larly fortunate if "a black man," meaning one of a dark complexion, be the first person that enters the house. A ridiculous rite is observed in Scotland. Any servant who is supposed to have a due regard to the interests of the family, and is not at the same time emancipated from the yoke of superstition, is careful to go early to the well on Christmas morning to draw water, pull the corn out of the sack, and also to bring kale from the kitchen garden. This is intended to insure prosperity to the family. It is in fact the same as the Usque Cashrichd, which will be noticed among the superstitions of the first of January. BOOK II. Christmas. Tree Was The custom of saluting the apple trees at christmas, with a view to influence their produce another year, yet exists in sailing. the western counties of England. In some places, the inhabitants, forming a procession, walk to the principal orchards in the parish. In each orchard one tree is selected as the representative of the rest: this is saluted with a certain form of words, having in them the air of an incantation.* They then either sprinkle the tree with cider, or dash a bottle of that liquor against it, to insure its bearing plentifully the ensuing year, according to the observation of Robert Herrick : "Wassaile the trees, that they may beare The wassail,-a word transferred from the custom of drinking healths to the bowl, and particularly that which enlivened the festive board of Yule, and afterwards to a bowl of spiced ale, borne by young women on the new year,tis said to have originated from the words of Wassail Dr. Forster, ubi suprà. Hone, E. Day Book, Vol. I. p. 42. + "The wenches with their wassel bowls About the streets are singing." G. Wither, on Christmas. BOOK Vortigern and Rowena. Rowena, the daughter of Hengist. Speed relates the anecdote from John Stowe :-"For feasting the king in Christmas. the castle of Tonng, commanded his daughter, a lady of passing beautie to attend the banquet, whose excellent feature and seemelie behauiour, blew the sparks of desire so right into Vortigern's wanton eyes, that they presently kindled a flame in his lasciuious heart: for in the midst of his cups Rowena (so was the damosell called) with a low reuerence and pleasing grace, saluted the king with a cup of gold full of sweet wine, incharming it with these words in her language Wær heal hlaford cyning, which is in English, Be of health, lord king:* he demanding the reason, would be taught to answer to her owne vnderstanding, and said, Drine heal, that is, Drinke health. If the derivation of wassail, which is a corrupt pronunciation of the Waes hael, in this story, "should be thought doubtful," says Strutt, "I can only say that it has the authority at least of antiquity on its side." In fact, Robert of Gloucester, in the early part of the reign of Edward the First, relates the anecdote, and draws the same inference: he says that, after the king had received the bowl from the Saxon princess, he "Kuste hire and sitte hire adoune, and glad dronk hire heil Peter de Langtoft, in the reign of Edward the Second, as translated by Robert of Brunne, narrates the same anecdote, and ascribes to Sir Breg, a knight in the company present, an explanation of the Saxon custom, which may no doubt be considered as that of the fourteenth century: 'Sir, Breg said, Rowen yow gretis, And king callis and lord yow letis. [esteems] *This translation is correct: but the learned editor of the Encyclopædia Perthensis translates Washæl, “Your health" Art. Wassail. + Hist. Engl. p. 205. n. 4. Edit. Fol. 1632. This es ther custom and ther gest, Drinkheille, he sais, and drinke ther of, Kissand him in bourd and skof." [sport.] He subjoins that the story was noised about, and the behaviour of Rowena and the king on this occasion became generally imitated, "Thus was wassaille tane to thank." This explanation of the term, however, shows how soon the Saxon was forgotten. The Anglo-Norman author of a Christmas carol appears to employ the word in its original sense of Be thou healthy : "Si io vus di trestoz Wesseyl Dehaiz eit qui ne dirra Drincheil," which is pretty nearly imitated in an ancient drinking song, of which the second line is expletive, "Now wassel to you all, And merry may you be; Who drinks not health to me." BOOK II. Christmas. Waes-hael at an early date, became, not unnaturally, the name of the drinking cup of our ancestors. In religious houses the Wassail Bowl was set at the upper end of the table, for the use of the abbot, who began the health, or Poculum Charitatis, to strangers or to his brethren. Hence cakes and fine white bread, which were usually sopped in the bowl, were called Wassail Bread.* Edmund, earl of Bread. March, bequeaths in 1382, the date of his will, a silver cup, Matt. Paris. p. 141. Wassail BOOK "The called Wassaill, to Sir John de Briddlewode.* wassails," says Strutt, "are now quite obsolete; it seems, Christmas. however, that fifty years back, some vestiges of them were remaining in Cornwall; but the time of their performance was changed to Twelfth Day." The eve of this day in Yorkshire, in the last century, was called Wassail Eve, from the use of the Wassail Bowl, a preparation of spiced ale. Gothic Jud. Christmas. Pie. Among the Gothic usages of Jul or Yule, it may be mentioned that it was also customary, especially in Sweden, for different families to assemble in one village, and to bring with them meat and drink for the celebration of the feast; the same was observed when there was a general concourse to the place where one of their temples stood; and this was probably the origin of the custom still maintained among us, of relations and friends feasting at each other's houses at this time:: "Now all our neighbour's chimnies smoke, And Christmas Blocks are burning; And if for cold it hap to die, We'll bury 't in a Christmas Pie, And evermore be merry."§ The mirth here described to have been the concomitant of the Christmas Pie, which was a dish originally formed like the body of a boar, as already mentioned, but which was afterwards moulded in the melancholy model of a "Un hanap d'argent appellez Wassaill." Nichol's Royal Wills, p. 115, The editor refers to notes in Dodsley's Old Play, 1779, Vol. VI., p. 437. Vol. X., p. 280. + Strutt, ubi suprà. Gent. Mag. Feb. 1784. § George Withers, On Christmas. BOOK II. coffin, to represent the manger of the infant Jesus,* seems to have been the exciting and real cause of the antipathy borne by the Puritans towards this cheerful emblem of Christmas. ancient hospitality. They quarrelled not only with the Christmas Pie, but with every other dainty provided for social repast at this season, and, like some modern saints, they strove to render periods of harmless cessation from the active business of life as disagreeable as possible. With this object in view, to use the language of Butler, "Rather than fail, they do defy That which they love most tenderly; And blaspheme custard through the nose." The gravity of the historian seems to be disturbed by his Puritaniown account of their awful proceedings;-"Such love of cal Proceedings. contradiction prevailed in the parliament, that they had converted Christmas, which with churchmen was a great festival, into a solemn fast and humiliation;" 'In order (as they said) that it might call to remembrance our sins and the sins of our forefathers, who pretending to celebrate the memory of christ, have turned this fast into an extreme forgetfulness of him, by giving liberty to carnal and sensual delights.' It is remarkable that as the parliament abolished all holy days, and severely prohibited all amusement on the sabbath, the nation found that there was no time left for relaxation or diversion. Upon application, therefore, of the servants and apprentices, the parliament appointed the second Tuesday of every month for play and recreation. * Selden's Table Talk. The annotator on Taming of the Shrew, Act IV. sc. 3, "It is a paltry cap, A custard coffin, a bauble, a silken pie;"- Custard observes that “a coffin was the culinary term for raised crusts." Stevens. Coffin. Shaksp. Vol. III. p. 371. |