tinued. By what authority this change took place we know not, but perhaps the books of the Stationers' Company might solve this mystery.

Poor Robin's Almanack affords much matter for consideration. He shews that the tradition respecting the appropriation of the days to particular Saints was considered by the common people as eminently Protestant, that is to say, as a part and parcel of the Church of England; and that an almanack without Saints for every day was nought. We have neither space nor leisure to pursue this inquiry; but we do earnestly wish that some one well versed in ecclesiastical history, for instance Mr. Palmer, would investigate the Kalendar;' not with the view of ministering to antiquarian curiosity or idle amusement, but as involving principles of the highest importance. The secular power came to the aid of the Church by the statute 5 and 6 Edw. VI., c. 3. This Act commands all our present liturgical festivals to be observed; and their non-observation is by no means an act of discretion, but a breach of the law of the land. Of the peculiar sports and observances which had been attached by ancient usage and custom to peculiar days-the dancing round the maypole on the festival of S. Philip and S. James-the bonfires on the feast of the Baptist-and the like-it is unnecessary to speak: but the main feature, anterior to the Reformation, was the cessation from work and labour upon such festivals. The people had a

time provided to rejoice before the Lord; and the exceptions in the Act shew that such was still the spirit of the age; those who chose to work are merely permitted to labour".

66 black letter saints'

Wheatly gives the following reasons for the retention of what are termed the days," in the Calendar of the Anglican Prayerbook.

Some of them were retained upon account of our courts of justice, which usually make their returns upon these days, or else upon the days before or after them, which are called in the writs, Vigil. Fest. or Crast., as Vigil. Martin; Fest. Martin; Crast. Martin; and the like. Others are probably kept in the Calendar for the sake of such tradesmen, handicraftsmen, and others, as are wont to celebrate the memory of their tutelar saints, as the Welchmen do of S. David, the shoemakers of S. Crispin, &c. And again, Churches being in several places dedicated to some or other of these saints, it has been the usual custom in such places to have wakes or fairs kept on such days, so that the people would probably be displeased if either in this or the former case their favourite saints' names should be left out of the Calendar. Besides, the histories which were writ before the Reformation do frequently speak of transactions happening upon such a holyday, or about such a time, without mentioning the month, relating one

a Quarterly Review, cxlii.

thing to be done at Lammastide, and another about Martinmas, &c., so that were these names quite left out of the Calendar, we might be at a loss to know when several of these transactions happened.

To a certain extent Wheatly may be right in these remarks, but we cannot accept as a whole a definition basing the retention of these names upon an entirely civil arrangement, especially when we discern among those commemorated such an array of the Bishops, Doctors, and Martyrs of the Church; besides, his theory will not at all apply to those saints about whom we are most in doubt, and whose lives and acts are so uncertain that we know little of them beyond their names, who were associated with no particular craft, and who have no Churches dedicated in their names in this country, such as S. Prisca, S. Nicomede, S. Enurchus, &c. Again, if the reasons he alleges did actuate the compilers of our Liturgy, how can we account for the omission of such names as S. Anthony, S. Barbara, S. Christopher and S. Botolph, S. Olave, S. Patrick, and S. Cuthbert, all of whom were more popular in medieval times than many who were retained in the Calendar? We candidly confess that we are unable to offer any satisfactory solution of the question, and therefore leave it as we found it, in the hope that it may ere long receive the attention which it deserves from the hands of our ritualists.

The curious symbols used in the fourth column of

the following calendar, and occasionally inserted in the text, are taken from the ancient Clog almanacks, of which Dr. Plot gives the following ac

count.

Canutus raigned sole king of England for 20 years: during which time and the raigns of his two successors, also Danish kings of England, many of their customs and utensils, no doubt on't, obtained here, amongst which I guess I reckon an may ancient sort of Almanacks they call Cloggs, made upon square sticks, still (A.D. 1686.) in use here among the meaner sort of people, which I cannot but think must be some remains of the Danish government, finding the same with little difference to have been used also formerly both in Sweden and Denmark, as plainly appears from Olaus Magnus, and Olaus Wormius: which being a sort of antiquity so little known, that it hath scarce been yet heard of in the southern parts of England, and understood now but by few of the gentry in the northern, I shall be the more particular in my account of them.

They are here called cloggs, for what reason I could not learn, nor indeed imagine, unless from the English log, a term we usually give to any pieces of wood, or from the likeness of some of the greater sorts of them to the cloggs, wherewith we usually restrain the wild, extravagant, mischievous motions of some of our dogs.

b Histor. Septentrionalium, lib. i.

• Fasti Danici, lib. ii.

There are some few of brass, but the most of them are of wood, and these chiefly of box; others there are of fir and some of oak, but these not so frequent. Wormius tells us that there were some of them made of bone, and some ancient ones of horn; but I met with none of these in this country, though all people no question made them of such materials as they thought fittest for their purposes.

Some are perfect, containing the Dominical letters, as well as the Prime and marks for the feasts, engraven upon them, and such are our primestaves in the Museum, at Oxford. Others imperfect, having only the prime and the immoveable feasts on them, and such are all those I met with in Staffordshire; which yet are of two kinds also, some publick, of a larger size, which hang commonly here at one end of the mantletree of their chimneys, for the use of the whole family: and others private, of a smaller size, which they carry in their pockets.

This almanack is usually a square piece of wood, containing three months on each of the four edges. The number of days in them are expressed by notches; the first day by a notch with a patulous stroke turned up from it, and every seventh by a large-sized notch. Over against many of the notches are placed on the left hand several marks or symbols, denoting the golden number or cycle of the moon. The festivals are marked by symbols of the several saints issuing from the notches. The instrument