

CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



varies from 32 to 42. The snowdrop and crocus 

 are the chief ornaments of our flower-borders at 

 this season. The primrose will also flower ; the 

 hepatica come forth in some strength ; and in 

 mild seasons several other of our earlier flowers 

 and flowering shrubs begin to shew blossom. In 

 England, the raven and rook begin to build their 

 nests ; the house-pigeon has young ; the ringdove 

 coos, the goldfinch sings, and thrushes pair. In 

 Scotland, the notes of the thrush and blackbird 

 give token of the approach of spring. 



MARCH. 



March, which with the ancients ranked the first 

 month of the year, was named in honour of Mars, 

 the god of war, and the supposed father of the 

 founder of Rome. Our Anglo-Saxon ancestors 

 called it Lenct-monath that is, Lent or Spring 

 Month. 



i. Mid Lent Sunday. A holiday of the Church 

 of England. It was considered as incumbent 

 upon all true Christians on this day to pay a visit, 

 if possible, to their mother-church, or church of 

 their native parish, and there make some small 

 offering. The epistle for the day accordingly con- 

 tains an appropriate allusion Hierosolyma mater 

 omnium, Jerusalem the mother of all (Gal. iv. 26). 

 And it was customary on the same day for people 

 to visit their parents, carrying with them some 

 gift, and receiving the parental blessing in return, 

 together with a mess of frumenty that is, a por- 

 ridge composed of whole grains of wheat, boiled 

 in milk, and sweetened and spiced. This practice 

 was called ' going a-mothering,' and the day was 

 sometimes called Mothering Sunday. The festival, 

 with all its peculiar observances, is supposed to 

 have taken its rise in the heathen festival of the 

 Hilaria, celebrated by the ancient Romans in 

 honour of the mother of the gods, on the Ides of 

 March. 



St David's Day. The interest attached to this 

 saint and his day is confined to the Welsh, whose 

 patron saint St David is considered. Learning, and 

 more particularly asceticism, the great sources of 

 promotion in those days, raised him to high esteem 

 and ecclesiastical rank, and gave him the reputa- 

 tion of a power to perform miracles. At a synod 

 called at Brevy in Cardigan, in 519, in conse- 

 quence of the Pelagian heresy, he made an eloquent 

 and convincing display against the erroneous 

 doctrines, which were therefore condemned. He 

 died in 544, at an advanced age, and was buried 

 in the church of St Andrew ; but in 962, his 

 remains were transferred to Glastonbury Abbey. 



While the Welsh venerate the memory of St 

 David, they are unacquainted with our idea of him 

 as their patron saint, a notion which has sprung 

 up in consequence of the popular fiction of the 

 Seven Champions of Christendom. They observe 

 the ist of March as the anniversary of his death. 

 On this day, all true Welshmen, whether in their 

 own country or far removed from it, made it a 

 point of conscience to wear a leek in their hats ; 

 and this custom is alluded to in writings of con- 

 siderable antiquity. It has also been made effec- 

 tive use of by, Shakspeare in his historical drama 

 of King Henry V.; and the heroic cudgelling 

 which he there represents the choleric Welshman, 

 Fluellen, as having administered to Ancient Pistol 



452 



when he compelled him to eat the leek which he 

 had mocked at on ' St Tavy's Day,' has given rise 

 to a proverbial saying ; for of an individual who 

 has been forced to do anything contrary to his 

 own inclination, it is by no means uncommon to 

 say that he has been made ' to eat his leek.' 



8. The Fifth Sunday in Lent. It was popularly 

 distinguished as Care or Carling Sunday, terms 

 which appear to be of very dubious import The 

 peasantry and yeomanry used to steep peas, and 

 afterwards parch them, and then, frying them with 

 butter, made a feast of them on the afternoon of this 

 day. It is thought not unlikely that the custom 

 bore some reference to the superstitious notions 

 which the ancients entertained respecting beans, as 

 containing the souls of the departed. The peas, as 

 eaten in the north of England, were called carlings. 

 We may presume that the day took its name from 

 this word, carling being in time softened into 

 Care. It figures in the following old rhyme, 

 which enumerates the Sundays of Lent by popular 

 appellations : 



Tid, Mid, and Misera, 



Carling, Palm, and good Pace -day. 



The first thrae words are supposed to have been 

 derived from the beginnings of certain psalms 

 thus, Te deum, Mi dfeus, Miserere mei. 



15. Palm Sunday, called in the English Prayer- 

 book the Sunday next before Easter ; also 

 sometimes called Passion Sunday, as being the 

 commencement of Passion Week, or the week 

 celebrative of the sufferings or passion of our Lord. 

 It is a festival of great antiquity and a partly 

 joyous character, as more particularly commemor- 

 ating the brilliant though short-lived popularity of 

 the reception which Christ met with on entering 

 Jerusalem immediately before his passion. On 

 this day, in Catholic countries, the priests bless 

 branches of palm, or some other tree, which are 

 then carried in procession, in memory of those 

 strewed before Christ at his entrance into the holy 

 city. The procession is as splendid as circum- 

 stances will admit of; and after it is done, the 

 boughs used on the occasion are burnt, and their 

 ashes preserved, that they may be laid on the 

 heads of the people next Ash Wednesday, with 

 the priest's blessing. 



17. St Patrick's Day, a high festival of the 

 Romish Church. The interest attached to this 

 saint and his day is, however, chiefly confined to 

 the Irish, whose patron saint he is considered ; 

 though that term, as in the case of St David, is of 

 modern and English origin. The Irish venerate 

 St Patrick as the person who introduced Chris- 

 tianity into their country. The common tradition 

 makes him a native of Kilpatrick, near Dum- 

 barton in Scotland, and to have first visited Ire- 

 land as a boy and a prisoner ; but there are some 

 grounds for supposing that he was born in the 

 north of GauL In 43 1 he was commissioned by 

 Pope Celestine to convert the Irish, a task which 

 he immediately commenced, and carried into 

 effect with unexampled ardour and perseverance. 

 He travelled throughout the whole of Ireland, 

 preaching everywhere to the barbarous people, 

 whom he baptised in multitudes. He also ordained 

 clergy to preside over them, gave alms to the 

 poor, made presents to the kings, founded mon- 

 asteries, and, in short, established the Christian 

 religion and a full apparatus for its support in 



