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the olde mayor also in his skarlet gowne, hood of velvet, and a chayne of golde about his neck. Then all the aldermen, ij and ij together (amongst whome is the recorder) all in skarlet gownes; and those that have byn mayors have chaynes of gold, the others have black velvett tippetts. The ij shereffes come last of all, in their skarlet gownes and chaynes of golde.

In this order they passe alonge throwgh the citie to the Guyldhall, where they dyne that daie, to the number of 1000 persons, all at the charge of the mayor and the ij shereffes. This feast costeth £400, whereof the mayor payeth £200, and eche of the shereffes £100. Imediately after dyner they go to the churche of St. Paule, every one of the aforesayd poore men bearynge staffe, torches, and targetts, whiche torches are lighted when it is late before they come from evening prayer."

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The collars of the Lord-Chief-Justices of both benches, and that of the Chief Baron of the Exchequer, were formed of the letter S. and a knot alternately; having a rose set in that part of it which falls upon the middle of the breast, and another on the back, the five flowerleaves of these roses being formed of five large pearls. It is supposed that the judges wear this badge, because St. Simplicius was like themselves a senator, and consequently a gentleman of the long robe.

The collars, which appertained to the kings and heralds of arms, and also to the sergeants at arms, were composed of SS. linked together; in the middle of the breast is a rose, and another in the middle of the back, at each of which formerly hung three small drops of silver. But the SS. in the collars worn by the kings of arms were made somewhat bigger than the others; and in that part lying upon either shoulder was, and still is, a portcullis taken in between the SS. which was wanting in the rest.

The ancient collar was composed entirely of links in the shape of the letter S. and some other varieties existed, though it is hardly worth while to enter more minutely into the detail of them.

* THE BRITISH BIBLIOGRAPHER; by Sir E. Brydges and Joseph Haselewood, p. 540, 8vo. Lond. 1810-14. It is however, as I have

MARTINMAS, MARTLEMAS, OR MARTILMASSE; November 11th.-The festival of St. Martin, one of the most celebrated saints in the Romish calendar, who was born about the year 402 at Sabaria, now called Stain am Angern, a city of Hungary. Sulpicius Severus affirms that he equalled Plato, Socrates, and the apostles,* an opinion, which, it would seem, is highly approved of by Gregory of Tours, as well as by Durandus, so far at least as regarded the latter part of the comparison. Durandus is even at the pains of explaining that Martin was said to rival the apostles, not, as some thought, because he raised the dead, for other saints had done as much, nor yet from the multitude of his miracles, but on account of one miracle in particular. This it is. One day in the depth of winter he met, at the gates of Amiens in Picardy, a poor man quite naked, whom the hard-hearted passers-by refused to relieve; hereupon the saint felt that Heaven had reserved the holy work more especially for himself, and as he possessed nothing but the garment he had on, having spent all beside in charity, he immediately cut it into two, and gave one half to the pauper. In those times such acts of piety seldom went without the reward of a

already noticed, a quotation from an old MS., which I have not been able to find in the British Museum, and which may possibly be in the library of the city of London. Fairholt in his Lord Mayor's Pageants, part i. p. 30, gives a portion of these same quotations, but evidently from Sir E. Brydges, as he makes no distinct reference to the MS.

* "Sciat Corinthus, sciant Athenæ, non sapientiorem in Academia Platonem, nec Socratem in carcere fortiorem ; felicem quidem Græciam, quæ meruit audire Apostolum prædicantem, sed nequaquam a Christo Gallias derelictas, quibus donaverit habere Martinum." SULPICII SEVERI OPERA.-Dialogus iij. p. 326, 16mo. Amstelodami, 1656. Elzevir.

S. GREGORII TURONENSIS OP.-Miraculorum S. Martini, lib. i. p. 999.

cap. 1.

divine revelation, whatever they may do now a-days; and in a vision of the night, the saint saw Christ clothed in the identical half of the robe he had thus given away in charity; at the same time he heard him say to the surrounding angels, "Martin, although he is only a catechumen, gave me this cloak."*

From his early years he had a great fancy for the church, and when only ten years old would fain have been a hermit, much to the annoyance of the tribune his father, who as an old soldier had no sympathy whatever with these spiritual inclinations. When therefore the youthful saint had attained the age of fifteen, his father, in obedience to the royal mandate that the sons of all veterans should be conscripts, delivered him over to the authorities in fetters, and compelled him to become a soldier. Upon this he served for three years, after which he joined the legion of saints, and performed so many miracles that

*The legend here given is from Sulpicius Severus, for though the same story is told by Durandus (p. 303,) yet it is with so many points of difference that I have preferred the older, and therefore the more orthodox, version of the affair. Durand even goes so far as to make Martin Bishop of Tours at the time, whereas Sulpicius says, “quodam itaque tempore, cum jam nihil præter arma et simplicem militiæ vestem, media hyeme, quæ solito asperior inhorruerat, adeo ut plerosque vis algoris extingueret, obvium habet in porta Ambianensium civitatis pauperem nudum; qui cum prætereuntes ut sui misererentur oraret, omnesque miserum præterirent, intellexit vir deo plenus sibi illum, aliis misericordiam non præstantibus, reservari. Quid tamen ageret? nihil præter chlamydem, quæ indutus erat, habebat, jam enim reliqua in opus simile consumpserat. Arrepto itaque ferro, quo incinctus erat mediam dividit, partemque ejus pauperi tribuit, reliqua rursus induitur. Nocte igitur insecuta, cum se sopori dedisset, vidit Christum chlamydis suæ qua pauperem texerat parte vestitum. Intueri diligentissimè Dominum, vestemque quam dederat agnoscere, jubetur. Mox ad angelorum circumstantium multitudinum audit Jesum clara voce dicentem, Martinus, adhuc catechumen, hac me veste contexi*.' ” SULPICII SEVERI DE VITA B. MARTINI LIB. p. 218.

it has taken Gregory of Tours four books, divided into a multitude of chapters, to describe them all.

This festival, which was instituted by Pope Martin about the year 650, is generally considered to have been derived from the Athenian Pythagia,* a feast which was so named from tapping the casks of new wine. It took place on the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth days of the month Anthesterion, corresponding with our November, and in all the vine-growing countries the custom still remains of feasting and rejoicing. In Franconia, as we are told by

"Hæc est læta dies; ista populusque patresque

Luce cados relinunt, et defecata per omnes
Vina ferunt mensas, ac libera verba loquuntur.
Talis apud veteres olim sacrata Lyæo

Lux erat, a priscis vocitata Pithægia Græcis
Quod signata dies aperiret dolia festus."

Hospinian, from whom I quote these lines, says they are from the Fasti of Mantuanus. There are no Fasti, however, in the works of the only Mantuanus I am acquainted with, who was a Carmelite, and has favoured the world with two volumes of mediocre Latin verse.

† “ Τοῦ νέε οἴνε ̓Αθήνησι μὲν ἑνδεκάτη μηνὸς κατάρχονται, Πιθοιγίαν τὴν ἡμέραν καλῶντες· καὶ πάλαι γε (ὡς ἔοικεν) εὔχοντο, το οἴνε, πρὶν ἡ πιεῖν, αποσπένδοντες, ἀβλαβῆ καὶ σωτήριον αὐτοῖς το φαρμάκε την χρῆσιν γενέσθαι.” Plutarchi Symposiacon. Quæstio vii., lib. iii. p. 601. Vol. viii. Edit. Reiskii, 8vo. Lipsiæ, 1777.— At Athens on the tenth of the month (i. e. Anthesterion), they first taste the new wine, calling the day Pythagia. And anciently (as it appears) before they drank, they made a libation of the wine, praying that the use of it might prove harmless and medicinal." The same thing is alluded to in another Symposium : Καὶ μὴν οἴνε γε τὸν νέον οἱ πρωϊαίτατα πίνοντες ̓Ανθεςεριῶνι πίνεσι μηνὶ μετὰ χειμῶνα· καὶ τὴν ἡμέραν ἐκείνην ἡμεῖς μὲν ̓Αγαθό Δαίμονος, ̓Αθεναῖοι δε Пoуíav πрooаyoρεúsσ." IDEM. lib. viii. Quæstio x. p. 932. "They, who drink the wine the quickest, do so in the month, Anthesterion, following winter; and that day we call the Day of the Good Genius, but the Athenians call it PYTHAGIA."-The word is compounded of Πίθος, α cask, and οἴγειν, to open,

Boemus Aubanus,* every one taps his new wine, from which he had hitherto abstained, and no one is so poor that he does not now feed upon meat, or at least upon the inward parts of pigs and calves, fried or broiled, and indulge also in wine more freely. With us the principal remains of the custom are in a more than usual consumption of roasted goose-a practice rather belonging to Michaelmas,†—and in the so-called Martlemas Beef, that is to say beef hung up in

"Nemo per totam regionem tanta paupertate premitur, nemo tanta tenacitate tenetur, qui in festo Sancti Martini non altili aliquo, vel saltem suillo vitulinove viscere assato, vescatur, qui vino non remissius indulgent. Quilibet enim tunc nova vina sua, a quibus se adhuc usque abstinuit, degustat et dat degustare omnia." ORBIS TERRARUM EPITOME. Per Johannem Boemum Aubanum. Lib. iii. cap. 14. p. 241. 12mo. Papiæ. 1596.

In other countries, and here too in earlier times, the goose was as much in use at Martinmas as at Michaelmas. Thus T. Naogeorgus in his Pap. Reg. lib. 4, tells us,

"Altera Martinus dein Bacchanalia præbet,

Quem colit anseribus populus."

Many examples of this might be given, but one or two will be sufficient for our purpose.

"Warne him not to cast his wanton eyne,

On grosser bacon or salt haberdine;

Or dried fliches of some smoked beeve,

Hang'd on a writhen wythe since Martin's eve."

JOSEPH HALL'S VIRGIDEMIARIUM. Book 4. Sat. 4.

The haberdine, mentioned in these lines, is salted cod.
And again in Tusser--

"Martinmas beefe doth beare good tacke

When countrie folks do dainties lacke."

As to the word tacke, it is not easy to say precisely what it means. Todd (Johnson's Dictionary) quotes this very passage, and assures us that tack in Scotland "denotes hold, or persevering cohesion;" as no doubt it does in many cases; but the interpretation hardly seems to hold good here. It may perhaps come from the Swedo-Gothic Tack, "pleasing, grateful," meaning thereby that Martinmas beef is an agreeable fare for rustics lacking dainties; but this also is far from being satisfactory, and is only offered as a conjecture in default of any thing better.

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