roasted apples-I have seen bowls used for this purpose that held above a gallon.-A plate of spiced cake was first handed about to the company, and then the Wassail Borel, of which every one partook, by taking with a spoon, out of the ale, a roasted apple, and eating it, and then drinking the healths of the company out of the bowl, wishing them a merry Christmas and a happy new year: the ingredients put into the bowl, viz. ale, sugar, nutmeg, and roasted apples, were usually called Lamb's Wool, and the night on which it used to be drunk (which was generally on the twelfth-eve) was commonly called Wassail-eve. ** I am of opinion that the custom was very ancient; but from whence it arose, or why the mixture was called Lamb's Wool, I do not at present pretend to account. Shakespeare certainly alludes to it in his "Midsummer Night's Dream," where he makes Puck, or Robin Goodfellow, say "Sometimes Jurk I in a gossip's bowl In very likeness of a roasted crabt, And when she drinks, against her lips I bob, a very common accident, especially to old people, who, oftentimes had as much Lamb's Wool in the bowl as they could lift to their heads, and sometimes more than they could do so without assistance. Since the alteration of the style, the Wassail Bowl, or Wassail Cup, as it was more commonly called, is so much gone into disuse in this part of the country, that I have scarcely seen it introduced into company these thirty years. --Indeed the festival of Christmas is not celebrated since that period as it used to be in my remembrance. We have in this place a very ancient custom yet kept up, viz. the Curfeu bells, called here Culfer, i. e. Cool fire, which are two of the church bells rung alternately, every morning and evening, at seven o'clock, during the twelve days of Christmas only, and at no other time of the year.-They make a most disagreeable sound. Yours, &c. JOSIAH BECKWITH. *The festival of Christmas used, in this part of the country, to hold for twenty days, and some persons extended it to Candlemas. ↑ Crab-apple. P. S. Furmety used, in my remembrance, to be always the breakfast and supper on Christinas-eve in this country. 1784, Feb. XCVI. Solemnities of Corpus Christi Day illustrated. MR. URBAN, WE find the solemnities of Corpus Christi day (generally thought to be peculiar to Coventry, and as such recorded in Dugdale's Warwickshire, and Pennant's Journey from Chester) were performed at Dublin with great preparation of pageants. The glovers were to represent Adam and Eve, an angel bearing a sword before them; the corrisees (perhaps curriers,) Cain and Abel, with an altar, and their offering; the mariners and vintners, Noah and the persons in the ark, apparelled in the habits of carpenters and salmon-takers; the weavers personated Abraham and Isaac, with their offering and altar; the smiths, Pharaoh with his host; the skinners, the camel with the children of Israel; the goldsmiths were to find the King of Cullen (Cologne;) the hoopers, the shepherds, with an angel singing Gloria, &c. Corpus Christi gild, Christ in his passion, with the Maries and angels; the taylors, Pilate with his fellowship, and his wife clothed accordingly; the barbers, Anna and Caiaphas; the fishers, the apostles; the merchants, the prophets; and the butchers, the tormenters. Tho. Fitzgerald, earl of Kildare, lord lieut, was invited, Christmas 1528, to a new play every day, wherein the taylors acted Adam and Eve; the shoemakers, Crispin and Crispianus; the vintners, Bacchus, and his story; the carpenters, the story of Joseph and Mary; the smiths, that of Vulcan; and the bakers, that of Ceres. The priors of St. John of Jerusalem, Trinity, and All Saints, caused to be represented on the same stage two plays, Christ's Passion and the Death of the Apostles. The play of The Nine Worthies was also acted on Corpus Christi day, 1541. Harris's Hist. of Dublin, pp. 143. 145. 147. MS. Harl. 2013 and 2124, is a list of pageants or plays to be presented (1600) by the companies at Chester. The tanners are to represent the creation of heaven, angels, and devils; the drapers, that of the world; the water leaders and drawers of Dee, the flood (Noah's wife swears by Christ and St. John;) the barbers and wax-chandlers, Abraham's return from the slaughter of the five kings; the cappers and linen-drapers, the giving of the law; the wrights, the salutation and nativity; the painters, the. shepherds; the vintners, the three kings; the mercers, their offering; the goldsmiths, the slaughter of the innocents; the blacksmiths, the purification; the butchers, the temptation; the glovers, the curing the blind man, and raising of Lazarus; the corvisors, Christ in the house of Simon the leper; the bakers, the Lord's supper, and the betraying of Christ; the fletchers, bowyers, coopers, and stringers, the passion; the ironmongers, the crucifixion; the skinners, the resurrection; the saddlers, the journey to Emmaus, and the appearing to the other disciples; the taylors, the ascension; the fishmongers, the chusing of Matthias, and descent of the Holy Ghost; the clothworkers, Ezekiel's vision of the bones; the diers, the coming of Anti-christ; the websters, the last Judgment. In the first of these MSS. is a proclamation for, Whitsun plays, made by William Nowall, clerk of the pendice, 24 Henry VIII. setting forth, that in "ould tyme not only for the augmentacyon and increes of the holy and catholick faith, and to exhort the minds of common people to good devotion and wholsome doctrine, but also for the commonwealthe and prosperity of this citty [Chester,] a play and declaracy on of divers stories of the Bible, beginning with the creation and fall of Lucifer, and ending with the general judgment of the world, to be declared and played openly in pageants in the Whitsonne weeke, was devised and made by Sir Hen. Frances, somtyme mooncke there; who gat of Ċiement, then bushop of Rome, 1000 days of pardon, and of the bushop of Chester at that tyme 40 days of pardon, to every person resorting in peaceable manner to see and heare the said plays; which were, to the honor of God, by John Aruway, then mayor of Chester, his brethren, and the whole cominalty thereof, to be brought forth, declared, and played at the coste and charges of the craftsmen and occupacyons of the said city, &c." All who disturbed them were to be accursed of the pope till he absolved them. Arnway was mayor 1327 and 1328, at which time these plays were written by R. Higgenett [probably Ranulph Higden] monk of Chester abbey, who was thrice at Rome before he could obtain the pope's leave to have them in English. In Thoresby's MS. of Corpus Christi play, by Tho. Cutler and Rich. Nandyke, now in Mr. Walpole's possession, the trades mentioned are, wefferes [weavers;] cappers [hatters added in a modern hand;] estrereners, gyrdillers, tyllethakkers [tilers, thatchers with tyles ;] spicers, shavers, parchmynners, shermen, and wyne-drawers; merceres, fadded as modern,] Richard, father of Moreton, Bishop of Durham, being the first of that trade, at least in the North of England. Fuller's Worth. York. 229. Thoresby, Duc. p. 517. A note of the particulars of the properties of the stageplay played at Lincoln in the month of July, ao 6 regine Elizabethe, in the time of the mayoralty of Richard Carter; which play was then played in Broadgate in the said city, and it was of the story of Old Tobit in the Old Testament. Lying at Mr. Norton's house, in tenure of William Smart : First, Hell mouth with a nether chap. Item, A prison with a covering. Item, Sarah's chambre. Remaining in St. Swithin's church: Item, A great idol, with a club. Item, A tomb, with a covering. Item, The cyty of Jerusalem, with towers and pinnacles. Item, The cyty of Raiges, with towers and pinnacles. Item, The cyty of Nineveh. Item, The king's palace of Nineveh. Item, Old Tobye's house. Item, The Israelite's house, and the neighbour's house. Item, A firmament, with a fiery cloud and a double cloud, in the custody of Tho. Fulbeck, alderman. We see here the origin of our 'stage-plays, which were at first only those pageants which after-ages levelled to the decoration of a lord mayor's show. 1784, Feb. Q. XCVII. Original of the Offices of Lord High Constable and Earl MR. URBAN, Marshal. Feb. 26. TITLES of honour, as well as those of office, frequently lie so far back in the memorials of antiquity, that it is sometimes difficult to discover the genuine meaning of their appellations; partly owing to the obsolete state of the language in which they are conveyed to us, and partly to a long series of investigation, to be pursued in a variety of authors, many of whom differ in their sentiments upon etymologies. Thus it often happens, that the village, which we want to arrive at, seems to the eye to be at a small distance but many turnings and windings, many unfrequented paths, are very often to be passed, before we can . reach it. The two most ancient, and most puissant officers of this state, were the constable and marshal; originally two offices in one and the same person. There are many authorities which must be examined with attention, before we can command the true signification of these words. Say some, the word constable owes its origin to the ancient Teutonic cunning, king, and stable, firm; so that according to this idea, the constable was an officer who gave strength, firmness, or stability, by his office, to the king. Verstegan, indeed, is of this opinion; but many other authors differ from him. But when we find, that this officer is styled Constabularius, the true construction must be, that such officer was the person who took care to provide stabling, and other necessaries, for the king's horses. Thus in the Register* 88, the marshal is said to be, Constabularius exercitus nostri, Fitzherbert Nat. Brev. 84. The word marshal, after much travel over etymological ground, seems to be derived from the Teutonic Marc, an horse, now a British word, and Scale in the same language, which signifies an overseer, guardian, or curator; and Verstegan, upon consulting his work, seems to coincide with this etymology. The first parliamentary acknowledgment of this officer is in an Act 13 Rich. II. where these words are the prefatory part of that statute: "Because the commons do make grievous complaint, that the court of the constable and marshal hath incroached to him, &c." Now, these two last words are sufficient evidence, that at this juncture the office of constable and marshal was one undivided office, in one and the same person. In the 20th year of this king's reign, the office was severed; and by grant to Thomas Earl of Nottingham, who was by this grant the first Hereditary Earl Marshal, the constable and marshal became two distinct officers.This grant is thus expressed :-" Rex, &c. Sciatis quod cum nos de nostra speciali gratia concesserimus dilecto consanguineo nostro Thoma Comiti de Nottingham officium Mareschalli Angliæ, habendum ad totam vitam suam. Nos jam de ulteriori gratia nostra concessimus præfato consanguineo nostro officium prædictum una cum nomine et honore Comitis Mareschalli, habendum sibi et hæredibus The Register is one of the most ancient authorities in the common law; which contains a copious assemblage of all the original writs at that time in use. It is not quite clear, in what reign this compilation was formed. See Coke on Litt. 159 |