160 



AERIAN 



Chap. as ail indication of the festival being; celebrated on their 

 XXXIII. 



account. *- 



Theocriti Idyl. 



XVI. 



venatores, caput preedag et solemnia quaedam spolia triumphantibus prieferuntur, 

 regeni Cappadocum captum credas. Sic cornicines et tibicines videas victorise glo- 

 riam declarare." 



11. Tas Kvvas Se Kol ffrfcjjavovffiv. The custon) of crowniug, or decorating witb 

 roses and garlands of ribbon, greyhounds which have distinguished themselves in the 

 coursing field, continues, I believe, at the present day. Such were the rewards 

 bestowed on the fleet horses of the liippodrome : 



Ti/uos 5e Koi wicees fWaxov 'iiriroi 

 01 (Kp'iaiv e{ Upwv (Tre(pavficpopoi ^vdov ayuivwu. 



Strabon. 



Geograph. 



L. XIV. 



See the medal of Diana Perga;a from Montfaucon Antiq. Expliq. Tom. i. p. 44. 

 The goddess holds a spear, or hunting-pole, in her left hand, and a fillet or crown in 

 her right hand, elevated over the head of a canis venaticus, who is wishfully looking 

 up, as if in expectation of the reward of merit. This medal is copied by the learned 

 Father from Beger, and derives its inscription from Perga in Pamphylia, nigh to 

 which city, I find in Strabo, stood on an elevated site the temple of APTEMI2 IIEP- 

 FAIA, whose rites were there annually celebrated. 



12. Vestiges of the Celtic ceremonies of Agrotera seem to have been extant, under 

 a peculiar modification, in London, within a period not very remote. That Dian's 

 worship was not confined to continental Europe, but extended, as already noticed in 

 note 1. (sub fine) of this chapter, to the insular Britons, is an historical fact, con- 

 Illustrations of firmed, according to the learned and ingenious Mr. Douce, by the remains of such 

 animals as were used in her sacrifices, and also by her own images found on rebuilding 

 St. Paul's Cathedral — on the site of which. Dr. Woodward very plausibly inferred, a 

 Roman temple of the pagan goddess once stood. " It cannot be controverted," 

 continues the first-cited able antiquary, " that Diana was reverenced in this country 

 long after the introduction of Christianity, when we find from the testimony of 

 Richard Sporling, a monk of Westminster in 1450, and a diligent collector of ancient 

 materials, that during the persecution of Diocletian the inhabitants of London sacri- 

 ficed to Diana, whilst those of Thorney, now Westminster, were ofifering incense to 

 Apollo. Sir W. Dugdale records that a commutation grant was made in the reign of 

 Edward I. by Sir William Le Baud, to the dean and canons of St. Paul, of a doe in 

 winter on the day of the Saint's conversion, and of a fat buck in summer on that of 

 his commemoration, to be offered at the high altar, and distributed among the canons. 

 To this ceremony Erasmus has alluded in his book De Ratione Concionandi, when he 

 describes the custom which the Londoners had of going in procession to St. Paul's 

 Cathedral with a deer's head fixed upon a spear, accompanied with men blowing 

 hunting-horns. Mr. Strype, likewise, in his Ecclesiastical Memorials, Vol. in. 

 p. 378. has preserved a notice of the custom as practised in Queen Mary's time, with 



Sliakspeare, 

 and of Ancient 

 Manners, &c. 

 Vol. I. p. 392. 



