Star.
London, England, 1825-04-04 00:00:00


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Mom fleme's " Every-Bay Book.")
Formerly " hot-cross-buns" were commonly eaten in
London by families at breakfast, and some families s ill
retain the usage. They are of the usual form of buns;
though they are distinguished from them inwardly by
a sweeter taste, and the flavour of al-spice, and out-
wardly by the mark or sign of the cross. The 66 hot-
,erou-bun" is the most popular symbol of the Roman
Catholic religion in England that the Reformation has
left. Of the use of the Cross, as a mark or sign in
Papal worship and devotion, most Readers are aware;
for it has been insisted on by Roman Catholic writers'
from the days of Constantine to Alban Butler himself,
who, giving example of its great virtue on Good Fri-
day, says, " to add one more instance, out of many,
St. Teresa assures us, in her own life, that one day the
devil, by a phantom, appeared to sit oft the letters of
her book, to disturb her at her devotions ; but she
drove him away thrice by the sign of the Cross, and at
last sprinkled the book with holy water ; after which
he returned no snore."" In the houses of some ignorant
people, a Good Friday bun is still kept " for luck ;"
and sometimes there hangs from the ceiling a hard bis-
cuit-like cake of open cross-work, baked on a Good
Friday, to remain there till displaced ors the next Good
Friday by one of similar make; and of this the Editor
of the Avery-Day Book has heard affirmed " that it
preserves the house from tire ;" "no fire ever happened
in a house that had one." This, undoubtedly, is a relic
of the old superstition; as is also a vulgar notion in the
West of England, that the straight stripe down the
shoulders of the ass, intersected by the long one from
the neck to the tail, is a cross of honour conferred upon
him by Crirtisr, and that.before CHRIST rode upon the
ass, that animal was not so distinguished. Hot-cross
buns are the ecclesiastical Esdogle, or consecrated
loaves, bestows:d in the Church as alms, and to those
who, from any impediment, could not receive the Hos.
They are made from the dough from whence the Host
itself is taken, and are given by the Bien to the people
after Mass, just before the congregation is dismissed,
and are kissed before they are eaten. They are (harked
with the Cross as our Good Friday buns are. Winckel-
man relates this remarkable fact, that at Her-
culaneum were found two entire loaves of the same
size, a palm and a half, or five inches in diameter.—
They were marked by a cross, which were four other
lines; and so the bread of the Greeks was marked from
the earliest periods. S metimes it had only four lines,
and then it was called quadra. This bread had rarely
any other mark than a Cross, which was on purpose to
divide and break it more easily.t

• Butler's Moveable Feasts, 1774, svo. p. 379.
Fosbroke's Brit. Moose& Hereoloneons, it will be remem-
bered, was overwhelmed and destroyed by the volcanic eruption of
Mount Vesuvius, A.D. 79.

THE FIRST OF APRIL.
The boundless hilarity and jocunJ sports prevalent
on the Ist of April in England, appear to have their
origin in the ancient practice of celebrating with festive
rites the period of the vernal Equinox. But De Bel-
lingen, in his etymology of French Proverbs, gives the
following explanation of a similar practice. The French
call the person imposed on Poisson d'Avril, who we
term an Apia fool, and he contends that the word
poison is derived from passion, and that length of
Itime has almost totally defaced the original intention,
'which was as follows :—That as the Passion rf our
SAVIOUR took place about this time of t! e year, and as
the Jews sent CHRIST backwards and forwards to mock
and torment him, i. e. from Ananias to Caiphas, from
Caiphas to Pilate, from Pilate to Herod, and from
Herod back again to Pilate ; this ridiculous or impious
cuttom took its rise from thence. There is also a Jewish
tradition, that the custom arose from a mistake of
Noah, in sending the dove out of the Ark before the
waters had abated, on the first day of that month
amongst the Hebrews, which answers to our first of
April.
In Poor Robin's Almanack for 1760, is the following
metrical detct iption of the modern fooleries : --
The first of Aprii, some do say,
Is set apart fur MI Fools' Day;
But why the people call it so,
Nor 1, nor they themselves do know.
But on this day are people mot
On purpose for pure merriment ;
And though the day is known before,
Yet frequently there is great store
Of these forgetfuls to be found,
Who're sent to dance Moll Dixon's round;
And hiving tried each ship and stall,
And disappointed as them all,
At last some tells them of the cheat;
Then they return front the pursuit,
And straightway hew with shame they run,
And others laugh at what is dose.
But 'tis a thing to be disputed,
Which is the greatest fool reputed,
The man that innocently weal,
Or he that him designedly sent.

A short time since, Mr. Edward Rayner, of Stanford
Rivers, near Ongar, was robbed of a valuable riding
hackney, which, although it had not been accustomed
to harness, the thieves affixed to a cart, and being as ex-
pert in horse-breaking as they are impudent in horse-
stealing, made a prize of the horse, the cart, and the
harness, which no tidings have been obtained to this
day; indeed, the little stir made on that occasion, was
the subject of remark at the time, and no doubt gave
the thieves so much encouragement as to induce them
to pay a second visit to Mr. Rayner, which they did on
Tuesday night, the fieth ult. so early as eleven o'clock ;
about which hour, Mr. Rayner's stables, although locked
and barred in as secure a manner as human ingenuity
could invent, were forced open, and of five cart-horsey,
the thieves selected three of the best, and from another
stable they took a clever hackney ; they then harnessed
the three cart-horses with Mr. Rayner's best set, and
put them to a nearly new hay-cart, painted yellow ;
thus complete, they tied the hackney behind, and pro-
ceeded towards the universal mart for stolen goods.—.
The booty obtained on this occasion is much under-
rated at £2OO, as two of the horses are valued at half
the money.
CROOKED Cotsminzweas.—A pamphlet published in
the year 170 has the following strange title :—" The
Deformity of Sin Cured, a Sermon, preached at St. Mi-
chael's, Crooked-lane, before the Prince of Orange ; by
the Rev. James Crookshanks. Sold by Matthew Den.'
ton, at the Crooked Billet, near Cripplegate, and by all
other Booksellers." The worth of the text are, " Every
crooked path shall be made straight." The Prince be-
fore whom it was preached was deformed in his person.
One of the ancients said, that he found a worthy
son-in-law had seined a son, and that he who met with
Aa worthless one; had lost a daughter.