OLD CHRISTMAS WASHINGTON IRVING [Illustration: CHRISTMAS] [Illustration: publisher's logo] FIFTH EDITION [Illustration: "The old family mansion, partly thrown in deep shadow, and partly lit up by the cold moonshine" --_Frontispiece. _] [Illustration: OLD CHRISTMAS: FROM THE Sketch Book of Washington Irving. ILLUSTRATED BY R CALDECOTT London. Macmillan & Co 1886] [Illustration] But is old, old, good old Christmas gone? Nothing but the hair of his good, gray, old head and beard left? Well, I will have that, seeing that I cannot have more of him. _Hue and Cry after Christmas. _ [Illustration: PREFACE] Before the remembrance of the good old times, so fast passing, shouldhave entirely passed away, the present artist, R. Caldecott, andengraver, James D. Cooper, planned to illustrate Washington Irving's"Old Christmas" in this manner. Their primary idea was to carry out theprinciple of the Sketch Book, by incorporating the designs with thetext. Throughout they have worked together and _con amore_. With whatsuccess the public must decide. NOVEMBER 1875. [Illustration: CONTENTS] PAGE CHRISTMAS 1 THE STAGE COACH 17 CHRISTMAS EVE 41 CHRISTMAS DAY 75 THE CHRISTMAS DINNER 117 [Illustration] [Illustration: LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS] DESIGNED BY RANDOLPH CALDECOTT, AND ARRANGED AND ENGRAVED BY J. D. COOPER. THE OLD MANSION BY MOONLIGHT--_Frontispiece. _ TITLE-PAGE. PAGE ANCIENT FIREPLACE iv HEADING TO PREFACE v HEADING TO CONTENTS vii TAILPIECE TO CONTENTS vii HEADING TO LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ix TAILPIECE TO LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xiv "THE POOR FROM THE GATES WERE NOT CHIDDEN" xvi HEADING TO CHRISTMAS 1 THE MOULDERING TOWER 2 CHRISTMAS ANTHEM IN CATHEDRAL 4 THE WANDERER'S RETURN 5 "NATURE LIES DESPOILED OF EVERY CHARM" 6 "THE HONEST FACE OF HOSPITALITY" 8 "THE SHY GLANCE OF LOVE" 8 OLD HALL OF CASTLE 10 THE GREAT OAKEN GALLERY 12 THE WAITS 14 "AND SIT DOWN DARKLING AND REPINING" 16 THE STAGE COACH 19 THE THREE SCHOOLBOYS 20 THE OLD ENGLISH STAGE COACHMAN 23 "HE THROWS DOWN THE REINS WITH SOMETHING OF AN AIR" 25 THE STABLE IMITATORS 26 THE PUBLIC HOUSE 28 THE HOUSEMAID 29 THE SMITHY 30 "NOW OR NEVER MUST MUSIC BE IN TUNE" 32 THE COUNTRY MAID 32 THE OLD SERVANT AND BANTAM 34 A NEAT COUNTRY SEAT 35 INN KITCHEN 37 THE RECOGNITION. TAILPIECE 40 THE POST-CHAISE 43 THE LODGE GATE 46 THE OLD PRIMITIVE DAME 46 "THE LITTLE DOGS AND ALL" 49 MISTLETOE 52 THE SQUIRE'S RECEPTION 53 THE FAMILY PARTY 54 TOYS 55 THE YULE LOG 57 THE SQUIRE IN HIS HEREDITARY CHAIR 58 THE FAMILY PLATE 60 MASTER SIMON 61 YOUNG GIRL 62 HER MOTHER 62 THE OLD HARPER 65 MASTER SIMON DANCING 67 THE OXONIAN AND HIS MAIDEN AUNT 68 THE YOUNG OFFICER WITH HIS GUITAR 70 THE FAIR JULIA 72 ASLEEP 74 CHRISTMAS DAY 77 THE CHILDREN'S CAROL 78 ROBIN ON THE MOUNTAIN ASH 80 MASTER SIMON AS CLERK 81 BREAKFAST 84 VIEWING THE DOGS 85 MASTER SIMON GOING TO CHURCH 88 THE VILLAGE CHURCH 91 THE PARSON 93 REBUKING THE SEXTON 95 EFFIGY OF A WARRIOR 96 MASTER SIMON AT CHURCH 97 THE VILLAGE CHOIR 97 THE VILLAGE TAILOR 98 AN OLD CHORISTER 100 THE SERMON 101 CHURCHYARD GREETINGS 104 FROSTY THRALDOM OF WINTER 106 MERRY OLD ENGLISH GAMES 109 THE POOR AT HOME 111 VILLAGE ANTICS 112 TASTING THE SQUIRE'S ALE 113 THE WIT OF THE VILLAGE 115 COQUETTISH HOUSEMAID 116 ANTIQUE SIDEBOARD 119 THE COOK WITH THE ROLLING-PIN 120 THE WARRIOR'S ARMS 121 "FLAGONS, CANS, CUPS, BEAKERS, GOBLETS, BASINS, AND EWERS" 122 THE CHRISTMAS DINNER 123 A HIGH ROMAN NOSE 124 THE PARSON SAID GRACE 125 THE BOAR'S HEAD 126 THE FAT-HEADED OLD GENTLEMAN 129 PEACOCK PIE 130 THE WASSAIL BOWL 132 THE SQUIRE'S TOAST 134 THE LONG-WINDED JOKER 136 LONG STORIES 138 THE PARSON AND THE PRETTY MILKMAID 139 MASTER SIMON GROWS MAUDLIN 140 THE BLUE-EYED ROMP 143 THE PARSON'S TALE 144 THE SEXTON'S REBUFF 146 THE CRUSADER'S NIGHT RIDE 148 ANCIENT CHRISTMAS AND DAME MINCE-PIE 151 ROBIN HOOD AND MAID MARIAN 152 THE MINUET 153 ROAST BEEF, PLUM PUDDING, AND MISRULE 153 THE CHRISTMAS DANCE IN COSTUME 154 "CHUCKLING AND RUBBING HIS HANDS" 155 "ECHOING BACK THE JOVIALITY OF LONG-DEPARTED YEARS" 157 RETROSPECT 159 [Illustration] [Illustration: CHRISTMAS] [Illustration] A man might then behold At Christmas, in each hall Good fires to curb the cold, And meat for great and small. The neighbours were friendly bidden, And all had welcome true, The poor from the gates were not chidden, When this old cap was new. _Old Song. _ [Illustration: CHRISTMAS] There is nothing in England that exercises a more delightful spell overmy imagination than the lingerings of the holiday customs and ruralgames of former times. They recall the pictures my fancy used to draw inthe May morning of life, when as yet I only knew the world throughbooks, and believed it to be all that poets had painted it; and theybring with them the flavour of those honest days of yore, in which, perhaps with equal fallacy, I am apt to think the world was morehome-bred, social, and joyous than at present. I regret to say that theyare daily growing more and more faint, being gradually worn away bytime, but still more obliterated by modern fashion. They resemble thosepicturesque morsels of Gothic architecture which we see crumbling invarious parts of the country, partly dilapidated by the waste of ages, and partly lost in the additions and alterations of latter days. Poetry, however, clings with cherishing fondness about the rural game andholiday revel, from which it has derived so many of its themes--as theivy winds its rich foliage about the Gothic arch and mouldering tower, gratefully repaying their support by clasping together their totteringremains, and, as it were, embalming them in verdure. [Illustration] Of all the old festivals, however, that of Christmas awakens thestrongest and most heartfelt associations. There is a tone of solemn andsacred feeling that blends with our conviviality, and lifts the spiritto a state of hallowed and elevated enjoyment. The services of thechurch about this season are extremely tender and inspiring. They dwellon the beautiful story of the origin of our faith, and the pastoralscenes that accompanied its announcement. They gradually increase infervour and pathos during the season of Advent, until they break forthin full jubilee on the morning that brought peace and good-will to men. I do not know a grander effect of music on the moral feelings than tohear the full choir and the pealing organ performing a Christmas anthemin a cathedral, and filling every part of the vast pile with triumphantharmony. [Illustration] It is a beautiful arrangement, also, derived from days of yore, thatthis festival, which commemorates the announcement of the religion ofpeace and love, has been made the season for gathering together offamily connections, and drawing closer again those bands of kindredhearts which the cares and pleasures and sorrows of the world arecontinually operating to cast loose; of calling back the children of afamily who have launched forth in life, and wandered widely asunder, once more to assemble about the paternal hearth, that rallying-place ofthe affections, there to grow young and loving again among the endearingmementoes of childhood. [Illustration] There is something in the very season of the year that gives a charm tothe festivity of Christmas. At other times we derive a great portion ofour pleasures from the mere beauties of nature. Our feelings sallyforth and dissipate themselves over the sunny landscape, and we "liveabroad and everywhere. " The song of the bird, the murmur of the stream, the breathing fragrance of spring, the soft voluptuousness of summer, the golden pomp of autumn; earth with its mantle of refreshing green, and heaven with its deep delicious blue and its cloudy magnificence, allfill us with mute but exquisite delight, and we revel in the luxury ofmere sensation. But in the depth of winter, when nature lies despoiledof every charm, and wrapped in her shroud of sheeted snow, we turn forour gratifications to moral sources. The dreariness and desolation ofthe landscape, the short gloomy days and darksome nights, while theycircumscribe our wanderings, shut in our feelings also from ramblingabroad, and make us more keenly disposed for the pleasures of the socialcircle. Our thoughts are more concentrated; our friendly sympathies morearoused. We feel more sensibly the charm of each other's society, andare brought more closely together by dependence on each other forenjoyment. Heart calleth unto heart; and we draw our pleasures from thedeep wells of living kindness, which lie in the quiet recesses of ourbosoms; and which, when resorted to, furnish forth the pure element ofdomestic felicity. [Illustration] [Illustration] The pitchy gloom without makes the heart dilate on entering the roomfilled with the glow and warmth of the evening fire. The ruddy blazediffuses an artificial summer and sunshine through the room, and lightsup each countenance into a kindlier welcome. Where does the honest faceof hospitality expand into a broader and more cordial smile--where isthe shy glance of love more sweetly eloquent--than by the winterfireside? and as the hollow blast of wintry wind rushes through thehall, claps the distant door, whistles about the casement, and rumblesdown the chimney, what can be more grateful than that feeling of soberand sheltered security with which we look round upon the comfortablechamber and the scene of domestic hilarity? [Illustration] The English, from the great prevalence of rural habits throughout everyclass of society, have always been fond of those festivals and holidayswhich agreeably interrupt the stillness of country life; and they were, in former days, particularly observant of the religious and social ritesof Christmas. It is inspiring to read even the dry details which someantiquarians have given of the quaint humours, the burlesque pageants, the complete abandonment to mirth and good-fellowship, with which thisfestival was celebrated. It seemed to throw open every door, and unlockevery heart. It brought the peasant and the peer together, and blendedall ranks in one warm generous flow of joy and kindness. The old hallsof castles and manor-houses resounded with the harp and the Christmascarol, and their ample boards groaned under the weight of hospitality. Even the poorest cottage welcomed the festive season with greendecorations of bay and holly--the cheerful fire glanced its rays throughthe lattice, inviting the passenger to raise the latch, and join thegossip knot huddled round the hearth, beguiling the long evening withlegendary jokes and oft-told Christmas tales. [Illustration] One of the least pleasing effects of modern refinement is the havoc ithas made among the hearty old holiday customs. It has completely takenoff the sharp touchings and spirited reliefs of these embellishments oflife, and has worn down society into a more smooth and polished, butcertainly a less characteristic surface. Many of the games andceremonials of Christmas have entirely disappeared, and, like thesherris sack of old Falstaff, are become matters of speculation anddispute among commentators. They flourished in times full of spirit andlustihood, when men enjoyed life roughly, but heartily and vigorously;times wild and picturesque, which have furnished poetry with its richestmaterials, and the drama with its most attractive variety of charactersand manners. The world has become more worldly. There is more ofdissipation, and less of enjoyment. Pleasure has expanded into abroader, but a shallower stream, and has forsaken many of those deep andquiet channels where it flowed sweetly through the calm bosom ofdomestic life. Society has acquired a more enlightened and elegant tone;but it has lost many of its strong local peculiarities, its home-bredfeelings, its honest fireside delights. The traditionary customs ofgolden-hearted antiquity, its feudal hospitalities, and lordlywassailings, have passed away with the baronial castles and statelymanor-houses in which they were celebrated. They comported with theshadowy hall, the great oaken gallery, and the tapestried parlour, butare unfitted to the light showy saloons and gay drawing-rooms of themodern villa. [Illustration] Shorn, however, as it is, of its ancient and festive honours, Christmasis still a period of delightful excitement in England. It is gratifyingto see that home-feeling completely aroused which seems to hold sopowerful a place in every English bosom. The preparations making onevery side for the social board that is again to unite friends andkindred; the presents of good cheer passing and repassing, those tokensof regard, and quickeners of kind feelings; the evergreens distributedabout houses and churches, emblems of peace and gladness; all these havethe most pleasing effect in producing fond associations, and kindlingbenevolent sympathies. Even the sound of the waits, rude as may be theirminstrelsy, breaks upon the mid-watches of a winter night with theeffect of perfect harmony. As I have been awakened by them in that stilland solemn hour, "when deep sleep falleth upon man, " I have listenedwith a hushed delight, and connecting them with the sacred and joyousoccasion, have almost fancied them into another celestial choir, announcing peace and good-will to mankind. [Illustration] How delightfully the imagination, when wrought upon by these moralinfluences, turns everything to melody and beauty: The very crowing ofthe cock, who is sometimes heard in the profound repose of the country, "telling the night watches to his feathery dames, " was thought by thecommon people to announce the approach of this sacred festival:-- "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 dares stir abroad; The nights are wholesome--then no planets strike, No fairy takes, no witch hath power to charm, So hallow'd and so gracious is the time. " Amidst the general call to happiness, the bustle of the spirits, andstir of the affections, which prevail at this period, what bosom canremain insensible? It is, indeed, the season of regenerated feeling--theseason for kindling, not merely the fire of hospitality in the hall, butthe genial flame of charity in the heart. The scene of early love again rises green to memory beyond the sterilewaste of years; and the idea of home, fraught with the fragrance ofhome-dwelling joys, re-animates the drooping spirit, --as the Arabianbreeze will sometimes waft the freshness of the distant fields to theweary pilgrim of the desert. Stranger and sojourner as I am in the land--though for me no socialhearth may blaze, no hospitable roof throw open its doors, nor the warmgrasp of friendship welcome me at the threshold--yet I feel theinfluence of the season beaming into my soul from the happy looks ofthose around me. Surely happiness is reflective, like the light ofheaven; and every countenance, bright with smiles, and glowing withinnocent enjoyment, is a mirror transmitting to others the rays of asupreme and ever-shining benevolence. He who can turn churlishly awayfrom contemplating the felicity of his fellow-beings, and sit downdarkling and repining in his loneliness when all around is joyful, mayhave his moments of strong excitement and selfish gratification, but hewants the genial and social sympathies which constitute the charm of amerry Christmas. [Illustration] [Illustration: The Stage Coach] [Illustration] Omne benè Sine poenâ Tempus est ludendi; Venit hora, Absque morâ, Libros deponendi. _Old Holiday School Song. _ [Illustration] THE STAGE COACH [Illustration: I] In the preceding paper I have made some general observations on theChristmas festivities of England, and am tempted to illustrate them bysome anecdotes of a Christmas passed in the country; in perusing which Iwould most courteously invite my reader to lay aside the austerity ofwisdom, and to put on that genuine holiday spirit which is tolerant offolly, and anxious only for amusement. [Illustration] In the course of a December tour in Yorkshire, I rode for a longdistance in one of the public coaches, on the day preceding Christmas. The coach was crowded, both inside and out, with passengers, who, bytheir talk, seemed principally bound to the mansions of relations orfriends to eat the Christmas dinner. It was loaded also with hampers ofgame, and baskets and boxes of delicacies; and hares hung dangling theirlong ears about the coachman's box, --presents from distant friends forthe impending feast. I had three fine rosy-cheeked schoolboys for myfellow-passengers inside, full of the buxom health and manly spiritwhich I have observed in the children of this country. They werereturning home for the holidays in high glee, and promising themselves aworld of enjoyment. It was delightful to hear the gigantic plans ofpleasure of the little rogues, and the impracticable feats they were toperform during their six weeks' emancipation from the abhorred thraldomof book, birch, and pedagogue. They were full of anticipations of themeeting with the family and household, down to the very cat and dog; andof the joy they were to give their little sisters by the presents withwhich their pockets were crammed; but the meeting to which they seemedto look forward with the greatest impatience was with Bantam, which Ifound to be a pony, and, according to their talk, possessed of morevirtues than any steed since the days of Bucephalus. How he could trot!how he could run! and then such leaps as he would take--there was not ahedge in the whole country that he could not clear. They were under the particular guardianship of the coachman, to whom, whenever an opportunity presented, they addressed a host of questions, and pronounced him one of the best fellows in the whole world. Indeed, Icould not but notice the more than ordinary air of bustle andimportance of the coachman, who wore his hat a little on one side, andhad a large bunch of Christmas greens stuck in the button-hole of hiscoat. He is always a personage full of mighty care and business, but heis particularly so during this season, having so many commissions toexecute in consequence of the great interchange of presents. And here, perhaps, it may not be unacceptable to my untravelled readers, to have asketch that may serve as a general representation of this very numerousand important class of functionaries, who have a dress, a manner, alanguage, an air, peculiar to themselves, and prevalent throughout thefraternity; so that, wherever an English stage-coachman may be seen, hecannot be mistaken for one of any other craft or mystery. [Illustration] He has commonly a broad, full face, curiously mottled with red, as ifthe blood had been forced by hard feeding into every vessel of the skin;he is swelled into jolly dimensions by frequent potations of maltliquors, and his bulk is still further increased by a multiplicity ofcoats, in which he is buried like a cauliflower, the upper one reachingto his heels. He wears a broad-brimmed, low-crowned hat; a huge roll ofcoloured handkerchief about his neck, knowingly knotted and tucked inat the bosom; and has in summer-time a large bouquet of flowers in hisbutton-hole; the present, most probably, of some enamoured country lass. His waistcoat is commonly of some bright colour, striped; and hissmall-clothes extend far below the knees, to meet a pair of jockey bootswhich reach about half-way up his legs. [Illustration] All this costume is maintained with much precision; he has a pride inhaving his clothes of excellent materials; and, notwithstanding theseeming grossness of his appearance, there is still discernible thatneatness and propriety of person, which is almost inherent in anEnglishman. He enjoys great consequence and consideration along theroad; has frequent conferences with the village housewives, who lookupon him as a man of great trust and dependence; and he seems to have agood understanding with every bright-eyed country lass. The moment hearrives where the horses are to be changed, he throws down the reinswith something of an air, and abandons the cattle to the care of theostler; his duty being merely to drive from one stage to another. Whenoff the box, his hands are thrust in the pockets of his greatcoat, andhe rolls about the inn-yard with an air of the most absolutelordliness. Here he is generally surrounded by an admiring throng ofostlers, stable-boys, shoe-blacks, and those nameless hangers-on thatinfest inns and taverns, and run errands, and do all kinds of odd jobs, for the privilege of battening on the drippings of the kitchen and theleakage of the tap-room. These all look up to him as to an oracle;treasure up his cant phrases; echo his opinions about horses and othertopics of jockey lore; and, above all, endeavour to imitate his air andcarriage. Every ragamuffin that has a coat to his back thrusts his handsin the pockets, rolls in his gait, talks slang, and is an embryoCoachey. [Illustration] [Illustration] [Illustration] Perhaps it might be owing to the pleasing serenity that reigned in myown mind, that I fancied I saw cheerfulness in every countenancethroughout the journey. A stage coach, however, carries animation alwayswith it, and puts the world in motion as it whirls along. The hornsounded at the entrance of a village, produces a general bustle. Somehasten forth to meet friends; some with bundles and bandboxes to secureplaces, and in the hurry of the moment can hardly take leave of thegroup that accompanies them. In the meantime, the coachman has a worldof small commissions to execute. Sometimes he delivers a hare orpheasant; sometimes jerks a small parcel or newspaper to the door of apublic-house; and sometimes, with knowing leer and words of sly import, hands to some half-blushing, half-laughing housemaid an odd-shapedbillet-doux from some rustic admirer. As the coach rattles through thevillage, every one runs to the window, and you have glances on everyside of fresh country faces, and blooming giggling girls. At the cornersare assembled juntas of village idlers and wise men, who take theirstations there for the important purpose of seeing company pass; but thesagest knot is generally at the blacksmith's, to whom the passing of thecoach is an event fruitful of much speculation. The smith, with thehorse's heel in his lap, pauses as the vehicle whirls by; the Cyclopsround the anvil suspend their ringing hammers, and suffer the iron togrow cool; and the sooty spectre in brown paper cap, labouring at thebellows, leans on the handle for a moment, and permits the asthmaticengine to heave a long-drawn sigh, while he glares through the murkysmoke and sulphureous gleams of the smithy. [Illustration] [Illustration] Perhaps the impending holiday might have given a more than usualanimation to the country, for it seemed to me as if everybody was ingood looks and good spirits. Game, poultry, and other luxuries of thetable, were in brisk circulation in the villages; the grocers', butchers', and fruiterers' shops were thronged with customers. Thehousewives were stirring briskly about, putting their dwellings inorder; and the glossy branches of holly, with their bright red berries, began to appear at the windows. The scene brought to mind an oldwriter's account of Christmas preparations:--"Now capons and hens, besides turkeys, geese, and ducks, with beef and mutton--must all die;for in twelve days a multitude of people will not be fed with a little. Now plums and spice, sugar and honey, square it among pies and broth. Now or never must music be in tune, for the youth must dance and singto get them a heat, while the aged sit by the fire. The country maidleaves half her market, and must be sent again, if she forgets a packof cards on Christmas eve. Great is the contention of Holly and Ivy, whether master or dame wears the breeches. Dice and cards benefit thebutler; and if the cook do not lack wit, he will sweetly lick hisfingers. " [Illustration] I was roused from this fit of luxurious meditation by a shout from mylittle travelling companions. They had been looking out of thecoach-windows for the last few miles, recognising every tree and cottageas they approached home, and now there was a general burst ofjoy--"There's John! and there's old Carlo! and there's Bantam!" criedthe happy little rogues, clapping their hands. At the end of a lane there was an old sober-looking servant in liverywaiting for them: he was accompanied by a superannuated pointer, and bythe redoubtable Bantam, a little old rat of a pony, with a shaggy maneand long rusty tail, who stood dozing quietly by the roadside, littledreaming of the bustling times that awaited him. I was pleased to see the fondness with which the little fellows leapedabout the steady old footman, and hugged the pointer, who wriggled hiswhole body for joy. But Bantam was the great object of interest; allwanted to mount at once; and it was with some difficulty that Johnarranged that they should ride by turns, and the eldest should ridefirst. [Illustration] Off they set at last; one on the pony, with the dog bounding and barkingbefore him, and the others holding John's hands; both talking at once, and overpowering him by questions about home, and with school anecdotes. I looked after them with a feeling in which I do not know whetherpleasure or melancholy predominated: for I was reminded of those dayswhen, like them, I had neither known care nor sorrow, and a holiday wasthe summit of earthly felicity. We stopped a few moments afterwards towater the horses, and on resuming our route, a turn of the road broughtus in sight of a neat country-seat. I could just distinguish the formsof a lady and two young girls in the portico, and I saw my littlecomrades, with Bantam, Carlo, and old John, trooping along the carriageroad. I leaned out of the coach-window, in hopes of witnessing the happymeeting, but a grove of trees shut it from my sight. [Illustration] In the evening we reached a village where I had determined to pass thenight. As we drove into the great gateway of the inn, I saw on one sidethe light of a rousing kitchen fire, beaming through a window. Ientered, and admired, for the hundredth time, that picture ofconvenience, neatness, and broad honest enjoyment, the kitchen of anEnglish inn. It was of spacious dimensions, hung round with copper andtin vessels highly polished, and decorated here and there with aChristmas green. Hams, tongues, and flitches of bacon, were suspendedfrom the ceiling; a smoke-jack made its ceaseless clanking beside thefireplace, and a clock ticked in one corner. A well-scoured deal tableextended along one side of the kitchen, with a cold round of beef, andother hearty viands upon it, over which two foaming tankards of aleseemed mounting guard. Travellers of inferior order were preparing toattack this stout repast, while others sat smoking and gossiping overtheir ale on two high-backed oaken seats beside the fire. Trimhousemaids were hurrying backwards and forwards under the directions ofa fresh, bustling landlady; but still seizing an occasional moment toexchange a flippant word, and have a rallying laugh, with the groupround the fire. The scene completely realised Poor Robin's humble ideaof the comforts of mid-winter. [Illustration] Now trees their leafy hats do bare, To reverence Winter's silver hair; A handsome hostess, merry host, A pot of ale now and a toast, Tobacco and a good coal fire, Are things this season doth require. [A] I had not been long at the inn when a post-chaise drove up to the door. A young gentleman stepped out, and by the light of the lamps I caught aglimpse of a countenance which I thought I knew. I moved forward to geta nearer view, when his eye caught mine. I was not mistaken; it wasFrank Bracebridge, a sprightly good-humoured young fellow, with whom Ihad once travelled on the Continent. Our meeting was extremely cordial;for the countenance of an old fellow-traveller always brings up therecollection of a thousand pleasant scenes, odd adventures, andexcellent jokes. To discuss all these in a transient interview at an innwas impossible; and finding that I was not pressed for time, and wasmerely making a tour of observation, he insisted that I should give hima day or two at his father's country-seat, to which he was going to passthe holidays, and which lay at a few miles' distance. "It is better thaneating a solitary Christmas dinner at an inn, " said he; "and I canassure you of a hearty welcome in something of the old-fashion style. "His reasoning was cogent; and I must confess the preparation I had seenfor universal festivity and social enjoyment had made me feel a littleimpatient of my loneliness. I closed, therefore, at once with hisinvitation: the chaise drove up to the door; and in a few moments I wason my way to the family mansion of the Bracebridges. [Illustration] FOOTNOTE: [A] Poor Robin's Almanack, 1684. [Illustration: Christmas Eve] [Illustration] Saint Francis and Saint Benedight Blesse this house from wicked wight; From the night-mare and the goblin, That is hight good-fellow Robin; Keep it from all evil spirits, Fairies, weezels, rats, and ferrets: From curfew time To the next prime. CARTWRIGHT. [Illustration] CHRISTMAS EVE [Illustration: I] It was a brilliant moonlight night, but extremely cold; our chaisewhirled rapidly over the frozen ground; the post-boy smacked his whipincessantly, and a part of the time his horses were on a gallop. "Heknows where he is going, " said my companion, laughing, "and is eager toarrive in time for some of the merriment and good cheer of the servants'hall. My father, you must know, is a bigoted devotee of the old school, and prides himself upon keeping up something of old Englishhospitality. He is a tolerable specimen of what you will rarely meetwith now-a-days in its purity, the old English country gentleman; forour men of fortune spend so much of their time in town, and fashion iscarried so much into the country, that the strong rich peculiarities ofancient rural life are almost polished away. My father, however, fromearly years, took honest Peacham[B] for his text book, instead ofChesterfield: he determined, in his own mind, that there was nocondition more truly honourable and enviable than that of a countrygentleman on his paternal lands, and, therefore, passes the whole of histime on his estate. He is a strenuous advocate for the revival of theold rural games and holiday observances, and is deeply read in thewriters, ancient and modern, who have treated on the subject. Indeed, his favourite range of reading is among the authors who flourished atleast two centuries since; who, he insists, wrote and thought more liketrue Englishmen than any of their successors. He even regrets sometimesthat he had not been born a few centuries earlier, when England wasitself, and had its peculiar manners and customs. As he lives at somedistance from the main road, in rather a lonely part of the country, without any rival gentry near him, he has that most enviable of allblessings to an Englishman, an opportunity of indulging the bent of hisown humour without molestation. Being representative of the oldestfamily in the neighbourhood, and a great part of the peasantry being histenants, he is much looked up to, and, in general, is known simply bythe appellation of 'The Squire;' a title which has been accorded to thehead of the family since time immemorial. I think it best to give youthese hints about my worthy old father, to prepare you for any littleeccentricities that might otherwise appear absurd. " We had passed for some time along the wall of a park, and at length thechaise stopped at the gate. It was in a heavy magnificent old style, ofiron bars, fancifully wrought at top into flourishes and flowers. Thehuge square columns that supported the gate were surmounted by thefamily crest. Close adjoining was the porter's lodge, sheltered underdark fir-trees, and almost buried in shrubbery. [Illustration] The post-boy rang a large porter's bell, which resounded through thestill frosty air, and was answered by the distant barking of dogs, withwhich the mansion-house seemed garrisoned. An old woman immediatelyappeared at the gate. As the moonlight fell strongly upon her, I had afull view of a little primitive dame, dressed very much in the antiquetaste, with a neat kerchief and stomacher, and her silver hair peepingfrom under a cap of snowy whiteness. She came curtseying forth, withmany expressions of simple joy at seeing her young master. Her husband, it seems, was up at the house keeping Christmas eve in the servants'hall; they could not do without him, as he was the best hand at a songand story in the household. [Illustration: "It was in a heavy magnificent old style, of iron bars, fancifully wrought at top into flourishes and flowers. "--PAGE 46. ] My friend proposed that we should alight and walk through the park tothe hall, which was at no great distance, while the chaise should followon. Our road wound through a noble avenue of trees, among the nakedbranches of which the moon glittered as she rolled through the deepvault of a cloudless sky. The lawn beyond was sheeted with a slightcovering of snow, which here and there sparkled as the moonbeams caughta frosty crystal; and at a distance might be seen a thin transparentvapour, stealing up from the low grounds, and threatening gradually toshroud the landscape. My companion looked round him with transport:--"How often, " said he, "have I scampered up this avenue, on returning home on schoolvacations! How often have I played under these trees when a boy! I feela degree of filial reverence for them, as we look up to those who havecherished us in childhood. My father was always scrupulous in exactingour holidays, and having us around him on family festivals. He used todirect and superintend our games with the strictness that some parentsdo the studies of their children. He was very particular that we shouldplay the old English games according to their original form; andconsulted old books for precedent and authority for every 'merriedisport;' yet I assure you there never was pedantry so delightful. Itwas the policy of the good old gentleman to make his children feel thathome was the happiest place in the world; and I value this delicioushome-feeling as one of the choicest gifts a parent can bestow. " [Illustration] We were interrupted by the clangour of a troop of dogs of all sorts andsizes, "mongrel, puppy, whelp and hound, and curs of low degree, " that, disturbed by the ringing of the porter's bell, and the rattling of thechaise, came bounding, open-mouthed, across the lawn. ----"The little dogs and all, Tray, Blanch, and Sweetheart--see they bark at me!" cried Bracebridge, laughing. At the sound of his voice the bark waschanged into a yelp of delight, and in a moment he was surrounded andalmost overpowered by the caresses of the faithful animals. We had now come in full view of the old family mansion, partly thrown indeep shadow, and partly lit up by the cold moonshine. It was anirregular building of some magnitude, and seemed to be of thearchitecture of different periods. One wing was evidently very ancient, with heavy stone-shafted bow windows jutting out and overrun with ivy, from among the foliage of which the small diamond-shaped panes of glassglittered with the moonbeams. The rest of the house was in the Frenchtaste of Charles the Second's time, having been repaired and altered, asmy friend told me, by one of his ancestors, who returned with thatmonarch at the Restoration. The grounds about the house were laid out inthe old formal manner of artificial flower-beds, clipped shrubberies, raised terraces, and heavy stone balustrades, ornamented with urns, aleaden statue or two, and a jet of water. The old gentleman, I was told, was extremely careful to preserve this obsolete finery in all itsoriginal state. He admired this fashion in gardening; it had an air ofmagnificence, was courtly and noble, and befitting good old familystyle. The boasted imitation of nature in modern gardening had sprung upwith modern republican notions, but did not suit a monarchicalgovernment; it smacked of the levelling system. --I could not helpsmiling at this introduction of politics into gardening, though Iexpressed some apprehension that I should find the old gentleman ratherintolerant in his creed. --Frank assured me, however, that it was almostthe only instance in which he had ever heard his father meddle withpolitics; and he believed that he had got this notion from a member ofparliament who once passed a few weeks with him. The Squire was glad ofany argument to defend his clipped yew-trees and formal terraces, whichhad been occasionally attacked by modern landscape-gardeners. [Illustration] As we approached the house, we heard the sound of music, and now andthen a burst of laughter from one end of the building. This, Bracebridgesaid, must proceed from the servants' hall, where a great deal ofrevelry was permitted, and even encouraged, by the Squire throughout thetwelve days of Christmas, provided everything was done conformably toancient usage. Here were kept up the old games of hoodman blind, shoethe wild mare, hot cockles, steal the white loaf, bob apple, andsnapdragon: the Yule log and Christmas candle were regularly burnt, andthe mistletoe, with its white berries, hung up, to the imminent peril ofall the pretty housemaids. [C] [Illustration] So intent were the servants upon their sports, that we had to ringrepeatedly before we could make ourselves heard. On our arrival beingannounced, the Squire came out to receive us, accompanied by his twoother sons; one a young officer in the army, home on leave of absence;the other an Oxonian, just from the university. The Squire was a fine, healthy-looking old gentleman, with silver hair curling lightly round anopen florid countenance; in which a physiognomist, with the advantage, like myself, of a previous hint or two, might discover a singularmixture of whim and benevolence. [Illustration: "The company, which was assembled in a largeold-fashioned hall. "--PAGE 54. ] The family meeting was warm and affectionate; as the evening was faradvanced, the Squire would not permit us to change our travellingdresses, but ushered us at once to the company, which was assembled in alarge old-fashioned hall. It was composed of different branches of anumerous family connection, where there were the usual proportion of olduncles and aunts, comfortably married dames, superannuated spinsters, blooming country cousins, half-fledged striplings, and bright-eyedboarding-school hoydens. They were variously occupied; some at around game of cards; others conversing around the fireplace; at one endof the hall was a group of the young folks, some nearly grown up, othersof a more tender and budding age, fully engrossed by a merry game; and aprofusion of wooden horses, penny trumpets, and tattered dolls, aboutthe floor, showed traces of a troop of little fairy beings, who havingfrolicked through a happy day, had been carried off to slumber through apeaceful night. [Illustration] While the mutual greetings were going on between Bracebridge and hisrelatives, I had time to scan the apartment. I have called it a hall, for so it had certainly been in old times, and the Squire had evidentlyendeavoured to restore it to something of its primitive state. Over theheavy projecting fireplace was suspended a picture of a warrior inarmour, standing by a white horse, and on the opposite wall hung helmet, buckler, and lance. At one end an enormous pair of antlers were insertedin the wall, the branches serving as hooks on which to suspend hats, whips, and spurs; and in the corners of the apartment werefowling-pieces, fishing-rods, and other sporting implements. Thefurniture was of the cumbrous workmanship of former days, though somearticles of modern convenience had been added, and the oaken floor hadbeen carpeted; so that the whole presented an odd mixture of parlour andhall. [Illustration] The grate had been removed from the wide overwhelming fireplace, tomake way for a fire of wood, in the midst of which was an enormous logglowing and blazing, and sending forth a vast volume of light and heat;this I understood was the Yule-log, which the Squire was particular inhaving brought in and illumined on a Christmas eve, according to ancientcustom. [D] [Illustration] It was really delightful to see the old Squire seated in his hereditaryelbow-chair by the hospitable fireside of his ancestors, and lookingaround him like the sun of a system, beaming warmth and gladness toevery heart. Even the very dog that lay stretched at his feet, as helazily shifted his position and yawned, would look fondly up in hismaster's face, wag his tail against the floor, and stretch himself againto sleep, confident of kindness and protection. There is an emanationfrom the heart in genuine hospitality which cannot be described, but isimmediately felt, and puts the stranger at once at his ease. I had notbeen seated many minutes by the comfortable hearth of the worthycavalier before I found myself as much at home as if I had been one ofthe family. [Illustration] Supper was announced shortly after our arrival. It was served up in aspacious oaken chamber, the panels of which shone with wax, and aroundwhich were several family portraits decorated with holly and ivy. Besidethe accustomed lights, two great wax tapers, called Christmas candles, wreathed with greens, were placed on a highly-polished buffet among thefamily plate. The table was abundantly spread with substantial fare; butthe Squire made his supper of frumenty, a dish made of wheat cakesboiled in milk with rich spices, being a standing dish in old times forChristmas eve. I was happy to find my old friend, minced-pie, in theretinue of the feast; and finding him to be perfectly orthodox, and thatI need not be ashamed of my predilection, I greeted him with all thewarmth wherewith we usually greet an old and very genteel acquaintance. [Illustration] The mirth of the company was greatly promoted by the humours of aneccentric personage whom Mr. Bracebridge always addressed with thequaint appellation of Master Simon. He was a tight, brisk little man, with the air of an arrant old bachelor. His nose was shaped like thebill of a parrot; his face slightly pitted with the small-pox, with adry perpetual bloom on it, like a frost-bitten leaf in autumn. He had aneye of great quickness and vivacity, with a drollery and lurking waggeryof expression that was irresistible. He was evidently the wit of thefamily, dealing very much in sly jokes and innuendoes with the ladies, and making infinite merriment by harpings upon old themes; which, unfortunately, my ignorance of the family chronicles did not permit meto enjoy. It seemed to be his great delight during supper to keep ayoung girl next him in a continual agony of stifled laughter, in spiteof her awe of the reproving looks of her mother, who sat opposite. Indeed, he was the idol of the younger part of the company, who laughedat everything he said or did, and at every turn of his countenance. Icould not wonder at it; for he must have been a miracle ofaccomplishments in their eyes. He could imitate Punch and Judy; make anold woman of his hand, with the assistance of a burnt cork andpocket-handkerchief; and cut an orange into such a ludicrous caricature, that the young folks were ready to die with laughing. [Illustration] I was let briefly into his history by Frank Bracebridge. He was an oldbachelor of a small independent income, which by careful management wassufficient for all his wants. He revolved through the family system likea vagrant comet in its orbit; sometimes visiting one branch, andsometimes another quite remote; as is often the case with gentlemen ofextensive connections and small fortunes in England. He had a chirping, buoyant disposition, always enjoying the present moment; and hisfrequent change of scene and company prevented his acquiring those rustyunaccommodating habits with which old bachelors are so uncharitablycharged. He was a complete family chronicle, being versed in thegenealogy, history, and intermarriages of the whole house ofBracebridge, which made him a great favourite with the old folks; he wasa beau of all the elder ladies and superannuated spinsters, among whomhe was habitually considered rather a young fellow, and he was a masterof the revels among the children; so that there was not a more popularbeing in the sphere in which he moved than Mr. Simon Bracebridge. Oflate years he had resided almost entirely with the Squire, to whom hehad become a factotum, and whom he particularly delighted by jumpingwith his humour in respect to old times, and by having a scrap of an oldsong to suit every occasion. We had presently a specimen of hislast-mentioned talent; for no sooner was supper removed, and spicedwines and other beverages peculiar to the season introduced, than MasterSimon was called on for a good old Christmas song. He bethought himselffor a moment, and then, with a sparkle of the eye, and a voice that wasby no means bad, excepting that it ran occasionally into a falsetto, like the notes of a split reed, he quavered forth a quaint old ditty, -- Now Christmas is come, Let us beat up the drum, And call all our neighbours together; And when they appear, Let us make them such cheer, As will keep out the wind and the weather, etc. The supper had disposed every one to gaiety, and an old harper wassummoned from the servants' hall, where he had been strumming all theevening, and to all appearance comforting himself with some of theSquire's home-brewed. He was a kind of hanger-on, I was told, of theestablishment, and though ostensibly a resident of the village, wasoftener to be found in the Squire's kitchen than his own home, the oldgentleman being fond of the sound of "harp in hall. " [Illustration] The dance, like most dances after supper, was a merry one; some of theolder folks joined in it, and the Squire himself figured down severalcouples with a partner with whom he affirmed he had danced at everyChristmas for nearly half-a-century. Master Simon, who seemed to be akind of connecting link between the old times and the new, and to bewithal a little antiquated in the taste of his accomplishments, evidently piqued himself on his dancing, and was endeavouring to gaincredit by the heel and toe, rigadoon, and other graces of the ancientschool; but he had unluckily assorted himself with a little rompinggirl from boarding-school, who, by her wild vivacity, kept himcontinually on the stretch, and defeated all his sober attempts atelegance;--such are the ill-assorted matches to which antique gentlemenare unfortunately prone! [Illustration] [Illustration] The young Oxonian, on the contrary, had led out one of his maiden aunts, on whom the rogue played a thousand little knaveries with impunity; hewas full of practical jokes, and his delight was to tease his aunts andcousins; yet, like all madcap youngsters, he was a universal favouriteamong the women. The most interesting couple in the dance was the youngofficer and a ward of the Squire's, a beautiful blushing girl ofseventeen. From several shy glances which I had noticed in the course ofthe evening, I suspected there was a little kindness growing up betweenthem; and, indeed, the young soldier was just the hero to captivate aromantic girl. He was tall, slender, and handsome, and, like most youngBritish officers of late years, had picked up various smallaccomplishments on the Continent--he could talk French and Italian--drawlandscapes, sing very tolerably--dance divinely; but, above all, he hadbeen wounded at Waterloo:--what girl of seventeen, well read in poetryand romance, could resist such a mirror of chivalry and perfection! [Illustration] The moment the dance was over, he caught up a guitar, and lollingagainst the old marble fireplace, in an attitude which I am halfinclined to suspect was studied, began the little French air of theTroubadour. The Squire, however, exclaimed against having anything onChristmas eve but good old English; upon which the young minstrel, casting up his eye for a moment, as if in an effort of memory, struckinto another strain, and, with a charming air of gallantry, gaveHerrick's "Night-Piece to Julia:"-- Her eyes the glow-worm lend thee, The shooting stars attend thee, And the elves also, Whose little eyes glow Like the sparks of fire, befriend thee. No Will-o'-the-Wisp mislight thee; Nor snake or glow-worm bite thee; But on, on thy way, Not making a stay, Since ghost there is none to affright thee. Then let not the dark thee cumber; What though the moon does slumber, The stars of the night Will lend thee their light, Like tapers clear without number. Then, Julia, let me woo thee, Thus, thus to come unto me; And when I shall meet Thy silvery feet, My soul I'll pour into thee. The song might have been intended in compliment to the fair Julia, forso I found his partner was called, or it might not; she, however, wascertainly unconscious of any such application, for she never looked atthe singer, but kept her eyes cast upon the floor. Her face wassuffused, it is true, with a beautiful blush, and there was a gentleheaving of the bosom, but all that was doubtless caused by the exerciseof the dance; indeed, so great was her indifference, that she wasamusing herself with plucking to pieces a choice bouquet of hothouseflowers, and by the time the song was concluded, the nosegay lay inruins on the floor. The party now broke up for the night with the kind-hearted old custom ofshaking hands. As I passed through the hall, on the way to my chamber, the dying embers of the _Yule-clog_ still sent forth a dusky glow; andhad it not been the season when "no spirit dares stir abroad, " I shouldhave been half tempted to steal from my room at midnight, and peepwhether the fairies might not be at their revels about the hearth. [Illustration: "Indeed, so great was her indifference, that she wasamusing herself with plucking to pieces a choice bouquet of hot-houseflowers. "--PAGE 72. ] My chamber was in the old part of the mansion, the ponderous furnitureof which might have been fabricated in the days of the giants. The roomwas panelled with cornices of heavy carved-work, in which flowers andgrotesque faces were strangely intermingled; and a row of black-lookingportraits stared mournfully at me from the walls. The bed was of richthough faded damask, with a lofty tester, and stood in a niche oppositea bow-window. I had scarcely got into bed when a strain of music seemedto break forth in the air just below the window. I listened, and foundit proceeded from a band, which I concluded to be the waits from someneighbouring village. They went round the house, playing under thewindows. I drew aside the curtains, to hear them more distinctly. Themoonbeams fell through the upper part of the casement, partiallylighting up the antiquated apartment. The sounds, as they receded, became more soft and aërial, and seemed to accord with quiet andmoonlight. I listened and listened--they became more and more tenderand remote, and, as they gradually died away, my head sank upon thepillow and I fell asleep. [Illustration] FOOTNOTES: [B] Peacham's Complete Gentleman, 1622. [C] See Note A. [D] See Note B. [Illustration: Christmas Day] [Illustration] Dark and dull night, flie hence away, And give the honour to this day That sees December turn'd to May. * * * * * Why does the chilling winter's morne Smile like a field beset with corn? Or smell like to a meade new-shorne, Thus on the sudden?--Come and see The cause why things thus fragrant be. HERRICK. [Illustration] CHRISTMAS DAY [Illustration: W] When I awoke the next morning, it seemed as if all the events of thepreceding evening had been a dream, and nothing but the identity of theancient chamber convinced me of their reality. While I lay musing on mypillow, I heard the sound of little feet pattering outside of the door, and a whispering consultation. Presently a choir of small voices chantedforth an old Christmas carol, the burden of which was, Rejoice, our Saviour he was born On Christmas Day in the morning. [Illustration] I rose softly, slipped on my clothes, opened the door suddenly, andbeheld one of the most beautiful little fairy groups that a paintercould imagine. It consisted of a boy and two girls, the eldest not morethan six, and lovely as seraphs. They were going the rounds of thehouse, and singing at every chamber-door; but my sudden appearancefrightened them into mute bashfulness. They remained for a momentplaying on their lips with their fingers, and now and then stealing ashy glance, from under their eyebrows, until, as if by one impulse, theyscampered away, and as they turned an angle of the gallery, I heard themlaughing in triumph at their escape. [Illustration] Everything conspired to produce kind and happy feelings in thisstronghold of old-fashioned hospitality. The window of my chamber lookedout upon what in summer would have been a beautiful landscape. There wasa sloping lawn, a fine stream winding at the foot of it, and a tract ofpark beyond, with noble clumps of trees, and herds of deer. At adistance was a neat hamlet, with the smoke from the cottage chimneyshanging over it; and a church with its dark spire in strong reliefagainst the clear cold sky. The house was surrounded with evergreens, according to the English custom, which would have given almost anappearance of summer; but the morning was extremely frosty; the lightvapour of the preceding evening had been precipitated by the cold, andcovered all the trees and every blade of grass with its finecrystallisations. The rays of a bright morning sun had a dazzling effectamong the glittering foliage. A robin, perched upon the top of amountain-ash that hung its clusters of red berries just before mywindow, was basking himself in the sunshine, and piping a few querulousnotes; and a peacock was displaying all the glories of his train, andstrutting with the pride and gravity of a Spanish grandee on theterrace-walk below. [Illustration] I had scarcely dressed myself, when a servant appeared to invite me tofamily prayers. He showed me the way to a small chapel in the old wingof the house, where I found the principal part of the family alreadyassembled in a kind of gallery, furnished with cushions, hassocks, andlarge prayer-books; the servants were seated on benches below. The oldgentleman read prayers from a desk in front of the gallery, and MasterSimon acted as clerk, and made the responses; and I must do him thejustice to say that he acquitted himself with great gravity and decorum. The service was followed by a Christmas carol, which Mr. Bracebridgehimself had constructed from a poem of his favourite author, Herrick;and it had been adapted to an old church melody by Master Simon. Asthere were several good voices among the household, the effect wasextremely pleasing; but I was particularly gratified by the exaltationof heart, and sudden sally of grateful feeling, with which the worthySquire delivered one stanza: his eyes glistening, and his voice ramblingout of all the bounds of time and tune: "'Tis Thou that crown'st my glittering hearth With guiltlesse mirth, And giv'st me wassaile bowles to drink, Spiced to the brink: Lord, 'tis Thy plenty-dropping hand That soiles my land; And giv'st me for my bushell sowne, Twice ten for one. " I afterwards understood that early morning service was read on everySunday and saint's day throughout the year, either by Mr. Bracebridge orby some member of the family. It was once almost universally the case atthe seats of the nobility and gentry of England, and it is much to beregretted that the custom is fallen into neglect; for the dullestobserver must be sensible of the order and serenity prevalent in thosehouseholds, where the occasional exercise of a beautiful form of worshipin the morning gives, as it were, the key-note to every temper for theday, and attunes every spirit to harmony. Our breakfast consisted of what the Squire denominated true old Englishfare. He indulged in some bitter lamentations over modern breakfasts oftea-and-toast, which he censured as among the causes of moderneffeminacy and weak nerves, and the decline of old English heartiness;and though he admitted them to his table to suit the palates of hisguests, yet there was a brave display of cold meats, wine and ale, onthe sideboard. [Illustration] After breakfast I walked about the grounds with Frank Bracebridge andMaster Simon, or Mr. Simon, as he was called by everybody but theSquire. We were escorted by a number of gentlemen-like dogs, that seemedloungers about the establishment; from the frisking spaniel to thesteady old stag-hound; the last of which was of a race that had been inthe family time out of mind: they were all obedient to a dog-whistlewhich hung to Master Simon's button-hole, and in the midst of theirgambols would glance an eye occasionally upon a small switch he carriedin his hand. [Illustration] The old mansion had a still more venerable look in the yellow sunshinethan by pale moonlight; and I could not but feel the force of theSquire's idea, that the formal terraces, heavily moulded balustrades, and clipped yew-trees, carried with them an air of proud aristocracy. There appeared to be an unusual number of peacocks about the place, andI was making some remarks upon what I termed a flock of them, that werebasking under a sunny wall, when I was gently corrected in myphraseology by Master Simon, who told me that, according to the mostancient and approved treatise on hunting, I must say a _muster_ ofpeacocks. "In the same way, " added he, with a slight air of pedantry, "we say a flight of doves or swallows, a bevy of quails, a herd of deer, of wrens, or cranes, a skulk of foxes, or a building of rooks. " He wenton to inform me that, according to Sir Anthony Fitzherbert, we ought toascribe to this bird "both understanding and glory; for being praised, he will presently set up his tail chiefly against the sun, to theintent you may the better behold the beauty thereof. But at the fall ofthe leaf, when his tail falleth, he will mourn and hide himself incorners, till his tail come again as it was. " I could not help smiling at this display of small erudition on sowhimsical a subject; but I found that the peacocks were birds of someconsequence at the hall, for Frank Bracebridge informed me that theywere great favourites with his father, who was extremely careful to keepup the breed; partly because they belonged to chivalry, and were ingreat request at the stately banquets of the olden time; and partlybecause they had a pomp and magnificence about them, highly becoming anold family mansion. Nothing, he was accustomed to say, had an air ofgreater state and dignity than a peacock perched upon an antique stonebalustrade. [Illustration] Master Simon had now to hurry off, having an appointment at the parishchurch with the village choristers, who were to perform some music ofhis selection. There was something extremely agreeable in the cheerfulflow of animal spirits of the little man; and I confess I had beensomewhat surprised at his apt quotations from authors who certainly werenot in the range of every-day reading. I mentioned this lastcircumstance to Frank Bracebridge, who told me with a smile that MasterSimon's whole stock of erudition was confined to some half-a-dozen oldauthors, which the Squire had put into his hands, and which he read overand over, whenever he had a studious fit; as he sometimes had on a rainyday, or a long winter evening. Sir Anthony Fitzherbert's Book ofHusbandry; Markham's Country Contentments; the Tretyse of Hunting, bySir Thomas Cockayne, Knight; Izaak Walton's Angler, and two or threemore such ancient worthies of the pen, were his standard authorities;and, like all men who know but a few books, he looked up to them with akind of idolatry, and quoted them on all occasions. As to his songs, they were chiefly picked out of old books in the Squire's library, andadapted to tunes that were popular among the choice spirits of the lastcentury. His practical application of scraps of literature, however, hadcaused him to be looked upon as a prodigy of book-knowledge by all thegrooms, huntsmen, and small sportsmen of the neighbourhood. While we were talking we heard the distant toll of the village bell, andI was told that the Squire was a little particular in having hishousehold at church on a Christmas morning; considering it a day ofpouring out of thanks and rejoicing; for, as old Tusser observed, "At Christmas be merry, _and thankful withal_, And feast thy poor neighbours, the great and the small. " "If you are disposed to go to church, " said Frank Bracebridge, "I canpromise you a specimen of my cousin Simon's musical achievements. As thechurch is destitute of an organ, he has formed a band from the villageamateurs, and established a musical club for their improvement; he hasalso sorted a choir, as he sorted my father's pack of hounds, accordingto the directions of Jervaise Markham, in his Country Contentments; forthe bass he has sought out all the 'deep, solemn mouths, ' and for thetenor the 'loud ringing mouths, ' among the country bumpkins; and for'sweet mouths, ' he has culled with curious taste among the prettiestlasses in the neighbourhood; though these last, he affirms, are the mostdifficult to keep in tune; your pretty female singer being exceedinglywayward and capricious, and very liable to accident. " [Illustration] As the morning, though frosty, was remarkably fine and clear, the mostof the family walked to the church, which was a very old building ofgray stone, and stood near a village, about half-a-mile from the parkgate. Adjoining it was a low snug parsonage, which seemed coeval withthe church. The front of it was perfectly matted with a yew-tree thathad been trained against its walls, through the dense foliage of whichapertures had been formed to admit light into the small antiquelattices. As we passed this sheltered nest, the parson issued forth andpreceded us. I had expected to see a sleek well-conditioned pastor, such as is oftenfound in a snug living in the vicinity of a rich patron's table; but Iwas disappointed. The parson was a little, meagre, black-looking man, with a grizzled wig that was too wide, and stood off from each ear; sothat his head seemed to have shrunk away within it, like a dried filbertin its shell. He wore a rusty coat, with great skirts, and pockets thatwould have held the church Bible and prayer-book; and his small legsseemed still smaller, from being planted in large shoes, decorated withenormous buckles. [Illustration] I was informed by Frank Bracebridge that the parson had been a chum ofhis father's at Oxford, and had received this living shortly after thelatter had come to his estate. He was a complete black-letter hunter, and would scarcely read a work printed in the Roman character. Theeditions of Caxton and Wynkin de Worde were his delight; and he wasindefatigable in his researches after such old English writers as havefallen into oblivion from their worthlessness. In deference, perhaps, tothe notions of Mr. Bracebridge, he had made diligent investigations intothe festive rights and holiday customs of former times; and had been aszealous in the inquiry, as if he had been a boon companion; but it wasmerely with that plodding spirit with which men of adust temperamentfollow up any track of study, merely because it is denominated learning;indifferent to its intrinsic nature, whether it be the illustration ofthe wisdom, or of the ribaldry and obscenity of antiquity. He had pouredover these old volumes so intensely, that they seemed to have beenreflected into his countenance indeed; which, if the face be an indexof the mind, might be compared to a title-page of black-letter. [Illustration: "On reaching the church-porch, we found the parsonrebuking the gray-headed sexton for having used mistletoe. "--PAGE 95. ] On reaching the church-porch, we found the parson rebuking thegray-headed sexton for having used mistletoe among the greens with whichthe church was decorated. It was, he observed, an unholy plant, profanedby having been used by the Druids in their mystic ceremonies; and thoughit might be innocently employed in the festive ornamenting of halls andkitchens, yet it had been deemed by the Fathers of the Church asunhallowed, and totally unfit for sacred purposes. So tenacious was heon this point, that the poor sexton was obliged to strip down a greatpart of the humble trophies of his taste, before the parson wouldconsent to enter upon the service of the day. The interior of the church was venerable but simple; on the walls wereseveral mural monuments of the Bracebridges, and just beside the altarwas a tomb of ancient workmanship, on which lay the effigy of a warriorin armour, with his legs crossed, a sign of his having been a crusader. I was told it was one of the family who had signalised himself in theHoly Land, and the same whose picture hung over the fireplace in thehall. [Illustration] During service, Master Simon stood up in the pew, and repeated theresponses very audibly; evincing that kind of ceremonious devotionpunctually observed by a gentleman of the old school, and a man of oldfamily connections. I observed, too, that he turned over the leaves of afolio prayer-book with something of a flourish; possibly to show off anenormous seal-ring which enriched one of his fingers, and which hadthe look of a family relic. But he was evidently most solicitous aboutthe musical part of the service, keeping his eye fixed intently on thechoir, and beating time with much gesticulation and emphasis. [Illustration: "The orchestra was in a small gallery, and presented amost whimsical grouping of heads. "--PAGE 97. ] [Illustration] The orchestra was in a small gallery, and presented a most whimsicalgrouping of heads, piled one above the other, among which Iparticularly noticed that of the village tailor, a pale fellow with aretreating forehead and chin, who played on the clarionet, and seemed tohave blown his face to a point; and there was another, a short pursyman, stooping and labouring at a bass viol, so as to show nothing butthe top of a round bald head, like the egg of an ostrich. There were twoor three pretty faces among the female singers, to which the keen airof a frosty morning had given a bright rosy tint; but the gentlemenchoristers had evidently been chosen, like old Cremona fiddles, more fortone than looks; and as several had to sing from the same book, therewere clusterings of odd physiognomies, not unlike those groups ofcherubs we sometimes see on country tombstones. [Illustration] [Illustration] The usual services of the choir were managed tolerably well, the vocalparts generally lagging a little behind the instrumental, and someloitering fiddler now and then making up for lost time by travellingover a passage with prodigious celerity, and clearing more bars than thekeenest fox-hunter, to be in at the death. But the great trial was ananthem that had been prepared and arranged by Master Simon, and on whichhe had founded great expectation. Unluckily there was a blunder at thevery outset; the musicians became flurried; Master Simon was in a fever, everything went on lamely and irregularly until they came to a chorusbeginning "Now let us sing with one accord, " which seemed to be a signalfor parting company: all became discord and confusion; each shifted forhimself, and got to the end as well, or rather as soon, as he could, excepting one old chorister in a pair of horn spectacles bestriding andpinching a long sonorous nose; who, happening to stand a little apart, and being wrapped up in his own melody, kept on a quavering course, wriggling his head, ogling his book, and winding all up by a nasal soloof at least three bars' duration. [Illustration] The parson gave us a most erudite sermon on the rites and ceremonies ofChristmas, and the propriety of observing it not merely as a day ofthanksgiving, but of rejoicing; supporting the correctness of hisopinions by the earliest usages of the Church, and enforcing them by theauthorities of Theophilus of Cesarea, St. Cyprian, St. Chrysostom, St. Augustine, and a cloud more of Saints and Fathers, from whom he madecopious quotations. I was a little at a loss to perceive the necessityof such a mighty array of forces to maintain a point which no onepresent seemed inclined to dispute; but I soon found that the good manhad a legion of ideal adversaries to contend with; having in the courseof his researches on the subject of Christmas, got completely embroiledin the sectarian controversies of the Revolution, when the Puritans madesuch a fierce assault upon the ceremonies of the Church, and poor oldChristmas was driven out of the land by proclamation of parliament. [E]The worthy parson lived but with times past, and knew but a little ofthe present. Shut up among worm-eaten tomes in the retirement of his antiquatedlittle study, the pages of old times were to him as the gazettes of theday; while the era of the Revolution was mere modern history. He forgotthat nearly two centuries had elapsed since the fiery persecution ofpoor mince-pie throughout the land; when plum-porridge was denounced as"mere popery, " and roast beef as antichristian; and that Christmas hadbeen brought in again triumphantly with the merry court of King Charlesat the Restoration. He kindled into warmth with the ardour of hiscontest, and the host of imaginary foes with whom he had to combat; hada stubborn conflict with old Prynne and two or three other forgottenchampions of the Roundheads, on the subject of Christmas festivity; andconcluded by urging his hearers, in the most solemn and affectingmanner, to stand to the traditionary customs of their fathers, and feastand make merry on this joyful anniversary of the Church. [Illustration] I have seldom known a sermon attended apparently with more immediateeffects; for on leaving the church the congregation seemed one and allpossessed with the gaiety of spirit so earnestly enjoined by theirpastor. The elder folks gathered in knots in the churchyard, greetingand shaking hands; and the children ran about crying, Ule! Ule! andrepeating some uncouth rhymes, [F] which the parson, who had joined us, informed me had been handed down from days of yore. The villagers doffedtheir hats to the Squire as he passed, giving him the good wishes of theseason with every appearance of heartfelt sincerity, and were invited byhim to the hall, to take something to keep out the cold of the weather;and I heard blessings uttered by several of the poor, which convinced methat, in the midst of his enjoyments, the worthy old cavalier had notforgotten the true Christmas virtue of charity. [Illustration] On our way homeward his heart seemed overflowing with generous and happyfeelings. As we passed over a rising ground which commanded something ofa prospect, the sounds of rustic merriment now and then reached ourears; the Squire paused for a few moments, and looked around with an airof inexpressible benignity. The beauty of the day was of itselfsufficient to inspire philanthropy. Notwithstanding the frostiness ofthe morning, the sun in his cloudless journey had acquired sufficientpower to melt away the thin covering of snow from every southerndeclivity, and to bring out the living green which adorns an Englishlandscape even in mid-winter. Large tracts of smiling verdure contrastedwith the dazzling whiteness of the shaded slopes and hollows. Everysheltered bank, on which the broad rays rested, yielded its silver rillof cold and limpid water, glittering through the dripping grass; andsent up slight exhalations to contribute to the thin haze that hung justabove the surface of the earth. There was something truly cheering inthis triumph of warmth and verdure over the frosty thraldom of winter;it was, as the Squire observed, an emblem of Christmas hospitality, breaking through the chills of ceremony and selfishness, and thawingevery heart into a flow. He pointed with pleasure to the indications ofgood cheer reeking from the chimneys of the comfortable farm-houses andlow thatched cottages. "I love, " said he, "to see this day well kept byrich and poor; it is a great thing to have one day in the year, atleast, when you are sure of being welcome wherever you go, and ofhaving, as it were, the world all thrown open to you; and I am almostdisposed to join with Poor Robin, in his malediction of every churlishenemy to this honest festival:-- "Those who at Christmas do repine, And would fain hence despatch him, May they with old Duke Humphry dine, Or else may Squire Ketch catch 'em. " The Squire went on to lament the deplorable decay of the games andamusements which were once prevalent at this season among the lowerorders, and countenanced by the higher: when the old halls of castlesand manor-houses were thrown open at daylight; when the tables werecovered with brawn, and beef, and humming ale; when the harp and thecarol resounded all day long, and when rich and poor were alike welcometo enter and make merry. [G] "Our old games and local customs, " said he, "had a great effect in making the peasant fond of his home, and thepromotion of them by the gentry made him fond of his lord. They made thetimes merrier, and kinder, and better; and I can truly say, with one ofour old poets, -- "I like them well--the curious preciseness And all-pretended gravity of those That seek to banish hence these harmless sports, Have thrust away much ancient honesty. [Illustration] "The nation, " continued he, "is altered; we have almost lost our simpletrue-hearted peasantry. They have broken asunder from the higherclasses, and seem to think their interests are separate. They havebecome too knowing, and begin to read newspapers, listen to alehousepoliticians, and talk of reform. I think one mode to keep them in goodhumour in these hard times would be for the nobility and gentry to passmore time on their estates, mingle more among the country people, andset the merry old English games going again. " Such was the good Squire's project for mitigating public discontent;and, indeed, he had once attempted to put his doctrine in practice, anda few years before had kept open house during the holidays in the oldstyle. The country people, however, did not understand how to play theirparts in the scene of hospitality; many uncouth circumstances occurred;the manor was overrun by all the vagrants of the country, and morebeggars drawn into the neighbourhood in one week than the parishofficers could get rid of in a year. Since then he had contented himselfwith inviting the decent part of the neighbouring peasantry to call atthe hall on Christmas day, and distributing beef, and bread, and ale, among the poor, that they might make merry in their own dwellings. [Illustration] We had not been long home when the sound of music was heard from adistance. A band of country lads without coats, their shirt-sleevesfancifully tied with ribands, their hats decorated with greens, andclubs in their hands, were seen advancing up the avenue, followed by alarge number of villagers and peasantry. They stopped before the halldoor, where the music struck up a peculiar air, and the lads performed acurious and intricate dance, advancing, retreating, and striking theirclubs together, keeping exact time to the music; while one, whimsicallycrowned with a fox's skin, the tail of which flaunted down his back, kept capering round the skirts of the dance, and rattling aChristmas-box with many antic gesticulations. [Illustration] The Squire eyed this fanciful exhibition with great interest anddelight, and gave me a full account of its origin, which he traced tothe times when the Romans held possession of the island; plainly provingthat this was a lineal descendant of the sword-dance of the ancients. "It was now, " he said, "nearly extinct, but he had accidentally metwith traces of it in the neighbourhood, and had encouraged its revival;though, to tell the truth, it was too apt to be followed up by roughcudgel-play and broken heads in the evening. " [Illustration] After the dance was concluded, the whole party was entertained withbrawn and beef, and stout home-brewed. The Squire himself mingled amongthe rustics, and was received with awkward demonstrations of deferenceand regard. It is true I perceived two or three of the younger peasants, as they were raising their tankards to their mouths when the Squire'sback was turned, making something of a grimace, and giving each otherthe wink; but the moment they caught my eye they pulled grave faces, andwere exceedingly demure. With Master Simon, however, they all seemedmore at their ease. His varied occupations and amusements had made himwell known throughout the neighbourhood. He was a visitor at everyfarm-house and cottage; gossiped with the farmers and their wives;romped with their daughters; and, like that type of a vagrant bachelor, the humble bee, tolled the sweets from all the rosy lips of the countryround. The bashfulness of the guests soon gave way before good cheer andaffability. There is something genuine and affectionate in the gaiety ofthe lower orders, when it is excited by the bounty and familiarity ofthose above them; the warm glow of gratitude enters into their mirth, and a kind word or a small pleasantry, frankly uttered by a patron, gladdens the heart of the dependant more than oil and wine. When theSquire had retired the merriment increased, and there was much jokingand laughter, particularly between Master Simon and a hale, ruddy-faced, white-headed farmer, who appeared to be the wit of the village; for Iobserved all his companions to wait with open mouths for his retorts, and burst into a gratuitous laugh before they could well understandthem. [Illustration] The whole house indeed seemed abandoned to merriment. As I passed to myroom to dress for dinner, I heard the sound of music in a small court, and, looking through a window that commanded it, I perceived a band ofwandering musicians, with pandean pipes and tambourine; a prettycoquettish housemaid was dancing a jig with a smart country lad, whileseveral of the other servants were looking on. In the midst of her sportthe girl caught a glimpse of my face at the window, and, colouring up, ran off with an air of roguish affected confusion. [Illustration] FOOTNOTES: [E] See Note C. [F] "Ule! Ule! Three puddings in a pule; Crack nuts and cry ule!" [G] See Note D. [Illustration: The Christmas Dinner] [Illustration] Lo, now is come the joyful'st feast! Let every man be jolly, Eache 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 door let sorrow lie, And if, for cold, it hap to die, We'll bury't in a Christmas pye, And evermore be merry. WITHERS'S _Juvenilia. _ [Illustration: THE CHRISTMAS DINNER] I had finished my toilet, and was loitering with Frank Bracebridge inthe library, when we heard a distant thwacking sound, which he informedme was a signal for the serving up of the dinner. The Squire kept upold customs in kitchen as well as hall; and the rolling-pin, struck uponthe dresser by the cook, summoned the servants to carry in the meats. [Illustration] Just in this nick the cook knock'd thrice, And all the waiters in a trice His summons did obey; Each serving man, with dish in hand, March'd boldly up, like our train-band, Presented and away. [H] [Illustration] The dinner was served up in the great hall, where the Squire always heldhis Christmas banquet. A blazing crackling fire of logs had been heapedon to warm the spacious apartment, and the flame went sparkling andwreathing up the wide-mouthed chimney. The great picture of the crusaderand his white horse had been profusely decorated with greens for theoccasion; and holly and ivy had likewise been wreathed round the helmetand weapons on the opposite wall, which I understood were the arms ofthe same warrior. I must own, by the by, I had strong doubts about theauthenticity of the painting and armour as having belonged to thecrusader, they certainly having the stamp of more recent days; but Iwas told that the painting had been so considered time out of mind; andthat as to the armour, it had been found in a lumber room, and elevatedto its present situation by the Squire, who at once determined it to bethe armour of the family hero; and as he was absolute authority on allsuch subjects in his own household, the matter had passed into currentacceptation. A sideboard was set out just under this chivalric trophy, on which was a display of plate that might have vied (at least invariety) with Belshazzar's parade of the vessels of the temple;"flagons, cans, cups, beakers, goblets, basins, and ewers;" the gorgeousutensils of good companionship, that had gradually accumulated throughmany generations of jovial housekeepers. Before these stood the two Yulecandles beaming like two stars of the first magnitude; other lights weredistributed in branches, and the whole array glittered like a firmamentof silver. [Illustration] [Illustration: "Never did Christmas board display a more goodly andgracious assemblage of countenances. "--PAGE 123. ] [Illustration] We were ushered into this banqueting scene with the sound of minstrelsy, the old harper being seated on a stool beside the fireplace, andtwanging his instrument with a vast deal more power than melody. Neverdid Christmas board display a more goodly and gracious assemblage ofcountenances: those who were not handsome were, at least, happy; andhappiness is a rare improver of your hard-favoured visage. I alwaysconsider an old English family as well worth studying as a collection ofHolbein's portraits or Albert Durer's prints. There is much antiquarianlore to be acquired; much knowledge of the physiognomies of formertimes. Perhaps it may be from having continually before their eyes thoserows of old family portraits, with which the mansions of this countryare stocked; certain it is, that the quaint features of antiquity areoften most faithfully perpetuated in these ancient lines; and I havetraced an old family nose through a whole picture gallery, legitimatelyhanded down from generation to generation, almost from the time of theConquest. Something of the kind was to be observed in the worthy companyaround me. Many of their faces had evidently originated in a Gothic age, and been merely copied by succeeding generations; and there was onelittle girl, in particular, of staid demeanour, with a high Roman nose, and an antique vinegar aspect, who was a great favourite of theSquire's, being, as he said, a Bracebridge all over, and the verycounterpart of one of his ancestors who figured in the court of HenryVIII. [Illustration] The parson said grace, which was not a short familiar one, such as iscommonly addressed to the Deity, in these unceremonious days; but along, courtly, well-worded one of the ancient school. There was now apause, as if something was expected; when suddenly the butler enteredthe hall with some degree of bustle: he was attended by a servant oneach side with a large wax-light, and bore a silver dish, on which wasan enormous pig's head decorated with rosemary, with a lemon in itsmouth, which was placed with great formality at the head of the table. The moment this pageant made its appearance, the harper struck up aflourish; at the conclusion of which the young Oxonian, on receiving ahint from the Squire, gave, with an air of the most comic gravity, anold carol, the first verse of which was as follows:-- Caput apri defero Reddens laudes Domino. The boar's head in hand bring I, With garlands gay and rosemary. I pray you all synge merily Qui estis in convivio. [Illustration] Though prepared to witness many of these little eccentricities, frombeing apprised of the peculiar hobby of mine host; yet, I confess, theparade with which so odd a dish was introduced somewhat perplexed me, until I gathered from the conversation of the Squire and the parson thatit was meant to represent the bringing in of the boar's head: a dishformerly served up with much ceremony, and the sound of minstrelsy andsong, at great tables on Christmas day. "I like the old custom, " saidthe Squire, "not merely because it is stately and pleasing in itself, but because it was observed at the College of Oxford, at which I waseducated. When I hear the old song chanted, it brings to mind the timewhen I was young and gamesome--and the noble old college-hall--and myfellow-students loitering about in their black gowns; many of whom, poorlads, are now in their graves!" The parson, however, whose mind was not haunted by such associations, and who was always more taken up with the text than the sentiment, objected to the Oxonian's version of the carol; which he affirmed wasdifferent from that sung at college. He went on, with the dryperseverance of a commentator, to give the college reading, accompaniedby sundry annotations: addressing himself at first to the company atlarge; but finding their attention gradually diverted to other talk, andother objects, he lowered his tone as his number of auditors diminished, until he concluded his remarks, in an under voice, to a fat-headed oldgentleman next him, who was silently engaged in the discussion of a hugeplateful of turkey. [I] [Illustration] The table was literally loaded with good cheer, and presented an epitomeof country abundance, in this season of overflowing larders. Adistinguished post was allotted to "ancient sirloin, " as mine hosttermed it; being, as he added, "the standard of old English hospitality, and a joint of goodly presence, and full of expectation. " There wereseveral dishes quaintly decorated, and which had evidently somethingtraditionary in their embellishments; but about which, as I did not liketo appear over-curious, I asked no questions. [Illustration] I could not, however, but notice a pie, magnificently decorated withpeacocks' feathers, in imitation of the tail of that bird, whichovershadowed a considerable tract of the table. This the Squireconfessed, with some little hesitation, was a pheasant-pie, though apeacock-pie was certainly the most authentical; but there had been sucha mortality among the peacocks this season, that he could not prevailupon himself to have one killed. [J] It would be tedious, perhaps, to my wiser readers, who may not have thatfoolish fondness for odd and obsolete things to which I am a littlegiven, were I to mention the other makeshifts of this worthy oldhumorist, by which he was endeavouring to follow up, though at humbledistance, the quaint customs of antiquity. I was pleased, however, tosee the respect shown to his whims by his children and relatives; who, indeed, entered readily into the full spirit of them, and seemed allwell versed in their parts; having doubtless been present at many arehearsal. I was amused, too, at the air of profound gravity with whichthe butler and other servants executed the duties assigned them, howevereccentric. They had an old-fashioned look; having, for the most part, been brought up in the household, and grown into keeping with theantiquated mansion, and the humours of its lord; and most probablylooked upon all his whimsical regulations as the established laws ofhonourable housekeeping. [Illustration] When the cloth was removed, the butler brought in a huge silver vesselof rare and curious workmanship, which he placed before the Squire. Itsappearance was hailed with acclamation; being the Wassail Bowl, sorenowned in Christmas festivity. The contents had been prepared by theSquire himself; for it was a beverage in the skilful mixture of which heparticularly prided himself; alleging that it was too abstruse andcomplex for the comprehension of an ordinary servant. It was a potation, indeed, that might well make the heart of a toper leap within him; beingcomposed of the richest and raciest wines, highly spiced and sweetened, with roasted apples bobbing about the surface. [K] The old gentleman's whole countenance beamed with a serene look ofindwelling delight, as he stirred this mighty bowl. Having raised it tohis lips, with a hearty wish of a merry Christmas to all present, hesent it brimming round the board, for every one to follow his example, according to the primitive style; pronouncing it "the ancient fountainof good feeling, where all hearts met together. "[L] [Illustration] There was much laughing and rallying as the honest emblem of Christmasjoviality circulated, and was kissed rather coyly by the ladies. Whenit reached Master Simon he raised it in both hands, and with the air ofa boon companion struck up an old Wassail chanson: The browne bowle, The merry browne bowle, As it goes round about-a, Fill Still, Let the world say what it will, And drink your fill all out-a. The deep canne, The merry deep canne, As thou dost freely quaff-a, Sing, Fling, Be as merry as a king, And sound a lusty laugh-a. [M] Much of the conversation during dinner turned upon family topics, towhich I was a stranger. There was, however, a great deal of rallying ofMaster Simon about some gay widow, with whom he was accused of having aflirtation. This attack was commenced by the ladies; but it wascontinued throughout the dinner by the fat-headed old gentleman next theparson, with the persevering assiduity of a slow-hound; being one ofthose long-winded jokers, who, though rather dull at starting game, areunrivalled for their talents in hunting it down. At every pause in thegeneral conversation, he renewed his bantering in pretty much the sameterms; winking hard at me with both eyes whenever he gave Master Simonwhat he considered a home thrust. The latter, indeed, seemed fond ofbeing teased on the subject, as old bachelors are apt to be; and he tookoccasion to inform me, in an under-tone, that the lady in question was aprodigiously fine woman, and drove her own curricle. [Illustration] The dinner-time passed away in this flow of innocent hilarity; and, though the old hall may have resounded in its time with many a scene ofbroader rout and revel, yet I doubt whether it ever witnessed morehonest and genuine enjoyment. How easy it is for one benevolent being todiffuse pleasure around him; and how truly is a kind heart a fountain ofgladness, making everything in its vicinity to freshen into smiles! thejoyous disposition of the worthy Squire was perfectly contagious; he washappy himself, and disposed to make all the world happy; and the littleeccentricities of his humour did but season, in a manner, the sweetnessof his philanthropy. [Illustration] When the ladies had retired, the conversation, as usual, became stillmore animated; many good things were broached which had been thought ofduring dinner, but which would not exactly do for a lady's ear; andthough I cannot positively affirm that there was much wit uttered, yet Ihave certainly heard many contests of rare wit produce much lesslaughter. Wit, after all, is a mighty tart, pungent ingredient, and muchtoo acid for some stomachs; but honest good humour is the oil and wineof a merry meeting, and there is no jovial companionship equal to thatwhere the jokes are rather small, and the laughter abundant. The Squiretold several long stories of early college pranks and adventures, insome of which the parson had been a sharer; though in looking at thelatter, it required some effort of imagination to figure such a littledark anatomy of a man into the perpetrator of a madcap gambol. Indeed, the two college chums presented pictures of what men may be made bytheir different lots in life. The Squire had left the university to livelustily on his paternal domains, in the vigorous enjoyment ofprosperity and sunshine, and had flourished on to a hearty and floridold age; whilst the poor parson, on the contrary, had dried and witheredaway, among dusty tomes, in the silence and shadows of his study. Stillthere seemed to be a spark of almost extinguished fire, feeblyglimmering in the bottom of his soul; and as the Squire hinted at a slystory of the parson and a pretty milkmaid, whom they once met on thebanks of the Isis, the old gentleman made an "alphabet of faces, " which, as far as I could decipher his physiognomy, I verily believe wasindicative of laughter;--indeed, I have rarely met with an oldgentleman who took absolutely offence at the imputed gallantries of hisyouth. [Illustration] [Illustration] I found the tide of wine and wassail fast gaining on the dry land ofsober judgment. The company grew merrier and louder as their jokes grewduller. Master Simon was in as chirping a humour as a grasshopper filledwith dew; his old songs grew of a warmer complexion, and he began totalk maudlin about the widow. He even gave a long song about the wooingof a widow, which he informed me he had gathered from an excellentblack-letter work, entitled "Cupid's Solicitor for Love, " containingstore of good advice for bachelors, and which he promised to lend me. The first verse was to this effect:-- He that will woo a widow must not dally, He must make hay while the sun doth shine; He must not stand with her, Shall I, Shall I? But boldly say, Widow, thou must be mine. This song inspired the fat-headed old gentleman, who made severalattempts to tell a rather broad story out of Joe Miller, that was pat tothe purpose; but he always stuck in the middle, everybody recollectingthe latter part excepting himself. The parson, too, began to show theeffects of good cheer, having gradually settled down into a doze, andhis wig sitting most suspiciously on one side. Just at this juncture wewere summoned to the drawing-room, and, I suspect, at the privateinstigation of mine host, whose joviality seemed always tempered with aproper love of decorum. [Illustration] After the dinner-table was removed, the hall was given up to the youngermembers of the family, who, prompted to all kind of noisy mirth by theOxonian and Master Simon, made its old walls ring with their merriment, as they played at romping games. I delight in witnessing the gambols ofchildren, and particularly at this happy holiday-season, and could nothelp stealing out of the drawing-room on hearing one of their peals oflaughter. I found them at the game of blind-man's buff. Master Simon, who was the leader of their revels, and seemed on all occasions tofulfil the office of that ancient potentate, the Lord of Misrule, [N] wasblinded in the midst of the hall. The little beings were as busy abouthim as the mock fairies about Falstaff; pinching him, plucking at theskirts of his coat, and tickling him with straws. One fine blue-eyedgirl of about thirteen, with her flaxen hair all in beautiful confusion, her frolic face in a glow, her frock half torn off her shoulders, acomplete picture of a romp, was the chief tormentor; and from theslyness with which Master Simon avoided the smaller game, and hemmedthis wild little nymph in corners, and obliged her to jump shriekingover chairs, I suspected the rogue of being not a whit more blindedthan was convenient. [Illustration] When I returned to the drawing-room, I found the company seated roundthe fire, listening to the parson, who was deeply ensconced in ahigh-backed oaken chair, the work of some cunning artificer of yore, which had been brought from the library for his particularaccommodation. From this venerable piece of furniture, with which hisshadowy figure and dark weazen face so admirably accorded, he wasdealing forth strange accounts of the popular superstitions and legendsof the surrounding country, with which he had become acquainted in thecourse of his antiquarian researches. I am half inclined to think thatthe old gentleman was himself somewhat tinctured with superstition, asmen are very apt to be who live a recluse and studious life in asequestered part of the country, and pore over black-letter tracts, sooften filled with the marvellous and supernatural. He gave us severalanecdotes of the fancies of the neighbouring peasantry, concerning theeffigy of the crusader which lay on the tomb by the church altar. As itwas the only monument of the kind in that part of the country, it hadalways been regarded with feelings of superstition by the good wives ofthe village. It was said to get up from the tomb and walk the rounds ofthe churchyard in stormy nights, particularly when it thundered; and oneold woman, whose cottage bordered on the churchyard, had seen it, through the windows of the church, when the moon shone, slowly pacing upand down the aisles. It was the belief that some wrong had been leftunredressed by the deceased, or some treasure hidden, which kept thespirit in a state of trouble and restlessness. Some talked of gold andjewels buried in the tomb, over which the spectre kept watch; and therewas a story current of a sexton in old times who endeavoured to breakhis way to the coffin at night; but just as he reached it, received aviolent blow from the marble hand of the effigy, which stretched himsenseless on the pavement. These tales were often laughed at by some ofthe sturdier among the rustics, yet when night came on, there were manyof the stoutest unbelievers that were shy of venturing alone in thefootpath that led across the churchyard. [Illustration] [Illustration] From these and other anecdotes that followed, the crusader appeared tobe the favourite hero of ghost stories throughout the vicinity. Hispicture, which hung up in the hall, was thought by the servants to havesomething supernatural about it; for they remarked that, in whateverpart of the hall you went, the eyes of the warrior were still fixed onyou. The old porter's wife, too, at the lodge, who had been born andbrought up in the family, and was a great gossip among themaid-servants, affirmed, that in her young days she had often heard say, that on Midsummer eve, when it is well known all kinds of ghosts, goblins, and fairies become visible and walk abroad, the crusader usedto mount his horse, come down from his picture, ride about the house, down the avenue, and so to the church to visit the tomb; on whichoccasion the church-door most civilly swung open of itself: not that heneeded it; for he rode through closed gates and even stone walls, andhad been seen by one of the dairymaids to pass between two bars of thegreat park gate, making himself as thin as a sheet of paper. All these superstitions I found had been very much countenanced by theSquire, who, though not superstitious himself, was very fond of seeingothers so. He listened to every goblin tale of the neighbouring gossipswith infinite gravity, and held the porter's wife in high favour onaccount of her talent for the marvellous. He was himself a great readerof old legends and romances, and often lamented that he could notbelieve in them; for a superstitious person, he thought, must live in akind of fairyland. Whilst we were all attention to the parson's stories, our ears weresuddenly assailed by a burst of heterogeneous sounds from the hall, inwhich was mingled something like the clang of rude minstrelsy, with theuproar of many small voices and girlish laughter. The door suddenly flewopen, and a train came trooping into the room, that might almost havebeen mistaken for the breaking up of the court of Fairy. Thatindefatigable spirit, Master Simon, in the faithful discharge of hisduties as lord of misrule, had conceived the idea of a Christmasmummery, or masquing; and having called in to his assistance the Oxonianand the young officer, who were equally ripe for anything that shouldoccasion romping and merriment, they had carried it into instant effect. The old housekeeper had been consulted; the antique clothes-presses andwardrobes rummaged and made to yield up the relics of finery that hadnot seen the light for several generations; the younger part of thecompany had been privately convened from the parlour and hall, and thewhole had been bedizened out, into a burlesque imitation of an antiquemasque. [O] [Illustration] [Illustration] Master Simon led the van, as "Ancient Christmas, " quaintly apparelled ina ruff, a short cloak, which had very much the aspect of one of the oldhousekeeper's petticoats, and a hat that might have served for a villagesteeple, and must indubitably have figured in the days of theCovenanters. From under this his nose curved boldly forth, flushed witha frost-bitten bloom, that seemed the very trophy of a December blast. He was accompanied by the blue-eyed romp, dished up as "Dame Mince-Pie, "in the venerable magnificence of faded brocade, long stomacher, peakedhat, and high-heeled shoes. The young officer appeared as Robin Hood, ina sporting dress of Kendal green, and a foraging cap, with a goldtassel. The costume, to be sure, did not bear testimony to deepresearch, and there was an evident eye to the picturesque, natural to ayoung gallant in the presence of his mistress. The fair Julia hung onhis arm in a pretty rustic dress, as "Maid Marian. " The rest of thetrain had been metamorphosed in various ways; the girls trussed up inthe finery of the ancient belles of the Bracebridge line, and thestriplings be-whiskered with burnt cork, and gravely clad in broadskirts, hanging sleeves, and full-bottomed wigs, to represent thecharacters of Roast Beef, Plum Pudding, and other worthies celebratedin ancient maskings. The whole was under the control of the Oxonian, inthe appropriate character of Misrule; and I observed that he exercisedrather a mischievous sway with his wand over the smaller personages ofthe pageant. [Illustration] [Illustration: "The rest of the train had been metamorphosed in variousways. "--PAGE 153. ] [Illustration] The irruption of this motley crew, with beat of drum, according toancient custom, was the consummation of uproar and merriment. MasterSimon covered himself with glory by the stateliness with which, asAncient Christmas, he walked a minuet with the peerless, thoughgiggling, Dame Mince-Pie. It was followed by a dance of all thecharacters, which, from its medley of costumes, seemed as though the oldfamily portraits had skipped down from their frames to join in thesport. Different centuries were figuring at cross hands and right andleft; the dark ages were cutting pirouettes and rigadoons; and the daysof Queen Bess jigging merrily down the middle, through a line ofsucceeding generations. [Illustration] The worthy Squire contemplated these fantastic sports, and thisresurrection of his old wardrobe, with the simple relish of childishdelight. He stood chuckling and rubbing his hands, and scarcely hearinga word the parson said, notwithstanding that the latter was discoursingmost authentically on the ancient and stately dance at the Paon, orPeacock, from which he conceived the minuet to be derived. [P] For mypart, I was in a continual excitement, from the varied scenes of whimand innocent gaiety passing before me. It was inspiring to see wild-eyedfrolic and warmhearted hospitality breaking out from among the chillsand glooms of winter, and old age throwing off his apathy, and catchingonce more the freshness of youthful enjoyment. I felt also an interestin the scene, from the consideration that these fleeting customs wereposting fast into oblivion, and that this was, perhaps, the only familyin England in which the whole of them were still punctiliously observed. There was a quaintness, too, mingled with all this revelry, that gave ita peculiar zest; it was suited to the time and place; and as the oldManor House almost reeled with mirth and wassail, it seemed echoing backthe joviality of long-departed years. [Illustration] But enough of Christmas and its gambols; it is time for me to pause inthis garrulity. Methinks I hear the questions asked by my graverreaders, "To what purpose is all this?--how is the world to be madewiser by this talk?" Alas! is there not wisdom enough extant for theinstruction of the world? And if not, are there not thousands of ablerpens labouring for its improvement?--It is so much pleasanter to pleasethan to instruct--to play the companion rather than the preceptor. What, after all, is the mite of wisdom that I could throw into the massof knowledge? or how am I sure that my sagest deductions may be safeguides for the opinions of others? But in writing to amuse, if I fail, the only evil is my own disappointment. If, however, I can by any luckychance, in these days of evil, rub out one wrinkle from the brow ofcare, or beguile the heavy heart of one moment of sorrow; if I can nowand then penetrate through the gathering film of misanthropy, prompt abenevolent view of human nature, and make my reader more in good humourwith his fellow-beings and himself, surely, surely, I shall not thenhave written entirely in vain. [Illustration] FOOTNOTES: [H] Sir John Suckling. [I] See Note E. [J] See Note F. [K] See Note G. [L] See Note H. [M] From "Poor Robin's Almanack. " [N] See Note I. [O] See Note J. [P] See Note K. NOTES NOTE A, p. 53. The mistletoe is still hung up in farm-houses and kitchens at Christmas;and the young men have the privilege of kissing the girls under it, plucking each time a berry from the bush. When the berries are allplucked, the privilege ceases. NOTE B, p. 58. The _Yule-clog_ is a great log of wood, sometimes the root of a tree, brought into the house with great ceremony, on Christmas eve, laid inthe fireplace, and lighted with the brand of last year's clog. While itlasted there was great drinking, singing, and telling of tales. Sometimes it was accompanied by Christmas candles, but in the cottagesthe only light was from the ruddy blaze of the great wood fire. The_Yule-clog_ was to burn all night; if it went out, it was considered asign of ill luck. Herrick mentions it in one of his songs:-- "Come, bring with a noise My merrie, merrie boyes, The Christmas log to the firing: While my good dame, she Bids ye all be free, And drink to your hearts' desiring. " The _Yule-clog_ is still burnt in many farm-houses and kitchens inEngland, particularly in the north, and there are several superstitionsconnected with it among the peasantry. If a squinting person come to thehouse while it is burning, or a person barefooted, it is considered anill omen. The brand remaining from the _Yule-clog_ is carefully put awayto light the next year's Christmas fire. NOTE C, p. 102. From the "Flying Eagle, " a small Gazette, published December 24, 1652:--"The House spent much time this day about the business of theNavy, for settling the affairs at sea; and before they rose, werepresented with a terrible remonstrance against Christmas day, groundedupon divine Scriptures, 2 Cor. V. 16; 1 Cor. Xv. 14, 17; and in honourof the Lord's Day, grounded upon these Scriptures, John xx. 1; Rev. I. 10; Psalm cxviii. 24; Lev. Xxiii. 7, 11; Mark xvi. 8; Psalm lxxxiv. 10, in which Christmas is called Anti-Christ's masse, and those Mass-mongersand Papists who observe it, etc. In consequence of which Parliamentspent some time in consultation about the abolition of Christmas day, passed orders to that effect, and resolved to sit on the following day, which was commonly called Christmas day. " NOTE D p. 108. "An English gentleman at the opening of the great day, _i. E. _ onChristmas day in the morning, had all his tenants and neighbours enterhis hall by daybreak. The strong beer was broached, and the black jackswent plentifully about with toast, sugar, nutmeg, and good Cheshirecheese. The hackin (the great sausage) must be boiled by daybreak, orelse two young men must take the maiden (_i. E. _ the cook) by the armsand run her round the marketplace till she is shamed of herlaziness. "--_Round about our Sea-Coal Fire. _ NOTE E, p. 129. The old ceremony of serving up the boar's head on Christmas day is stillobserved in the hall of Queen's College, Oxford. I was favoured by theparson with a copy of the carol as now sung, and as it may be acceptableto such of my readers as are curious in these grave and learned matters, I give it entire. "The boar's head in hand bear I, Bedeck'd with bays and rosemary; And I pray you, my masters, be merry, Quot estis in convivio. Caput apri defero Reddens laudes Domino. The boar's head, as I understand, Is the rarest dish in all this land, Which thus bedeck'd with a gay garland Let us servire cantico. Caput apri defero, etc. Our steward hath provided this In honour of the King of Bliss, Which on this day to be served is In Reginensi Atrio. Caput apri defero, " Etc. Etc. Etc. NOTE F, p. 131. The peacock was anciently in great demand for stately entertainments. Sometimes it was made into a pie, at one end of which the head appearedabove the crust in all its plumage, with the beak richly gilt; at theother end the tail was displayed. Such pies were served up at the solemnbanquets of chivalry, when Knights-errant pledged themselves toundertake any perilous enterprise; whence came the ancient oath, used byJustice Shallow, "by cock and pie. " The peacock was also an important dish for the Christmas feast; andMassinger, in his City Madam, gives some idea of the extravagance withwhich this, as well as other dishes, was prepared for the gorgeousrevels of the olden times:-- "Men may talk of country Christmasses, Their thirty pound butter'd eggs, their pies of carps' tongues: Their pheasants drench'd with ambergris; _the carcases of three fat wethers bruised for gravy, to make sauce for a single peacock_!" NOTE G, p. 133. The Wassail Bowl was sometimes composed of ale instead of wine; withnutmeg, sugar, toast, ginger, and roasted crabs; in this way thenut-brown beverage is still prepared in some old families, and round thehearths of substantial farmers at Christmas. It is also called Lambs'Wool, and is celebrated by Herrick in his "Twelfth Night:"-- "Next crowne the bowle full With gentle Lambs' Wool, Add sugar, nutmeg, and ginger, With store of ale too; And thus ye must doe To make the Wassaile a swinger. " NOTE H, p. 134. "The custom of drinking out of the same cup gave place to each havinghis cup. When the steward came to the doore with the Wassel, he was tocry three times, _Wassel, Wassel, Wassel_, and then the chappel(chaplain) was to answer with a song. "--ARCHÆOLOGIA. NOTE I, p. 142. "At Christmasse there was in the Kinge's house, wheresoever hee waslodged, a lorde of misrule, or mayster of merry disportes; and the likehad ye in the house of every nobleman of honor, or good worshippe, werehe spirituall or temporall. "--STOW. NOTE J, p. 151. Maskings or mummeries were favourite sports at Christmas in old times;and the wardrobes at halls and manor-houses were often laid undercontribution to furnish dresses and fantastic disguisings. I stronglysuspect Master Simon to have taken the idea of his from Ben Jonson'sMasque of Christmas. NOTE K, p. 156. Sir John Hawkins, speaking of the dance called the Pavon, from pavo, apeacock, says, "It is a grave and majestic dance; the method of dancingit anciently was by gentlemen dressed with caps and swords, by those ofthe long robe in their gowns, by the peers in their mantles, and by theladies in gowns with long trains, the motion whereof, in dancing, resembled that of a peacock. "--_History of Music. _ _Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, _Edinburgh. _ * * * * * Transcriber's Notes: Obvious punctuation errors repaired. On page 18, the word "poenâ" is actually written with a ligature attachingthe oe. For the text version, this was not retained.