they are conducted to the seats of their respective ranks, when they salute the Lord Chancellor three times, and are afterwards formally introduced to him.

The origin of the woolsack is said to date from the time of Elizabeth, when an Act of Parliament was passed to prevent the exportation of wool. In order to keep in mind this source of our national wealth, woolsacks were placed in the House of Lords, whereon the judges sit.

CHAPTER XVIII

Curious doles-Plums at Christmas-Dorsetshire custom-Gloves for the parson-Bread and cheese for all-Scrambling charity-Figs and alePork and petticoats-Old love-feasts—Bullbaiting-Poor seamen-Lamps in LondonWashing Molly Grime-Predilection for colours -Tombstone charity-Prisoners at NewgateRedeeming English slaves- Maid-servants Musical bequest" Lion Sermon "-Pax CakeNational events-Dancing round John Knill's tomb-Dole at Hospital of St. Cross at Winchester.

IN no other way is the eccentricity of human nature more clearly manifested than in the peculiar methods which men have devised for benefiting mankind. We have already noticed some strange bequests and remarkable charities, and now propose to record others. The Charity Commissioners have in recent years diverted several charities from their original applications, and, in some cases, the wishes of the donor have not always been regarded with punctilious exactness; but the lapse of time and the wants of other generations have necessitated a change in the mode

of application of many charities, and several old customs have therefore been doomed to destruction.

Very numerous are the old charities for providing beef, bread, coals, strong beer, ale, and even tobacco, snuff, plums, and mincepies. At Forebridge, Staffordshire, the children in ancient times complained that they had no plums for a pudding at Christmas. So the chamberlain of the corporation of Stafford was enabled, by the bounty of some kind individual, to expend an annual sum at Christmas for purchasing plums to be distributed among the inhabitants of certain old houses in the liberty of Forebridge. The Rector of Piddle Hinton, Dorset, according to ancient custom, gives away on old Christmas Day a pound of bread, a pint of ale, and a mince-pie to every poor person in the parish. Nor is the feast of Lent forgotten. fa? John Thake, in 1537, left his property with the condition that a barrel of white herrings and a cade of red herrings be given to the poor of Clavering, Essex; and a similar bequest was made by Richard Stevenson, of Dronfield, Derbyshire, Lord Rich of Felsted, Essex, and David Salter of Farnham Royal, Bucks, who also ordered that two shillings be laid out for the buying of a pair of kid gloves for the parson on the first Sunday in Lent. Bread and cheese was provided for

every person who slept in the parish of Westbere, Kent, three nights previous to the first Saturday after old Midsummer Day; and at Paddington bread and cheese were thrown down and scrambled for by the people assembled in the churchyard. At Witney, Oxon, after the morning service on Sundays, a loaf of bread is given to the poor, and at Easter each person is presented with a sixpence.

Figs and ale were provided for the poor scholars of the Free School in Giggleswick on St. Gregory's Day by the will of William Clapham in 1603, and at Harlington, Middlesex, the ringers received a leg of pork for ringing on November 5th. White peas, rye, oatmeal, malt, barley, appear in other bequests. A small piece of land, called Petticoat Hole, at Stockton, Yorks, is held subject to an ancient custom of providing a petticoat for a poor woman of Stockton. În the same county there is an ancient payment of 3s. 4d. as the value of a pound of pepper, due from the occupier of a farm at Yaptam for taking care of the parson's horse, which he is bound to do whenever the parson goes there to do duty.

The Weavers' Company, London, pay ten shillings a year to the churchwardens of St. Clements, Eastcheap, to provide two turkeys for the parishioners, to be eaten

at their annual feast, called "the reconciling or love feast," formerly held on Maundy Thursday.

To establish bull-baiting seems a curious form of charity; but George Staverton in 1661 gave the sum of £6 yearly to buy a bull to be baited at Wokingham, enjoining that the flesh, hide, and offal was to be sold and bestowed upon poor children in stockings of the Welsh and shoes. The bull was baited until 1823, and since that period has been put to death in a more merciful manner, and the meat given to the poor.

Charities for the benefit of poor distressed soldiers and seamen abound, notably the famous one connected with Bamborough Castle. There is a special bequest, under the control of the minister of St. Mary's, Dover, for the widows of drowned men.

The streets of London in the days of candles and oil-lamps were dark and dangerous. One John Wardall bequeathed to the Grocers' Company a sum for the maintenance of a good and sufficient iron and glass lantern for the direction of passengers to go with more security to and from the waterside all night long, to be fixed at the north-east corner of St. Botolph's Church. John Cooke in 1662 did a like service for the corner of St. Michael's Lane, near Thames Street, and also for the cleaning and sweeping the aisle