Volume 1

Observations on the popular antiquities of Great Britain : chiefly illustrating the origin of our vulgar and provincial customs, ceremonies, and superstitions / by John Brand ; arranged, revised, and greatly enlarged by Sir Henry Ellis.

  • Brand, John, 1744-1806.
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the popular antiquities of Great Britain : chiefly illustrating the origin of our vulgar and provincial customs, ceremonies, and superstitions / by John Brand ; arranged, revised, and greatly enlarged by Sir Henry Ellis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    54/592 (page 16)
    Sir Thomas Overbury, in his Characters, speaking of “ a Timist,” says, that “ his New Yeare’s Gifts are ready at Al- halomas, and the sute he meant to meditate before them.”1 The title-page of a most rare tract in my library, entitled “ Motives grounded upon the word of God, and upon honour, profit, and pleasure, for the present founding an University in the Metropolis, London ; with Answers to such Objections as might be made by any (in their ineogitancy) against the same,” 1647, runs thus : “ Humbly presented {instead of heathenish and superstitious New Yeare’s Gifts) to the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor, the right worshipfnll the Aldermen, his bre- thren, and to those faithful and prudent citizens which were lately chosen by the said city to be of the Common Counsell thereof for this yeare insueng, viz. 1647 ; by a true Lover of his Nation, and especially of the said city.” In another rare tract, of an earlier date, entitled “ Yox Graculi,” 4to, 1623, p. 49, is the following, under “ January:’’ “ This month drink you no vine commixt with dregs : Bate capons, and fat hens, with dumpling legs.” “ The first day of January being raw, colde, and comfort- lesse to such as have lost then- money at dice at one of the Temples over night, strange apparitions are like to be seene : Marchpanes marching betwixt Leaden-hall and the little Con- duit in Cheape, in such aboundance that an hundred good tori et Magistris vel inter se ultro citroque commuuiter mittunt.”—Status Scholoe Etonensis, A.D. 1560. MS. Brit. Mus. Donat. 4843, fol. 423. The very ingenious Scottish writer, Buchanan, presented to the unfortunate Mary Queen of Scots one of the above poetical kind of New Year’s gifts. History is silent concerning the manner in which her Majesty received it: Ad Mariam Scotice Jlegittam. Do quod adest: opto quod abest tibi, dona darentur Aurea, sors animo si foret asqiia meo. Hoc leve si credis, paribus me ulciscere donis : Et quod abest opta tu mihi: da quod adest. 1 “ Gevying of New Yeare’s Giftcs had its original there likewyse (in old Rome), for Suetonius Tranquillus reporteth that the Knights of Rome gave ycrcly, on the calendcs of January, a present to Augustus Csrsar. although he were absent. Whiche custom remayneth in England, for the subjects sende to their superiours, and the noble personages gevc to the Kvnge some great gyftcs, and he to gratifyc their kyndnesse docth liberally rewarde them with some thvng again.”—Langley's Polydore Virgil, fol. 102