Chapter C: PUCKERIDGE, Beadle (8)

As soon as the brightening glow of the eastern sky warns the anxious housemaid of the approach of Christmas-day, she rises full of anxiety at the prospect of her morning labours. The meal, which was steeped in the _sowans-bowie_ a fortnight ago, to make the _Prechdachdan sour_, or _sour scones_, is the first object of her attention. The gridiron is put on the fire, and the sour scones are soon followed by hard cakes, soft cakes, buttered cakes, brandered bannocks, and pannich perm. The baking being once over, the sowans pot succeeds the gridiron, full of new sowans, which are to be given to the family, agreeably to custom, this day in their beds. The sowans are boiled into the consistence of molasses, when the _Lagan-le-vrich_, or yeast-bread, to distinguish it from boiled sowans, is ready. It is then poured into as many bickers as there are individuals to partake of it, and presently served to the whole, old and young. It would suit well the pen of a Burns, or the pencil of a Hogarth, to paint the scene which follows. The ambrosial food is despatched in aspiring draughts by the family, who soon give evident proofs of the enlivening effects of the _Lagan-le-vrich_. As soon as each despatches his bicker, he jumps out of bed--the elder branches to examine the ominous signs of the day,[425] and the younger to enter on its amusements. Flocking to the swing, a favourite amusement on this occasion, the youngest of the family get the first “_shouder_,” and the next oldest to him in regular succession. In order to add the more to the spirit of the exercise, it is a common practice with the person in the _swing_, and the person appointed to swing him, to enter into a very warm and humorous altercation. As the swinged person approaches the swinger, he exclaims, _Ei mi tu chal_, “I’ll eat your kail.” To this the swinger replies, with a violent shove, _Cha ni u mu chal_, “You shan’t eat my kail.” These threats and repulses are sometimes carried to such a height, as to break down or capsize the threatener, which generally puts an end to the quarrel.

As the day advances, those minor amusements are terminated at the report of the gun, or the rattle of the ball-clubs--the gun inviting the marksman to the “_Kiavamuchd_,” or prize-shooting, and the latter to “_Luchd-vouil_,” or the ball combatants--both the principal sports of the day. Tired at length of the active amusements of the field, they exchange them for the substantial entertainments of the table. Groaning under the “_sonsy haggis_,”[426] and many other savoury dainties, unseen for twelve months before, the relish communicated to the company, by the appearance of the festive board, is more easily conceived than described. The dinner once despatched, the flowing bowl succeeds, and the sparkling glass flies to and fro like a weaver’s shuttle. As it continues its rounds, the spirits of the company become the more jovial and happy. Animated by its cheering influence, even old decrepitude no longer feels his habitual pains--the fire of youth is in his eye, as he details to the company the exploits which distinguished him in the days of “_auld langsyne_;” while the young, with hearts inflamed with “_love and glory_,” long to mingle in the more lively scenes of mirth, to display their prowess and agility. Leaving the patriarchs to finish those professions of friendship for each other, in which they are so devoutly engaged, the younger part of the company will shape their course to the ball-room, or the card-table, as their individual inclinations suggest; and the remainder of the evening is spent with the greatest pleasure of which human nature is susceptible.

EVERGREENS AT CHRISTMAS.

When _Rosemary_ and _Bays_, the poet’s crown,
Are bawl’d in frequent cries through all the town;
Then judge the festival of Christmass near,
Christmass, the joyous period of the year!
Now with bright _Holly_ all the temples strow,
With _Lawrel_ green, and sacred _Misletoe_.

* * * * *

From ev’ry hedge is pluck’d by eager hands
The _Holly branch_ with prickly leaves replete,
And fraught with berries of a crimson hue;
Which, torn asunder from its parent trunk,
Is straightway taken to the neighb’ring towns,
Where windows, mantels, candlesticks, and shelves,
Quarts, pints, decanters, pipkins, basins, jugs,
And other articles of household ware,
The verdant garb confess.

_R. J. Thorn._

The old and pleasant custom of decking our houses and churches at Christmas with evergreens is derived from ancient heathen practices. Councils of the church forbad christians to deck their houses with bay leaves and green boughs at the same time with the pagans; but this was after the church had permitted such doings in order to accommodate its ceremonies to those of the old mythology. Where druidism had existed, “the houses were decked with evergreens in December, that the sylvan spirits might repair to them, and remain unnipped with frost and cold winds, until a milder season had renewed the foliage of their darling abodes.”[427]

Polydore Vergil says that, “Trimmyng of the Temples, with hangynges, floures, boughes, and garlondes, was taken of the heathen people, whiche decked their idols and houses with suche array.” In old church calendars Christmas-eve is marked “Templa exornantur.” _Churches are decked._

* * * * *

The holly and the ivy still maintain some mastery at this season. At the two universities, the windows of the college chapels are decked with laurel. The old Christmas carol in MS. at the British Museum, quoted at p. 1598, continues in the following words:--

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.~

This festival of St. John is observed by the church of England, and consequently his name is in the church calendar and the almanacs. The church of Rome, from whence the celebration is derived, also keeps another festival to St. John on the 6th of May, concerning which, and the evangelist, there are particulars at p. 617. Mr. Audley says of him, “Tradition reports, that when he was a very old man, he used to be carried into the church at Ephesus, and say, ‘little children, love one another.’ He returned from his banishment, and lived till the third or fourth year of Trajan; so that he must have been nearly a hundred years of age when he died. The appellation of _divine_ given to St. John is not canonical; but was first applied to him by Eusebius, on account of those mysterious and sublime points of divinity, with the knowledge of which he seems to have been favoured above his fellow apostles. Perhaps this may explain the etymology of the word _divine_, as applied to christian ministers.”

* * * * *

Barnaby Googe, from the Latin of Naogeorgus, thus introduces the day:--

Nexte John the sonne of Zebedee hath his appoynted day,
Who once by cruell tyraunts will, constrayned was they say
Strong poyson up to drinke, therefore the papistes doe beleeve
That whoso puts their trust in him, no poyson them can greeve.
The wine beside that halowed is in worship of his name,
The priestes doe give the people that bring money for the same.
And after with the selfe same wine are little manchets made,
Agaynst the boystrous winter stormes, and sundrie such like trade.
The men upon this solemne day, do take this holy wine
To make them strong, so do the maydes to make them faire and fine.

* * * * *

FLORAL DIRECTORY.

Flame Heath. _Erica flammea._
Dedicated to _St. John_.

~December 28.~

_The Holy Innocents._ _St. Theodorus_, Abbot of Tabenna, A. D. 367.

~Innocents.~

This is another Romish celebration preserved in the church of England calendar and the almanacs. It has another name--

~Childermas-Day.~

This is conjectured to have been derived from the _masses_ said for the souls of the _Innocents_ who suffered from Herod’s cruelty. It is to commemorate their slaughter that _Innocents_ or _Childermas_-day is appropriated, and hence the name it bears.

* * * * *

It was formerly a custom to whip up the children on Innocent’s day morning, in order “that the memorial of Herod’s murder of the Innocents might stick the closer, and so, in a moderate proportion, to act over the crueltie again in kinde.”[434] The day itself was deemed of especial ill omen, and hence the superstitious never married on Childermas-day. Neither upon this day was it “lucky” to put on new clothes, or pare the nails, or begin any thing of moment. In the play of “Sir John Oldcastle” the prevalence of this belief is instanced by an objection urged to an expedition proposed on a Friday,--“Friday, quoth’a, a dismal day; Candlemas-day this year was Friday.” This vulgar superstition reached the throne; the coronation of king Edward IV. was put off till the Monday, because the preceding Sunday was Childermas-day.[435] Lastly, a mother in the “Spectator” is made to say, at that time, “No, child, if it please God, you shall not go into join-hand on Childermas-day.”

* * * * *

Yet this was a day of disport among the sages of the law. In 1517, king Henry VIII., by an order, enjoined, “that the _king of cockneys_, on _Childermas-day_, should sit and have due service; and that he and all his officers should use honest manner and good order, without any waste or destruction making in wine, brawn, chely, or other vitails: and also that he, and his marshal, butler, and constable marshal, should have their lawful and honest commandments by delivery of the officers of Christmas, and that the said king of cockneys, ne none of his officers medyl neither in the buttery, nor in the Stuard of Christmass his office, upon pain of 40_s._ for every such medling: and lastly, that Jack Straw, and all his adherents, should be thenceforth utterly banisht and no more to be used in this house, upon pain to forfeit, for every time, five pounds, to be levied on every fellow hapning to offend against this rule.”[436]

From Herod’s cruel order they,
By angel’s order, fled away,
And painters add, an angel, too,
Attended them the journey through.

The old artists often painted the flight of the holy family from Herod’s cruel purpose:--“Behold the angel of the lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. When he arose he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt, and was there until the death of Herod.”[437] In some pictures an angel is painted accompanying them on the way, although on no scriptural authority. In a painting by “Lucca Giordano” they are represented in a boat with the ass, whereon the virgin had rode, held by an angel, who is thus degraded to the condition of a stable boy; while cherubs company them in the sky: the picture being curious, an engraving from it is placed in this article.

_Lucca Giordano._

The artist of the picture mentioned was born at Naples, about 1629: he studied under Spagnoletto, and afterwards under Pietra da Cortona. He is likewise called _Luca fa Presto_, from a phrase used by his father. Though his son painted with amazing facility, from designs of the great masters, while he pursued his studies, and the old man sold them for high prices, yet he was accustomed to hurry his son at his meals as well as his work, and say, “Luca _fa presto!_” Luca, make haste: hence, Luca’s companions nicknamed him _Fa Presto_. His knowledge of the style of artists belonging to different schools was amazing, and though his attainments in judgment and execution were of high order, he seems to have preferred the copying of other compositions to painting designs by himself. Hence, there are more pictures by Luca fa Presto than some connoisseurs would willingly acknowledge. They pervade every collection under the reputation of being by Titian, Guido, Tintorette, and other painters of greater celebrity than Giordano. He etched his own thoughts freely and gracefully, and died loaded with honours from crowned heads, and immensely rich, in 1704.

* * * * *

FLORAL DIRECTORY.

Bloody Heath. _Erica cruenta._
Dedicated to _the Holy Innocents_.

[434] Gregory on the Boy Bishop.

[435] Fenn’s Letters, i.

[436] Dugdale’s Orig. Jurid.

[437] Acts ii. 13-15.

~December 29.~

_St. Thomas_, Abp. of Canterbury, A. D. 1170. _St. Marcellus_, Abbot
of the Acæmetes, A. D. 485. _St. Evroul_, Abbot, A. D. 596.

_Sculpture._

Much has been remarked in the course of these sheets respecting painting, which, if our artists will labour, they may elevate to a height that will honour their country, and amply reward themselves. It is a mistake to suppose that _real_ talent is not appreciated. Precocity is not talent till it has ripened; it usually withers and falls beneath the only test of greatness, labour: patrons experience this, and sicken. Whenever genius labours, it finds patrons.

Sculpture in the English school seems of late to have advanced further than painting, in their simultaneous efforts, and in this department of art, Ireland is likely to compete with England.

At the distribution of medals by sir Thomas Lawrence to students, at the Royal Academy, in the month of December, 1825, Mr. John Gallagher and Mr. Constantine Panormo, natives of the sister country, received the two medals for sculpture. It is a happy augury for the Royal Dublin Society that these young men were the first individuals sent hither by that institution for the purpose of improvement; and it must be highly gratifying to Mr. Behnes, with whom the Royal Dublin Society placed them as pupils, that his tuition so qualified these youths, that they excelled their numerous rivals, and carried both the prizes. So extraordinary an instance is creditable to their native country, whose national establishment fostered them, and whose protection they have distinguished by their perseverance.

* * * * *

FLORAL DIRECTORY.

Senista Heath. _Erica genistopha._
Dedicated to _St. Thomas_.

~December 30.~

_St. Sabinus_, Bp. of Assisium, and his Companions, A. D. 304. _St.
Anysia_, A. D. 304. _St. Maximus_, A. D. 662.

THE SEASON.

The earth, as it appears in England at this period, is well represented in the “Mirror of the Months,” the pleasant reflex of the year referred to in November. “The meadows are still green--almost as green as in the spring--with the late-sprouted grass that the last rains have called up since it has been fed off, and the cattle called home to enjoy their winter fodder. The corn-fields, too, are bright with their delicate sprinkling of young autumn-sown wheat; the ground about the hedge-rows, and in the young copses, is still pleasant to look upon, from the sobered green of the hardy primrose and violet, whose clumps of unfading leaves brave the utmost rigour of the season; and every here and there a bush of holly darts up its pyramid of shining leaves and brilliant berries, from amidst the late wild and wandering, but now faded and forlorn company of woodbines and eglantines, which have all the rest of the year been exulting over and almost hiding it with their quick-growing branches, and flaunting flowers. The evergreens, too, that assist in forming the home enclosures, have altogether lost that sombre hue which they have until lately worn--sombre in comparison with the bright freshness of spring, and the splendid variety of autumn; and now, that not a leaf is left around them, they look as gay by the contrast as they lately looked grave.”

* * * * *

FLORAL DIRECTORY.

Pontieva. _Ponthieva glandalom._
Dedicated to _St. Anysia_.

~December 31.~

_St. Sylvester_, Pope, A. D. 335. _St. Columba_, A. D. 258. _St.
Melania_, the younger, A. D. 439.

_St. Sylvester._

This saint, whose name is in the church of England calendar and the almanacs, was pope Sylvester I. “He is said to have been the author of several rites and ceremonies of the Romish church, as asylums, unctions, palls, corporals, &c. He died in 334.”[438]

~New Year’s Eve.~

To end the old year merrily, and begin the new one well, and in friendship, were popular objects in the celebration of this festival. It was spent among our labouring ancestors in festivity and frolic by the men; and the young women of the village carried from door to door, a bowl of spiced ale, the wassail bowl, which they offered to the inhabitants of every house they stopped at, singing rude congratulatory verses, and hoping for small presents. Young men and women also exchanged clothes, which was termed Mumming, or Disguising; and when thus dressed in each other’s garments, they went from one neighbour’s cottage to another, singing, dancing, and partaking of good cheer.[439]

* * * * *

The anticipated pleasure of the coming year, accompanied by regret at parting with the present old year, is naturally expressed by a writer already cited. “After Christmas-day comes the last day of the year; and I confess I wish the bells would not ring so merrily on the next. I have not become used enough to the loss of the old year to like so triumphant a welcome to the new. I am certain of the pleasures I have had during the twelvemonth: I have become used to the pains. In a few days, especially by the help of Twelfth-night, I shall become reconciled to the writing 6 instead of 5 in the date of the year. Then welcome new hopes and new endeavours. But at the moment--at the _turn_--I hate to bid adieu to my old acquaintance.”[440]

* * * * *

ELIA, in a delightful paper on the “Eve of New Year’s-day,” 1821, among the other delightful essays of his volume, entitled “ELIA”--a little book, whereof to say that it is of more gracious feeling and truer beauty than any of our century, is poor praise--Elia says, “while that turncoat bell, that just now mournfully chanted the obsequies of the year departed, with changed notes lustily rings in a successor, let us attune to its peal the song made on a like occasion, by hearty, cheerful Mr. Cotton.” Turn, gentle reader, to the first page of the first sheet, which this hand presented to you, and you will find the first two and twenty lines of ELIA’S “song.” They tell us, that, of the two faces of Janus,

----_that_ which this way looks is clear,
And smiles upon the New-born year.

These are the remaining verses.

He[441] looks too from a place so high,
The year lies open to his eye;
And all the moments open are
To the exact discoverer;
Yet more and more he smiles upon
The happy revolution.
Why should we then suspect or fear
The influences of a year,
So smiles upon us the first morn,
And speaks us good so soon as born?
Plague on’t! the last was ill enough,
This cannot but make better proof;
Or, at the worst, as we brush’d through
The last, why so we may this too;
And then the next in reason shou’d
Be superexcellently good;
For the worst ills (we daily see)
Have no more perpetuity,
Than the best fortunes that do fall;
Which also bring us wherewithal
Longer their being to support,
Than those do of the other sort;
And who has one good year in three,
And yet repines at destiny,
Appears ungrateful in the case,
And merits not the good he has.
Then let us welcome the new guest
With lusty brimmers of the best;
Mirth always should good fortune meet,
And render e’en disaster sweet:
And though the princess turn her back,
Let us but line ourselves with sack,
We better shall by far hold out,
Till the next year she face about.

ELIA, having trolled this song to the sound of “the merry, merry bells,” breaks out:--

“How say you reader--do not these verses smack of the rough magnanimity of the old English vein? Do they not fortify like a cordial; enlarging the heart, and productive of sweet blood and generous spirits in the concoction?--Another cup of the generous! and a merry New Year, and many of them, to you all, my masters!”

The same to you, ELIA,--and “to you _all_ my masters!”--_Ladies!_ think not yourselves neglected, who are chief among “my masters”--you are the kindest, and therefore the most masterful, and most worshipful of “my masters!”

* * * * *

Under the female form the ancients worshipped the Earth. They called her “_Bona Dea_,” or the “Good Goddess,” by way of excellency, and that, for the best reason in the world, because “there is no being that does men more good.” In respect to her chastity, all men were forbidden to be present at her worship; the high priest himself, in whose house it was performed, and who was the chief minister in all others, not excepted. Cicero imputed to Clodius as a crime that he had entered the sacred fane in disguise, and by his presence polluted the mysteries of the Good Goddess. The Roman ladies offered sacrifices to her through the wife of the high priest, and virgins consecrated to the purpose.

The Earth, _Bona Dea_, or the “Good Goddess,” was represented under the form of a matron with her right hand opened, as if tendering assistance to the helpless, and holding a loaf in her left hand. She was also venerated under the name of _Ops_, and other denominations, but with the highest attributes; and when so designated, she was worshipped by men and boys, as well as women and virgins; and priests ministered to her in dances with brazen cymbals. These motions signified that the Earth only imparted blessings upon being constantly moved; and as brass was discovered before iron, the cymbals were composed of that metal to indicate her antiquity. The worshippers seated themselves on the ground, and the posture of devotion was bending forward, and touching the ground with the right hand. On the head of the goddess was placed a crown of towers, denoting strength, and that they were to be worn by those who persevered.

* * * * *

To all “of the earth” not wholly “earthy,” the Earth seemed a fit subject to picture under its ancient symbol; and, in a robe of arable and foliage, set in a goodly frame of the celestial signs, with the seasons “as they roll,” it will be offered as a _frontispiece_ to the present volume, and accompany the title-page with the _indexes_ in the next sheet.

* * * * *

It must have been obvious to every reader of the _Every-Day Book_, as it has been to me, of which there have been several indications for some time past, that the plan of the work could not be executed within the year; and I am glad to find from numerous quarters that its continuance is approved and even required. So far as it has proceeded I have done my utmost to render it useful. My endeavours to render it agreeable may occasion “close” readers to object, that it was more discursive than they expected. I am afraid I can only answer that I cannot unmake my making-up; and plead guilty to the fact, that, knowing the wants of many, through my own deficiencies, I have tried to aid them in the way that appeared most likely to effect the object, with the greater number of those for whom the work was designed. Nor do I hesitate also to acknowledge, that in gathering for others, I have in no small degree been teaching myself. For it is of the nature of such an undertaking to constrain him who executes it, to tasks of thought, and exercises of judgment, unseen by those who are satisfied when they enjoy what is before them, and care not by what ventures it was obtained. My chief anxiety has been to provide a wholesome sufficiency for all, and not to offer any thing that should be hurtful or objectionable. I hope I have succeeded.

I respectfully desire to express my grateful sense of the extensive favour wherein the conduct of the publication is held. And I part from my readers on New Year’s-eve, with kind regards till we meet in the new volume of the _Every-Day Book_ on New Year’s-day--to-morrow.

45, _Ludgate-hill_, 1825.

W. HONE.

[438] Mr. Audley’s Companion to Almanac.

[439] Dr. Drake’s Shakspeare and his Times.

[440] New Monthly Magazine, Dec. 18.

[441] Janus.

END OF VOL. I

INDEXES.

I. GENERAL SUBJECTS.
II. ROMISH SAINTS.
III. POETRY, ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.
IV. FLORAL DIRECTORY.
V. CORRESPONDENTS’ SIGNATURES.
VI. ENGRAVINGS IN THE VOLUME.