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KEEPING CHRISTMAS.

PUTTINGHAM, a writer of Queen Elizabeth's days, in his "Art of English Poesie," speaking of the country custom of keeping Christmas, near that period, tells us, that supper at Christmas was succeeded by gambols of various sorts; and sometimes the 'Squire and his family would mingle in the amusements, or, retiring to the tapestried parlour, would leave the ball to the more boisterous mirth of his household. Then," says he, would the blind harper, who sold his FIT OF MIRTH FOR A GROAT, be introduced, either to provoke the dance, or to rouse their wonder by his minstrelsy; his matter being for the most part stories of olden time-as the tale of Sir Topas, the Reportes of Bevis of Southampton, Guy Earl of Warwicke, Adam Bell, and Clymme of the Clough, and such other old romances or historical rimes, made purposely for recreation of the common people at Christmasse dinners and brideales !"

At this early period it was getting to be no uncommon thing for country gentlemen to spend their Christmas in London, an innovation which several authors complain of, and which seems by no means to have met with Queen Elizabeth's approval. This we learn from a letter in " Lodge's Illustrations of English History." It is written by Sergeant Fleetwood to the Earl of Derby, New Year's Day, 1589, and contains the following passage:"The gentlemen of Norff. and Suffolk, were commanded to

dep'te from London before Xtemmasse, and to repaire to their counties, and, there to keepe hospitalitie amongest their neighboures."

What was called MUMMING OF DISGUISING-that is, dressing in masquerade, was then an old custom at Christmas time, and was kept up for many years afterwards. These sports extended to royalty, and were exhibited occasionally with great displays of grandeur. History informs us, that King Henry IV. keeping his Christmas at Eltham, twelve of the Aldermen of London, and their sons, rode a mumming, and had great thanks; and numerous similar instances are mentioned at the " Christmassings" of our early Monarchs. In "Fenns Pastons Letters," in a letter dated Dec. 24, 1484, we read that Lady Morley, on account of the death of her Lord, in the preceding July, directing what sports were to be used in her house at Christmas, ordered that, "there were none DISGUISINGS, nor harping, nor luting, nor singing, nor any LOUD DISPORTS; but playing at the tables, and chess, and cards; such disports she gave her people leave to play, and none other."

Among the common people in the country, this diversion consisted in changing clothes between men and women, who, when dressed in each other's habits, went from one neighbour's house to another, partaking of Christmas cheer, and making merry with them in disguise.

In the tract Round about our

are

While my good dame she bids you all be free,

And drink to your hearts' desiring. With the last year's brand light the new block, and

For good success in his spending:
On your psalteries play, that sweet luck

may

Come while the log is a-tending.'

And we are informed by the "Provincial Glossary," that in farm-houses in the north, the servants lay by a large knotty block for their Christmas fire, and during the time it lasts they are entitled, by custom, to ale at their meals.

Coal Fire, or Christmas Entertainments," written in the reign of Charles II. it is observed of this amusement: "Then comes mummings or masquerading, when the master's wardrobe is ranksacked for dresses of all kinds. Corks are burnt to black the faces of the fair, or make deputy-mustacios, and every one in the family, except the master himself,, must be trausformed." This account further says, "The time of the year being cold and frosty, the diversions within doors; either in exercise or by the fire side. Dancing is one of the chief exercises or else there is a match of blindman's buff, or puss in the corner. The next game is questions and commands; when the commander oblige his subject to answer any law-hung round with SAVOURY DAINful question, and make the same obey TIES," which, he says, in common him instantly, under the penalty of dancing round the may-pole being smutted, or paying such forfeit and riding the hobby-horse, suffered as may be laid on the aggressor. Most of the other diversions are cards and dice."

may

Bear-baiting appears to have been anciently one of the Christmas sports of our Nobility. "Our nobles," says Pennant, in his ZOOLOGY, "also kept their bear-ward. Twenty shillings was the annual reward of that officer from his Lord, the fifth Earl of Northum-berland. Whan he comyth to my Lorde in Christmas, with his Lordshippes beasts, for makyng of his Lordship pastyme the said twelve days."

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At Rippon, in Yorshire, on Christmas Eve the chandlers used to send large mould candles, and the coopers logs of wood, generally terined "yule logs," which are generally used on Christmas Eve; but should one of these logs be so large as not to be burnt all that night, which is frequently the case, the remains are carefully kept until next Christmas Eve. With this agree the following lines in " Herrick's Hesperides :”—*

Come, bring with a noise, my merry

merry boys,

The Christmas log to the firing,

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Andrews (Hist. Great Brit.) mentions "the humourous pageant of Christmass, personified by an old man,

with "

a severe check at the Reformation."

This personage was emblematic of the luxurious living at this season, a part of the festivities in which the the moderns. Massinger, in his play ancients seem even to have exceeded of the "City Madam," hints at this sort of feasting in his day :--Men may talk of country Christmasses, Their thirty-pound butter'd eggs, their pies of carps' tongues, Their pheasants drench'd with ambergris, the carcasses

Of three fat wethers bruis'd for gravy, to Make sauce for a single peacock; yet their feasts

Were fasts, compar'd with the city's.

And in "Stevenson's Twelve

Months" (1661), under the head December, are the following notices:

"Now capons and hens, besides turkeys, geese, ducks, with beef and mutton, must all die ;-for in twelve fed with a little. Now plumbes, and days a multitude of people will not be spice, sugar and honey, square it among pies and broth. Now a journeyman cares not a rush for his master, though he begs his plumporridge all the twelve days. 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 pack of cards on Christmas even. Great is the contention of holly and ivy, whether master or dame weares the breeches ; and, if the cook do not lack wit, he will sweetly lick his fingers."

Grose, in his "Worn-out Cha racters of the last Age," describing the little country 'squire of about 3001. a year, in Queen Anne's days,

says, " he never played at cards but at Christmas, when a family pack was produced from the mantle-piece. His chief drink the year round, was generally ale, except at this season, the 5th of Nov. or some other gala days, when he would make a bowl of strong brandy punch, garnished with

a

toast and nutmeg.

In the corner of his hall, by the fire-side, stood a large wooden two-armed chair with a cushion, and within the chimney corner were a couple of seats. Here, at Christmas, he entertained his tenants, assembled round a glowing fire, made of the roots of trees, and other great logs, and told and heard. the traditionary tales of the village, respecting ghosts and witches, till fear made them afraid to move. In the meantime the jorum of ale was in continual circulation."

The paper of "The World" No 104, very humourously laments the decay of these, and other old hospitable customs at Christmas :+

"Our ancestors considered Christmas in the double light of a holy commemoration, 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 every one about them happy, with what punctual zeal did they wish one another 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 rigor of the season, and mitigate the influence of winter. What a fund of delight was the choosing of King and Queen upon Twelfth Night! and how greatly ought we to regret the use of MINCED PIES, which, besides the idea of merrymaking inseparable from them, were always considered as the test of schismatics. How regularly were they swallowed by the orthodox, to the utter confusion of all fanatical recusants! If a country gentleman should be so unfortunate in this age, as to be under a suspicion of heresy, where will he find so easy a method of acquitting himself, as by the ordeal of

PLUM-PORRIDGE?"

The custom of singing Christmas Carols, and the midnight performance of the Waits, are thus prettily described by a modern poet :

Now too is heard The hapless cripple, tuning through the

streets

His CAROL new; and oft, amid the glooni

Of midnight hours, prevail th' accustomed sounds

Of wakeful WAITS, whose harmony (compos'd

Of hautboy, organ, violin, and flute, And various other instruments of mirth), Is meant to celebrate the coming time.

In the West Riding of Yorkshire, at Christinas, they have a sort of rustic ball, which is termed "merry' night," which prove so interesting, that the young people cannot be kept from them. The amusement consists of athletic dancing, in all the lower modes of that art; of interludes by masking, mimics and gesticulations, and of the ancient sword-dance. Tea, cakes, fruit, strong ale, and strong punch, besides kissing and romping "with gallantry robust," form aa indispensable part of the entertain

ment.

At midnight all the parties engaged depart in separate groups; cheering the way with jocund raillery, heartfelt laughter, and shouts of exultation. The bodings of the howlet or night-crow are unliceded by the

votaries of Euphrosyne; no direful phantom glides across their path in gloomy avenues; no demons obstruct their passage by lonely barns, mouldering ruins, or ivy-covered bridges. Each rustic nymph is finally conducted by her partner in the dance to her father's house, into which both enter without noise, and, seated on the antique LANG SETTLE, prolong conversation in gentle whispers till the first breaks of dawn admonish the youth to retire.

CHRISTMAS BOXES.

The Athenian Oracle" derives the origin of Christmas money from this:-"The Romish priests had masses for almost every thing: if a ship went to the Indies, a priest had a box in her, under the protection of some Saint, and for masses, as their cant was, to be said to that Saint, &c. the poor people must put something into the priest's box, which was not opened till the ship's return. The mass at that time was called Christ-mass; the box called Christmas box, or money gathered against that time, that masses might be made by the priests to the saints to forgive the people the debaucheries of that time; and from this, servants had the liberty to get box-money, that they too might be enabled to pay the priest for his masses, well knowing the truth of the proverb-" No penny, no Pater-noster."

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66

asked a British member of Parliament what had passed in the last session Five months and fourteen days" was the reply; and if many of us were asked what we had accomplished in the last year, we might be reduced to the necessity of stating, that we had not only become twelve months older; but that, exclusive of our little terrestrial excursions from London to the country, we had been travelling round the sun at the rate of fifty eight thousand miles every hour, and, in the rotatory motion of the earth upon its own axis, had completed an additional five hundred and eighty miles in every similar space of time. So far we have established our claim to be considered as a part of the sublime scheme of creation; but as to any thing that we have performed worthy of an intelligent being, moving in such a magnificent pageant, and obviously framed for the most noble destinies, it is to be feared that very few have reason to be proud of their exploits. Hundreds of thousands are at this moment making up the accounts of the last year, with a reference to their profit and loss, but how many dream of a mental debtor and creditor statement to ascertain the gains or deteriorations which they have experienced in the affections of the heart, or the faculties of the head? or how many calculate their chances in that eternity to whith they are three hundred and sixty-five days nearer than they were at the outset of last year?

Methinks I hear the jingling of sovereigns in the breeches pocket of some warm, portly, and purse-proud reader of Clapham Common or Stamford Hill, as with a complacent chuckle he mutters to himself: "I laid by four thousand six hundred pounds last year"--which he deems a full and triumphant answer to all such impertinent interrogatories. Among a na tion of gold-worshipers, like the English, bowers of the knee to Mammon, adorers of the glittering deity which Jeroboam set up in Dan and Bethel, I can understand the origin, though I do not recognize the validity of this

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