the two images as they passed, and afterwards gathered them up again. "For falsely they beleive that these have force and vertue great Against the rage of winter storms and thunder's flashing heate."* There seems, however, to be some reason for supposing that the ceremony in question, though the Roman Catholics have explained it as symbolizing Christ's entry into Jerusalem, may after all be nothing more than the old Pagan custom of carrying Silenus this day in triumph. Dr. Clark tells us that it is still usual to carry Silenus in procession at Easter, and we have already seen on more than one occasion how fond the old Church was of giving a Christian signification to heathen ceremonies, when they were unable to put them down. As palms were not always, or even often to be procured in this country, the box, the willow, and occasionally the yew, were substituted. As regards the first, Newton in his "Herball for the Bible," after mentioning that the box-tree and the palm were often confounded together goes on to say, "this error grew, as I thinke, at the first for that the common people in some countries used to decke their church with the boughs and branches thereof on the Sunday next before Easter, commonly called Palme Sunday; for at that time of the yeare all other trees, for the most part, are not blowen or bloomed." But indeed we have a much more ancient authority for the use of box-wood on this day. In the Domesday Survey, under Shropshire, vol. i. fol. 252, 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." As respects the occasional substitution of the willow for the palm-tree, there is a passage in Stow, which af * Barnaby Googe's Translation of Naogeorgus. † 8vo. London, 1587, p. 206-as quoted by Brand, vol. 1, p. 71. fords a good inferential evidence of the fact, though it may not be stated in so many words. This excellent old writer tells us, 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.* If however, this should by any be deemed insufficient, there is decisive evidence of the custom in the following lines from Barnaby Googe; † "Besides they candles up do light, of vertue like in all, And willow-branches hallow, that they palmes do use to call." Yet more convincing, if any thing can be more so, is what we find in Cole's Adam in Eden,- "The blossoms come forth before any leaves appear, and are in the most flourishing estate usually before Easter, divers gathering them to deck up their houses on Palm Sunday, and therefore the said flowers are called Palme."+ Lastly as to yew, which, it must be allowed seems a strange substitute for the branches of the Palm-tree. The evidence however is no less direct than in regard to the box and willow, as appears by the previous quotation from Strutt.§ According to the new edition of Brand, this custom ceased in the second year of Edward the Sixth, but no notice of the kind appears either in Wheatley, or in Stow, the two authorities, to which the editor refers.|| * Stow's 66 Survay of London," Small Qrto. 1603.-page 98; under the head of "Sportes and Pastimes." + Fol. 42. As cited by Brand in " Popular Antiquities," Vol. 1. P. 71. 8vo. § As cited in the Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. 50.-March 1780, p. 128. See Brand's Popular Antiquities, vol. i. p. 111. Qrto. Lond. 1813. But, as I have before had occasion to remark, the whole work swarms with errors, every single one that existed in the quarto being faithfully reprinted in the octavo with an abundant increase. Thus the quotation given presently by me from Carew, is in both edi‐ tions referred to as being at page 144, instead of 344, besides that it is unnecessarily garbled. While, however, palms retained their sanctity in connection with the day, it was usual to preserve pieces of the hallowed wood formed into small crosses, which the devout carried about them in their purses. * In Cornwall, these crosses had a peculiar application; Carew says, "Little Colan hath less worth the observation; unless you will deride or pity their simplicity, who sought at our Lady Nant's Well there to fore-know what fortune should betide them, which was in this manner-Upon Palm Sunday these idle-headed seekers resorted thither, with a palm-cross in one hand, and an offering in the other; the offering fell to the priest's share; the cross they threw into the well, which if it swam, the party should outlive that year; if it sunk, a short-ensuing death was boded; and perhaps not altogether untruly, while a foolish conceit of this halsening,† might the sooner help it onwards. A contrary practice to the Goddess Juno's lake in Laconia; for there if the wheaten cakes, cast in upon her festival day, were by the water received, it betokened good luck; if rejected, evil. The like is written by Pausanias, of Inus in Greece; and by others, touching the offerings thrown into the furnace of Mount Etna in Sicily."‡ Passion Week; Tenebræ. The week succeeding Palm Sunday, or that which immediately precedes Easter, is * Vide " A Dialogue or Familiar Talke, betwene two Neighbours &c.," from Roae, by Michael Wodde, 1554, as cited by Brand, vol. i. p. 74, 8vo. Edit. †The adjective halsening is explained by Todd in his edition of Johnson's Dictionary to mean "sounding harshly;" it rather seems to mean "ill-omened," both in the passage quoted, and here in the substantive form, which last he has omitted to notice. He cites from another part of Carew, "this ill-halsening, horny name hath, as Cornuto in Italy, opened a gap to the scoffs of many." The literal meaning of the word is no doubt merely sounding, from the German, Hals, "the throat." Carew's Survey of Cornwall, p. 344, qrto. London, 1811. called Passion Week from the obsolete, but proper meaning of the word PASSION, i. e. suffering, in reference to the suffering of Christ upon the Cross. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of this week, are the days on which the offices, called Tenebræ, are celebrated, but as a rehearsal of the singing usually took place on the Wednesday immediately previous, that day also came to be considered as belonging to them. The word is derived from the Latin, tenebra, i. e. darkness, and, the office is one of the most striking in the calendar of the Roman Catholic Church. The appellation of darkness or dark days has been given "because," says an old writer,* "thereby they represent the darkness that attended and accompanied our Lord's Crucifixion; and then also that Church extinguish all her lights; and after some silence, when the whole office is concluded, they make a sudden great noise to represent the rending of the veil of the Temple and the disorder the whole frame of nature was in at the death of her Maker." On this occasion, the principal characters and events of the day were thus symbolized. In a triangular candlestick were fourteen yellow wax tapers, seven on each side, and a white one at the top. The fourteen yellow candles represented the eleven apostles, the Virgin Mary, and the women that were with her at the crucifixion, while the white taper above was the emblem of Christ. Fourteen psalms were sung, and at the end of each a light was put out, till the whole fourteen were thus extinguished, and the white candle alone was left burning, which was then taken down and hid under the altar. The extinction of the fourteen lights symbolized the flight or mourning of the apostles and the women, and the hiding of the white taper denoted that Christ was in the sepulchre. At this moment of total darkness a noise was made by beating Festa Anglo-Romana, p. 43. * the desks and books, and stamping upon the floor, which, as already said, was intended to represent the earthquake, and the splitting of rocks at the crucifixion.* Holy Thursday, Shere Thursday, or Maunday Thursdayis the Thursday before Easter. Many etymologies have been given for the word, Shere. In an old homily, quoted in the Weekly Packet of Advice from Rome, we read that the day was so called, "for that in old fathers' days the people would that day shere theyr hedes and clypp they berdes, and pool theyr heedes, and so make them honest ayent Easter Day."+ In Junius the word sheer is explained to signify purus, and a writer in the "Gentleman's Magazine," who signs himself T. Row, has concluded that it has a reference "to the washing of the disciples' feet, and be tantamount to clean." But to sheere is also the Anglo-Saxon word for "to divide," and it is even more likely to allude to the breaking of the bread by Christ, and the division of it amongst his disciples. There is the greater reason for this supposition in that the custom, still retained among us, of a royal dole of alms on that day is clearly a commemoration of the last supper. The only difference is, that in the early ages kings themselves washed the feet of the poor, and that when the first part of the custom became obsolete, they yet condescended to distribute the alms. James the Second was the last who performed this duty, and since his time the doles have been portioned out by an almoner, the number of mendicants being regulated by the years of the monarch, so that the poor at least have good reason to pray that the king may live long.§ *For a full account of this office, see Alban Butler's "Moveable Feasts." † As cited by Brand, vol. i. p. 83. Vol. xlix. p. 349, July, 1779. § A lively account of this ceremony will be found in the Gentleman's Magazine for April 1731, vol. i. p. 172. And in Le Guide de |