According to Rigordus, a historian of the thirteenth century, the capture of this wood by Cosroes, though it was recaptured by Heraclius, was a loss to the human race they never recovered. We are taught by him to believe that the mouths of our ancestors “used to be supplied with thirty, or in some instances, no doubt according to their faith, with thirty-two teeth, but that since the cross was stolen by the infidels, no mortal has been allowed more than twenty-three!”[321]
Nutting appears to have been customary on this day. Brand cites from the old play of “Grim, the Collier of Croydon:”—
“This day, they say, is called Holy-rood day,
And all the youth are now a nutting gone.”
It appears, from a curious manuscript relating to Eton school, that in the month of September, “on a certain day,” most probably the fourteenth, the scholars there were to have a play-day, in order to go out and gather nuts, a portion of which, when they returned, they were to make presents of to the different masters; but before leave was granted for their excursion, they were required to write verses on the fruitfulness of autumn, and the deadly cold of the coming winter.[322]
“Tuesday, Sept. 14, 1731, being Holyrood day, the king’s huntsmen hunted their free buck in Richmond New park, with bloodhounds, according to custom.”[323]
FLORAL DIRECTORY.
Passion Flower. Passiflora cærulea.
Dedicated to the Exaltation of the Cross.