Lord Mayor's day, 1671, the king, queen, and duke of York, and most of the nobility, being present, there were sundry shows, shapes, scenes, speeches, and songs in parts; and the like in 1672 and 1673, when the king again graced the triumphs.

In 1687, the pageants of Sir John Shorter, knt., as Lord Mayor, were very splendid. He was of the company of goldsmiths, and out of compliment to their patron saint, Dunstan, who was himself a goldsmith, they had a pageant representing the miracle of Dunstan and the Devil.

"St. Dunstan, as the story goes,

Once pull'd the devil by the nose

With red-hot tongs, which made him roar,
That he was heard three miles or more."

The last Lord Mayor who rode on horseback at his mayoralty was Sir Gilbert Heathcote, in the reign of queen Anne. The modern exhibitions, bettered as they are by the men in armour, have no pretensions to vie with the grandeur of the London triumphs. Even Gog and Magog, who were then only made of wicker-work and pasteboard, yearly graced the procession, and when that eminent annual service was over, remounted their old stations in Guildhall, till, by reason of their very great age, old time, with his auxiliaries, the city rats and mice, had eaten up all their entrails.

The earliest Lord Mayor's Pageant on record is the one described by Matthew Paris as taking place in 1236, on the occasion of the passage of King Henry III., and Eleanor of Provence, through the city of Westminster. For further particulars, see Fairholt's Lord Mayor's Pageants, published by the Percy Society.

FREEDOM OF ALNWICK.

When a person takes up his freedom in the town of Alnwick, he is obliged, by a clause in the charter of that place, to jump into an adjacent bog, in which sometimes he must sink to his chin. This custom is said to have been imposed by King John, who travelling this way, and his horse sinking fast in this hole, took this method of punishing the people of this town for not keeping the road in better order.

LONDON CRIES.

In the time of Henry VI. an antiquary writes, that London cries consisted of-fine felt hats and spectacles; peas, strawberries, cherries, pepper, saffron, hot sheeps-feet, mackerel, green-peas, ribs beef, pie, &c. In the Pepysian library are two very ancient sets of cries, cut in wood, with inscriptions; among others are, Buy my rope of onions, white St. Thomas's onions; rosemary

and bays; bread and meat for poor prisoners; ends of gold and silver; marking stones; a mat for a bed; maids hang out your lights; marrowbones; ells or yards; hand-strings or hand-kercher buttons; small coal penny a peck! I have skreens at your desire, to keep your butey from the fire," &c. &c.

Formerly it was a practice to set the London cries to music, retaining their peculiar musical notes. These cries, that have been so long famed in the annals of nursery literature, and without which, to the social part of society, London would lose one of its peculiar charms, have to the squeamish long been a source of complaint; their tender nerves and susceptible ears would have every social sound put to silence, and every unlucky wight who presumed to earn his bread by the exercise of his lungs sent to the treadmill! To please them

"It were a delicate stratagem, to shoe

A troop of horse with felt,—I'll put it in proof."

Shakspeare.

MASQUERADES.

This species of amusement had its origin in Italy, where, according to Hall's Chronicle, they had become fashionable as early as the beginning of the 16th century. Of its introduction into England, Hall thus speaks: "On the date of the Epiphanie at night (A.D. 1512-13), the king (Henry VIII.) with eleven others were disguised after the manner of Italie called a maske, a thing not seen afore in England; they were appareled in garments long and brode, wroughte all with golde, with visers and cappes of golde; and after the banket done, these maskers came in with the six gentlemen disguised in Silk" (in all probability the domino of more recent times), "barynge staffe torches, and desired the ladies to daunce; some were content; and some that knew the fashion of it refused, because it was not a thing commonly seen. And after thei danced and commoned together, as the fashion of the maskes is, thei took their leave and departed, and so did the quene and all the ladies." The invention of masquerades is ascribed to Granacci, who died in 1543.

ORIGINAL DINNERS.

In 1609, Christian, Elector of Saxony, defrayed for 1600 guests, who, at the sound of the trumpet, saw the table covered. The Elector himself remained at table six hours; and that time nothing was done but to contend which of the party should eat the most and drink the largest. The custom of feasting was not confined to the great; all ranks participated in the sensual propensity, against which sumptuary laws proved wholly unavailing. In the town of Munden, in Brunswick, it was ordained that the

dinner should not last above three hours, and that even a wedding feast should not exceed twenty-four dishes, allowing ten persous to every dish.

LADIES APPEARING AT COURT.

Anne of Brittany, wife of Charles VIII., and Louis XII., kings of France, was the first who introduced the fashion of ladies appearing publicly at court. This fashion was introduced much later in England, when, even down to the Revolution, women of rank never appeared in the streets without a mask. In Scotland the veil or plaid continued much longer in fashion, and with which every woman was covered.

SMOKING AND TAKING SNUFF.

Tobacco is said to have been first brought into England by Captain R. Greenfield and Sir Francis Drake about the year 1586, during the reign of Elizabeth. Alehouses are at present licensed to deal in tobacco, but it was not so from the beginning; for so great an incentive was it thought to drunkenness, that it was strictly forbidden to be taken in any alehouses in the reign of James I. A pamphlet on the Natural History of Tobacco, in the Harleian Miscellany, says, "The English are said to have had their pipes of clay from the Virginians," who were styled barbarians; and the origin of manufacturing tobacco into snuff is thus given to the sister kingdom. "The Irishmen do most commonly powder their tobacco, and snuff it up their nostrils.”

HOWLING AT IRISH FUNERALS.

The Irish howl at funerals originated from the Roman outcry at the decease of their friends, they hoping thus to awaken the soul, which they supposed might lie inactive. The conclamatio over the Phœnician Dido, as described by Virgil, is similar to the Irish cry. From which it is clear the custom is of Phoenician origin.

GRACE AT MEAT.

The table was considered by the ancient Greeks as the altar of friendship, and held sacred; and they would not partake of any meat till they had offered part of it as the first-fruits to their gods. The ancient Jews offered up prayers always before meat, and from their example the primitive Christians did the same.

GOOSE ON MICHAELMAS DAY.

There is a current, but erroneous report, assigning to Queen Elizabeth the origin of this custom.

The joyful tidings of the defeat of the Spanish armada arrived on Michaelmas day, and were communicated to Queen Elizabeth whilst at dinner partaking of a goose; but there is evidence to prove that this custom was practised long before the destruction of the Spanish armada. Brand, in his Popular Antiquities, traces it as far back as the tenth year of the reign of King Edward IV.

WELSH LEEK AS A BADGE OF HONOUR.

Upon the first of March King Cadwallo met a Saxon army in the field. In order to distinguish his men from their enemies, he, from an adjoining field of leeks, placed one in each of their hats; and having gained a signal and decisive victory over the Saxons, the leek became the future badge of honour among the Welsh, and particularly worn on the 1st of March, or St. David's day.

SHAMROCK, THE IRISH BADGE OF HONOUR.

The wild trefoil was very highly regarded in the superstitions of the ancient Druids, and has still medicinal virtues of a particular kind accredited to it by the more remote Highlanders of Scotland, where it is culled according to the ancient rites.

“ "In the list of plants," says a Scotch statistical writer, “must be reckoned the seamrog, or the wild trefoil, in great estimation of old by the Druids. It is still considered as an anodyne in the diseases of cattle; from this circumstance it has derived its name, seimh, in the Gaelic, signifying pacific or soothing. When gathered, it is plucked with the left hand, The person thus employed must be silent, and never look back till the business be finished."

This is the seamrog, or shamrog, worn by Irishmen in their hats, as O'Brien says, "by way of a cross on St. Patrick's day, in memory of this great saint." It is said, that when St. Patrick landed near Wicklow to convert the Irish in 433, the Pagan inhabitants were ready to stone him; he requested to be heard, and endeavoured to explain God to them as the Trinity in Unity, but they could not understand him; till plucking a trefoil, or shamrog, from the ground, he said, "Is it not as possible for the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as for these three leaves, to grow upon a single stalk?" "Then," says Brand, "the Irish were immediately convinced, and became converts to Christianity; and, in memory of which event, the Irish have ever since worn the shamrog, or shamrock, as a badge of honour."

THE SCOTTISH THISTLE.

The origin of the national badge is thus handed down by tradition: When the Danes invaded Scotland, it was deemed

unwarlike to attack an enemy in the darkness of night, instead of a pitched battle by day; but, on one occasion, the invaders resolved to avail themselves of stratagem, and, in order to prevent their tramp from being heard, they marched barefooted. They had thus neared the Scottish force unobserved, when a Dane unluckily stepped with his foot upon a superbly prickled thistle, and uttered a cry of pain, which discovered the assailants to the Scots, who ran to their arms, and defeated the foe with great slaughter. The thistle was immediately adopted as the insignia of Scotland.

ELECTION RIBBONS.

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These party emblems were first introduced, March 14th, 1681. -The Protestant Intelligencer states, after mentioning the parliament that was held at Oxford this year, on which occasion the representatives of the city of London assembled at Guildhall on the 17th of March, for the purpose of commencing their journey. Many of the citizens met them there, intending to accompany them part of their way, together with others who were deputed to go to Oxford as a sort of council to the city members. Some of our ingenious London weavers had against this day contrived a very fine fancy, that is, a blue satin ribbon, having these words plainly and legibly wrought upon it, 'No Popery,' 'No Slavery, which, being tied up in knots, were worn in the hats of the horsemen who accompanied our members." Such was the origin of wearing ribbons on electioneering occasions.

PERAMBULATING PARISHES ON ASCENSION DAY.

This custom is of considerable antiquity. Spelman thinks it was derived from the heathens, and that it is an imitation of the feast called Terminalia, which was observed in the month of February, in honour of the god Terminius, who was supposed to preside over bounds and limits, and to punish all unlawful usurpations of land.

In making the parochial perambulations in this country on Ascension day, the minister, accompanied by the churchwardens and parishioners, used to deprecate the vengeance of God, by a blessing on the fruits of the earth, and implore him to preserve the rights of the parish. This custom is thus noticed by Withers in his Emblems:

"That every man might keep his own possessions,
Our fathers used in reverent processions

(With zealous prayers and many a praiseful cheer)
To walk their parish limits once a year;

And well-known marks (which sacrilegious hands
Now cut or break) so border'd out their lands,
That every one distinctly knew his own,

And many brawls, now rife, were then unknown."