XCIV. Emaciated Figures in Churches.

Jan. 19.

MR. URBAN, YOUR correspondent B. R. mentions a circumstance

"In

that has struck me as it seems to have done him. many of our cathedrals is exhibited, on a monument, a whole length recumbent figure of a man, naked, and very much emaciated: and this, the observer is told, is the figure of a certain bishop, who attempted to fast forty days and forty nights, and perished in the experiment." The repetition of this story, in different places, awakened my attention to it, and, upon recollection, I very much doubt whether such a figure ever appears, without having, on a more exalted part of the monument, another recumbent figure of a bishop, in pontificalibus. Now, if this be the case, I should incline to explain it thus. In days of yore I apprehend that, after the death of kings, prelates, and other considerable persons, their bodies were dressed in their official robes, and thus laid in their coffins; that the last mentioned figures are exact effigies of them in this state, and the first mentioned figures equally exact representations of their bodies before they were thus habited; for surely it cannot be deemed extraordinary, that the bodies of such persons, especially as the greater part of them were far advanced in years, should appear meagre and ema ciated after death, and this will be an answer to the question, what was designed by these last mentioned figures, if they are to be found any where, unaccompanied with the effigies in robes? I profess not, by any means, to speak in an authoritative style, but merely to throw out hints, which may engage the attention of some of your readers who are much better qualified to speak to the subject.

1784, Jan.

MR. URBAN,

Yours, &c.

E.

Burbach, April 23.

MANY observations having been lately made in your Magazine by different correspondents in relation to the emaciated figures, so frequently found in our cathedrals connected with the monuments of bishops, abbots, &c. for I am clear it was not confined to these only, having seen the same device under the figure of a lusty well-fed knight; I shall be much pleased if my brother antiquaries will admit the following reasons as conclusive on this subject.

During my travels on the continent, a predilection for matters of antiquity made me seldom pass by any cathedral or old abbey without an interior visit. In several of both these denominations, I repeatedly found the same figure attached to some capital monument, with this difference, that the conductor or monk himself, appointed to shew the premises, never annexed the improbable story of fasting*, &c. I remember seeing one of this kind in the church belonging to the priory of Celestin monks at Heverle, near the town of Louvain in Brabant. I was particularly directed to this figure as an object worthy of my curiosity; it is placed over a monument of a Duke de Croy, and represents a cadaver in the same state nearly as in our English cathedrals, with this horrible yet admirable singularity, that the worms are seen in various parts destroying the body; it is of the finest white marble, and executed in the most masterly manner; yet being so natural and such a melancholy object, few people give it that attention it deserves. From hence I would infer, that, whatever might give rise to the same story told in most of our cathedral or monastic churches, it cannot be applicable to all, but seems to have been the taste of the sculptors of that age, and no improper picture of death and the corruptibility of the body, at the same time conveying an useful though humiliating lesson to persons of high dignity. I sincerely wish that all fabulous traditions may be exploded; and for that reason I felt a secret satisfaction on visiting once more, at my last journey to London, the tombs in Westminster abbey, that the verger no longer amuses the gaping vulgar with the idle story of the lady who died by the prick of a needle in her finger, when it is evident to the most common judgment, that the figure is pointing to a death's head below.

1784, May.

Observator.

XCV. Ancient Customs elucidated.

$1. The Feast of Yule.--Mothering Sunday.

Jan. 7.

MR. URBAN, As a correspondent of yours is desirous, amongst other

* In Canterbury cathedral there is a like emaciated figure under the fine monument of Abp. Chicheley, of whom no such story is recorded,

customs, of knowing the original of regaling on furmety on what he calls "Mothering Sunday," I have here sent you what has occurred to me towards tracing it out. As to "Mothering Sunday," of which another correspondent confesses his ignorance, and which indeed I never heard of before, I suppose it may be some Sunday near Christmas, and has reference to the winter solstice, the night of which was called by our ancestors Mother-night, as they reckoned the beginning of their years from thence. But be this as it will, I know it is a custom in the northern counties to have furmety, or frumity, as the common people there call it, on Christmas-eve; however the word be pronounced, it is probably derived from frumentum, wheat. It is made of what is called in a certain town in Yorkshire "kreed wheat," or whole grains first boiled plump and soft, and then put into and boiled in milk sweetened and spiced. One of the principal feasts among the northern nations was the Juul, afterwards called Yule, about the shortest day; which, as Mr. Mallet observest, bore a great resemblance to the Roman Saturnalia, feasts instituted in memory of Noah, who, as Mr. Bryant has shewn, was the real Saturn, and, from the light he has thrown on this subject, the Juul might have a greater affinity with them than Mr. Mallet was aware. In almost all the ancient nations, anniversary seasons were observed in commemoration of something or other relating to Noah or the deluge: but in process of time the originals were forgotten by many of them, and they were diverted to other purposes, which has occasioned some perplexity. In September the Egyptians, Canaanites, and others, made bitter lamentations for the dead Osiris, Jammuz, Adonis, Serapis, or Apis, on the bier, by all which names Noah was denoted; and this was in commemoration of his being at that time shut up in the ark. They also observed a festivity in commemoration of his coming out again, when they ran about in a wild disorderly manner, making great exclamations with other demonstrations of frantic mirth. Besides which there seems to me to have been another celebrated, as the Romans did their Saturnalia, in December, when all were considered on a level, like master, like man; and this was to express the social manner in which Noah lived about this time with his family in the ark, when the great storms and tempests had ceased, and all the oppressors and

*On this head let the curious reader consult "The Furmetary," a delect

able poem of the facetious Dr. King. SCRIBLERIUS,

disturbers of mankind were destroyed. Of this kind, I take it, was the feast Juul; and as Noah was not only adored as the god of the deluge, but also recognised as a great benefactor to mankind by teaching or improving them in the art of husbandry, what could be more suitable than for them to regale themselves on it with a palatable dish for those times, the principal ingredient of which is wheat? Those times were held peculiarly sacred by the idolisers of Noah, which were adapted to express the perishing of the old world and the revival of the new, as that of the new moons; and, as then one ended and another began, they called it the old and new day and the winter solstice might seem to the northern nations more fully to answer this purpose, as on it they ended the old and began the new year. That this rejoicing on Christmas-eve had its rise from the Juul, and was exchanged for it, is evident from a custom practised in the northern counties of putting a large clog of wood on the fire this evening, which is still called the Yule clog: the original occasion of it may have been, as the Juul was their greatest festival, to honour it with the best fire. About this, in the rude and simple ages after the change, the whole household, which was quite agreeable to the nature of the old feast, used to sit, stand, or play, in a sportive manner, according to the proverb of those times,

All friends around the wrekin.

Now what gave occasion to this exchange was this: in the degenerate ages it was the usual method to convert these barbarians by adapting the Christian religion, as much as possible, to their ancient usages and customs; and one most prevailing way they took for doing it was, by promising them they should be indulged with the same or like feasts in it as what they enjoyed before in Paganism. Hence for the Juul they gave them to understand they should enjoy the feast of Christmas, and indulged them with this part of their feast on its eve, which they might think innocent, and would not break in much upon this festival, and agreed with their ancient manner of beginning theirs. However, from that strong attachment the multitude always have for their ancient customs, many of them for some time afterwards called it Christmas Yule; and this seems to have prevailed the longest in the northern counties. In the same manner as the feast of our Lord's Resurrection was substituted for another festival they held in the spring or Easter month, as April was then called, from the easterly winds which prevail at this time, it is called Easter among us to

this day. But, by the bye, I think it high time this old denomination was laid aside, and the true one restored. It would be much the best to have all our Christian festivals called by their most true, simple, and expressive names, that people of all ranks might hence be more strongly reminded of what great, glorious, and interesting events they are intended to recal into their minds, and so be excited to think more seriously about them, and take comfort from them. We have another instance of this impropriety in Acts xii. 4, where our translators have put Easter for the Passover. J. M.

SCRUTATOR observes, that "Mothering Sunday" is explained in Bailey's Dictionary, 8vo. where it is said, that

Mothering is a custom still retained in many places in England, of visiting parents on Midlent Sunday; and it seems to be called Mothering from the respect in old time paid to the Mother church, it being the custom for people in Popish times to visit their Mother church on Midlent Sunday, and to make their offerings at the high altar."

A Nottinghamshire correspondent tells us, that, when he was a school-boy, the practice on Christmas-eve was to roast apples on a string till they dropt into a large bowl of spiced ale, which is the whole composition of "Lamb's Wool;" and that, whilst he was an apprentice, the custom was to visit his mother on Midlent Sunday (thence called Mothering Sunday,) for a regale of excellent furmety.

§ 2. Lamb's Wool.-Wassail Bowl:

MR. URBAN,

N.

Rotherham, Dec. 17.

YOUR anonymous correspondent having said that he never heard of Lamb's Wool on Christmas-eve, and cannot guess the meaning, I am induced to trouble you with the following attempt at an explanation of what was meant by the expression.

In that part of Yorkshire [near Leeds] where I was born, and spent my youth, I remember, when I was a boy, that it was customary for many families, on the twelfth eve of Christmas, (not on Christmas-eve,) to invite their relations, friends, and neighbours to their houses, to play at cards, and to partake of a supper, of which minced pies were an indispensable ingredient; and after supper was brought in the assail Cup, or Wassail Bowl, being a large bowl, such as is now used for punch, filled with sweetened ale and