[9] The allusion to King Edward is surely an anachronism, as King Henry VI. was reigning at the time of the foundation of the college.—Book of Days, vol. i. p. 114.
When Pointer wrote his Oxoniensis Academia (1749), he committed a grave offence by insinuating that this immortalised mallard was no other than a goose. The insinuation produced a reply from Dr. Buckler, replete with irresistible irony; but Pointer met a partisan in Mr. Bilson, chaplain of All Souls, who issued a folio sheet entitled ‘Proposals for printing by subscription the History of the Mallardians,’ with the figure of a cat prefixed, said to have been found starved in the college library.—Hist. of Co. of Oxford, 1852, p. 144.
Jan. 17.] SEPTUAGESIMA.
Jan. 17.]
SEPTUAGESIMA.
Septuagesima occurs between this day and February the 22nd, according as the Paschal full moon falls. It was formerly distinguished by a strange ceremony, denominated the Funeral of Alleluia. On the Saturday of Septuagesima, at nones, the choristers assembled in the great vestiary of the cathedral, and there arranged the ceremony. Having finished the last benedicamus, they advanced with crosses, torches, holy waters, and incense, carrying a turf in the manner of a coffin, passed through the choir, and went howling to the cloister as far as the place of interment; and then having sprinkled the water and censed the place, returned by the same road.—Fosbroke’s British Monachism, 1843, p. 56.
Jan. 20.] ST. AGNES’ EVE.
Jan. 20.]