Stow has preserved an account of a remarkable Mummery made by the citizens of London in 1377 for the entertainment of the young Prince Richard, son to the Black Prince :

"On the Sunday before Candlemass, in the night, one hundred and thirty citizens, disguised, and well horsed, in a Mummerie, with sound of trumpets, sackbuts, cornets, shalmes, and other minstrels, and innumerable torch-lights of waxe, rode to Kennington, beside Lambeth, where the young Prince remayned with his mother. In the first rank did ride forty-eight in likeness and habit of esquires, two and two together, clothed in red coats, and gowns of say, or sandall, with comely visors on their faces. After them came forty-eight knights, in the same livery. Then followed one richly arrayed, like an emperour: and after him some distance, one stately tyred, like a pope, whom followed twenty-four cardinals: and, after them, eight or ten with black visors, not amiable, as if they had been legates from some forrain princes.

"These maskers, after they had entered the mannor of Kennington, alighted from their horses, and enter'd the hall on foot; which done, the Prince, his Mother, and the Lords, came out of the chamber into the hall, whom the Mummers did salute; shewing, by a paire of dice upon the table, their desire to play with the young prince, which they so handled, that the Prince did alwaies winne when he cast them.

"Then the Mummers set to the Prince three jewels, one after another; which were, a boule of gold, a cup of gold, and a ring of gold, which the Prince wanne at three casts. Then they set to the Prince's Mother, the Duke, the Earles, and other lords, to every one a ring of gold, which they did also win. After which they were feasted, and the musick sounded, the Prince and Lords daunced on the one part with the Mummers, which did also dance; which jollitie being ended, they were again made to drink, and then departed in order as they came.'

"The like," he says, "was to King Henry IV., in the second year of his reign, hee then keeping his Christmas at Eltham; twelve aldermen of London and their sonnes rode a mumming, and had great thanks."

We read of another Mumming in Henry IV.'s time, in Fabyan's Chronicle: "In whiche passe tyme the Dukys of Amnarle, of Surrey, and of Excetyr, with the Erlys of Salesbury and of Gloucetyr, with other of their affynyte, made provysion for a Dysguysynge or a Mummynge, to be shewyd to the Kynge upon Twelfethe Nyght, and the tyme was nere at hande, and all thynge redy for the same. Upon the sayd Twelfthe Day, came secretlye unto the Kynge the Duke of Amnarle, and shewyd to hym, that he, wyth the other Lordys aforenamyd, were appoyntyd to sle hym in the tyme of the fore sayd Disguysynge." So that this Mumming, it should seem, had like to have proved a very serious jest.

about masked, in imitation of the superstitions of the Gentiles. Against this practice St Maximus and Peter Chrysologus declaimed; whence, in some of the very ancient Missals, we find written in the mass for this day, "Missa ad prohibendum ab Idolis."

According to Henry, "In the year 1348, eighty tunics of buckram, forty-two visors, and a great variety of other whimsical dresses, were provided for the disguisings at court at the feast of Christmass."

"In the reigne of King Henrie the eyght," writes Northbrooke in his Treatise against Dice-play, "it was ordeyned that if any persons did disguise themselves in apparel, and cover their faces with visors, gathering a company togither, naming themselves Mummers, which use to come to the dwelling-places of men of honour, and other substantiall persons, whereupon murders, felonie, rape, and other great hurts and inconveniences have aforetime growen and hereafter be like to come, by the colour thereof, if the sayde disorder shoulde continue not reformed, &c.: That then they shoulde be arreasted by the King's liege people as vagabondes, and be committed to the Gaole without bayle or mainprise, for the space of three monethes, and to fine at the King's pleasure. And every one that keepeth any visors in his house, to forfeyte 20s."

In Fenn's Paston Letters, in a Letter dated Dec. 24th 1484, we read that Lady Morley, on account of the death of her Lord, July 23, 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 none loud disports; but playing at the tables, and chess, and cards; such disports she gave her folks leave to play, and none other."

The following is from the MS. Collections of Aubrey relating to North Wilts in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, dated 1678:

-"Heretofore, noblemen and gentlemen of fair estates had their heralds, who wore their coate of armes at Christmas, and at other solemne times, and cryed largesse thrice. They lived in the country like petty kings. They always eat in Gothic Halls where the Mummings and Loaf-stealing, and other Christmas sports, were performed. The hearth was commonly in the middle; whence the saying, 'round about our coal-fire.''

And in the printed Introduction to his Survey of Wiltshire, Aubrey says: "Here, in the Halls, were the Mummings, Cob-loaf-stealing, and great number of old Christmass Plays performed."

In the tract entitled Round about our Coal-Fire, or Christmass Entertainments, we find the following: "Then comes Mumming, or Masquerading, when the squire's wardrobe is ransacked 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 squire himself, must be transformed."

This account farther says: "The time of the year being cold and frosty, the diversions are within doors, either in exercise or by the fire-side. Dancing is one of the chief exercises: or else there is a match at blindman's-buff, or puss in the corner. The next game is 'Questions and Commands,' when the commander may oblige his subject to answer any lawful question, and make the same obey him instantly, under the penalty of being smutted, or paying such forfeit as may be laid on the aggressor. Most of the other diversions are cards and dice."

Bear-baiting appears anciently to have been one of the Christmas

sports with our nobility. "Our nobility," says Pennant in his Zoology (1776), "also kept their Bear-ward twenty shillings was the annual reward of that officer from his lord, the fifth Earl of Northumberland, 'when he comyth to my Lorde in Cristmas, with his Lordshippe's beests for making of his Lordschip pastyme the said twelve days.”

OF THE YULE CLOG, OR BLOCK, BURNT ON CHRISTMAS EVE.

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.

On the night of this eve our ancestors were wont to light up Candles of an uncommon size, called Christmas Candles, and lay a log of wood upon the fire, called a Yule-Clog,† or Christmas-Block, to illuminate the house, and, as it were, to turn night into day. This custom is in some measure still kept up in the North of England.‡

In the Supplement to the Gent. Mag. for 1790 the subsequent very curious note upon the Yule-log occurs: "On the Yule-log see the Cyclops of Euripides, Act i. sc. i. v. 10. The size of these logs of wood, which were, in fact, great trees, may be collected from hence; that, in the time of the civil wars of the last century, Captain Hosier (I suppose of the Berwick family) burnt the house of Mr Barker, of Haghmond Abbey, near Shrewsbury, by setting fire to the Yulelog."

In the Buttery of St John's College, Oxford, an ancient candle-socket of stone still remains, ornamented with the figure of the Holy Lamb. It was formerly used to burn the Christmas Candle in, on the high-table, at supper, during the twelve nights of that festival.

+ Clog is properly a piece of wood, fastened about the legs of beasts, to keep them from running astray. In a secondary, or figurative sense, it signifies a load, let, or hindrance. Thus also a Truant-clog. Bailey supposes it to come from Log (which he derives from the Saxon ligan, to lie, because of its weight, it lies, as it were, immoveable), the trunk of a tree, or stump of wood for fuel. Block has the same signification.

There is an old Scotch proverb, "He's as bare as the Birk at Yule E'en," which, perhaps, alludes to this custom; the Birk meaning a block of the birch-tree, stripped of its bark and dried against Yule Even. It is spoken of one who is exceedingly poor.

In Poor Robin's Almanack for 1677, in the beginning of December, he observes :

"Now blocks to cleave

This time requires,
'Gainst Christmas for
To make good fires."

Grose, in his Provincial Glossary, tells us, that in "Farm-houses in the North, the servants lay by a large knotty block for their Christmass fire, and during the time it lasts they are intitled, by custom, to Ale at their meals.

"At Ripon, in Yorkshire, on Christmas Eve, the chandlers sent large mold-candles, and the coopers logs of wood, generally called Yule-Clogs, which are always used on Christmass Eve; but, should it be so large as not to be all burnt that night, which is frequently the case, the remains are kept till old Christmass Eve" (Gent. Mag. for Aug. 1790).

Gebelin, in his Allegories Orientales, informs us that the people in the county of Lincoln, in England, still call a log, or stump, which they put into the fire on Christmas Day (which was to last for the whole octave), a Gule-block, i. e., a block or log of Iul. It was always set fire to on Christmas Eve.

A writer in the Gent. Mag. for February 1784 maintains: "That this rejoicing on Christmas Eve had its rise from the Juul, and was exchanged for it, is evident from a custom practised in the Northern Counties, of putting a large clog of wood on the fire this evening, which is still called the Yule-clog; the original occasion of it may have been, as the Juul was their greatest festival, to honour it with the best fire."

In Warmstry's Vindication of the Solemnity of the Nativity of Christ (1648) is the following passage: "If it doth appeare that the time of this Festival doth comply with the time of the Heathens' Saturnalia, this leaves no charge of impiety upon it; for, since things are best cured by their contraries, it was both wisdome and piety in the ancient Christians (whose work it was to convert the heathens from such as well as other superstitions and miscarriages), to vindicate such times from that service of the Devill, by appoynting them to the more solemne and especiall service of God. The Blazes are foolish and vaine" (he means here, evidently, the Yule-clogs or logs), "and not countenanced by the church."

"Christmasse Kariles, if they be such as are fit for the time, and of holy and sober composures, and used with Christian sobriety and piety, they are not unlawfull, and may be profitable, if they be sung with grace in the heart. New Yeare's Gifts, if performed without superstition, may be harmles provocations to Christian love and mutuall testimonies thereof to good purpose, and never the worse because the heathens have them at the like times." It also appears to have been a custom to send the clergy New Yeare's Gifts. The author is addressing a clergyman: "Trouble not yourself, therefore; if you dislike New Yeare's Gifts, I would advise your parishioners not to trouble your conscience with them, and all will be well."* Overbury, in his Characters, speaking of the "Franklin," mentions, among the ceremonies which he keeps annually, and yet considers as no relics of Popery "the wakefull ketches on Christmas Eve."

Herrick sings of

He is answering a query: "Whether this Feast had not its rise and growth from Christians' conformity to the mad Feasts of Saturnalia (kept in December to Saturne the Father of the Gods), in which there was a sheafe offered to Ceres, Goddesse of Corne; a hymne to her praise called ouλo, or Louλos; and whether those Christians, by name, to cloake it, did not afterwards call it Yule, and Christmas (as though it were for Christ's honour); and whether it be not yet by some (more antient than truely or knowingly religious) called Yul, and the mad playes (wherwith 'tis celebrated like those Saturnalia) Yule Games? and whether, from the offering of that sheafe to Ceres, from that song in her praise, from those gifts the Heathens gave their friends in the Calends of January, ominis gratia, did not arise or spring our Blazes, Christmas Kariles, and New Yeare's Gifts?"

'Ceremonies for Christmasse.
"Come bring, with a noise,
My merry, merrie boys,

The Christmass Log to the firing;
While my good Dame she
Bids ye all be free,

And drink to your hearts desiring.
"With the last year's Brand
Light the new Block,* and,

For good successe in his spending,
On your psaltries play,

That sweet luck may

Come while the Log is a teending.

Drink now the strong beere,

Cut the white loafe here,

The while the meat is a shredding;

For the rare mince-pie,

And the plums stand by

To fill the paste that's a kneading.”+

Christmas, says Blount, was called the Feast of Lights in the Western or Latin Church, because they used many lights or candles at the feast; or rather, because Christ, the Light of all lights, that true Light, then came into the world. Hence the Christmas Candle, and what was, perhaps, only a succedaneum, the Yule-Block, or Clog, before candles were in general use. Thus a large coal is often set apart at present, in the North, for the same purpose; i.e., to make a great light on Yule or Christmas Eve. Lights, indeed, seem to have been used upon all festive occasions. Hence our illuminations, fireworks, &c., on the news of victories.

In the ancient times to which we would trace up the origin of these almost obsolete customs, blocks, logs, or clogs of dried wood, might be easily procured and provided against this festive season. At that time of day it must have been in the power but of a few to command candles or torches for making their annual illumination.

the

However this may be, the Yule Block will probably be found, in its first use, to have been only a counterpart of the midsummer fires, made within doors because of the cold weather at this winter solstice, as those in the hot season, at the summer one, are kindled in open air.+ Waldron, in his Description of the Isle of Man, tells us : 66 On the 24th of December, towards evening, all the servants in general have a holiday; they go not to bed all night, but ramble about till the bells ring in all the churches, which is at twelve o'clock: prayers

* Refer to the Ceremonies for Candlemas Day.

+ Herrick has another copy of Christmas Verses, To the Maids

"Wash your hands, or else the fire
Will not teind to your desire;
Unwasht hands, ye Maidens, know,
Dead the fire, though ye blow."

After a diligent and close study of Gebelin, the French Bryant, on this abject, one can hardly fail of adopting this hypothesis, which is confirmed by great probability, and many cogent, if not infallible proofs.