OBSERVATIONS ON POPULAR ANTIQUITIES, Including THE WHOLE OF MR. BOURNE'S ANTIQUITATES VULGARES, With Addenda to every Chapter of that Work: As also An Appendix Containing such Articles on the Subject By JOHN BRAND, A.B. Late Fellow & Secretary to the Multitudo Vulgi, more magis quam judicio, post Sallust. ad. Cees. Somnia, terrores magicos, miracula, sagas, Horat. LONDON Printed for William Baynes, Sold also by W. Blackwood, Edinburgh. 1810. > 370 173 THE GENERAL PREFACE. TRADITION has in no Instance so clearly evinced her Faithfulness, as in the transmitting of vulgar Rites and popular Opinions. Of these, when we are desirous of tracing them backwards to their Origin, many lose themselves in Antiquity. They have indeed travelled down to us through a long Succession of Years, and the greatest part of them, it is not improbable, will be of perpetual Observation: for the generality of Men look back with superstitious Veneration on the Ages of their Fore-fathers: And Authorities, that are grey with Time, seldom fail of commanding those filial Honours, claimed even by the Appearance of hoary old Age. Many of these it must be confessed are mutilated, and, as in the Pemains of ancient Statuary, the Parts of not a few of them have been awkwardly transposed: they preserve, however, the principal Traits, that distinguished them in their origin. Things, composed of such flimsy Materials as the Fan256208* cies |