1829.]

Popular Customs and Superstitions in Herefordshire.

ed. The Master at the head of his friends fills the cup (generally of strong ale) and stands opposite the first or finest of the oxen. He then pledges him in a curious toast. The company follow his example with all the other oxen, addressing each by his name. This being finished, the large cake is produced, and with much ceremony put on the horn of the first Ox, through the hole above-mentioned. The Ox is then tickled to make him toss his head; if he throw the cake behind, then it is the mistress's [or female servant's] perquisite; if before, (in what is termed the boosy *) the bailiff himself claims the prize. The company then returns to the house, the doors of which they find locked, till some joyful songs are sung. On their gaining admittance, a scene of mirth and jollity ensues, which lasts the greatest part of the night."

Thus the Popular Antiquities +, but the invocation being omitted shall be supplied:

"Here is to you, Champion, with thy white horn,

God send our master a good crop of corn, Both Wheat, Rye, and Barley, and all sorts of grain,

If we meet this time twelvemonth we'll drink to him again,

Thee eat thy pouses, and I will drink my

beer,

And the Lord send us a happy new year." Mr. Brand, in the excellent work quoted, has not adduced the origin of this custom. It appears to be a rude draught of one of the antient Feriæ Sementive. The cake seems to have been put on the horn of the Ox, as a substitute for the crown or garland formerly used at these festivals; for Tibullus says, "Loose the chains from the yokes; now the Oxen ought to stand at the full stalls with a crowned head." The cakes allude to the of ferings then made to Ceres and the Earth from their own corn ¶, and

"the joyous songs

15

are the "Carmina" of Virgil before quoted.

At Easter, the Rustics have a cusmade to pick out Cockle from the tom, called Corn-showing. Parties are Wheat. Before they set out they take with them Cake, Cyder, and, says my informant, a yard of toasted cheese. The first person who picks the cockle from the wheat has the first kiss of the Maid, and the first slice of the Cake.

This custom is not noticed in the Popular Antiquities. It is plainly another of the Feria Sementiva, as appears from the following line of Ovid **.

"Et careant loliis oculos vitiantibus agri," [Let the fields be stripped of eye-diseasing cockle.]

The

And held at the very season prescrib ed by Virgil, the beginning of spring+t. It appears however to have been mixed with other antient customs. Cockle is the unhappy Lolium of Virgil, described as so injurious to Corn, and if mixed with the bread was thought to bring on Vertigo and Headachett. Among the Romans the Runcatio Segetum or Corn-weeding took place in May §§, but the Feria Sementive, says Orid, had no fixed days, and April was the carousing month of the Anglo-Saxons, and the time of celebrating the festivals in honour of Venus, Ceres, Fortuna Virilis, and Venus Verticordia. The Roman Rus tics then went out to call Ceres home, from Virgil, and the kissing might be as appears by the previous quotation in honour of Venus; indeed it was a want of courtesy, upon various occasions, not to kiss females. Henry VIII. says, in Shakspeare, "It were unmannerly to take you out, And not to kiss you." (To be continued.)

+ I. p. 29.

From the A. Sax. posa, scrip.

A stall, from the Anglo-Saxon Bosg, or Bosig, Præsepe.
From Rudge and Heath.

Solvite vinela jugis; nunc ad præsepia debent

Plena coronato stare boves capite.-El. ii. 1. p. 112. Ed. Bas. 1592.

¶ Placentur matres frugum Tellusque Ceresque

Farre suo

-Ovid Fast. i. 670.

Buns, according to Bryant, retain the name and form of the sacred bread, which was offered to the Gods.-Popular Antiq. i. 132, 133.

Annua magnæ

Sacra refer Cereri, lætis operatus in herbis

Extrema sub casum hyemis, jam vere sereno.-Georg. i. v. 389.

Pintianus in Plin. p. 485, ub. pl. §§ Calendar. Rusticum, ap. Fleetwood, p. 61. I From the curious Anglo-Saxon calendar in Strutt's Horda, i. 43.

Mr

16

Mr. URBAN,

Reprehensible Mode of punishing Scholars.

Jan. 12.

IN the course of a short tour through
Suffolk last summer, I visited a
church in a country town, in which,
while searching for monumental in-
scriptions, my attention was arrested
by a list of living worthies, whom, on
a nearer approach, I discovered were
declared to have left the Sunday School
connected with the said church, with
credit. The names of the girls thus
distinguished were written. The edges
of the paper were decorated in a fanci-
ful but neat style, in correspondence
with the joyous nature of the testimo-
nial. The catalogue of meritorious
boys was adopted for longer duration.
Their names were inscribed in gold
letters on a wooden tablet, over a pink
ground. These memorials were sus-
pended in a conspicuous part of the
church, and as I witnessed them on a
Wednesday, conclude that they were
intended to remain in that position all
the week. To this proceeding, per-
haps, no serious objection can be
made; and I have no doubt that the
honour was more worthily bestowed
in these instances, than in those of
many deceased, whose virtues are
"Firmly set forth in lapidary lines,-
Faith, with her torch beside, and little
Cupids

Dropping upon the urn their marble tears."

But to come to the object of my Letter. By the side of these eulogistic tablets were appended others of a condemnatory nature. Female delinquents who had left the school in disgrace, were recorded on paper, environed with gloomy black; while their companions in misfortune were registered on less perishable wood, the blackness of which served to render the inscribed names more conspicuous. The motives of those concerned in making this latter exposure, I do not question. An appeal is thus made to the fears of the other scholars, and a fair external conduct while at school is supposed to be ensured.

But, Mr. Urban, allow me to put a few questions on this subject; and if my objections to this practice carry weight in them, let it be discontinued. Is this proceeding in accordance with the laws of our country? A character is here blasted. Who would be inclined to employ a youth whose name was thus tainted? I cannot conceive any method more calculated to injure a person in the world than

[Jan.

this publicity. So long as the child is
at school, the law could not interfere
with the discretion used by the precep-
tor; but to perpetuate infamy, and in
the most public place of concourse, is
at variance with British jurisprudence.
Is this proceeding judicious? The ob-
ject of the Governors is doubtless to
prevent offences, by working on the
fears of the rest of the pupils. But
that the repetition of offences is not
prevented, is evident, from the circum-
stance that the numbers of delinquents
recorded in the last year, have rather
increased. But on this point I will
not insist, as I am writing from me-
mory; and as the School may have
fluctuated in numbers. Is there not a
want of judgment also in not specify-
ing the offences? Ne scutica dignum
horribili sectere flagello." A moral of-
fence is one thing,-but careless inat-
tentive conduct in a child, whose spi-
rits are buoyant, should be visited with
less severity. But a silence respecting
the nature of the offences is maintain-
ed; and a stranger might put the
worst possible construction on them,
and such an exposure would jus-
tify him in forming it. I cannot
discern any thing analogous to this
our public schools
proceeding in
and colleges, even where the parties
have attained a greater age, and their
offences are therefore less excusable.
—Lastly, is this proceeding Christianly?
"He that confesseth and forsaketh his
sins shall find mercy," was an Old Tes-
tament promise. Here no opening is
given for reformation; and unless some
sacrilegious violator strip the church of
its moveables, or some tempest bury
these testimonials beneath the ruins of
the temple, the infamy will live. The
crimson dye of their offences will re-
main undischarged. Children require
coercion; it is necessary, it is indis-
pensable; but let them be chastised
"with whips, and not with scorpions."
Yours, &c.

VIATOR.

The remarks of J. S. p. 304, coincide with those of PHILOGLUPHIST, vol. LXXXVIII. i. p. 520, who begs leave to add, that unless the Statue of Queen Anne is strongly protected by iron chevaux de frise to prevent the populace from climbing up and over it, whilst a procession, &c. passes, all the intended reparation of Mr. Hill's ingenious workmanship would be destroyed by the unthinking populace, who, on those occasions actually cluster on it so as to resemble an ant hillock!

Mr.

Account of Michel Dean, Gloucestershire.