(Before his cumbrous feet he well recover could,) Pitcht headlong from the hill; as when a man doth throw Roots up the yielding earth, so that his violent fall Shook Neptune with such strength as shoulder'd him withal; To gaze upon wide heaven, so great a blow it gave. In 1750 Robert Heath published his "Natural and Historical Account of the Islands of Scilly," to which was added "A General Account of Cornwall." From paragraphs in this work it may be inferred that the figures of the wrestlers cut out in the turf on Plymouth Hoe, then existed. "The activity of the Cornish and Devonshire men, beyond others, in the faculty of Wrestling, seems to derive their Pedigree from that grand Wrestler, Corineus. That there has been such a giant as Gogmagog, opposed by Corineus, the inhabitants of Plymouth shew you a Portraiture of two Men, one bigger than the other, with Clubs in their hands, cut out upon the Haw-ground, which have been renewed by order of the Place, as they wear out; and a steep cliff being near, over which the giant might be thrown, are said to point out together the Probability of the Fact." In the "Dissertation on the Cornish Tongue," by William Scawen, Vice-Warden of the Stannaries, we find the following passage: "I cannot affirm with so much reason, as some of our neighbours have done with confidence, who say that at the last digging on the Haw for the foundation of the citadel of Plymouth, the great jaws and teeth therein found were those of Gogmagog, who was there said to be thrown down by Corineus, whom some will have to be the founder of the Cornish; nor am I able to assert that some instruments * See also Hogg's "Records of Ancient Cornwall." This note is by the editor, Mr Davies Gilbert: "These bones must evidently have been found in a cavern, the nature of which has been most ably ascertained and described by Dr Buckland and the Rev. Richard Hannah, who examined other caverns of precisely the same nature, comprising bones of various larger mammalia, in the limestone formation not far from Plymouth." Thus we see the poetical belief of one age destroyed by the positive of war in brass, and huge limbs and portraitures of persons long ago, as some say that have been in some of the western parishes, were parts of giants or other great men, who had formerly had their being there." A (B.) SHARA AND SHEELA. FTER the meeting of the British Association at Cork, I spent some days visiting, with two friends, the various spots of interest in the south of Ireland. At Fermoy, the name given to a somewhat curious cromlech, "The Hag's Bed," interested me. I was at some trouble to learn the origin of the name, and fortunately our car-driver succeeded in finding an old man, who gave me the desired information. As there is some (although a remote) analogy between this legend and that of the Chapel Rock, I give it as I heard it. On yonder hill there lived, in days gone by, a giant and a giantess. They were called Shara and Sheela. One day Shara returned from his labours (wood-cutting) in the forest, and finding no dinner ready he was exceeding angry, and in his passion gave Sheela a severe wound with his axe on the shoulder. His passion was assuaged as soon as he saw the blood of his wife, and he carefully bound up the wound and nursed her for many weeks with great care. Sheela did not, however, forgive Shara for the injury he had inflicted on her. She brooded on her wrong. Eventually she was so far recovered that Shara was able to leave her; and their stock of wood having fallen short, he proceeded to the forest for a fresh supply. Sheela watched her husband as he descended the hill, and, full of wrath, she seized her bed, and, as he was wading through the river, she flung it after him with a dreadful imprecation. The devil changed philosophy of the next. Happily, we move in all things by waves; the system of undulations prevails in every operation, mental and physical. Amidst the relics of the mammalia of the Devonshire caves we are now discovering the unmistakable remains of man and his works. Stone knives, spear-heads, axes, and hammers speak of an ancient race; and may there not have been "giants in the earth in those days, and also after that?" 1ST SERIES. U the bed into stone in its passage through the air. It fell on the giant, crushed him, and to this day he rests beneath the Hag's Bed. In the solitude which she had made, she repented her crime, but she never forgave herself the sin. She sat on the hill-top, the melancholy monument of desolation, bewailing her husband's loss, and the country around echoed with her lamentations. Bad as Shara was, it is worse to be without him!" was her constant cry. Eventually she died of excess of grief, her last words being, "Bad as Shara was, it is worse to be without him!" 'And," said the old man, finishing his story, "whenever any trouble is coming upon Ireland the voice of Sheela is heard upon the hill still repeating her melancholy lamentation." "NEAR THE HAG'S BED NEAR FERMOY. EAR Fermoy is a very peculiar variety of these early structures, being an oblong building constructed with large blocks of limestone of the locality. It contains an internal chamber, from twenty to thirty feet long, five feet wide, and at the present time about four feet high; the side walls are near five feet thick, constructed with two rows of upright stones on edge, and the interior is filled with smaller stones, forming a wall; the front has only a row of thin upright stones, but fitting nearly close together; the covering stones rest on rude horizontal stones, which are placed on the wall before described, and which would appear to have been of insufficient height, and on those are three large covering stones, one of which is about eighteen feet long.' * Practical Geology and Ancient Architecture of Ireland. By George Wilkinson, architect. THE (C.) GEESE DANCING-GUISE DANCING-GUIZARDS. HE doings of the guizards—that is, masquers-form a conspicuous feature in the New Year's proceedings throughout Scotland. The evenings on which these personages are understood to be privileged to appear are those of Christmas, Hogmanay, New-Year's day, and Handsel Monday. Such boys as can pretend to anything like a voice, have for weeks before been thumbing the collection of excellent new songs which lies like a bunch of rags in the window-sole; and being now able to screech up "Barbara Allan," or the "Wee cothouse and the wee kail-yardie," they determine upon enacting the part of guizards. For this purpose they don old shirts belonging to their fathers, and mount casques of brown paper, shaped so like a mitre, that I am tempted to believe them to be borrowed from the Abbot of Unreason; attached to this is a sheet of the same paper, which falling down in front, covers and conceals the whole face, except where holes are made to let through the point of the nose, and afford sight to the eyes and breath to the mouth. Each vocal guizard is, like a knight of old, attended by a kind of humble squire, who assumes the habiliments of a girl, with an old woman's cap and a broomstick, and is styled 'Bessie.' Bessie is equal in no respects, except that she shares fairly in the proceeds of the enterprise. She goes before her principal, opens all the doors at which he pleases to exert his singing powers, and busies herself during the time of the song in sweeping the floor with her broomstick, or in playing any other antics that she thinks may amuse the indwellers. The common reward of this entertainment is a halfpenny; but many churlish persons fall upon the unfortunate guizards and beat them out of the house. Let such persons, however, keep a good watch over their cabbage-gardens next Hallowe'en. "The more important of the guizards are of a theatrical character. There is one rude and grotesque drama which they are accustomed to perform on each of the four abovementioned nights, and which, in various fragments or versions, exists in every part of Lowland Scotland. The performers, who are never less than three, but sometimes as many as six, having dressed themselves, proceed in a band from house to house, generally contenting themselves with the kitchen for an arena, whither, in mansions presided over by the spirit of good humour, the whole family will resort to witness the spectacle. Sir Walter Scott, who delighted to keep up old customs, and could condescend to simple things without losing genuine dignity, invariably had a set of guizards to perform this play before his family both at Ashiestiel and Abbotsford. The editor has with some difficulty obtained what appears a tolerably complete copy."* OF "GOOSE-DANCING." F late years, at this season, in the Islands of Scilly, the young people exercise a sort of gallantry called 'goosedancing. The maidens are dressed up for young men, and the young men for maidens; and, thus disguised, they visit their neighbours in companies, where they dance and make jokes upon what has happened in the island, and every one is humorously told their own,' without offence being taken. By this sort of sport, according to yearly custom and toleration, there is a spirit of wit and drollery kept up among the people. The music and dancing done, they are treated with liquor, and then they go to the next house of entertainment." + This custom was by no means confined to the Islands of Scilly, in nearly every town and large village in Cornwall, geese-dancing, not goose-dancing,- formed one of the Christmas entertainments. The term was applied to the old Christmas plays, and indeed to any kind of sport, in which characters were assumed by the performers or disguises worn. It should be noted that these sports are never termed goose, but always geese or guise dancing. * Robert Chambers's Popular Rhymes of Scotland. |