The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1867-01-01 00:00:00

CRAM II AS : ITS DECOR A TION'S, CAROLS,
AND CUSTOM&

"0.11 ancient assailers I me delouse*.
Where they survive, of wholmorna laws;
Remnants of love whose modest sense
Thus Into n ',Tow room withdrawn
flail usages of pristine mould,
And ye that guard them, mountains old..

ancient

I am quite of the opinion expressed by the bard of
Mount Rydal in the shove lines as to ancient
customs, and I delight in all old•fashionsd Christ.
maelte. ping magas. Christmas decorations, for
example, I especially approve of. I entertain •
perfect appreciation of the beauty and fitness of
floral offerings in planes appointed for public worship
at this holy sinacm. I like to see Gol's house
ornamented with tbe most lovely and exquisite
flowers that can be prorated. I love the good old
custom of adorning our churches with evergreens.
but I detest tineel and abhor blue and red paper
roses; I abominate the boil taste displayed in such
thmiriosi shame This gossip, however, is not to
discuss tinsel o nameotation, but to notioe the origin
of church decoration at Christmas time.
The very earliest Christi= communities dead ever-
greens to decorate with at Christmas. 'I he bony
tree was called in Ramsay the Christdom in Den-
mark the Christbeen, and in Sweden the Christorn.
It ha. other names ail well in each of these countries.
Steca•pabite, &Adidas, sad Jernsk ; but I deem
the three first very significant of the use to whisk it
was applied, and our own old ltnglish name of holly
(holy) is doubtless derived from its having been
consecrated to religions customs at • very early
period in Britain. Ras it ever struck you, when
thinking of Christmas demolitions, how often Christ
is represented under the type of a hough in Scrip-
t..? The "bough of righteousness," and •
"righteous branch." In Isaiah we find, "lb.
en of Lebanon shall owns unto thee. The fir.
tree, the pins-tree mid the box together to beautify
the plea, of my satiensry." May we not gather
from this verge that evergreens Were then need to
decorate God'. boom I
As to the Druids and their ceremonies, we will
peas them by at present. I want higher authority
than the Celtic for the um of evergreens, and it is
Possible that the first plains of Christi= worship in
this country were construceed with boughs; the
Christian missionaries very likely coneidered snob,
typical of their doctrines, so that to the =Moen
mentioned in the Old Testament we may, I think,
then our use of evergreens in °bard= at Christmas
time.

Now, to torn to a km important Christina'
custom —time decoration of homes.
"Tim damsel donn'd her knits it...;
Tho ball wet arms./ with holly g 0...;
P•irth to Ms wood did merry well go
To gather in the mistletoe;
Then open'd wido the beron'e boll
To mosal, Monet, serf, and all.
Power laid bw rod aside,
And osremony dord his pride."

All oar poets °thirsts Christmas keeping. Book,
Clare, and Wadsworth last but sot least,
bays song of Christmas rejnisius in the older. tine,
mid Lowe told in verse of these days when the yule
log crackled and biased forth its warm welcome,
when the wassail-bowl drowned foods, and

"Tb• mmirtoe hues ie the old oak bail,"
Ite pearl-like berries Laisgbiag M the fOliristrase
privileges emceed ..der its preesetiag Mode. That
the mistletoe is a retie al Druidism there Gut be se

doubt ; bet I really cannot trace any resemblance'
between *fa rites and ammonia' performed by the
ancient Britossi, or (to go further back) the son of
Olin, who was slain by an arrow made from this
plant, and the timelionoured custom of kissing
under the mistletoe.

Ivy and holly were also in great request imago'
our anonstors. There is an t•ld mini in M. at the
British Museum, in which the following yawls
appear :
". Ivy bath betty' as black as any slo,

Titer OM the oule and eke byto as one go.
Nay ivy ! nay by% kn,
Ti,. Holy hall, hirdyr, aftal fayre 1101 c,
The Nyghtyngale. the Poppvngy, the milky' Lavyrok.
Noy ivy, nay hyt."
Good Ivy what byrdys set thou
Non but the howlet that kreye, bow! bow I
Nay ivy I nay hyt."

The ivy has mnet certainly other " hyrdys," now,
what ever it hail in the days these peculiar lines were
written: for wood-pigeons, blackbird; sod thrushes
will all eat iis berries in spring time. There is •
belief in some country plame still, to the effect that
eveigreens are placed in houses at Christmas for the
"little people" (fairies), the sylvan spirits, who
sac irding to drudical teaching were wont to repair
to their beloved green homes until the wild frosts
and winds iif winter had gone by—the spirits that
dwell in our Christmas evergreens are (or at anyrate
they ought to be, and we will hope that they are)
the spirit of kindness, good-will, brotherly love,
forgiveness and innocent mirth. They are the beat
fairies to propitiate, and if we have not already
cultivated their acquaintance let us begin at mice
semi thitui Christmas cards of invitation, remember-
ing, with all humility, the example, and teaching of
our Divine Redeemer, whose human birthday it is
we desire to celebrate, but I most not give my
readers occasion to cry that I am writing a sermon
instead of • gossip on Christmas customs.
The yule log has come to us from the Scandi-
navians for they used to light a lags booties at the
feast of Jiml. How joyous it must have been in our
baronial halls, some couple of hundred years ago,
when this enormous block use brought home in
triumph to shed its ruddy blase epos the armour-
lined walls, and grinhlooking boar', heed. I
ampler why a pippin or an orange always graced
tb• animal's jawe--aurely, U the old tale be
true, that the custom of serving up • boar'.
bead at Queen's College, Ogford, arose from the
fact that one of thestudenta choked an infuriated
wild boar in Sheerer rarest, by thrusting a velum*
of Ethics down his throat, the lordly dish should
then be rent to table with • oopy of the philoso-
pher's records in the animal's maw—so as to com-
memorate the oullairian.'s presume of mind.
The wassail bowl ts another Christmas—Well,
what shall I call it? Not a diab, and yet not a drink
exactly; suppose I say " institutioe'l In Wales
the wassail is • compound of spiced ale roast apples,
and toasted cakes. I believe it would considered
by many persons there unlucky not to taste the
ountenta of the cup on Christmaiveve, jolt as it is
thought fortunate to sat aminoe pie in some counties
on Christmas-day, and palmlike' on Shrove Tuesday.

"Now wassail to you all, and merry may yes be."
aware in a very old Norman-French carol; and
apropos of carol., I ems my friend, Mr. W. Wallace
ryfe, of Dorchester, is going t 2 sive • lecture on
Christmas carols at Blandford this month. His
admirable lectures are well known. They are
tonally given with choral illustration', and wars
attended by all the MU in Doreetabire last winter.
I really think carol singing one of the most charm-
ing of our old Christmas customs; and, in proof of
its antiquity I must quote the practice of oar early
Christian bishops, who used to sing them with their
clergy in bower of Christ's nativity,. The hymn
sung by the angels was, according to Milton, the
dre, carol. They set an esample on di, plains of
Bethlehem, when the mountains of Moab and the
bill of Tekosh echoed with their song of praise,
which the Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches
have loos followed. I do not imagine, though,
that carols are ever song in our churches now
iostead of hymns. At any rate, I have not beard of
each • revival of old custom.; but I like to bear
oorels on Christmas morning, sung by a set of
people as unsophisticated in their habits as the
villagers described by Goldsmith were; and in
many parts of the country the custom is still kept
up. I moat draw this gossip to a close, within(' all
my readers .`lilwyddya-Newyddada i chwi.
A UMW) W in Land cod Water, of
Demotic 22, 1266.