The subsequent "Ceremonies for Candlemasse Day" are also mentioned in p. 337 : "Kindle the Christmas brand, and then Till sunne-set let it burne; Part must be kept wherewith to teend1 Also in p. 338: "End now the white loafe and the pye, And let all sports with Christmas dye." "There is a general tradition" says Sir Thomas Browne, "in most parts of Europe, that inferreth the coldness of succeeding winter from the shining of the sun on Candlemas Day, according to the proverbiall distich :— "Si Sol splendescat Maria purificante, Major erit glacies post festum quam fuit ante.” In the Country Almanack for 1676, under February we read, "Foul weather is no news, hail, rain, and snow If Phoebus shews his face the second day." The almanack printed at Basle in 1672, already quoted, says, "Selon les Anciens se dit: Si le Soleil clairment luit, Par cette reigle se gouverne L'Ours, qui retourne en sa caverne." Martin, in his description of the Western Islands, 1716, p. 119, mentions an ancient custom observed on the second of February: "The mistress and servants of each family take a sheaf of oats and dress it up in woman's apparel, put it in To light. See Halliwell's Dictionary, p. 855. a large basket, and lay a wooden club by it, and this they call Briid's Bed; and then the mistress and servants cry three times, Briid is come, Briid is welcome. This they do just before going to bed, and when they rise in the morning they look among the ashes, expecting to see the impression of Briid's club there; which if they do, they reckon it a true presage of a good crop and prosperous year, and the contrary they take as an ill omen." Ray, in his Collection of Proverbs, has preserved two relating to this day. "On Candlemas Day, throw candle and candle-stick away:" and "Sow or set beans on Candlemas Waddle." Somerset. In Somersetshire waddle means wane of the moon. [Another proverb1 on this day may also be mentioned, "The hind had as lief see His wife on a bier, As that Candlemas Day Should be pleasant and clear." And it is a custom with old country people in Scotland to prognosticate this weather of the coming season by the adage, "If Candlemas is fair and clear, There'll be twa winters in the year."] ST. BLAZE'S DAY. FEBRUARY 3. MINSHEW, in his Dictionary, under the word Hocke-tide, speaks of "St. Blaze his day, about Candlemas, when country women goe about and make good cheere, and if they 1 [The following lines are copied from an early MS. in Cole's MSS. voi. 44, Brit. Mus., Imber si datur, Virgo dum purificatur, Inde notatur quod hyemps abinde fugatur; find any of their neighbour women a spinning that day, they burne and make a blaze of fire of the distaffe, and thereof called S. Blaze his day." Dr. Percy, in his notes to the Northumberland Household Book, p. 333, tells us, "The Anniversary of St. Blazius is the 3d of February, when it is still the custom in many parts of England to light up fires on the hills on St. Blayse night: a custom anciently taken up, perhaps, for no better reason than the jingling resemblance of his name to the word Blaze."1 Reginald Scott, in his Discovery of Witchcraft, ed. 1665, p. 137, gives us a charm used in the Romish Church upon St. Blaze's Day, that will fetch a thorn out of any place of one's body, a bone out of the throat, &c., to wit, "Call upon God, and remember St. Blaze." [An ancient receipt "for a stoppage in the throat" was the following,- "Hold the diseased party by the throat, and pronounce these words, Blaze, the martyr and servant of Jesus Christ, commands thee to pass up and down."] The following is the account of Blaze in the Popish Kingdome, f. 47: "Then followeth good Sir Blaze, who doth a waxen candell give, And holy water to his men, whereby they safely live. I divers barrels oft have seene, drawne out of water cleare, Through one small blessed bone of this same Martyr heare: And caryed thence to other townes and cities farre away, Ech superstition doth require such earnest kinde of play." In The Costumes of Yorkshire, 4to., 1814, Pl. 37, is a representation of the wool-combers' jubilee on this day. The writer, in illustration of it, says, "Blaize or Blasius, the principal personage in this festivity and procession, was bishop of Sebasta in Armenia, and the patron saint of that country. Several marvellous stories are related of him by Mede, in his 'Apostacy of the Latter Times,' but he need only be noticed here as the reputed inventor of the art of combing wool. On 1 I find the following in Du Cange's Glossary, in voce Festum S. Blasii. "Cur hac die Populus lumina pro domibus vel animalibus accendere soleret, atque adeo eleemosynos largiri docet Honorius Augustod. Lib. iii. cap. 25." Hospinian, in his book De Orig. Festor. Christian. fol. 43, speaking of St. Blasius' Day, says, "In sacris ejus candela offertur ; Nugantur enim, viduam quandam porci mactati caput, pedes candelam et panem Blasio in carcerem attulisse." These candles were said to be good for the tooth-ache, and for diseased cattle. this account the wool-combers have a jubilee on his festival, the 3d of February. The next principal character is Jason; but the story of the Golden Fleece is so well known that no introduction can be necessary to the hero of that beautiful allegory. The enterprising genius of Britain never ceases to realize the fable by rewarding many a British Jason with a golden fleece. The following is the order of this singular procession, denominated from its principal character Bishop Blaize :-The masters on horseback, with each a white sliver; the masters' sons on horseback; their colours; the apprentices on horseback, in their uniforms; music; the king and queen; the royal family; their guards and attendants; Jason; the golden fleece; attendants; bishop and chaplain; their attendants; shepherd and shepherdess; shepherd's swains, attendants, &c.; foremen and wool-sorters on horseback; combers' colours; wool-combers, two and two, with ornamented caps, wool-wigs, and various coloured slivers." See a further account in Hone's Every Day Book, i. 210. VALENTINE'S DAY. It is a ceremony, says Bourne, never omitted among the vulgar, to draw lots, which they term Valentines, on the eve before Valentine Day. The names of a select number of one sex are, by an equal number of the other, put into some vessel; and after that every one draws a name, which, for the present, is called their Valentine, and is looked upon as a good omen of their being man and wife afterwards. He adds, there is a rural tradition, that on this day every bird chooses its mate, and concludes that perhaps the youthful part of the world hath first practised this custom, so common at this This idea is thus expressed by Chaucer : season. "Nature, the vicare of the Almightie Lord, Ye know well, how on St. Valentine's Day, With hem as I pricke you with pleasaunce." Shakespeare, in his Midsummer Night's Dream, alludes to the old saying, that birds begin to couple on St. Valentine's Day : St. Valentine is past; Begin these wood-birds but to couple now?" I once thought this custom might have been the remains of an ancient superstition in the Church of Rome on this day, of choosing patrons for the ensuing year; and that, because ghosts were thought to walk on the night of this day, or about this time, and that gallantry had taken it up when superstition at the Reformation had been compelled to let it fall.' Since that time I have found unquestionable authority to show that the custom of choosing Valentines was a sport practised in the houses of the gentry of England as early as the year 1476. See a letter dated February 1446, in Fenn's Paston Letters, ii. 211. Of this custom John Lydgate, the monk of Bury, makes mention, as follows, in a poem written by him in praise of Queen Catherine, consort to Henry V. MS. Harl, 2251. 66 Seynte Valentine, of custom yeere by yeere To loke and serche Cupide's Kalendere, And chose theyr choyse by grete affeccioun ; 66 In the catalogue of the Poeticall Devises, &c., done by the same poet, in print and MS., preserved at the end of Speght's edition of Chaucer's works, fol. Lond. 1602, f. 376, occurs one with the title of Chusing Loves on S. Valentine's Day. Lydgate," says Warton, was not only the poet of his monastery, but of the world in general. If a Disguising was intended by the Company of Goldsmiths, a Mask before his Majesty at Eltham, a Maygame for the Sheriffs and Aldermen of London, a Mumming before the Lord Mayor, a Procession of Pageants from the Creation for the Festival of I find in the old Romish calendar, already cited, the following observation on the 14th of February :-" Manes nocte vagari creduntur.' |