be enabled to pay the priest for his masses, knowing well the old proverb, No penny, no paternoster.'

A thrift-box, as it is vulgarly called (says Mr. Brand), is still retained in barbers' shops in the North, being put against the wall, and every customer contributing. The Christmas-box is thus mentioned by Mr. Gay :

Some boys are rich by birth beyond all wants,
Beloved by uncles, and kind good old aunts:
When time comes round, a Christmas-box they bear,
And one day makes them rich for all the year.

The Carols, formerly sung at this season of the year, were festal chansons for enlivening the merriments of the Christmas celebrity; and not such religious songs as are current at this day, with the common people, under the same title, and which were substituted by those enemies of innocent and useful mirth, the Puritans. The BOAR'S-HEAD, soused, was. antiently the first dish on Christmas-day, and was carried up to the principal table in the hall, with great state and solemnity, a carol being sung at the time. The old song, with some variations, is yet retained in Queen's College, Oxford, and is sung annually on Christmas-day, when a boar's-head is served up as the principal dish.

The religious hymn, which succeeded the festal carol, very much resembled those miserable ditties that are now, annually, bawled through the streets of the metropolis at Christmas; and are equally eminent examples of the art of sinking, in poetry. Take, as a specimen, the following Scottish carol, printed in 1625:

My saull and lyfe stand up and see
Duha lyes in ane cribe of tree,
Duhat babe is that so gude and faire?
It is Christ, God's sonne and aire.
D. God that made all creature,
How art thou become so pure,
That on the hay and straw will lye,
Among the asses, oxin, and kye?

my deir hert, zoung Jesus sweit,
Prepare thy creddil in my spreit,
and I sall rocke thee in my hert,
And never mair from thee depart.
But I sall praise thee ever moir
With sangs sweit, unto thy gloir,
The knees of my hert sall I bow,
And sing that richt halulalow.

Chatterton gives a lively description of CHRISTMAS AS IT WAS, in olden time. "The antient Christmas gambols,' says the poet, were, in my opinion, superior to our modern spectacles and amusements : wrestling, hurling the ball, and dancing in the woodlands, were pleasures for men. It is true, the conversation of the hearth-side was the tales of superstition: the fairies, Robin Goodfellow, and hobgoblins, never failed to make the trembling audience utter an avemaria, and cross their chins; but the laughable exercises of blindman's buff, riddling, and question and command, sufficiently compensated for the few sudden starts of terror. Add to these amusements the wretched voices of the chanters and sub-chanters ; howling carols in Latin; the chiming of consecrated bells; the burning consecrated wax candles; curiously representing the Virgin Mary; praying to the saint whose monastery stood nearest; the munching consecrated cross-leaves sold by the monks; all which effectually eradicated the spectres of their terrific stories. Nor were these the only charms against the foul fiends and nightmare; sleeping cross-legged, like the effigies of Knights Templars and warriors, and the holy bush and church-yard yew, were certain antidotes against those invisible beings.

The great barons and knights generally kept open ›

houses during this season, when their villains or vassals were entertained with bread, beef, and beer, and a pudding, wastol-cake, or Christmas kitchel, and a groat in silver at parting; being obliged to wave the full flagon round their heads, in honour of the master of the house. Plays were performed by the monks; the plot being, generally, the life of some Pope, or the founder of the abbey to which the monks belonged. Private exhibitions at the manors of the barons were usually family histories; minstrels, jesters, and mummers, composed the next class of performers, who were maintained in the castle of the baron, to entertain his family. Chaucer thus mentions them:

Doe comme, he saled, myn mynstrales,
And jestours for to tellen us tales,
Anon in mye armpage.

Df Romaunces yatto been royals,
Of Popes and Cardinals,

And eke of love longynge.

The Meteor of the North' has painted a vivid but faithful portrait of antient Christmas ceremonies, and with all the minute accuracy and high finishing of a Gerhard Douw:

On Christmas eve the bells were rung;
On Christmas eve the mass was sung;
That only night, in all the year,
Saw the stoled priest the chalice rear.
The damsel donned her kirtle sheen;
The hall was dressed with holly green;
Forth to the wood did merry-men go,
To gather in the misletoe.

Then opened wide the baron's hall
To vassal, tenant, serf, and all;
Power laid his rod of rule aside,
And ceremony doffed his pride.
The heir, with roses in his shoes,
That night might village partner choose;
The lord, underogating, share
The vulgar game of 'post and pair.'
All hailed, with uncontrolled delight,
And general voice, the happy night,
That to the cottage, as the crown,
Brought tidings of salvation down.

The fire, with well-dried logs supplied,
Went roaring up the chimney wide;
The huge hall-table's oaken face,
Scrubbed till it shone, the day to grace,
Bore then upon its massive board
No mark to part the 'squire and lord.
Then was brought in the lusty brawn
By old blue-coated serving-man;
Then the grim boar's head frowned on high,
Crested with bays and rosemary.
Well can the green-garbed ranger tell
How, when, and where, the monster fell;
What dogs before his death he tore,
And all the baiting of the boar.

The wassel round in good brown bowls,
Garnished with ribbons, blithely trowls.
There the huge sirloin reeked; hard by
Plum-porridge stood, and Christmas pie;
Nor failed old Scotland to produce,
At such high tide, her savoury goose.
Then came the merry masquers in,
And carols roared with blithesome din :
If unmelodious was the song,

It was a hearty note, and strong.
Who lists may in their mumming see
Traces of ancient mystery,

White shirts supplied the masquerade,
And smutted cheeks the visors made;
But, O! what masquers richly dight
Can boast of bosoms half so light!
England was merry England, when
Old Christmas brought his sports again.
"Twas Christmas broached the mightiest ale;
'Twas Christmas told the merriest tale;
A Christmas gambol oft could cheer

The poor man's heart through half the year.

The present manner of spending Christmas in the North Riding of Yorkshire, still preserves some traces of antiquity. It is customary for a party of singers, chiefly women, to commence, at the feast of Saint Martín, a peregrination round the neighbouring villages, carrying with them a small waxen image of our Saviour, adorned with box and other evergreens; at the same time, singing a hymn. This custom is continued till Christmas Eve, when their good living'

begins. Every rustic dame produces a cheese, upon which, before any part of it is tasted, rude incisions. are made to represent the cross. With this and furmety, made of barley and meal, the cottage affords uninterrupted hospitality. A large fire is made on Christmas Eve, on which the yule clogs' are piled, and a fragment of a clog or log is yearly preserved by every prudent housewife'.

Poor Robin, in his Almanack for 1677, thus notes the culinary preparations for the celebration of Christmas:

Now grocer's trade
Is in request
For Plums and Spices
Of the best.

Good cheer doth with
This month agree,
And dainty chaps
Must sweetned be.

Mirth and gladness
Doth abound,
And strong beer in

Each house is found.

Minced Pies, roast Beef,

With other cheer
And feasting, doth
Conclude the year.

26. SAINT STEPHEN.

With reference to this and the two succeeding festivals, it has been aptly observed, that there are three kinds of martyrdom; the first, in will and in deed; the second, in will but not in deed; and the third, in deed but not in will; so our church commemorates these martyrs in the same order. Saint Stephen, therefore, is placed first, as he suffered death both in will and deed: St. John the Evangelist next, as he suffered in will but not in deed: and the Holy Innocents last, who suffered in deed but not in will. The great Saint Stephen, as Saint Gregory calls him, whose temples were bound, in allusion to his name, with the first ole@avov, or crown of martyrdom, was an early proselyte to Christianity, and a man of singular holiness, being full of the Holy Ghost. He was the first deacon chosen by the apostles. Stephen was cited before the Sanhedrin, or Jewish Council, for prophesying the fall of the Jewish Temple and economy;

1

1 Other curious customs on St. Stephen's and New Year's day, will be noticed in the account of those festivals.