NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 59 



of the tower and sang it at daybreak. When I was a little 

 boy, my father always took me to hear this hymn sung, and 

 we generally stood on Magdalen Bridge. And now comes 

 another very curious custom. After the hymn has been sung, the 

 choristers throw down eggs, supposed to be those of jackdaws and 

 starlings, collected from the tower, upon the crowd. The people 

 then begin to blow tin horns with long and loud blasts. It is 

 said by some that the origin of this custom was to drown the 

 sound of the mass being sung at the top of the tower. Dr. 

 Newman, however, says that he believes this is the only 

 remnant in England of a Roman ceremony, the 1st of May 

 being the day in which a festival was held in honour of a 

 Roman goddess, or possibly the Floralia, or floral games, which 

 amongst the Romans began on the 28th of April. The celebra- 

 tion of May-day by the chimney-sweeps, and others, may pos- 

 sibly have had its origin from the same old Roman custom. 



How STONEHENGE WAS BUILT, p. 66. Many theories have 

 been advanced as to the mechanical power which was adopted 

 by Druids to handle the enormous stones which built Stone- 

 henge. Captain Dunbar of the Scots Greys tells me that in 

 his opinion they managed it by taking advantage of a heavy 

 fall of snow and severe frost. The snow was packed up 

 between the uprights, filling up the space to a level with the top 

 of them ; a plane with a slight incline was then formed with more 

 snow, and water thrown over to form it into a solid mass ; the 

 third stone was then levered or rolled up the incline to its 

 position, and when the snow melted the stone would be left in its 

 position. It is quite certain that earth was sometimes used 

 instead of snow for this purpose, to form cromlechs and other 

 megalithic structures ; heat and cold water were probably used 

 to split the stones to the required dimensions. 



Near Crickhowell, a few yards from the Usk, there stands in 

 a gentleman's park a solitary monolith, probably the remains of 

 an old Druid temple. My friend Mr. Berrington tells me the 

 local tradition is that, on the eve of St. John, the stone goes down 

 to the Usk and dips itself three times in the water. This is 

 probably the last remnant of some ancient Druidical rite 

 that took place on Midsummer-day symbolical of purification. 



TAMING BIRDS, &c., p. 68. Mr. Davy agrees with White. In 

 all his long experience, he never knew of a bird which could not 

 be tamed. It is very remarkable, that, as a rule, all birds seem 

 to be very timid at the sight of gloves. If you feed a tame thrush 

 with gloves on he will " chuck, chuck, chuck," and dash about th 



