March 17.]

ST. PATRICK’S DAY.

In the metropolis, says Stow in his Sports, Pastimes, and Customs of London (1847, p. 241), this anniversary is generally observed at court as a high festival, and the nobility crowd and pay their compliments in honour of the tutelary saint of Ireland. It is usually selected, also, for soliciting aid to a great national object—the promotion of education.

Buckinghamshire.

In the Illustrated London News of 22nd March, 1862, p. 285, is the following paragraph:

“Lord Langford, as the highest Irish nobleman in Eton School, presented, on St. Patrick’s Day, the beautifully-embroidered badges, in silver, of St. Patrick, to the head master, the Rev. E. Balston, and the lower master, the Rev. W. Carter, which were worn by the reverend gentlemen during the day. About twenty-four of the Irish noblemen and gentlemen in the school were invited to a grand breakfast with the head master, as is customary on these occasions.”

IRELAND.

The shamrock is worn in all parts of Ireland on this day. Old women, with plenteous supplies of trefoil, may be heard in every direction, crying “Buy my shamrock, green shamrocks;” and children have “Patrick’s crosses” pinned to their sleeves. This custom is supposed to have taken its origin from the fact that when St. Patrick was preaching the doctrine of the Trinity he made use of this plant, bearing three leaves upon one stem, as a symbol of the great mystery.[26]

In Contributions towards a Cybele Hibernica (D. Moore and A. G. More, 1866, p. 73) is the following note: “Trifolium repens, Dutch clover, Shamrock.—This is the plant still worn as shamrock on St. Patrick’s Day, though Medicago lupulina is also sold in Dublin as the shamrock. Edward Lhwyd, the celebrated antiquary, writing in December 1699 to Tancred Robinson, says, after a recent visit to Ireland: ‘Their shamrug is our common clover’ (Phil. Trans., No. 335). Threkeld, the earliest writer on the wild plants of Ireland, gives Seamar-oge (young trefoil) as the Gaelic name for Trifolium pratense album, and says expressly that this is the plant worn by the people in their hats on St. Patrick’s Day. Wade also gives Seamrog as equivalent to Trifolium repens, while the Gaelic name given for Oxalis by Threkeld is Sealgan.”

A correspondent of N. & Q. (4th S. vol. iii. p. 235) says the Trifolium filiforme is generally worn in Cork. It grows in thick clusters on the tops of walls and ditches, and is to be found in abundance in old limestone quarries in the south of Ireland. The Trifolium minus is also worn.

The following whimsical song descriptive of St. Patrick is given on Hone’s authority as one often sung by the Irish:

It is customary early in February for wealthy farmers and landowners in Ireland to brew ale to be kept till the 17th of March, St. Patrick’s Day; and there is a delicious cake made this day, to be eaten with pickled salmon.—N. & Q. 3rd S. vol. ix. p. 367.

Some years ago this day was welcomed, in the smaller towns or hamlets, by every possible manifestation of gladness and delight. The inn, if there was one, was thrown open to all comers, who received a certain allowance of oaten bread and fish. This was a benevolence from the host, and to it was added a “Patrick’s pot,” or quantum of beer; but of late years whisky is the beverage most esteemed. The majority of those who sought entertainment at the village inn were young men who had no families, whilst those who had children, and especially whose families were large, made themselves as snug as possible by the turf fire in their own cabins. Where the village or hamlet could not boast of an inn, the largest cabin was sought out, and poles were extended horizontally from one end of the apartment to the other; on these poles, doors purposely unhinged, and brought from the surrounding cabins, were placed, so that a table of considerable dimensions was formed, round which all seated themselves, each one providing his own oaten bread and fish. At the conclusion of the repast they sat for the remainder of the evening over a “Patrick’s pot,” and finally separated quietly.—Every Day Book, vol. ii. p. 386.

The following description of St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland is taken from the Time’s Telescope (1827, p. 66): Every one is expected, says the writer, to wear a sprig of shamrock in honour of the saint and his country, and a few pence will supply a family with plenty of this commodity. In the morning upon the breakfast table of the “master” and “the mistress” is placed a plateful of this herb for a memento that it is Patrick’s Day, and they must “drown the shamrock,” a figurative expression for what the servants themselves do at night in glasses of punch, if the heads of the family are so kind as to send down the plate of shamrock crowned with a bottle of whisky, under which is also expected to be found a trifle towards a treat. While the lower circles are, on this blessed of all Irish days, thus enjoying themselves in the evening, the higher are crowding into that room of the castle entitled St. Patrick’s Hall, which is only opened two nights in the year—this, and the birth-night (the 23rd of April); it is a grand ball, to which none can be admitted who have not been presented and attended the Viceroy’s drawing-rooms; and of course every one must appear in court dress, or full uniforms, except that, in charity to the ladies, trains are for that night dispensed with on account of the dancing. A few presentations sometimes take place, after which the ball commences, always with a country dance to the air of “Patrick’s Day,” and after this quadrilles, etc., take their turn.