extraordinary sport and feasting.1 In the Romish Church there was anciently a Feast immediately preceding Lent, which lasted many days, called CARNISCAPIUM. (See Carpentier et Supp. Lat. Gloss. Du Cange, i. 381.) In some cities of France an officer was annually chosen, called Le Prince d'Amoreux, who presided over the sports of the youth for six days before Ash-Wednesday. Ibid. v. AMORATUS, p. 195; v. ČARDINALIS, p. 818; v. SPINETUM, iii. 848. Some traces of these festivities still remain in our universities. In the Percy Household Book, 1512, it appears "that the Clergy and Officers of Lord Percy's Chapel performed a play before his Lordship, upon Shrowftewesday at night." p. 345. See also Dodsley's Collection of Old Plays, xii. 403, and notes in Shakespeare on part of the old song, "And welcome merry Shrove-tide." In a curious tract, entitled, "Vox Graculi," quarto, 1623, p. 55, is the following quaint description of Shrove-Tuesday: "Here must enter that wadling, stradling, bursten-gutted Carnifex of all Christendome, vulgarly enstiled ShroveTuesday, but more pertinently, sole Monarch of the Mouth, high Steward to the Stomach, chiefe Ganimede to the Guts, prime Peere of the Pullets, first Favourite to the Frying pans, greatest Bashaw to the Batter-bowles, Protector of the Pan-cakes, first Founder of the Fritters, Baron of Bacon-flitch, Earle of Egge-baskets, &c. This corpulent Commander of those chollericke things called Cookes, will shew himselfe to be but of ignoble education; for by his manners you may find him better fed than taught wherever he comes." The following extract from Barnaby Googe's Translation of Naogeorgus will show the extent of these festivities : : "Now when at length the pleasant time of Shrove-tide comes in place, See Dufresne's Glossary, v. Carnelevamen. Wheatley on the Com. Prayer, ed. 1848, p. 216. 2" This furnishyng of our bellies with delicates, that we use on Fastingham Tuiesday, what tyme some eate tyl they be enforsed to forbeare all again, sprong of Bacchus Feastes, that were celebrated in Rome with great joy and delicious fare."-Langley's Polidore Vergile, fol. 103. Downe goes the hogges in every place, and puddings every wheare teare: In every house are showtes and cryes, and mirth, and revell route, And daintie tables spred, and all beset with ghestes aboute : With sundrie playes and Christmasse games, and feare and shame away, The tongue is set at libertie, and hath no kinde of stay. And thinges are lawfull then and done, no pleasure passed by, And chase such as they meete, and make poore boys for feare to quake. Some naked runne about the streetes, their faces hid alone With visars close, that, so disguisde, they might be knowne of none. Or as the goose doth use to do, or as the quacking ducke. Some like the filthie forme of apes, and some like fooles are drest, I would there might another be, an officer of those, Whose roome might serve to take away the scent from every nose. Some others make a man all stuft with straw or ragges within, Apparayled in dublet faire, and hosen passing trim: Whom as a man that lately dyed of honest life and fame, I shew not here their daunces yet, with filthie jestures mad, But others than sowe onyon seede, the greater to be seene, As if some whirlewinde mad, or tempest great from skies should come: As fast as may be from the streates th' amazed people flye, Among the records of the city of Norwich, mention is made of one John Gladman, "who was ever, and at thys our is a man of sad disposition, and trewe and feythfull to God and to the Kyng, of disporte as hath ben acustomed in ony cité or burgh thorowe alle this reame, on Tuesday in the last ende of Crestemesse [1440,] viz. Fastyngonge Tuesday, made a disport with hys neyghbours, havyng his hors trappyd with tynnsoyle and other nyse disgisy things, corouned as Kyng of Crestemesse, in tokyn that seson should end with the twelve monethes of the yere; aforn hym went yche moneth dysguysed after the seson requiryd, and Lenton clad in white and red heryngs skinns, and his hors trappyd with oystershells after him, in token that sadnesse shuld folowe and an holy tyme, and so rode in divers stretis of the cité with other people with hym disguysed, makyng myrth, disportes, and plays, &c." Bloomfield's Norfolk, ed. 1745, ii. 111. A very singular custom is thus mentioned in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1779,-" Being on a visit on Tuesday last in a little obscure village in this county (Kent), I found an odd kind of sport going forward: the girls, from eighteen to five or six years old, were assembled in a crowd, and burning an uncouth effigy, which they called an Holly-Boy, and which it seems they had stolen from the boys, who, in another part of the village, were assembled together, and burning what they called an Ivy-Girl, which they had stolen from the girls: all this ceremony was accompanied with loud huzzas, noise, and acclamations. What it all means I cannot tell, although I inquired of several of the oldest people in the place, who could only answer that it had always been a sport at this season of the year." Dated East Kent, Feb. 16th. The Tuesday before Shrove Tuesday in 1779 fell on February the 9th. [In some places, if flowers are to be procured so early in the season, the younger children carry a small garland, for the sake of collecting a few pence, singing, "Flowers, flowers, high-do! Sheeny greeny, sheeny greeny, "The peasantry of France," says the Morning Chronicle, March 10th, 1791, "distinguish Ash Wednesday in a very singular manner. They carry an effigy of a similar description to our Guy Faux round the adjacent villages, and collect money for his funeral, as this day, according to their creed, is the death of good living. After sundry absurd mummeries, the corpse is deposited in the earth.” This is somewhat similar to the custom of the Holly Boy. Armstrong, in his History of Minorca, p. 202, says, “During the Carnival, the ladies amuse themselves in throwing oranges at their lovers; and he who has received one of these on his eye, or has a tooth beat out by it, is convinced from that moment that he is a high favourite with the fair one who has done him so much honour. Sometimes a good handfull of flour is thrown full in one's eyes, which gives the utmost satisfaction, and is a favour that is quickly followed by others of a less trifling nature.-We well know that the holydays of the ancient Romans were, like these carnivals, a mixture of devotion and debauchery.This time of festivity is sacred to pleasure, and it is sinful to exercise their calling until Lent arrives, with the two curses of these people, Abstinence and Labour, in its train." Among the sports of Shrove Tuesday, cock-fighting and throwing at cocks appear almost everywhere to have prevailed. Fitzstephen, as cited by Stowe, informs us that anciently on Shrove Tuesday the school-boys used to bring cocks of the game, now called game-cocks, to their master, and to delight themselves in cock-fighting all the forenoon. One rejoices to find no mention of throwing at cocks on the occasion, a horrid species of cowardly cruelty, compared with which, cock-fighting, savage as it may appear, is to be reckoned among "the tender mercies" of barbarity. The learned Moresin informs us that the Papists derived this custom of exhibiting cock-fights on one day every year from the Athenians, and from an institution of Themistocles. "Galli Gallinacei," says he, "producuntur per diem singulis annis in pugnam à Papisequis, ex veteri Atheniensium forma ducto more et Themistoclis instituto." Cæl. Rhod. lib. ix. variar. lect. cap. xlvi. idem Pergami fiebat.; Alex. ab Alex. lib. v. cap. 8.-Moresini Papatus, p. 66. An account of the origin of this custom amongst the Athenians may be seen in Eliani Varia Historiæ, lib. ii. сар. xxviii. This custom was retained in many schools in Scotland within the last century. Perhaps it is still in use. The |