Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories (60 page)

Address on the opening of the Liverpool Institution.

From a poem on the death of the Princess Charlotte, by the Reverend Rann Kennedy, A. M.

Buchanan.

Ballenden's Translation of Hector Boyce.

Lyf,
person.

Twistis,
small boughs or twigs.

Note
.—The language of the quotations is generally modernized.

Setten
, incline.

Gilt
, what injury have I done, &c.

Wrought gold.

Largesse,
bounty.

Estate
, dignity.

Cunning
,
discretion.

Part of a sketch omitted in the preceding editions.

The following was the ancient inscription on the monument of this worthy—which unhappily was destroyed in the great conflagration—

As this inscription is rife with excellent morality, I transcribe it for the admonition of delinquent Tapsters. It is no doubt the production of some choice spirit who once frequented the Boar's head.

Thou didst swear to me, upon a
parcel-gilt goblet,
sitting in my Dolphin chamber, at the round table, by a sea coal fire, on Wednesday in Whitsunweek, when the prince broke thy head for likening his father to a singing man of Windsor; thou didst swear to me then, as I was washing thy wound, to marry me, and make me my lady thy wife. Canst thou deny it? III Part. Henry IV.

In Latin and French hath many soueraine wittes had great delyte to endite, and have many noble thinges fulfilde, but certes there ben some that speaken their poisye in French, of which speche the French men have as good a fantasye as we have in heryng of Frenchemen's Englishe.
Chaucer's Testament of Love.

Holinshed, in his Chronicle, observes, “afterward, also, by diligent travell of Geffray Chaucer and John Gowre, in the time of Richard the second, and after them of John Scogan and John Lydgate, monke of Berrie, our said toong was brought to an excellent passe, notwithstanding that it never came unto the type of perfection until the time of Queen Elizabeth, wherein John Jewell, Bishop of Sarum, John Fox, and sundrie learned and excellent writers, have fully accomplished the omature of the same, to their great praise and immortal commendation.”

Live ever sweete booke; the silver image of his gentle witt, and the golden pillar of his noble courage; and ever notify unto the world that thy writer was the secretary of eloquence, the breath of the muses, the honey bee of the dayntiest flowers of witt and arte, the pith of morale and intellectual virtues, the arme of Bellona in the field, the tongue of Suada in the chamber, the spirite of Practise in esse, and the paragon of excellency in print.
Harvey's Pierce's Supererogation.

Herrick

The erudite reader, well versed in good for nothing lore, will perceive that the above tale must have been suggested to the old Swiss by a little French anecdote, of a circumstance said to have taken place at Paris.

i
.
e
. CATSELBOW. The name of a family of those parts very powerful in former times. The appellation, we are told, was given in compliment to a peerless dame of the family, celebrated for a fine arm.

Sir T. Brown.

Poor Robin's Almanack, 1684.

Peacham's Compleat Gentleman, 1622.

The misletoe 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 all plucked, the privilege ceases.

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 in the fire place, and lighted with the brand of the last year's clog. While it lasted, there was great drinking, singing, and telling of tales. Sometimes it was accompanied by Christmas candles; but in the cottages the 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 a sign of ill luck.

Herrick mentions it in one of his songs: The Yule clog is still burnt in many farm houses and kitchens in England, particularly in the north, and there are several superstitions connected with it among the peasantry. If a squinting person come to the house while it is burning, or a person bare footed, it is considered an ill omen. The brand remaining from the Yule clog is carefully put away to light the next year's Christmas fire.

From “The Flying Eagle,” a small Gazette published December 24th, 1652.- “The House spent much time this day about the businesse of the Navy for settling the affairs at sea, and before they rose were presented with a terrible remonstrance against Christmas day, grounded upon divine Scriptures, 2 Cor. v. 16. 1 Cor. xv. 14.17; and in honour of the Lord's day, grounded upon these Scriptures, John, xx. 1. Rev, i. 10. Psalms, cxviii. 24. Lev. xxiii. 7.11. Mark. xvi. 8. Psalms, lxxxiv. 10. In which Christmas is called Antichrist's masse, and those Masse-mongers and Papists who observe it, &c. In consequence of which Parliament spent 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.”

“Ulel Ule! Three puddings in a pule; Crack nuts and cry ule!”

“AnEnglish gentleman at the opening of the great day, i.e. on Christmas day in the morning, had all his tenants and neighbours enter his hall by day break. The strong beer was broached, and the black jacks went plentifully about with toast, sugar, nutmeg, and good Cheshire cheese. The Hackin (the great sausage) must be boiled by daybreak, or else two young men must take the maiden ( i.e. the cook,) by the arms and run her round the market place till she is ashamed of her laziness.”
-Round about our Sea-coal Fire.

Sir John Suckling.

The old ceremony of serving up the boar's head on Christmas day is still observed in the hall of Queen's College Oxford. I was favoured by the parson with a copy of the carol as now sung, and as it may be acceptable to such of my readers as are curious in these grave and learned matters, I give it entire.

The peacock was anciently in great demand for stately entertainments. Sometimes it was made into a pie, at one end of which the head appeared above the crust in all its plumage, with the beak richly gilt; at the other end the tail was displayed. Such pies were served up at the solemn banquets of chivalry, when Knights errant pledged themselves to undertake any perilous enterprize, whence came the ancient oath, used by Justice Shallow, “by cock and pye.”

The peacock was also an important dish for the Christmas feast, and Massinger in his City Madam gives some idea of the extravagance with which this, as well as other dishes, was prepared for the gorgeous revels 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 carcasses of three fat wethers bruised for gravy to make sauce for a single peacock!

The Wassail Bowl was sometimes composed of ale instead of wine; with nutmeg, sugar, toast, ginger, and roasted crabs: in this way the nut brown beverage is still prepared in some old families, and round the hearths of substantial farmers at Christmas. It is also called Lamb's wool, and is celebrated by Herrick in his Twelfth Night:

“The custom of drinking out of the same cup gave place to each having his cup. When the steward came to the doore with the Wassel, he was to cry three times
Wassel, Wassel, Wassel,
and then the chappel ( chaplain ) was to answer with a song.” ARCHÆOLOGlA.

From Poor Robin's Almanack.

At christmasse there was in the Kinges house, wheresoever hee was lodged, a lorde of misrule, or mayster of merie disportes, and the like had ye in the house of every nobleman of honor, or good worshippe, were he spirituall or temporall. STOW.

Masquings or mummeries were favourite sports at Christmas in old times; and the wardrobes at halls and manor houses were often laid under contribution to furnish dresses and fantastic disguisings. I strongly suspect Master Simon to have taken the idea of his from Ben Jonson's Masque of Christmas.

Sir John Hawkins, speaking of the dance called the Pavon, from pavo, a peacock, says, “It is a grave and majestic dance; the method of dancing it anciently was by gentlemen, dressed with caps and swords, by those of the long robe in their gowns, by the peers in their mantles, and by the ladies in gowns with long trains, the motion whereof, in dancing, resembled that of a peacock.” HISTORY OF MUSIC,

At the time of the first publication of this paper, the picture of an old fashioned Christmas in the country was pronounced by some as out of date. The author had afterwards an opportunity of witnessing almost all the customs above described, existing in unexpected vigor on the skirts of Derbyshire and Yorkshire, where he passed the Christmas Holydays. The reader will find some notice of them in the author's account of his sojourn at Newstead Abbey.

It is evident that the author of this interesting communication has included in his general title of Little Britain, many of those little lanes and courts that belong immediately to Cloth Fair.

As mine host of the Half moon's Confession of Faith may not be familiar to the majority of readers, and as it is a specimen of the current songs of Little Britain, I subjoin it in its original orthography. I would observe that the whole club always join in the chorus with a fearful thumping on the table and clattering of pewter pots.

The following is the only stanza extant of this lampoon:—

The luce is a pike, or jack, and abounds in the Avon about Charlecot,