Then comes the day when Christ ascended to his Father's seate, The following superstition relating to this day is found in Scot's Discovery of Witchcraft, 1665, p. 152. "In some countries they run out of the doors in time of tempest, blessing themselves with a cheese, whereupon was a cross made with a rope's end upon Ascension Day.—Item, to hang an egg laid on Ascension Day in the roof of the house, preserveth the same from all hurts." The same writer mentions the celebrated Venetian superstition on this day, which is of great antiquity. "Every year, ordinarily, upon Ascension Day, the Duke of Venice, accompanied with the States, goeth with great solemnity to the sea, and, after certain ceremonies ended, casteth thereinto a gold ring of great value and estimation, for a pacificatory oblation; wherewith their predecessors supposed that the wrath of the sea was assuaged." This custom "is said to have taken its rise from a grant of Pope Alexander the Third, who, as a reward for the zeal of the inhabitants in his restoration to the Papal chair, gave them power over the Adriatick Ocean, as a man has power over his wife. mory of which the chief magistrate annually throws a ring into it, with these words: Desponsamus te, Mare, in signum perpetui dominii;' We espouse thee, O Sea, in testimony of our perpetual dominion over thee."-Gent. Mag. Nov. 1764, p. 483. See also Gent. Mag. March 1735, p. 118. In another volume of the same miscellany, for March 1798, p. 184, we have an account of the ceremony rather more minute: "On In me Ascension Day, the Doge, in a splendid barge, attended by a thousand barks and gondolas, proceeds to a particular place in the Adriatic. In order to compose the angry gulph, and procure a calm, the patriarch pours into her bosom a quantity of holy water. As soon as this charm has had its effect, the Doge, with great solemnity, through an aperture near his seat, drops into her lap a gold ring, repeating these words, 'Desponsamus te, Mare, in signum veri perpetuique dominii :' We espouse thee, O Sea, in token of real and perpetual dominion over thee." [Brockett mentions the smock-race on Ascension Day, a race run by females for a smock. These races were frequent among the young country wenches in the North. The prize, a fine Holland chemise, was usually decorated with ribands. The sport is still continued at Newburn, near Newcastle. The following curious poem on this amusement is extracted from a small volume, entitled Poetical Miscellanies, consisting of Original Poems, and Translations, by the best hands, published by Mr. Steele, 8vo, 1714, p. 199: "Now did the bag-pipe in hoarse notes begin Joan quits her cows, that with full udders stand, "The butcher's foggy spouse amidst the throng, Here sheaves of corn, and cocks of fragrant hay; While whatsoe'er she hears, she smells, or sees, "Nor was the country justice wanting there, "When, lo, old Arbiter, amid the croud, Her rosie cheeks with modest blushes glow, What bosom beats not in fair Oonah's cause? "Tall as a pine majestick Nora stood, Her youthful veins were swell'd with sprightly blood, "To thee, O Shevan, next what praise is due ? And in a trice the fatal string unty'd. Quick stop'd the maid, nor wou'd, to win the prize, But while to tye the treach'rous knot she staid, "Felim, as night came on, young Oonah woo'd, MAY-DAY CUSTOMS. "If thou lov'st me then, Steal forth thy father's house to-morrow night; To do observance for a morn of May, There will I stay for thee." Mids. Night's Dream, Act i. sc. 1. It was anciently the custom for all ranks of people to go out a Maying early on the first of May. Bourne tells us that in his time, in the villages in the North of England, the iuvenile part of both sexes were wont to rise a little after midnight on the morning of that day, and walk to some neighbouring wood, accompanied with music and the blowing of horns, where they broke down branches from the trees and adorned them with nosegays and crowns of flowers. This done, they returned homewards with their booty about the time of sunrise, and made their doors and windows triumph in the flowery spoil. Stubbs, in the Anatomie of Abuses, 1585, f. 94, says :Against Maie, every parishe, towne, and village, assemble themselves together, bothe men, women, and children, olde and yong, even all indifferently: and either goyng all together, or devidyng themselves into companies, they goe some to the woodes and groves, some to the hilles and mountaines, some to one place, some to another, where they spende all the night in pastymes, and in the mornyng they returne, bringing with them birch, bowes, and braunches of trees to deck their assemblies withall. I have heard it credibly reported (and that viva voce) by men of great gravitie, credite, and reputation, that of fourtie, threescore, or a hundred maides goyng to the woode over night, there have scarcely the thirde parte of them returned home againe undefiled." Hearne, in his Preface to Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle, p. 18, speaking of the old custom of drinking out of horns, observes::- "Tis no wonder, therefore, that upon the jollities on the first of May formerly, the custom of blowing with, and drinking in, horns so much prevailed, which, though it be now generally disus'd, yet the custom of blowing them. prevails at this season, even to this day, at Oxford, to remind people of the pleasantness of that part of the year, which ought to create mirth and gayety, such as is sketch'd out in some old Books of Offices, such as the Prymer of Salisbury, printed at Rouen, 1551, 8vo." Aubrey, in his Remains of Gentilisme and Juadisme, MS. Lansd. 266, f. 5, says :"Memorandum, at Oxford, the boys do blow cows' horns and hollow canes all night; and on May Day the young maids of every parish carry about garlands of flowers, which afterwards they hang up in their churches." Mr. Henry Rowe, in a note in his Poems, ii. 4, says:— "The Tower of Magdalen College, Oxford, erected by Cardinal Wolsey, when bursar of the College, 1492, contains a musical peal of ten bells, and on May Day the choristers assemble on the top to usher in the spring.' Dr. Chandler, however, in his Life of Bishop Waynflete, |