A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine (vol. li.) states that "it is a general practice of people of all ranks in the Roman Catholic countries to dress in their very best cloaths on Maundy Thursday. The churches are unusually adorned, and every body performs what is called the Stations; which is, to visit several churches, saying a short prayer in each, and giving alms to the numerous beggars who attend upon the occasion."

Another writer in the same miscellany for July 1783 tells us that

my Lord's aige to come, after ii yerdis dim. in every shert, ande after the yerde.

"Item, my Lorde useth ande accustomyth yerly uppon the said Mawndy Thursday, when his Lordship is at home, to gyf yerly as manny tren platers after ob. the pece, with a cast of brede and a certen meat in it, to as manny poure men as his Lordship is yeres of aige, and one for the yere of my Lordís aige to come.

"Item, my Lorde used and accustomyth yerly, uppon the said Maundy Thursday, when his Lordship is at home, to gyf yerely as many eshen cuppis, after ob. the pece, with wyne in them, to as many poure men as his Lordeship is yeres of aige, and one for the yere of my Lordis aige to come.

"Item, my Lorde useth and accustomyth yerly uppon the said Mawndy Thursday, when his Lordshipe is at home, to gyf yerly as manny pursses of lether, after ob. the pece, with as many pennys in every purse, to as many poore men as his Lordship is yeres of aige, and one for the yere of my Lord's aige to come.

"Item, my Lorde useth ande accustomyth yerly, uppon Mawndy Thursday, to cause to be bought iii yerdis and iii quarters of brode violett cloth, for a gowne for his Lordshipe to doo service in, or for them that schall doo service in his Lordshypes absence, after iiis. viiid. the yerde, and to be furrede with blake lamb, contenynge ii keippe and a half, after xxx skynnes in a kepe, and after vis. iiid. the kepe, and after iid, ob. the skynne, and after lxxv skynnys for furringe of the said gowne, which gowne my Lord werith all the tyme his Lordship doith service; and after his Lordship hath done service at his said Maundy, doith gyf to the pourest man that he fyndyth, as he thynkyth, emongs them all the said gowne.

"Item, my Lorde useth and accustomyth yerly, upon the said Mawnday Thursday, to caus to be delyvered to one of my Lordis chaplayns, for my Lady, if she be at my Lordis fyndynge, and not at hur owen, to comaunde hym to gyf for her as many groits to as many poure men as hir Ladyship is yeres of aige, and one for the yere of hir age to come, owte of my Lordis coffueres, if sche be not at hir owen fyndynge.

"Item, my Lorde useth and accustomyth yerly, uppon the said Maundy Thursday, to caus to be delyvered to one of my Lordis chaplayns, for my Lordis eldest sone the Lord Percy, for hym to comaunde to gyf for hym as manny pens of ii pens to as many poure men as his Lordship is yeeres of aige, and one for the yere of his Lordshipis age to come.

"Item, my Lorde useth and accustomyth yerly, uppon Mawndy Thursday, to caus to be delyverit to one of my Lordis chaplayns, for every of my yonge maisters, my Lordis yonger sonnes, to gyf for every of them as manny penns to as manny poore men as every of my said maisters is yeres of aige, and for the yere to come."

Among the ancient annual Church Disbursements of St Mary at Hill, in the City of London, I find the following entry: "Water on Maundy Thursday and Ester Eve, Id."

"the inhabitants of Paris, on Thursday in Passion Week, go regularly to the Bois de Boulogne, and parade there all the evening with their equipages. There used to be the Penitential Psalms, or Tenebres, sung in a chapel in the wood on that day, by the most excellent voices, which drew together great numbers of the best company from Paris, who still continued to resort thither, though no longer for the purposes of religion and mortification (if one may judge from appearances) but of ostentation and pride. A similar cavalcade I have also seen, on a like occasion, at Naples, the religious origin of which will probably soon cease to be remembered."

GOOD FRIDAY.

OSPINIAN tells us that the Kings of England had a custom, on wearers of which will not be afflicted with the falling-sickness. He adds that the custom took its rise from a ring which had been long preserved, with great veneration, in Westminster Abbey, and was supposed to have great efficacy against the cramp and falling-sickness, when touched by those who were afflicted with either of those dis orders.

This ring is reported to have been brought to King Edward by some persons coming from Jerusalem, and to have been the ring he himself had long before given privately to a poor person, who had asked alms of him for the love he bare to St John the Evangelist.

Andrew Boorde, in his Breviary of Health (1557), speaking of the cramp, adopts the following superstition among the remedies thereof: "The Kynge's Majestie hath a great helpe in this matter in halowyng Crampe Ringes, and so geven without money or petition."

Lord Berners, the Translator of Froissart, when ambassador to the Emperor Charles V., writing "to my Lorde Cardinall's grace, from Saragoza, the xxi daie of June" 1518, says: "If yo g'ce rememb'r me wt some Crampe Ryngs, ye shall doo a thing muche looked for; and I trust to bestowe thaym well wt Godd's g'ce, who eu'mor p's've and encrease yo moost reu'ent astate." Harl. MS. 295, fol. 119 b.

The ceremony of "creepinge to the Crosse" on Good Friday is given, from an ancient book of the Ceremonial of the Kings of England, in the Notes to the Northumberland Household Book. The Usher was to lay a carpet for the "Kinge to creepe to the Crosse upon." The queen and her ladies were also to creepe to the CROSSE. In a proclamation, dated 26th February, 30 Henry VIII. we read: “On Good Friday it shall be declared howe creepyng of the Crosse signifyeth an humblynge of ourselfe to Christe, before the Crosse, and the kyssynge of it a memorie of our redemption, made upon the Crosse."

* See also Bonner's Injunctions, A.D. 1555. In A short Description of

"To holde forth the Crosse for Egges on Good Friday" occurs among the Roman Catholic customs censured by john Bale in his Declaration of Bonner's Articles (1554); "to creape to the Crosse on Good Friday featly."

It is stated in a curious sermon preached at Blanford Forum, in Dorsetshire, January 17, 1570, by William Kethe, minister, and dedicated to Ambrose Earl of Warwick, that on Good Friday the Roman Catholics " offered unto Christe Egges and Bacon to be in hys favour till Easter Day was past ;" from which we may at least gather with certainty that Eggs and Bacon, composed a usual dish on that day.

In Whimzies (1631) we have this trait of "a zealous brother: " "He is an Antipos to all Church-government when she feasts he fasts; when she fasts he feasts: Good Friday is his Shrove Tuesday : he commends this notable carnall caveat to his family-eate flesh upon dayes prohibited, it is good against Popery."

In the List of Church Plate, Vestments, &c., in the Churchwardens' Accounts of St Mary at Hill, 10 Henry VI., occurs "also an olde Vestment of red silke lyned with zelow for Good Friday."

The following is the account of Good Friday in Googe's version of Naogeorgus

"Two Priestes, the next day following, upon their shoulders beare The Image of the Crucifix, about the Altar neare,

Being clad in coape of crimozen die, and dolefully they sing:

At length before the steps, his coate pluckt of, they straight him bring,
And upon Turkey carpettes lay him down full tenderly,

With cushions underneath his heade, and pillows heaped hie;
Then flat upon the grounde they fall, and kisse both hand and feete,
And worship so this woodden God, with honour farre unmeete;
Then all the shaven sort falles downe, and foloweth them herein,
As workemen chiefe of wickednesse, they first of all begin :
And after them the simple soules, the common people come,
And worship him with divers giftes, as golde, and silver some,
And others corne or egges againe, to poulshorne persons sweete,
And eke a long-desired price, for wicked worship meete.
How are the Idoles worshipped, if this religion here

Be Catholike, and like the spowes of Christ accounted dere?
Besides, with Images the more their pleasure here to take,

And Christ, that every where doth raigne, a laughing-stock to make,
An other Image doe they get, like one but newly deade,

With legges stretcht out at length, and handes upon his body spreade;
And him, with pompe and sacred song, they beare unto his grave,
His body all being wrapt in lawne, and silkes and sarcenet brave;
The boyes before with clappers go, and filthie noyses make;
The Sexten beares the light: the people hereof knowledge take,
And downe they kneele, or kisse the grounde their hands held up abrod,
And knocking on their breastes, they make this woodden blocke a God:

Antichrist, the author notes the Popish custom of "creepinge to the Crosse with egges and apples." "Dispelinge with a white rodde" immediately follows.

And, least in grave he should remaine without some companie,
The singing bread is layde with him, for more idolatrie.

The Priest the Image worships first, as falleth to his turne,

And franckencense, and sweet perfumes, before the breade doth burne;
With tapers all the people come, and at the barriars stay,

Where downe upon their knees they fall, and night and day they pray
And violets, and every kinde of flowres, about the grave

They straw, and bring in all their giftes, and presents that they have :
The singing men their dirges chaunt, as if some guiltie soule
Were buried there, that thus they may the people better poule."

GOOD FRIDAY CROSS BUNS.

Hutchinson, in his History of Northumberland, following Bryant's Analysis, derives the Good Friday bun from the sacred cakes which were offered at the Arkite Temples, styled boun, and presented every seventh day.

Bryant has also the following passage on this subject: "The offerings which people in ancient times used to present to the Gods, were generally purchased at the entrance of the Temple; especially every species of consecrated bread, which was denominated accordingly. One species of sacred bread which used to be offered to the Gods was of great antiquity, and called Boun. The Greeks, who changed the Nu final into a Sigma, expressed it in the nominative Bous, but in the accusative more truly Boun, Bouv." Hesychius speaks of the Boun, and describes it a kind of cake with a representation of two horns. Julius Pollux mentions it after the same manner, a sort of Cake with horns. Diogenes Laertius, speaking of the same offering being made by Empedocles, describes the chief ingredients of which it was composed: "He offered one of the sacred Liba, called a Bouse, which was made of fine flour and honey." It is said of Cecrops that he first offered up this sort of sweet bread. Hence we may judge of the antiquity of the custom, from the times to which Cecrops is referred. The prophet Jeremiah takes notice of this kind of offering, when he is speaking of the Jewish women at Pathros, in Egypt, and of their base idolatry; in all which their husbands had encouraged them. The women, in their expostulation upon his rebuke, tell him: "Did we make her cakes to worship her?" Jer. xliv. 18, 19; vii. 18. "Small loaves of bread," Mr Hutchinson observes, "peculiar in their form, being long and sharp at both ends, are called Buns." These he derives as above, and concludes: "We only retain the name and form of the Boun, the sacred uses are no more."

These buns are constantly marked with the form of the cross. Indeed the country-people in the North of England make, with a knife, many little cross-marks on their cakes before they put them into the oven. Thus also persons who cannot write, instead of signing their names, are directed to make their marks, which is generally done in the form of a cross. From the form of a cross at the beginning of a hornbook, the alphabet is called the Christ-Cross Row. The cross used in shop-books Butler seems to derive from the same origin

"And some against all idolizing

The cross in shop-books, or baptizing."

The round O of a milk-score was also marked with a cross for a shilling, though unnoted by Lluellin (1679) in the following passage

your

Flecknoe, in his Ænigmatical Characters (1665), speaking of " fanatick reformers," says: "Had they their will, a bird should not fly in the air with its wings across, a ship with its cross-yard sail upon the sea, nor prophane taylor sit cross-legged on his shop-board, or have cross-bottoms to winde his thread upon." This whimsical detestation of the cross-form no doubt took its rise from the odium at that time against everything derived from Popery.

In The Canterburian's Self-Conviction (1640), "anent their superstitions," is this passage: "They avow that signing with the signe of the Crosse at rysing or lying downe, at going out or coming in, at lighting of candles, closing of windowes, or any such action, is not only a pious and profitable ceremonie, but a very apostolick tradition."

Pennant, in his Welsh MS., says: "At the delivery of the bread and wine at the Sacrament, several, before they receive the bread or cup, though held out to them, will flourish a little with their thumb, something like making the figure of the Cross. They do it (the women mostly) when they say their prayers on their first coming to church."

Dalrymple, in his Travels in Spain, says that there not a woman gets into a coach to go a hundred yards, nor a postillion on his horse, without crossing themselves. Even the tops of tavern-bills and the directions of letters are marked with Crosses."

Among the Irish, when a woman milks her cow, she dips her finger into the milk, with which she crosses the beast, and piously ejaculates a prayer, saying, "Mary and our Lord preserve thee, until I come to thee again."

A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine for July 1783, speaking of CROSS BUNS, Saffron Cakes, or Symnels,* in Passion Week, observes that "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.”

Winckelman records that at Herculaneum were found two entire loaves of the same size, a palm and a half, or five inches in diameter, marked with a cross, within which were four other lines.

Hutchinson (Hist. of Northumb.) has the following: “Semeslins. We have a kind of cake, mixed with fruit, called Semeslins. The Romans prepared sweet bread for their feasts held at seed time, when they invoked the Gods for a prosperous year. In Lancashire they are called Semens. We have the old French word still in use in Heraldry, Semee, descriptive of being sown or scattered."