to require their proper Intervals of Relaxation; perhaps it is of the highest political Utility to encourage Innocent Sports and Games among them. The revival of many of these, would, I think, be highly pertinent at this particular Season, when the general Spread of Luxury and Dissipation threatens more than at any preceding Period to extinguish the Character of our boasted national Bravery. For the Observation of an honest old Writer, Stow, (who tells us, speaking of the May-games, MidsummerEve Rejoicings, &c. antiently used in the Streets of London, which open Pastimes in my Youth being now supprest, worse Practices within Doors are to be feared)" may be with singular propriety adopted on the most transient Survey of our present popular Manners.

66

. Mr. Bourne, my predecessor in this Walk, has not, from whatever Cause, done Justice to the Subject he undertook to treat of. Far from having the Vanity to think that I have exhausted it, the utmost of my Pretensions is to the Merit of having endeavoured, by making Additions, to improve it. I think him, however, deserving of no small Share of Praise for his imperfect Attempt, for "much is due to those, who first broke the Way to knowledge, and left only to their Successors the Task of smoothing it."

New Lights have arisen since his Time. The English Antique has become a general and fashionable Study; and the Discoveries of the very respectable Society of

* I call to mind here the pleasing Account Mr. Sterne has left us in his Sentimental Journey, of the Grace-dance after Supper.---I agree with that amiable Writer in thinking that Religion may mix herself in the Dance, and that innocent Cheerfulness is no inconsiderable Part of Devotion; such indeed as cannot fail of being grateful to the Good Being, it is a silent but eloquent Mode of praising him!

Antiquaries have rendered the Recesses of Papal and Heathen Antiquities easier of access.

I flatter myself I have turned all these Circumstances in some measure to Advantage. I have gleaned Passages that seemed to throw Light upon the Subject, from a great variety of Volumes, and those written too in several Languages; in the doing of which, if I shall not be found to have deserved the Praise of Judgment, I must at least make Pretensions to the Merit of Industry.

Elegance of Composition will hardly be expected in a Work of this Kind, which stands much less in need of Attic Wit, than of Roman Perseverance and Dutch Assiduity.

I shall offer some Discoveries, which are peculiarly my own; for there are Customs yet retained here in the North, of which I am persuaded the learned of the Southern Part of the Island have not heard, which is, perhaps, the sole Cause why they have never before been investigated.

In perusing the subsequent Observations, the candid Reader, who has never before considered this neglected Subject, is requested not to be rash in passing Sentence, but to suspend his Judgment, at least, till he has carefully examined all the Evidence; by which Caution I do not wish to have it understood, that our Determinations are thought to be infallible, or that every Decision here is not amenable to an higher Authority. In the mean time Prejudice may be forwarned, and it will apologize for many seemingly trivial Reasons, assigned for the beginning and transmitting of this or that Notion, or Ceremony, to reflect, that what may appear foolish to the en lightened Understandings of Men in the Eighteenth Cen

tury

tury; wore a very different Aspect when viewed through the Gloom that prevailed in the seventh or eighth.

I should trespass upon the patience of my Reader, were I to enumerate all the Books I have consulted on this Occasion; to which, however, I shall take care in their proper Places to refer but I own myself under particular Obligations to Durand's Ritual of Divine Offices; a Work inimical to every Idea of rational Worship, but to the Enquirer into the Origin of our popular Ceremonies, an invaluable Magazine of the most interesting Intelligence. I would stile this Performance the great Ceremonial Law of the Romanists, in Comparison with which the Mosaic Code is barren of Rights and Ceremonies. We stand amazed on perusing it at the enormous Weight of a new Yoke which holy Church fabricating with her own Hands has imposed on her servile Devotees.

Yet the Forgers of these Shackles had artfully contrived to make them sit easy, by twisting Flowers around them. Dark as this Picture, drawn by the Pencil of gloomy Superstition, appeared upon the whole, yet it was its deep Shade contrasted with pleasing Light.

The Calendar was crowded with Red-Letter Days, nominally indeed consecrated to Saints; but which, by the encouragement of Idleness and Dissipation of Manners, gave every kind of countenance to SINNERS.

A Profusion of childish Rites, Pageants and Ceremonies diverted the Attention of the People from the consideration of their real State, and kept them in humour, if it did not sometimes make them in love with their slavish Modes of Worship.

To the Credit of our sensible and manly Forefathers, they were among the first who felt the Weight of this

new

new and unnecessary Yoke, and had Spirit enough to throw it off.

I have fortunately in my Possession one of those antient Romish Calendars of singular Curiosity, which contains under the immoveable Feasts and Fasts, (I regret much its Silence on the moveable ones) a variety of brief Observations, contributing not a little to the elucidation of many of our popular Customs, and proving them to have been sent over from Rome, with Bulls, Iudulgencies, and other Baubles, bartered, as it should seem, for our Peter-pence, by those who trafficked in spiritual Merchandize from the Continent.

These I shall carefully translate (though in some Places it is extremely difficult to render the very barbarous Latin, of which I fear the Critic will think I have transfused the Barbarity, Brevity, and Obscurity into my own English). and lay before my Reader, who will at once see and acknowledge their Utility.

A learned Performance, by a Doctor Moresin in the Time of James I. and dedicated to that Monarch, is also luckily in my Possession. It is written in Latin, and entitled "The Origin and Increase of Depravity in Religion;" containing a very masterly Parallel between the Rites, Notions, &c. of Heathen and those of Papal Rome.

The copious Extracts from this Work, with which I shall adorn the subsequent Pages will be their own Eulogy, and supersede my poor Encomiums.

When I call to remembrance the Poet of Humanity, who has transmitted his Name to Immortality, by Reflections written among the little Tomb-stones of the Vulgar, in a Country Church-Yard; I am urged by no false

* The late Mr. Gay,

Shame

Shame to apologize for the seeming Unimportance of my Subject.

The Antiquities of the Common People cannot be studied without acquiring some useful Knowledge of Mankind. By the chemical Process of Philosophy, even Wisdom may be extracted from the Follies and Superstitions of our Forefathers.

The People, of whom Society is chiefly composed, and for whose good, Superiority of Rank is only a Grant made ́ originally by mutual Concession, is a respectable Subject to every one who is the Friend of Man.

Pride, which, independent of the Idea arising from the Necessity of civil Polity, has portioned out the human Genus into such a variety of different and subordinate Species, must be compelled to own, that the lowest of these derives itself from an Origin, common to it with the highest of the Kind. The beautiful Sentiment of Te

rence:

"Homo sum, humani nihil à me alienum puto,"

may be adopted therefore in this Place, to persuade us that nothing can be foreign to our Enquiry, which concerns the smallest of the Vulgar; of those little ones, who occupy the lowest Place in the political Arrangement of human Beings.

Westgate Street, Newcastle,

Nov. 27, 1776.

J. B.

N. B. Here follow Mr. Bourne's Title-Page, Dedi

cation, and Preface.