performed just the day six weeks before Christmas. The butchers of the town, at their own charge, against the time, provide the wildest bull they can get; this bull over night is had into some stable or barn belonging to the Alderman. The next morning proclamation is made by the common bellman of the town, round about the same, that each one shut up their shop-doors and gates, and that none, upon pain of imprisonment, offer to do any violence to strangers, for the preventing whereof (the town being a great thoroughfare, and then being in Term time) a guard is appointed for the passing of travellers through the same (without hurt). That none have any iron upon their bull-clubs or other staff which they pursue the bull with. Which proclamation made, and the gates all shut up, the bull is turned out of the Alderman's house, and then hivie skivy, tag and rag, men, women, and children of all sorts and sizes, with all the dogs in the town, promiscuously running after him with their bull-clubs, spattering dirt in each other's faces, that one would think them to be so many Furies started out of hell for the punishment of Cerberus, as when Theseus and Perillas conquered the place (as Ovid describes it)—

'A ragged troop of boys and girls

Do pellow him with stones;

With clubs, with whips, and many raps,

They part his skin from bones ;'

and (which is the greater shame) I have seen both senatores majorum gentium et matrones de eodem gradu, following this bulling business.

"I can say no more of it, but only to set forth the antiquity thereof (as the tradition goes): William Earl of Warren, the first lord of this town, in the time of King John, standing upon his castle walls in Stamford, viewing the fair prospects of the river and meadow under the same, saw two bulls a fighting for one cow; a butcher of the town, the owner of one of those bulls, with a great mastiff dog, accidentally coming by, set his dog upon his own bull, who forced the same bull up into the town, which no sooner was come within the same but all the butchers' dogs, both great and small, follow'd in pursuit of the bull, which by this time made stark mad with the noise of the people and the fierceness of the dogs, ran over man, woman, and child that stood in the way; this caused all the butchers

に

and others in the town to rise up as it were in a tumult, making such an hideous noise that the sound thereof came into the castle unto the ears of Earl Warren, who presently thereupon mounted on horseback, rid into the town to see the business, which then appearing (to his humour) very delightful, he gave all those meadows in which the two bulls were at the first found fighting (which we now call the Castle Meadows) perpetually as a common to the butchers of the town (after the first grass is eaten) to keep their cattle in till the time of slaughter; upon this condition, that as upon that day on which this sport first began, which was (as I said before) that day six weeks before Christmas, the butchers of the town should from time to time, yearly for ever, find a mad bull for the continuance of that sport.'

At present the magistracy of the town decline any interference with the bull-running.

A very long account of a similar practice at Tutbury will be found in Dr. Plott's History of Staffordshire, where it appears to have been a custom, belonging to the honour of the place, that the minstrels who came to matins there on the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin should have a bull given them by the Prior of Tutbury, if they could take him on this side the river Dove nearest to the town; or else the Prior was to give them forty pence; for the enjoyment of which custom they were to give to the lord at the said feast twenty pence. See Plott's Staffordshire, p. 439; Shaw's History of Staffordshire, i. 52; and an elaborate memoir in the Archæologia, ii. 86, where the subject is considered by Dr. Pegge.

In later times the Tutbury Bull-running appears to have given rise to greater excesses than that at Stamford. "Happily," says Shaw, "a few years since, his Grace the Duke of Devonshire, who is grantee of the site of the priory, and the estates belonging to it, was pleased to abolish this barbarous custom, which it is to be hoped will have the same effect upon those similar brutish diversions of bull-baiting practised in many country towns (particularly in the north-west parts of this county) at that season of the year called the Wake.

5

LADY IN THE STRAW.

IT should seem that the expression of the lady in the straw, meant to signify the lady who is brought to bed, is derived from the circumstance that all beds were anciently stuffed with straw, so that it is synonymous with saying, "the lady in bed," or that is confined to her bed.'

There appears to have been some ceremonies anciently used when the lady took her chamber. It is stated, that when the Queen of King Henry VII. took her chamber in order to her delivery, "the Erles of Shrewsbury and of Kente hyld the towelles, whan the quene toke her rightes; and the torches ware holden by knightes. When she was comen into hir great chambre, she stode undre hir cloth of estate; then there was ordeyned a voide of espices and swet wyne that doone, my lorde, the quenes chamberlain, in very goode wordes desired, in the Quene's name, the pepul there present to pray God to sende hir the good oure: and so she departed to her inner chambre." Strutt, iii. 157, from a MS. in the Cotton Library.

Some have thought, but I cannot be induced to accede to the opinion, that the term "lady in the straw," takes its rise from a straw mattress necessarily made use of during the time of delivery. In the Child-bearer's Cabinet, in "a rich closet of physical secrets collected by the elaborate paines of four severall students in physick," 4to. no date, p. 9, we read: "How, and wherewith the child-bed woman's bed ought to be furnished. A large boulster, made of linen cloth, must be stuffed with straw, and be spread on the ground, that her upper part may lye higher than her lower; on this the woman may lie, so that she may seem to lean and bow, rather than

In the old Herbals we find descriptions of a herb entitled the Ladies Bed-straw. It appears that even so late as Henry VIII.'s time there were directions for certain persons to examine every night the straw of the King's bed, that no daggers might be concealed therein. In Plaine Percevall, the Peace-maker of England, printed in the time of Queen Elizabeth, we find an expression which strongly marks the general use of straw in beds during that reign: "These high-flying sparks will light on the heads of us all, and kindle in our bed-straw."

to lye, drawing up her feet unto her, that she may receve no hurt."

Henry, in his History of Britain, i. 459, tells us, that "amongst the ancient Britons, when a birth was attended with any difficulty, they put certain girdles made for that purpose about the women in labour, which they imagined gave immediate and effectual relief. Such girdles were kept with care, till very lately, in many families in the Highlands of Scotland. They were impressed with several mystical figures; and the ceremony of binding them about the woman's waist was accompanied with words and gestures, which showed the custom to have been of great antiquity, and to have come originally from the Druids."1

From an ancient 4to. MS, formerly in the collection of Herbert, dated 1475, I transcribe the following charm, or more properly charect, to be bound to the thigh of a lying-in woman: "For woman that travelyth of chylde, bynd thys wryt to her thye: In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti Amen. Per virtutem Domini sint medicina mei pia crux et passio Christi. . Vulnera quinque Domini sint medicina mei. . Sancta Maria peperit Christum. . Sancta Anna peperit Mariam. . Sancta Elizabet peperit Johannem. Sancta Cecilia peperit Remigium.. Arepo tenet opera rotas.. Christus vincit. . Christus regnat. Christus dixit Lazare veni foras. . Christus imperat. Christus te vocat. Mundus te gaudet. Lex te desiderat. Deus ultionum Dominus. Deus preliorum Dominus libera famulam tuam N. tra Domini fecit virtutem. a. g. 1. a.

Dex

Alpha et ..

1 Levinus Lemnius, English translat. fol. 1658, p. 270, tells us, that "the jewel called Ætites, found in an eagle's nest, that has rings with little stones within it, being applied to the thigh of one that is in labour, makes a speedy and easy delivery; which thing I have found true by experiment." Lupton, in his second book of Notable Things, 52, says: "Etites, called the Eagle's stone, tyed to the left arm or side; it brings this benefit to women with child, that they shall not be delivered before their time: be.. sides that, it brings love between the man and the wife; and if a woman have a painfull travail in the birth of her child, this stone, tyed to her thigh, brings an easy and light birth." Ibid. Book iv. 27: "Let the woman that travels with her child (is in her labour) be girded with the skin that a serpent or snake casts off, and then she will quickly be delivered."Tortola.

Anna peperit Mariam, Elizabet precursorem,

Maria

Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, sine dolore et tristicia.

O infans sive vivus sive mortuus exi foras ad lucem.. Agyos. Agyos.

Christus vincit. Christus imperat.

Christus te vocat

Agyos. Christus regnat.

Sanctus Sanctus Sanctus Dominus Deus.

Christus qui es, qui eras, et qui venturus es. bhurnon blictaono Christus Nazarenus Judeorum fili Dei miserere mei Amen."

Amen.
Rex

The following is an extract from Copley's Wits, Fits, and Fancies, 1614: "A gentlewoman in extremitie of labour sware that if it pleased God she might escape death for that once, she would never in all her life after hazard herselfe to the like daunger againe; but being at last safely delivered, she then said to one of the midwives, 'So, now put out THE HOLY CANDLE, and keepe it till the next time."

The following customs of childbirth are noticed in the Traité des Superstitions of M. Thiers, i. 320: "Lors qu'une femme est preste d'accoucher, prendre sa ceinture, aller à l'Eglise, lier la cloche avec cette ceinture et la faire sonner trois coups afin que cette femme accouche heureusement. Martin de Arles, Archidiacre de Pampelonne (Tract. de Superstition.) asseure que cette superstition est fort en usage dans tout son pais: Superstitiosum est quod ferè in omni hac nostra patria observatur, ut dum femina est propinqua partui, novam (zonam?) vel corrigiam qua præcingitur, accipientes, ad ecclesiam occurrunt, et cymbalum modo quo possunt corrigia illa vel zona circumdant, et ter percutientes cymbalum, sonum illum credunt valere ad prosperum partum, quod est superstitiosum et vanum.'" Ibid. p. 327: "Quand une femme est en mal d'enfant, luy faire mettre le haut de chausse de son mari, afin qu'elle accouche sans douleur." Ibid. p. 329: "Mettre les pieds et les mains des enfans dans la glace, ou, s'il n'y a point de glace, dans l'eau froide, aussi-tost qu'ils sont nez et avant qu'ils ayent receu le baptesme, pour empescher, qu'ils n'ayent l'ongleè aux pieds ou aux mains: et leur faire boire du vin aussitost qu'ils son venus au monde, pour empecher qu'ils ne s'enyvrent." Ibid. p. 327: "Fendre un chesne, et faire passer trois fois un enfans par dedans, afin de la guerir de la hergne. Le pere et la mere de l'enfant doivent estre à chacun un costè du chesne." Ibid. p. 332: "Percer le toit de la maison d'une femme qui est en travail d'enfant, avec une pierre, ou avec une fleche, dont on aura tuè trois animaux, sçavoir un homme, un sanglier, et une ourse, de trois divers coups, pour la faire aussi-tost accoucher ce qui arrive encore plus asseurement quand on perce la maison avec la hache ou le sabre d'un soldat arrachè du corps d'un homme, avant qu'il soit tombè par terre." Ibid. p. 334: "Chasser les mouches lorsqu'une femme est en travail d'enfant, de crainte qu'elle n'accouche d'une fille."