and singing like devils incarnate, with such a confused noise that < no man can heare his own voyce. Then the foolish people they 'looke, they stare, they laugh, they fleere, and mount upon the formes and pewes to see these goodly pageants solemnized. Then after this, aboute the church they goe againe and againe, and so fourthe into the churche yard, where they have commonly their sommerhalls, their bowers, arbours, and banquetting-houses, set up, wherein they feast, banquet, and daunce all that day, and paradventure all 'that night too; and thus these terrestrial furies spend the sabbath day. Then, for the further innobling of this honourable lardane, lord I should say, they have certaine papers wherein is painted some babelerie * or other of ima'gerie worke, and these they call my Lord of Misrule's badges of 'cognizances. These they give to every one that will give them money to maintain them in this their heathenish devilrie;-and who will not show himself buxome to them and give them money, they shall be mocked and flouted shamefully; yea, and many times carried upon a cowlstatie, and dived over heade and eares in water, or otherwise most horribly abused. And so besotted are some, that they not only give them money, but weare their badges or cognizances in their hats or cappes openly. Another " sorte of fantasticall fooles bring to ⚫ these helhounds, the Lord of Misrule and his complices, some bread, some good ale, some new cheese, 'some old cheese, some custardes, some cracknels, some cakes, some flauns, some tartes, some creame, "Childish, trifling." some meat, some one thing, and some another.' "The society belonging to Lincoln's-Inn had anciently an officer chosen at this season, who was honoured with the title of King of Christmas-Day, because he presided in the hall upon that day. This temporary potentate had a marshal and a steward to attend upon him. The marshal, in the absence of the monarch, was permitted to assume his state; and upon New Year'sday he sat as king in the hall, when the master of the revels, during the time of dining, supplied the mar shal's place. Upon Childermas-day they had another officer, denomimated the King of the Cockneys, who also presided on the day of his appointment, and had his inferior officers to wait upon him. Selden asserts, and in my opinion with great justice, that all these whimsical transpositions of dignity are derived from the ancient Saturnalia, or Feasts of Saturn, when the masters waited upon their servants, who were honoured with mock titles, and permitted to assume the state and deportment of their lords. These fooleries were exceedingly popular, and continued to be practised long after the establishment of Christianity, in defiance of the threatenings and the remonstrances of the clergy, who, finding it impossible to divert the stream of vulgar prejudice, permitted them to be exercised, but changed the primitive object of devotion; so that the same unhallowed orgies, which had disgraced the worship of a heathen deity, were dedicated, as it was called, to the service of the true God, and sanctioned by the appel "Dugdale's Origines Juridiciales, fol. 247." Another lation of a Christian institution. shameless impudence. From this polluted stock branched part of these ridiculous ceremoout variety of unseemly and im- nies was, to shave the precentor of moral sports; but none of them fools upon a stage erected before more daringly impious, and out-, the church, in the presence of the rageous to common sense, than the populace; and, during the operafestival of fools, in which the most tion, he amused them with lewd sacred rites and ceremonies of the and vulgar discourses, accompanied church were turned into ridicule, by actions cqually reprehensible. and the ecclesiastics themselves The bishop, or the pope of fools, participated in the abominable performed divine service habited profanations. The following out- in the pontifical garments, and lines of this absurd diversion will, gave his benediction to the people no doubt be thought sufficient. "In each of the cathedral churches there was a bishop, or an archbishop of fools, elected; and in the churches immediately dependent upon the papal see a pope of fools. These mock pontiff's had usually a proper suite of ecclesiastics who attended upon them, and assisted at the divine service, most of them attired in ridiculous dresses, resembling pantomimical players and buffoons; they were accompanied by large crowds of the laity, some being disguised with masks of a monstrous fashion, and others having their faces smutted; in one instance to frighten the beholders, and in the other to excite their laughter: and some, again, assuming the habits of females, practised all the wanton airs of the loosest and most abandoned of the sex. During the divine service this motley crowd were not contented with singing of indecent songs in the choir, but some of them ate, and drank, and played at dice, upon the altar, by the side of the priest who celebrated the mass. After the service they put filth into the censers, and ran about the church, leaping, dancing, laughing, singing, breaking obscene jests, and exposing themselves in the most unseemly attitudes with before they quitted the church. He was afterwards seated in an open carriage, and drawn about to the different parts of the town, at✔ tended by a large train of ecclesiastics and laymen promiscuously mingled together; and many of the most profligate of the latter assumed clerical habits, in order to give their impious fooleries the greater effect; they had also with them carts filled with ordure, which they threw occasionally upon the populace assembled to see the procession. These spectacles were always exhibited at Christmas-time, or near to it, but not confined to one particular day. When the ceremony took place upon St. Stephen'sday, they sang, as part of the mass, a burlesque composition, called The Prose of the Ass, or The Fool's Prose. It was performed by a double choir, and at intervals, in place of a burden, they imitated the braying of an ass. Upon the festival of St. John the Evangelist they had another arrangement of ludicrous sentences, denominated The Prose of the Ox, equally reprehensible. "Grotesque ceremonies, some. thing similar to those above inentioned, certainly took place in England; but probably they were not carried to that extent of imN 2 piety, in the thirty-third year of Henry VIII.; the concluding clause of the ordinance runs thus: Whereas heretofore dyvers and many superstitious and chyldysh obser vances have been used, and yet 'to this day are observed and kept in many and sundry places of this 'realm upon St. Nicholas, St. Ca St. Clement's, and piety, nor so grossly offensive to decency. We had a king of the fools, but his office was suppressed at an early period, and not, that I remember, revived in the succeeding times. The election and the investment of the boy-bishop was certainly derived from the festival of fools. In all the collegiate churches, at the feast of St. Nicho-therine's, las, or of the Holy Innocents, and frequently at both, it was customary for one of the children of the choir, completely apparelled in the episcopal vestments, with a mitre and crosier, to bear the title and state of a bishop. He exacted a ceremonial obedience from his fellows, who, being dressed like priests, took possession of the church, and performed all the ceremonies and offices which might have been celebrated by a bishop and his pre-true glorie to God, or honour of bendaries. Colet, dean of St. a Holy Innocents, and such like holy-daies; children be strangelic 'decked and apparayled to coun'terfeit priests, bishops, and wo men, and so ledde with songs and 'dances from house to house, blessing the people, and gathering of money; and boyes do singe masse, and preache in the pul pits, with such other unfitinge and inconvenient usages, which 'tend rather to derysyon than enie his sayntes.' This idle pageantry was revived by his daughter Mary; and in the second year of her reign an edict was issued from the bishop of London to all the clergy of his diocese, to have a boy-bishop in procession. The year following, the child bishop, of Paules Paul's, who, though he was wise and good man,' countenanced this idle farce; and, in the statutes for his school at St. Paul's, expressly orders that the scholars shall, every Childermas, that is, Innocent's-day, come to Paule's churche, and hear the childe by-church, with his company,' we.e shop's sermon, and after be at "hygh masse, and each of them offer a penny to the childe byshop; and with them the maisters and surveyors of the schole*.' After having performed the divine service, the bishop and his associates went about to different parts of the town, and visited the religious houses, collecting money. These ceremonies and processions were formally abrogated by proclamation from the king and council, admitted into the queen's privychamber, where he sang before her on St. Nicholas'-day and upon Holy Innocents-day. Again the next year, says Strype, On Saint Nicholas-even, Saint Nicholas, that is, a boy habited like a bishop in pontificalibus, went abroad in most parts of London, singing after the old fashion; and was received with many ignorant but well-disposed people into their houses, and had as much good cheer as "Knight's Life of Colet, p. 362; to which Warton adds, "I take this opportunity of intimating, that the custom at Eton of going ad montem, originated from the ancient and popular practice of these theatrical processions in collegiate bodies.' Hist. Poet, ut supra," ever was wont to be had before*. mummery was totally disconti After the death of Mary this silly nued." ACCOUNT of SOHO, BIRMINGHAM, [From SHAW'S HISTORY of STAFFORDSHIRE, Vol. III. Part I.] OHO is the name of a hill in perfection of execution, in this S the county of Stafford, about place. two miles from Birmingham; which, a very few years ago, was a barren heath, on the bleak summit of which stood a naked hut, the habitation of a warrener. "The transformation of this place is a recent monument of the effects of trade on population. A beautiful garden, with wood, lawn, and water, now covers one side of this hill; five spacious squares of building, erected on the other side, supply workshops, or houses, for above six hundred people. The extensive pool at the approach to this building is conveyed to a large water-wheel in one of the courts, and communicates motion to a prodigious number of different tools. And the mechanic inventions for this purpose are superior in multitude, variety, and simplicity, to those of any manufactory (I suppose) in the known world. Toys, and utensils of various kinds, in gold, silver, steel, copper, tortoise-shell, enamels, and many vitreous and metallic compositions, with gilded, plated, and inlaid works, are wrought up to the highest elegance of taste, and "Mr. Boulton, who has established this great work, has joined taste and philosophy with manufacture and commerce; and, from the various branches of chemistry, and the numerous mechanic arts he employs, and his extensive correspondence to every corner of the world, is furnished with the highest entertainment as well as the most lucrative employment. "About the year 1745, Mr. Boulton, then of Birmingham, invented, and afterwards brought to great perfection, the inlaid steel buckles, buttons, watch-chains, &c. which Dr. Johnson mentions in one of his papers in The World' as becoming fashionable in this country; whilst they were re-purchased from France, under the idea of their being the production of that kingdom. "In the year 1757, John Wyrley, of Hamstead, esq. lord of the manor of Handsworth, granted a lease to Messrs. Edward Ruston and Eaves, of these tracts of common; viz. Handsworth-heath, Moneybank-hill, Crabtree-bank warrens, for ninety-nine years, with certain inclosed lands; with liberty to make "We may observe that most of the churches in which these mock ceremonies were performed, had dresses and ornaments proper for the occasion, and suited to the size of the wearers, but in every other respect resembling those appropriated to the real dignitaries of the church; hence it is we frequently meet with entries of diminutive habits and ornaments in the church inventories, as una mitra parva cum petris pro episcopo puerorum, that is, a small mitre with jewels for the bishop of the boys. Invent. York Cathedral. See also Dugdale's Hist. of St. Paul's, p. 205." N 3 some some additions to the same, and to make a cut for the turning of Hockley-brook, to make a pool, with powers to build a water-mill. In consequence of which a small house and feeble mill were erected, for the purpose of roliing metal. On Lady-day 1762, Mr. Boulton purchased the aforesaid lease, with all the premises and appurtenances, to apply the same to such branches of the manufactory established at Birmingham as would tend to diminish expense and labour. "In order to prosecute his designs and improvements, he soon after enlarged and rebuilt those premises, and then transplanted the whole of his manufactory from Birmingham to Soho; and, though he had made very considerable additions to these buildings, he found them not sufficient for his great designs: he therefore, in 1764, laid the foundation of the present superb manufactory, which was finished in the following year, at the expense of 9000l. From that period he began to turn his attention to the different branches of manufactory; and, in conjunction with Mr. Fothergill, then his partner, established a mercantile correspondence throughout Europe; by which means the produce of their various articles was greatly extended, and the manufacturer, by becoming his own merchant, eventually enjoyed a double profit. Impelled by an ardent attachment to the arts, and by the patriotic ambition of bringing his favourite Soho to the highest degree of perfection, the ingenious proprietor soon established a seminary of artists for drawing and modelling; and men of genius were now sought for and liberally patronised, which shortly led to a successful imitation of the Or Molu. These metallic ornaments, consisting of vases, tripods, candelabras, &c. by the superior skill and taste bestowed upon them here, soon found their way, not only to the admiration of his majesty, and to the chimneypieces and cabinets, &c. of the nobility and curious of this kingdom; but likewise to France, and almost to every part of Europe. From this elegant branch of the business the superior skill of Mr. Boulton led his artists, by a natural and easy transition, to that of the wrought silver; upon which he soon found the necessity of applying to parliament for, and establishing, in 1773, an assay office at Birmingham. About this time that ingenious art of copying pictures in oilcolours, by a mechanical process, was invented at Soho; and, under the patronage of the above proprietor, was brought to such a degree of perfection as to be taken for originals by the most experienced connoisseurs. This extraordinary piece of art was principally conducted by the ingenious Mr. F. Eginton, which led him to that of painting upon glass, now carried on at his neighbouring manufac tory. "Mr. Boulton, finding from ex. perience that the stream of water which had induced him to build a mill, and transplant his manufac tory to Soho, was insufficient for its purposes, applied horses, in conjunction with his water-mill; but finding that both troublesome, irregular, and expensive, in 1767 he made a steam-engine, on Sa very's plan, with the intention of returning and raising his water about twenty-four feet high; but, this proving unsatisfactory to him, he soon after formed an acquaintance with his present partner and friend, Mr. James Watt of Glasgow, who |