"The Christmas box," (says the Connoisseur), was formerly the bounty of well-disposed people, who were willing to contribute something towards rewarding the industrious, and supplying them with necessaries. But the gift is now almost demanded as a right, and our journeymen, apprentices, &c., are grown so polite, that instead of reserving their Christmas box for its original use, their ready cash serves them only for pocket-money; and instead of visiting their friends and relations, they commence the fine gentlemen of the week." The bestowing of Christmas boxes indeed, is one of those absurd customs of antiquity which, till within these few years had spread itself almost into a national grievance. The butcher and the baker sent their journeymen and apprentices to levy contributions on their customers, who were paid back again in fees to the servants of the different families. The tradesman had, in consequence, a pretence to lengthen out his bill, and the master and mistress to lower the wages on account of the vails. Presents were made by bakers to their customers at this time in old days: a baby of paste, or a cake with the figure of a lamb on it; but, although in the formation of cakes all sorts of fantastic shapes are still resorted to, and lambs in sugar and flour are still occasionally to be seen, the good ancient custom of giving such things away has died out. At Wrexham, in Denbighshire, the tradespeople unanimously resolved in 1867 to give no Christmas boxes and to present, instead, £35 to the local charities. Comp. Nares and Halliwell in v. Monsieur de Valois says that the Kings of France gave presents to their soldiers at this season.

Christmas Candle, the, at St. John's College, Oxford. This candle, and the socket, which was still preserved in the Buttery, in 1813, used formerly to be burned at Christmas in an ancient stone socket, upon which was engraved a figure of the Holy Lamb. It was

in use during the twelev days of Christmas, and stood on the public supper board. It was not, however, peculiar to St. John's. In the "Country Farmers' Catechism," 1703, occurs this passage: "She ne'er has no fits, nor uses no cold tea, as the 'Ladies Catechism' says, but keeps her body in health with working all the week, and goes to church on Sundays: my daughter don't look with sickly pale looks, like an unfit Christmas candle; they don't eat oatmeal, lime, or ashes, for pain at their stomachs; they don't ride on the fellows backs before they are twelve years old, nor lie on their own before they are fifteen, but look as fresh as new blown roses, with their daily exercise, and stay still they are fit for husbands before they have them."

Christmas Day. This is observed without any real authority or probability of correctness on the 25th of December. Christmas Day, in the primitive Church, was always observed as the Sabbath Day, and, like that, preceded by an eve or vigil. Hence our present Christmas Eve. 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." Certain coarse and obscene usages on Christmas Eve seem to be indicated by Barrington, where, speaking of the people, he says: "They were also, by the customs prevailing in particular districts, subject to services not only of the most servile, but the most ludicrous nature Utpote die Nativitatis Domini coram eo saltare, buccas cum sonitu inflare et ventris crepitum edere." Observ. on the Statutes, p. 306. Upon Wednesday, December 22, 1647, the cryer of Canterbury, by the appointment of Master Mayor, openly proclaimed that Christmas Day, and all other superstitious festivals, should be put down, and that a market should be kept upon Christmas Day. See "Canterbury Christmas; or, a true Relation of the Insurrection in Canterbury on Christmas Day last," 1648. An order of Parliament, December 24, 1652, directed "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." credible person born and brought up in a village not far from Bury St. Edmunds, informed Mr. Brand that, when he was a boy, there was a rural custom there among the youths, of "hunting owls and squirrels on Christmas Day." Forby alludes to this now obsolete practice in his "Vocabu

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lary of East Anglia," 1830. A correspondent of "Notes and Queries for March 22 and June 21, 1862, points out that in some parts of the country (he was brought up in the West Riding of Yorkshire) a very curious superstition is connected with Christmas and New Year's mornings. It is that the first person who should enter the house on those two occasions ought, for luck, to have dark hair; and an old woman in his neighbourhood accounted for the belief by saying that Judas, the betrayer of the Saviour, had red hair, a circumstance which engendered a deep prejudice against that or any other light colour ever after. But it may be said here, as so often in relation to questions of the kind-causa latet res ipsa notissima. The writer observes: "All the ill-luck, that is, the untoward circumstances of the year, would be ascribed to the accident of a person of light hair having been the first to enter a dwelling on the mornings referred to. I have known instances, where such persons, innocently presenting themselves, have met with anything but a Christmas welcome. It was anciently believed that a child born on a Christmasday, when that day fell on a Sunday, would be very fortunate. A MS. in the Bodleian has this passage:

"And what chyld on that day boorn be, Of gret worscheyp schall he be." Mr. Thomas Wright, in his " 'Essays," 1846, says: "It is still an article of popular faith in Scotland, that persons born at Christmas and on Good Friday, have more power of communicating with spirits and hobgoblins than other people," and quotes Scot's "Marmion" for an illustration so far at least as Christmas is concerned.

Christmas Eve. It is customary on this night with young people in the North of England to dive for apples, or catch at them, when stuck upon one end of a kind of hanging beam, at the other extremity of which is fixed a lighted candle, and that with their mouths only, their hands being tied behind their backs. Nuts and apples chiefly compose the entertainment, and from the custom of flinging the former into the fire, or cracking them with their teeth, it has doubtless had its vulgar name of Nutcrack Night. Little troops of boys and girls still go about at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and other places in the North of England (and in Yorkshire), some few nights before, on Christmas-eve night, and on that of the day itself. The Hagmena is still preserved among them, and they always conclude their begging song with wishing a merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Compare Hagmena. In Goldsmith's time, the country folks religiously observed this nutcracking festival, as he tells us in his "Vicar of Wake

field." Stafford says, they (certain deluded men)" make me call to mind an old Christmas gambole, contrived with a thred which being fastened to some beame, hath at the nether end of it a sticke, at the one end of which is tied a candle, and at the other end an apple; so that when a man comes to bite at the apple, the candle burnes his nose. The application is as easy as the trick common." Niobe, 1611, p. 107. The catching at the apple and candle may be called playing at something like the ancient English game of the quintain, which is now almost totally forgotten. Hutchinson, somewhat fancifully perhaps, identified this Christian usage with the rites anciently observed in honour of Pomona. Hist. of North., vol. ii. p. 18. Polwhele describes it in his "Old English Gentleman, P. 120: Or catch th' elusive apple with a bound,

As with its taper it flew whizzing round."

Luther, in his "Colloquia," i. 233, tells us that " upon the eve of Christmas Day the women run about and strike a swinish hour (pulsant horam suillam): if a great hog grunts, it denotes the future husband to be an old man, if a small one, a young

man."

Naogeorgus describes the midnight mass on Christmas Eve, the manner in which the priests used to pilfer the offerings laid on the altar, "least other should it have," and the wooden effigy of the Son of God, which used to be placed there likewise, that the children of both sexes might dance round it, the parents looking on, and applauding. Sir Herbert Croft informs us, that the inhabitants of Hamburg were obliged by custom to give their servants carp for supper on Christmas Eve. Letter from Germany, 1797, p. 82.

Christmas Holidays. "If we compare," says Prynne, our Bacchanalian Christmasses and New Years Tides with these Saturnalia and Feasts of Janus, we shall finde such near affinitye betweene them both in regard of time (they being both in the end of December and on the first of January) and in their manner of solemnizing (both of them being spent in revelling, epicurisme, wantonesse, idle. nesse, dancing, drinking, stage-plaies, masques, and carnall pompe and jollity), that we must needes conclude the one to be but the very ape or issue of the other. Hence Polydor Virgil affirmes in expresse tearmes that our Christmas Lords of Misrule (which custom, saith he, is chiefly observed in England) together with dancing, masques, mummeries, stage-playes, and such other Christmas disorders now in use with Christians, were derived from these Roman Saturnalia and Bacchanalian festivals; which (concludes he) should

The Christmas of 1502 appears to have been kept with some splendour, for in the "Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York," there is a payment of twenty pounds to the grooms and pages of the Queen's chamber alone 66 against Cristmas." According to his biographer, Sir Thos. More was, by his father's procurement, received into the house of the right reverend, wise, and learned prelate Cardinall Mourton, where (thoughe hee was yonge of yeares, yet) would he at Christmas tyd sodenly sometymes stepp in among the players, and never studinge for the matter, make a parte of his owne there presently amonge them, which made the lookers-on more sport than all the players besid. In whose witt and towardnesse the Cardinall much delightinge, would often say of him unto the nobles that divers tymes dyned with him: This child here wayting at the table, who soever shall live to see it, will prove a marveilous man.'" Andrews, in his "Hist. of Great Britain," vol. i. pt. 2, 4to. 1795, p. 329, mentions "the humorous Pageant of Christmas, personified by an old man hung round with savory dainties" which, he says, in common with "dancing round the Maypole and riding the hobby-horse," suffered 2 severe check at the Reformation. In the East of London, about Shoreditch and Mile-End, while the district was still open country, there were periodical celebrations of sports in holiday time. In 1577 we observe a licence to print the History of the High and Mighty William, Duke of Shoreditch, a personage named William Barlow, who had obtained the favour of Henry VIII. by his skill as a bowman, and on whom his Majesty had conferred this and other jocular titles. Nothing farther is known of such a publication, and of a later one in 1583 there is only a late print at the end of Wood's Bowman's Glory, 1682. In 1588 Queen Elizabeth attended a grand spectacle at Mile End, called Arthur's Show, q.v. Braithwaite, in his "Rules for the House of an Earle" (circa 1640) laments the expenditure of money which would have been better laid out in the good old substantial fare, upon confectionery. He says: "I have knowen that the finest confectionary shoppe in Bearbinder Lane and the Blacke Fryers must be sought into for all kindes of conserved, preserved, and candied fruictes, and flowers, the chardge of a banquet arrising to as great a summe of monye as woulde have kept a good house all Christe

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mas, wherin should have been great dishes filled with great peeces of beefe, veale, swanne, venison, capons, and such like English meates." The same author, in his "Whimzies," 1631, describing a good and hospitable housekeeper, has left the following picture of Christmas festivities: Suppose Christmas now approaching, the evergreen ivie trimming and adorning the portals and partcloses of so frequented a building; the usual carolls, to observe antiquitie, cheerefully sounding; and that which is the complement of his inferior comforts, his neighbours, whom he tenders as members of his owne family, joyne with him in this consort of mirth and melody." In the second part, he calls a piper "an ill wind that begins to blow upon ChristEve, and so continues, very lowd and blustring, all the twelve dayes: or an airy meteor, composed of flatuous matter, that then appeares, and vanisheth, to the great peace of the whole family, the thirteenth day." Breton, also, in his "Fantasticks," 1626, has much that is highly interesting on this subject. Under November, he says: "The cooke and the comfitmaker make ready for Christmas, and the minstrels in the Countrey beat their boyes for false fingring." Of Christmas Day itself he observes: "It is now Christmas, and not a cup of drinke must passe without a carroll, the beasts, fowle, and fish, come to a general execution, and the corne is ground to dust for the bakehouse and the pantry: Cards and dice purge many a purse, and the youths shew their agility in shooing of the wild mare." The twelve days' rejoicing and merry-making at this season of the year are mentioned in "The Praise of Christmas," a ballad about 1630: "When Christmas-tide comes in like a bride,

With holly and ivy clad,

Twelve days in the year, much mirth and good cheer

In every household is had." One of the most curious pictures in little of an old Christmas is that given (glimpselike) in Laurence Price's unique Christmas Book for 1657. He there describes the sea-faring man's Christmas dinner and the tradesman's, and admits us to the interior of an honest cobbler's house, where there was merry-making in an humble way, and music. One of the last pages is occupied with "The Cobbler's Song." In a tract of 1651, Old Christmas is introduced describing the former annual festivities of the season as follows: "After dinner we arose from the boord and sate by the fire, where the harth was embrodered all over with roasted apples, piping hot, expecting a bole of ale for a cooler, which immediately was transformed into Lamb-wool. After which we discoursed merily, without

other Roman Catholic countries. The great festival times here are from Christmas to Twelfth Day inclusive, at Easter, and at Whitsuntide." Travels in England, trans. by Ozell, p. 34. The Minister of Montrose tells us: "At Christmas and the New Year, the opulent burghers begin to feast with their friends, and go a round of visits, which takes up the space of many weeks. Upon such occasions, the gravest is expected to be merry, and to join in a cheerful song." Stat. Acc. of Scotland, v., 48. In the "World," No. 104, the following occurs: "Our an

cestors considered Christmas in the double light of a holy commemoration and a chearful festival; and accordingly distinguished it by devotion, by vacation from business, by merriment and hospitality. They seemed eagerly bent to make themselves and every body 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 rigour of the season, and mitigate the influence of winter. What a fund of delight was the chusing King and Queen upon Twelfth Night! and how greatly ought we to regret the neglect of minced pyes, which, besides the ideas of merrymaking 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 ac quitting himself as by the ordeal of plumbporridge?" "In Christmas holidays," says the author of "Round about our Coal Fire," (about 1730), "the tables were all spread from the first to the last; the sirloins of beef, the minced pies, the plumb-porridge, the capons, turkeys, geese and plumb-puddings, were all brought upon the board: every one eat heartily, and was welcome, which gave rise to the proverb, Merry in the hall when beards wag all.'"

Sir Walter Scott, in a letter to Joanna Baillie, 1st January, 1819, says: "I wish you could have seen about a hundred children, being almost supported by their fathers' or brothers' labour, come down yesterday to dance to the pipes, and get a piece of cake and bannock, and pence apiece (no very deadly largess) in honour of Hagmanay. I declare to you, my dear

friend, that when I thought the poor fellows who kept these children so neat, and well taught, and well behaved, were slaving the whole day for eighteenpence or twentypence at the most, I was ashamed of their gratitude, and of their becks and bows." In another letter (Jan. 1, 1815), Scott says: "Yesterday being Hogmanay, there was a constant succession of Guisards i.e., boys dressed up in fantastic caps, with their shirts over their jackets, and with wooden swords in their hands. These players acted a sort of scene before us, of which the hero was one Goloskin."

In an amusing news-letter from John Pory to a friend, dated December 13th, 1632, the writer says: "Sir William Curtis writes from Brussells, that the French there with the Queen Mother and monsieur made account to have kept a brave Christmas here in London, and for that purpose had trussed up their trinkets half-topmast high; but it seemeth they reckoned before their host." An agreeable writer describes the busy and bright scene in the churches of Rome on this anniversary, when the people of all ranks flock thither, the peasantry in their holiday attire, and there are processions of priests everywhere. The ceremonial observances last during the whole night until the advent of Christmas Day itself. The Pope and College attend service at Santa Maria Maggiore. Diary of an Invalid, by H. Matthews, 1820.

Christmas Mummers.-A proclamation issued 8 Edward III., A.D. 1334, by the authorities of the City of London, concludes thus: "Also we do forbid, on the same pain of imprisonment, that any man shall go about at this feast of Christmas with companions disguised with false faces, or in any other manner, to the houses of the good folks of the City, for playing at dice there Riley's Memorials of London, 1868, p. 192. At Tenby, among the Christmas mummings, was a dialogue between Father Christmas, St. George, Oliver Cromwell, and Beelzebub, where St. George is made to say: First, then, I fought in France; Second, I fought in Spain; Thirdly, I came to Tenby, To fight the Turk again."

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Where by Turk we are to understand the corsairs of Barbary, who at one time infested nearly every coast.

Christmas Pie. Selden thought 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; and they were long known as coffin pasties. The modern survival is the covered fruit tart in an oval dish. Scogin, in the edition of his "Jests," pub lished in 1626, is made on his death-bed to