arises the old saying "that he which repents him not of his marriage, either sleeping or waking in a year and a day, may lawfully go to Dunmow and fetch a gammon of bacon away." It is unknown when or with whom the custom originated, but that it did exist there can be no doubt whatever. In Blount we read, “I have enquired of the manner of it, and can learne no more but that it continued untill the dissolution of that house,* as also the abbies. And that the party, or pilgrim for bacon was to take his oath before prior, and convent, and the whole town, humbly kneeling in the churchyard upon two hard-pointed stones, which stones some say are there yet to be seen in the prior's church-yard; his oath was ministred with such long process, and such solemne singing over him, that doubtless must make his pilgrimage (as I may terme it) painfull; after, he was taken up upon men's shoulders, and carried, first about the priory churchyard, and after through the town with all the fryers and brethren, and all the townsfolke, young and old, following him with shouts and acclamations, with his bacon borne before him, and in such manner (as I have heard) was sent home with his bacon; of which I find that some had a gammon, and others a flecke, or a flitch; for proof whereof I have, from the records of the house found the names of three several persons that at several times had it." t *It continued long after, as both Blount and his editor, Beckwith, must have known, since, in the very document they are quoting from, the fact is distinctly recorded. At all events we find the custom existing so late as the June of 1750, a tolerably long date from "the dissolution of that house," or of any other priory. + Blount's Fragmenta Antiquitatis.-By Beckwith, p. 520, 4to. London. 1815. He would seem by the spelling of his verses to have quoted from an earlier copy than the historian, Morant, but it is far from being so correct. The hard-pointed stones, on which the claimant was forced to kneel, while attesting his conjugal felicity, were bad enough in all reason, and plainly shewed the Lord of the Manor was willing to save his bacon if possible; but the oath was of a nature, one would have thought, to preclude any husband of three weeks standing from the trial, providing only he had the least conscience; it was ten times harder of digestion than that which we have already seen propounded to the candidates for the flitch at Whichenovre. It is thus given by Morant in his History of Essex.* "You shall swear by custom of confession, Though the pleasure be ours, the bacon's your own." The last time this premium on conjugal love and fidelity was ever received was on the 20th of June, 1750, by John Shakeshanks, wool-comber and Anne his wife, of Wethersfield. * P. 429, Vol. ii, folio, Lond. 1768. THE MONTHS-NOVEMBER. NOVEMBER like the two preceding months has its name without alteration from the Latin, which was so called because reckoning from March it was the ninth month of the year. Among our Saxon ancestors it had the name of Wint-monath, that is Wind-month,-wint being the Saxon word for wind-on account of the prevalence of high winds at this season; and Blot-monath, i.e., Bloodmonth, the month of immolations,-for blot means blood,because the cattle, which they now killed in abundance for their winter store, were dedicated to their Gods;† or, what seems yet more probable, from the quantity of blood that was shed at this season in the slaughter of so many animals. Our Floral record must here cease, nothing remaining either to field or garden but a few fungi and other cryptogamia. Even the Fauna ceases to contain any thing of general interest. "The females and young of the Brown or Norway Rat now leave their holes at the sides of ponds and rivers, to which they had betaken. themselves in the spring, and repair to barns, outhouses, cornstacks, and dwellings. The males are said to remain * Verstegan's Restitution of Decayed Intelligence, p. 49, Edit. 1655. +"BLUMTONATH, mensis immolationum, quod in eo pecora, quæ occisuri erant, Diis suis voverent." BEDE OPERA.-De Temporum Ratione. Cap. xiii. tom. ii. p. 68. in their holes, having laid up a winter-store of acorns, The black rats have become scarce." "'* At this period of the year the rooks are observed to keep very good hours. When the evenings are dark, but mild and comparatively calm, they may be seen returning home between three and four o'clock, in parties of several hundreds. On such occasions they are generally attended by their friends and kinsmen, the jackdaws; sometimes too the starlings will join them in the course of the day, and the three may be seen feeding amicably together. The first day of November was dedicated, as Vallancey informs us, to the angel presiding over fruit, seeds, &c., "and was therefore named La Mas Ubhal, that is, the day of the apple fruit; and being pronounced Lamasool, the English have corrupted the name to Lambswool, a name they give to a composition made on this eve (Allhallow's Eve) of roasted apples, sugar, and ale.”† ALL SAINTS DAY; OMNIUM SANCTORUM FESTUM ; November 1st.-There can be little doubt as to the origin of this observance, though there is some obscurity in regard to the Pantheon, from which it was derived. As the Gods of Rome were too numerous to be contained in one temple, Agrippat erected the Pantheon, and so called it, as some say, because he held the images of Mars and Venus that were placed therein to be of themselves equivalent to all the Gods; or, as others explain it, because the temple being circular it appeared more like Heaven, and therefore more like the habitation of all the deities; *Forster's Perennial Calendar. VALLANCEY, COLLECTANEA DE REBUS HIBERNICIS, vol. iii., p. 449-All Hallow Eve. Ingenious as this derivation may appear, I must confess that it seems to me to be very questionable. Beda indeed maintains, in defiance of Dion's authority and of the inscription still remaining on the walls, that it was built by Domitian M. AGRIPPA L. F. CONSUL TERTIUM FECIT.-See Beda Martyrologia, D. Calend. Novemb. for the statement in regard to Domitian. while some again assert that it was dedicated to Cybele the mother of the Gods; and Pliny affirms that it was sacred to Jupiter the Avenger. However this may be, it bore a comprehensive name that seems to include in some way or another all the Gods, or,—as Bede not very civilly terms it, all the devils; and hence, at the instigation of Pope Boniface, the Emperor Phocas ordered the temple to be purified of its idolatrous dregs, and as it had before been dedicated to all the Gods of Heathenism, it should now be made sacred to all the Saints of Christianity as well as to the Virgin Mary,* and this service therein to be daily celebrated. Gregory the Fourth however at a later period limited the festival to the first of November, and excluded the Virgin Mary from any share in it. The Golden Legend has wonderfully improved on the original story, the substance of it being this; the Romans, having conquered all the world, "they made a ryght grete temple, and sette theyr ydolle in the mydle. And all about this ydolle they sette the false ymage of all the provynces, so that all the ymages behelde ryght th' ydolle of Rome; and it was ordeyned by arte of the devell that whan a provynce shold rebelle ageynst the Romans, th' ymage of that provynce sholde tourne his back to th' ydolle of Rome, lyke as in shewynge that it departed fro the sygnorye of Rome.† And thenne anone "Festivitas Omnium Sanctorum; petente namque Papa Bonifacio, jussit Phocas, imperator, in veteri fano, quod Pantheon vocabatur, et a Domitiano prius factum erat, ablatis idolatriæ sordibus, ecclesiam beatæ semper Virginis Mariæ et omnium fieri martyrū; ut ubi quodam omnium ño deorum sed dæmonum cultus agebatur, ibi deinceps omnium fieret memoria Sanctorum." BEDE MARTYROLOGIUM. D. Calend. Novemb. This passage is most corruptly given in Julyan Notary's edition of 1513, from which I first made my extract. The errors have been corrected and the omissions supplied from Caxton's folio, published at Westmestre, 1483. |