552 Some Superstitions appertaining 



pened on account of it, there is scarce any conceivable public 

 evil, such as unfruitful seasons, pestilential diseases, bad 

 government, disastrous warfare, &c., &c., which might not 

 have been attributed to this innovation as the cause ; and the 

 minds of many would have been amply prepared to give 

 credence to such absurdities. I knew an old labourer, a 

 native of an obscure village in this county (Warwickshire), 

 who recollected the alteration of the style ; and who, to the 

 last, was never reconciled to it: he stoutly maintained that 

 the nation had never prospered since. " I did not wish," 

 said he, '* to make mischief; so I never said anything about 

 it to my son : but you may depend upon it. Sir, the nation 

 has ne'er prospered sin the style were changed. If you '11 

 observe. Sir, the cuckoo and the swallows, and everything 

 else, they don't care for the change : they all come and go by 

 the old time, not by the new. I don't know," continued he, 

 " what use it were of, unless it were to make the parson tell 

 lies on a Sunday." " How so. Master Caister?" " Why, 

 Sir, he says it is the tenth day of the month, when it isn't the 

 tenth." He assured me that the inhabitants of his native 

 parish were so disgusted with the change, that they were at 

 the pains of procuring a minister, at their own private expense, 

 to perform divine service upon old Christmas day ; and that 

 they made a point of going about their ordinary occupations, 

 and setting their servants to work, on the new. Moreover, a 

 deputation, opnsisting of two of these simple vilJagers, was 

 actually sent down to Glastonbury for the purpose of consult- 

 ing the holy thorn * upon the occasion : a sprig of which, 

 gathered on old Christmas day, in leaf (or else in flower, I 

 forget which), was brought back in triumph to the village. 

 The old adage, 



" Better, better ne'er be born. 

 Than on the Sabbath pare the horn" (L e. the nails), f 



was probably invented with the view to discountenance the 

 desecration of the Lord's day by the performance of a variety 

 of little odd jobs ; which, however improper an occupation 



* Pilgnmages to Glastonburyy upon a like errand, were, it seems, by no 

 means unusual. " Certain it is that the Glastonbury thorn has preserved 

 its inflexibility, and observed its old anniversary. Many thousand specta- 

 tors visited it on the Parliamentary Christmas day ; not a bud vv^as to be 

 seen ! On the true nativity it was covered with blossoms. One must be 

 an infidel indeed to spurn at such authority." " A vast concourse of 

 people attended the noted thorn on Christmas eve, new style ; but, to their 

 great disappointment, there was no appearance of its blowing ; which made 

 them watch it narrowly the 5th of January, the Christmas day, old style, 

 when it blowed as usual." See Brand, ii. 663. 



f Brand mentions Friday also as an unlucky day for this purpose, (ii. ^^^ ^ 



