"Juncus majoribus Festis sparsus in Ecclesia et alibi. Consuetud. MSS. S. Augustini Lemovic. fol. 14. In festo S. Augustini præpostitus debet recipere juncum qui debetur ex consuetudine ad parandum Chorum et capitulum. Codex MS. Montis S. Michaelis annorum circiter 400. Eleemosynarius tenetur etiam invenire Juncum in magnis festivitatibus in choro & in claustro."

The Poet Naogeorgus, as already cited from Hospinian, thus describes this custom :

"redolenti gramine templi Sternitur omne Solum; ramisque virentibus aræ."

In the Churchwardens' Accounts of St. Mary at Hill, in the City of London, 1504, Yongeham and Revell, is the following article: "Paid for 2 Berden Rysshes for the strewyng the newe pewes, 3d." Ibid. 1493, Howtyng and Overy-" for 3 Burdens of Rushes for ye new pews, 3d."

In similar Accounts for the parish of St. Margaret's, Westminster, (4to. p. 12,) under the year 1544, is the following item: "Paid for Rushes against the Dedication Day, which is always the first Sunday of October, 1s. 5d."

In Coates's Hist. of Reading, p. 227, among the entries in the Churchwardens' Accounts of St. Laurence Parish, for 1602, we have: "Paid for Flowers and Rushes for the Churche when the Queene was in towne, xxd."

As

In Thomas Newton's Herball to the Bible, 1587, is the following passage: "Sedge and Rushes with the which many in the Country do use in summer time to strawe their Parlors & Churches, as well for cooleness as for pleasant smell." See Reed's edit. of Shaksp. 8vo. Lond. 1803, vol. xviii. p. 467. "Chambers, and indeed all apartments usually inhabited, were formerly strewed in this manner. our ancestors rarely washed their floors, disguises of uncleanliness became necessary things." Ibid. vol. xii. p. 250. It appears that the English stage was strewed with rushes. The practice in private houses is noticed by Dr. Johnson from Caius de Ephemera Britannica. Compare Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xi. p. 331.

In "Whimzies, or a New Cast of Characters," 12mo. 1631, p. 197, describing a zealous brother, the author tells us: "He denounceth

a heavie woe upon all Wakes, Summerings, and Rush-bearings, preferring that act whereby pipers were made rogues by Act of Parliament, before any in all the Acts and Monuments." In the same work, p. 19 (Second Part), speaking of a Pedlar, the author says: "A Countrey Rush-bearing, or Morrice-Pastoral, is his Festivall: if ever he aspire to plum-porridge, that is the day. Here the guga-girles gingle it with his neat nifles."

So, also, in a curious book, entitled "A Boulster Lecture," 8vo. Lond. 1640, p. 78, we find "Such an one as not a Rush-bearer or May-morrish in all that Parish could subsist without him."

Notices of the custom of Rush-bearing in different parts of Derbyshire will be found in Glover's History and Gazetteer of the County of Derby, vol. i. pp. 259, 260.

Bridges, in his History of Northamptonshire, vol. i. p. 187, speaking of the parish of Middleton Chenduit, says: "It is a Custom here to strew the Church in summer with Hay() gathered from six or seven swaths in Ash-meadow, which have been given for this purpose. The Rector finds straw in winter."

(13) Sir Henry Piers's Description of Westmeath, 1682, in Vallancey's Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis, No. i. p. 123.

"St. Kenelm's: a place consisting only of a few farm-houses, on the south-east side of Clent-Hill, in the Parish of Hales-Owen, and County of Salop. At the Wake held there, called Kenelm's Wake, alias Crab Wake, the inhabitants have a singular custom of pelting each other with CRABS; and even the Clergyman seldom escapes as he goes to or comes from the Chapel." See Gent. Mag. for Sept. 1797, vol. lxvii. p. 738.

(a) Hentzner, in his Itinerary, speaking of Queen Elizabeth's presence-chamber at Greenwich, says, "The floor, after the English fashion, was strewed with Hay," meaning Rushes.

"Henry the Third, King of France, demaunded of Monsieur Dandelot what especiall thinges he had noted in England during the time of his negociation there he answered that he had seene but three thinges remarkable: which were, that the people did drinke in bootes, eate rawe fish, and strewed all their best roomes with Hay, meaning blacke Jackes, Oysters, and Rushes." Wits, Fits, and Fancies, 4to. Lond. 1614, p. 8.

MACROBIUS tells us (1) that, among the Heathens, the Masters of Families, when they had got in their Harvest, were wont to feast with their Servants, who had laboured for them in tilling the ground. In exact conformity to this, it is common among Christians, when the fruits of the earth are gathered in and laid in their proper repositories, to provide a plentiful supper for the harvest-men and the servants of the family. At this entertainment all are, in the modern revolutionary idea of the word, perfectly equal. Here is no distinction of persons, but master and servant sit at the same table, converse freely together, and spend the remainder of the night in dancing, singing, &c. in the most easy familiarity. (a)

Bourne thinks the original of both these customs is Jewish, and cites Hospinian, who tells us that the Heathens copied after this custom of the Jews, and at the end of their Harvest offered up their first-fruits to the Gods.(2). For the Jews rejoiced and feasted at the getting in of the Harvest.

This festivity is undoubtedly of the most remote antiquity. That men in all nations where agriculture flourished should have expressed their joy on this occasion by some outward ceremonies has its foundation in the nature of things. Sowing is hope;_ reaping, fruition of the expected good. To the husbandman, whom the fear of wet, blights, &c. had harassed with great anxiety, the completion of his wishes could not fail of imparting an enviable feeling of delight. Festivity is but the reflex of inward joy, and it could hardly fail of being produced on this occasion, which is a temporary suspension of every care.(3)

The respect shown to servants at this season

(a) See Bourne's Antiq. Vulg. chap. xxxi.

seems to have sprung from a grateful sense of their good services. Everything depends at this juncture on their labour and despatch.

Vacina (or Vacuna, so called as it is said à vacando, the tutelar Deity, as it were, of rest and ease), among the ancients, was the name of the goddess to whom rustics sacrificed at the conclusion of harvest.

Moresin tells us (4) that Popery, in imitation of this, brings home her chaplets of corn, which she suspends on poles; that Offerings are made on the altars of her tutelar Gods, while thanks are returned for the collected stores, and Prayers are made for future ease and rest. Images, too, of straw or stubble, he adds, are wont to be carried about on this occasion; and that in England he himself saw the rustics bringing home in a cart a figure made of corn, round which men and women were singing promiscuously, preceded by a drum or piper.(5)

Different places adopt different ceremonies. There is a sport on this occasion in Hertfordshire, called "Crying the Mare," (it is the same in Shropshire,) when the Reapers tie together the tops of the last blades of corn, which is Mare, and standing at some distance, throw their sickles at it, and he who cuts the knot has the prize, with acclamations and good cheer.(6) I was informed of the following custom on this occasion at Hitchin in the same county, where each farmer drives furiously home with the last load of his corn, while the people run after him with bowls full of water in order to throw on it: this is also accompanied with great shouting.

Thomson, in his Seasons, has left us a beautiful description of this annual Festivity of Harvest Home. His words are these :

And instant Winter's utmost rage defy'd,
While, loose to festive joy, the country round
Laughs with the loud sincerity of mirth,
Shook to the wind their cares. The toil-
strung youth,

By the quick sense of music taught alone,
Leaps wildly graceful in the lively dance.
Her ev'ry charm abroad, the village toast,
Young, buxom, warm, in native beauty rich,
Darts not unmeaning looks: and where her
eye

Points an approving smile, with double
force

The cudgel rattles, and the wrestler twines.
Age too shines out; and, garrulous, recounts
The feats of youth. Thus they rejoice; nor
think

That, with to-morrow's sun, their annual toil
Begins again the never-ceasing round.”(7)

Autumn, 1. 1215, ed. 8vo. Lond. 1793.

I once thought that the northern name of the entertainment given on this occasion, i. e. MELL-SUPPER, was derived from the French word mesler,(8) to mingle or mix together, the master and servant sitting promiscuously at the same table; but some, to whose opinion I pay great deference, would rather deduce it from the Teutonic word Mehl), farina, or meal. It has been also suggested to me that it might come from the Med-Syp. i. e. the Reward Supper.

Professing myself to be guided by no other motive than the love of truth, I may with great pleasure on every occasion retract any opinion of mine that new light shall discover to be erroneous.

The unfortunate Eugene Aram derived MELL, either from Meal, or else from the instrument called with us a Mell, (10) wherewith corn was anciently reduced to meal in a mortar.

There was also a Churn Supper, or more properly a Kern Supper, (so they pronounce it vulgarly in Northumberland,) and a shouting the Church, or Kern. This, Aram informs us, was different from that of the Mell Supper the former being always provided when all was shorn, the latter after all was got in. I should have thought that most certainly Kern Supper was no more than Corn Supper, had not Aram asserted that it was

called the Churn Supper, because, from immemorial times, it was customary to produce in a churn a great quantity of cream, and to circulate it in cups to each of the rustic company, to be eaten with bread. (11)

Armstrong, in his History of the Island of Minorca, p. 177, says: "Their Harvests are generally gathered by the middle of June; and, as the corn ripens, a number of boys and girls station themselves at the edges of the fields, and on the tops of the fence-walls, to fright away the small birds with their shouts and cries. This puts one in mind of Virgil's precept in the first book of his Georgicks,

Et sonitu terrebis aves,

and was a custom, I doubt not, among the Roman farmers, from whom the ancient Minorquins learned it. They also use, for the same purpose, a split Reed; which makes a horrid rattling, as they shake it with their hands."

Bridges, in his History of Northamptonshire, vol. i. p. 219, tells us: "Within the Liberty of Warkworth is Ashe Meadow, divided amongst the neighbouring parishes, and famed for the following customs observed in the mowing of it. The meadow is divided into fifteen portions, answering to fifteen lots, which are pieces of wood cut off from an arrow, and marked according to the landmarks in the field. To each lot are allowed eight mowers, amounting to one hundred and twenty in the whole. On the Saturday sevennight after Midsummer Day, these portions are laid out by six persons, of whom two are chosen from Warkworth, two from Overthorp, one from Grimsbury, and one from Nethercote. These are called Field-men, and have an entertainment provided for them upon the day of laying out the Meadow, at the appointment of the Lord of the Manor. As soon

as the Meadow is measured, the man who provides the feast, attended by the Hay-ward of Warkworth, brings into the field three gallons of ale. After this the Meadow is run, as they term it, or trod, to distinguish the lots; and, when this is over, the Hay-ward brings into the field a rump of beef, six penny loaves, and three gallons of ale, and is allowed a certain portion of Hay in return, though

not of equal value with his provision. This Hay-ward, and the Master of the feast, have the name of Crocus-men. In running the field, each man hath a boy allowed to assist him. On Monday morning lots are drawn, consisting some of eight swaths and others of four. Of these the first and last carry the garlands. The two first lots are of four swaths, and whilst these are mowing the mowers go double; and, as soon as these are finished, the following orders are read aloud: 'Oyez! Oyez! Oyez! I charge you, under God, and in his Majesty's name, that you keep the King's peace in the Lord of the Manor's behalf, according to the Orders and Customs of this Meadow. No man or men shall go before the two Garlands; if you do, you shall pay your penny, or deliver your scythe at the first demand, and this so often as you shall transgress. No man or men shall mow above eight swaths over their lots, before they lay down their scythes and go to breakfast. No man or men shall mow any farther than Monks-holm-Brook, but leave their scythes there and go to dinner, according to the custom and manner of this Manor. God save

the King!' The dinner, provided by the Lord of the Manor's tenant, consists of three cheese-cakes, three cakes, and a new-milkcheese. The cakes and cheese-cakes are of the size of a winnowing-sieve; and the person who brings them is to have three gallons of ale. The Master of the feast is paid in hay, and is further allowed to turn all his cows

into the meadow on Saturday morning till eleven o'clock; that by this means giving the more milk the cakes may be made the bigger. Other like customs are observed in the mowing of other meadows in this parish."

To the festivities of Harvest Home (12) must be referred the following popular custom among the hop-pickers in Kent, thus described in Smart's Hop Garden, b. ii. 1. 177, and of which he gives an engraved representation in the title-page to his Poems, 4to. Lond. 1752. He is describing their competitions :

iis mutuati sunt." Hospin. de Orig. Fest. Jud. Stukius Antiq. Conviv. p. 63. Theophylact mentions "Scenopegia, quod celebrant in gratiarum actionem propter convectas Fruges in Mense Septembri. Tunc enim gratias agebant Deo, convectis omnibus fructibus," &c. Theoph. in 7 cap. Joan.

(3) In Tusser's "Five Hundred Points of Husbandry," under the month of August are the following lines :

"Grant, Harvest-Lord more, by a penny or twoo,

To call on his fellowes the better to doo:

Give Gloves to thy Reapers a Larges to crie, And daily to loiterers have a good eie." On which is this Note in Tusser Redivivus, 8vo. Lond. 1744, p. 100: "He that is the Lord of Harvest is generally some stayed, soberworking man, who understands all sorts of Harvest-work. If he be of able body, he commonly leads the swarth in reaping and mowing. It is customary to give Gloves to Reapers, especially where the Wheat is thistly. As to crying a Largess, they need not be reminded of it in these our days, whatever they were in our author's time."

M. Stevenson, in "The Twelve Moneths," 4to. Lond. 1661, p. 37, speaking of August, thus glances at the Customs of Harvest Home. "The Furmenty Pot welcomes home the Harvest Cart, and the Garland of Flowers crowns the Captain of the Reapers; the battle of the field is now stoutly fought. The pipe and the tabor are now busily set a-work; and the lad and the lass will have no lead on their heels. O'tis the merry time wherein honest neighbours make good cheer, and God is glorified in his blessings on the earth."

The following is in Herrick's Hesperides, p. 113:

"The Hock-Curt, or Harvest Home: to the Right Honourable Mildmay Earle of Westmorland.

Come, Sons of Summer, by whose toile
We are the Lords of Wine and Oile,
By whose tough labours, and rough hands,
We rip up first, then reap our lands,
Crown'd with the eares of corne, now come,
And to the pipe sing Harvest home;
Come forth, my Lord, and see the Cart,
Drest up with all the country art.
See here a Maukin, there a sheet
As spotlesse pure as it is sweet :
The horses, mares, and frisking fillies,
(Clad, all, in linnen, white as lillies,)
The harvest swaines and wenches bound
For joy, to see the Hock-Cart crown'd.
About the Cart, heare how the rout
Of rural younglings raise the shout;(*)

(a) In "Poor Robin's Almanack" for 1676, among the Observations on August, we read ;

"Hoacky is brought Home with hallowin, Boys with Plum-Cake The Cart following."

Pressing before, some coming after,
Those with a shout, and these with laughter.
Some blesse the Cart; some kiss the sheaves;
Some prank them up with oaken leaves :
Some crosse the fill-horse; some, with great
Devotion, stroak the home-borne wheat:
While other Rusticks, lesse attent
To prayers than to merryment,
Run after with their breeches rent.
Well, on, brave boyes, to your Lord's hearth
Glitt ring with fire; where, for your mirth,
You shall see, first, the large and cheefe
Foundation of your feast, fat beefe :

With upper stories, mutton, veale,
And bacon (which makes fulle the meale),
With sev'rall dishes standing by,
And here a custard, there a pie,
And here all-tempting Frumentie."

}

(4) "Vacina Dea, cui sacrificabant Agricolæ messe peracta: Papatus fert domum spiceas coronas, quas a tignis suspendit, nunc altaribus suorum tutelarium offerunt, gratias agunt pro collectis frugibus et otium precantur. Alii stramineas statuas circumferunt. Anglos vidi spiceam ferre domum in Rheda Imaginem circum cantantibus promiscue viris et feminis, precedente tibicine aut tympano." Papatus, p. 173, in v. Vacina.

Newton, in his "Tryall of a Man's owne Selfe," 12mo. Lond. 1602, p. 54, under Breaches of the second Commandment, censures "the adorning with garlands, or presenting unto any image of any Saint, whom thou hast made speciall choise of to be thy patron and advocate, the firstlings of thy increase, as CORNE and GRAINE, and other oblations."

(*) In "A Journey into England by Paul Hentzner in the year 1598," 8vo. Strawb. Hill, 1757, p. 79, speaking of Windsor, he says, "As we were returning to our inn we happened to meet some country people celebrating their Harvest Home; their last load of corn they crown with flowers, having besides an image richly dressed, by which perhaps they would signify Ceres: this they keep moving about, while men and women, men and maid-servants, riding through the streets in the cart, shout as loud as they can till they arrive at the barn."

"I have seen," says Hutchinson in his History of Northumberland, vol. ii. ad finem,