or the fifth Sunday from Shrove Tuesday."

In the Glossary to The Lancashire Dialect (1755), carlings are thus explained: CARLINGS-Peas boiled on Care Sunday are so called; i.e., the Sunday before Palm Sunday."

So in the popular old Scottish song, "Fy! let us all to the Briddell ".

"Ther'll be all the lads and the lasses

Set down in the midst of the ha,

With Sybows, and Rifarts, and Carlings,

That are both sodden and ra."

Sybows are onions, and Rifarts are radishes.

↑ In Yorkshire the rustics were wont to go to the public-house of the village