ry similar in its mode of operation, is still observed on
Easter Monday and Tuesday in some other English counties. The men and
women on these days alternately exercise the privilege of seizing and
"lifting" any member of the opposite sex that they may chance to meet,
and claim a fee for the honour. In the records of the Tower of London,
may be found a document purporting to set forth how such payment was made
to certain ladies and maids of honour for "taking" (or "lifting") King
Edward I. at Easter, a custom then prevalent throughout the kingdom.
Brande gives an amusing account of an occurrence in Shrewsbury, extracted
from a letter from Mr. Thomas Loggan, of Basinghall Street. He says, "I
was sitting alone last Easter Tuesday at breakfast, at the Talbot, in
Shrewsbury, when I was surprised by the entrance of all the female
servants of the house handing in an arm-chair, lined with white, and
decorated with ribbons and favours of all kinds. I asked them what they
wanted; they said they came to 'heave' me; it was the custom of their
place, and they hoped I would take a seat in the chair. It was
impossible not to comply with a request so modestly made by a set of
nymphs in their best apparel, and several of them under twenty. I wished
to see all the ceremony, and seated myself accordingly; the group then
lifted me from the ground, turned the chair about, and I had the felicity
of a salute from each. I told them I supposed there was a fee due, and
was answered in the affirmative; and having satisfied the damsels in this
respect, they retired to 'heave' others."

The usage is said to be a vulgar commemoration of the event which the
festival of Easter celebrates. Lancashire, Staffordshire, and
Warwickshire still retain the Easter custom.

Whether or not the notable Norfolk "chairing" takes its origin from the
same is open to question; _possibility_ there is without doubt that it
does so. Be it as it may, it must, we fear, be numbered among the
departed joys of the poor folks.

CHAPTER VII.
SUPERSTITIONS.

_Superstitions_.--_Witchcraft_.--_Heard's Ghost_.--_Wise Men and
Women_.--_Sayings by Mrs. Lubbock_.--_Prophecies_.--_Treasure
Trove_.--_Confessions of Sir William Stapleton and Sir Edward
Neville_.--_Cardinal Wolsey supposed to have been conversant with
Magic_.--_Effect of Superstition on the Great and Noble in Early Times_.

Forby, in his "Vocabulary of East Anglia," has described the whole of
this