Page:Textile fabrics; a descriptive catalogue of the collection of church-vestments, dresses, silk stuffs, needle-work and tapestries, forming that section of the Museum (IA textilefabricsde00soutrich).pdf/136

 great churches at Paris, the blessing of the French "pain beni"—our old English "holy loaf"—the "eulogia" of antiquity—will call to mind how a fair white linen cloth, like the one here, No. 8698, p. 263, overspread, and fell in graceful folds down from two sides of the board upon which, borne on the shoulders of four youthful acolytes, a large round cake garnished with flowers and wax-tapers was carried through the chancel, and halting at the altar's foot got its blessing from the celebrant.

The rich crimson velvet cope, No. 79, p. 2, has a fine hood figured with the coming down, after the usual manner, of the Holy Ghost upon the infant church. No 8595, p. 226, presents us with a shred merely of what must have been once a large hanging for the chancel walls, or perhaps one of the two curtains at the altar's sides, having such fragments of some Latin sentences as these:—"et tui amoris in eis tus. Re  le tuoru." The subject on the cope's hood tells of Pentecost Sunday; so too does the second article, for those broken sentences are parts of particular words: "Veni Sancte Spiritus, reple tuorum corda fidelium: et tui amoris in eis ignem accende," to be found both in our own old English Salisbury missal, and breviary, but in every like service-book in use during the mediæval period throughout western Christendom. Be it kept in mind that both these liturgical appliances are red or crimson; and as now, so heretofore, as well in old England, as elsewhere this very colour has been employed for the church's vestments, thus to remind us of those parted tongues, as it were, of fire that sat upon every one of the Apostles. We mention all this with a view to correct an error in lexicography. In our dictionaries we are told that "Whitsuntide" is a contracted form of White Sunday tide, so called from the white vestments worn on that day by the candidates for baptism. Nothing of the sort; but the word "wits," our intellect or understanding, is the root of the term, for a curious and valuable old English book of sermons called "The Festival," tells us:—"This day is called Wytsonday by cause the Holy Ghoost brought wytte and wysdom in to Cristis dyscyples; and so by her preachyng after in to all Cristendom."

Somewhat akin to this subject, are those several christening cloaks here, pp. 8, 9, 10, 11. Not long ago the custom was to carry to church for baptism the baby wrapped up in some such a silken covering which was called a bearing-cloth. Of old, that used to be a conspicuous article in all royal christenings; and amongst our gentry was looked upon as