331 



Oak that overhuns? the edge of a quarry in a coppice wood. I was glad to accept 

 his offer to point it out to me and we made a special pilgrimage to see it. I was 

 to climb and tear, and scuffle through the underwood and briars so as to come 

 round on the top over the brink of the quarry, whilst my friend remained below to 

 point out the position — with difficulty I got there, creeping down on all fours — and 

 there sure enough it was, as pretty and healthy a bunch of Mistletoe as I ever saw. 

 I thought I would have a specimen, not quite believing my own eyes (though both 

 would have made affidavit of its genuineness on the spot ) ; with much trouble and 

 care, at length I got hold of the branch and was immediately struck by something 

 unusual in the colour of the bark (the leaves were not out) so I at once tasted and 

 found it Apple ; one single small branch was growing out from under the stock 

 of this Oak bush, the exact counterpart of all the other shoots. My disappoint- 

 ment you may conceive, but not the chagrin of my kind guide who had treasured 

 up for two years the knowledge of this magnificent " find," and in his own parish 

 too ! " 



A wTiter in the Quarterly Review (Vol. 114 p. 219) speaks of the Mistletoe as 

 " deserting the Oak " in modern times. " It is now so rarely found on that tree, 

 cis to have led to the suggestion that we must look for the Mistletoe of the 

 Druids, not in the Viscum album of our own trees and orchards, but in the 

 Loranthus Europseus, an allied parasite, which is frequently found growing on 

 Oaks in the south of Europe." A very unnecessary confusion it seems to me, 

 has been created between the plants, and I purposely avoid entering further into 

 the subject for the reason given in the Review. " There is no proof that the 

 Loranthus ever grew further North than at present ; whilst the Mistletoe figures 

 not only in the traditions of the Celts, but also in those of Northern nations, as will 

 be shown in the next section. 



IV. The Romanxe of the Mistletoe. 



"When the Romans first invaded Britain," says Dr. Henry (Hist, of Gt. 

 Britain, Vol. I. p. 136), " the inhabitants of it were famous, even among foreign 

 nations, for their superior knowledge of the principles, and their great zeal for the 

 rites of their religion. This circumstance we learn from the best authority, the 

 writings of that illustrious and observing gen.ral Julius Ca;sar, who informs us : 

 " that such of the Gauls as were desirous of being thoroughly instructed in the 

 principles of their religion (which was the same with that of the Britons) usually 

 took a journey into Britain for that purpose " (Casar de Bel. Gal. lib. vii. c. xiii.) 

 and he then goes on to shew its antiquity — that its first and purest principles had 

 descended with the language from Gomer, the eldest son of Japhet, from whom the 

 Gauls, Britons, and all other Celtic nations derived their origin (Pezron Antiq : 

 Celt. c. iii.), but that by tradition it had degenerated into " an absurd, wicked, 

 and cruel superstition." 



Mr. Davies in his learned work on the " Mythology and Rites of the British 

 Druids." has endeavoured to trace out " the threads of connection " between the 

 Druidical and Patriarchal religion, from the writings of the ancient Celtic Bards, 



