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,
And cruell fasting dayes at hand approach with solemne grace:
Then olde and yong are both as mad as ghestes of Bacchus feast,
And foure dayes long they tipple square, and feede and never reast.2

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
Do swarme the dice are shakte and tost, and cardes apace they

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,
That in their mindes they can devise, as if they then should die :
The chiefest man is he, and one that most deserveth prayse,
Among the rest that can finde out the fondest kinde of playes.
On him they looke and gaze upon, and laugh with lustie cheare,
Whom boyes do follow, crying "foole," and such like other geare.
He in the meane time thinkes himselfe a wondrous worthie man,
Not mooved with their wordes nor cryes, do whatsoever they can.
Some sort there are that runne with staves, or fight in armour fine,
Or shew the people foolishe toyes for some small peece of wine.
Eche partie hath his favourers, and faythfull friendes enowe,
That readie are to turne themselves, as fortune liste to bowe.
But some againe the dreadfull shape of devils on them take,

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.
Both men and women chaunge their weede, the men in maydes aray,
And wanton wenches, drest like men, doe travell by the way,
And to their neighbours houses go, or where it likes them best,
Perhaps unto some auncient friend or olde acquainted ghest ;
Unknowne, and speaking but fewe wordes, the meat devour they up
That is before them set, and cleane they swinge of every cup.
Some runne about the streets attyrde like monks, and some like kings,
Accompanied with pompe and garde, and other stately things.
Some hatch young fooles as hennes do egges with good and speedie
lucke,

Or as the goose doth use to do, or as the quacking ducke.
Some like wilde beastes doe runne abrode in skinnes that divers bee
Arayde, and eke with lothsome shapes, that dreadfull are to see,
They counterfet both beares and woolves, and lions fierce in sight,
And raging bulles: some play the cranes, with wings and stilts up-
right.

Some like the filthie forme of apes, and some like fooles are drest,
Which best beseeme these Papistes all, that thus keepe Bacchus feast.
But others beare a torde, that on a cushion soft they lay,
And one there is that with a flap doth keepe the flies away.

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,
In blanket hid they beare about, and straightwayes with the same
They hurl him up into the ayre, not suffring him to fall,
And this they doe at divers tymes the citie over all.

I shew not here their daunces yet, with filthie jestures mad,
Nor other wanton sportes that on these holydayes are had.
There places are where such as hap to come within this dore,
Though old acquainted friendes they be, or never seene before,
And say not first here by your leave, both in and out I go,
They binde their handes behinde their backes, nor any difference tho
Of man or woman is there made, but basons ringing great,
Before them do they daunce with joy, and sport in every streat.
There are that certain praiers have that on the Tuesday fall,
Against the quartaine ague, and the other fevers all.

But others than sowe onyon seede, the greater to be seene,
And persley eke, and lettys both, to have them always greene.
Of truth I loth for to declare the foolish toyes and trickes,
That in these dayes are done by these same Popish Catholickes :
If snow lie deep upon the ground and almost thawing bee,
Then fooles in number great thou shalt in every corner see:
For balles of snow they make, and them at one another cast,
Till that the conquerde part doth yeelde and run away at last.
No matrone olde nor sober man can freely by them come,
At home he must abide that will these wanton fellowes shonne.
Besides the noble men, the riche, and men of hie degree,
Least they with common people should not seeme so mad to bee,
There wagons finely framde before, and for this matter meete,
And lustie horse and swift of pace, well trapt from head to feete
They put therein, about whose necke and every place before
A hundred gingling belles do hang, to make his courage more.
Their wives and children therein set, behinde themselves do stande,
Well armde with whips, and holding faste the bridle in their hande;
With all their force throughout the streetes and market-place they
ron,

As if some whirlewinde mad, or tempest great from skies should

come:

As fast as may be from the streates th' amazed people flye,
And give them place while they about doe runne continually.
Yea sometimes legges or armes they breake, and horse and carte and all
They overthrow, with such a force they in their course doe fall.
Much lesse they man or childe do spare, that meetes them in the waye,
Nor they content themselves to use this madnesse all the daye :
But even till midnight holde they on, their pastimes for to make,
Whereby they hinder men of sleepe and cause their heads to ake.
But all this same they care not for, nor doe esteem a heare,
So they may have their pleasure still, and foolish wanton geare."

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, rino!

Sheeny greeny, sheeny greeny,
Rum tum fra!"]

"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