Similarly in those of the Parish of St Margaret, Westminster, 1647, we read: "Item paid for Rosemarie and Bayes that was stuck about the church at Christmas, Is. 6ď.”

In Herbert's Country Parson, the author tells 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 Gentleman's Magazine for 1765 conjectures that the ancient custom of dressing churches and houses at Christmas with laurel, box, holly, or ivy, was in 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 July 1783, 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."

This illustrates the Spectator's observation that our forefathers looked into Nature with other eyes than we do now, and 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.

Bourne observes that this custom of adorning the windows at this season with bay and laurel is but seldom used in the North; but in the South, particularly at our universities, it is very common to deck not only the common windows of the town, but also the chapels of the colleges, with branches of laurel; which was used by the ancient Romans as the emblem of peace, joy, and victory. In the Christian sense it may be applied to the victory gained over the powers of darkness by the coming of Christ.

this

In a curious tract (without date, but certainly published about the beginning of the last century) entitled Round about our Coal Fire, or Christmas Entertainments, occurs the following passage on subject: "The Rooms were embowered with Holly,* Ivy, Cyprus, Bays, Laurel, and Misletoe, and a bouncing Christmas Log in the Chimney."

The following carol in praise of the HOLLY, written during the reign of the sixth Henry, is in the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts, No. 5396— "Nay, Ivy nay, it shall not be, I wys;

Let Holly hafe the maystry, as the maner ya.

In this Account the "CYPRUS" is quite a new article. Indeed, one should as soon have expected to see the yew as the cypress used on this joyful occasion.

Coles, however, in his Art of Simpling (1656), tells us: "In some places setting up of Holly, Ivy, Rosemary, Bayes, YEW, &c., in Churches at Christmass, is still in use;" while use of box as well as yew, "to decke up Houses in Winter," is noticed in Parkinson's Garden of Flowers (1629).

Although Gay mentions the MISTLETOE among the evergreens that were put up in churches, it probably never entered those sacred edifices except through mistake or ignorance of the sextons; for it was the heathenish and profane plant, as having been of such distinction in the pagan rites of Druidism; and it therefore had a place assigned to it in kitchens, where it was hung up in great state with its white berries; and, when a female chanced to stand under it, the young man present either had or claimed the right of saluting her, and of plucking off a berry at each kiss. An old sexton at Teddington in Middlesex informed the author that some mistletoe was once put up in the church there, but was by the clergyman immediately ordered to be taken away.

Stukeley, in his Medallic History of Carausius, mentions the introduction of mistletoe into York Cathedral on Christmas Eve as a relic 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

From this it should seem that holly was used only to deck the inside of houses at Christmas; while ivy was used not only as a vintner's sign, but also among the evergreens at funerals.

• Perhaps doole, pain, fatigue.

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.” Colbatch, in his dissertation concerning mistletoe, which he strongly recommends as a medicine potent 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." "The high veneration," he adds, "in which the Druids were anciently held by people of all ranks, proceeded in a great measure from the wonderful cures they wrought by means of the Mistletoe of the Oak: this tree being sacred to them, but none so that had not the Mistletoe upon them."

By the Druids the mistletoe of the oak was held to be prime ;* but Colbatch endeavours to evince that the mistletoe 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:
Talis erat species," &c.

A correspondent of the Gentleman's Magazine for February 1791 writes that GUIDHEL, Mistletoe, a magical shrub, "appears 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."

Christie, in his Inquiry into the ancient Greek Game (1801), refers to the respect the Northern nations entertained for the mistletoe, and to the fact "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 approached the Winter Solstice." And he adds: "We find by the allusion of Virgil, who compared the golden Bough in Infernis to the Mistletoe, that the use of this plant was not unknown in the religious ceremonies of the antients, particularly the Greeks, of whose poets he was the acknowledged imitator."

The cutting of the mistletoe was a ceremony of great solemnity with our early ancestors. The people went forth in procession; the bards leading the way singing canticles and hymns; a herald pre

The mistletoe of the oak, which is very rare, is vulgarly said to be a cure for wind-ruptures in children; and, on the same authority, the variety found upon the apple is good for fits.

In the Statistical Account of Scotland (1794), parish of Kiltarlity, county of Inverness, it is recorded: "In Lovat's Garden are a great number of Standard Trees. Ón two Standard Apple Trees here Mistletoe grows, which is a very rare plant in this country.”

ceding three Druids with the necessary implements; and the chief of the Druids attended by the body of the people bringing up the rear. Mounting the oak and cutting the mistletoe with a golden sickle, he presented it to the other Druids; who received it with every token of respect, and on the first day of the year distributed it among the people as a sacred and holy plant, exclaiming, "The mistletoe for the New Year!"

Nares writes that "the custom longest preserved was the hanging up of a bush of mistletoe in the kitchen or servants' hall, with the charm attached to it, that the maid who was not kissed under it at Christmas would not be married that year." Time has not obliterated the superstition.

YULE DOUGHS, MINCE-PIES, CHRISTMAS PIES,
AND PLUM PORRIDGE.

"Let Christmas boast her customary treat,
A mixture strange of suet, currants, meat,

YULE DO

Where various tastes combine, the greasy and the sweet."

Oxford Sausage.

JULE-DOUGHS, or Dows,* were little images 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 Yule Cakes in the county of Durham. In the Ancient Calendar of the Romish Church we find 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. Most probably we have thence derived both our Yule-doughs, plum-porridge, and mince-pies, the latter of which are still in common use at this season. The Yule-Dough was perhaps intended for an image of the Child Jesus, with the Virgin Mary. It is now almost obsolete, or, at most, retained only by children.

66

In his Masque of Christmas, Ben Jonson introduces MincedPye" and "Babie-Cake" as dramatis persona.

May not the minced pie (inquires a writer in the Gentleman's Magazine for July 1783), which is a compound of the choicest productions of the East, be held to be typical of the offerings made by the wise men, who came from afar to worship, bringing with them spices, &c.?

In Sheppard's Epigrams (1651) they are called "Shrid-pies ;" and in Dekker's tract, entitled Warres, Warres, Warres (1628), "Minched Pies." There is mention of them also in The Religion of the Hypocritical Presbyterians in meeter (1661)—

• 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 Theostican thihen, to grow bigger, or rise, as the bakers term it.

"Three Christmass or Minc'd Pies, all very fair,

Methought they had this Motto: Though they flirt us
And preach us down, sub pondere crescit virtus.'

Lewis, in his English Presbyterian Eloquence, speaking of the Enthusiasts in the Grand Rebellion, tells us that under the censure of lewd customs they included all sorts of public sports, exercises, and recreations, how innocent soever; nay, the poor rosemary and bays,* and Christmas Pie, were made abominations.

In Fletcher's Christmas Day (1656) we have the ingredients and shape of the Christmas pie particularised

"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
Like Nunnes with patches in a monastrie.
Prophaneness in a conclave? Nay, much more,
Idolatrie in crust! Babylon's whore

Rak'd from the grave, and bak'd by hanches, then
Serv'd up in Coffins to unholy men;

Defil'd, with superstition, like the Gentiles

Of old, that worship'd onions, roots, and lentiles !"

Misson, in his Travels in England, notes that "every family against Christmass makes a famous pye, which they call Christmas Pye. It is a great nostrum, the composition of this pasty: it is a most learned mixture of neat's-tongues, chicken, eggs, sugar, raisins, lemon and orange peel, and various kinds of spicery.'

The substantial character of the Christmas pie of old may be judged by the accompanying excerpt from the Newcastle Chronicle of 6th January 1770

Monday last was brought from Howick to Berwick, to be shipped for London for Sir Henry Grey, Bart., a pie, the contents whereof are as follows:-viz., 2 bushels of flour, 20 lbs. of butter, 4 geese, 2 turkeys, 2 rabbits, 4 wild ducks, 2 woodcocks, 6 snipes, and 4 partridges ; 2 neats' tongues, 2 curlews, 7 blackbirds, and 6 pigeons. It is supposed a very great curiosity, and was made by Mrs Dorothy Patterson, housekeeper at Howick. It was near nine feet in circumference at bottom, weighed about twelve stone, and will take two men to present it at table. It was neatly fitted with a case, and four wheels to facilitate its use to every guest that inclines to partake of its contents at table."

Among the ceremonies of Christmas Eve, in Herrick's Hesperides is the following

"Come guard this night the Christmas-Pie
That the Thiefe, though ne'r so slie,

With his flesh hooks don't com nie

To catch it ;

"My Dish of Chastity with Rosemary and Bays." Anciently many dishes were served up with this garniture during the season of Christmas.