and, however we may account for it, there is scarcely a rite or ceremony amongst any people without a precedent in one of earlier date. Keeping this fact steadily in view, it would seem probable that the leek, like the misletoe among the Druids, or the bean amongst the Pythagoreans, had at one time a mystic and religious meaning, and that the custom has survived although its origin has been forgotten. The next day of note is St. Patrick's Day, which falls upon the seventeenth. Though he is held by the Irish to be their patron saint he was either a Scot or a Welshman. Butler says he was born, according to his own confession,* "in a village called Bonaven Taberniæ, which seems to be the town of Killpatrick, on the mouth of the river Clyd in Scotland, between Dumbriton and Glas Sat. xv. when holding up the Egyptian superstitions to contempt says, "Porrum et cæpe nefas violare et frangere morsu. O sanctas gentes, quibus hæc nascuntur in hortis Thus rendered by Gifford; "Tis dangerous here To violate an onion or to stain The sanctity of leeks with tooth profane. O holy nation! sacrosanct abodes! The same thing is mentioned by Prudentius; "Appone porris religiosas arulas; Venerare acerbum cæpe, mordax allium." Περιετεφάνων, Hymn x. v. 258. In plain English "Raise sacred altars to the leek; worship the sharp onion, the biting garlic." * Butler's Lives of the Fathers, &c. vol. ix. p. 177. edit. Dublin, 1789. Dumbriton, as Butler has it, or Dumbritoun, as it is spelt in the old maps, is the antiquated mode of writing Dumbarton. gow;" while others say that he was born in the vale of Rhos in Pembrokeshire; and Jones asserts he was of Caernarvonshire, * his original name being Maenwyn. Even the date of his birth is doubtful, nothing being known for certain in this respect except that he was born some time towards the end of the fourteenth century. The ecclesiastical name of Patricius† was given to him by Pope Celestine, when he consecrated him a bishop, and sent him over to Ireland for the purpose of bringing the wild natives within the pale of the Church. Upon landing at Wicklow in 433, he immediately commenced his task of preaching and converting; but his hearers took in very ill part this attack upon their old religion and were nigh stoning him to death, when he plucked up a trefoil by the root and asked, "is it not as feasible for the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as for these three leaves thus to grow upon a single stalk?" So persuaded, they tell us, were the Irish by this happy illustration, that they at once renounced their paganism and allowed the good bishop to baptize them on the spot. If such indeed were the case, it must be allowed they had a marvellous proneness to conviction. We fear, however, the legend may be disputed by the incredulous, who happen to recollect that the Druids used the trefoil for medical purposes, and that they held the mystic number, three, in high veneration, deeming the misletoe sacred because its leaves and berries grew in clusters of three, united to one stem. Not being gifted with the proper degree of faith, such sceptics might be inclined to * Jones' Historical Account of the Welsh Bards. Fol. Lond. 1794, p. 13, note. + Ribadeneira explains this to mean "pere de plusieurs," the father of many, a rather ambiguous cognomen for a single gentleman whether clerical or laic. Tom. i. p. 344. Fol. Paris, 1686. Vallancy's Grammar of the Irish Language. infer that the wearing of the shamrock on a particular day, like the Welshman's badge of the leek, was merely the Christian adoption of some forgotten pagan custom,* or else that it proceeded from the regard in which the herb was held for its medicinal properties. The two suppositions are so far from being inconsistent with each other, that they might be considered as cause and effect, this triad of leaves being one reason for attributing to the herb its sanative virtues. In Ireland this day is one of national rejoicing, the saint being in high odour for his numerous miracles, the most useful of which was unquestionably his driving all noxious reptiles out of the country, and forbidding them to return, under penalty it may be presumed of spiritual censure. It is not a little singular that Spenser, who had such good opportunities of knowing the truth, should have described the shamrock as being synonymous with the water-cress; when speaking of the distress, to which the Irish were reduced by the wars in Munster, he says, "if they found a plot of water-cresses, or shamrocks, there they flocked as to a feast for the time." View of the State of Ireland, A. D. 1596, Fol. Dublin, 1633. p. 72. That the Irish used the shamrock for food is certain, whatever it may have been. Thus in Wyther's Abuses Stript and Whipt, 8vo. London, 1613, p. 71, "And for my cloathing in a mantle goe, And feed on Sham-roots, as the Irish doe." Again in Sir Henry Piers' Description of Westmeath in Vallancey's Collectanea de rebus Hibernicis, v. i. p. 121, "They have a custom every May-day, which they count their first day of summer, to have to their meal one formal dish, whatever else they have, which some call stir-about or hasty-pudding, that is flour and milk boiled thick; and this is holden for an argument of the good-wife's good housewifery, that made her corn hold out so well; for if they can hold out so long with bread they count they can do well enough for what remains of the year till harvest; for then milk becomes plenty; and butter, new cheese, and curds, and shamrocks, are the food of the meaner sort all this season. nor is it Even spiders were included in the general ban ;* any impeachment of the truth of the record that the prohibition has long since ceased to have effect except in the eyes of the faithful, who are gifted with a clearness of vision unfortunately denied to the Sassenach and the unbeliever. Another feature of this day remains to be noticed. In February 1783, a brotherhood was created by letters patent, under the name of " Knights of the Illustrious Order of Saint Patrick ;" and for the more grace of the new institution the sovereign of the day was to be its head, under whom were fifteen knights companions, while the lieutenant general, and general governor of Ireland, or the lord deputy, or deputies, or lords justices, or other chief governor or governors for the time being, By the were to officiate as deputy grand-masters." statutes of the order the badge is to be of gold, surmounted with a wreath of shamrock, in this instance understood to mean trefoil, surrounding a golden circlet, on which is the motto of the brotherhood in letters of the same quis separabit ?-with the date of their foundation, encircling Saint Patrick's cross gules, surmounted with a trefoil vert, each leaf charged with an imperial crown or, upon a field argent. This badge, encircled with rays in form of a silver star of eight points, four greater and four lesser, is directed to be worn on the left side of the outer garment. Mid-lent Sunday is the fourth Sunday in Lent, or that * According to Hone, Ribadeneira when speaking of this miracle says, "it is reported of King's College, Cambridge, that being built I do not, myself, of Irish wood no spider doth ever come near it." remember to have heard such a report in my college-days, but nevertheless believe it just as firmly as if I had. In regard to the quotation, Hone must have made some mistake, for nothing of the kind occurs in Ribadeneira's short notice of St. Patrick. which immediately precedes Palm Sunday; and was variously called, Mothering Sunday, Rose Sunday, Latare Sunday, Care or Carl Sunday, Passion Sunday, and Refreshment Sunday. The name of Mid-lent speaks for itself, and needs no explanation. Mothering Sunday may involve a question; yet it seems highly probable that it came in the first instance from the Roman Hilaria,* a festival held by the ancients in honour of the Mother of the Gods. The Catholic Clergy, who could not well get rid of a holiday so firmly established with the multitude, turned it to their own purpose, as they did so many other ancient festivals, and introduced a custom amongst the people of visiting the Mother Church, to make their offerings at the high altar; which, in some way or other, was supposed to be typical of the Jerusalem above, "the mother of us all." + In process of time, after the Reformation had superseded the ancient faith, the oblations brought to the Church were converted into gifts presented by children to their parents; hence some have erroneously derived this designation from the latter custom, in utter ignorance, it would seem, that such affectionate remembrances were but the shadows of an older ceremony. But whatever we * The Hilaria, from which we have got our term of Hilary, took place at the time of the vernal equinox, being the eighth of the kalends of April, and was evidently borrowed from the Egyptians. The Mother of the Gods, the Earth-" quis enim ambigat matrem Deûm terram haberi ?"-rejoiced in the return of Sol, just as Isis was supposed to mourn or rejoice for Osiris according to the change of season. There is surely deep meaning and much beauty in these religious fables of the old heathens, however they may have been disfigured by the gross additions of popular superstitions. In all of them there breathes a profound spirit of veneration for the One, the Omnipotent, through the medium of his works. For the ceremonies of the day consult Macrobius Saturnaliorum, Lib. 1, Vol. 1, p. 313. Biponti, 1778. Galat. iv. 26. |