Tid, Mid, Misera,
Carling, Palm, Paste Egg day.
The first line is supposed to have been formed from the beginning of Psalms, &c. viz. Te deum—Mi deus—Miserere mei.[36]
But how is it that Care Sunday is also called Carl Sunday and Carling Sunday; and that the peas, or beans, of the day are called carlings? Carle, which now means a churl, or rude boorish fellow, was anciently the term for a working countryman or labourer; and it is only altered in the spelling, without the slightest deviation in sense, from the old Saxon word ceorl, the name for a husbandman. The older denomination of the day, then, may not have been Care but Carl Sunday, from the benefactions to the carles or carlen. These are still the northern names for the day; and the dialect in that part of the kingdom is nearer to Saxon etymology. But whether the day were called Carle or Care Sunday it is now little known, and little more can be said about it, without the reader feeling inclined to say or sing,
“Begone dull Care.”
FLORAL DIRECTORY.
Dog’s Violet. Viola Canina.
Dedicated to St. Wulfran.
[33] Mr. Brand.
[34] Brand’s Pop. Antiq. from Marshal on the Saxon Gospels.