THE WEEK.

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.

[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 21is 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.