houshold, for his hall was every daye in somer season strewed with grene russhes, and in wynter with clene hey, for to save the knyghtes clothes that sate on the flore for defaute of place to syt on."

Mr. Pennant, in his "Tour in Scotland," remarks a singular custom in many parts of North Britain, of "painting on the doors and window-shutters white tadpole-like figures, on

com

a black ground, designed to express the tears of the country for the loss of any person of distinction. Nothing seems wanting to render this mode of expressing sorrow pletely ridiculous but the subjoining of a N. B. These are tears.' I saw a door that led into a family vault in Kelso churchyard in 1785, which was painted over in the above manner with very large ones."

MINNYNG Days, says Blount, from the Saxon Gemýnde, (1) days which our ancestors called their Month's Mind, their Year's Mind, and the like, being the days whereon their souls (after their deaths) were had in special remembrance, and some office or obsequies said for them; as obits, dirges, &c. This word is still retained in Lancashire; but elsewhere they are more commonly called Anniversary Days. The common expression of "having a month's mind," implying a longing desire, is evidently derived from hence. (2)

We read in Fabyan's Chronicle that "In 1439 died Sir Roberde Chichely, grocer, and twice mayor of London, the which wylled in his testament (3) that upon his Mynde Day a good and competent dyner should be ordayned to xxiiii C. pore men, and that of housholders of the citee, yf they myght be founde. And over that was xx pounde destributed among them, which was to every man two-pence."

(1) I. e. the Mind, q. Myndyng Days, Bede, Hist. Eccl. lib. iv. ca. 30. Commemorationis Dies.

(2) The following is in Peck's "Desiderata Curiosa," vol. i. p. 230 :—“ By saying they have a month's mind to it, they anciently must undoubtedly mean that, if they had what they so much longed for, it would (hyperbolically speaking) do them as much good (they thought) as they believed a Month's Mind, or service said once a month, (could they afford to have it,) would benefit their souls after their decease."

(3) The following is an extract from the will of Thomas Windsor, Esq., 1479:

"Item. I will that I have brennyng at my burying and funeral service four tapers and twenty-two torches of wax, every taper to

conteyn the weight of ten pounds, and every torch sixteen pounds, which I will that twenty-four very poor men, and well disposed, shall hold as well at the tyme of my burying as at my Moneth's Minde. Item. I will that, after my Moneth's Minde be done, the said four tapers be delivered to the churchwardens, &c. And that there be a hundred children within the age of sixteen years to be at my Moneth's Minde, to say for my soul. That against my Moneth's Minde the candles bren before the roode in the parish church. Also that at my Moneth's Minde my executors provide twenty priests to singe Placebo, dirige, &c." See Gent. Mag. for 1793, vol. lxiii. p. 1191.

Fabyan the historian, himself, also, in his will, gives directions for his Month's Mind: "At whiche tyme of burying, and also the

Monethis Mynde, I will that myne executrice doo cause to be carried from London .xii. newe torches, there beyng redy made, to burn in the tymes of the said burying and Monethes Minde: and also that they do purvay for .iiii. tapers of .iii. b. evry pece, to brenne about the corps and herse for the foresaid .ii. seasons, whiche torches and tapers to be bestowed as hereafter shalbe devised; which .iiij. tapers I will be holden at every tyme by foure poore men, to the whiche I will that to everyche of theym be geven for their labours at either of the saide .ij. tymes .iiij.d. to as many as been weddid men: and if any of theym happen to be unmarried, than they to have but .iij.d. a pece, and in lyke manner I will that the torche berers be orderid." In another part of his Will he says: "Also I will, that if I decesse at my tenemente of Halstedis, that myn executrice doo purvay ayenst my burying competent brede, ale, and chese, for all comers to the parishe churche, and ayenst the Moneths Mynde I will be ordeyned, at the said churche, competent brede, ale, pieces of beffe and moton, and rost rybbys of beffe, and shalbe thought nedeful by the discretion of myn executrice, for all comers to the said obsequy, over and above brede, ale, and chese, for the comers unto the dirige over night. And furthermore I will that my said executrice doo purvay ayenst the said Moneths Mynde .xxiiij. peces of beffe and moton, and .xxiiij. treen platers and .xxiiij. treen sponys; the whiche peces of fleshe with the said platers and spoonys, wt. .xxiiij.d. of siluer, I will be geven unto .xxiiij. poore persones of the said parisshe of Theydon Garnon, if win that parishe so many may be founde: for lake whereof, I will the .xxiiij. peces of flesh and .ij.s. in money, wt the foresaid platers and sponys be geven unto suche poore persones as may be found in the parisshes of Theydon at Mount, and Theydon Boys, after the discrecion of myn executors; and if my said Monethes Mynde fall in Lent, or upon a fysshe day, then I will that the said .xxiiij. peces of fleshe be altered unto saltfyche or stokfyshe, unwatered and unsodeyn, and that every piece of beef or moton, saltfyshe or stokfysh, be well in value of a peny or a peny at the leest; and that noo dyner be purveyed

VOL. II.

for at hom but for my household and kynnysfolks and I will that my knyll be rongyn at my Monethes Mynde after the guyse of London. Also I will that myn executrice doo assemble upon the said day of Moneths Mynde .xij. of the porest menys children of the foresaid parisshe, and after the masse is ended and other obseruances, the said childern to be ordered about my grave, and there knelyng, to say for my soule and all Cristen soules, De profundis,' as many of them as can, and the residue to say a Pater noster, and an Ave oonly; to the which .xij. childern 1 will be geven .xiij.d., that is to meane, to that childe that beginneth 'De profundis' and saith the preces, ij.d. and to eueryche of the other j.d." See Fabyan's Chron. new edit. Pref. pp. iv. vi.

"I shulde speake nothing, in the mean season, of the costly feastes and bankettes that are commonly made unto the priestes (whiche come to suche doinges from all partes, as ravens do to a deade carcase) in their buryinges, moneths mindes and yeares myndes."

Veron's Huntyng of Purgatory, 8vo. Lond. 1561, fol. 36.

In the Churchwardens' Accounts of St. Mary Hill, in the city of London, Anno 17 & 19 Edw. IV. (Palmer and Clerk,) are the following articles:

"Pd to Sir I. Philips for keepyng the Morrow Mass at 6 o'clock upon feryall days, each quarter v.s.”

"To the par. priest to remember in the pulpit the soul of R. Bliet, who gave vj.s. viij.d, to the church works, ij.d."

In Mr. Nichols's Collection of Churchwardens' Accounts, 4to. Lond. 1797, Accounts of St. Margaret, Westminster, p. 10, we read:

"Item, at the Monyth Mynde of Lady Elizabeth Countess of Oxford for four tapers, viijd."

Under the year 1531 is,

"Item, for mette for the theff that stalle the pyx, iiijd." And, in 1532,

"Item, received for iiii torches of the black guard, viijd."

On these occasions the word "Mind" signified Remembrance; and the expression a "Month's Mind," a "Year's Mind," &c.,

meant that on that day, month, or year after the party's decease, some solemn service for the good of his soul should be celebrated.

In Ireland," after the day of interment of a great personage, they count four weeks; and that day four weeks, all priests and friars, and all gentry far and near, are invited to a great feast (usually termed the Month's Mind); the preparation to this feast are masses, said in all parts of the house at once,

for the soul of the departed: if the room be large, you shall have three or four priests together celebrating in the several corners thereof; the masses done, they proceed to their feastings; and, after all, every priest and friar is discharged with his largess."

Sir Henry Piers's Description of West Meath, 1682, in Vallancey's Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis, vol. i. p. 126.

THIS custom, which was prevalent when Bourne wrote, (a) he deduces from the ancient practice of the Church of worshipping towards the east. (1) This, says he, they did, that by so worshipping they might lift up their minds to God, who is called the Light, and the Creator of Light, therefore turning, says St. Austin,(b) our faces to the east, from whence the day springs, that we might be reminded of turning to a more excellent nature, namely, the Lord. As also, that as man was driven out of Paradise, which is towards the east, he ought to look that way, which is an emblem of his desire to return thither. (2) Again it was used when they were baptised: they first turned their faces to the west, and so renounced the devil;

and then to the east, and made their covenant with Christ. Lastly, those of the ancient Church prayed that way, believing that our Saviour would come to judgment from that quarter of the heavens, St. Damascen asserting that when he ascended into heaven, he was taken up eastward, and that his disciples worshipped him that way; and therefore chiefly it was, that in the ancient Church they prayed with their faces to the

versal opinion of the Church is the ancient custom of burying corpses with the feet to the east and head to the west, continued to this day by the Church of England. (c)

Our learned countryman, Gregory, tells us that the Holy Men of Jerusalem held a tradition, generally received from the ancients, that our Saviour himself was buried with his face and feet towards the east. (3)

In this enlightened age it is almost superfluous to observe that bowing towards the altar is a vestige of the ancient ceremonial law.

One who has left a severe satire on the retainers of those forms and ceremonies that lean towards popish superstition, tells us :(d) "If I were a Papist, or Anthropo-morphite, who believes that God is enthroned in the east like a grave old king, I profess I would bow and cringe as well as any limber-ham of them all, and pay my adoration to that point of the compass (the east): but if men believe that the Holy One who inhabits eternity is also omnipresent, why do not they make correspondent ceremonies of adoration to every point of the compass?"

Concession must be made by every advocate for manly and rational worship, that there is nothing more in the east (*) than in the belfry at the west end, or in the body of the church. We wonder therefore how ever

this custom was retained by Protestants. (5) The cringes and bowings of the Roman Catholics to the altar are in adoration of the corporal presence, their wafer God, (6) whom their fancies have seated and enthroned in this quarter of the East.

The learned Moresin tells us, that altars in papal Rome were placed towards the east, in imitation of ancient and heathen Rome. Thus we read in Virgil's eleventh Æneid: "Illi ad surgentem conversi lumina Solem Dant fruges manibus salsas.”—(7)

In a curious work, now before me, entitled "England's faithful Reprover and Monitour," 12mo. Lond. 1653, the unknown author, in his Address "to the Church of England," reprobates a custom then prevalent for the audience to sit in Churches with their Hats on, page 48: "Thine own children even glory in their shame, when not as masters, but as scholars, not as teachers, but as disciples, they sit covered at their most solemn holy meetings, without difference of place, degree, age, season, or of any personal relation whatsoever." "Although we have known some, and those not a few, who have presumed to sit covered in the presence of God at such a time as this; but when a great person hath come into the assembly, have honoured him with the uncovering of the head, as though civill respect towards a mortall prince were to be expressed by more evident signs of submission from the outward man than religious worship towards the immortal God." He tells us, however, that "they

were uncovered when they sang the Psalms." p. 50.(8) "When the Minister prayeth or praiseth God in the Words of the Psalmist, as he frequently doth; at which time every one almost is vailed, who, notwithstanding, presently condemn themselves in this very thing which they allow, forasmuch as they all uncover the head when the same Psalmes are sung by them, only changed into Meeter, and that perchance for the worse." Our author concludes this head with observing, properly enough, that "we cannot imagine lesse than that this covering of the head in the Congregation, where Infirmity or Sickness doth not plead for it, tendeth to the dishonour of Jesus Christ, whose Servants we profess ourselves to be, especially at this time, and to the contempt of his messenger representing the office and person of Christ before our eyes." (9)

White, in his History of Selborne, p. 323, says, in speaking of the Church: "I have all along talked of the east and west end, as if the chancel stood exactly true to those points of the compass; but this is by no means the case, for the fabric bears so much to the north of the east, that the four corners of the tower, and not the four sides, stand to the four cardinal points. (10) The best method of accounting for this deviation seems to be, that the workmen, who probably were employed in the longest days, endeavoured to set the chancels to the rising of the Sun."

(1) The following is from "Langley's Abridgement of Polidore Vergil," fol. 109, b. "The manner of turnyng our faces into the easte when wee praie, is taken of the old Ethnikes, whiche, as Apuleius remembereth, used to loke eastwarde and salute the Sonne: we take it in a custom to put us in remembraunce that Christe is the sonne of righteousnes, that discloseth all secretes."

(2) St. Damascen (lib. iv. c. 14, Orthod. Fid.) therefore tells us that because the Scriptures say that God planted Paradise in Eden

towards the east, where he placed the man which he had formed, whom he punished with banishment upon his transgression, and made him dwell over against Paradise in the western part, we therefore pray (says he), being in quest of our ancient country, and, as it were, panting after it, do worship God that

way.

Dr. Comber says, "Some ancient authors tell us that the old inhabitants of Attica buried thus before the days of Solon, who, as they report, convinced the Athenians that the

Island of Salamis did of right belong to them by showing them dead bodies looking that way, and sepulchres turned towards the east, as they used to bury." Diog. Laert. Vit. Solon. &c.

And the Scholiast upon Thucydides says, it was the manner of all the Greeks to bury their dead thus.

(3) "Bede (in Die Sanct. Paschæ, tom. vii.) says, that as the holy women entered at the eastern part into the circular house hewn out in the rock, they saw the angel sitting at the south part of the place where the body of Jesus had lain, i. e. at his right hand: for undoubtedly his body, having its face upwards and the head to the west, must have its right hand to the south." Bourne, chap. v.

I find the following in a curious old tract in the great collection of Robert and Richard Gray, Esqrs., Duchy of Cornwall Office, Somerset Place, entitled "A Light shining out of Darknes, or Occasional Queries," &c. 4to. Lond. 1659, p. 26: "This reason likewise the common people give for their being huryed with their feet toward the east, so that they may be in a fitter posture to meet the Sun of righteousness when he shall appear with healing in his wings, viz. at the Resurrection." The subsequent remark is found at p. 30: "Whether it be not a pretty foundation for the Oxford Doctors to stand booted and spurred in the ACT? because there is mention made in the Scripture of being shod with the preparation of the Gospel?"

"Tis in the main allowed," says Selden, "that the heathens did, in general, look towards the east when they prayed, even from the earliest ages of the world." On this important subject the curious reader is referred to "Alkibla; a Disquisition upon worshipping towards the East: by a Master of Arts of the University of Oxford." 8vo. Lond. 1728. "A Second Part," continuing the work from the primitive to the present times, appeared in 1731; and a second edition of the whole in 1740. The author, who signs his name to the second part, was Mr. William Asplin.

(*)" Aulam Regiam, id est, Ecclesiam ingredientes ad Altare inclinamus, quod quasi Regem milites adoramus: æterni enim Regis milites sumus." Durandi Rationale, p. 226. The learned Mr. Mede tells us, that what reverential guise, ceremony, or worship they

used at their ingress into churches, in the ages next to the Apostles (and some we believe they did), is wholly buried in silence and oblivion. The Jews used to bow themselves towards the Mercy-Seat. The Christians, after them, in the Greek and Oriental Churches, have, time out of mind, and without any known beginning, used to bow in like manner. They do it at this day. See Bingham's Antiquities.

(5) At the end of Smart's curious Sermon, preached in the Cathedral church of Durham, July 27, 1628, among the charges brought against Bishop Cosens are the following:

66

Fifthly, he hath brought in a new custome of bowing the body downe to the ground before the Altar (on which he hath set candlesticks, basons, and crosses, crucifixes and tapers, which stand there for a dumbe shew): hee hath taught and enjoyned all such as come neere the Altar to cringe and bow unto it: he hath commanded the choresters to make low leggs unto it, when they goe to light the tapers that are on it in the winter nights; and in their returne from it, hee hath enjoined them to make low leggs unto it againe, going backewards with their faces towards the east, till they are out of the inclosure where they (usually) stand.

66

Sixthly, he enjoynes all them that come to the Cathedrall Church to pray with their faces towards the east, scoulding and brawling with them, even in time of divine service, which refuse to doe it, and bidding them either to pray towards the east, or to be packing out of the church, so devoted is hee to this easterne superstition.'

In Articles to be enquired of within the Diocese of Lincoln, A. D. 1641, 4to. Lond. 1641, the following occurs: "Do you know of any parson, vicar, or curate that hath introduced any offensive rites or ceremonies into the church, not established by the lawes of the land; as namely, that make three courtesies towards the communion table, that call the said table an altar, that enjoyne the people at their comming into the church to bow towards the east, or towards the communion table?"

In "Altar-Worship, or Bowing to the Communion Table considered: by Z. Crofton, Presbyter but proved Enemy to all Fanaticks,' 12mo. Lond. 1661, p. 60, we are informed