Copy 1, Volume 1

Observations on the popular antiquities of Great Britain: chiefly illustrating the origin of our vulgar and provincial customs, ceremonies, and superstitions / by John Brand.

  • Brand, John, 1744-1806.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the popular antiquities of Great Britain: chiefly illustrating the origin of our vulgar and provincial customs, ceremonies, and superstitions / by John Brand. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    134/570 (page 108)
    [An amusing account of the origin of the leek custom is given in Howell’s Cambrian Superstitions. The Welsh in olden days were so infested by ourang-outangs, that they could obtain no peace by night nor day, and not being them- selves able to extirpate them, they invited the English, who came, but through some mistake, killed several of the Welsh themselves, so that in order to distinguish them from the monkeys, they desired them at last to stick leeks in their hats! The leek is thus mentioned in the Antidote against Melan- choly, 1661, speaking of Welsh food,— “ And oat cake of Guarthenion, With a goodly leek or onion, To give as sweet a rellis As e’er did harper Ellis.” The following amusing lines are found in Poor Robin’s Almanack for 1757,— u The first of this month some do keep, For honest Taff to wear his leek : Who patron was, they say, of Wales, And since that time, cuts plutter a nails, Along the street this day doth strut With hur green leek stuck in lmr hat; And if hur meet a shentleman, Salutes in Welsh, and if hur can Discourse in Welsh, then hur shall be Amongst the greenhorn’d Taffys free.”] ST. PATRICK’S DAY. The Shamrock is said to be worn by the Irish upon the anniversary of this Saint, for the following reason. When the Saint preached the Gospel to the Pagan Irish, he illus- trated the doctrine of the Trinity by showing them a trefoil, or three-leaved grass with one stalk, which operating to their conviction, the Shamrock, which is a bundle of this grass,