Officinal Crocus. _Crocus Sativus._
Dedicated to _St. Eulogius_.
[316] An interesting notice of Mr. Smith will be found in a small and
elegant little work, entitled “County Biography,” &c., published by
Longman and Co., accompanied by a good portrait of the subject of this
article.
~September 14.~
_The Exaltation of the Holy Cross_, A. D. 629. _St. Catharine_ of
Genoa, A. D. 1510. _St. Cormac_, Bp. of Cashel, and king of Munster,
A. D. 908.
~Holy Cross,~
or
HOLY ROOD.
_Holy Cross_ is in our almanacs and the church of England calendar on
this day, whereon is celebrated a Romish catholic festival in honour of
the holy cross, or, as our ancestors called it, the _holy rood_. From
this denomination _Holyrood-house_, Edinburgh, derives its name.
The _rood_ was a carved or sculptured groupe consisting of a crucifix,
or image of Christ on the cross, with, commonly, the virgin Mary on one
side, and John on the other; though for these were sometimes substituted
the four evangelists, and frequently rows of saints were added on each
side.[317]
The _rood_ was always placed in a gallery across the nave, at the
entrance of the chancel or choir of the church, and this gallery was
called the _rood-loft_, signifying the rood-gallery; the old meaning of
the word _loft_ being a high, or the highest, floor, or a room higher
than another room. In the _rood-loft_ the musicians were stationed, near
the rood, to play during mass.
The _holy roods_ or _crosses_ being taken down at the time of the
reformation, the rood-loft or gallery became the _organ-loft_ or singing
gallery, as we see it in our churches at present: the ancient
_rood-loft_ was usually supported by a cross-beam, richly carved with
foliage, sometimes superbly gilt, with a screen of open tabernacle-work
beneath.[318]
When the _roods_, and other images in churches were taken down
throughout England, texts of scripture were written on the walls of the
churches instead. The first rood taken down in London was the rood
belonging to St. Paul’s cathedral, and then all the other roods were
removed from the churches of the metropolis.[319]
The holy rood, at Boxley, in Kent, was called the _Rood of Grace_; its
image, on the cross, miraculously moved its eyes, lips, and head, upon
the approach of its marvelling votaries. The _Boxley Rood_ was brought
to London, and Hilsey, bishop of Rochester, within whose diocese it had
performed wonders under the papacy, took it to pieces at St. Paul’s
cross, and showed the people the springs and wheels by which, at the
will of the priests, it had been secretly put in motion.[320] The open
detection and destruction of this gross imposture, reconciled many, who
had been deceived, to the reformation.
* * * * *
The festival of _Holy Cross_, or as it is more elaborately termed by the
Catholics, _the Exaltation of the Holy Cross_, is in commemoration of
the alleged miraculous appearance of the cross to Constantine in the
sky at mid-day. It was instituted by the Romish church on occasion of
the recovery of a large piece of the pretended real cross which Cosroes,
king of Persia, took from Jerusalem when he plundered it. The emperor
Heraclius defeated him in battle, retook the relic, and carried it back
in triumph to Jerusalem.
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]
* * * * *