while those of the other, wearing plane-tree leaves in their hats, reply with,

"Plane-tree leaves !

The church-folk are thieves."

In Devonshire, the young rustics of Tiverton, dressed up in the style of the 17th century and armed with swords, parade the streets and gather contributions. At their head is a man called Oliver, in a black suit with a cord bound about him like a tether, and his face and hands smeared with soot and grease. These are followed by another troop in the same costume, and each man bearing an oakbranch, and behind these again come four others carrying a kind of throne, made of oaken boughs, on which a child is seated. The jest of this dull pageant is in the capering of the Oliver, the insults heaped upon him by the rabble of boys, and his punishing them when he can catch them, by rubbing them over with the grime and grease from his own face.

Trinity Sunday.-In all the ancient liturgies this feast was looked upon as an octave of Pentecost.* It appears to have been instituted by Gregory the Fourth, when he removed All Saints' Day to November, because the harvest being then gathered in, the supply of food would be more abundant.† But it was not introduced into this country 'till the time of Archbishop Becket, who ordained it for no better reason as it would seem, than because it was the anniversary of his first mass after his consecration.‡

* Wheatley's Rat. Illustration, &c. p. 245.

"Verùm Greg. quartus hoc festu martyrum transtulit ad Cal. Novembris, ut tunc collectis terræ frugibus convenienter ad hoc festum possent copiosius victualia inveniri, instituens tunc fieri festum non solum apostolorum et martyrum sed etiam Trinitatis et angelorum, &c."-G. Durandi Rationale Div. Offi. lib. vii. c. 34.

"Consecratus igitur iii. Nonas Junii, anno ætatis suæ circiter xl, astantibus omnibus ferè suffraganeis ecclesiæ Cantuariensis præsentibus

Of late years, a fair has been held at Deptford on the following Monday, which is said to have originated in the trifling pastimes of the visitors assembled to see the master and brethren of the Trinity House, on their annual visit to the Trinity House at Deptford. Each year brought with it some addition to the previous amusements, 'till at last the whole, from jingling matches and a show or two, swelled into a regular fair. And with this concludes all that is worthy of note in the month of May.

nunc ibidem. Hic post consecrationem suam instituit festivitatem principalem S. Trinitatis annis singulis in perpetuum celebrandam, quo die primam missam suam celebravit.”—Anglia Sacra, p. 8. Folio. London, 1691.

POPULAR ERRORS AND SUPER-
STITIONS.

POISON-DIET.It is not perhaps likely that many young ladies will be taken with a fancy for feeding upon poisons, yet the case is not altogether an imaginary one. The beautiful Venezia Stanley, Lady Digby, wife to the celebrated Sir Kenelm, is an instance of this. To preserve those charms, which had been the admiration, or the envy, of all who came within their influence, she had brought herself to feed upon vipers, and capons fattened on vipers, and in consequence she was found one morning lifeless in her bed, her face reclining upon one hand.* At least, as she had been labouring under no previous illness, the snails and vipers bore the blame of having killed her. I have seen a picture of her by Petitot, which certainly goes far to excuse the unusual means she took to preserve her beauty. According to this picture she had a full voluptuous form, a fair complexion-pale indeed and clear as the palest and clearest lily-and rich auburn locks flowing in profusion down to the shoulders, and over her white swelling bosom. There is another

* May 1st 1683. She was buried in Christ Church, London.

picture of her and her two sons painted by Vandyke, in which she is teaching them the use of the orrery, and a miniature of her by Peter Oliver, which so late as 1842 was at Strawberry Hill, when the whole collection was brought to the hammer. The story of the snail-and-viperdiet is told by Pennant, though he does not say upon what authority. I have however a distinct recollection of having read a similar account elsewhere but with more details, and it is from this strong impression upon my mind that I have added the particulars of the way in which she was found upon the morning of her death. Even the grave Clarendon alludes to her as being "a lady of an extraordinary beauty."

*

It was not, however, so much to show the danger of poison-eating to the ladies themselves, as to their lovers, that I commenced this article, when the recollection of the beautiful Venezia came across me, and led me away from my purpose. It is time then to come to the story told by Camerarius, which, stript of all that is not absolutely essential, amounts to this. A maiden of surpassing beauty was presented by an Indian king to Alexander the Great, who had been accustomed to feed upon poison so long that it produced no injurious effect upon her. Luckily Aristotle happened to see the dangerous stranger, and judging by the serpent-like sparkling of her eyes how matters stood with her, he exclaimed, "take care what you do, O Alexander; there is peril in this woman." And so the result proved. Those, who ventured to touch her perished in a state of intoxication. The moral that is hidden under this fable is too obvious to need explanation, † but there can be little doubt that it was based upon popular belief. Paracelsus, in speaking

* Pennant's Journey from Chester to London, p. 336. 4to. London. 1782.

+ Camerarius, Cent. 1, p. 263, cap. 69.

*

of the basilisk says that he carries a poison in his eyes, which he compares to those of women under certain constitutional derangements. At the same time it must be allowed that Paracelsus was no friend to the fair sex and was even too glad to catch hold of any story to their disadvantage, while Pliny † on the other hand goes so far as to say, that if a woman stand bare against the weather it will secure sailors and passengers from all tempests—a new sort of lightning conductor, and very profitable to be known by farmers as well as seamen. We have the less reason to doubt its efficacy, when Pliny upon the authority of Democritus relates the yet greater miracle of women, that they can be made to speak truth in their sleep, and by a very simple process. Take out the tongue of a live frog, but mind that no other part adhere to it; then, having first flung the creature into water, apply the extracted part upon the heart of a sleeping woman just where you can feel its palpitation; to whatever you ask she will return a true answer.

The Owl.-Amongst most people he has ever laboured under a bad name as a bird of ill omen, and many are the stories told of this unlucky prophet both in our own and other countries. He seems to be particularly fond of attending the bed of the dying, and letting them know by his presence that there is no hope for them. Thus, when Charles Frederick, Duke of Juliers and Treves, was

*Of the Nature of Things, book i. p. 6.

+ “Jam primùm abigi grandines turbinesque, contra fulgura ipsa in mense nudata; in navigando quidem tempestates etiam sine menstruis." C. Plinii Sec. Nat. Hist. lib. xxviii. cap. 23.

"Democritus quidem tradit si quis extrahat ranæ viventi linguam, nulla alia corporis parte adherente, ipsaque dimissa in aquam, imponat supra cordis palpitationem mulieri dormienti, quæcumque interrogaverit vera responsuram." C. Plinii Sec. Nat. Hist. lib. xxxii. cap. 18.