Part 138
Ivy hath a lybe; she laghtit with the cold, So mot they all hafe that wyth Ivy hold. Nay, Ivy! Nay, hyt, &c. Holy hat berys as red as any Rose, The foster the hunters, kepe hem from the doo. Nay, Ivy! Nay, hyt, &c. Ivy hath berys as black as any slo; Ther com the oule and ete hym as she goo. Nay, Ivy! Nay, hyt, &c. Holy hath byrdys, aful fayre flok, The Nyghtyngale, the Poppyngy, the gayntyl Lavyrok. Nay, Ivy! Nay, hyt, &c. Good Ivy! what byrdys ast thou! Non but the howlet that kreye ‘How! How!’ Nay, Ivy! Nay, hyt shall not, &c.
Mr. Brand infers from this, “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.” He also cites from the old tract, “Round about our Coal-fire, or Christmas Entertainments,” that formerly “the rooms were embowered with holly, ivy, _cyprus_, bays, laurel, and misletoe, and a burning Christmas log in the chimney;” but he remarks, that “in this account the _cyprus_ is quite a new article. Indeed I should as soon have expected to have seen the _yew_ as the cypress used on this joyful occasion.”
Mr. Brand is of opinion that “although Gay mentions the _misletoe_ among those evergreens that were put up in _churches_, it never entered those sacred edifices but by 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 its place assigned it in kitchens, where it was hung up in great state with its white berries, and whatever female chanced to stand under it, the young man present either had a right or claimed one of saluting her, and of plucking off a berry at each kiss.” He adds “I have made many diligent inquiries after the truth of this. I learnt at Bath that it never came into _churches_ there. An old sexton at Teddington, in Middlesex, informed me that some misletoe was once put up in the church there, but was by the clergyman immediately ordered to be taken away.” He quotes from the “Medallic History of Carausius,” by Stukeley, who speaking of the winter solstice, our Christmas, 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. The misletoe they cut off the trees with their upright hatchets of brass, called celts, put upon the ends 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_.” This is only a century ago.
In an “Inquiry into the ancient Greek Game, supposed to have been invented by Palamedes,” Mr. Christie speaks of the respect the northern nations entertained for the _mistletoe_, and of the _Celts_ and _Goths_ being distinct in the instance of their equally venerating the misletoe about the time of the year when the sun approached the winter solstice. He adds, “we find by the allusion of Virgil, who compared _the golden bough in infernis_, to the _misletoe_, that the _use of this plant was not unknown in the religious ceremonies of the ancients, particularly the Greeks_, of whose poets he was the acknowledged imitator.”
The cutting of the _misletoe_ was a ceremony of great solemnity with our ancient ancestors. The people went in procession. The bards walked first singing canticles and hymns, a herald preceded three druids with implements for the purpose. Then followed the prince of the druids accompanied by all the people. He mounted the oak, and cutting the misletoe with a golden sickle, presented it to the other druids, who received it with great respect, and on the first day of the year distributed it among the people as a sacred and holy plant, crying, “The misletoe for the new year.” Mr. Archdeacon Nares mentions, “the custom longest preserved was the hanging up of a bush of misletoe in the kitchen or servant’s hall, with the _charm_ attached to it, that the maid, who was not kissed under it at Christmas, would not be married in that year.” This _natural_ superstition still prevails.
_Christmas Doughs, Pies, and Porridge._
The season offers its
customary treat, A mixture strange of suet, currants, meat, Where various tastes combine.
_Oxford Sausage._
_Yule-dough_, or _dow_, a kind of baby, or little image of paste, was formerly baked at Christmas, and presented by bakers to their customers, “in the same manner as the chandlers gave Christmas candles.” They are called _yule cakes_ in the county of Durham. Anciently, “at Rome, on the vigil of the nativity, _sweetmeats_ were presented to the fathers in the Vatican, and all kinds of _little images_ (no doubt of _paste_) were to be found at the confectioners’ shops.” Mr. Brand, who mentions these usages, thinks, “there is the greatest probability that we have had from hence both our yule-doughs, plum-porridge, and mince-pies, the latter of which are still in common use at this season. The _yule-dough_ has perhaps been intended for an image of the child Jesus, with the Virgin Mary:” he adds, “it is now, if I mistake not, pretty generally laid aside, or at most retained only by children.”
It is inquired by a writer in the “Gentleman’s Magazine,” 1783, “may not the _minced pye_, a compound of the choicest productions of the east, have in view the offerings made by the wise men, who came from afar to worship, bringing _spices_,” &c. These were also called _shrid_-pies.
_Christmasse Day._
No matter for plomb-porridge, or _shrid_-pie Or a whole oxe offered in sacrifice To Comus, not to Christ, &c.
_Sheppard’s Epigrams_, 1651.
Mr. Brand, from a tract in his library printed about the time of queen Elizabeth or James I. observes, that they were likewise called “_minched_ pies.”
According to Selden’s “Table Talk,” the coffin shape of our Christmas pies, is in imitation of the _cratch_, or manger wherein the infant Jesus was laid. The ingredients and shape of the Christmas pie is mentioned in a satire of 1656, against the puritans:--
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!---------- ---------- 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!
_R. Fletcher._
There is a further account in Misson’s “Travels in England.” He says, “Every family against Christmass makes a famous pye, which they call Christmas pye. It is a great nostrum; the composition of this pasty is a most learned mixture of neat’s-tongues, chicken, eggs, sugar, raisins, lemon and orange peel, various kinds of spicery,” &c. The most notably familiar poet of our seasonable customs interests himself for its safety:--
Come guard this night the Christmas-pie That the thiefe, though ne’r so slie, With his flesh hooks don’t come nie To catch it;
From him, who all alone sits there, Having his eyes still in his eare, And a deale of nightly feare To watch it.
_Herrick._
Mr. Brand observes, of his own knowledge, that “in the north of England, _a goose_ is always the chief ingredient in the composition of a Christmas pye;” and to illustrate the usage, “further north,” he quotes, that the Scottish poet Allan Ramsay, in his “Elegy on lucky Wood,” tells us, that among other baits by which the good ale-wife drew customers to her house, she never failed to tempt them at _Yule_ (Christmas,) with
“_A bra’ Goose Pye._”
Further, from “Round about our Coal-fire,” we likewise find that “An English gentleman at the opening of the great day, _i. e._ on Christmass day in the morning, had all his tenants and neighbours enter his hall by day-break. The strong beer was broached, and the black jacks went plentifully about with toast, sugar, nutmegg, and good Cheshire cheese. The hackin (the great sausage) must be boiled by day-break, or else two young men must take the maiden (_i. e._) the cook, by the arms and run her round the market-place till she is ashamed of her laziness.
“In Christmas holidays, 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 plum-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.’”
Misson adds of our predecessors in his time, that besides the “famous pye” at Christmas, “they also make a sort of soup with plums which is not at all inferior to the pye, which is in their language called plum-porridge.”
Lastly, Mr. Brand makes this important note from personal regard. “Memorandum. I dined at the chaplain’s table at St. James’s on Christmas-day, 1801, and partook of the first thing served and eaten on that festival at that table, _i. e._ a tureen full of rich luscious plum-porridge. I do not know that the custom is any where else retained.”
* * * * *
Thus has been brought together so much as, for the present, seems sufficient to describe the ancient and present estimation and mode of keeping Christmas.
* * * * *
FLORAL DIRECTORY.
Holly. _Ilex bacciflora._ Dedicated to _the Nativity of Jesus Christ_.
* * * * *
It ought not, however, to be forgotten, that a scene of awful grandeur, hitherto misrepresented on the stage by the meanest of “his majesty’s servants,” opens the tragedy of Hamlet, wherein our everlasting bard refers to ancient and still existing tradition, that at the time of cock-crowing, the midnight spirits forsake these lower regions, and go to their proper places; and that the cocks crow throughout the live-long nights of Christmas--a circumstance observable at no other time of the year. Horatio, the friend of Hamlet, discourses at midnight with Francisco, a sentry on the platform before the Danish palace, and Bernardo and Marcellus, two officers of the guard, respecting the ghost of the deceased monarch of Denmark, which had appeared to the military on watch.
_Mar._ Horatio says, ’tis but our fantasy, And will not let belief take hold of him, Touching this dreaded sight, twice seen of us; Therefore I have entreated him, along With us, to watch the minutes of this night; That, if again this apparition come, He may approve our eyes, and speak to it.
_Hor._ Tush! tush! ’twill not appear.
_Ber._ Sit down awhile; And let us once again assail your ears, That are so fortified against our story, What we two nights have seen. ------- Last night of all, When yon same star, that’s westward from the pole, Had made his course to illume that part of heaven Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself, The bell then beating one,-----
_Mar._ Peace, break thee off; look, where it comes again!
The ghost enters. Horatio is harrowed with fear and wonder. His companions urge him to address it; and somewhat recovered from astonishment, he urges “the majesty of bury’d Denmark” to speak. It is offended, and stalks away.
_Mar._ Thus, twice before, and just at this dead hour, With martial stalk he hath gone by our watch.
Horatio discourses with his companions on the disturbed state of the kingdom, and the appearance they have just witnessed; whereof he says, “a mote it is, to trouble the mind’s eye.” He is interrupted by its re-entry, and invokes it, but the apparition remains speechless; the “_cock crows_,” and the ghost is about to disappear, when Horatio says,
----Stay, and speak.--Stop it, Marcellus.
_Mar._ Shall I strike at it with my partizan?
_Hor._ Do, if it will not stand.
_Ber._ ’Tis here!
_Hor._ ’Tis here!
_Mar._ ’Tis gone! [_Exit Ghost._ We do it wrong, being so majestical, To offer it the show of violence; For it is, as the air, invulnerable, And our vain blows malicious mockery.
_Ber._ It was about to speak, when the _cock crew._
_Hor._ And _then_ it started, like a guilty thing Upon a fearful summons. I have heard, The _cock_, that is the trumpet of the morn, Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat Awake the god of day; and, at _this_ warning, Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air, The extravagant and erring spirit hies To his confine: and of the truth herein This present object makes probation.
Marcellus answers, “It faded on the crowing of the cock,” and concludes on the vigilance of this bird, previous to the solemn festival, in a strain of superlative beauty:--
Some say, that ever ’gainst that season comes Wherein our Saviour’s birth is celebrated, This bird of dawning singeth all night long: And then, they say, no spirit stirs abroad; The nights are wholesome; then no planet strikes; No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm, So hallow’d and so gracious is the time.
[422] Dugdale’s Orig. Jurid.
[423] Grose.
[424] Ibid.
[425] “A black Christmas makes a fat kirk-yard.” A windy Christmas and a calm Candlemas are signs of a good year.
[426] The “savoury haggis” (from _hag_ to chop) is a dish commonly made in a sheep’s maw, of its lungs, heart, and liver, mixed with suet, onions, salt and pepper; or of oatmeal mixed with the latter, without any animal food.
[427] Brand.
~December 26.~
_St. Stephen_, the first Martyr. _St. Dionysius_, Pope, A. D. 269. _St. Jarlath_, 1st Bp. of Tuam, 6th Cent.
~St. Stephen.~
The church of England observes this festival, and the name of the apostle is in the almanacs accordingly. The circumstances that led to his death, and the particulars of it by stoning, are related in the seventh chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. He is deemed the first martyr for the christian faith.
* * * * *
The notice of this festival by Naogeorgus is thus translated by Barnaby Googe:--
Then followeth Saint Stephens day, whereon doth every man His horses jaunt and course abrode, as swiftly as he can, Until they doe extreemely sweate, and than they let them blood, For this being done upon this day, they say doth do them good, And keepes them from all maladies and sicknesse through the yeare, As if that Steven any time took charge of horses heare.
_Horses._
Whether Stephen was the patron of horses does not appear; but our ancestors used his festival for calling in the horse-leech. Tusser, in his “Five Hundred Points of Husbandry,” says,
Yer Christmas be passed, _let Horsse be lett blood_, For many a purpose it doth him much good: The day of St. Steven, old fathers did use, If that do mislike thee, some other day chuse.
An annotator on Tusser subjoins, “About Christmas is a very proper time to bleed horses in, for then they are commonly at house, then spring comes on, the sun being now coming back from the winter solstice, and there are three or four days of rest, and if it be upon St. Stephen’s day it is not the worse, seeing there are with it three days of rest, or at least two.” In the “Receipts and Disbursements of the Canons of St. Mary in Huntingdon,” is the following entry: “Item, for letting our horses blede in Chrystmasse weke iiij_d._”[428] According to one of Mr. Douce’s manuscript notes, he thinks the practice of bleeding horses on this day is extremely ancient, and that it was brought into this country by the Danes. It is noticed in “Wits Fits and Fancies,” an old and rare book, that on “S. Stevens-day it is the custome for all horses to be let bloud and drench’d. A gentleman being (that morning) demaunded whether it pleased him to have his horse let bloud and drencht, according to the fashion? He answered, no, sirra, my horse is not diseas’d of the _fashions_.” Mr. Ellis in a note on Mr. Brand quotes, that Aubrey says, “On St. Stephen’s-day the farrier came constantly and blouded all our cart-horses.”[429]
The Finns upon St. Stephen’s-day, throw a piece of money, or a bit of silver, into the trough out of which the horses drink, under the notion that it prospers those who do it.[430]
* * * * *
_Heit! Heck! Whoohe! and Geho!_
The well-known interjection used by country people to their horses, when yoked to a cart, &c. _Heit!_ or _Heck!_ is noticed by Mr. Brand to have been used in the days of Chaucer:--
“They saw a cart, that charged was with hay, The which a carter drove forth on his way: Depe was the way, for which the carte stode; The carter smote and cryde as he were wode, _Heit Scot! Heit Brok!_ what spare ye for the stones? The Fend quoth he, you fetch, body and bones.”[431]
_Brok_ is still in frequent use amongst farmer’s draught oxen.[432]
_Whoohe!_ a well-known exclamation to stop a team of horses, is derived by a writer in the “Gentleman’s Magazine,” 1799, from the Latin. “The exclamation used by our waggoners when they wish for any purpose to stop their team (an exclamation which it is less difficult to speak than to write, although neither is a task of great facility,) is probably a legacy bequeathed us by our Roman ancestors: precisely a translation of the ancient _Ohe!_ an interjection strictly confined to bespeaking a pause--rendered by our lexicographers, _Enough! Oh, Enough!_
“Ohe, jam satis est--Ohe, Libelle.”
A learned friend of Mr. Brand’s says, “The exclamation ‘_Geho, Geho_,’ which carmen use to their horses is probably of great antiquity. It is not peculiar to this country, as I have heard it used in France. In the story of the milkmaid who kicked down her pail, and with it all her hopes of getting rich, as related in a very ancient ‘Collection of Apologues,’ entitled ‘Dialogus Creaturarum,’ printed at Gouda, in 1480, is the following passage: ‘Et cum sic gloriaretur, et cogitaret cum quanta gloria duceretur ad illum virum super equum dicendo _gio gio_, cepit pede percutere terram quasi pungeret equum calcaribus.’”
* * * * *
It appears from a memoir on the manner in which the inhabitants of the north riding of Yorkshire celebrate Christmas, in the “Gentleman’s Magazine,” 1811, that “On the feast of St. Stephen large goose pies are made, all of which they distribute among their needy neighbours, except one which is carefully laid up, and not tasted till the purification of the virgin, called Candlemas.”
~Boxing Day.~
On the day after Christmas, tradespeople are visited by persons in the employment of their customers for a “_Christmas-box_,” and every man and boy who thinks he is qualified to ask, solicits from those on whom he calculates as likely to bestow. A writer, in 1731, describes _Boxing-day_ at that time from his own experience. “By that time I was up, my servants could do nothing but run to the door. Inquiring the meaning, I was answered, the people were come for their _Christmas-box_: this was logic to me; but I found at last, that, because I had laid out a great deal of ready-money with my brewer, baker, and other tradesmen, they kindly thought it my duty to present their servants with some money for the favour of having their goods. This provoked me a little; but being told it was ‘the custom,’ I complied. These were followed by the watch, beadles, dustmen, and an innumerable tribe; but what vexed me the most was the clerk, who has an extraordinary place, and makes as good an appearance as most tradesmen in the parish; to see him come a boxing, alias begging, I thought was intolerable: however, I found it was ‘the custom’ too, so I gave him half-a-crown; as I was likewise obliged to do to the bellman, for breaking my rest for many nights together.
“Having talked this matter over with a friend, he promised to carry me where I might see the good effects of this giving _box-money_. In the evening, away we went to a neighbouring alehouse, where abundance of these gentry were assembled round a stately piece of roast beef, and as large a plum-pudding. When the drink and brandy began to work, they fell to reckoning of their several gains that day: one was called a stingy dog for giving but sixpence; another called an extravagant fool for giving half-a-crown, which perhaps he might want before the year was out; so I found these good people were never to be pleased. Some of them were got to cards by themselves, which soon produced a quarrel and broken heads. In the interim came in some of their wives, who roundly abused the people for having given them money; adding, that instead of doing good, it ruined their families, and set them in a road of drinking and gaming, which never ceased till not only their gifts, but their wages, were gone. One good woman said, if people had a mind to give charity, they should send it home to their families: I was very much of her opinion; but, being tired with the noise, we left them to agree as they could.
“My friend next carried me to the upper end of Piccadilly, where, one pair of stairs over a stable, we found near a hundred people of both sexes, _some masked_, others not, a great part of which were dancing to the music of two sorry fiddles. It is impossible to describe this medley of mortals fully; however, I will do it as well as I can. There were footmen, servant-maids, butchers, apprentices, oyster and orange-women, and sharpers, which appeared to be the best of the company. This horrid place seemed to be a complete nursery for the gallows. My friend informed me, it was called a ‘threepenny hop;’ and while we were talking, to my great satisfaction, by order of the Westminster justices, _to their immortal honour_, entered the constables and their assistants, who carried off all the company that was left; and, had not my friend been known to them, we might have paid dear for our curiosity.”[433]
* * * * *
FLORAL DIRECTORY.
Purple Heath. _Erica purpurea._ Dedicated to _St. Stephen_.
[428] Mr. Nichols’s Illustration of Anc. Times.
[429] In Lansdowne MS. 226. British Museum.
[430] Tooke’s Russia.
[431] Frere’s T. ed. Tyrwh. Chaucer.
[432] Brand.
[433] Cited in Malcolm’s London, 18th Cent.
~December 27.~
_St. John_ the Apostle and Evangelist. _St. Theodorus Grapt_, A. D. 822.
~St. John.~