Notes and Queries, Number 43, August 24, 1850 | Page 6

Sunday later.
_Extract from Black's "Guide to the Lakes," p. 43._
"An interesting ceremony takes place at Ambleside once every year,
which the stranger may think himself fortunate in seeing, not so much
for the mere sight itself, though that is pretty enough, as for its being
the vestige of a very ancient observance. The ceremony alluded to is
called Rushbearing. On the eve of the last Sunday in July, the village
girls walk in procession to the chapel bearing garlands of flowers
(formerly rushes), which are there tastefully disposed. After service, the

day following, these are removed, and it is usual that a sermon, in
allusion to the event, be preached. This observance is probably as
remote as the age of Gregory IV., who is known to have recommended
to the early disseminators of Christianity in this country, that on the
anniversary of the dedication of churches wrested from the Pagans, the
converts should build themselves huts of the boughs of trees about their
churches, and celebrate the solemnities with religious feasting. In
former times, the rushes were spread upon the floor of the sacred
edifice, and the garlands remained until withered. Possibly the practice
of covering the floors of buildings with rushes by way of protection
against the damp earth, may have had something to do with keeping the
custom in existence, long after the origin of the institution had been
forgotten. The ceremony of Rushbearing has now fallen into complete
disuse, except in a few secluded hamlets in Westmoreland, and in one
or two other places in the kingdom; nor can that disuse be much
regretted, since what was founded as a religious act, every where
degenerated into an occasion for unseemly revelry, in fact, into a sort of
rustic saturnalia. And yet, when we look at this remain of the olden
time, as observed at Ambleside, we are tempted to say with the poet,--
"'Many precious rites And customs of our rural ancestry Are gone or
stealing from us: _this_, I hope Will last for ever.'"
* * * * * {198}
QUERIES.
WHO WROTE SHAKSPEARE'S HENRY VIII.?
I had no sooner read the title of an essay in the current number of the
_Gentleman's Magazine_, "Who wrote Shakspeare's Henry VIII.?" than
I became aware that I had been anticipated in at least the publication of
a discovery I made three or four years ago, but for the making known
of which a favourable opportunity had not occurred. The fact is, that I
was anxious to arrive at a more satisfactory conclusion than has yet
presented itself to me, and a paper on the subject commenced more
than two years ago, I, with this feeling, laid aside. My present object is
to strengthen the argument of the writer in the _Gentleman's Magazine_,

by recording the fact that I, having no communication with him, or
knowledge of him, even of his name, should have arrived at exactly the
same conclusion as his own. That conclusion is (should any of your
readers not have seen the article referred to), that Fletcher has at least
an equal claim with Shakspeare to the authorship of Henry VIII.
In the unfinished paper to which I have alluded, having asked how it
was that, with so much to be learned personal to Shakspeare from his
works, our criticism was so limited, and having stated it to be my
intention to confine myself to the simple inquiry, "_What did
Shakspeare really write?_" I continued:
"To those who consider the text as having been settled 'by authority,'
this question may seem superfluous; but, not to refer to plays of very
early date, in connection with which we could bring forward facts that,
we doubt not, would be considered sufficiently startling; we now state
it as our belief that a great portion of the play of Henry VIII.--nay, more
than half, was not written by Shakspeare."
My intention now is not to enter into any argument in support of this
view, but to state the results, which will be shown in the following
extract from my note-book:
_Henry VIII._ Act I. Scene 1. Shakspeare. " 2. Ditto. " 3. Fletcher. " 4.
Ditto. Act II. " 1. Ditto. " 2. Ditto. " 3. Shakspeare. " 4. Ditto. Act III. "
1. Fletcher. " 2. Shakspeare, (ending with 'what appetite you have.') " 2.
Fletcher, (beginning from the above.) Act IV. " 1. Ditto. " 2. Ditto. Act
V. Scene 1. Shakspeare " 2. Fletcher. " 3. Ditto. " 4. Ditto. Prologue
and Epilogue, Ditto.
So far all is clear, and in this apportionment Mr. Urban's correspondent
and myself are agreed. My conviction here is as complete as it is of my
own identity. But beyond, at present, all is dark; I cannot understand
the arrangement; and I