all that are desolate and oppressed;" he was now to begin his holy career, and the ceremonies of his initiation were of a grade and impressiveness com

squire, "to spring upon a horse while armed at all points; to exercise himself in running; to strike for a length of time with the axe or club; to dance and throw somersets, entirely armed, excepting the hel-mensurate with the dignity of his profession. On the met; to mount on horseback behind one of his com- night preceding the day of his receiving the accolade rades, by barely laying his hand on his sleeve; to the candidate watched his arms in a church or chapel, raise himself betwixt two partition walls to any height, and prepared for the honour about to be conferred on by placing his back against the one and his knees and him with vigil, fast, and prayer. Solemnly divested hands against the other; to mount a ladder placed of the brown frock which he had previously worn, and against a tower, upon the reverse or untouching the having bathed, he put on the more costly dress approrounds with his feet; to throw the javelin, and priate to knighthood; he was solemnly invested with to pitch the bar."* Enormous must have been the the knightly armour, and reminded of the allegorical exertions of these youthful swordsmen, if we judge of and mystical explanation of each article of his dress. the effects produced, and if we may credit the rela- The novice being apparelled in the armour of knighttions of the old chroniclers and romancers, when they hood, but bare-headed, and without either sword or tell us, that, in after life, they fought from matins | spurs, a rich mantle was thrown upon him, and he antil even-song cased in steel, yet without tiring, till | was conducted in solemn procession, attended ، by the sand was dyed with their hot gore, and the spec- all the knights and nobles at that time in the city, tators wept with very pity." where the solemnity was to be performed, with the

66

Chaucer has left us a very beautiful portrait of the bishops and clergy, each covered with the appropriate squire of his time:

"With him ther was his sone a yonge sQUIER

A lover and a lusty bacheler,

With lockes crull [curled] as they were laide in presse,
Of twenty yere of age he was I guesse ;

Of his stature he was of even lengthe,

And wonderly deliver [nimble], and grete of strengthe;

And he had be [been] sometime in chevachie [in military ex

peditions]

In Flaundres, in Artois, and Picardie,

And borne him wel, as of so litel space,

In hope to stonden in his ladies grace.

Embrouded [embroidered] was he, as it were a mede
Alle ful of freshe floures, white and rede.

Singing he was or floyting [playing on the flute] all the day;
He was as freshe as is the moneth of May.
Short was his goune, with sleves long and wide,
Well coude he sitte on hors, and fayre ride.
He coude songes make, and wel endite
Juste and eke dance, and wel pourtraie and write.
So hote he loved, that by nighterale
He slep no more than doth the nightengale,
Curteis he was, lowly, and servisable,
And carf before his fader at the table.t

At twenty-one, and in particular cases a year earlier,
the squire received the honour of knighthood. Hav-
ing been well tried, well educated, and prepared in
all respects to devote himself, soul and body, to the
service of virtue and valour, to spare neither his
blood nor life in defence of the catholic faith, and
to succour "the fatherless children and widows and

* Vie de Bouçicaut, Coll. Peletot et Momerque. + "Canterbury Tales," edited by T. Tyrwhitt, Esq. vol. i. p. 166;

vestments of his order; the knight in his coat-ofarms, and the bishop in his stole,' to the principal church in the place; high mass was then sung, and the acolyte kneeling on the altar steps, took the oath to submit to the laws of chivalry, after which his godsire advancing, dubbed the warrior KNIGHT. Then the maidens present belted on the sword and spurs of their new votary, amid the joyous acclamations of the spectators, and the din of martial minstrelsy. The novice next received the accolade, generally from the sword of the Sovereign, who rising from his throne, struck him thrice upon the shoulder with his naked sword, and said, " In the name of God, St. Michael, and St. George, I make thee knight; be loyal, bold, and true." Sometimes the churchman of the highest dignity who was present belted on the champion's sword, which had been previously blessed and deposited on the high altar, and the ladies only his spurs.

Such was the general outline of the ceremonies of the initiation. When knighthood became distinguished by its several orders, as the Bath, the Garter, &c. these ceremonies were varied considerably. The rituals, belonging to the order of the Bath, are extremely curious, and are probably more ancient than

any

others with which we are acquainted.

Each of the new knights was "attended by two esquires of honour, gentlemen of blood, and bearing coat-arms, who were worshipfully received at the door of that chamber by the king of arms, and the

James's History of Chivalry, p. 22.

gentleman usher of the order: and the person thus | the knights and esquires for their kind services, and

having provided every thing in readiness, the experienced knights at their entry wished the elected a good morning, acquainting him that it was time to rise; whereupon, the esquires taking him by the arm, the oldest of the knights gave him his shirt, the next his breeches, the third his doublet, the fourth a surcoat of red tartarin, lined and edged with white sarcenet, two others took him out of bed, two others drew on his boots, in token of the beginning of his warfare, another girded him with his white unorna

elected entered into that chamber with the esquires, they all departed, leaving only the elected, one of who, being experienced in matters of chivalry, in- the prebendaries of the church of Westminster, the structed him in the nature, dignity, and duties of chandler, and the verger of the church. There he this military order, and took diligent care that all the performed his vigils during the whole night, in ceremonies thereof (which had their allegorical sig- prayers to God, with a taper burning before him. nifications) should be powerfully recommended and And when the day broke, and the elected had heard punctually observed; and such esquires, who from mattins, the esquires governors reconducted him to this service were usually called esquires governors, the prince's chamber, and laid him in bed, and cast did not permit the elected to be seen abroad during over him a coverlet of gold, lined with carde. And the evening of his first entry, but sent for the proper when the proper time came, these esquires acquainted barber to make ready a bathing vessel, handsomely the great master that the elected was ready to rise, lined on the inside and outside with linen, having who commanded the experienced knights as before cross hoops over it, covered with tapestry, for de- | to proceed to the prince's chamber; and the elected fence against the cold air of the night, and a blanket having been roused by the music, and the esquires was spread on the floor, by the side of the bathing vessel. Then the beard of the elected being shaven, and his hair cut, the esquires acquainted the sovereign, or great master, that, it being even-song, the | elected was prepared for the bath. Whereupon some of the most sage and experienced knights went to council and direct the elect in the order and feats of chivalry; which knights, being preceded by several esquires of the sovereign's household, making all the usual signs of rejoicing, and having minstrels playing on several instruments before them, forthwith re-mented girdle, another put on his coif or bonnet; paired to the door of the prince's chamber, while the esquires governors, upon hearing the music, undressed the elected, and put him into the bath; and the music ceasing, these grave knights, entering the chamber without any noise, severally, one after the other kneeling near the bathing vessel, with a soft voice, instructed the elected in the nature and course of the bath, and put him in mind, that for ever after he ought to keep his body and mind pure and undefiled. And thereupon the knights each of them cast some of the water of the bath upon the shoulders of the elected, and retired, while the esquires go- WALPOLE, speaking of this work, in a letter to Pinvernors took the elected out of the bath, and con- kerton, dated Jan. 25th, 1795, says :—“ Harding ducted him to his pallet bed, which was plain, and copies likeness very faithfully in general; but then without curtains. And as soon as his body was dry, the engravers, who work from his drawings, never they clothed him very warm in a robe of russet, see the originals, and preserve no resemblance at all; having long sleeves reaching down to the ground, as was the case with the last edition and translation and tied about the middle with a cordon of ash-colored of Grammont, in which, besides false portraits, as and russet silk, with a russet hood, like to a hermit, Marshal Turrenne, with a nose the reverse of his ; having a white napkin hanging to the cordon or and a smug Cardinal Richelieu, like a young abbé ; girdle; and, the barber having removed the bathing and the Duchess of Cleveland, called by a wrong vessel, the experienced knights again entered, and name; there is a print, from my Mrs. Middleton, from thence conducted the elected to the chapel of so unlike, that I pinned up the print over against the King Henry VII. And they being there entered, other, and nobody would have guessed that one was preceded by all the esquires making rejoicings, and taken from the other."-The edition of Grammont the minstrels playing before them, the elected thanked | alluded to was that published in 1794, in quarto,

and lastly, another flung on him the costly mantle of his order."-The above account is abridged from the fourth statute of the "Order of the Bath," and the ceremonies recorded are said to be "precisely those which have been observed in former centuries." In modern times these rites are never performed, although they are enjoined by the laws and ordinances.

GRAMMONT'S MEMOIRS.

J. F. R.

ARTHUR'S STONE.

ABOUT ten miles west of Swansea, on the top of a mountain called Cefyn Bryn, in the district of Gower, is a Cromlech, known by the name of Arthur's Stone; most probably from the practice into which the common people naturally fall, of connecting every thing remarkable for its antiquity, the origin of which is obscure or unknown, with the most prominent character in some memorable period of their history.*

stands.

hard compact lapis molaris (mill-stone), of which the subtratum of the mountain is said to consist.

Immediately under the cromlech is a spring of clear water, or "holy well," which has obtained the name, in Welsh, of Our Lady's Well: a spring thus situated plainly shews that the monument is not sepulchral. The fountain and cromlech are surrounded by a vallum of loose stones, piled in an amphitheatrical form. As we know that the Druids consecrated groves, rocks, caves, lakes, and fountains to their superstitions, there is little doubt but that Arthur's Stone was erected over one of their sacred springs it afterwards became a place of Christian assembly for instruction and prayer; and, as the adoration of the Virgin began, in the darker ages, to vie with, if not altogether eclipse, that of the Saviour of Mankind, the fountain obtained the name of Our Lady's Well.

:

Arthur's Stone is celebrated in the Welsh Triads

(which are notices of remarkable historical events and other matters conjoined in threes) as one of the three stupendous works effected in Britain; of which Stonehenge is another, and Silbury Hill perhaps the third. In the Triads it is called the Stone of Shetty, from a place of that name in its neighbourhood; and, "like the work of the Stone of Sketty," has grown into a Welsh proverb to express undertakings of great difficulty. The people who elevated these enormous masses have left no written records of their own im

mediate times, although their descendants were not slow in lighting their torch at the flame of human learning. We gather what may be considered but obscure sketches of their customs, from the contem

Cevyn Bryn, in English "the ridge of the mountain," is a bold eminence, called by Llwyd, in his additions to Camden's Glamorganshire, "the most noted hill in Gower," overlooking the Severn sea; and, upon the north-west point of it this cromlech It is formed of a stone, is fourteen feet in length, and seven feet two inches in depth, being much thicker, as supposed, than any similar remains in Wales. Generally speaking, its shape is irregular;porary poets and historians of more polished nations; but one side has been rendered flat and perpendicular, by detaching large pieces to form mill-stones. It has eight perpendicular supporters, one of which, at the north-west end, is four feet two inches in height; the entire height of the structure is therefore eleven feet four inches. The supporting stones terminate in small points, on which the whole weight (which cannot be less than twenty-five tons) of the cromlech rests. Some few other stones stand under it, apparently intended as supporters, but not now in actual contact. All the component stones are of a

In Anglesea, in the northern part of the isle, on the lands of Llugwy, is a stupendous Cromlech, of the rhomboidal form, called Arthur's Quoit. The greatest diagonal measures seventeen feet two inches, the lesser fifteen feet; its thickness is three feet nine inches. It has several supporting stones, but is not more than two feet from the ground. In Llugwy woods are several Druidical circles, nearly contiguous to each other.-ED.

yet they have scattered the surface of the British soil with imperishable monuments of their existence, against which the storms of two thousand years have wreaked their fury in vain. Though silent witnesses, the antiquary considers them as a link in the tangible records of human history, which connects it, in some degree, with the postdiluvian times.*

WELL-FLOWERING.

THE Custom of decorating springs and fountains with flowers was derived from ages long anterior to the introduction of Christianity; although in many places,

This article is condensed, principally, from a communication made to the Society of Antiquaries, by A. J. Kempe, Esq. F.S.A., and published in the Appendix to the 23d volume of "The Archæologia," pp. 420-425. The cut also is copied (but reduced) from that work.

where yet continued, it is regarded as a vestige of Catholicism. Great festivals were annually celebrated at the Fountain of Arethusa, in Syracuse, in honour of the Goddess Diana, who was fabled to preside over its waters; and the Fontinalia of the Romans were religious observances dedicated to the nymphs of wells and fountains, in which rites the throwing flowers upon streams, and decorating the wells with crowns of flowers, formed the chief ceremonies.

In our own island, this custom has not yet fallen into complete desuetude. Shaw, in his "History of the Province of Morray," observes, that heathenish customs were much practised amongst the people there; and as an instance he cites that "they performed pilgrimages to wells, and built chapels in honour of their fountains." The practice of throwing flowers upon the Severn and other rivers of Wales, as alluded to by Milton in his Comus, and Dyer in his poem of the Fleece, is unquestionably a remnant of this ancient usage. Speaking of the Goddess Sabrina, Milton says,

"The shepherds, at their festivals,
Carol her good deeds loud in rustic lays,

And throw sweet garland wreaths into her stream,
Of pancies, pinks, and gaudy daffodils."

Dyer's words are these ;

"With light fantastic toe, the nymphs
Thither assembled, thither ev'ry swain;
And o'er the dimpled stream a thousand flowers,
Pale lilies, roses, violets, and pinks,
Mixed with green of burnet, mint, and thyme,
And trefoil, sprinkled with their sportive arms :
Such custom holds along th' irriguous vales,
From Wrekin's brow to rocky Dolvoryn."

At the village of Tissington, near Ashborne, in Derbyshire, the custom of Well-flowering is still observed on every anniversary of Holy Thursday. On this occasion, the day is regarded as a festival; the villagers array themselves in their best attire, and

That travellers very differently estimate the objects of their

curiosity is proved in reference to this celebrated fountain. Cicero describes it as "incredibly large," and "full of fish;" and Brydone says,—"It is indeed an astonishing fountain, and rises at once out of the earth to the size of a river." Simond, however, in his more recent "Tour through Sicily and Malta," after refering to Cicero's description, remarks,-"instead of this we saw at the bottom of a sort of spacious well, a trifling spring, in the water of which fifteen or twenty washer-women, barelegged and tucked up almost to their middle, were actively employed in dipping, flapping, rubbing, and squeezing modern chemises upon blocks of stone." What poet, after this, will choose the nymph Arethusa, as the goddess of his inspiration?

keep open house for their friends. All the wells in the place, which are five in number, are decorated with wreaths and garlands of newly-gathered flowers, disposed in various devices. Boards are sometimes used, cut into different forms, or figures, and then covered with moist clay, into which the stems of the flowers are inserted to preserve their freshness, and they are so arranged as to form a beautiful mosaic work; when thus adorned, the boards are so disposed at the springs, that the water appears to issue from amidst beds of flowers. After service at church, where a sermon is preached, a procession is made, and the wells are visited in succession: the Psalms for the day, the epistle and gospel, are read, one at each well, and the whole concludes with a hymn, sung by the church-singers, accompanied by a band of music. Rural sports and holiday pastimes occupy the remainder of the day.*

EXETER CATHEDRAL.

HENRY THE EIGHTH AND BISHOP VEYSEY,

On the death of Bishop Hugh Oldam, at Exeter Palace, in June, 1519, he was succeeded by John Veysey, alias Harman [Oxmantown], LL. D. and Dean of Exeter, who had been chancellor to Archbishop Arundell, and appears to have been brought by that prelate from the diocese of Lichfield. He was collated to a canonry at Exeter on the 5th of August, 1503, and consecrated its bishop on the 6th of November, 1519. Historians agree that he was an accomplished and polite scholar, and a perfect courtier; but notwithstanding the latter qualification, he was compelled, by the rapacious injunctions of Henry VIII., to alienate many valuable possessions of his See. The overbearing mode in which this was effected will be evident from the following Letters, copied from the Bishop's Register, at Exeter, vol. ii. and now first made public. The first, which is from the king, bears the date of June 28, 1534; the other, from Lord John Russell, was roten" (written) four days afterwards; and as both letters are dated from Hampton Court, there can be little doubt that his lordship, in enforcing the king's request by his own advice, was acting under the immediate direction of the sovereign. Lord Russell, whom Heylin describes as "a principal actor in the affairs and troubles of the times," procured for himself a grant of the manors

* Vide Rhodes's "Peak Scenery,” p. 315,