TWELFTH CAKES.

The custom of making merry with Twelfth Cakes, is derived from the feasts of Saturn, called Saturnalia. It was a sacrifice to Janus, from whom the month of January takes its name. Our Roman conquerors brought it amongst us, and offered cakes to Cybele, called the Great Mother, because she procured men all the benefits of the earth. A vast quantity of cake is made, and consumed annually on the 6th of January, and all the juvenile branches of families are generally supposed to derive much pleasure and gratification, from the ceremony of chusing King and Queen; but, indeed, persons of all ages join in the childish sport; for, as Dryden says,

"Men are but children of a larger growth;

Our appetites as apt to change as theirs."

DRAWING FOR KING AND QUEEN.

This custom is derived from the Greeks and Romans, who, on the Tabernacle, or Christmas festivals, drew lots for kings, by putting a piece of money in the middle of a cake, which, whoever found, was saluted as king.

MINCE PIES.

These pies were formerly made in the shape of a cradle, or a cratch, or a manger, and were first derived from the practice at Rome, of presenting the fathers of the Vatican with paste images and sweetmeats. In a tract printed in the time of queen Elizabeth, or James I. they were called minched pies.

PLACING MONEY IN THE MOUTHS OF THE DEAD.

A Greek traveller going into Egypt, saw the inhabitants of a town bury their dead in tombs that lay on the other side of a lake, and on his return invented the story, and made his countrymen believe it, that Charon ferried the souls of the dead across the river Styx to Hell. This word, Charon, is taken from the Egyptian language, which calls ferrymen, Charons, and the river Styx had its source in Pagan fiction. However, the invention answered better than many equally rational and principled speculations of the present day. Old Charon did the whole of the work, while all the simpletons of that day were anxious to pay to the fabricators, both of himself and the Styx, an imaginary debt due to him for ferrying the souls of their departed friends.

FISH AND THE RING; STEPNEY CHURCH YARD.

In the wall, just below the great eastern window of Stepney church, on an elegant white marble slab, which has been lately repaired and beautified, (adorned with a cherub, urns, volutes, palm branches, and these arms-Paley 6 or, a bend, 3 mullets, Elton, impaly a fish --and in the dexter chief point, annulet between two bends wavey), is this inscription: Here lyeth interred, the body of Dame Rebecca Berry, the wife of Thomas Elton, of Stratford-Bow, Gent., who departed this life, April 26th, 1696, aged 52.

This monument, in all probability, from the circumstance of the arms, has given rise to a tradition, that Dame Berry was the heroine of a popular ballad, called "The Cruel Knight, or the Fortunate Farmer's Daughter;" the story of which, is briefly as follows: A knight passing a cot, hears the cries of a woman in labour. His

knowledge in the occult sciences informs him, that the child then born is destined to become his wife: he endeavours to evade the decrees of fate, and to avoid so ignoble an alliance, by various attempts to destroy the child, but which are defeated. At length, when grown to woman's estate, he takes her to the sea side, intending to drown her, but relents; at the same time, throwing a ring into the sea, he commands her never to see his face again on pain of death, unless she shall produce the ring.

She afterwards becomes a cook in a gentleman's family, and finds the ring in a cod-fish, as she is dressing it for dinner. The marriage takes place of course. The scene of this ballad is laid in Yorkshire.

PIN MONEY.

Pins were acceptable new year's gifts to the ladies, instead of the wooden skewers which they used till the end of the fifteenth century. Sometimes they received a composition in money; and hence allowances for their separate use, is still denominated “Pin-money.” Gloves were customary new year's gifts. They were more expensive than in our times, and occasionally a money present was tendered instead; this was called " Glove-money."

NEW YEAR'S GIFTS.

Fosbroke, in his valuable "Encyclopedia of Antiquities," adduces various authorities to show, that congratulations, presents, and visits, were made by the Romans on new year's day. The origin, he says, is ascribed to Romulus and Tatius, and that the usual presents were figs and dates, covered with leaf gold, and sent by clients to patrons, accompanied with a piece of money, which was expended to purchase statues of deities.

"The next to this is Newe Yeares day
Whereon to every frende,

They costly presents in do bring,

And New Yeares Giftes do sende,

These giftes the husband gives his wife,

And father eke the childe,

And maister on his men bestowes

The like, with favour milde.

THE WEDDING FINGER, EMBLEMATICAL OF MATRIMONIAL UNION.

There are few objects amongst the productions of art, contemplated with such lively interest by ladies, after a certain age, as the simple and unadorned annular implement of Hymen, y'clept the Wedding Ring; this has been a theme for poets of every calibre; for geniuses of every wing, from the dabbling duckling to the solar eagle. The mouldy antiquary can tell the origin of the custom with which it is connected, and perchance why a ring is round, and account for many circumstances concerning the ceremony of the circlet, on the most conclusive evidence, amounting to absolute conjectural demonstration; amidst all that has been said and written in reference to the ring, I believe the more lovely part engaged in the mystic matter, the taper residence of this ornament has been neglected; now, this is rather curious, as there are facts belonging to the ring finger, which render it in a peculiar manner an appropriate emblem of matrimonial union; it is the only finger where two principal nerves belong to two distinct trunks; the thumb is supplied with its principal nerves from the radial nerve, as is also the fore finger, the middle

finger, and the thumb side of the ring finger, whilst the ulnar nerve furnishes the little finger and the other side of the ring finger, at the point or extremity of which, a real union takes place; it seems as if it were intended by nature to be the matrimonial finger.

That the side of the ring finger next the little finger is supplied by the ulnar nerve, is frequently proved by a common accident, that of striking the elbow against the edge of a chair, a door, or any narrow hard substance; the ulnar nerve is then frequently struck, and a thrilling sensation is felt in the little finger, and on the same side of the ring finger, but not on the other side of it.-Anatomicus Junior.

MARRIAGE BY PROXY, WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THAT
CEREMONY IN THE EARLY AGES.

In marriage by proxy, it was formerly the custom for the proxy to introduce his right leg up to the knee into the bed of the princess whom he married. Louis de Baviare, who married the Princess Marie de Bourgogne, daughter of Charles, Duke of Bourgogne, in the name of Archduke Maximilian of Austria, performed this ceremony. The object of the ceremony was to render the marriage more certain, it being supposed that the Princess who had submitted to this kind of approach on the part of man, could not depart from her engagement and take another husband.

It is said that the Emperor Maximilian was married by proxy to Anne de Bretagne, who, nevertheless, afterwards married Charles the 8th of France, her marriage with Maximilian never having been consummated. But, from a scruple of conscience, or some other cause, historians relate, that it was necessary to have recourse to the arguments of many theologians, and to examples drawn from holy writ, before the lady could be brought to listen to the proposition of her marriage with Charles the 8th.

If the early historians may be believed, the first marriage by proxy was that of Clovis of France with Clotilde; Aurele having, it is said, married Clotilde at the court of Bourgogne, in the name of Clovis, his master, by giving her a ring and other pledges of a legitimate marriage. The ancient practice of placing the proxy's leg in the bed of the bride is long since discontinued.

It existed, however, in Poland in the time of Herera, who, in speaking of the marriage of Cardinal Radzivil with the Archduchess Ann of Austria, says, that the proxy of king Sigismund the 3d slept completely armed at the side of the new queen, in conformity with the ceremony, que les Reyes de Polonia ental caso accastumbran. A king's proxy is usually a prince of his blood; if he be not, he is not allowed to take the hand of the princess, but only to place his by the side of her's.

GIVING QUARTER.

Boy.-He prays you to save his life; he is a gentleman of good house, and for his ransom he will give you two hundred crowns. Pistol. Tell him my fury shall abate, and I

The crowns will take.

As I suck blood, I will some mercy shew. Henry 5th. This custom, so well known in warfare, had its origin in an agreement between the Dutch and Spaniards, that the ransom of an officer or soldier should be the Quarter of his year's pay. Hence to beg quarter, was to offer a quarter of their pay for personal safety; and to refuse quarter, was not to accept the offered ransom.

LORD MAYOR'S DAY.

Lord Mayor's day in London was first made annual in the year 1214. Until that period, the chief magistrate was appointed for life. Before the alterations of the style in 1572, the Lord Mayors of London came into office on the 29th October, on which account it would seem that, ever since 1800, the Lord Mayor's day ought to have been on the 10th of November instead of the 9th, the difference between the old and new style being 12 days.

LORD MAYOR'S SHOW.

This show, says Hone in his "Ancient Mysteries," is the only state exhibition in the metropolis that remains as a memorial of the great doings in the time of the pageants. In a curious description of the show as it was managed in 1575, it is related, that "to make way in the streetes, certayne men were employed, apparalled like devells and wylde men, with skybbs and certain beadells."

The number of persons who dined at Guildhall was 1000, all at the charge of the mayor and the two sheriffs. "This feast (the writer continues) costeth 400l. whereof the mayor payeth 2001. and each of the sheriffs 1007. Immediately after dyner they go to the church of St. Paule, the men bearynge staff-torches and targetts, which torches are lighted when it is late, before they come from evenynge prayer." In 1585, there were children in the procession, who personified the city, magnanimity, loyalty, science, the country, and the river Thames; they also represented a soldier, a sailor, and nymphs with appropriate speeches. The show opened with a moor on the back of a lynx. On Sir Thomas Middleton's mayoralty, in 1613, the solemnity is described as unparallelled for the cost, art, and magnificence of the shows, pageants, chariots, morning, noon, and night triumphs.

In 1665, the city pageants, after a discontinuance of about fourteen years, were revived. Edmund Gayton, the author of the description for that year, says, that "our metropolis for these planetary pageants was as famous and renowned in foreign nations, as for their faith, wealth, and valour. In the show of 1659, an European, an Egyptian, and a Persian, were personated. On Lord Mayor's day, 1671, the king, queen, and duke of York, and most of the nobility, being present, there were sundry shows, shapes, scenes, speeches, and songs in parts; and the like in 1672 and 1673, when the king again graced the triumphs. At the alteration of the style, the Lord Mayor's show, which had been on the 29th of October, was changed to the 9th of November."

In 1687, the pageants of Sir John Shorter, knt. as Lord Mayor, were very splendid. He was of the company of goldsmiths, and out of compliment to their patron saint, Dunstan, who was himself a goldsmith, they had a pageant representing the miracle of Dunstan and the Devil.

"St. Dunstan as the story goes,

Once pull'd the devil by the nose

With red-hot tongs, which made him roar,
That he was heard three miles or more,'

The last Lord Mayor who rode on horseback at his mayoralty was Sir Gilbert Heathcote, in the reign of queen Anne. The modern exhibitions, bettered as they are by the men in armour, have no pretensions to vie with the grandeur of the London triumphs.

Even Gog and Magog, who were then only made of wicker-work and pasteboard, yearly graced the procession, and when that eminent annual service was over, remounted their old stations in Guildhall, till, by reason of their very great age, old time, with his auxiliaries, the city rats and mice, had eaten up all their entrails. The first Lord Mayor's pageant was in the reign of Henry 6th, 1453.

FREEDOM OF ALNWICK.

When a person takes up his freedom in the town of Alnwick, he is obliged, by a clause in the charter of that place, to jump into an adjacent bog, in which sometimes he must sink to his chin. This custom is said to have been imposed by King John, who travelling this way, and his horse sinking fast in this hole, took this method of punishing the people of this town for not keeping the road in better order.

LONDON CRIES.

In the time of Herry 6th, an antiquarian writes, that London cries consisted of fine felt hats and spectacles; pease, strawberries, cherries, pepper, saffron, hot sheeps'-feet, mackarel, green-pease, ribs of beef, pie, &c. In the Pepysian library are two very ancient sets of cries, cut in wood, with inscriptions; among others are, "buy my rope of onions, white Sir Thomas's onions; rosemary and bays; bread and meat for poor prisoners; ends of gold and silver; marking stones; a mat for a bed; maids hang out your lights; marrowbones; ells or yards; hand-strings or hand-kercher buttons; small coal penny a peck! I have skreens at your desire to keep your butey from the fire," &c. &c.

Formerly it was a practice to set the London cries to music, retaining their peculiar musical notes. These cries, that have been so long famed in the annals of nursery literature, and without which, to the social part of society, London would lose one of its peculiar charms, have to the squeamish long been a source of complaint; their tender nerves and susceptible ears would have every social sound put to silence, and every unlucky wight who presumed to earn his bread by the exercise of his lungs sent to the treadmill! To please them—

"It were a delicate stratagem, to shoe

A troop of horse with felt,-I'll put it in proof."

MASQUERADES.

Shakspeare.

The first masquerade given in England upon the foreign plan, uniting, after the Venetian fashion, elegance with rude mirth and revelry, was by the queen of Charles the First; but as it was unfortunately fixed for a Sunday, the populace loudly complained of the profanation of the Lord's day, in front of the banqueting house, Whitehall. A scuffle ensued between the soldiers and the people, in which half a dozen of the latter were killed, and two or three of the guards. This produced a general dislike of the queen, which afterwards aggravated every other imputation that was cast upon that unfortunate lady, as well as created a violent popular, and sometimes magisterial, opposition to masquerades generally for near a century.