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with thein (if he can) break down his hut, and making himself a passage out of it, get free and be gone; but he must never come to work, nor have to do any more on the hill. This they call, BURNING of the hill. ""*

Riding of Women.—“ Here also died Anne, wife of King Richard II., sister to Wenceslaus, the emperor, and daughter of the emperor Charles IV.; she first taught the English women that way of riding on horseback, which is now in use, whereas formerly their custom was-though a very unbecoming one-to ride astride like the men."†

Roses on Graves." Here also (Ockley, in Surry, so called from the oaks)—is a certain custom, observed time out of mind, of planting rose-trees upon the graves, especially by the young men and maids, who have lost their lovers, so that this church-yard is now full of them. It is the more reasonable, because we may observe it to have been anciently used both among the Greeks and Romans, who were so very religious in it, that we find it often annexed as a codicil to their wills-(as appears by an old inscription at Ravenna, and another at Milan. Hence that of Propertius implying the usage of burying amidst roses. And old Anacreon speaking of it says that 'it does protect the dead." "§

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debtor died and was buried, and there remained no

* Camden's Britannia, by Gibson, vol. 1, p. 185, fol., London.

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§ Camden's Britannia, vol. 1, p. 236. The passage alluded to by Camden is Anacreon's second Ode to the Rose.

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writings to prove the debt, the creditor came to the grave of the deceased and laid himself all along with his back upon the grave, with his face towards Heaven, and a bible on his breast; and there he protested before God that is above him, and by the contents of the bible on his breast, that the decease there buried under him did owe him so much money, and then the executors were bound to pay him. But in the year 1609 this custom was abolished.'*

Leap-Candle-Dancing the Candle Rush.—" The young girls in and about Oxford have a sport called LeapCandle, for which they set a candle in the middle of the room in a candlestick, and then draw up their coats into the form of breeches, and dance over the candle back and forth with these words,

The tailor of Bicitert he has but one eye

He can not cut a pair of green galagaskins if he were to die. This sport is called in other parts, dancing the candlerush."+

Invisibility."Take on Midsummer night at twelve, when all the planets are above the earth, a serpent, and kill him, and skinne him; and dry it in the shade, and bring it to a powder. Hold it in your hand, and it will be invisible. This receipt is in Joannes de Florentia (a Rosycrucian) a booke in 8vo. in High Dutch. Ridgeley, the physitian hath it, who told me of this."§ A Magicall Receipt to know whom we shall marry roasted hard, and the yolke taken out, and salt putt in its

Dr.

"Eggs

* IDEM; Additions to the Isle of Man; p. 1066, Gibson's Edition of 1695.

i.e. Bicester, Bisseter, or Burcester, situated on a stream that runs into the Charwell at Islip.

AUBREY'S REMAINS OF GENTILISME, fol. 123. MS. Bibl: Lansdown; 231. This notice however has the initials M. K. to it. 8 Idem, folio 131.

sted, filled up, to be eaten fasting to your supper when
you goe to bed.
Mrs. Fines of Albery* in Oxfordshire
did thus; she dreamt of an ancient grey, or white-haired
man, and such a shape, which was her husband. This I
had from her owne mouth.†"

A marginal note however says, "I think only one egge."
Dumb-Cakes." The maids of Oxfordshire have a way
of foreseeing their sweethearts by making a dumb-cake.
That is, on some Friday night several maids and batche-
lors bring every one a little flower, and every one a little
salt, and every one blows an egge, and every one helps to
make it into past; then every one makes the cake, and
lays it on the gridiron, and every one turns it, and
when bakt enough every one breaks a piece, and eats
one part and laies the other just under their pillow
to dream of the person they shall marry.
to be done in serious silence without one word or
one smile, or else the cake looses the name and the
value. W. K.+"

But all this

New-Moon." In Yorkshire, &c., northwards, some
country-women doe worship the new moon on their
bare knees, kneeling on an earth-fast steane§”—i.e. upon
a stone that is firm in the earth.

Misselto (Mistletoe).-"As for the magical qualities of
this plant, and conceived efficacy unto veneficial inten-
tions, it seemeth a pagan relique, borrowed from the
ancient Druiden, the great admirers of oak, especially
the misselto that grows thereon ; which according to the
particular [statement] of Pliny they gathered with great

* I know of no such place as Albury, or Albery, in Oxfordshire.
Bayne's INDEX VILLARUM gives two places of that name in Surrey,
and one in Gloucestershire.

IDEM, folio 137.

IDEM, folio 139. I have also given another account of the
Dumb-Cake at p. 31 of this volume.

SIDEM, folio 151.

solemnity. For after sacrifice the priest in a white garment ascended the tree, cut down the misselto with a golden hook, and received it in a white coate ;* the virtue whereof was to resist all poisons, and make fruitful any that used it-vertues not expected from classical practice; and did they fully answer their promise, which are so commended in epileptical intentions,† we would abate these qualities. Country practices hath added another,—to provoke after-birth-and in that case its decoction is given unto cows. That the berries are poison as some conceive, we are so far from averring, that we have safely given them inwardly; and can confirm the experiment of Brassavolus, that they have some purgative quality.”||

Oak-leaves and Acorns.-"The Druides performed no sacred services without the leaves of oak, and not only the Germans, but the Greeks, adorned their altars with green leaves of oak. In the rites performed to Ceres they were crowned with oak; in those of Apollo, with bays; in those to Hercules with poplar; in those to Bacchus with myrtle (qy. vine?) Was not the oak

i.e., a white cloth, or tunic. In Holland's translation of Pliny, from whom it is plain that Aubrey has borrowed this account, we find, "the priest araied in a surplesse or white vesture climeth up into the tree, and with a golden hooke or bill cutteth it off, and they beneath receive it in a white soldier's cassock or coat of arms. (Holland's Pliny, Book xvi, chap. 44, p. 497, vol. 1.) Now the original word in Pliny is indeed sagum, which in its most common acceptation meant a military robe; but as soldiers' equipments seem quite out of place in a religious ceremony, and as sagum was also used for the cloth, of which the cassock was made, I have no doubt that Pliny meant us merely to understand a white cloth, or woollen robe. +i.e. Tendencies.

Disregard, dispense with.

§ By country-practice, Aubrey means the practice of the rustics. AUBREY'S REMAINS of Gentilisme, &c. ; folio 154.

abused by the Druides to superstition? And yet our late reformers gave order, which was universally observed accordingly, for the acorn, the fruit of the oak, to be set upon the top of their maces, or crowns, instead of the

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Herefordshire Charm-" Mrs. Clarke, a Herefordshire Woman.-Bury the head of a black catt with a Jacobus, or a piece of gold in it, and putt into the eies too black beanes. (What was to be donne with the beanes she had forgot). But it must be donne on a Tuesday at twelve o'clock at night; and that time nine nights the piece of gold must be taken out; and whatever you buy with it, (always reserving some part of the money) you will have money brought into your pocket; perhaps the same piece of gold again."+

Funeral Garlands. "It is a custome still at the funerall of young virgins to have a garland of flowers carried on the corpse, which is hung up in the church over her grave."+

Salt-"The falling of Salt is an authentic presager of ill-luck, nor can every temper contemn it; nor was the same a general prognostic among the ancients of future evil, but a particular omination concerning the breach of friendship; for salt, as incorruptible, was the symbole of friendship, and, before the other service, was offered unto their guests. But whether salt were not only a symbol of friendship with man but also a figure of amity, and reconciliation with God, and was therefore offered in sacrifices, is a higher speculation."§

Fairies.—“ When I was a boy,|| our country-people would

.

IDEM, folio 162.

IDEM, folio 171.

IDEM, folio 166.
SIDEM, folio 172.

i.e. when Aubrey was a boy; for he is the narrator of this fable, and writes in 1625-6, November 3rd, at Esaton-Piers, in the north division of Wiltshire.

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