Strutt, in his _Sports and Pastimes_, Book iii. chap. 13., speaks of
Christmas Spectacles in the time of Edward III., as known by the name of
Ludi; and in Warton's _History of English Poetry_, it is said of these
representations that "by the ridiculous and exaggerated oddity of the
Vizors, and by the singularity and splendour of the dresses, every thing
was out of nature and propriety." In Strutt's 16th Plate, specimens will
be found of the whimsical habit and attire in which the mummers were
wont to appear.
My impression that the Merry-Lwyd was by no means a diversion
exclusively Welsh is corroborated by the fact noticed in your Number of
the 23rd of Feb., of its being found to exist in Cheshire. And we know
that many ancient customs lingered in the principality long after they
fell into disuse in England.
GWYNN AB NUDD.
Glamorganshire, March 1. 1850.
_Death-bed Superstition._--When a curate in Exeter I met with the
following superstition, which I do not remember to have seen noticed
before. I had long visited a poor man, who was dying of a very painful
disease, and was daily expecting his death. Upon calling one morning to
see my poor friend, his wife informed me that she thought he would have
died during the night, and consequently she and her friends unfastened
_every lock in the house_.
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