[22] In some places this custom took place on Easter Monday.
The first Friday in March is so called from lide, Anglo-Saxon for March. This day is marked by a serio-comic custom of sending a young lad on the highest mound or hillock of the work, and allowing him to sleep there as long as he can; the length of his siesta being the measure of the afternoon nap for the tinners throughout the ensuing twelve months. The weather which usually characterizes Friday in Lide is, it need scarcely be said, not very conducive to prolonged sleep. In Saxon times labourers were generally allowed their mid-day sleep; and it has been observed that it is even now permitted to husbandmen in some parts of East Cornwall during a stated portion of the year. Browne appears to allude to this practice in Devonshire, when he says in the third song of his first book, in reference to the song-birds in the woodland:
Brand, Pop. Antiq. 1870, vol. i. p. 64.
March 3.]
SCOTLAND.
Sinclair, in his Statistical Account of Scotland (1795, vol. xvi. p. 460), says, “At Sandwick the people do no work on the third day of March, in commemoration of the day on which the church of Sandwick was consecrated; and, as the church was dedicated to St. Peter, they also abstain from working for themselves on St. Peter’s day (29th June), but they will work for another person who employs them.”
March 5.]
ST. PIRAN’S DAY.
The tinners observe this day, says Hitchins in his History of Cornwall (1844, vol. i. p. 725), as a holiday, which they call St. Piran’s Day. This, by a custom established from time immemorial, sanctions a suspension from all labour, because St. Piran is supposed to have communicated some important information relative to the tin manufacture.
March 8.]
CARE SUNDAY.
This day, the ancient Passion Sunday, is the fifth Sunday after Shrove Tuesday. The word Care, which is also applied to Christmas Cakes, has been a stumbling-block to etymologists. The following remarks respecting its derivation are taken from Hampson’s Med. Ævi Kalend. (1841, vol. i. p. 178):—T. Mareschall observes that the day on which Christ suffered, is called in German both Gute Freytag and Karr Freytag, and that Karr signified a satisfaction for a fine or penalty. Adelung speaking of Charfreytag (Care or Carr Friday) and Charwoche (Care or Carr-week), observes that the first syllable is supposed to be the old Cara, preparation (Zubereitung), and that this week, conformably to the usage of the Jews, was called Preparation Week (Zubereitungswoche) because the sixth day was Preparation day (Zubereitungstag), when the Jews prepared themselves for Easter. Hence the Greeks called Carfriday, Dies Parasceves, of which the Gothic Gartag, or Garfreytag is a translation.
Tatian (Cap. 58) names the Friday before Easter “Garotag fora Ostrum,” and renders the phrase, “My heart is prepared,” “Karo ist mein herza.” Schiller’s opinion, however, that Char, Kar, signifies mourning, complaint, sorrow, has equal probability; for it appears from ancient manuscripts that Car formerly bore the signification of Care or grief, and in Sweden, where the fifth Sunday in Lent is denominated Kaersunnutag, the verb Kæra is actually to lament, to complain.
Dr. Jameson, adopting the opinion of Mareschall, observes, “This name may have been imposed in reference to the satisfaction made by our Saviour. Some, however, understand it, as referring to the accusations brought against him on this day, from the Sueo-Gothic Kæra, to complain.”—Etymol. Dict., Art. Care Sunday.
On this day, in the northern counties, and in Scotland, a custom obtains of eating Carlings, which are grey peas, steeped all night in water, and fried the next day with butter:
Ritson’s Scottish Songs, vol. i. p. 211.
As to the origin of this custom, Brand (Pop. Antiq. 1849, vol. i. p. 114) offers the following explanation:—“In the Roman Calendar, I find it observed on this day, that a dole is made of soft beans. I can hardly entertain a doubt but that our custom is derived from hence. It was usual among the Romanists to give away beans in the doles at funerals; it was also a rite in the funeral ceremonies of heathen Rome. Why we have substituted peas I know not, unless it was because they are a pulse somewhat fitter to be eaten at this season of the year.” Having observed from Erasmus that Plutarch held pulse (legumina) to be of the highest efficacy in invocation of the Manes, he adds: “Ridiculous and absurd as these superstitions may appear, it is quite certain that Carlings deduce their origin from thence.” This explanation, however, is by no means regarded as satisfactory.
Hone (Every Day Book, 1826, vol. i. p. 379) says, How is it that Care Sunday is also called Carl and Carling Sunday; and that the peas, or beans of the day are called Carlings? Carle, which means a Churle, or rude boorish fellow, was anciently the term for a working countryman or labourer; and it is only altered in the spelling, without the slightest deviation in sense, from the old Saxon word Ceorl, the name for a husbandman. The older denomination of the day, then, may not have been Care, but Carl Sunday, from the benefactions to the Carles or Carlen. A correspondent of Notes & Queries (1st S. vol. iii. 449) tells us that on the north-east coast of England, where the custom of frying dry peas on this day is attended with much augury, some ascribe its origin to the loss of a ship freighted with peas on the coast of Northumberland. Carling is the foundation beam of a ship, or the beam on the keel.
In several villages in the vicinity of Wisbeach, in the Isle of Ely, the fifth Sunday in Lent has been, time immemorial, commemorated by the name of Whirlin Sunday, when cakes are made by almost every family, and are called, from the day, Whirlin Cakes.—Gent. Mag. 1789, vol. lix. p. 491.
The rustics go to the public-house of the village, and spend each their Carling-groat, i.e., that sum in drink, for the Carlings are provided for them gratis; and a popular notion prevails that those who do not do this will be unsuccessful in their pursuits for the following year.—Brand, Pop. Antiq., 1849, vol. i. p. 114.
March 10.]
Oxfordshire.
William Handy, by will dated the 10th of March, 1622, bequeathed to the parish of St. Giles’, Oxford, £40, upon condition that, upon the 10th of March for ever, in the morning, about 5 o’clock, they should ring one peal with all the bells, and about 8 or 9 o’clock should go to service, and read all the service, with the Litany and the Communion, as it is commanded to be read in the cathedral church, and after that to have a sermon, and in it to give God thanks for His great blessings in delivering and bringing the giver from Papistry and idolatry to the light and truth of the blessed Gospel; and he desired that the preacher might have 10s. for his sermon, and the minister 5s. for leading service, and the poor to have given them in bread or money 10s.
This sum, with other money, was laid out in 1633, in purchasing a tenement, garden, and one acre of pasture ground, situated in Corn Street, Witney, to the uses of the donor’s will; of the rent, 15s. a year was accordingly commanded to be paid to the minister for reading prayers and preaching a sermon on the 10th of March, 5s. to the clerk, 5s. to the ringer, and 15s. to be distributed at the church, with other money in small sums to the poor.[23]—Old English Customs and Charities, 1842, p. 249.
[23] There was a similar gift of the same donor to the parish of St. Mary Magdalen, Oxford; but since 1800 nothing has been paid in respect of this charity.
March 11.]
Nottinghamshire.
Formerly, there lived at Newark one Hercules Clay, a tradesman of considerable eminence, and an alderman of the borough of Newark. During the siege, in the night of the 11th of March 1643, he dreamed three times that his house was on fire; on the third warning he arose much alarmed, awoke the whole of his family, and caused them to quit the premises, though at that time all appeared to be in perfect safety. Soon afterwards, however, a bomb from a battery of the Parliamentarian army on Beacon Hill, an eminence near the town, fell upon the roof of the house, and penetrated all the floors, and happily did little other execution. The bomb was intended to destroy the house of the governor of the town, which was in Stadman Street, exactly opposite Clay’s house. In commemoration of this extraordinary deliverance, Mr. Clay, by his will, gave £200 to the Corporation in trust to pay the interest of £100 to the Vicar of Newark, for a sermon to be preached every 11th of March. The interest of the other £100 he directed to be given in bread to the poor. Penny loaves were, accordingly, given to every one who applied, and the day on which they were distributed, was called “Penny Loaf Day.”—Hone’s Year Book, 1838, p. 301.
March 12.]
ST. GREGORY’S DAY.
The feast of St. Gregory the Great, 12th of March, was formerly observed as a holiday, and one of festivity in all the rural schools in the baronies of Forth and Baigy (the Strongbonian Colony), in the county of Wexford. The manner was this: the children, for some days previous, brought contributions, according to the means and liberality of their parents, consisting of money, bread, butter, cream, &c., and delivered them to the teacher. On the morning of the joyous day, the children repaired to the school-house in holiday dress, where the teacher had everything prepared for the festivity, the simple temple of learning decorated with the richest flowers within his means of obtaining, and the presence of two or more kind-hearted females to do the honours and duties of the tea-table to the happy juveniles. A “king” and a “queen” were nominated, who, of course, took the seat of honour, and the proud and busy teacher was everywhere all attention to his little pupils. The day passed off in hilarity and innocent enjoyment, and the competitive system of free offerings left, generally, something pleasing to tell for some days in the pockets and humble cupboard of the teacher. This custom prevailed until after the commencement of the present century.—N. & Q. 2nd S. vol. vii. p. 392.
March 14.]
PALM SATURDAY.
On the Saturday before Palm Sunday the boys belonging to the grammar-school at Lanark, according to ancient usage, used to parade the streets with a palm, or its substitute, a large tree of the willow kind, (Salix caprea), in blossom, ornamented with daffodils, mezereon, and box-tree. This day was called Palm Saturday, and supposed to be a popish relic of very ancient standing.—Stat. Acc. of Scotland, Sinclair, 1795, vol. xv. p. 45.
March 15.]
PALM SUNDAY.
Palm Sunday receives its English and the greater part of its foreign names from the custom of bearing palm branches, in commemoration of those which were strewn in the path of Christ on his entry into Jerusalem. “It is a custom among churchmen,” says the author of a Normano-Saxon homily in the reign of Henry II., or Richard I., “to go in procession on this day. The custom has its origin in the holy procession which our Saviour made to the place where he chose to suffer death.”
The ceremony of bearing palms on Palm Sunday was retained in England after some others were dropped, and was one of those which Henry VIII. in 1536 declared were not to be discontinued. In a proclamation in the library of the Society of Antiquaries, dated the 26th February, 1539, “Concernyng rites and ceremonies to be used in due fourme in the Churche of Englande,” occurs the following clause: “On Palme Sonday it shall be declared that bearing of palmes renueth the memorie of the receivinge of Christe in lyke maner into Jerusalem before his deathe.” Again, in Fuller’s Church History (1655, p. 222), we read that “bearing of palms on Palm Sunday is in memory of the receiving of Christ into Jerusalem a little before his death, and that we may have the same desire to receive him into our hearts.”
In Howe’s edition of Stow’s Chronicle (1615, fol. p. 595), it is stated, under the year 1548, that “this yeere the ceremony of bearing of palmes on Palme Sunday was left off, and not used as before.”—Med. Ævi Kalend. vol. i. p. 181; Brand, Pop. Antiq. 1849, vol. i. p. 124.
It is still customary with our boys, both in the south and north of England, to go out and gather slips with the willow-flowers or buds at this time. These seem to have been selected as substitutes for the real palm, because they are generally the only things which can be easily obtained at this season. This practice is still observed in the neighbourhood of London. The young people go a-palming; and the sallow is sold in London streets for the whole week preceding Palm Sunday. In the north it is called going a-palmsoning or palmsning.—Brand, Pop. Antiq. 1849, vol. i. p. 127.
Stow in his Survey of London (1603, p. 98) says that “in the weeke before Easter had ye great shewes made for the fetching in of a twisted tree or with, as they termed it, out of the woodes into the kinge’s house, and the like into every man’s house of honor or worship.” Probably this was a substitute for the palm.
An instance of the great antiquity of this practice in England is afforded by the Domesday Survey, under Shropshire, vol. i. p. 252, where a tenant is stated to have rendered in payment a bundle of box twigs on Palm Sunday, “Terra dimid. car unus reddit inde fascem buxi in die Palmarum.”
By an Act of Common Council, 1 and 2 Phil. and Mary, for retrenching expenses, it was ordered, “that from henceforth there shall be no wyth fetcht home at the Maior’s or Sheriff’s Houses. Neither shall they keep any lord of misrule in any of their houses.”—Strype’s Stow, 1720, book i. p 246.
It was formerly the custom in some of the northern parts of England for the young men and maids who received the sacrament to walk after dinner into the corn-fields, and to bless the corn and fruits of the earth.—Kennett, MS. Brit. Mus.
In former days persons resorted to “Our Lady of Nantswell” with a palm cross in one hand and an offering in the other. The offering fell to the priest’s share: the cross was thrown into the well, and if it swam was regarded as an omen that the person who threw it would outlive the year; if however it sank, a short ensuing death was foreboded.—Carew, Survey of Cornwall, 1811.
On Palm Sunday morning, the boys go into the fields and gather branches of the willow; these are carried about during the day, and in some churches it is customary to use them for decoration.—Jour. of Arch. Assoc., 1852, vol. vii. p. 204.
The return of Palm Sunday has, from time immemorial, been observed at Hentland Church in a peculiar manner. The minister and congregation receive from the churchwardens a cake or bun, and, in former times, a cup of beer also. This is consumed within the church, and is supposed to imply a desire on the part of those who partake of it to forgive and forget all animosities, and thus prepare themselves for the festival of Easter.—N. & Q. 3rd S. vol. vii. p. 275.
Hone, in his Year Book (1838, p. 1593), states that at Kempton it has long been a custom for the inhabitants to eat figs on this day, there termed Fig Sunday, where it is also usual for them to keep wassel, and make merry with their friends.
A curious and quaint custom existed for very many years at Caistor Church, in Lincolnshire, on Palm Sunday, connected with a tenure of property; and in the particulars of sale, circulated in 1845, is the following account of it:
“This estate is held subject to the performance, on Palm Sunday in every year, of the ceremony of cracking a whip in Caistor Church, in the said county of Lincoln, which has been regularly and duly performed on Palm Sunday, from time immemorial, in the following manner:
“The whip is taken every Palm Sunday by a man from Broughton to the parish of Caistor, who, while the minister is reading the first lesson, cracks it three distinct times in the church porch, then folds it neatly up, and retires to a seat. At the commencement of the second lesson, he approaches the minister, and kneeling opposite to him with the whip in his hand, and the purse at the end of it, held perpendicularly over his head, waves it thrice, and continues in a steadfast position throughout the whole of the chapter. The ceremony is then concluded. The whip has a leathern purse tied at the end of it, which ought to contain thirty pieces of silver, said to represent, according to Scripture, “the price of blood.” Four pieces of weechelm[24] tree, of different lengths, are affixed to the stock, denoting the different Gospels of the holy Evangelists; the three distinct cracks are typical of St. Peter’s denial of his Lord and Master three times; and the waving it over the minister’s head as an intended homage to the Blessed Trinity.”
[24] Properly Wych elm (Ulmus montana).
In an article on this subject in the Archæological Journal (1849, vol. vi. p. 239), the writer says: “I have not been able to trace this custom to its source. It would appear to have prevailed in very primitive times, and yet the circumstance of the custom requiring the more essential part of the ceremony to be performed during the reading of the second lesson is scarcely reconcilable with this idea; but I am induced to think that the custom prevailed long before our present ritual existed, and that it has in this respect been accommodated to the changes which time has effected in the services of the Church. Unfortunately, the title-deeds do not contain the slightest reference to the custom. I have no means of tracing the title beyond 1675. The parish of Broughton is a very large one, and anterior to 1675 belonged, with small exceptions, to the Anderson family; but whether Stephen Anderson, the then owner of the manor, and the 2200 acres of land sold in 1845, was owner of the other part of Broughton, which has long been in the possession of Lord Yarborough’s ancestors, I cannot say. A partition of the property appears to have been made between the co-heiresses, and the manor and 2200 acres being settled in 1772 by Sir Stephen Anderson, of Eyeworth, on his niece, Frances Elizabeth Stephens, and her issue; upon her death it became the property of her son, Ellys Anderson Stephens, who died in 1844, leaving four daughters and co-heiresses, and who, in 1845, sold the property to a client of mine, Mr. John Coupland, and who afterwards sold the manor and about 600 acres to Lord Yarborough, 982 acres to myself, and other portions to different purchasers, reserving to himself about 200 acres. I cannot make out when this partition (above alluded to) took place. The deed or will by which it was effected would probably refer to the custom and provide for the performance of it, but there is no document with the title deeds tending to show whether the custom was due only in respect of the manor, and 2200 acres, or in respect of Lord Yarborough’s portion of the parish as well. The fact of a partition having taken place, rests rather upon tradition than evidence; but supposing it, as I do, to be a fact, it seems strange that the title-deeds should be silent as to the obligation imposed upon the owner of the manor to perform the service by which the whole property was held. The manor and estate sold in 1845, were of the tenure of ancient demesne; a tenure which is very rare at this time of day, at least in this part of the world. Probably a reference to Lord Yarborough’s title-deeds would clear up the mystery, or Sir Charles Anderson may have the means of doing so.
“I may also refer to Sir Culling Eardley as possibly in a position to throw some light on the subject; for it was to him and his ancestors, as lords of the manor of Hundon, in Caistor, to whom this service was due, and for whose use the whip was deposited after the service in the pew of Caistor Church, belonging to the lord of the manor of Hundon. All the versions that I have seen of the custom favour the opinion that it had some reference to the subject of the second lesson for Palm Sunday, which is the 26th chapter of St. Matthew, and if so, it would seem likely to follow, that the principal part of the ceremony took place at the reading of that chapter; but in that case it has clearly undergone some change, because, until the last revision of the Book of Common Prayer, there was no proper second lesson for the morning of Palm Sunday; but the 26th chapter of St. Matthew was part of the Gospel for that day, and had been so from Anglo-Saxon times.
Perhaps the better opinion is, that this custom, recently discontinued, had been so varied from time to time as to have borne at last little resemblance to what originally took place. I do not suppose at its commencement it was regarded as at all irreverent, or was intended to be otherwise than most decorous, according to the idea of a semi-barbarous age; what it really was at first it is now impossible to conjecture or discover. The explanation suggested in the particulars of sale appears too much in accordance with modern notions to be altogether correct. Some allege a tradition that it was a self-inflicted penance by a former owner of the Broughton estate for killing a boy with such a whip.”
In May, 1836, the following petition was presented to the House of Lords by the lord of the manor against the annual observance of this custom; but without effect:
“To the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament assembled.
“The petition of the undersigned Sir Culling Eardley Smith, of Bedwell Park, in the county of Hertford, sheweth, that your petitioner is lord of the manor of Hundon, near Caistor, in the county of Lincoln.
“That the lord of the manor of Broughton, near Brigg, in the same county, yearly, on Palm Sunday, employs a person to perform the following ceremony in the parish church at Caistor, etc.; that the performance of this superstitious ceremony is utterly inconsistent with a place of Christian worship.
“That it is generally supposed that it is a penance for murder, and that, in the event of the performance being neglected, the lord of the manor of Broughton would be liable to the penalty to the lord of the manor of Hundon.
“That your petitioner being extremely anxious for the discontinuance of this indecent and absurd practice, applied to the lord of the manor of Broughton for the purpose, who declined entering into any negotiation until the deed should be produced under which the ceremony was instituted, which deed (if it has ever existed) your petitioner is unable to produce.
“That your petitioner subsequently applied to the Bishop of Lincoln to use his influence to prevent the repetition of the ceremony, and offered to guarantee the churchwardens against any loss in consequence of their refusal to permit it.
“That your petitioner believes there are no trustees of a dissenting chapel who would permit the minister or officers of their chapel to sanction such a desecration.
“That the ceremony took place, as usual, on Palm Sunday, in this year.
“Your petitioner therefore prays that your Lordships will be pleased to ascertain from the bishop of the diocese why the ceremony took place; that, if the existing law enables any ecclesiastical persons to prevent it, the law may be hereafter enforced; and that, if the present law is insufficient, a law may be passed enabling the bishop to interfere for the purpose of saving the national Church from scandal.
“And your petitioner will ever pray.”
It is the universal custom, with both rich and poor, to eat figs on this day. On the Saturday previous, the market at Northampton is abundantly supplied with figs, and there are more purchased at this time than throughout the rest of the year; even the charity children, in some places, are regaled with them.
No conjecture is offered as to the origin or purpose of this singular custom. May it not have some reference to Christ’s desiring to eat figs the day after his triumphant entrance into Jerusalem?—Baker, Glossary of Northamptonshire Words and Phrases, 1854, i. p. 232.
In some parts of this country figs are eaten on Palm Sunday, which is in consequence called Fig Sunday.[25]—N. & Q. 2nd S. vol. i. p. 227.
[25] See Mid-Lent Sunday.
From time immemorial a fair, or wake, has been held in the churchyard of Crowhurst on Palm Sunday. Formerly, excesses were frequently committed on the occasion through the sale of liquors; but of late years the fair has been conducted with great decorum.—Brayley, Topographical History of Surrey, 1841, iv. p. 132.
On St. Martin’s Hill, near Marlborough, at which there is an ancient camp more than thirty acres in extent, Palm Sunday is kept; and persons in great numbers used to assemble there, each carrying a hazel-nut bough with the catkins hanging from it.—N. & Q. 2nd S. v. p. 447.
In Yorkshire and the northern counties Palm Sunday is a day of great diversion, young and old amusing themselves with sprigs of willow, or in manufacturing palm-crosses, which are stuck up or suspended in houses. In the afternoon and evening a number of impudent girls and young men sally forth and assault all unprotected females whom they meet out of doors, seizing their shoes, and compelling them to redeem them with money. These disgraceful scenes are continued until Monday morning, when the girls extort money from the men by the same means; these depredations were formerly prolonged till Tuesday noon.—Time’s Telescope, 1822, p. 68.
At Filey figs are also eaten on this day.—Cole, History of Filey, 1826, p. 135.
In South Wales Palm Sunday goes by the name of Flowering Sunday, from the custom of persons assembling in the churchyards, and spreading fresh flowers upon the graves of friends and relatives.—Times, 13th April, 1868, p. 7.
March 16.]
Lancashire.
A rural celebration used to be held at Poulton-in-the-Fylds on the Monday before Good Friday, by young men, under the name of “Jolly Lads,” who visited such houses as were likely to afford good entertainments, and excited mirth by their grotesque habits and discordant noises. This was evidently borrowed from the practice of the pace or pask eggers, of other parts of the county, merely preceding instead of following Easter.—Baines, Hist. of Lancashire, 1836, vol. iv. p. 436.
Aubrey, in MS. Lansd., 231, gives the following: It is the custom for the boys and girls in country schools in several parts of Oxfordshire, at their breaking up in the week before Easter, to go in a gang from house to house, with little clacks of wood, and when they come to any door, there they fall a-beating their clacks, and singing this song:
They expect from every house some eggs, or a piece of bacon, which they carry baskets to receive, and feast upon at the week’s end. At first coming to the door, they all strike up very loud, “Herrings, herrings,” &c., often repeated. As soon as they receive any largess, they begin the chorus—
But if they lose their expectation and must goe away empty, then, with a full cry,—
And, in further indignation, they commonly cut the latch of the door, or stop the key-hole with dirt, or leave some more nasty token of displeasure.—Thom’s Anecdotes and Traditions, 1839, p. 113.
March 17.]
ST. PATRICK’S DAY.
In the metropolis, says Stow in his Sports, Pastimes, and Customs of London (1847, p. 241), this anniversary is generally observed at court as a high festival, and the nobility crowd and pay their compliments in honour of the tutelary saint of Ireland. It is usually selected, also, for soliciting aid to a great national object—the promotion of education.
In the Illustrated London News of 22nd March, 1862, p. 285, is the following paragraph:
“Lord Langford, as the highest Irish nobleman in Eton School, presented, on St. Patrick’s Day, the beautifully-embroidered badges, in silver, of St. Patrick, to the head master, the Rev. E. Balston, and the lower master, the Rev. W. Carter, which were worn by the reverend gentlemen during the day. About twenty-four of the Irish noblemen and gentlemen in the school were invited to a grand breakfast with the head master, as is customary on these occasions.”
The shamrock is worn in all parts of Ireland on this day. Old women, with plenteous supplies of trefoil, may be heard in every direction, crying “Buy my shamrock, green shamrocks;” and children have “Patrick’s crosses” pinned to their sleeves. This custom is supposed to have taken its origin from the fact that when St. Patrick was preaching the doctrine of the Trinity he made use of this plant, bearing three leaves upon one stem, as a symbol of the great mystery.[26]
[26] Mr. Jones in his Historical Account of the Welsh Bards (1794, p. 13) says: When St. Patrick landed near Wicklow the inhabitants were ready to stone him for attempting an innovation in the religion of their ancestors. He requested to be heard, and explained unto them, that God is an omnipotent, sacred Spirit, who created heaven and earth, and that the Trinity is contained in the Unity; but they were reluctant to give credit to his words. St. Patrick, therefore, plucked a trefoil from the ground, and expostulated with the Hibernians: “Is it not as possible for the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as for these three leaves to grow upon a single stalk?” Then the Irish were immediately convinced of their error, and were solemnly baptized by St. Patrick.
In Contributions towards a Cybele Hibernica (D. Moore and A. G. More, 1866, p. 73) is the following note: “Trifolium repens, Dutch clover, Shamrock.—This is the plant still worn as shamrock on St. Patrick’s Day, though Medicago lupulina is also sold in Dublin as the shamrock. Edward Lhwyd, the celebrated antiquary, writing in December 1699 to Tancred Robinson, says, after a recent visit to Ireland: ‘Their shamrug is our common clover’ (Phil. Trans., No. 335). Threkeld, the earliest writer on the wild plants of Ireland, gives Seamar-oge (young trefoil) as the Gaelic name for Trifolium pratense album, and says expressly that this is the plant worn by the people in their hats on St. Patrick’s Day. Wade also gives Seamrog as equivalent to Trifolium repens, while the Gaelic name given for Oxalis by Threkeld is Sealgan.”
A correspondent of N. & Q. (4th S. vol. iii. p. 235) says the Trifolium filiforme is generally worn in Cork. It grows in thick clusters on the tops of walls and ditches, and is to be found in abundance in old limestone quarries in the south of Ireland. The Trifolium minus is also worn.
The following whimsical song descriptive of St. Patrick is given on Hone’s authority as one often sung by the Irish:
Every Day Book, vol. ii. p. 387.
It is customary early in February for wealthy farmers and landowners in Ireland to brew ale to be kept till the 17th of March, St. Patrick’s Day; and there is a delicious cake made this day, to be eaten with pickled salmon.—N. & Q. 3rd S. vol. ix. p. 367.
Some years ago this day was welcomed, in the smaller towns or hamlets, by every possible manifestation of gladness and delight. The inn, if there was one, was thrown open to all comers, who received a certain allowance of oaten bread and fish. This was a benevolence from the host, and to it was added a “Patrick’s pot,” or quantum of beer; but of late years whisky is the beverage most esteemed. The majority of those who sought entertainment at the village inn were young men who had no families, whilst those who had children, and especially whose families were large, made themselves as snug as possible by the turf fire in their own cabins. Where the village or hamlet could not boast of an inn, the largest cabin was sought out, and poles were extended horizontally from one end of the apartment to the other; on these poles, doors purposely unhinged, and brought from the surrounding cabins, were placed, so that a table of considerable dimensions was formed, round which all seated themselves, each one providing his own oaten bread and fish. At the conclusion of the repast they sat for the remainder of the evening over a “Patrick’s pot,” and finally separated quietly.—Every Day Book, vol. ii. p. 386.
The following description of St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland is taken from the Time’s Telescope (1827, p. 66): Every one is expected, says the writer, to wear a sprig of shamrock in honour of the saint and his country, and a few pence will supply a family with plenty of this commodity. In the morning upon the breakfast table of the “master” and “the mistress” is placed a plateful of this herb for a memento that it is Patrick’s Day, and they must “drown the shamrock,” a figurative expression for what the servants themselves do at night in glasses of punch, if the heads of the family are so kind as to send down the plate of shamrock crowned with a bottle of whisky, under which is also expected to be found a trifle towards a treat. While the lower circles are, on this blessed of all Irish days, thus enjoying themselves in the evening, the higher are crowding into that room of the castle entitled St. Patrick’s Hall, which is only opened two nights in the year—this, and the birth-night (the 23rd of April); it is a grand ball, to which none can be admitted who have not been presented and attended the Viceroy’s drawing-rooms; and of course every one must appear in court dress, or full uniforms, except that, in charity to the ladies, trains are for that night dispensed with on account of the dancing. A few presentations sometimes take place, after which the ball commences, always with a country dance to the air of “Patrick’s Day,” and after this quadrilles, etc., take their turn.