The countrey-folke themselves advance;
For Crowdy-mutton's come out of France:
And Jack shall pipe and Jyll shall dance,
And all the towne be merry.

Now poore men to the justices

With capons make their arrants,
And, if they hap to faile of these,

They plague them with their warrants.
Harke how the wagges abrode doe call
Each other foorth to rambling;
Anon, you'll see them in the hall,

For nuts and apples scambling.
The wenches, with their wassell-bowles,
About the streets are singing;

The boyes are come to catch the owles,
The wild mare in is bringing.

Our kitchen-boy hath broke his boxe,
And to the dealing of the oxe,

Our honest neighbours come by flocks,
Aud here they will be merry.

Now kings and queenes poore sheep-cotes have,
And mate with every body:

The honest now may play the knave,

And wise men play at noddy.

Some youths will now a mumming goe;
Some others play at Rowland-hoe,

And twenty other gameboyes moe;

Because they will be merry."

A credible person born and brought up in a village not far from Bury St. Edmunds, in the county of Suffolk, informed me that, when he was a boy, there was a rural custom there among the youths of hunting owls and squirrels on Christmas Day. [This custom has now nearly fallen out of use, but it is mentioned by Forby, p. 420.]

At the end of Herrick's Hesperides, in his Noble Numbers, or his Pious Pieces, p. 31, is "A Christmas Caroll sung to the King in the presence at Whitehall. The musical part composed by Mr. Henry Lawes." It concludes as follows:

The following good old English Christmas Carol is preserved in Poor Robin's Almanack, for 1695.

"Now thrice-welcome, Christmas, which brings us good cheer,
Minced pies and plum-porridge, good ale and strong beer;
With pig, goose, and capon, the best that may be,
So well doth the weather and our stomachs agree.
Observe how the chimneys do smoak all about,
The cooks are providing for dinner no doubt
But those on whose tables no victuals appear,
O may they keep Lent all the rest of the year!
With holly and ivy so green and so gay;
We deck up our houses as fresh as the day
With bays and rosemary, and lawrel compleat,
And every one now is a king in conceit.

But as for curmudgeons, who will not be free,
I wish they may die on the three-legged tree."

I saw some years ago, at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in the printing office of the late Mr. Saint, an hereditary collection of ballads, numerous almost as the celebrated one in the Pepysian Library at Cambridge. Among these, of which the greater part were the veriest trash imaginable, and which neither deserved to be printed again nor remembered, I found several Carols for this season; for the Nativity, St. Stephen's Day, Childermas Day, &c., with Alexander and the King of Egypt, a mock play, usually acted about this time by mummers. The style of all these was so puerile and simple, that I could not think it would have been worth while to have invaded the hawker's province by exhibiting any specimens of them. The conclusion of this bombastic play I find in Ray's Collection of Proverbs:

"Bounce Buckram, velvets dear,
Christmas comes but once a year:

And when it comes, it brings good cheer:
But when it's gone it's never the near."

Dr. Johnson, in a note on Hamlet, tells us, that the pious chansons, a kind of Christmas Carol, containing some Scripture history, thrown into loose rhymes, were sung about the streets by the common people when they went at that season to beg alms.

In the Scilly islands they have a custom of singing carols on a Christmas Day at church, to which the congregation

make contribution by dropping money into a hat carried about the church when the performance is over.-Heath's Account of the Scilly Islands, p. 125.

Dr. Goldsmith, in his Vicar of Wakefield, describing the manners of some rustics, tells us, that among other customs which they retained, "they kept up the Christmas Carol." A writer in the Gent. Mag. for May 1811, p. 423, describing the manner in which the inhabitants of the North Riding of Yorkshire celebrate Christmas, says, "About six o'clock on Christmas Day I was awakened by a sweet singing under my window; surprised at a visit so early and unexpected, I arose, and looking out of the window I beheld six young women, and four men, welcoming with sweet music the blessed morn.'

In the Twelve Moneths, &c. by M. Stevenson, 1661, p. 4, speaking of January, the author says, "for the recreations of this month, there are within doors, as it relates to Christmasse : it shares the chearfull Carrols of the Wassell Cup-cards and dice purge many a purse, and the adventurous youth shew their agility in shooting the wild mare. The Lord of Misrule is no meane man for his time; masking and mumming and choosing king and queen." Under December are the following notices (p. 56): "Now capons and hens, besides turkeys, geese, and ducks, with beef and mutton-must all die—for in twelve days a multitude of people will not be fed with a little. Now plumbes and spices, sugar and honey, square it among pies and broath. Now a journeyman cares not a rush for his master, though he begs his plum-porridge all the twelve dayes. Now or never must the music be in tune, for the youth must dance and sing to get them a heat, while the aged sit by the fire. The country maid leaves half her market, and must be sent again, if she forgets a pair of cards on Christmas Even. Great is the contention of holly and ivy, whether master or dame weares the breeches. Dice and the cards benefit the buttler and if the cook do not lack wit, he will sweetly lick his fingers." "Christmasse is come, make ready the good cheare: Apollo will be frollick once a yeare:

I speake not here of England's twelve dayes madness,
But humble gratitude and hearty gladnesse.
These but observ'd, let instruments speak out,
We may be merry, and we ought, no doubt;
Christians, 'tis the birth-day of Christ our King:
Are we disputing when the angels sing?"

["Yawning for a Cheshire cheese" is mentioned as a Christmas gambol in the Spectator, No. 179, for September 25th, 1711.]

HOBBY-HORSE AT CHRISTMAS.

IN a True Relation of the Faction began at Wisbeach, by Fa. Edmonds, alias Weston, a Jesuite, 1595, 4to., 1601, p. 7, speaking of Weston, the writer says: "he lifted up his countenance, as if a new spirit had been put into him, and tooke upon him to controll, and finde fault with this and that: (as the coming into the hall of the Hobby-horse in Christmas :) affirming that he would no longer tolerate these and those so grosse abuses, but would have them reformed." Dr. Plott, in his History of Staffordshire, p. 434, mentions that, within memory, at Abbot's or Paget's Bromley, they had a sort of sport which they celebrated at Christmas, or on New Year and Twelfth Days, called the Hobby-horse Dance, from a person who carried the image of a horse between his legs, made of thin boards, and in his hand a bow and arrow. The latter passing through a hole in the bow, and stopping on a shoulder, made a snapping noise when drawn to and fro, keeping time with the music. With this man, danced six others, carrying on their shoulders as many rein-deer heads, with the arms of the chief families to whom the revenues of the town belonged. They danced the heys and other country-dances. To the above Hobby-horse dance there belonged a pot, which was kept by turns by the reeves of the town, who provided cakes and ale to put into this pot; all people who had any kindness for the good intent of the institution of the sport giving pence apiece for themselves and families. Foreigners also that came to see it contributed; and the money, after defraying the expense of the cakes and ale, went to repair the church and support the poor: which charges, adds the Doctor, are not now perhaps so cheerfully borne.

In an ingenious paper in the World, No. 104, attributed to R. O. Cambridge, Esq., the following occurs: "Our ancestors considered Christmas in the double light of a holy commemo

ration and a cheerful festival; and accordingly distinguished it by devotion, by vacation from business, by merriment, and hospitality. They seemed eagerly bent to make themselves. and everybody about them happy. With what punctual zeal did they wish one a merry Christmas! and what an omission would it have been thought to have concluded a letter without the compliments of the season! The great hall resounded with the tumultuous joys of servants and tenants, and the gambols they played served as amusement to the lord of the mansion and his family, who, by encouraging every art conducive to mirth and entertainment, endeavoured to soften the rigour of the season, and mitigate the influence of winter. What a fund of delight was the choosing king and queen upon Twelfth Night! and how greatly ought we to regret the neglect of minced pies, which, besides the idea of merry-making inseparable from them, were always considered as the test of schismatics! How zealously were they swallowed by the orthodox, to the utter confusion of all fanatical recusants! If any country gentleman should be so unfortunate in this age as to lie under a suspicion of heresy, where will he find so easy a method of acquitting himself as by the ordeal of Plum-porridge!"

THE CHRISTMAS BOX.

"Gladly, the boy, with Christmas Box in hand,
Throughout the town his devious route pursues;
And, of his master's customers, implores
The yearly mite: often his cash he shakes;
The which, perchance, of coppers few consists,
Whose dulcet jingle fills his little soul
With joy, as boundless as the debtor feels,
When, from the bailiff's rude, uncivil gripe,
His friends redeem him, and, with pity fraught,
The claims of all his creditors discharge."

Christmas, a Poem, 1. 262.

"THE Christmas-box (says the author of the Connoisseur) was formerly the bounty of well-disposed people, who were willing to contribute something towards rewarding the indus