tune of Caper and firk it; for Twelfth Day, to the tune of O Mother Roger."

There is a Christmas Carol preserved in Tusser's Husbandry, and another at the end of Aylet's Eclogues and Elegies (1653).

In Wither's Juvenilia is a Christmas carol in which the customs of that season are not overlooked

"Lo! now is come our joyful'st feast!
Let every man be jolly.

Each roome with yvie leaves is drest,
And every post with holly.

Now, all our neighbours' chimneys smoke,
And Christmas Blocks are burning;
Their ovens they with bak't-meats choke,
And all their spits are turning.

Without the doore let sorrow lie;
And if, for cold, it hap to die,
Wee'le bury't in a Christmas pye,

And ever more be merry.

"Now every lad is wondrous trimm,
And no man minds his labour.
Our lasses have provided them
A bag-pipe and a tabor.

Ranke misers now doe sparing shun:
Theire hall of musicke soundeth :

And dogs thence with whole shoulders run,
So all things there aboundeth.

The countrey-folke themselves advance;
For Crowdy-Mutton's come out of France:
And Jack shall pipe, and Jyll shall daunce,
And all the town be merry.

"Now poore men to the justices
With capons make their arrants,
And, if they hap to faile of these,

They plague them with their warrants.

"Harke how the wagges abrode doe call
Each other foorth to rambling;
Anon, you'll see them in the hall,
For nuts and apples scrambling.
The wenches, with their wassell-bowles,
About the streets are singing;

The boyes are come to catch the owles*

The wild mare in is bringing.

Our kitchen-boy hath broke his boxe,
And, to the dealing of the oxe,

Our honest neighbours come by flocks,

And here they will be merry.

A credible person, born and brought up in a village not far from Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, informed the author that, when he was a boy, there was a rural custom there among the youths, of hunting owls and squirrels on Christmas Dav.

"Now kings and queens poore sheep-cotes have,
And mate with every body:

The honest now may play the knave,

And wise men play at noddy.

Some youths will now a mumming goe;
Some others play at Rowland-hoe,
And twenty other gameboyes moe;

Because they will be merry."

At the end of Herrick's Hesperides in his Noble Numbers, is "A Christmas Caroll sung to the King in the presence at Whitehall. The Musical Part composed by Mr Henry Lawes ;" which concludes as follows

"The darling of the world is come,
And fit it is, we find a roome

To welcome him. The nobler part
Of all the House here is the Heart.

Chor. Which we will give him and bequeath
This Hollie and this Ivie Wreath,

To do him honour; who's our King,
And Lord of all this revelling.”

In Poor Robin's Almanack for 1695, we have this good old

Christmas Song.

"Now thrice welcome, Christmas,
Which brings us good cheer,
Minc'd-pies and plumb-porridge,
Good ale and strong beer;
With pig, goose, and capon,
The best that may be,
So well doth the weather
And our stomachs agree.

Observe how the chimneys
Do smoak all about,
The cooks are providing
For dinner, no doubt;
But those on whose tables

No victuals appear,

O may they keep Lent
All the rest of the year!
With holly and ivy

So green and so gay,
We deck up our houses
As fresh as the day,
With bays and rosemary,
And lawrel compleat,
And every one now
Is a king in conceit.

But as for curmudgeons,
Who will not be free,
I wish they may die
On the three-legged tree."

In the Scilly Islands they have a custom of singing carols on Christmas Day at church, to which the congregation make contribution by dropping money into a hat carried round at the end of the performance.

Goldsmith, in the Vicar of Wakefield, describing the manners of some rustics, mentions that, among other customs which they retained, "they kept up the Christmass Carrol."

A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine for May 1811, referring to the mode in which the inhabitants of the North Riding of Yorkshire celebrate Christmas, says: "About six o'clock on Christmas Day, I was awakened by a sweet singing under my window. Surprised at a visit so early and unexpected, I arose and looking out of the window

I beheld six young women, and four men, welcoming with sweet music the blessed morn.'

There existed formerly, at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in the printing office of the late Mr Saint, a hereditary collection of ballads, numerous almost as the celebrated one in the Pepysian Library at Cambridge. Among these were several carols for this season as well as for the Nativity, St Stephen's Day, Childermas Day,* and other occasions; together with Alexander and the King of Egypt, a mock play usually acted about this time by mummers. The conclusion of this bombastic play is in Ray's Collection of Proverbs

"Bounce Buckram, velvets dear, t
Christmas comes but once a year:

And, when it comes, it brings good cheer;
But, when it's gone, it's never the near."

Dr Johnson, in a note on Hamlet, tells us that the pious chansons, a kind of Christmas carol containing some Scripture history thrown into loose rhymes, were sung about the streets by the common people, when they went at that season to beg alms.

Now

In Stevenson's "Twelve Moneths" (1661), under January, it is written: "For the recreations of this month, they are within doors, as it relates to Christmasse: it shares the chearfull Carrols of the Wassell CupCards and dice purge many a purse, and the adventurous youth shew their agility in shooing the Wild-Mare. The Lord of Misrule is no meane man for his time; masking and mumming, and choosing king and queen." Under December are the following notices : capons and hens, besides turkeys, geese, and ducks, with beef and mutton-must all die-for in twelve dayes a multitude of people will not be fed with a little. Now plumbes and spice, sugar and honey, square it among pies and broath. Now a journeyman cares not a rush for his master though he begs his plum-porridge all the twelve dayes. Now or never must the music be in tune, for the youth must dance and sing to get them a heat, while the aged set by the fire. The country maid leaves half her market, and must be sent againe if she forgets a pair of cards on Christmasse Even. Great is the contention of holly and ivy, whether master or dame weares the breeches. Dice and the cards benefit the butler; and, if the cook do not lack wit, he will sweetly lick his fingers.”

"Christmasse is come, make ready the good cheare:
Apollo will be frollick once a yeare:

Strype, in his Annals, under 1582, mentions a riot in Finsbury, about Christmas holidays," by some loose young men of the Inns of Chancery, one of whom, named Light, was especially indicted for singing in the church, upon Childermas Day, Fallantida dilli, &c., an idle loose song then used.”

"Bounce Buckram, &c.," if it has any meaning at all, seems to be an apology offered for the badness or coarseness of the mummers' clothes.

There is an old proverb preserved by Ray, happily expressive of the great doings, as we say, or good eating at this festive time

"Blessed be St Stephen, there's no Fast upon his Even."

I speake not here of England's twelve dayes madness,
But humble gratitude and hearty gladnesse.
These but observ'd let instruments speak out,
We may be merry, and we ought, no doubt;
Christians 'tis the birth-day of Christ our King,
Are We disputing when the angels sing."

66

In an ingenious paper in the World, No. 104, attributed to Richard Owen Cambridge, the following occurs: Our ancestors considered Christmas in the double light of a holy commemoration and a chearful festival; and acccordingly 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 merry-making 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 acquitting himself, as by the ordeal of Plumb-Porridge?"

HOBBY-HORSE AT CHRISTMAS.

In "A True Relation of the Faction begun at Wisbeach, by Fa. Edmonds, alias Weston, a Jesuite, 1595," "newly imprinted 1601," the writer says of Weston: "He lifted up his countenance, as if a new spirit had been put into him, and tooke upon him to controll, and finde fault with this and that (as the comming into the Hall of the Hobby - Horse at Christmas), affirming that he would no longer tolerate these and those so grosse abuses, but would have them reformed."

Plot mentions that within memory, at Abbot's or Paget's Bromley they celebrated at Christmas, or on New Year and Twelfth Days, the hobby-horse dance, a sport so called from the circumstance of one of the performers carrying between his legs the image of a horse made of thin boards, with a bow and arrow in his hand. The latter passing through a hole in the bow, and stopping on a shoulder, made a snapping noise when drawn to and fro, keeping time with the music. With this man danced six others, carrying on their shoulders as many reindeer heads, with the arms of the chief families to whom the revenues of the town belonged. They danced the heys and other country dances. To this hobby-horse dance was appropriated a pot, which was kept in turn by the reeves of the town, who provided

cakes and ale to put into it; all those who had any kindness for the good intent of the institution giving pence a-piece for themselves and families. Foreigners also that came to see it contributed; and the money, after defraying the cost of the cakes and ale, went to repair the church and support the poor; which charges, adds the doctor, are not now perhaps so cheerfully borne.

CHRISTMAS BOX.

"Gladly the Boy, with Christmas Box in hand,
Throughout the town, his devious route pursues;
And of his master's Customers implores
The yearly mite: often his cash he shakes;
The which, perchance, of coppers few consists,
Whose dulcet jingle fills his little soul
With joy as boundless as the debtor feels,
When, from the bailiff's rude, uncivi! gripe
His friends redeem him, and, with pity fraught,
The claims of all his creditors discharge."

Christmas, a Poem.

The Christmas box, says the author of 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, and others 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 gentlenen of the week."

Hutchinson, in the History of Northumberland, observes on these Gifts to Servants and Mechanics, for their good services in the labouring part of the year: "The Paganalia of the Romans, instituted by Servius Tullius, were celebrated in the beginning of the year. An altar was erected in each village, where all persons gave money. This was a mode originally devised for gaining the number of inhabitants."

In a catalogue of Presbyterian books detailed in Lewis' English Presbyterian Eloquence (1720) is one with the title-" Christmass Cordials fit for refreshing the Souls and cheering the Hearts; and more fit for Christmass Boxes than Gold or Silver."

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.

In the illustration of the cut to The English Usurer (1634), the author, speaking of the usurer and swine, says: