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British Popular Customs, Present and Past

Jan. 21.] ST. AGNES’ DAY.

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Jan. 21.]

ST. AGNES’ DAY.

Since the Reformation, St. Agnes has by degrees lost her consequence in this country as superstition has subsided; though our rural virgins in the north are yet said to practise some singular rites, in keeping “what they call St. Agnes’ Fast, for the purpose of discovering their future husbands.”—Clavis Calendaria, Brady, 1815, vol. i. p. 170. See Mother Bunch’s Closet Newly Broke Open, 1825 (?). Anatomy of Melancholy, Burton, 1660, p. 538.

Illustration from British Popular Customs, Present and Past Illustrating the Social and Domestic Manners of the People. Arranged According to the Calendar of the Year.
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