Dedans la Judée,
On vit ce jour solemnel
La joie inondée;
Il n'étoit ni petit ni grand
Qui n'apportât son présent
Et n'o, n'o, n'o, n'o,
Et n'offrit, frit, frit,
Et n'o, n'o, et n'offrit,
Et n'offrit sans cesse Toute sa richesse."
Our readers are no doubt aware that the carol-sheets still make their
annual appearance at this season, not only in the metropolis, but also
in Manchester, Birmingham, and perhaps other towns. In London they pass
into the hands of hawkers, who wander about our streets and suburbs
enforcing the sale thereof by--in addition to the irresistible
attraction of the wood-cuts with which they are embellished--the further
recommendation of their own versions and variations of the original
tunes, yelled out in tones which could not be heard without alarm by any
animals throughout the entire range of Nature, except the domesticated
ones, who are "broken" to it. For ourselves, we confess that we are not
thoroughly broken yet, and experience very uneasy sensations at the
approach of one of these alarming choirs.
"'T is said that the lion will turn and flee
From a maid in the pride of her purity."
We would rather meet him under the protection of a group of London
carol-singers. We would undertake to explore the entire of central
Africa, well provisioned and in such company, without the slightest
apprehension, excepting such as was suggested by the music itself.
By these gentry a very spirited competition is kept up in the article of
annoyance with the hurdy-gurdies, and other instruments of that class,
which awaken the echoes of all our streets, and furnish a sufficient
refutation of the assertion that we are not a musical nation. We have
heard it said that the atmosphere of London is highly impregnated
with coal-smoke and barrel-organs. The breath of ballad-singers should
enter into the account at this season. The sketch from life which we
have given of one of these groups will convey to our readers a very
lively notion of the carol-singers of London, and supply them with a
hint as to the condition in this flourishing metropolis of that branch
of the fine arts. Our friends will perceive that this is a family of
artists, from the oldest to the youngest. The children are born to an
inheritance of song, and begin to enter upon its enjoyment in the
cradle. That infant in arms made his _débût_ before the public a day or
two after he was born, and is already an accomplished chorister; and the
hopeful boy who is howling by his mother's side acquits himself as
becomes the heir-at-law to parents who have sung through the world, and
the next in reversion to his father's fiddle.
[Illustration: LONDON CAROL SINGERS.--_Page 215._]
A very curious part of the business, however, is, that these people
actually expect to get money for what they are doing! With the most
perfect good faith, they really calculate upon making a profit by their
outrages upon men's feelings! It is for the purpose of "putting bread
into their mouths" that those mouths are opened in that portentous
manner. For ourselves, we have a strong conviction that the spread of
the emigration mania has been greatly promoted by the increase of
ballad-singers in the land. We have frequently resolved to emigrate, on
that account, ourselves; and if we could be perfectly certified of any
desirable colony, to which no removals had taken place from the class in
question, we believe we should no longer hesitate. The existence of that
class is a grievous public wrong, and calls loudly for legislation. We
have frequently thought that playing a hurdy-gurdy in the streets should
be treated as a capital crime.
Of the annual sheets and of such other carols as may be recoverable from
traditional or other sources, it is to be regretted that more copious
collections are not made, by the lovers of old customs, ere it be too
late. Brand speaks of an hereditary collection of ballads, almost as
numerous as the Pepysian collection at Cambridge, which he saw, at
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in the printing-office of the late Mr. Saint,
amongst which were several carols for the Christmas season. Hone, in his
"Ancient Mysteries," gives a list of eighty-nine carols in his
possession, all in present use (though likely soon to become obsolete),
and exclusive of the modern compositions printed by religious societies,
under the denomination of carols. He furnishes a curious proof of the
attachment which the carol-buyers extend, from the old carols
themselves, to the old rude cuts by which they are illustrated. "Some of
these," he says, "on a sheet of Christmas carols, in 1820, were so rude
in execution that I requested the publisher, Mr. T. Batchelar, of 115,
Long Alley, Moorfields, to sell me the original blocks. I was a little
surprised by his telling me that he was afraid it would be impossible
to get any of the same kind cut again. When I proffered to get much
better engraved, and give them to him in exchange for his old ones, he
said, 'Yes, but better are not so good; I can get better myself. Now
these are old favorites, and better cuts will not please my customers so
well.'" We have before us several of the sheets for the present season,
issued from the printing-office and toy warehouse of Mr. Pitts, in the
Seven Dials; and we grieve to say that, for the most part, they show a
lamentable improvement in the embellishments, and an equally lamentable
falling-off in the literary contents. One of these sheets, however,
which bears the heading title of "Divine Mirth," contains some of the
_old_ carols, and is adorned with impressions from cuts, rude enough, we
should think, to please even the customers of Mr. Batchelar.
Amongst the musical signs of the season we must not omit to place that
once important gentleman, the bellman, who was anciently accustomed, as
our excellent friend Mr. Hone says, at this time, "to make frequent
nocturnal rambles, and proclaim all tidings which it seemed fitting to
him that people should be awakened out of their sleep to hearken to."
From that ancient collection, "The Bellman's Treasury," which was once
this now decayed officer's vade-mecum, we shall have occasion to
extract, here and there, in their proper places, the announcements by
which, of old, he broke in upon the stillness of the several nights of
this period. In the mean time our readers may take the following example
of bellman verses, written by Herrick, and which we have extracted from
his "Hesperides:"
"From noise of scare-fires rest ye free,
From murders Benedicitie;
From all mischances that may fright
Your pleasing slumbers in the night.
"Mercie secure ye all, and keep
The goblin from ye while ye sleep.
Past one aclock, and almost two.
My masters all, good day to you!"
The bell of this ancient officer may still be heard, at the midnight
hour of Christmas Eve (and perhaps on other nights), in the different
parishes of London, performing the overture to a species of recitative,
in which he sets forth (amongst other things) the virtues of his patrons
(dwelling on their liberality), and offers them all the good wishes of
the season. The printed papers containing the matter of these
recitations he has been busy circulating amongst the parishioners for
some time; and, on the strength thereof, presents himself as a candidate
for some expression of their good-will in return, which, however, he
expects should be given in a more profitable form. These papers, like
the carol-sheets, have their margins adorned with wood-cuts after
Scriptural subjects. One of them now lies before us, and we grieve to
say that the quaint ancient rhymes are therein substituted by meagre
modern inventions, and the wood-cuts exhibit a most ambitious pretension
to be considered as specimens of improved art. There is a copy of Carlo
Dolce's "Last Supper" at the foot.
The beadle of to-day is in most respects changed, for the worse, from
the bellman of old. Still, we are glad to hear his bell--which sounds
much as it must have done of yore--lifting up its ancient voice amongst
its fellows at this high and general season of bells and bob-majors.
[Illustration: BELL-RINGING.]
Part Second.
THE CHRISTMAS DAYS.
[Illustration: The Lord of Misrule
The High and Mighty Prince, Henry Prince of Purpoole,
Archduke of Stapulia and Bernardia, Duke of High and
Nether Holborn, Marquis of St. Giles and Tottenham, Count
Palatine of Bloomsbury and Clerkenwell, Great Lord of the
Cantons of Islington, Kentish Town Paddington & Knightsbridge
_Gesta Grayorum._
]
THE CHRISTMAS DAYS.
HAVING given our readers an historical and general account of this
ancient festival, and a particular explanation of some of the principal
tokens which, in modern times as of old, bespeak the coming of its more
high and ceremonious days, we must now proceed to furnish them with a
more peculiar description of those individual days themselves; confining
ourselves, as nearly as completeness of view will admit, within the
limits which bound what is, in its most especial and emphatic sense, the
Christmas season. In order, however, to attain this completeness of
view, it has been necessary to allow ourselves certain points lying on
both sides, _without_ those strict boundaries; and the selection which
we have made includes the two conditions of giving us latitude enough
for our purpose, and keeping reasonably close to the heart of the
subject at the same time. The reasons for this particular selection will
more fully appear in the accounts which we have to give of the
individual days on which that selection has fallen, and in the further
remarks which we have to make, generally on that portion of the year
which we place under the presidency of
OUR LORD OF MISRULE.
[Illustration: CHRISTMAS PRESENTS.]
ST. THOMAS'S DAY.
21ST DECEMBER.
THIS day, which is dedicated to the apostle St. Thomas, we have chosen
as the opening of the Christmas festivities; because it is that on which
we first seem to get positive evidence of the presence of the old
gentleman, and see the spirit of hospitality and benevolence which his
coming creates brought into active operation. Of the manner in which
this spirit exhibits itself in the metropolis, we are about presently to
speak; but must previously notice that in many of the rural districts of
England there are still lingering traces of ancient customs, which meet
at this particular point of time and under the sanction of that same
spirit. These practices, however various in their kinds, are for the
most part relics in different shapes of the old mummeries, which we
shall have to discuss at length in the course of the present chapter;
and are but so many distinct forms in which the poor man's appeal is
made to the rich man's charity, for a share in the good things of this
merry festival.
Amongst these ancient customs may be mentioned the practice of "going a
gooding," which exists in some parts of Kent, and is performed by women,
who present sprigs of evergreens and Christmas flowers, and beg for
money in return. We believe the term "going a gooding" scarcely requires
illustration. It means, simply, going about to wish "good even,"--as,
according to Nares, fully appears from this passage in Romeo and
Juliet:--
"_Nurse._ God ye good morrow, gentlemen.
_Mercutio._ God ye _good den_, fair gentlewoman."
In this same county, St. Thomas's Day is likewise known by the name of
"Doleing Day," on account of the distribution of the bounty of different
charitable individuals. This word "dole" is explained by Nares to mean
"a share or lot in any thing distributed," and to come from the verb _to
deal_. He quotes Shakspeare for this also:--
"It was your presurmise
That in the _dole_ of blows your son might drop."
The musical procession known in the Isle of Thanet and other parts of
the same county by the name of "hodening" (supposed by some, to be an
ancient relic of a festival ordained to commemorate the landing of our
Saxon ancestors in that island, and which, in its form, is neither more
nor less than a modification of the old practice of the "hobby horse"),
is to this day another of the customs of this particular period.
A custom analogous to these is still to be traced in Warwickshire;
throughout which county it seems to have been the practice of the poor
to go from door to door of every house "with a bag to beg corn of the
farmers, which they call going a corning." And in Herefordshire a
similar custom exists, where this day is called "Mumping Day," that is,
begging day.
To the same spirit we owe the Hagmena or Hogmanay practice, still in use
in Scotland, as well as that of the Wren Boys in Ireland, both of which
will be described hereafter, although their observance belongs to later
days of the season, and probably many others which will variously
suggest themselves to our various readers as existing in their several
neighborhoods.
In the great metropolis of England, where poverty and wretchedness exist
in masses upon which private benevolence cannot efficiently act, and
where imposture assumes their forms in a degree that baffles the charity
of individuals, the bequests of our ancestors have been to a great
extent placed for distribution in the hands of the various parish
authorities. St. Thomas's Day in London therefore is connected with
these charities, by its being that on which some of the most important
parochial proceedings take place; and amongst these are the wardmotes,
held on this day for the election, by the freemen inhabitant
householders, of the members of the Common Council, and other officers
of the respective city wards.
The civil government of the City of London is said to bear a general
resemblance to the legislative power of the empire; the Lord Mayor
exercising the functions of monarchy, the Aldermen those of the peerage,
and the Common Council those of the legislature. The principal
difference is, that the Lord Mayor himself has no negative. The laws for
the internal regulation of the city are wholly framed by these officers
acting in common council. A Common-Councilman is, therefore, a personage
of no mean importance.
Loving Christmas and its ceremonies with antiquarian veneration, we must
profess likewise our profound respect for wards of such high sounding
names as Dowgate, and Candlewick, and Cripplegate, and Vintry, and
Portsoken; the last of which, be it spoken with due courtesy, has always
reminded us of an alderman's nose; and for such distinguished callings
as those of Cordwainers, and Lorimers, and Feltmakers, and Fishmongers,
and Plasterers, and Vintners, and Barbers; each of whom we behold in
perspective transformed into what Theodore Hook calls "a splendid
annual," or in less figurative language, Lord Mayor of London! There is
a pantomimic magic in the word since the memorable days of Whittington.
But to our theme.--
Pepys, the gossipping secretary of the Admiralty, records in his curious
diary his having gone on St. Thomas's Day (21st December), 1663, "to
Shoe Lane to see a cocke-fighting at the new pit there, a spot," he
adds, "I was never at in my life: but, Lord! to see the strange variety
of people, from parliament-man (by name Wildes, that was deputy governor
of the Tower when Robinson was Lord Mayor) to the poorest 'prentices,
bakers, brewers, butchers, draymen, and what not; and all these fellows
one with another cursing and betting. I soon had enough of it. It is
strange to see how people of this poor rank, that look as if they had
not bread to put into their mouths, shall bet three or four pounds at a
time and lose it, and yet as much the next battle, so that one of them
will lose £10 or £20 at a meeting."
Now the cock-fighting of our times, under the immediate patronage of
Saint Thomas, and those of Pepys's differ little except in the character
of the combatants. In his (comparatively speaking) barbarous days, it
was sufficient to pit two birds, one against the other, to excite the
public or amuse the spectators. But a purer taste prevails among the
present citizens of London; for our modern "fighting-cocks," as the
candidates for civic honors are called, seem on this day to be fully
occupied with the morning exhibition of their own foul tongues,--and
bets often run as high as parties, on these occasions.
"Saint Thomas's birds"--another name for these civic
fighting-cocks--have been trained in various ale-house associations,
such as the "Ancient and honorable Lumber Troop," the venerable "Society
of Codgers," "the free and easy Johns," the "Councillors under the
Cauliflower," and other well-known clubs,--where politics, foreign and
domestic, night after night are discussed, and mingle with the smoke of
tobacco, inhaled through respectable clay pipes and washed down with
nips of amber ale, or quarts of frothy-headed porter. Indeed the
qualification for admission into the Lumber Troop is, we have been told,
the power of consuming a quart of porter at a draught, without, once
pausing to draw a breath,--which feat must be performed before that
august assembly. We once visited the head-quarters of this
porter-quaffing troop, and found the house, with some difficulty, near
Gough Square,--which lies in that intricate region between Holborn Hill
and Fleet Street. It was a corner house, and an inscription upon the
wall, in letters of gold, informed the passer-by that this was the place
of meeting of the Lumber Troop. The room in which they met is small,
dark, and ancient in appearance, with an old-fashioned chimney-piece in
the centre, and a dais or raised floor at one end, where, we presume,
the officers of the troop take their seats. Above their heads, upon a
shelf, some small brass cannon were placed as ornaments, and the walls
of the room were decorated with the portraits of distinguished
troopers,--among whom Mr. Alderman Wood, in a scarlet robe, and Mr.
Richard Taylor were pointed out to our notice. Over the fire-place hung
the portrait of an old gentleman, in the warlike costume of Cromwell's
time, who was, probably,
"Some Fleet Street Hampden."
The obscurity which conceals the origin of many interesting and
important institutions hangs over the early history of the Lumber Troop.
Tradition asserts that, when Henry VIII. went to the siege of Boulogne,
he drained the country of all its soldiers; and the citizens of London
who remained behind, inspired with martial ardor, formed themselves into
a troop, for the protection of old England. In the grotesque and gouty
appearance of these troopers, their name of the Lumber Troop is said to
have originated. Their field days, as may be expected, were exhibitions
of merriment; and their guards and midnight watches scenes of feasting
and revelry. The "Lumber-pye" was formerly a dish in much repute, being
composed of high-seasoned meats and savory ingredients, for the
preparation of which receipts may be found in the old cookery books.
Recently, it has been corrupted into Lombard Pie, on account, as is
said, of its Italian origin,--but we profess allegiance to the more
ancient name.
Let those who hold lightly the dignity of a Lumber Trooper, and who
perhaps have smiled at the details here given, inquire of the
representatives of the city of London in the parliament of England,
their opinion of the matter. We have been assured that these jolly
troopers influence every city election to such an extent that, without
an understanding with these worthies, no candidate can have a chance of
success. In the same way, the codgers, in Codger's Hall, Bride Lane
(said to have been instituted in 1756, by some of the people of the
Inner Temple, who imagined their free thoughts and profound cogitations
worthy of attention, and charged half-a-crown for the _entrée_), and
other ale-house clubs, exert their more limited power. Hone, in his
Every-Day Book, observes that "these societies are under currents that
set in strong, and often turn the tide of an election in favor of some
'good fellow,' who is good nowhere but in 'sot's-hole.'" And he adds,
commenting upon St. Thomas's Day, "Now the 'gentlemen of the inquest,'
chosen 'at the church' in the morning, dine together, as the first
important duty of their office; and the re-elected ward-beadles are busy
with the fresh chosen constables; and the watchmen [this was before the
days of the police] are particularly civil to every 'drunken gentleman'
who happens to look like one of the new authorities. And now the
bellman, who revives the history and poetry of his predecessors, will
vociferate--
[Illustration: ST. THOMAS'S DAY.--_Page 233._]
"'My masters all, this is St. Thomas'-day,
And Christmas now can't be far off, you'll say.
And when you to the Ward-motes do repair,
I hope such good men will be chosen there,
As constables for the ensuing year,
As will not grudge the watchmen good strong beer.'"
The illustration of this part of our subject which our artist has given,
exhibits the scene of one of these parish elections; and includes, in
the distance, a vision of those good things to which all business
matters in England--and above all, in its eastern metropolitan city--are
but prefaces.
We may observe, here, that St. Thomas's Day is commonly called the
shortest of the year, although the difference between its length and
that of the twenty-second is not perceptible. The hours of the sun's
rising and setting, on each of those days, are marked as the same in our
calendars, and the latter is sometimes spoken of as the shortest day.
- - - - - - -
As the days which intervene between this and the Eve of Christmas are
distinguished by no special ceremonial of their own, and as the numerous
observances attached to several of the particular days which follow will
sufficiently prolong those parts of our subject, we will take this
opportunity of alluding to some of the sports and festivities not
peculiar to any one day, but extending more or less generally over the
entire season.
Burton in his "Anatomy of Melancholy" mentions, as the winter amusements
of his day, "Cardes, tables and dice, shovelboard, chesse-play, the
philosopher's game, small trunkes, shuttlecocke, billiards, musicke,
masks, singing, dancing, ule-games, frolicks, jests, riddles, catches,
purposes, questions and commands, merry tales of errant knights,
queenes, lovers, lords, ladies, giants, dwarfes, theeves, cheaters,
witches, fayries, goblins, friers," &c. Amongst the list of Christmas
sports, we elsewhere find mention of "jugglers, and jack-puddings,
scrambling for nuts and apples, dancing the hobby-horse, hunting owls
and squirrels, the fool-plough, hot-cockles, a stick moving on a pivot
with an apple at one end and a candle at the other, so that he who
missed his bite burned his nose, blindman's buff, forfeits, interludes
and mock plays:" also of "thread my needle, Nan," "he can do little that
can't do this," feed the dove, hunt the slipper, shoeing the wild mare,
post and pair, snap-dragon, the gathering of omens, and a great variety
of others. In this long enumeration, our readers will recognize many
which have come down to the present day, and form still the amusement of
their winter evenings at the Christmas-tide, or on the merry night of
Halloween. For an account of many of those which are no longer to be
found in the list of holiday games, we must refer such of our readers as
it may interest to Brand's "Popular Antiquities," and Strutt's "English
Sports." A description of them would be out of place in this volume; and
we have mentioned them only as confirming a remark which we have
elsewhere made; viz., that in addition to such recreations as arise out
of the season or belong to it in a special sense, whatever other games
or amusements have at any time been of popular use, have generally
inserted themselves into this lengthened and joyous festival; and that
all the forms in which mirth or happiness habitually sought expression
congregated from all quarters at the ringing of the Christmas bells.