Sacramental Wine

In a remote hamlet of Surrey I recently heard the following superstition. In a very sickly family, of which the children were troubled with bad fits, and the poor mother herself is almost half-witted, an infant newly born seemed to be in a very weakly and unnatural state. One of the gossips from the neighbouring cottages coming in, with a mysterious look said, "Sure, the babby wanted *something*,—a drop of the sacrament wine would do it good." On surprise being expressed at such a notion, she added "Oh! they often gives it." I do not find any allusion in Brand's *Antiquities* to such popular c…