christened “Pascal.” This, becoming a surname, was handed down to Blaise Pascal, one of the most brilliant and most pious men that that great country has ever produced. In the north of England Easter was always known as “Pace,” or “Pask.” These of course are common surnames. “To go a pace-egging” is still a familiar phrase in Lancashire and Yorkshire; and the prettily ornamented eggs are still sold in the shops as Easter comes round. By a happy conceit, they are often called “Peace-eggs”; and certainly “Pace” has proved “Peace” to myriads of souls. The Registrar-General, in one of his reports, came across a Christmas Day—_i.e._, the child’s surname being “Day,” the parents had it christened “Christmas.” “Pentecost,” for a child born on Whit-Sunday, was once extremely popular. {86} But these quaint customs have come to an end. To baptize an infant by the name of “Pentecost” or “Paschal” would now be considered a piece of eccentricity, not to say irreverence. The Reformed Church of England has sufficiently emphasized these festivals in her Services, without laying too great stress upon them. The superstitions and follies that gave over-prominence to such seasons in mediæval days ceased with an open English Bible and a purer and simpler Christianity. The danger now is a rush to the other end of the tether. I believe there are thousands of living Nonconformists who regret that they have allowed such services as would have commemorated the events of Easter Day, Good Friday, and Ascension Day to fall into desuetude. The neglect of Ascension Day, even among Churchmen, is, I think, much to be deplored. But if the Reformation threw one class of names into the cold shadow of neglect and oblivion, it took care to fill up the gap with an assortment of its own selection. We may set down the interval between 1580 and 1720 as the most curious era in the history of personal names, whether of this or any other country. The more I have studied our English baptismal registers of the seventeenth century,—and I may say, without boasting, few have studied them more frequently than I,—the more profoundly am I convinced that no other revolution of a religious or social character in the annals of nations can present claims to eccentricity equal to that which, beginning with the Reformation, found its climax in the Puritan Commonwealth. Alas! I can only touch upon the subject here, but I could easily fill a book with instances gleaned by myself in a not very long life. Friends interested in the same pursuit, I must add, have also helped me; not to mention _Notes and Queries_, that storehouse of treasures to antiquaries of every bent.