saw but little of the Coventry play; wherefore her majesty commanded it on the Tuesday following to have it full out, and being then accordingly presented, her highness laughed right well."] Denne conjectures the name of this festivity to have been derived from "Hockzeit," the German word for a wedding, and which, according to Bailey's Dictionary, is particularly applied to a wedding-feast. "As it was then," says he, "at the celebration of the feast at the wedding of a Danish lord, Canute Prudan, with Lady Githa, the daughter of Osgod Clape, a Saxon nobleman, that Hardicanute died suddenly, our ancestors had certainly sufficient grounds for distinguishing the day of so happy an event by a word denoting the wedding feast, the wedding day, the wedding Tuesday. And, if the justness of this conjecture shall be allowed, may not that reason be discovered, which Spelman says he could not learn, why the women bore rule on this celebrity, for all will admit that at a wedding the bride is the queen of the day?" In an indenture printed in Hearne's Appendix to the His tory and Antiquities of Glastonbury, p. 328, constituting John atte Hyde steward of the Priory of Poghley, among many other things granted him, are two oxen for the larder on Hoke-day,-"Item ij. boves pro lardario apud Hoccoday." It is dated on the Feast of the Annunciation, in the 49th of Edward the Third. Dr. Plott says, that one of the uses of the money collected at Hoketyde was, the reparation of the several parish churches where it was gathered. This is confirmed by extracts from the Lambeth Book. The observance of Hoketyde declined soon after the Reformation. Joyful commemorations of a release from the bondage of Popery obliterated the remembrance of the festive season instituted on account of a deliverance from the Danish yoke, if we dare pronounce it certain that it was instituted on that occasion. In Peshall's History of the City of Oxford, under St. Mary's Parish, are the following curious extracts from old records 11566-1557. Item of Godman Rundell's wife, Godman Jackson's wife, and Godwife Tegg, for Hoxce money, by them received to the use of the Church, xijs.—1518-1519. Item of William Elyot and John Chamberlayne for Hoke money gydered in the pareys, iijs. ixd. Item of the gaderyng of the Churchwardens wyffes on Hoke Mondaye, viijs. iijd.” "1510: Recepts recd. atte Hoctyde: of the wyfes gaderynge, xvs. ijd. From 1522-23, Rec. for the wyfes gatheryng at Hoctyde de claro, xvis. xd.-Parish of St. Peter in the East, 1662: About that time it was customary for a parish that wanted to raise money to do any repairs towards the church to keep a Hocktyde, the benefit of which was often very great: as, for instance, this parish of St. Peter in the East gained by the Hocktide and Whitsuntide, anno 1664, the sum of £14. 1663: Hocktide brought in this year £6. 1667: £4 10s. gained by Hoctide; the last time it is mentioned here." In the Churchwardens' Accounts of St. Mary-at-Hill, in the city of London, under the year 1496, is the following article: "Spent on the wyves that gadyred money on Hob Monday, 10d." In 1518, there is an order for several sums of money gathered on Hob Monday, &c. to go towards the organs, but crossed out with a pen afterwards. In 1497, "Gatherd by the women on Hob Monday, 138. 4d. By the men on the Tuesday, 5s." In Nichols's Illustrations of Antient Manners and Expences, 1797, are other extracts from the same accounts. Ünder the year 1499, is the following article: "For two rybbs of bief, and for bred and ale, to the wyvys yn the parish that gathered on Hok Monday, 18. 1d." Under 1510, "Received of the gaderynge of Hob Monday and Tewisday, £1 128. 6d." In Lysons's Environs of London, i. 229, among many other curious extracts from the Churchwardens' and Chamberlain's Books at Kingston-upon-Thames, are the following concerning Hocktyde:"1 Hen. VIII. Recd for the garderyng at Hoc-tyde, 148.—2 Hen. VIII. Paid for mete and drink at Hoc-tyde, 12d." The last time that the celebration of Hocktyde appears is in 1578" Reca of the women upon Hoc Monday, 5s. 2d.” Ibid. ii. 145, Parish of Chelsea ;-"Of the women that went a hocking, 13 April, 1607, 45s." In Coates's History of Reading, p. 214, in the Churchwardens' Accounts of St. Laurence's parish, 1499, are the following entries :—“ It. rec. of Hock money gaderyd of women, xxs.-It. rec. of Hok Money gaderyd of men, iiijs." Ibid. p. 226, we read the following observation, 1573:-"The collections on Hock Monday, and on the festivals, having ceased, it was agreed that every woman seated by the churchwardens in any seat on the south side of the church, above the doors, or in the middle : range above the doors, should pay 4d. yearly, and any above the pulpit 6d. at equal portions." Ibid. 1559:-"Hoctyde money, the men's gatheryng, iiijs. The women's, xijs." Ibid. St. Giles, Reading, 1526:—" "Paid for the wyves supper at Hoctyde, xxiiijd." Here a note observes :-"The Patent of the 5th of Henry V. has a confirmation of lands to the Prior of St. Frideswide, and contains a recital of the Charter of Ethelred in 1004; in which it appears that, with the advice of his lords and great men, he issued a decree for the destruction of the Danes." According to Milner's History of Winchester, i. 172, “the massacre took place on November the 5th, St. Brice's Day, whose name is still preserved in the Calendar of our Common Prayer: but, by an order of Ethelred, the sports were transferred to the Monday in the third week after Easter." Under 1535,-" Hock-money gatheryd by the wyves, xiiis. ixd." It appears clearly, from these different extracts, that the women made their collection on the Monday: and it is likewise shown that the women always collected more than the men. The custom of men and women heaving each other alternately on Easter Monday and Easter Tuesday, must have been derived from this Hocking each other on Hok-days, after the keeping of the original days had been set aside. There is, however, a curious pyssage in Wythers' Abuses "Who think (forsooth) because that once a yeare ST. GEORGE'S DAY. It appears from the old play of Ram Alley, that blue coats were formerly worn by people of fashion on St. George's Day, April 23d. [Compare also the following passage in Freeman's Epigrams, 1611: "With's eorum nomine keeping greater sway Than a court blew on St. George's day."] In Coates's History of Reading, p. 221, under Churchwardens' Accounts, 1536, are the following entries: "Charges of Saynt George. First payd for iij. caffes-skynes, and ij. horse-skynnes, iiij. vjd. Paid for makeying the loft that Saynt George standeth upon, vjd. Payd for ij. plonks for the same loft, viijd. Payd for iiij. pesses of clowt lether, ij. ij. Payd for makeyng the yron that the hors resteth upon, vjd. Payd for makeyng of Saynt George's cote, viija. Payd to John Paynter for his labour, xlv". Payd for roses, bells, gyrdle, sword, and dager, iij. iiijd. Payd for settyng on the bells and roses, iij. Payd for naylls necessarye thereto, xd. ob." Among the Fins, whoever makes a riot on St. George's Day is in danger of suffering from storms and tempests. (Tooke's Russia, i. 47.) [Aubrey, in his Natural History of Wilts, a MS. in the library of the Royal Society, has recorded the following proverb : "St. George cries goe; St. Mark cries hoe!"] ST. MARK'S DAY OR EVE. It is customary in Yorkshire, for the common people to sit and watch in the church porch on St. Mark's Eve, April 25th, from eleven o'clock at night till one in the morning. The third year (for this must be done thrice) they are supposed to see the ghosts of all those who are to die the next year, pass by into the church, [which they are said to do in their usual dress, and precisely in the order of time in which they are doomed to depart. Infants and young children, not yet able to walk, are said to roll in on the pavement. Those who are to die remain in the church, but those who are to recover return, after a longer or shorter time, in proportion to the continuance of their future sickness.] When any one sickens that is thought to have been seen in this manner, it is presently whispered about that he will not recover, for that such or such a one, who has watched St. Mark's Eve, says so. This superstition is in such force, that, if the patients themselves hear of it, they almost despair of recovery. Many are said to have actually died by their imaginary fears on the occasion; a truly lamentable, but by no means incredible, instance of human folly. [According to Willan, a person, supposed to have made this vigil, is a terror to his neighbours; for, on the least offence received, he is apt, by significant hints and grimaces, to insinuate the speedy death of some cherished friend or relation. On the eve of St. Mark, the ashes are riddled or sifted on the hearth. Should any of the family be destined to die within the year, the shoe will be impressed on the ashes; and many a mischievous wight has made a superstitious family miserable by slily coming down stairs after the rest of the family have retired to rest, and impressing the ashes with a shoe of one of the party. Poor Robin, for 1770, says,— "On St. Mark's Eve, at twelve o'clock, The fair maid will watch her smock, Pennant says, that in North Wales no farmer dare hold his team on St. Mark's Day, because, as they believe, one man's team was marked that did work that day with the loss of an Ox. The Church of Rome observes St. Mark's day as a day of abstinence, in imitation of St. Mark's disciples, the first Christians of Alexandria, who, under this Saint's conduct, were eminent for their great prayer, abstinence, and sobriety. See Wheatly on the Common Prayer, 1848, p. 198. Strype, in his Annals of the Reformation, i. 191, under 1559, informs "The 25th April, St. Mark's Day (that year), was a pro us: |