Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 6.djvu/392

246 THE GAD-WHIP MANORIAL SERVICE, Now, as to what was done : the bearer of the whip so furnished, before entering the church, cracked it thrice in the porch, at the reading of the First Lesson ; at the reading of the Second Lesson he knelt before the minister, and, after waiving the wdiip, with the purse attached, over the minister's head thrice, he held it steadily over his (the minister's) head while he read the rest of the Lesson, and afterw^ards he deposited the whip, &c., in the seat of the Lord of the Manor of Hundon. In this I apprehend there is little in common with what took place under the ancient ritual ; and, as the gospel was hardly read from so high an elevation as the desk, the whip may have formerly been shorter. Palm Sunday at that time was remarkable for some very popular and peculiar ceremonies, both in the churches and out of doors. They differed at different places. At an office before mass, the hallowing of the palms was effected, for which, as real palms could not be obtained, branches or rods of willow, box, and other trees, were substituted, and, when hallowed, were called palms, whatever they might be. Then there w^as a procession, not only about the church, but through the town or village, the host, or sometimes an image, being carried on an ass, or on a wooden figure of one, followed by the priests and others bearing palms and singing, wliile boughs and garments were strewed in the road before the ass, in com- memoration of our Saviour's triumphant entry into Jerusalem. Little crosses made of the consecrated palm w^ere inclosed in purses as a protection against the evil one, and also against storms. There were also certain performances, in wdiich an angel and a prophet were among other dramatis personce ; but the particulars of these I have not met with. May not the whip, the purse, and the four pieces of wych-elm, have been originally presented to the priest for the purpose of being used in some manner on Palm Sunday 1 The whip to drive the ass, and to repress the too eager curiosity of the thoughtless and irreverent portions of the crowd, though of late somewhat inconveniently long; the purse for receiving a gives, " a gad, a measure of nine or ten In the Scottish dialect Gad is a fishing- feet." — NareSjV. 6'«(/, cites IIoole'sAriosto, rod. Douglas, in his translation of Virgil, X. 73, where "a slender gad" is men- speaks of "gadwandes" for di'iving cattle, tioned, carried by horsemen lightly armed Baret, in his Alvearie, 15^0, gives both — (" with jacks " ) : — " a gaddo or goadc, stimulus, pertica stimu- " They run on horseback with a slender ^a'«j esr/uillon" and " a g.adde or whippe, gad, [long." flaffellum, fouet, ou cscourf)te." — A. W. And like a speare, but that it is more