The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 14, No. 387, August 28, 1829Various
History
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 14, No. 387, August 28, 1829
Various
Popular literature -- Great Britain -- Periodicals
"_Latter Lammas_." Lammas day is the first day of August, so called quasi,
Lamb-mass, on which day the tenants that hold lands of the Cathedral of
York, which is dedicated to St. Peter, ad Vincula, were bound by that
tenure to bring a living lamb into the church at high mass.--_Cornell's
Interpreter_. Lammas day was always a great day of account, for in the
payment of rents our ancestors distributed the year into four quarters,
ending at Candlemas, Whitsuntide, Lammas, and Martinmas, and this was as
common as the present divisions of Lady day, Midsummer, Michaelmas, and
Christmas. In regard to Lammas, in addition to its being one of the days
of reckoning, it appears from the Confessor's laws, that it was the
specific day whereon the Peter-pence, a tax very rigorously executed, and
the punctual payment of which was enforced under a severe penalty, was
paid. In this view then, Lammas stands as a day of account, and Latter
Lammas will consequently signify the day of doom, which in effect, as to
all payments of money, or worldly transactions in money, is never. Latter
here is used for last, or the comparative for the superlative, just as it
is in a like case in our version of the book of Job, "I know that my
redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth,"
meaning of course the last day, or the end of the world. That the last day,
or Latter Lammas, as to all temporal affairs is never, may be illustrated
by the following story:--A man at confession owned his having stolen a sow
and pigs; the father confessor exhorted him to make restitution. The
penitent said some were sold, and some were killed, but the priest not
satisfied with this excuse, told him they would appear against him at the
day of judgment if he did not make restitution to the owner, upon which
the man replied, "Well, I'll return them to him then."
"_Lydford Law_." In Devonshire and Cornwall this saying is common:
"First hang and draw,
Then hear the cause by Lydford Law."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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