516 
decent ceremonies, garhbols, and antics, 
fuch as finging and danctng in the 
churches, in lewd attitudes, to ludicrous 
anthems, all allufively to the exploded 
pretenfions of the Druids, whom thefe 
{ports were calculated to expofe to fcorn 
and derifion, This Feaft of Fouls (adds 
the fame writer) had its defigned effect, 
and contriouted more perhaps to the ex- 
termination of thofe heathens, than all 
the collateral aids of fire and f{word, nei- 
ther of which were {pared in the perfecu- 
tion of them. The continuance of cule 
toms (e!pecially droll ones, which fuit 
the grofs tafte of the multitude) after the 
original caule of them has ceafed, is a 
great but no uncommon abfurdity.”’ 
Our epithet of Old Fools (in the north- 
ern and old Englifh avid) does not ill 
accord with the pictures of Druids tranf- 
mitted to us. The united appearances 
of age, fanctity, and wifdom, which 
thefe antient priefts aflumed, doubilefs 
contributed not a little to the deception of 
the people. The Chriltian teachers, in 
their labours to undeceive the fettered 
multitudes, would probably fpare no 
pains to pull off the mafk from thefe ve- 
nerable hypocrites, and point cut to 
their converts that age was not always 
fynonymous with wildom; that youth 
was not the peculiar period of folly, but 
that with young ones there were alfo old 
(auld) fools.—See Brand’s Popular An- 
tiquities, 8vO. 1777, Pp. 398- 
In one of the volumes of the Afiatic 
Refearches, there is, I think, mention 
made of a fimilar feaft of fools, {till cele- 
brated amongft the Hindoos, and attended 
exactly with the fame whimiical circum- 
ftances as are obferved with us on the firft 
of April. 
Mr. Wheatley, in his ¢ Tluftration of 
the Common Prayer,” p. 61, favs, that 
«© St. Valentine was a man of moft admi- 
rable parts, and fo famous for his love 
and charity, that the cuftom of chufing 
Valentines upon his feftival (which is ftill 
praétifed) took its rife from thence.”— 
This explication, however, it. muft be 
owned, is exceedingly ftrained and ob- 
{cure. Perhaps it may be illu@rated a 
little, by confidering, that, as by the Romifh 
Canons marriages were prohibited during 
Lent, and as VWalentine’s day. formerly 
happened neareft the commencement of 
that feafon of aufterity, the young men 
and maidens exchanged love-tokens as 
pledges of their fincerity and intention to 
-unue inthe bonds of wedlock when the 
Rays f reftriGion flould be ended, 
April Fools... 
{July 1, 
Mr. Brand obferves on this fubject, 
that ** Birds are faid to choole their mates 
about this time of the year, and probably 
from thence came the cuftom of young 
perfons chufing Valentines, or fpecial 
loving friends, on that day: this is the 
commonly received opinion. I rather 
incline ({ays he) tocontrovert this, fup- 
pofing it to be the remains of an ancient 
fuperftition in the Church of Rome on 
this day, of choofing patrons for the year 
enfuing, and that becaufe ghofts * were 
thought to walk on the night of this day, 
or about this time.”" 
Chaucer, however, feems to have held 
the opinion here controverted. The old 
bard thus explains the ftatute for obferv- 
ing Valentine’s day : 
Nature the Vicare of the Almightie Lord, 
That hote, colde, hevie, light, moift, and 
drie 
Hath knit, by even nomber of accord, 
In eafie voice, began to {peak and fay : 
Foules take hede of my fentence I pray, 
And for your own cafe, in fordering off your 
neea, 
As fait as I may fpeak, I will me fpeed. 
Ye know well, how on St. Valentine’s 
day, 
By my ftatute, and through my governaunce, 
Ye doe thefe your makes, and ajiter flie 
awa 
With Don as I pricke you with pleafaunces 
Tam, Sir, your's, &c. 
J. WaTKINs. 
London, Sune 4, 1803. 
ee 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
READ with aftonifhment, in a late 
Catalogue of Books, the following 
article :—** Emma; or, the Foundling of 
the Wood, by Mifs Brooke, daughter of the 
late Henry Brooke, Author of the Fool of 
Quality, Gc.’ —Now, Sir, as I had the 
pleafure ofa long and clofe intimacy with 
-Mifs Brooke, which continued to the time 
of her death in 1793, I could very fafely 
affert that /be never wrote one line of the 
novel in queftion. However, I think it 
more refpectiul to the memory of the de- 
ceafed, and to the public, to call on the 
Editor to declare, through the channel of 
your Magazine, the authority on which 
he has alcribed Emma to Mifs Brooke. 
| Wet. 
Dublin, Fune 4, 1803. 
* This appears from an obt{ervation on 
the 14th of February, in the Oid Romith 
Calendar : : 
‘6 Manes no€tes vagari creduntur.” 
To 
