motion was made by Mr. Cresset Pelham, M. P. for Shropshire, for a perambulating Parliament; but it was not seconded. Whatever might have been its former advantages, the increase of numbers, and increase of business, &c. &c., would render the execution of such a plan cumbrous in itself, and disadvantageous to the nation.

NOTE 5-(p. 324.)

"Yeven undre oure signette," &c.

In the connexion of the Saxon and modern English Languages there is a close affinity between the letters g and y, and indeed they are convertible; the hard g, is often the gutteral y; thus yeven is written for given even down to the days of Elizabeth, and the word gate was formerly written yate, or yat. Burnet, in the third vol. of his "History of the Reformation," in " A Collection of Records," &c., (No 59,) gives us the copy of the Injunctions of Nycolas Shaxton, Bishop of Sarum, 1538. At the close is the following notification: "Imprinted at London in Fletestrete at the synge of the Sonne, by John Byddell, and are to sell, at the Close Yate, in Salysbury." Thus, also, in the present day, if two rustics pass through a gate, the one will, mayhap, tell the other to shut the yat behind him. The family of Yates bear for their arms: Per fesse crenellée (i. e. embattled) or and gules, three gates counterchanged. Horne Tooke, in his philological work, the "ENEA ПTEPOENTA, or the Diversions of Purley," thus says, "Yard-in the Anglo-Saxon geard-is the past tense, and therefore past participle of the verb gyrdan, cingere, to gird, to surround, to inclose; and it is, therefore, applicable to any inclosed place, as court-yard, church-yard, &c.

"Garden is the same past tense, with the addition of the participial termination en. I say, it is the same; because the AngloSaxon g is pronounced indifferently either as our g or y."*

Another apposite instance of the conversion of the Saxon guttural y into the Anglican g may be seen in the word ayenste for against; which occurs in the letter of the Sovereign, Edward, the Fourth, to the Citizens of Salisbury, p. 327 of this volume.

Επεα Πτερόεντα, Vol. ii. p. 275.

NOTE 6-(p. 339.)

Weeping Cross." Much- very much may be said on the history of the Cross. Lipsius wrote a work, " De Cruce;" and this, if I mistake not, has given origin to a beautiful little, volume, lately published, entitled "Cruciana," by John Holland. This unpretending, yet clever, work I cannot too strongly recommend to the attention of my readers.

That the Cross was held in special regard by many heathen nations is demonstrated by many authors. Whether this had an incidental origin, or whether it arose from the Divine Councils with reference to the future introduction of Christianity, it is impossible to say. Higgins, in his "Celtic Druids,"* establishes, from many examples, this fact, that the Cross was in use as a sacred symbol in Egypt, Phoenicia, and India; and I think, that the following assigned origin of it, given by Maurice, as a symbol of universal nature, may be correct: "Let not," says he," the piety of the Catholic Christian be offended at the assertion, that the Cross was one of the most usual symbols among the hieroglyphics of Egypt and India. Equally honoured in the Gentile and the Christian World, this emblem of universal nature, of that world to whose four quarters its diverging radii pointed, decorated the hands of most of the sculptured images in the former country, and in the latter stamped its form upon the most majestic of the shrines of their deities."+

The Romans, however, used the Cross as an instrument of execution; and from hence it became an object of opprobrium. It was with them as a by-word, and as a by-word, and as a proverb, and, by the aid of metonymy, applied, generally, to the afflictions and griefs of life. Thus the word crucio came, also, to signify -to torment; and cruciatus, was used to describe pain, whether of body or mind. This metaphorical language is descended to the modern times—afflictions and events, subversive of our hopes, we call crosses; and we even say,

that a person is cross, when, from

* This is an elaborate work, but must be read cum grano salis. It contains opinions not in unison with my own, or those of the world.

+ Indian Antiquities, Vol. ii. p. 361.

being ruffled, and displeased, in mind, he appears to us wrongly disposed to thwart, or cross, our views or inclinations.

In order to make the humiliation of our Saviour appear yet more deep in the eyes of man, it was ordained by Divine Providence, that he should suffer death on the Cross. Pontius Pilate was, at that time, Governor of Judæa, and it was clamorously sought by the Jews, (doubtlessly with the view of this debasement on their minds,) that he should be crucified, and thus did the Lord of Life and Glory die the death of the most ignominious of mankind. From henceforth the character of the Cross was changed-the early worshippers of Christ venerated the instrument, on which our Saviour suffered; and it is said, in a note by Wowerus, one of the commentators on Minucius Felix, that they were wont to impress on their hands and arms the name of Christ, or the sign of the cross: "Imprimere enim manibus," says he, "et brachiis solebant nomen Christi aut signum crucis."

This commentator then proceeds to state, that Procopius remarks thus on Isaiah xliv. 5: τὸ δὲ τῇ χείρι, δια τὸ στίζειν ἴσως πολλῶς ἐπὶ καρπῶν ἢ βραχιόνων, ἢ τῷ σταυξᾶ τὸ σημεῖον, ἢ τὴν χριστᾶ wgoonyogíar; and he then thus notices, that the above passage bears reference to these words of St. Paul: " In quo indubie," says he, "respexerunt ad illa D. Pauli ad Gal. cap. ult.: iy γάρ τὰ στίγματα τῷ κυρίε ἰησῆ ἐν τῷ σώματι με βαστάζω"; that is, "From henceforth let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.*"

In future ages the Cross was every where seen-churches were built in the form of the Cross, and the Crusader (in the Wars of the Cross) fought under the banner with its impress, which also marked his garment and his buckler, and the hilt of his sword did, in its form, likewise show his religious fervour. The general exhibition of the Cross, however, did not always spring from pure religious veneration as distinct from motives of superstition. It was early held, that the Devil would flee from the Cross of Christ. "St. Cyril, of Jerusalem, exhorts his Catechumen, not to be ashamed of the Cross of Christ; and, if any one so be, do thou, at least, openly mark it on thy forehead, that the Devils, beholding the royal ensign, may retire trembling ;"t and we have seen, that, in the Legend of St. Christopher (p. 530), it was stated, that the Devil, seeing a • M. Minucii Felicis Octavius, p. 335. + Cruciana, p. 62.

Cross at a distance, avoided the passing of it. From hence the Cross was affixed on the threshold, the door, and the post, at the entrance of the dwelling of man, to prevent the intrusion of the evil fiend, and from hence, also, the external walls of the Cathedral of Salisbury are (or rather were) decorated with the brazen cross, the points of which each ended in a cross florée, the Cross itself being set within a quatre-foil, and the whole enclosed with a circle. Such a Cross within a circle originating, I doubt not, from the same superstitious feelings, I discovered painted on the internal wall of the Church of the Parish of Wilsford and Lake. From hence, also, I date the real origin of the numerous Crosses, which o'er-top the Cathedral of Salisbury, and which were, we may presume, intended to guard that fine, and sacred, structure from the assaults of the Evil Being. From hence, I add, we may date the rise of the Cross, which we see on every church, usually surmounting the gable-ends of the nave and the chancel, &c., and which were the simultaneous objects of religious veneration, indeed, I may say, in the darker ages, of religious adoration !

No ornament can be more appropriate-more picturesque on the House of God than the Cross; and, it is to be hoped, and trusted, (whatever may be said by the Jesuits of Stonyhurst,) that man in these realms, enlightened as he is by the glorious lamp of the Reformation, will never again place himself under the guidance of the dark lantern of Papistrythat the votary of Religion will never again fall prostrate in religious adoration of the Cross of wood, or stone.

Crosses of stone were erected in places of public resort on many occasions, but, in every instance, they acted as a salutary memento of religion. They were placed especially in the Church-yard—in the Market-place-and by the side of the public highway. The Cross in the Church-yard served the twofold purpose of exciting the devotion of him, who was about to enter the House of God, and (in accordance with the opinion, as we may presume, of the pious in the middle ages) of scaring away the evil fiend in his approaches to the cemetery of their Christian Friends. The Cross in the market-place admonished the trafficker in this world's goods to a course of honesty, and fair dealing, as he hoped to obtain salvation through Him, who suffered thereon for his sake. The Cross by the road-side served to remind the passing traveller, that he was but a pilgrim

through this nether world-that, in all his avocations, he should bear in mind his suffering Saviour. Plodding his weary way, the broad plinth of the cheering Cross kindly offered him a resting-place, and did oft entice him to breathe, in lonely prayer, and unheeded but by his Maker, an Ave-Maria for the good, and the salvation, of his dear, and distant, friends.

The Papist may say as he please, but there is no doubt, that, in former ages, worship was paid to the Cross, In a well-writtenEssay towards a History and Description of Ancient Stone Crosses," which appears in Mr. Britton's " Architectural Antiquities of Great Britain," vol. 1, are these appropriate remarks: "Many Catholics, forgetting that the stone Cross was merely a memento, or symbol, absolutely prostrated themselves before, and reverenced this inanimate block. Instead of elevating their thoughts to the omniscient Creator, they weakly paid homage to earthly particles; and, incapable of raising their minds to celestial contemplation, they most deplorably grovelled in the dark and contracted paths of human weakness, and superstitious folly. This we shall find exemplified in the following unequivocal fact. In an original instrument, dated 25th November, 1449, concerning the Church-yard of St. Mary Magdalen, in Milk-street, London, it is stated, that, in a piece of voide grounde,' lying on the west side of that street, there stode a Crosse of the height of a man or more; and that the same Crosse was worshipped by the parishens there, as Crosses be com'only worshipped in other chircheyardes.''

Manifest as was the deplorable, the superstitious, and, I may add, the impious, adoration paid to the Cross, it is no wonder, that the ire of the Reformers was excited by the review of the extreme folly, and wickedness, into which they were plunged by the successive stages of enthusiasm, superstition, and irreligion-that, incited by the then recent laws against images, and pictures, in churches, they dealt destruction to the one by hard blows, and veiled the other from the human eye by the solution of lime-in plain language-by a coating of white-wash.

The covered Market-cross still exists in some few places in the county of Wilts-as Salisbury, Malmesbury, and Castlecombe. The Church-yard Cross, also, in some rare instances, escaped the fury of the Iconoclasts, and may yet be seen.