Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 9.djvu/193

 ias.ix.Aua.2o f i9ai.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 155 APPLE CHRISTENING (12 S. ix. 91). The 29th May (Oak Apple Day) has nothing what- ever to "do with the christening of apples. Brand's ' Popular Antiquities ' (Ellis) states : There is an old saying that when it rains on St. Swithin's Day it is the Saint christening the apples. When I was a boy in the Isle of Wight chil- dren were always told that apples were not fit to eat till they had been christened, either by rain on St. Swithin's Day or by the first rain that occurred after that date. Hazlitt, in ' National Faiths and Popular Customs,' says : The belief in the impropriety of gathering the apples before they had been christened by St. Swithin is very general and is still strongly cherished. A servant of one of the editor's friends was horror-stricken very lately at the bare propo- sition to pick the fruit before the saint had per- formed the baptismal ceremony. The christening of apples is supposed to affect the flavour of the fruit. In Somersetshire and Wiltshire, or some parts of them, that day indeed is known as Apple Christening Day. In an article in The Preston Guardian on Oct. 27, 1888, it is stated : The " christening of the apples " is an event looked for by country folk ; but there seems to be considerable diversity of opinion as to the correct date for the " christening." To ensure a good crop the rain ought to fall upon them on St. James's Day. say some ; on St. Peter's Day, say others ; while a third party, regardless of the dreadful consequences of rain on such a day, say that St. Swithin's is the proper time. In the west there is a belief that on St. Swithin's Day the apples undergo a change ; that having been flavourless they then become fruity and pleasant to the taste and fit for use. It appears from Hazlitt (op. cit.) that in some parts of Wiltshire and Somersetshire apples are said to be christened on St. James's Da-. The apple-christening day would therefore appear to vary in different districts, but I can find no authority whatever for the suggestion that it was anywhere considered to take place on Oak Apple Day. In the Manuale ad Usum Sarum there is a form Benedictio Pomorum in Die Sancti Jacobi. At the end of the prayer that " this fruit of new apples might be blessed," it states, " Deinde sacerdos aspergat ea aqua benedictd." St. James's Day is July 25, and when it rained on St. Swithin's Day the country people in the South of England, where St. Swithin's reputation as a saint was great, his shrine being at Winchester, may well have considered that he was blessing the apples for them, without their having to wait I for them to be sprinkled with holy water I on St. James's Day. W T M. SELF-WEEKS. Westwood, Clitheroe. Folklore prescribes that apple-trees are i to be encouraged in productiveness by certain that when it rains on St. Swithin's Day their old ecclesiastically blessed on St. James the Great's festival, July 25 (see Brand's ' Popular Antiquities,' vol. i. 9, 342, 346). I am not aware that the oak apples of May 29 have relation to anything beyond the Restoration of King Charles II. ST. SWITHIX. Extract from Miss C. M. Yonge's ' History I of Christian Names ' : Swithun, Bishop of Winchester, tutor to King i Alfred, and endowed with many supposed miracles, the best known of which was the forty days' rain, ! by which, like other honest English saints, he, testified his displeasure at having his bones ! meddled with. It is curious that while Win- chester itself considers rain on his feast to forebode forty more wet days, most other parts of England prefer a shower to christen the apples. j Country children devour green apples un- reproved after this day, calling them good. Bredicot. AMY R. KINGSMILL. The saying undoubtedly refers to St. I vanceit could have to Oak Apple Day, which does not occur at a particularly wet season. We used to be told as children that we must i not eat apples until they had been christened ; ! the injunction always referred to St. Swithin's Day, and I fancy that even the appetite of a normal child for apples would hardly tempt him to eat them as early as May 29. No doubt the idea was to prevent our indulging the appetite until apples had attained some degree of wholesomeness. C. C. B. CATEATON STREET, LONDON ( 12 S. ix. 71). Edward Hatton, in ' A New View of London,' 1708, p. 15, says : Cateaton street, a considerable street between Lothbury E. and Lad Lane W. L. 240 yards. Stow calls it Catte street, but for what reason I know not. ' Tallis's Illustrated London,' by William Gaspey (1851), vol. i., p. 208, mentions Gresham Street, formerly known as Lad Lane and Cateaton Street. Buildings were removed, and these two streets were widened. The entire line of street from Foster Lane to Lothbury was named after Sir Thomas
 * attentions on New Year's Eve, and teaches
 * fruit is being christened. The crop was of
 * Swithin's Day, July 15. I do not see what rele-