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Thus all her Art at length could not her save,

From death’s dire stroke, and mould’ring in the grave.

We will now discuss the special importance of Mother Bunch’s collection of dreams and prognostications. It is well known that these subjects form a not unimportant branch of folk-lore, and it is therefore interesting to find that through the medium of this seventeenth-century chap-book we have preserved to us some scraps of folk-lore which are of value. They for the most part group themselves round certain days in the calendar, and it will therefore perhaps be best to adopt this arrangement for our consideration of them. Thus we have St. Agnes’ Day (21 Jan.), Valentine’s Day (14 Feb.), 20th April, Midsummer Eve (24 June), St. Luke’s Day (Oct. 18), St. Thomas’s Day (Dec. 21). Almost all the customs recorded by Mother Bunch on these days are incorporated by Sir Henry Ellis in his edition of Brand’s Popular Antiquities; but their original value is ascertained by the independent practice of the self-same customs in many parts of England, as noted by authorities who did not know Mother Bunch. Take, for instance, St. Agnes’ Day. Ben Jonson, Aubrey in his Miscellanies, Burton in his Anatomy of Melancholy, Barnaby Googe, all refer to the self-same customs recorded in this chap-book. Of course if this rule held good throughout, and in matters of detail, it might be said that the chap-book was copied from these earlier authorities. But this can be shown not to be so by one curious piece of evidence. The Scottish St. Agnes rhyme differs from that of Mother Bunch. It is as follows: