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ON THE

POPULAR ANTIQUITIES

OF

GREAT BRITAIN:

CHIEFLY ILLUSTRATING

THE ORIGIN OF OUR VULGAR AND PROVINCIAL CUSTOMS,
CEREMONIES, AND SUPERSTITIONS.

BY

JOHN BRAND, M.A.,

FELLOW AND SECRETARY OF THE SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF LONDON.

ARRANGED, REVISED, AND GREATLY ENLARGED, BY

SIR HENRY ELLIS, K.H., F.R.S., SEC. S.A., &c.

PRINCIPAL LIBRARIAN OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM.

A NEW EDITION, WITH FURTHER ADDITIONS.

IN THREE VOLUMES.-VOL. I.

LONDON:

HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN.

MDCCCLIII-

HARVARD
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY
46*254

C. and J. Adlard, Printers, Bartholomew Close.

PREFACE

ΤΟ

THE THIRD EDITION.

THE great popularity of BRAND's Work on the Customs and Provincial Antiquities of Great Britain having led to the demand for a new edition, it was thought advisable to attempt some more convenient arrangement of the matter. With this object, the most entertaining and popular portions have been inserted in the text, while the merely recondite and subordinate have been thrown into foot-notes. This plan will, it is hoped, render the work more acceptable to the general reader. Various articles and passages also, that did not before appear to be inserted in their proper places, have been transposed: the long notes, for example, which in the former edition were subjoined to the Author's preface, are now placed under the heads to which they particularly relate. A copious Index, to be given in the last volume, will at once obviate any inconvenience that might arise to those who have been accustomed to the previous arrangement. In some few instances, where foreign books of an accessible description have been extensively quoted, it has been thought advisable to adopt an English translation in preference; especially with regard to Naogeorgus, the English version of whose book is in reality the only one in which the reader of Brand is concerned. No information or amusement whatever, which is contained in any

By our old English poet Barnaby Googe.

of the previous editions, has been omitted; but considerable additions have been made from every available source, and of these, some have never before appeared in print. Notwithstanding all the pains that have been taken, there will still remain many relics of the older superstitions entirely unnoticed by Brand and his editors. Those who possess opportunities of collecting such notices, should place them on record before they entirely disappear. Any additional information on these subjects, addressed to the Publisher, will be gladly acknowledged.

November 1848.

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