it therefore had its place assigned it in kitchens, where it was hung up in great state, with its white berries; and whatever female chanced to stand under it, the young man present either had a right or claimed one of saluting her, and of plucking off a berry at each kiss. I have made many diligent inquiries after the truth of this. I learnt, at Bath, that it never came into church there. An old sexton at Teddington, in Middlesex, informed me that some mistletoe was once put up in the church there, but was by the clergyman immediately ordered to be taken away. Sir John Colbach, in his Dissertation concerning Misletoe, which he strongly recommends as a medicine very likely to subdue not only the epilepsy, but all other convulsive disorders, observes that this beautiful plant must have been designed by the Almighty "for further and more noble purposes than barely to feed thrushes, or to be hung up superstitiously in houses to drive away evil spirits," p. 3. He tells us, p. 12, that "the high veneration in which the Druids were anciently held by the people of all ranks proceeded in a great measure from the wonderful cures they wrought by means of the misletoe of the oak: this tree being sacred to them, but none so that had not the misletoe upon them.” With the Druids the mistletoe of the oak was everything; but Sir John endeavours to evince, that that of the crab, the lime, the pear, or any other tree, is of equal virtue. This sacred epidendron is beautifully described by Virgil in the 6th Æneid: "Quale solet silvis brumali frigore viscum Fronde virere nova, quod non sua seminat arbos, Et croceo fœtu teretes circumdare truncos: Mr. W. Williams, dating from Pembroke, Jan. 28th, 1791, tells us, in the Gentleman's Magazine for February that year, that "GUIDHEL, Misseltoe, a magical shrub, appeared to be the forbidden tree in the middle of the trees of Eden; for in the Edda, the misseltoe is said to be Balder's death, who yet perished through blindness and a woman." Stukeley, in his Medallic History of Carausius, ii. 163, 164, mentions the introduction of mistletoe into York Cathedral on Christmas Eve as a remain of Druidism. Speaking of the winter solstice, our Christmas, he says: "This was the most respectable festival of our Druids, called Yule-tide; when misletoe, which they called all-heal, was carried in their hands, and laid on their altars, as an emblem of the salutiferous advent of Messiah. This misletoe they cut off the trees with their upright hatchets of brass, called celts, put upon the ends of their staffs, which they carried in their hands. Innumerable are these instruments found all over the British isles. The custom is still preserved in the north, and was lately at York: on the eve of Christmas Day they carry MISLETOE to the high altar of the cathedral, and proclaim a public and universal liberty, pardon, and freedom to all sorts of inferior and even wicked people at the gates of the city, towards the four quarters of heaven." The mistletoe of the oak, which is very rare, is vulgarly said to be a cure for wind-ruptures in children: the kind which is found upon the apple is said to be good for fits. In the Statistical Account of Scotland, xiii. 520, parish of Kiltarlity, county of Inverness, it is said, "In Lovat's garden are a great number of standard trees. On two standard apple trees here misletoe grows, which is a very rare plant in this country." Christie, in his Enquiry into the ancient Greek Game, supposed to have been invented by Palamedes, 1801, p. 129, speaks of the respect the northern nations entertained for the mistletoe, and of the Celts and Goths being distinct in the instance of their equally venerating the mistletoe about the time of the year when the sun approaches the winter solstice. At p. 131 he adds, "We find by the allusion of Virgil, who compared the golden bough in infernis to the misletoe, that the use of this plant was not unknown in the religious ceremonies of the ancients, particularly the Greeks, of whose poets he was the acknowledged imitator." YULE-DOUGHS, MINCE-PIES, CHRISTMAS PIES, AND PLUM PORRIDGE. "Let Christmas boast her customary treat, A mixture strange of suet, currants, meat, Where various tastes combine, the greasy and the sweet." Oxford Sausage, p. 22. THE Yule-Dough, or Dow, was a kind of baby, or little image of paste, which our bakers used formerly to bake at this season, and present to their customers, in the same manner as the chandlers gave Christmas candles. They are called yulecakes in the county of Durham. I find in the ancient Calendar of the Romish Church, so often quoted, that at Rome, on the vigil of the Nativity, sweetmeats were presented to the Fathers in the Vatican, and that all kinds of little images (no doubt of paste) were to be found at the confectioners' shops.2 Ben Jonson, in his Masque of Christmas, 1616, has introduced "Minced-Pye" and "Babie-Cake," who act their parts in the drama. Hospinian de Origine Festorum Christianorum, fol. 32, 1 Dough, or Dow, is vulgarly used in the North for a little cake, though it properly signifies a mass of flour tempered with water, salt, and yeast, and kneaded fit for baking. It is derived, as Junius tells us, from the Dutch Deeg, which comes from the Theotiscan thihen, to grow bigger, or rise, as the bakers term it. "JULBROD dicitur panis, qui sub hoc tempore vario aromatum genere conditur, inque varias formas animalium pisciumque fictus apponi solet. Originem hujus ritus eam esse credo, quod apud veteres usu receptum erat, ut prædiorum locatores dominis suis hoc tempore offerrent panem, ut dicebatur natalitium, qui in Gallia cuignets appellabatur, et, ut speciosior esset, in diversas ejusmodi formas pinsebatur, v. Du Fresne in v. PANIS NATALITIUS."-Glossar. Suio-Goth. auctore J. Ihre. 1769, i. 1009. Dufresne says: "PANIS NATALITIUS, cujusmodi fieri solet in die Natalis Domini, et præberi Dominis, a prædiorum conductoribus, in quibusdam provinciis, qui ex farina delicatiori, ovis et lacte confici solent: Cuignets appellant Picardi, quod in cuneorum varias species efformentur." 2 "In Vaticano, dulcia Patribus exhibentur. In Cupidinariorum mensis, omnia generum imagunculæ." On Christmas Day, in this Calendar, we read: "Dulcia continuantur et Strenæ." speaking of Christmas customs, says: "Strenas quoque ultro citroque mittimus, et dulciariis nos mutuo honoramus." "At Rippon, in Yorkshire, on Christmas Eve, the grocers send each of their customers a pound or half a pound of currants and raisins to make a Christmas pudding."-Gent. Mag. for Aug. 1790, p. 719. There is the greatest probability that we have had from hence both our yule-doughs, plum-porridge, and mince-pies, the latter of which are still in common use at this season. The yule-dough has perhaps been intended for an image of the child Jesus, with the Virgin Mary. It is now, if I mistake not, pretty generally laid aside, or at most retained only by children. A writer in the Gent. Mag. for July 1783, p. 578, inquires: "May not the minced pye, a compound of the choicest productions of the East, have in view the offerings made by the wise men, who came from afar to worship, bringing spices, &c.?" In Sheppard's Epigrams, 1651, p. 121, mince [or minced] pies are called "shrid-pies." "No matter for plomb-porridge, or shrid-pies, To Comus, not to Christ," &c. In a tract in my library, the running title of which is "Warres" (the title-page being lost), printed about the time of Q. Eliz. or James I., these pies are called "minched pies." Minced pies are thus mentioned in a small poem entitled the Religion of the Hypocritical Presbyterians in Meeter, 1661, p. 16: "Three Christmass or minc'd pies, all very fair, Methought they had this motto, 'Though they flirt us In Lewis's English Presbyterian Eloquence, 1720, p. 17, the author, speaking of the enthusiasts in the grand Rebellion, tells us, that "under the censure of lewd customs they include all sorts of public sports, exercises, and recreations, how innocent soever. Nay, the poor rosemary and bays,1 and Christ 1 66 My dish of chastity with rosemary and bays," Pericles, iv. 6. Anciently many dishes were served up with this garniture during the season of Christmas. mas pie, is made an abomination." [This prejudice is also alluded to in a rare tract called London Bewitched, 1708, p. 7: "Grocers will now begin to advance their plumbs, and bellmen will be very studious concerning their Christmas verses. Fanaticks will begin to preach down superstitious minc'd pyes and abominable plumb porridge; and the Church of England will highly stand up for the old Christmas hospitality." And, in the old metrical history of Jack Horner, "containing his witty tricks and pleasant pranks which he play'd from his youth to his riper years, right pleasant and delightful for winter and summer's recreation," we read— "And in the corner would he sit When friends they did together meet To pass away the time, Why, little Jack, he sure would eat His Christmas pye in rhyme : And said, Jack Horner in the corner Eats good Christmas pye, And with his thumb pulls out the plumb, And said, good boy am I! These pretty verses which he made Upon his Christmas cheer, Did gain him love, as it is said, Of all both far and near."] In Selden, in his Table Talk, tells us that the coffin of our Christmas pies, in shape long, is in imitation of the cratch, i. e. the manger, wherein the infant Jesus was laid. Fletcher's Poems and Translations, 1656, p. 154, in a poem styled "Christmas Day," we find the ingredients and shape of the Christmas pie. "Christ-mass? give me my beads: the word implies A plot, by its ingredients, beef and pyes. The cloyster'd steaks with salt and pepper lye Prophaneness in a conclave? Nay, much more, Rak'd from the grave, and bak'd by hanches, then Defil'd, with superstition, like the Gentiles Of old, that worship'd onions, roots, and lentiles !" Misson, in his Travels in England, by Ozell, pp. 34, 35, |