Leaves from a Madeira Garden 



for a son and heir, you propitiate Our Lady of 

 somewhere else ; it is no great step from this 

 for the uneducated mind to think of two 

 goddesses, possessing different attributes and 

 powers. 



The patron saint of our own parish here, 

 St. Martin, seems to have obtained his repu- 

 tation as the friend of revellers, publicans, 

 and tavern-keepers from the accident that his 

 festival coincides with an old pagan feast. St. 

 Martin does not himself appear to have been 

 an especially jovial person. The oft-painted 

 incident of his dividing his cloak with a beggar 

 made him originally the guardian of mendicants ; 

 but that function has been transferred to St. 

 Giles. In early life he worked many miracles, 

 including the restoring of the dead to life, and 

 while Bishop of Tours he did much to spread 

 the monastic system. There is nothing in this 

 to connect him with the toper, or even the 

 moderate drinker. Yet throughout Christen- 

 dom Martinmas is a day proper for revelry, 

 the day on which cattle are killed to be salted 

 for winter use, and the new wine is drawn from 

 the lees and tasted. It is a curious chance 

 which has linked the Christian ascetic with the 



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