The Sun.
London, England, 1846-04-13 00:00:00

PSALM CL.

Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in His sßnettiary :
praise Him in the firmament of Hi; power. Praise Him
for His mighty acts: praise Him according to this ex-
cellent greatness. Praise Him with the sound of the
trumpet: praise Him with the paltry and harp. Praise
Him with the timbre' and dance: praise Him with
stringed instruments and organs. Praise Him upon the
loud cymbals: praise Him upon the high-- outdingcy:n-
bals. Let everything that bath breath praise the Lord.
Praise ye the Lord." •

GOIJD F RIDA Y.
From the earliest periOd of Christianity this day has
been observed n% a solemn fast in raemory of' the cruci-
fixion of our Saviour. Its apps-llation Good is of no
very r. mote origin, and 'appears to be peculiar to the
English Church. Our Saxon forefather:, called it Long
Friday, from the length of the offices and fastinffs on
this (lay; but its ancient title, and th•tt by which it is
known in the Western Church, is Holy Friday.

OLD AND PoPULAII COST(Ims.
We are ant aware that in Hull, or the district nr rroi-

derness, there aro any customs peculiar to Good Friday.
it was formerly the custom of English monarchs on this
day to hallow with great solemnity certain rings, the
touching of which was believed to prevent cramp and fil-
ing sicknes,. This usage took its rise in the mys-
terious virtue of a ring which had been given by Ed-
v.Ard the Confessor to a poor person who had asked
:alms of him, for the hi,e he tore to St. John the
Evaty,:elist ; and which, having found its way to .hrum-
kiii, a rds' h t hay. " fin * 'St:- .Edward bv-

some pilgrims returning from Palestine. It was kept
for centuries in Westmi:-.ster Abbey with much venera-
tion ; the Sovereigns of England were thought to be
able to impart itg virtue to ether rings, and there was a
peculiar service for• their consecration. These were called
"cramp-rings," and presented and received with an
implicit faith in their sanatory power. Andrew
Boorde, in his Breviary of Health, 4t0.. 1557. speaking
of the cramp, observes :--•" The King's Majesty bath
a great help in this ►natter in hallowing cramp-
rings, and so given without money or petition." Lord
Bernitrs, the translator of Fr,\issart, when Ambassador
to the Emporia. (Narks V., w,iting to Cardinal Wolsey,

on " the 21st June., 1518," s "If your Grace re-
member me with some cramp-rings, we shall do a thing
much looked for, and I trust to bestow them well with
God's grace," &c. In Suff.,lk, the use of cramp rings
is not entirely abandoned. Instanc€'s occur where nine
young men of a parish each subset (be a crooked six-
pence to be moulded into a ring for young woman
affl,cted with fits. In connexion with the cramp, and
one of its supposed remedies, we will present our readers
with the following cilium "f r on-'s toot when asleep,'
in use in the Blue•coat school, when Coleridge was a
little boy there, a,)(1 ever slice its foundatiAn in the
reign of Edward VI. It runs thus :
"Foo,! foot! foot! is fast asleep!
Thumb! thumb! thumb! in spittle we steep;
Crosses three we make to ease us,
Two for the thieves, and one for Christ Jesus."

The same charm served fur a cramp in the leg, wit's
:his substitution:—
" The devil is tying a knot in my leg!
Mark, Luke, and John, unloose it I beg!
Crosses three," &c.
" And really," says the poet just mentioned, " upon get-
ting out of bed, when the cramp most frequently occur-
red, pressing the sole of the foot upon the cold floor, and
then repeating this charm with the acts configurative
thereupon prescribed, I can safely affirm that Ido not
remember an instance in which the cramp did not go
away in a few seconds."
Eggs and apples were anciently connected with Good
Friday. A writer, in 1579, refers to the custom of
" creeping to the cross with eggs and apples." One
William Rath., in 1570, says. " that on this day the
Roman Catholics offered unto Christ eggs and bacon, to
be in favour till Easter-day was past." A French writer
in 1679, observes, " that he has known people who pre
serve all such eggs as are laid on Good Friday, which
they think are good to extinguish fires in which they
may be thrown." He adds, that some imagine that
three loaves baked on the same day, and put into a heap
of corn, will prevent its Ist ing devoured by rats, mice,
weevils, or worms." In England but one sort of eatable
"remains in association" with the day, na:nely hot cross
buns. These are smal cakes, slightly sweetened and
spiced, sometimes of s round shape, and sometimes long
and tapering at both ends, but assay marked on the top
with an indentation in the form of a cross. "In Lon-
don," says a writer before quoted, " as well us in altno-t
every other considerable town in England, the first sound
heard in the ioorning of Good Friday is the cry of • lint
erns~ buns !' uttered by great numbers of pe.iple of an
humble order, who pseudo the atreets with baskets con-
raining a plentiful stock of the article, wripped up in
flannel and linen to keep it warm. The cry, which is
rather musical. is sit icily—
' Hot cross buns—
One a penny, buns—two a penny, buns.
One a penny, two a penny—hot cross buns
Hucksters of all kinds, and many pers&ns who attempt
no traffic at any other time, enter into the business of
supplying buns en Good Friday morning. They make
a stir in the streets which lasts tillmibureli time, and it is
resumed in the afternoon."
Sixty years ago pastry•cooka vied with each ether for
excellence in making het cress buns; and there were two
b ikers' shops at Chelsea so eels brated for this manu-
facture, that crowds of customers thronged benea h
the flat-roofed wooden portico or piazza which ex-
tended along the front •of each, during the whole
of the day. Several hundreds of square black tins,
each containing dozens of hot buns, were disposed
of in every hour, from a little of er six in the
morning till after the same period in the even-
ing. Cross buns reseintle, in some respects, the con
secreted loaves, bestowed by the Western Church on
those who, from any i mp,dirnent, cannot receive the Holy
Eucharist. These are made from the dough from whence
the Host itself is taken, marked with the cross, given by
the priest to the people after mass, just previousiy to the
departure of the congregation, an. are kissed before they
are eaten. It is remarkable, that the loaves of the
Greeks were signed with a cross from the earliest
periods, and that such were off,red to the gods, under
name which in the accusative case is boun. Two loaves
with an impression of the cross, within which were four
other lines, were found in Herculaneum. In the houses
of some ignorant persons, a Good Friday bun is pre-
served " for luck ;" and sometimes there hangs from the
ceiling a hard biscuit-like cake of open cross-work, baked
on Good Friday, to remain there until displaced on the
next Good Friday by a similar one. This is deemed a
preservative against fire.
A correspondent of the " Every Day Book" stated
that on Good Friday, in the neighbourhood of West
Derby, a custom prevails which is called " paste-egg-
ing." Parties of the juvenile peasantry disguise them-
selves in the most fantastic habiliments—such as clothes
turned inside out, with masks, veils, Ste., and betake
themselves (in number of about four to a dozen of both
sexes) to the different farm- houses, and solicit contribu-
tions towards the " festivsl" of Eater Sunday. These
gifts are generally eggs and oatmeal cakes. One of the
party usually carries a basket for the eggs, another
for the cakes, and a third is the bearer of a small box
for .ecuniary contributions. They generally cheer
their benefactors with some animated songs, and seldom
fail to return homeward with a plentiful supply of their
"paste-egg," and no trivial aid in money. With these
materials a feast is got up on Easter Sunday evening at
the village ale-house.
In the midland districts of Ireland it is a common
practice on Good Friday, with the lower orders, to pre-
vent their children, even those at the breast., from having
any sustenance from twelve on the previous night to
twelve on the night of Friday ; and it is common to see
along the roads, between the different market towns,
nfiti),rde,rasnodf
iwnotmheein with their r
worst
tlir
garments.
ia dishevelled,
this
All b
is
in com-
memoration •
memoration of Christ's passion.
RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES.

An old lalok, containing the cerem7nies observed by
the English monarchs, direct,: the usher to lay a carpet
on Good Friday, for the King " to creep to the cross
upon;" and a proclamation of the 30th Henry VIII.
enjoins on this day, " it shall be declared how creeping
to the cross signitieth an humbling of yourself to Christ,
before the cross, and the kissing of it a memory of our
redemption, made upon the cross."
The " setting up' of the Easter sepulchres on Good
Friday appears to have been a general practice in Eng-
land. In ads was placed the host with a crucifix, or the
host alone, which was watched, according to the Sarum
rite, from Good Friday till early in the morning of
Easter day. Perhaps the most curious "sepulchre," of
which we have an account was that at St. Mary 4ed
cliffe's Church, Bristol, 1471. It is described as " well
gilt with fine gold," end comprising amang its -deco-
rations "an image of God Almighty rising out of the
same sepulchre, with all th,r ordinance that belongeth
thereto—that is to say, a lathe made of timber and
ironwork thereto. Item— Heaven made of timber and
stain,- d cloths. Item—lL ll made of timber and iron-
work thereto, with devils the number of thirteen.
Item: four knights armed keeping the sepulchre, wnh
their weapons in their hands—that is to say: two .pearl
two axes, with two shields. Item: four. parr otneng.e.„
wings, for four angels, made of timber,v_a,agle, v. II
the
painted. Item: the Father, the cr?wnwainthd i
tine the
hall with a cross upon it,.
Item: the Holy Ghost corriintt !,utd "
h Foshroke, p. 50,
well
sepulchre." Barrett's Bristol, cite y
gilt f Heaven 'To the
i
note.
arch forming a recess
•li_ancel, and nrarly opposite
This was often used tu
' sncr-Ily ono an
snedthiriaG, Gospel side die
persons, il their wilts,r an
tilt °,
Easter " setiolchr,.. -110!11, . .re-
and canopy to nn altar,, o,)!nl).
b so built a
u ,ly desired to }lave their tom s a that they
qmig"llitt serve for tin:: purpose.
Two of the finest examples of stone "sepulohres',' are
at Eckington Church, Lincolnshire, and Hawton Church,
Nottinghamshire ; these axe, riohly decorated irk the