[22] Ibid.
March 13.
St. Nicephorus, Patriarch of Constantinople, A. D. 828. St. Euphrasia, A. D. 410. St. Theophanes, Abbot, A. D. 818. St. Kennocha, A. D. 1007. St. Gerald, Bishop, A. D. 732. St. Mochoemoc, in Latin, Pulcherius, Abbot, A. D. 655.
Mid-Lent Sunday.
Winter and Spring allegorized—a Sport.
Mothering Sunday.—Refreshment Sunday.—Rose Sunday.
This is the fourth Sunday in Lent, and noted as a holiday in the church of England calendar.
On this day boys went about, in ancient times, into the villages with a figure of death made of straw; from whence they were generally driven by the country people; who disliked it as an ominous appearance, while some gave them money to get the mawkin carried off. Its precise meaning under that form is doubtful, though it seems likely to have purported the death of Winter, and to have been only a part of another ceremony conducted by a larger body of boys, from whom the death-carriers were a detachment, and who consisted of a large assemblage carrying two figures to represent Spring and Winter, whereof one was called “Sommer tout”—