finger, and the thumb side of the ring finger, whilst the ulnar nerve furnishes the little finger and the other side of the ring finger, at the point or extremity of which a real union takes place; it seems as if it were intended by nature to be the matrimonial finger.

That the side of the ring finger next the little finger is supplied by the ulnar nerve, is frequently proved by a common accident, that of striking the elbow against the edge of a chair, a door, or any narrow hard substance; the ulnar nerve is then frequently struck, and a thrilling sensation is felt in the little finger, and on the same side of the ring finger, but not on the other side of it. -Anatomicus Junior.

MARRIAGE BY PROXY.

In marriage by proxy, it was formerly the custom for the proxy to introduce his right leg up to the knee into the bed of the princess whom he married. Louis de Baviare, who married the Princess Marie de Bourgogne, daughter of Charles, Duke of Bourgogne, in the name of Archduke Maximilian of Austria, performed this ceremony. The object of the ceremony was to render the marriage more certain, it being supposed that the princess who had submitted to this kind of approach on the part of man, could not depart from her engagement and take another husband.

It is said that the Emperor Maximilian was married by proxy to Anne de Bretagne, who, nevertheless, afterwards married Charles VIII., of France, her marriage with Maximilian never having been consummated. But from a scruple of conscience, or some other cause, historians relate, that it was necessary to have recourse to the arguments of many theologians, and to examples drawn from holy writ, before the lady could be brought to listen to the proposition of her marriage with Charles VIII.

If the early historians may be believed, the first marriage by proxy was that of Clovis of France with Clotilde; Aurele having, it is said, married Clotilde at the court of Bourgogne, in the name of Clovis, his master, by giving her a ring and other pledges of a legitimate marriage. The ancient practice of placing the proxy's leg in the bed of the bride, is long since discontinued.

It existed, however, in Poland in the time of Hierera, who, in speaking of the marriage of Cardinal Radzivil with the Archduchess Ann of Austria, says, that the proxy of king Sigismund III. slept completely armed at the side of the new queen, in conformity with the ceremony, que les Reyes de Polonia ental caso accastumbran.

A king's proxy is usually a prince of his blood; if he be not, he is not allowed to take the hand of the princess, but only to place his by the side of hers.

GIVING QUARTER.

This custom, so well known in warfare, had its origin in an agreement between the Dutch and Spaniards, that the ransom of an officer or soldier should be the Quarter of his year's pay. Hence to beg quarter, was to offer a quarter of their pay for personal safety; and to refuse quarter, was not to accept the offered ransom.

LORD MAYOR'S DAY.

Lord Mayor's day in London was first made annual in the year 1214. Until that period, the chief magistrate was appointed for life.

Before the alterations of the style in 1582, the Lord Mayors of London came into office on the 29th October, on which account it would seem that, ever since 1800, the Lord Mayor's day ought to have been on the 10th of November instead of the 9th, the difference between the old and new style being 12 days. (See page 122.)

LORD MAYOR'S SHOW.

This show, says Hone in his "Ancient Mysteries," is the only state exhibition in the metropolis that remains as a memorial of the great doings in the time of the pageants. In a curious description of the show as it was managed in 1575, it is related, that "to make way in the streetes, certayne men were employed, apparalled like devells and wylde men, with skybbs and certain beadells."

The number of persons who dined at Guildhall was 1000, all at the charge of the mayor and the two sheriffs. "This feast (the writer continues) costeth £400, whereof the mayor payeth £200 and each of the sheriffs £100. Immediately after dyner they go to the church of St. Paule, the men bearynge staff-torches and targetts, which torches are lighted when it is late, before they come from evenynge prayer." In 1585, there were children in the procession, who personified the city, magnanimity, loyalty, science, the country, and the river Thames; they also represented a soldier, a sailor, and nymphs with appropriate speeches. The show opened with a Moor on the back of a lynx. On Sir Thomas Middleton's mayoralty, in 1613, the solemnity is described as unparalleled for the cost, art, and magnificence of the shows, pageants, chariots, morning, noon, and night triumphs.

In 1665, the city pageants, after a discontinuance of about fourteen years, were revived. Edmund Gayton, the author of the description for that year, says, that" our metropolis for these planetary pageants was as famous and renowned in foreign nations, as for their faith, wealth, and valour. In the show of 1659, an European, an Egyptian, and a Persian, were personated. On

Lord Mayor's day, 1671, the king, queen, and duke of York, and most of the nobility, being present, there were sundry shows, shapes, scenes, speeches, and songs in parts; and the like in 1672 and 1673, when the king again graced the triumphs.

In 1687, the pageants of Sir John Shorter, knt., as Lord Mayor, were very splendid. He was of the company of goldsmiths, and out of compliment to their patron saint, Dunstan, who was himself a goldsmith, they had a pageant representing the miracle of Dunstan and the Devil.

"St. Dunstan, as the story goes,

Once pull'd the devil by the nose

With red-hot tongs, which made him roar,
That he was heard three miles or more."

The last Lord Mayor who rode on horseback at his mayoralty was Sir Gilbert Heathcote, in the reign of queen Anne. The modern exhibitions, bettered as they are by the men in armour, have no pretensions to vie with the grandeur of the London triumphs. Even Gog and Magog, who were then only made of wicker-work and pasteboard, yearly graced the procession, and when that eminent annual service was over, remounted their old stations in Guildhall, till, by reason of their very great age, old time, with his auxiliaries, the city rats and mice, had eaten up all their entrails.

The earliest Lord Mayor's Pageant on record is the one described by Matthew Paris as taking place in 1236, on the occasion of the passage of King Henry III., and Eleanor of Provence, through the city of Westminster. For further particulars, see Fairholt's Lord Mayor's Pageants, published by the Percy Society.

FREEDOM OF ALNWICK.

When a person takes up his freedom in the town of Alnwick,

he is obliged, by a clause in the charter of that place, to jump into an adjacent bog, in which sometimes he must sink to his chin. This custom is said to have been imposed by King John, who travelling this way, and his horse sinking fast in this hole, took this method of punishing the people of this town for not keeping the road in better order.

LONDON CRIES.

In the time of Henry VI. an antiquary writes, that London cries consisted of-fine felt hats and spectacles; peas, strawberries, cherries, pepper, saffron, hot sheeps-feet, mackerel, green-peas, ribs beef, pie, &c. In the Pepysian library are two very ancient sets of cries, cut in wood, with inscriptions; among others are, "Buy my rope of onions, white St. Thomas's onions; rosemary

and bays; bread and meat for poor prisoners; ends of gold and silver; marking stones; a mat for a bed; maids hang out your lights; marrowbones; ells or yards; hand-strings or hand-kercher buttons; small coal penny a peck! I have skreens at your desire, to keep your butey from the fire," &c. &c.

Formerly it was a practice to set the London cries to music, retaining their peculiar musical notes. These cries, that have been so long famed in the annals of nursery literature, and without which, to the social part of society, London would lose one of its peculiar charms, have to the squeamish long been a source of complaint; their tender nerves and susceptible ears would have every social sound put to silence, and every unlucky wight who presumed to earn his bread by the exercise of his lungs sent to the treadmill! To please them—

"It were a delicate stratagem, to shoe

A troop of horse with felt,-I'll put it in proof."

Shakspeare.

MASQUERADES.

This species of amusement had its origin in Italy, where, according to Hall's Chronicle, they had become fashionable as early as the beginning of the 16th century. Of its introduction into England, Hall thus speaks: "On the date of the Epiphanie at night (A.D. 1512-13), the king (Henry VIII.) with eleven others were disguised after the manner of Italie called a maske, a thing not seen afore in England; they were appareled in garments long and brode, wroughte all with golde, with visers and cappes of golde; and after the banket done, these maskers came in with the six gentlemen disguised in Silk" (in all probability the domino of more recent times), "barynge staffe torches, and desired the ladies to daunce; some were content; and some that knew the fashion of it refused, because it was not a thing commonly seen. And after thei danced and commoned together, as the fashion of the maskes is, thei took their leave and departed, and so did the quene and all the ladies." The invention of masquerades is ascribed to Granacci, who died in 1543,

ORIGINAL DINNERS.

In 1609, Christian, Elector of Saxony, defrayed for 1600 guests, who, at the sound of the trumpet, saw the table covered. The Elector himself remained at table six hours; and that time nothing was done but to contend which of the party should eat the most and drink the largest. The custom of feasting was not confined to the great; all ranks participated in the sensual propensity, against which sumptuary_laws proved wholly unavailing. In the town of Munden, in Brunswick, it was ordained that the

dinner should not last above three hours, and that even a wedding feast should not exceed twenty-four dishes, allowing ten persous to every dish.

LADIES APPEARING AT COURT.

Anne of Brittany, wife of Charles VIII., and Louis XII., kings of France, was the first who introduced the fashion of ladies appearing publicly at court. This fashion was introduced much later in England, when, even down to the Revolution, women of rank never appeared in the streets without a mask. In Scotland the veil or plaid continued much longer in fashion, and with which every woman was covered.

SMOKING AND TAKING SNUFF.

Tobacco is said to have been first brought into England by Captain R. Greenfield and Sir Francis Drake about the year 1586, during the reign of Elizabeth. Alehouses are at present licensed to deal in tobacco, but it was not so from the beginning; for so great an incentive was it thought to drunkenness, that it was strictly forbidden to be taken in any alehouses in the reign of James I. A pamphlet on the Natural History of Tobacco, in the Harleian Miscellany, says, "The English are said to have had their pipes of clay from the Virginians," who were styled barbarians; and the origin of manufacturing tobacco into snuff is thus given to the sister kingdom. "The Irishmen do most commonly powder their tobacco, and snuff it up their nostrils."

HOWLING AT IRISH FUNERALS.

The Irish howl at funerals originated from the Roman outcry at the decease of their friends, they hoping thus to awaken the soul, which they supposed might lie inactive. The conclamatio over the Phoenician Dido, as described by Virgil, is similar to the Irish cry. From which it is clear the custom is of Phoenician origin.

GRACE AT MEAT.

The table was considered by the ancient Greeks as the altar of friendship, and held sacred; and they would not partake of any meat till they had offered part of it as the first-fruits to their gods. The ancient Jews offered up prayers always before meat, and from their example the primitive Christians did the same.

GOOSE ON MICHAELMAS DAY.

There is a current, but erroneous report, assigning to Queen Elizabeth the origin of this custom,