The goblet took a name from the prophecy, under which it is mentioned, in the burlesque ballad, commonly attributed to the duke of Wharton, but in reality composed by Lloyd, one of his jovial companions.  The duke, after taking a draught, had nearly terminated the “luck of Edenhall,” had not the butler caught the cup in a napkin, as it dropped from his grace’s hands.  I understand it is not now subjected to such risques, but the lees of wine are still apparent at the bottom.

  God prosper long, from being broke,
   The luck of Edenhall.—­Parody on Chevy Chace.

Some faint traces yet remain, on the borders, of a conflict of a mysterious and terrible nature, between mortals and the spirits of the wilds.  This superstition is incidentally alluded to by Jackson, at the beginning of the 17th century.  The fern seed, which is supposed to become visible only on St John’s Eve,[A] and at the very moment when the Baptist was born, is held by the vulgar to be under the special protection of the queen of Faery.  But, as the seed was supposed to have the quality of rendering the possessor invisible at pleasure,[B] and to be also of sovereign use in charms and incantations, persons of courage, addicted to these mysterious arts, were wont to watch in solitude, to gather it at the moment when it should become visible.  The particular charms, by which they fenced themselves during this vigil, are now unknown; but it was reckoned a feat of no small danger, as the person undertaking it was exposed to the most dreadful assaults from spirits, who dreaded the effect of this powerful herb in the hands of a cabalist.  Such were the shades, which the original superstition, concerning the.  Fairies, received from the chivalrous sentiments of the middle ages.

[Footnote A: 

  Ne’er be I found by thee unawed,
  On that thrice hallowed eve abroad,
  When goblins haunt, from fire and fen. 
  And wood and lake, the steps of men. 
      COLLINS’S Ode to Fear.

The whole history of St John the Baptist was, by our ancestors, accounted mysterious, and connected with their own superstitions.  The fairy queen was sometimes identified with Herodias.—­DELRII Disquisitiones Magicae, pp. 168. 807.  It is amusing to observe with what gravity the learned Jesuit contends, that it is heresy to believe that this celebrated figurante (saltatricula) still leads choral dances upon earth!]

[Footnote B:  This is alluded to by Shakespeare, and other authors of his time: 

  “We have the receipt of fern-seed; we walk invisible.”
      Henry IV.  Part 1st, Act 2d, Sc. 3.]