Part 11

The word =Lent= is a contraction of the Old English _lenten_, and the Anglo-Saxon _lencten_, the spring, both derived from _lencgan_, to lengthen, because the long fast of the Christian Church occurs when the days begin to lengthen. =Shrove Tuesday=, also known as =Pancake Tuesday=, derived its name from the shriving or confessing imposed upon the faithful on this day. The custom of eating pancakes originated from the fact that this species of food afforded a stay to the appetite during the long hours of waiting in church to be shrived. The distribution of ashes on =Ash Wednesday= commemorates the passage in the third chapter of _Genesis_, where the Lord curses Adam in these words: “In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread till thou return to the ground; for dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return.” =Passion Sunday=, which precedes Palm Sunday, is devoted to a general commemoration of the subject of Christ’s Passion. =Palm Sunday= owes its name to the distribution of palms in the Roman Catholic Church, in allusion to the palms borne by the populace who accompanied the Redeemer into Jerusalem shortly before His betrayal by Judas. The week following Palm Sunday is called =Passion Week=, and also =Holy Week=, because it contains the days upon which the incidents of Christ’s Passion are particularly commemorated. =Maunday Thursday= is the first, not at all on account of the _maund_, the Saxon term for an alms-basket, formerly presented to the poor by the Lord (or rather by the Lady, “the loaf-giver”) of the Manor, but from the ancient ceremony of washing the feet of poor persons, in imitation of Christ at the Last Supper, when He said, “Mandatum novum do vobis,” &c., the French for _Mandatum_ being _Maundé_. The ecclesiastical designation of this day is =Holy Thursday=, in commemoration of the Agony and Bloody Sweat of the Saviour in the Garden of Gethsemane. =Good Friday=, the anniversary of the Crucifixion, was originally known as “God’s Friday.” The Anglo-Saxons usually called this day =Long Friday=, in consequence of the length of the Church service. =Holy Saturday= is the day upon which the Church commemorates the Burial of Christ.

The word =Easter= bears in itself no Christian significance whatever, having been derived from _Eoster_, the goddess of light, or spring, in whose honour a festival was anciently held in the month of April. The Jewish festival corresponding to our Easter is called the =Passover=, in commemoration of the Destroying Angel having _passed over_ the houses of the Israelites whose door-posts were marked with the blood of a lamb killed the previous night in accordance with the Divine command, when He smote the firstborn of the Egyptians in the year 1491 B.C. Returning to the Christian Church, the Sunday after Easter is called =Low Sunday=, because it stands at the bottom of the Lenten Calendar; being the last day upon which Roman Catholics may fulfil their Easter obligation of receiving the Holy Communion. =Sexagesima Sunday=, =Quinquagesima Sunday=, and =Quadragesima Sunday= are situated in the Calendar respectively sixty, fifty, and forty days before Easter; the terms expressing the Latin for those round numbers.

The Feast of Whitsuntide, which we have already discussed, also bears the name of =Pentecost=, from the Greek _pentekoste_, the fiftieth day, in commemoration of the gift of the Law to the Israelites fifty days after their deliverance out of Egypt. =Trinity Sunday=, so called from the Latin _trinitas_, three, is the Festival of the Holy Trinity, _i.e._, the unity of the three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, under one Godhead. =Corpus Christi= expresses the Latin for the Body of Christ, especially alluding to the Last Supper. As the Church considered it out of keeping with the solemnity peculiar to Holy Week, the celebration of this High Festival has been transferred to the Thursday after Trinity Sunday. The Sunday preceding Ascension Day is called =Rogation Sunday= because it ushers in the three =Rogation Days=, or days of preparation, conformably to the Latin _rogare_, to beseech, for the Feast of the Ascension. We may conveniently add here that =Ember Days= are those days of especial fasting and prayers that occur in each of the four seasons of the year, viz., the Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday after the first Sunday in Lent, and the corresponding three days after the Feast of Whitsuntide, the 14th of September, and the 13th of December. The weeks in which these days occur are styled =Ember Weeks=; the allusion to embers (Anglo-Saxon, _ämyrie_, hot ashes) being commemorative of the ancient custom of doing penance by the wearing of sackcloth and ashes.

On =Ascension Day= the Church celebrates the Ascension of our Saviour; while the =Feast of the Assumption= similarly reminds Roman Catholics of the consummation of the Virgin’s mission upon earth by being assumed into Heaven. =Holy Cross Day=, =Holy Rood Day=, and the =Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross= are one and the same, the term Rood being Old English, derived from the Anglo-Saxon _rôd_, for cross. This festival, which occurs on the 14th of September, celebrates the restoration of the Holy Cross of Calvary to Jerusalem in the year 628. =All Saints’ Day= (Nov. 1st), is the day dedicated to those whose sanctification during life merited their canonization by the Church after death; while =All Souls’ Day= (Nov. 2nd) is the day set apart for special prayers, having for their object the liberation of the suffering souls in Purgatory. The older designation of the first-named was =Allhallowes Day=, in accordance with the Anglo-Saxon word _haligan_, holy. =Allhallowe’en= denoted the evening before, generally attended with sundry amusements in the social circle; conspicuous among which was the cracking of nuts in large quantities in the fire, whence it received the name of =Cracknut Night=.

=St. Valentine’s Day= (Feb. 14th) is sacred to the memory of Bishop Valentine, a Christian martyr beheaded at Rome on this day in the year 278. The custom among young people of sending poetical souvenirs to their sweethearts on the birthday of St. Valentine originated from the old notion that birds commenced to couple on this day: hence, a sweetheart chosen on the 14th of February anciently bore the name of a VALENTINE. Nowadays, alas! the paper VALENTINES are all that remain to remind us of the fact. =St. Swithin’s Day= (July 15th) perpetuates the memory of St. Swithin, the preceptor of King Ethelwulf and Bishop of Winchester, who died July 2, 862. The vulgar belief that if it rains on this day it will continue to rain for forty successive days is attributed to the tradition that when, despite the saint’s dying request to be buried in the churchyard, the clergy took steps to disinter his body in order to remove it within the cathedral, a heavy downpour of rain necessitated a postponement of their efforts on thirty-nine successive days, whereupon, after the fortieth attempt, they determined to allow the saint to remain where he lay. =St. David’s Day= (Mar. 1st) commemorates the victory won by the Welsh over the Saxons on the birthday of their Archbishop (born 490, died 554), in the year 540. It was in consequence of the Archbishop having ordered them on this occasion to place a leek in their caps, so as to distinguish one another from the invaders, that the Welsh afterwards adopted the leek as their national emblem in his honour. =Comb’s Mass=, which in the north of Scotland, and Caithness more particularly, takes the place of our Whitsuntide, is the colloquial term for the Feast of St. Columba, Abbot of Iona (born 521, died 597).

=Primrose Day= (April 19th) is the anniversary of the death of Lord Beaconsfield (born 1804, died 1881). The abundant display of primroses on this day, particularly on the part of the members of the Primrose League, established in 1884 in his honour, originated in the Queen’s primrose wreath sent to the funeral of the great statesman, thus inscribed--“His favourite flower.” The custom of displaying a sprig of oak on =Royal Oak Day= (May 29th) perpetuates the manner in which the Royalists welcomed the return to England of Charles II. on his birthday, May 29, 1651, in allusion to his concealment in the oak at Boscobel, after the Battle of Worcester, on the 3rd of September previous. =Guy Fawkes’ Day= keeps alive the incident of the Gunpowder Plot, by the timely discovery of which, November 5, 1605, the wholesale destruction of King James’s Parliament was averted. The name of the chief conspirator was not Guy, but Guido Fawkes; his execution took place January 13, 1606.

=Arbor Day= is an expression scarcely understood in this country, except, perhaps, at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where the Transatlantic ceremony of planting trees, shrubs, and flowers within the school precincts, was publicly performed for the first time by the Mayor, June 11, 1888. This annual observance prevails not only throughout the United States and Canada, but also in certain portions of British Columbia, where the trees have to be coaxed into growing. =Forefathers’ Day= (Dec. 20th) is kept as a high holiday in New England, commemorative of the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers at New Plymouth in the year 1620. =Independence Day= (July 4th), perpetuates the memory of the American Declaration of Independence, 1776; and =Evacuation Day= (Nov. 25th), the date of the evacuation of New York City by the British army, at the conclusion of the American War of Independence, 1783.

The Sunday in Mid-Lent when the Pope blesses the Golden Rose, and children and domestics out at service visit their mothers to feast upon MOTHERING CAKES, really owes its name of =Mothering Sunday= to the ancient custom of making offerings to “Mother Church” on the afternoon of this day. =St. Grouse’s Day= is a popular nickname given to the 12th of August (=Grouse Day=), when grouse shooting commences; and =St. Partridge’s Day=, to the 1st of September (=Partridge Day=), which opens the season for partridge shooting; while =Sprat Day= (Nov. 9th) is the first day for selling sprats in London. The expression =Red Letter Day=, signifying a past event generally referred to with pleasure, found its origin in the old almanacks, where the Festivals and Saints’ Days were printed in red ink and the rest in black. This arrangement still obtains in Roman Catholic countries.

=Holiday= is a corruption of Holy Day, or a day originally set apart by the Roman Catholic Church for the celebration of some feast in commemoration of an important event, or in honour of a particular saint. The word =Almanac=, also written =Almanack=, is derived from the Arabic _al manah_, to count; whereas =Calendar= is a contraction of the Latin _calendarium_, an account-book.

_TEXTILES, EMBROIDERIES, AND LACE._

Several of our textile fabrics are indebted for their names to the places where they were first manufactured. As examples: =Damask Linens and Silks= originally came from Damascus; =Muslin= from Moosul, in Mesopotamia; =Nankeen= from Nankin, in China; =Calico= from Calicut, on the Malabar Coast; =Cashmere= from the valley of Cashmere, in India; =Dimity= from Damietta, in Egypt; =Valence= from Valencia, in Spain; and =Holland= from the Netherlands. =Cambric= was first made at Cambray; =Shalloon= at Chalons; and =Tarlatan= at Tarare: each of these towns being situated in France. =Worsted= formerly comprised the staple industry of a town of that name in Norfolk; =Cobourg= is brought from Cobourg, in Germany; while =Angola= comes from the Portuguese territory so called on the West Coast of Africa. The coarse woollen cloth known as =Frieze= was originally imported from Friesland.

The name of =Cotton= is a modification of the Arabic _qoton_; =Silk= is derived from the Latin _sericus_, soft; and =Satin= from the Italian _seta_, a species of silk distinguished for its gloss and close texture. Variegated silk or other stuff bears the name of =Brocade= in accordance with the Italian verb _broccare_, to prick, to stitch, to figure; =Damassin= is a damask cloth interwoven with flowers, or silver, or gold; =Sarsanet= is a fine silk, originally made by the Saracens; =Mohair= is properly Moorhair, or the hair of the Angola goat introduced into Spain by the Moors; whereas =Moire Antique= is the French description of a watered silk worked up in the manner of that worn in the olden time. =Chintz= is a Persian word signifying spotted or stained; =Taffety=, or =Taffeta=, is a modification of the Persian _tâftah_, derived from _taftan_, to spin; =Linen= is an Anglo-Saxon rendering of the Latin _linum_, flax; and =Lawn= is simply fine linen bleached upon a lawn instead of the customary drying-ground. =Pompadour= received its name from Madame le Pompadour, the mistress of Louis XV. of France (born 1721, died 1764), who was the first to introduce it.

=Swansdown= is, of course, made from the down of swans; =Moleskin= is not the skin of the mole, but a strong cotton fabric or fustain having a smooth surface like the mole-skin; =Merino= is manufactured from the wool of the Merino sheep; and =Alpaca= from that of the alpaca, a species of _llama_ found in Peru. =Kersey= is a corruption of =Jersey=, indicative of the place where this favourite woollen material was first produced. The dyed cotton stuff known as =Gingham=, out of which umbrellas were formerly made--hence the slang term for those articles--is so called after the native Javanese name pronounced ginggang. We may also conveniently add here that =Blankets= received their designation from Thomas Blanket, who first made them at Bristol as long ago as the year 1340.

The name of =Velvet= traces its origin from the Latin _villus_, shaggy hair; and =Plush= from _pilus_, a hair. =Velveteen= is a cotton velvet or a cloth in imitation of velvet. =Fustian=, derived from the Spanish _fustan_, is a generic term for the twilled cotton stuffs of which velvet, corduroy, &c., are the chief. =Grogram= is a corruption of the French _gros-grain_, meaning coarse-grained; whereas =Corduroy= is properly _Cord du roy_, King’s Cord, so called because, owing to its ribbed or corded surface, it was at one time considered superior to any other kind of cloth intended for masculine wear. =Pina-cloth=, a material much used for ladies’ dresses, is manufactured from the fibres of the pine-apple leaf; just as =Grass-cloth= is extensively worked up into light jackets for Indian wear from the Grass Cloth plant which abounds in China, Assam, and Sumatra. =T-cloth= comprises a special kind of cloth expressly manufactured in this country for exportation to India, and distinguished by a _T_ marked upon it; while =Broadcloth= simply bears its name on account of its unusual width. The name of =Twill= is a modification of the German _Zwillich_, signifying trellis-work, and founded upon _twillen_, to separate in two, since this cloth presents the appearance of diagonal lines or ribs upon its surface. =Tweed= is a cloth made in the neighbourhood of the river Tweed; but it did not always bear this name. The cloth is really _twill_, and the altered designation arose out of the word being blotted in an invoice sent to James Locke, of London, who, conceiving it to look like “Tweed,” suggested that it might as well stand for the name of the cloth as any other. =Plaid= owes its name to the Gaelic _peallaid_, a sheepskin out of which the over-garments of the Highlanders were originally made. =Check= is but another name for Plaid, meaning checkered, _i.e._, marked with variegated or crossed lines; as, for example, a draught-board, of which the counters are, on account of their cross movements, called CHECKERS or CHEQUERS.

The word =Embroidery= is a modern substantive evolved out of the old verb “Embordering,” by which was meant the adornment of any material with a border. =Tapestry= is derived, through the French _tapisserie_, from the Latin _tapes_, a carpet. The celebrated =Bayeaux Tapestry=, supposed to have been the work of Matilda, queen of William the Conqueror, and her maidens, took its name from the Norman town where it was discovered in 1728. =Gobelin Tapestry= preserves the memory of the Brothers Gobelin, the great French dyers (flourished 1470) whose house in Paris was acquired in 1662 by Louis XIV. for the production of tapestry and other works of ornamental design suitable for the adornment of palaces under the direction of M. Colbert. The more ancient name for Tapestry was that of Arras, in allusion to the town situated in the French Netherlands whence it chiefly came.

Having regard to Lace, it will suffice to observe that =Lisle=, =Chantilly=, =Brussells=, =Honiton=, &c., severally identify the Lace with the local centres where its manufacture is principally carried on; that =Valenciennes= is made at Valenciennes, in France; and that =Colbertine= derives its name from M. Colbert, the superintendent of the French Royal Lace Factories established by Louis XIV. in the seventeenth century. Lace is styled =Point-lace= when it is worked with the point of a needle; and =Pillow-lace= when produced by twisted threads around a series of pins arranged on a cushion. The latter, which has so greatly superseded the more costly point-lace, is said to have been the invention of Barbara Uttmann, of St. Annaberg, in the year 1561. The word =Lace= itself comes from the Latin _laques_, a noose or snare. =Tulle=, a species of network or lace, is indebted for its designation to the French town of that name where it was first made.

_LITERARY PSEUDONYMS._

So far from being chosen at random these are frequently the result of much premeditation. =Voltaire= (born 1694, died 1778), whose proper name was Arovet, composed out of this and the initials L. I. (_le jeune_) the anagram by which all his writings are identified. Again, =Barry Cornwall= is an imperfect anagram founded upon Bryan Waller Procter (born 1790, died 1874), the poet’s real name; whereas =Yendys=, the signature of Sydney Dobell (born 1824, died 1874), was merely the Christian name reversed. To cite an instance of another class: Charles James Apperley, of Denbighshire, author of “The Chase, the Turf, and the Road,” and a regular contributor to _The Quarterly Review_ could scarcely have hit upon a more fitting pseudonym than that of =Nimrod=, who “was a mighty hunter before the Lord,” alluded to in _Genesis_ x. 9. Such a choice will be the better understood, perhaps, when it is mentioned that out of regard for the sporting tastes of his esteemed contributor, Mr. Pittman, the proprietor of the _Quarterly_ kept a stud of hunters for his especial use. Equally appropriate was the pseudonym =Zadkiel=, denoting the angel of the planet Jupiter, adopted by Lieutenant Richard James Morrison, author of “The Prophetic Almanack,” which still survives as an annual publication.

Washington Irving selected the _nom de plume_ of =Knickerbocker= for his “History of New York,” in allusion to the wide breeches worn by the original settlers of that city. The true account of how Charles Lamb (born 1775, died 1834) adopted the name of =Elia= for his “Essays” is as follows:--His first contribution to the “London Magazine” being a description of the Old South Sea House, in which he had spent several months of his noviciate as a clerk, he at the very moment of appending his signature, bethought himself of a gay, light-hearted foreigner who used to flutter about there; and, as a mere matter of whim, he wrote down the name of that individual instead of his own. =Boz=, the early _nom de plume_ of Charles Dickens (born 1812, died 1870), arose out of the nickname of Moses conferred by him upon a younger pet brother in honour of Moses Primrose in the “Vicar of Wakefield.” The other children of the family, however, found it impossible to utter a nearer pronunciation to the name than “Bozes,” which presently became shortened in “Boz”; and the latter hit the fancy of our young author sufficiently to lead him to its adoption at that period of his literary career when he lacked the confidence to appear before the world under his own name. Out of an analogous incident sprang =Ouida=, the pseudonym of one of the most widely-read lady novelists of the present day. Her actual name is Louise de la Ramée (born in 1840); but remarking the infantile conversion of Louise into “Ouida,” she was struck by the novelty of such a _nom de plume_, and immediately adopted it. Another lady novelist of probably higher attainments assumed the name of =George Sand= (born 1804, died 1876) as the outcome of her attachment to a young student named Jules Sand, or rather Sandeau, with whom she collaborated in the production of “Rose et Blanche,” her first novel. The real name of this lady was Mdlle. Dupin, afterwards changed by marriage to Madame Dudevant.

It may be deemed interesting to learn also that =Artemus Ward= was an actual name borne by an eccentric showman with whom Charles Farrar Browne, the American humorist (born 1834, died 1867) often came into personal contact; and, further, that Samuel Langhorne Clemens (born in 1835) owes his singular pseudonym to the fact of having been employed in early life as a pilot on one of the Mississippi River steamboats. The nautical phrase for taking soundings, =Mark Twain=, or, in other words, “mark two fathoms,” suggested the name under which the works of the latter have become widely popular on both sides of the Atlantic.

Finally, not every one is aware that =F. M. Allen=, the pseudonym of Mr. Edmund Downey, author of “The Voyage of the Ark,” “Through Green Glasses,” and some other books of Irish humour, was his wife’s maiden name.

_COUNTERFEIT PRESENTMENTS._

A =Portrait=, so called from the Latin _protrahere_, to draw forth, is produced by the individual skill of an artist; whereas a =Photograph=, conformably to the two Greek words _photos_, light, and _graphein_, to write, is obtained by the action of sunlight upon a chemically prepared surface, such as silver, zinc, copper, glass, or paper.

The earliest examples of portraiture were styled =Miniatures= because they originated from the head of the Virgin or of some well-known saint introduced into the initial letters of illuminated rubics by the _Miniatori_, a number of monks noted for their skill in painting with _minium_, or red lead. The reason why the portraits of monarchs are represented on coins and medals in =Profile= dates back to Antigonus, one of the generals of Alexander the Great, who, having lost one eye, ordered his likeness to be drawn from a side view. This occurred in the year 330 B.C. The term is a corruption, by way of the French _profil_, of the Latin _perfilum_, compounded out of _per_, through, by, and _filum_, a line, a thread. A profile cut out of black paper bears the name of a =Silhouette= in honour of Etienne de Silhouette, the French Comptroller of Finance under Louis XV. (born 1709, died 1767), who was the first to have his features outlined in this manner.