June 15.]

ST. VITUS’ DAY.

On St. Vitus’ Day, says Hazlitt (Brand’s Pop. Antiq. 1870, vol. i. p. 166), the Skinners’ Company, accompanied by girls strewing herbs in their path, and by Bluecoat boys placed by their patronage on the foundation of Christ’s Hospital, march in procession from Dowgate Hill, where their hall is, to St. Antholin’s Church, in Watling Street, to hear service.[66] The sermon, says Hampson (in his Med. Ævi Kalend. vol. i. p. 296), for which the chaplain (who is usually a member of the company, educated at Christ’s Hospital or Tunbridge) receives two guineas, has probably arisen out of a pious bequest for the purpose.