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[As we commence with the second month of the year, January being the concluding number of our last volume, the introductory month to this series must be given at the end of the year.] FEBRUARY. VERSTEGAN tells us this month was called by our Saxon ancestors, sprout-kele, " by kele meaning the kele-wort, which we now call the colewurt, the greatest potwurt in time long past that our ancestors used, and the broth made therewith was thereof also called kele; for before we borrowed from the French the name of potage and the name of herbs, the one in our own language was called kele, and the other wurt; and as this kele-wurt, or potage-hearbe, was the chief winter-wurt for the sustenance of the husbandman, sọ was it the first hearbe that in this moneth began to yield out wholesome young sprouts, and consequently gave thereunto the name of sprout-kele." "Restitution of Decayed Intelligence," p. 64. ed. 1674. It had also the name of Solmonath, which Bede explains by "Pan-cake-month, because in the course of it cakes were offered up by the Pagan Saxons to the sun, and sol, or soul signified food, or cakes.' It is scarcely necessary to add that the Latin Februarius, the origin of our February, was derived from februa*, an expiatory, or purifying sacrifice offered to the Manes, because in that month the Luperci, or priests of Pan, perambulated the city, carrying thongs of goat-skin, with which they scourged the women, and this was received for an expiation. Hence we have the word, though it is now well-nigh obsolete, of februation, in the meaning of a purification. ♦ Februa has by some been supposed synonymous with Juno, and the manifest relation between the Februata Juno and the Purificata Virgo Maria is one of the many singular coincidences between Pagan and Christian rites. They are much too numerous to have been the effect of mere accident. VOL. II.—NO. XIII. JANUARY, 1846. February has in general an ill name, and often worse than he deserves, for not withstanding his thaws and clammy colds he shows some symptoms of the spring, though it must be granted that he is not always a very smiling harbinger. In his train appear many flowers, and all the more charming from their coming at a season that is otherwise somewhat dreary; the primrose flowers and shows its pale blossoms on every bank, the double daisies begin to blow, the fruitless strawberry, the Butchers' Broom, the yellow Colts-foot, will also open, and the Early Whitlow Grass flowers on old walls and the dry sides of fields. Then too, comes the early Cyclomen, but he requires the shelter of a green-house; the Oriental Hyacinth, an in-doors companion; the Heart's Ease, or Pansie; the Polyanthus; the Yellow Spring Crocus ; the Old Cloth of Gold Crocus; the Persian Iris, but he requires shelter; the Wall Speedwell; the Field Speedwell; the Noble Liverwort; the Particoloured Crocus; the Daisy, or Herb-Margaret ; the Officinal Coltsfoot; the White Willow; the Brittle Willow; the Long-leaved Osier: the Ivyleaved Veronica; the Purple Spring Crocus; and the Shepherd's Purse; a goodly catalogue of friends and visitors for so dull a gentleman as February is usually held to be, and speak very fairly for his character. But he has other acquaintance whose testimony is no less favourable. The wood-lark, one of the earliest and sweetest of our songsters, does him homage, and the green wood-pecker is heard in the forest, while the goats play about, and gnats swarm under the sunny hedges. Then too, he has more days of note than any other month in the year. In the very outset there is Candlemas Eve, his birth-day, as we may call it, since it falls upon B an end. In their place, however, the "greener box was upraised," and Christmas now was positively at Some, indeed, considered this to have been the case on Twelfth Night; and old Tusser, in his "Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry," strongly contends for it; but then his head was more full of the cart and plough than of regard for old customs: and, like any other master, he was naturally anxious that the holidays should be ended, and the labourers should get to work again as soon as possible; and certes, merry-making, however agreeable it may be, will not help to dig the land or sow the grain. But in spite of these wise saws, the truth of which nobody would contest, human feelings are stronger than human reason, and customs, when they tend to pleasure, will maintain their ground, till they are superseded—not by privations, but by other forms of amusement. Having therefore tolerated the rites of Candlemas Eve, we may as well put up with those of Candlemas Day. And why was it called Candlemas? hear how Pope Innocent replies to the question, in a sermon upon this festival, quoted in Pagano Papismus "Because the Gentiles dedicated the month of February to the infernal gods, and as at the beginning of it Pluto stole Proserpine, and her mother, Ceres, sought her in the night with lighted candles, so they, in the beginning of this month, walked about the city with lighted candles; because the holy fathers could not utterly extirpate this custom, they ordained that Christians should carry about candles in honour of the blessed Virgin Mary; and thus what was done before to the honour of Ceres is now done to the honour of the Virgin." There can be little doubt that this is the real origin of the custom, though Butler, upon the authority of St. Bernard, states, that the candlebearing at this season had reference to Simeon's declaration in the Temple, when the parents brought in the child Jesus, that he was "a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of the people Israel." Few, however, will be inclined to accept this far-fetched derivation when one so much more obvious is at hand. From whatever cause the ceremony origi nated, it acquired many additional rites in the process of time, according to the manners and We are told in habits of those who adopted it. Dunstan's Concord of Monastic Rules, that "the monks went in surplices to the church for candles, which were to be consecrated, sprinkled with holy water, and censed by the abbot. Every monk took a candle from the sacrist and lighted it. A procession was made, thirds and mass were celebrated, and the candles, after the offering, were presented to the priest. The monks' candles signified the use of them in the parable of the wise virgins." Other authorities tell us that there was on this day a general consecration of all the candles to be burnt in the Catholic churches throughout the whole year; and it is probable enough that all these customs may have prevailed at various It should also be times and in different places. mentioned that from Candlemas the use of tapers at vespers and litanies, which had continued through the whole winter, ceased until the ensuing All-Hallow Mass, which will serve to explain the old English proverb in Ray's Collection— "On Candlemas Day Throw candle and candlestick away.” The ceremony of carrying Candlemas candles continued in England, till it was repealed for its Popish tendency by an order in council in the second year of King Edward VI. Still the many and various customs, that grew out of it, could not be extirpated by any legal enactments. They assumed a multitude of forms, the innate signi fication of which is now as much lost to us as that of the characters upon the Egyptian pyra mids. Thus Hone tells us, from the communication of some unnamed individual, of a custom that prevailed in Lynne Regis, and which, so far as he knew, was confined to a single family "The wood-ashes of the family being sold throughout the year as they were made, the person who purchased them annually sent a present at Candlemas Day of a large candle. When night came, the candle was lighted, and, assisted by its illumination, the inmates regaled them selves with cheering draughts of ale and sippings February. Enquiries have been made, but hitherof punch, or some other animating beverage, to in vain, to discover what the good bishop until the candle had burnt out. The coming of had done that should entitle him to have this day the Candlemas candle was looked forward to by above all others appropriated to him. We have the young ones as an event of some consequence, only, however, to suppose that his martyrdom for of usage they had a sort of right to sit up all took place on the 14th, and the whole mystery night, and partake of the refreshments till all re- is solved, all the other peculiarities of the day tired to rest, the signal for which was the self- being merely accidents, that had nothing to do extinction of the Candlemas candle." with his individual character, and which would The peculiar merits of this day are not yet have as readily attached to any one else, who had exhausted. It was a favourite epoch for draw-met with the good fortune of being sainted at ing prognostics of the weather, it being held on that particular season. all hands that the second of February ought on no account to be fine; Aubrey quotes from some forgotten record, "Si sol splendescat Maria purificante Major erit glacies post festum quam fuit ante." Considering the general state of the weather in February, this was prophecying on the safe side of the question, and we need not be surprized therefore if we find others following in the same track. Bishop Hall informs us in a sermon upon Candlemas," it hath been an old -I say not how true-note, that hath been wont to be set on this day, that if it be clear and sunshiny, it portends a hard weather to come; if cloudy and louring, a mild and gentle season ensuing." And Ray says, "The hind had as lief see his wife on the bier, As that Candlemas Day should be pleasant and clear." The origin of this custom has been sought for in the Lupercalia of the Romans, and with much apparent reason, as will be evident when we come to enquire into the old mode of celebrating Valentine's Day, which as we shall presently see, had but little in common with the modern habit of sending silly letters by the penny post. In ancient Rome a festival was held about the middle of February, called the Lupercalia, in honour of Pan and Juno, whence the latter obtained the epithet of Februata Februalis, and Fabrulla. Upon this occasion the names of young women were put, amidst a variety of ceremonies, into a box, from which they were drawn by the men as chance directed, and so rooted had this, like many other customs, become amongst the people, that the pastors of the early Christian church found themselves unable to eradicate it. They therefore, instead of entering into a fruit In the "Country Almanack" again, for 1676, less struggle, adopted their usual policy on such we find a similar doctrine advanced; i.e. of February. But enough of Candlemas Day. Its tapers are burnt out, and the joyful song of the birds, who now begin to choose their mates, announce that Valentine Day is come, the whole burthen of which seems with us to have fallen on the unlucky postman. He now finds that love is no such light matter, whatever other folks may think, for is he not transformed for the nonce into Cupid's messenger, albeit his blue coat and red collar have nothing very etherial in them? occasions, and since they could not remove what they held to be an unsightly nuisance, they endeavoured, as a skilful architect would do, to convert it into an ornament. Thus they substituted the names of Saints for those of women, a change that would not seem to have been generally, or for any long time, popular, since we read that at a very remote period the custom prevailed of the young men drawing the names of the girls, and that the practice of adopting mates by chance-lots soon grew reciprocal between the sexes. In fact Pan and Juno vacated their seats in favour of Saint Valentine, but the Christian bishop could not escape having much of the heathen ritual fastened upon him. We must not, however, imagine that Valentine's Day, any more than Epiphany or Candlemas, was celebrated with one uniform mode of observance; the customs attendant upon it varied consider Saint Valentine?—all we know of this holy personage is that he was a priest at Rome, where he was martyred about 270, and had in conse-ably according to the place and period. In many quence the honour of being assigned a niche in the record of Saints, his post being the 14th of parts of England, and more particularly in London, the person of the opposite sex, who is first met B 2 in the morning, not being an inmate of the house, was taken to be the Valentine, a usage that noticed by the poet, Gay, "1 early rose just at the break of day To milk my kine (for so should housewives do) That the lasses went out to seek for their makes, or mates, i. e. Valentines, is also shown To be your valentine." may believe Polydore Virgil, in the Roman feasts of Bacchus, and some vestiges of such an origin remain to the present time in the custom that the Eton boys have of writing verses at this season in praise of the Lybian God. These were composed in all kinds of measures and affixed to the college-doors. Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake Tuesday, or Fasting's Even, Fasterns, Fasten, as it is sometimes called from being the vigil of Ash Wednesday, the commencement of the Lent Fast, is a day of great importance in the ritual calendar. It is said to have got its first, and more general appellation from the circumstance of its being a day when every one was bound to confess and be shrove, or shriven, so long as the In the Gentlemen's Magazine for 1779, a correspondent under the name of Kitty Curious, relates an odd ceremony that she has been wit-Roman Catholic faith was predominant. That ness to in some humble village in Kent. The girls from five or six to eighteen years old were assembled in a crowd, burning an uncouth effigy, which they called a holly-boy, and which they had stolen from the boys, while in another part of the village the boys were burning what they called an ivy girl, which they had stolen from the girls. The ceremony of each burning was attended with huzzas and other acclamations according to the receipt of custom in all such cases. none might plead forgetfulness of this ceremony the great bell was rung at an early hour in every parish, and in after times this ringing was still kept up in some places, though the cause of it ceased with the introduction of Protestantism; it then got the name of the Pancake-Bell, for reasons which we shall see hereafter. Notwithstanding this necessity for confession, Shrove Tuesday with us had all the features of the last day of the Italian carneval. What it was in the old time may be judged from the account given by Taylor, the Water poet 66 Always before Lent there comes waddling a fat, grosse, groome, called Shrove Tuesday, one whose manners shews he is better fed than The Monday before Shrove Tuesday was in old times called Collop Monday, "collop" being a term for slices of dried or salted meat, as 'steak" signifies a slice of fresh meat. The etymology is too uncertain to make it worth while to quote the different accounts of it, but upon this day it was customary to feast upon eggs and collops, and, as Lent was approaching, our ancestors used to cut up their meat in slices, and preserve it, till the season of fast was over, by salting, or drying it. In some parts the day seemed to have been kept as the vigil, or eve, of Shrove Tuesday, and in the neigh-bellied gurmondizing, that a man would thinke bourhood of Salisbury, we are told, the boys went about from door to door, singing thus ; "Shrove-tide is nigh at hand, Pray, dame, something, An apple, or a dumpling, Or a piece of truckle cheese Of your own making, Or a piece of pancake." taught, and indeed he is the only monster for feeding amongst all the dayes of the yeere, for he devoures more flesh in foureteene houres than this old kingdom doth (or at the least should doe) in sixe weekes after. Such boyling and broyling, such roasting and toasting, such stewing and brewing, such baking, frying, mincing, cutting, carving, devouring, and gor people did take in two month's provision at once. Moreover it is a goodly sight to see how the cookes in great men's kitchins doe frye in their master's suet, that if ever a cooke be worth the eating, it is when Shrove Tuesday is in towne, for he is so stued and larded, basted, and almost over-roasted, that a man may eate every bit of The observance of this day originated, if we him and never take a surfet. In a word, they are Brand and Hone, who have both quoted these lines, pass over the truckle-cheese in silence, as if it involved no difficulty, nor can I offer any certain explanation of the etymology. The epithet truckle, which Hone, for some unexplained reason, prints with a capital T, may possibly have a reference to the round, wheel-shaped form of the cheese, for truckle, though well-nigh obsolete in that sense, was once commonly used for a wheel. However derived, the word is even now familiar both in Wiltshire and Dosetshire for a small, but superior kind of cheese. |