The fourth or middle Sunday between Quadragesima (the first Sunday in Lent) and Easter Sunday. It was of old called _Dominica Refectionis_, or the Sunday of Refreshment, from the gospel of the day treating of the miraculous feeding of the five thousand. It was originally called "Mothering Sunday," from the ancient usage of visiting the mother or cathedral churches of the dioceses, when Lent or Easter offerings were made. The public processions have been discontinued ever since the middle of the thirteenth century; but the name of Mothering Sunday is still retained, a custom having been substituted amongst the people of Lancashire, Cheshire, Yorkshire, and other counties, of those who have left the paternal roof visiting their natural mother, and presenting to her small tokens of their filial affection, in money, trinkets, frumenty, or cakes. In some parts of Lancashire, the particular kind of cakes have long been fixed by old custom, being what are called "simnels," or, in the dialect of the district, "simlins;" and with these sweet-cakes, it was, and in places is still, the custom to drink warm, spiced ale, called "bragot." Another viand especially eaten on Mid-Lent Sunday was that of fig or fag-pies. SIMNEL CAKES. In days of yore, there was a little alleviation of the severities of Lent permitted to the faithful, in the shape of a cake called "Simnel." Two English towns claim the honour of its origin,--Shrewsbury and Devizes. The first makes its simnel in the form of a warden-pie, the crust being of saffron and very thick; the last has no crust, is star-shaped, and the saffron is mixed with a mass of currants, spice, and candied lemon. Bury, in Lancashire, is almost world-famous for its simnels and its bragot (or spiced sweet ale), on Mothering Sunday, or Mid-Lent. As to the name, Dr. Cowell, in his _Law Directory or Interpreter_ (folio, 1727), derives _simnell_ (Lat. _siminellus_), from the Latin _simila_, the finest part of the flour: "_panis similageneus_," simnel bread,--"still in use, especially in Lent." The English _simnel_ was the purest white bread, as in the Book of Battle Abbey: "Panem regiæ mensæ apsum, qui _simenel_ vulgo vocatur." (Bread fit for the royal table, which is commonly called _simenel_.) Dr. Cowell adds that it was sometimes called _simnellus_, as in the "Annals of the Church of Winchester," under the year 1042, "conventus centum _simnellos_" (the convent 100 _simnels_). He also quotes the statute of 51 Henry III. (1266-7), which enacts that "bread made into a _simnel_ should weigh two shillings less than wastel bread;" and also an old manuscript of the customs of the House of Farendon (where it is called "bread of symenel"), to the same effect. Wastel was the finest sort of bread. Herrick, who was born in 1591, and died in 1674 (?) has the following in his _Hesperides_:-- TO DIANEME. A Ceremony in Gloucester.