April 15.--_Palm-Sunday_.--The Palm, in the countries where it grows,
has been the symbol of triumph in ancient and modern times. The triumph
which is commemorated on this day is the peaceful entry of Christ into
Jerusalem. This festival was observed with much solemnity in the
Catholic times in England, and the people were accustomed to make a
procession, bearing boughs of blossoming willow as most resembling the
fan-like branches of the palm. An old writer on plants says, speaking of
willow, “The blossoms come forth before any leaves appear, and are in
their most flourishing estate usually about Easter, divers gathering
them to deck up their houses on Palm-Sunday; and therefore the said
flowers are called Palm.” The date-palm is in many respects one of the
most valuable trees of the East, affording sustenance to an immense
population, and cheering a sterile region by its beauty.
[Illustration: Date-Palm, and Fruit.]
April 17.--The birth-day of Edward Stillingfleet, Bishop of Worcester, a
most learned and able prelate, born at Cranbourne, in Dorsetshire, in
1635. Stillingfleet’s greatest and best-known work is his ‘Origines
Sacræ, or a Rational Account of Natural and Revealed Religion,’ first
published in 1672; a profound and eloquent performance. He is the author
also of a considerable number of other works. He was promoted to the See
of Worcester soon after the Revolution, and died on the 27th of March,
1699.
April 19.--_Maundy Thursday._--Maundy is a corruption of the Latin word
_mando_, to command. This is the day on which the Saviour commanded his
disciples “to love one another.” The acts of love and humility which he
performed on that day used to be imitated by great monarchs of Europe,
in washing the feet of the poor. A better imitation would have been to
have abstained from those many deeds of tyranny which disfigure the
ancient annals of every kingdom. At the present day, in England, the
King’s almoner at Whitehall distributes silver pence to old and indigent
persons on this celebration.
April 20.--_Good Friday_, being the anniversary of our Saviour’s
crucifixion, is the most solemn fast of the Christian Church. The
Cross-bun, however, has long ceased in England to be the morsel by which
the severity of the last days of Lent was mitigated. In the old time
Lent was not “more honoured in the breach than the observance.” We find
from the household book of the Earl of Northumberland, which was kept in
1512, that throughout Lent, “beginning at Shrovetide and ending at
Easter,” the breakfast (a great meal in an ancient family) consisted,
“for my Lord and my Lady,” of “two pieces of salt fish, four herrings,
or a dish of sprats,” instead of the customary allowance at other
seasons of “half a chine of mutton or a chine of beef;” and the food at
a Lenten supper was equally meagre. The transgressors of Lent were
subject to ecclesiastical discipline. Strype, in his ‘Memorials,’
records that a man did penance at St. Paul’s Cross, in 1555, for
attempting to sell two pigs ready drest during the fast.
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