The book of Christmas

"I love no rost, but a nut brown toste, And a crab layde in the fyre, A little bread shall do me stead, Much breade I not desyre: No froste nor snow, no winde, I trowe, Can hurt...

Near them stands, we rejoice to see, their favorite sister Wassail. She was of a slender figure in Ben Jonson's day, and is so still. If the garb in which she appears has a some...

The length of the period over which the sway of this potentate extended does not seem to be very accurately defined, or rather it is probable that it varied with circumstances....

And away they go well inclined to act up to the injunctions of the ancient song. "_Concinamus, O Sodales!_" Our readers will do well on the present occasion to translate the ver...

We have already mentioned that the custom of bestowing gifts at seasons of joyous commemoration, has been a form of thankfulness at most periods; and that it may have been direc...

A worse custom still, however, was that of presenting gifts to the Chancellor by suitors in his court, for the purpose of influencing his judgments. The abuses of the New-Year's...

Now, if our readers shall be of opinion--as Colonel Mannering and the farmer were--that the attitude and the occupation were scarcely consistent with the dignity of a gentleman...

Of the earnest manner in which our ancestors set about the celebration of this festival, the mock ceremonial with which they illustrated it, the quaint humors which they let loo...

In a word, the old English feeling seemed nearly extinct for a time; and the ancient customs which had connected themselves therewith, one by one fell more or less into disuse....

Not that our firesides are altogether without domestic fortune-tellers or amateur practitioners in the art of sleight-of-hand. But the prophecies of the former are drawn from, a...

In most nations of ancient or modern times, the period of what is popularly called the winter solstice appears to have been recognized as a season of rejoicing. The deepening gl...

Foote, it was, we think, who attempted to get a standing for a Harlequin with a wooden leg upon the English stage; and though he was supported by a clown upon crutches, these an...

The sacred origin and meaning of this practice have, however, in modern days been a good deal lost sight of by these uncertificated harmonists in their selection of tunes. In Lo...

And this result of the minute and accurate partitions of time, which consists in the establishment of a series of points for periodic celebration, is, as regards its public and...

The approach of Christmas Eve in the metropolis is marked by the Smithfield show of over-fed cattle; by the enormous beasts and birds, for the fattening of which medals and cups...

By these gentry a very spirited competition is kept up in the article of annoyance with the hurdy-gurdies, and other instruments of that class, which awaken the echoes of all ou...

Bring in pailes of water then, Let the maides bewash the men:-- Give S. Distaffe all the right, Then bid Christmas sport good-night: And next morrow, every one To his own vocati...

"There's rosemary," says Ophelia; "that's for remembrance: pray you, love, remember;" and the custom of decking the corpse with this flower, as well as that of flinging its spri...

In Hollinshed's Chronicle, honorable mention is made of a certain George Ferrers, therein described as a "lawyer, a poet, and an historian," who supplied the office well in the...

Amid the comforts of the fireside, and all its sweet companionships and cheerful inspirations, there is something like the sense of a triumph obtained over the hostilities of th...

The plate then on the other side represents the earliest, and not the least important, of the worldly ceremonies of the day, the due observance thereof being essential to the du...

Mingled Origin of the Christmas Festival; Good Cheer of the Ancient Festival; Court Celebrations of Christmas; Celebrations at the Inns of Court; Lord of Misrule and Christmas P...

=Christina G. Rossetti.= Poems, 16mo, $1.50; Red Line edition, 12mo, $2.00; A Pageant, 16mo, $1.25; Time Flies, 18mo, $1.00; Annus Domini, square 18mo, $1.50; Commonplace, 16mo,...