THE EARLY CHRISTIANS. 'a Dean Stanley, in a recent lecture, observed: "It is reported that John Wesley once in the crisis of the night, found himself, as he thought, at the gates of hell. He knocked, and asked who were within? Are there any Protestants here?' he asked. 'Yes,' was the answer, great many.' 'Any Roman Catholics?' 'Yes, a great many.' 'Any Church of England men?' 'Yes, a great many.' 'Any Presbyterians? 'Yes, a great many.' 'Any Wesleyans? 'Yes, a great many.' Disappointed and discouraged, especially at the last reply, he traced his steps upwards, found himself at the gates of Paradise, and here he repeated the same questions. Any Wesleyans here?' 'No.' 'Any Presbyterians?' 'No.' 'Any Church of England men?' 'No.' 'Any Roman Catholics?' 'No.' 'Whom have you, then, here?' he asked in astonishment. 'We know nothing here,' was the reply, 'of any of the names you have mentioned. The only name of which we know any thing here is 'Christians.' We are all Christians here, and of those we have a great multitude (which no man can number), of all nations, and kindreds, and peoples, and tongues.' That is the truth which we shall have to learn hereafter about the name Christian; it may be as well for us to learn it here. It includes, and comprises, and overrides all the others by which men have been divided, because it is the name derived from Him to whom they all look, from whom they are all descended, in whom they all live. 'Christianity' is a nobler name than any particular form of Christians. 'Christendom' is a more magnificent name than any particular creed or section of 'Christians,' because 'Christian' is a greater name than any particular opinion or custom, and because Christ is a greater name than any person, or teacher, or doctrine, or custom, than any other which has appeared on earth." SAXON HOUSEHOLD SERVANTS.-VALUE OF MONEY. An inference of some importance may be drawn from the fact noticed by Mr. Sharon Turner, that the household servants generally bore Saxon names, because it corroborates the opinion, that the Normans employed the people whom they had subdued in menial offices-"hewers of wood and drawers of water": "We may note, as a striking peculiarity in this document, that the household servants are generally distinguished by Saxon names. We have Hande and Jacke of the bakehouse; Hicqe the tailor, Jacke the keeper of the Countess's harriers, Dobbe the shepherd; Diqon, Gobithesty, and Treubodi, who were often employed in carrying letters; as well as Slingaway, a courier, whose name is most apposite, and was derived, possibly, from his gait and manner." Of the Value of Money in the thirteenth century, Mr. Turner says, on the authority of Mr. Hardy, that one shilling then would purchase as much as fifteen now. The additional value of money, and increase of opulence in England, might form, says Johnson, a curious subject of research; as in the reign of Edward VI. Latimer mentions as a proof of his father's prosperity, that though only a yeoman he gave his daughters five pounds each as a marriage portion. ANGLO-SAXON WIVES. Professor Rolleston, in a lecture upon the Anglo-Saxon conquest of England, observes that archæological research gives some little information about religious beliefs, or rather disbeliefs, in England from the time of Hengist to that of Berinus-that is to say, from about the year 447 to the year 636; it also gives some clue as to whether the Anglo-Saxons, when they came here, brought their wives with them, or found wives after their arrival in these islands; also much information about the modes of burial of the early dwellers in Britain. PEWS IN CHURCHES. Sir Christopher Wren strongly opposed the introduction of Pews, though many churches built by him are disfigured by them. He writes:-"Since Providence, in great mercy, has protracted my age to the finishing the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, I shall presume briefly to communicate my sentiments after long experience. . . . . A church should not be so filled with pews but that the poor may have room enough to stand and sit in the alleys, for to them equally is the Gospel preached. It were to be wished that there were no pews, but benches; but there is no stemming the tide of profit, and the advantage of pew-keepers."-Wren's Parentalia. THE FESTIVAL, OF HOCK TIDE. In the year 1041 or 1042, June 6, died Hardicanute, it is uncertain whether at Lambeth, Kennington, or Clapham, though most probably at the second of these places, whilst celebrating the marriage of Toni, or Tueri Prudan, and Gytha, the daughter of Usgod Clapa, two noble Danes. As Hardicanute stood drinking, he suddenly fell to the earth with a terrible convulsion, and then they who were there nigh took hold of him, and he, after that, spake not one word, and he died on the 8th before the Ides of June. Whether he was poisoned, or whether he died of intempe rance, is unknown; he was king over all England two years wanting ten days, and he is buried in the old Minster at Winchester, with King Canute his father. And his mother, for his soul, gave to the new Minster the head of St. Valentine the Martyr. The day of Hardicanute's death was kept by the English as a holiday, and was called Hog's Tide or Hock Wednesday, that is, high or great festival, or from the Iceland Nozz, "slaughter," "excision," from the general joy on the final expulsion of the Danes. This was observed in some counties to the time of Charles I. It was kept on or about the Quidena of Easter, which sufficiently refutes the notion of its being instituted in commemoration of the slaughter of the Danes by Ethelred, which was celebrated on the 13th of November. It seems to have been kept for two days, as we read of Hock Monday and Hock Tuesday, and it may be in the same manner as feasts of dedications of churches, and other feasts-commenced on the day or vigil before, as an introduction to the real feast. In this parish there was clearly one day for the men and another for the women. The principal part of the merriment consisted in the men or women stopping the way with ropes, and drawing passengers to them, desiring something to be given to them. In the direction of these sports, the women took the lead, a circumstance which has been thought by some to have had its rise from the wedding feast at which Hardicanute breathed his last. Of the money collected on these occasions, it appears from the churchwardens' books of Lambeth parish that the sum collected by the women always exceeded the collection by the men. The unmarried women took their part in collecting. The amount was appropriated to the repairs of the church. The observance of Hock Tide declined soon after the Reformation; but there are in the Chelsea Registers, entries of the collection of Hock-money in 1606, 1607, and 1611; and there is this curious passage in Wyther's Abuses Strypt and Whipt, London, 1618, which seems to imply that it was still in a degree observed :— "Who think (forsooth) because that once a yeare They can afford the poore some slender cheare, What will they do, I say, that think to please Their mighty God with such fond things as these? In Thomson's Etymons of English Words, 1816, Hock Tide is an old English name given to festivals, but particularly to those of Christmas and Easter. It afterwards became heyday tide, hockday tide, hoity toity, and highty tighty, to denote rural pastime. Hock memey, or Christmas, is, literally, the festival of the lengthening day, from the German, mema, to increase; and the Germans at this day call a wedding feast hochzeit, hock tide. The term continues to be used in Brittany and Scotland; and "in the north-west of Wiltshire, and west of Berkshire, hock tide sports are still kept up."-D. Macintosh; Proc. Ethnological Society, 1861. BOWS AND ARROWS. There appears to be some doubt as to the exact time when these weapons were disused in English warfare. The battle of Agincourt, October 25, 1415, seems to be the last very important action in which archery is much spoken of. |