for a pascall pic. le li. vd. Summa viijs. iiijd. It. payed for one li. of grene flowr to the foreseid pascall, vjd. Ibid. p. 214, 1499,-It. rec. of the gaderyng of the stage-play, xvijs. It. payed for the pascall bason, and the hanging of the same, xviijs. It. payed for making lenger Mr. Smyth's molde, with a Judas for the pascall, vid. It. payed for the pascall and the fonte taper to M. Smyth, iiijs." St. Giles's parish, 1519,-“Paid for making a Judas for the pascall, iiijd."i

Among the ancient annual Disbursements of the Church of St. Mary-at-Hill, I find the following entry against Easter:

"Three great garlands for the crosses, of roses and
lavender

Three dozen other garlands for the quire

The same also occurs in the Churchwardens' Accounts, 1512. Also, among the Church Disbursements, in the WaxChandler's Accompt, "for making the pascal at Ester, 28. 8d. For garnishing 8 torches on Corpus Christi day, 28. 8d." Ibid. 1486, "At Ester, for the howslyn people for the pascal, 118. 5d.”2

[During the last century it was the custom in Dorsetshire on Easter Eve for boys to form a procession bearing rough torches, and a small black flag, chanting the following lines,

"We fasted in the light,

For this is the night."

This custom was no doubt a relic of the Popish ceremonies formerly in vogue at this season.]

"To houl over the pascal" is mentioned among the customs of the Roman Catholics censured by John Bale in his "Declaration of Bonner's Articles," 1554, f. 19.

2 A more particular account of the ceremony of the Holy Sepulchre, as used in this and other countries, will be found in the Vetusta Monumenta of the Society of Antiquaries, in the letter-press of vol. iii. pl. 31, 32.

EASTER DAY.1

[THE day before Easter Day is in some parts called "Holy Saturday." On the evening of this day, in the middle districts of Ireland, great preparations are made for the finishing of Lent. Many a fat hen and dainty piece of bacon is put into the pot, by the cotter's wife, about eight or nine o'clock, and woe be to the person who should taste it befor the cock crows. At twelve is heard the clapping of hand and the joyous laugh, mixed with an Irish phrase whic. signifies out with the Lent:" all is merriment for a few hours, when they retire, and rise about four o'clock to see the sun dance in honour of the Resurrection. This ignorant custom is not confined to the humble labourer and his family, but is scrupulously observed by many highly respectable and wealthy families, different members of whom I have heard assert positively that they had seen the sun dance on Easter morning.]

Sir Thomas Browne, the learned author of the Vulgar Errors, has left us the following quaint thoughts on the subject of sun-dancing: "We shall not, I hope," says he, "disparage the Resurrection of our Redeemer, if we say that the sun doth not dance on Easter Day: and though we would

1 Easter is so called from the Saxon Oster, to rise, being the day of Christ's Resurrection; or as others think, from one of the Saxon goddesses called Easter, whom they always worshipped at this season. Wheatly on the Common Prayer, p. 228. See also Gale's Court of the Gentiles, b. ii. c. 2. Or, perhaps, from the Anglo-Saxon yrr, a storm, the time of Easter being subject to the continual recurrence of tempestuous weather. A Sermo brevis, in the Liber Festivalis, MS. Cotton Ciaud. A. ii. of the time of Henry the Sixth, upon Easter Sunday, begins "Gode men and wommen, os 3e knowe alle welle, this day is called in some place Astur Day, and in some place Pasch Day, and in some place Goddus Sounday. Hit is callde Asturday as Kandulmasse Day of Kandulles, and Palme Sounnday of Palmes, ffor wolnoz in uche place hit is the maner this day for to done fyre oute of the houce at the Astur that hath bene all the wyntur brente wyt fuyre and blakud with smoke, hit schal this day bene arayed with grene rusches and swete floures strowde alle aboute, schewyng a heyghe ensaumpal to alle men and wommen that ryzte os thei machen clene the houce, alle withine bering owte the fyre and strawing thare flowres, ryzte so ze schulde clanson the houce of 30ure sowle."

willingly assent unto any sympathetical exultation, yet we cannot conceive therein any more than a tropical expression. Whether any such motion there was in that day wherein Christ arised, Scripture hath not revealed, which hath been punctual in other records concerning solitary miracles; and the Areopagite that was amazed at the eclipse, took no notice of this; and, if metaphorical expressions go so far, we may be bold to affirm, not only that one sun danced, but two arose that day; that light appeared at his nativity, and darkness at his death, and yet a light at both; for even that darkness was a light unto the Gentiles, illuminated by that obscurity. That was the first time the sun set above the horizon. That, although there were darkness above the earth, yet there was light beneath it, nor dare we say that Hell was dark if he were in it."

In the Country-man's Counsellor, by E. P. Phil. 1633, p. 220, is the following note:-"Likewise it is observed, that if the sunne shine on Easter Day, it shines on Whitsunday likewise." The following is an answer to a query in the Athenian Oracle, ii. 348: “ Why does the sun at his rising play more on Easter day than Whitsunday?—The matter of fact is an old, weak, superstitious error, and the sun neither plays nor works on Easter day more than any other. It's true, it may sometimes happen to shine brighter that morning than any other; but, if it does, 'tis purely accidental. In some parts of England, they call it the lambplaying, which they look for as soon as the sun rises in some clear spring or water, and is nothing but the pretty reflection it makes from the water, which they may find at any time, if the sun rises clear, and they themselves early, and unprejudiced with fancy." In a rare book, entitled Recreation for Ingenious Head Pieces, 1667, I find this popular notion alluded to in an old ballad :

"But Dick, she dances such a way,

No sun upon an Easter day

Is half so fine a sight."

[Sir Walter Scott introduces a similar image applied to the reflection of the moon in the water,

"The stag at eve had drunk his fill,

Where danced the moon on Monan's rill."]

In the British Apollo, 1708, vol. i. No. 40, we read :—

Q." Old wives, Phœbus, say

That on Easter Day

To the musick o' th' spheres you do caper.
If the fact, sir, be true,

Pray let's the cause know,

When you have any room in your Paper.

A. The old wives get merry,

With spic'd ale or sherry,

On Easter, which makes them romance :
And whilst in a rout

Their brains whirl about,

They fancy we caper and dance."

I have heard of, when a boy, and cannot positively say from remembrance, whether I have not seen tried, an ingenious method of making an artificial sun dance on Easter Sunday. A vessel full of water was set out in the open air, in which the reflected sun seemed to dance, from the tremulous motion of the water. This will remind the classical scholar of a beautiful simile in the Loves of Medea and Jason, in the Argonautics of Apollonius Rhodius, where it is aptly applied to the wavering reflections of a lovesick maiden.

"Reflected from the sun's far cooler ray,

As quiv'ring beams from tossing water play
(Pour'd by some maid into her beechen bowl),
And ceaseless vibrate as the swellings roll,
So heav'd the passions," &c.

In Lysons's Environs of London, i. 230, amongst his extracts from the Churchwardens' and Chamberlains' Books at Kingston-upon-Thames, are the following entries concerning some of the ancient doings on Easter Day:

:

5 Hen. VIII. For thred for the Resurrection
For three yerds of Dornek' for a pleyer's coat, and the
makyng

12 Hen. VIII. Paid for a skin of parchment and gun-
powder, for the play on Easter Day

For brede and ale for them that made the stage, and
other things belonging to the play

1 A coarse sort of damask.

£ 8. d.

0 0 1

0 1 3

0 0 8

. 0 1 2

By a subsequent entry these pageantries seem to have been. continued during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 1565, Rec. of the players of the stage at Easter, 17. 28. 1§d.”

Barnabe Googe, in his adaptation of Naogeorgus, has thus preserved the ceremonies of the day in the Popish Kingdome, f. 52:

"At midnight then with carefull minde they up to mattens ries,
The Clarke doth come, and after him, the Priest with staring eies.
At midnight strait, not tarying till the daylight doe appeere,
Some gettes in flesh, and, glutton lyke, they feede upon their cheere.
They rost their flesh, and custardes great, and egges and radish store,
And trifles, clouted creame, and cheese, and whatsoever more
At first they list to eate, they bring into the temple straight,
That so the Priest may halow them with wordes of wond'rous
waight.

The friers besides, and pelting priestes, from house to house do roame,
Receyving gaine of every man that this will have at home.

Some raddish rootes this day doe take before all other meate,
Against the quartan ague, and such other sicknesse great.
Straight after this into the fieldes they walke to take the viewe,
And to their woonted life they fall, and bid the reast adewe."

In the Doctrine of the Masse Book, from Wyttonburge, by Nicholas Dorcastor, 1554, in the form of "the halowing of the Pascal Lambe, egges and herbes, on Easter Daye," the following passage occurs: "O God! who art the Maker of all flesh, who gavest commaundments unto Noe and his sons concerning cleane and uncleane beastes, who hast also permitted mankind to eate clean four-footed beastes even as egges and green herbs." The form concludes with the following rubrick : "Afterwards, let al be sprinkled with holye water and censed by the priest." Dugdale, in his Origines Juridiciales, p. 276, speaking of Gray's Inn Commons, says "In 23 Eliz. (7 Maii) there was an agreement at the cupboard by Mr. Attorney of the Duchy and all the Readers then present, that the dinner on Good Friday, which had been accustomed to be made at the cost and charges of the chief cook, should thenceforth be made at the costs of the house, with like provision as it had been before that time. And likewise, whereas, they had used to have eggs and green sauce on Easter Day, after service and communion, for those gentlemen who came to breakfast, that in like manner they should be provided at the charge of the house."