"Young men and maidens now
At Feed the Dove (with laurel leaf in mouth)
Or Blindman's Buff, or Hunt the Slipper play,
Replete with glee. Some, haply, Cards adopt;
Or if to Forfeits they the sport confine,
The happy folk, adjacent to the fire,
Their stations take; excepting one alone
(Sometimes the social mistress of the house)
Who sits within the centre of the room,
To cry the pawns; much is the laughter now,
At such as can't the Christmas catch repeat,
And who, perchance, are sentenced to salute
The jetty beauties of the chimney back,
Or lady's shoe; others more lucky far,
By hap or favour, meet a sweeter doom,
And on each fair one's lovely lips imprint
The ardent kiss."

[The following song from Round about our Coal-Fire, 1734,

is also worth quoting:

"O you merry, merry souls,
Christmas is a-coming;

We shall have flowing bowls,
Dancing, piping, drumming.

Delicate minced pies,

To feast every virgin;

Capon and goose likewise,

Brawn and a dish of sturgeon.

Then for your Christmas-box,
Sweet plum-cakes and money
Delicate Holland smocks,
Kisses sweet as honey.

Hey for the Christmas ball,
Where we shall be jolly;

Coupling short and tall,

Kate, Dick, Ralph, and Molly,

Then to the hop we'll go,

Where we'll jig and caper;
Cuckolds all arow,

Will shall pay the scraper.

Hodge shall dance with Prue,
Keeping time with kisses;
We'll have a jovial crew

Of sweet smirking misses.]

Among the Garrick Plays in the British Museum, is the Christmas Ordinary, a private show; wherein is expressed the jovial freedom of that festival: as it was acted at a Gentleman's House among other Revels, by W. R. Master of Arts, 1682.

The following is the account of Christmass Daye, in Barnaby Googe's translation of Naogeorgus, f. 44:

"Then comes the day wherein the Lorde did bring his birth to passe: Whereas at midnight up they rise, and every man to masse.

This time so holy counted is, that divers earnestly

Do thinke the waters all to wine are chaunged sodainly

In that same houre that Christ himselfe was borne, and come to light,
And unto water streight againe transformde and altred quight.
There are beside that mindfully the money still do watch,
That first to aultar commes, which then they privily do snatch.
The priestes, least other should it have, take oft the same away,
Whereby they thinke throughout the yeare to have good lucke in play,
And not to lose: then straight at game till day-light do they strive,
To make some present proofe how well their hallowde pence will thrive.
Three masses every priest doth sing upon that solemne day,
With offrings unto every one, that so the more may play.
This done, a woodden childe in clowtes is on the aultar set,
About the which both boyes and gyrles do daunce and trymly jet;
And carrols sing in prayse of Christ, and for to help them heare,
The organs auns were every verse with sweete and solemne cheare.
The priestes do rore aloude: and round about the parentes stande
To see the sport, and with their voyce do helpe them and their hande.”

"Upon Wednesday, Dec. 22, 1647, the cryer of Canterbury, by the appointment of master maior, openly proclaimed that Christmas Day, and all other superstitious festivals, should be put downe, and that a market should be kept upon Christmas Day." See a very rare tract entitled Canterbury Christmas; or, a true Relation of the Insurrection in Canterbury on Christmas Day last; with the great hurt that befell divers persons thereby written by a Citizen to his friend in London, 4to. Lond. 1648.

Among the single sheets in the British Museum is an order of Parliament, dated Dec. 24th, 1652, directing "that no observation shall be had of the five and twentieth day of December, commonly called Christmas Day; nor any solemnity used or exercised in churches upon that day in respect thereof."

In Sir John Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland, parish of Kirkden, co. Angus, 1792, ii. 509, it is said, 66 Christmas is held as a great festival in this neighbourhood." On that day,

"the servant is free from his master, and goes about visiting his friends and acquaintance. The poorest must have beef or mutton on the table, and what they call a dinner with their friends. Many amuse themselves with various diversions, particularly with shooting for prizes, called here wad-shooting; and many do but little business all the Christmas week; the evening of almost every day being spent in amusement." In the same work, v. 428, in the account of Keith, in Banffshire, the inhabitants are said to "have no pastimes or holidays, except dancing on Christmas and New Year's Day."

[It is a saying in Lincolnshire that if there is as much ice before Christmas as would bear a goose, there will not be so much after as will bear a duck.]

EVERGREEN-DECKING AT CHRISTMAS.

"From every hedge is pluck'd by eager hands
The holly branch with prickly leaves replete
And fraught with berries of a crimson hue;
Which, torn asunder from its parent trunk,
Is straightway taken to the neighbouring towns,
Where windows, mantels, candlesticks, and shelves,
Quarts, pints, decanters, pipkins, basons, jugs,
And other articles of household ware,

The verdant garb confess."

Christmas, a Poem, 1. 32, &c.

THIS custom, too, the Christians appear to have copied from their Pagan ancestors. Bourne, in his Antiquities of the Common People, p. 173, cites the Council of Bracara, Canon 73, as forbidding Christians to deck their houses with bay

1

Non liceat iniquas observantias agere kalendarum et ociis vacare Gentilibus, neque lauro, neque viriditate arborum cingere domos. Omnis enim hæc observatio Paganismi est. Bracc. Can. 73. Instell. Prynne, in his Histrio-Mastix, p. 581, cites nearly the same words from the 73d Canon of the Consilium Antisiodorense, in France, anno Domini 614. In the same work, p. 21, he cites the councils as forbidding the early Christians "to decke up their houses with lawrell, yvie, and greene boughes (as we use to doe in the Christmas season)." Adding from Ovid, Fast. lib. iii. :

"Hedera est gratissima Baccho."

Compare, also, Tertull. de Idol., cap. 15.

leaves and green boughs; but this extended only to their doing it at the same time with the Pagans. The practice of decking the churches at this season is still prevalent in this country.

I find the following dull epigram in an old Collection of Poetry, &c., p. 357:

"At Christmas men do always ivy get,

And in each corner of the house it set:
But why do they then use that Bacchus-weed?
Because they mean, then, Bacchus-like to feed."

Bourne cites an Oration of Gregory Nazianzen, which throws light upon the ancient rites of Christmas Day. "Let us not," says he, "celebrate the feast after an earthly, but an heavenly manner; let not our doors be crowned; let not dancing be encouraged; let not the cross-paths be adorned, the eyes fed, nor the ears delighted; let us not feast to excess, nor be drunk with wine."

"Trimmyng of the temples," says Polydore Vergil (Langley's Transl. f. 100), "with hangynges, floures, boughes, and garlondes, was taken of the heathen people, whiche decked their idols and houses with suche array.'

Dr. Chandler tells us, in his Travels in Greece, that it is related where Druidism prevailed the houses were decked with evergreens in December, that the sylvan spirits might repair to them, and remain unnipped with frost and cold winds, until a milder season had renewed the foliage of their darling abodes.

Stow, in his Survey of London, says that "against the feast of Christmas every man's house, as also their parish churches, were decked with holme, ivy, bayes, and whatsoever the season of the year afforded to be green. The conduits and standards in the streets were likewise garnished: among the which I read that in the year 1444, by tempest of thunder and lightning, towards the morning of Candlemas Day, at the Leadenhall, in Cornhill, a standard of tree, being set up in the midst of the pavement, fast in the ground, nailed full of holme and ivie, for disport of Christmass to the people, was torne up and cast downe by the malignant spirit1 (as was thought), and the

1 This illustrates the Spectator's observation, where he tells us that our forefathers looked into Nature with other eyes than we do now, and

stones of the pavement all about were cast in the streets, and into divers houses, so that the people were sore aghast at the great tempests."

In the ancient Calendar of the Church of Rome, so frequently quoted in this work, I find the following observation on Christmas Eve: "Templa exornantur.' Churches are

decked.

In Herbert's Country Parson, 1675, p. 56, the author teils us: "Our parson takes order that the church be swept and kept clean, without dust or cobwebs, and at great festivals strawed and stuck with boughs, and perfumed with incense."

A writer in the Gent. Mag. for 1765 conjectures that the ancient custom of dressing churches and houses at Christmas with laurel, box, holly, or ivy, was an allusion to many figurative expressions in the Prophets relative to Christ, the branch of righteousness, &c.; or that it was in remembrance of the Oratory of Wrythen Wands or Boughs, which was the first Christian church erected in Britain. Before we can admit either of these hypotheses, the question must be determined whether or not this custom did not prevail at this season prior to the introduction of the Christian faith amongst us. Another writer in that Magazine for July 1783, p. 578, remarking on the same usage, inquires, "May we refer the branches (as well as the palms on Palm Sunday) to this, ‘And they cut down branches, and strewed them in the way?" A third writer in the same miscellany for May 1811, speaking of the manner in which the inhabitants of the North Riding of Yorkshire celebrate Christmas, says: "The windows and pews of the church (and also the windows of houses) are adorned with branches of holly, which remain till Good Friday."

Lewis, in his English Presbyterian Eloquence, 1720, p. 17, speaking of the enthusiasts of the same period, says: "Under the censure of lew'd customs, they included all sorts of public sports, exercises, and recreations, how innocent soever-nay, the poor rosemary and bays, and Christmas-pye, is made an abomination.'

Gay, in his Trivia, ii. 437, describes this custom:

always ascribed common natural effects to supernatural causes. It should seem that this joy of the people at Christmas was death to their infernal enemy. Envying their festal pleasures, and owing them a grudge, he took this opportunity of spoiling their sport.