The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1821-12-18 00:00:00

FYTON, Stock-Broker, 2, Corolla), beg; leave
in return hiss one crateful thanks to the Public for
their kind patronage is the present Lottery, at the same
time to inform them, that the last Day of Drawing will he
thelflth inst. when Fif:ern Capital Prizes of 30,0001., 5,000 L,
lie. &e must be drawn. Many of EYTON'S Friends having
reittrued their Tickets smut Shares, perhaps hot being aware
that the Wheel was an rich, and fearful they did sot tinder-
Wild that they would have a chance for the Grand Prize of
30,000 J., E. F.YTON has retained the Tickets and Shares an
returned, to give his Friends the opportunity of repiirchasing
them; and as the demand i• ro grim, invites them to be
esily is their application, fearful of any disappointment.
EYTON, 2, Cornbill, and Lombard-street.

FitENCli WINES, &c. of the First tiuttli:c,
and 0 per cant. below the Prices which arc gene-
rally charted.
F. FLOWER, No.l, Pall mall, respectfully informs the
Nobility, Gentry, and French Families in particular, that he
bass Cosisiviunent of the fultoning Winer, of roust excel.
lent quality, and at the ifulluwing low Prices:—

Per Doz.

P•fiit Bordeaux - 425.
Ssaturne, particularly Rue
Baraae
Primise, col iuusly Rue •lid 12 years in bottle 63s.

_ .
Creaming Cbampsigne
Splashliug ditto
Sillery ditto, the most superior 96s.
Claret Lanite
Also a small parcel of Old Huck, vintage 1790 66s.
West ludia Madeira, of a very superb quality 6ls.
This Wine is an article very desirable to be met with now,
as the Town is inundated with trash at low Prima, called
East and West India Madeira, which is direct GUT the
island of Madeira to England, in barter fur variuos masa.
artssied goods.
Applications fur Sample Bottles will be attended to.
N.B.—Please to übserve that F. FLOWER'S Counting-
house is down the Steps under the First House in the Royal
Arcade; but Ike Eutrauce frum Pall-malt.

" The Mmes feat, as' cleanly neat,
More brew than when they're fine
Their faces Wyllie, fie sweetly Scythe,
Hearts kal, ■ts' warm, sr' kin :
The lads me trig, we wusrr•babe,
Weel knotted on their garter,
Some ancu blatr, an' some wi gabs,
Gnr lasses hearts gang startin,
Whiles fast at uight.
Christmas iv supposed by some to be fosncled on
the Saturnalia of the Romais, Hll,l WAS distinguish-
ed s century or two ago by its •' Costive' of fools."
The mummeries practised at that season were per-
fumed in disguises made with the skins of animals;
soil the lower orders, who could not afford masques
and dresses, daubed their faces with soot, the sexes
changing clothes. The Saturnalia were et Winded
in a similar manner. Such u resemblance, and the
obvious policy of transmuting the heathen festivities
into rejoicings of some kind, after the introduction
of Christianity, that the people niight not be de-
prived of their customary pleuenrcs, gives is plausi-
ble ground for supposing that the early Christians
availed themselves of the oppoitunity to establish a
fete in honour of the birth of their Founder. But
this can only be conjecture, like a thousand other
opinions we read of the same siature, pod must for
ever terrain so. The decision of the qiiestion. in-
deed, might grittily curiosity, but could be of no
utility to the 'utensils of mankind. It is s snore
pleasing occupation to dwell on the celebration of
Christmas at later periods among ourselves,lo go
over ground that is interesting from its proximity
to our own, and to realize the agreeable feeling
always excited in the human bosom at the content*
;distant of every thing, however insignificant, which
is tinged with the grey melauchuly silage.
In Loitslon, as itt all great cities, particularly in
those which are commercial, where strangers con-
tinually arrive, and new customs are daily iteru-
duced, observances ors nature similar to those for.
merly kept at Chitstrnas must soon be lust. That
season is accordingly masked here by few of the
pleasantries and simple enjoyments with which it
Is even now characterized in the country. The
merchant and the shopkeeper arr absorbed m baffle
and the closing up of their 'remains; and but a
snort space is devoted to that drunkenness and glut-
tony among the lower orders, which are the beset-
ting sins ol the time. The genuine Cockney, how-
ever, though on the verge of bankruptcy, considers
it a moral duty to spend his creditors' guinea for a
fat turkey on a Christmas-day; which, with a ple-
nary potation of some kind of liquor, a minute
fractious animas the quantity necessary to produce
ehrirty, among the more sober citizens. and a hoc-
lion beyond ii, among those less concerned as to
outward deportment, completes the annual memo-
rial of the lime. The canaille may he sere, as
otitis!, when rejoicing, in all the sty-grovelling stu-
totality of the must mexeusable sensuality, reeling
front lamp-post to lump-pout. The gin shops over-
flow with tagged visitsiits ; and the blasted porter-
drinkers, saturating themselves with dases of eoer-
fat mid divers adulterating narcotics, which
muddle the brsin and clog the circulatum, till every
pot-house. Intoxicated draymen, dustmen, and
butchers' atteudiontis, hie to the suburbs to tight
their dogs; and, finally, to light aairtig tberastivrik

-

Hall, having eight attesidaitto. He was seated un-
der a cloth of slate, rod served with great attention.
To complete the climax of foolery, this Zany was
afterwards introduced at Court, and actually
knighted at Whitehall, and was most probably not
the first of his character who received that honour,
as the present generatiou can testily he was nut
the last.
But, es later. periods have also shewn, the law-
yers were far outdone by the clergy in matters ap-
pertaining to leaving and revelry. The former
soot, relapsed into their wonted habits, the depar-
ture from which had been but momentary; for
very few Chancellors besides Sir Thomas More
would have admitted, even in ancient days, that
they were good throwers at cocks, though even
Sir Thomas does riot say lie practised it after he
came to the Lord Chancellorship. The clergy,
however, reem to have had no scruples, and to
have share.l largely in Christmas sports and revels
of all sorts. Even at the Universities they elected a
King of the Bean on Clnistrnar-day f. lii cathe-
dral churches there was an Archbishop or Bishop
of Fools rl.:cird, and in Catholic tunes a Pope of
Fools. The office of .‘ King of Fool," (hex
Stuitoratn) was abolished in 1391. perhaps u•

ink rt.Aroga ory to the dignity of K1;101111. These
mummers attended divine service in poistomiusical
(tresses, and were followed by crowds of 'he laity its
masks of differvist forms. Abroad some assumed
the habit of females, sod choslAyeil the most wan-
ton gestures:. Oise ceremony coosivted io shaving

u " l'ireentor of Fools" brfn•e the church door,
in presence of the populace, who were amused by
• vulgar sermon. Io Englititl • Boy-Bishop was
regularly elected in the churches et Christmas,
who tnimicked the service sod office of Bishop;
and the clergy even rojoined the children of St.
Paul's School to attend et the cathedral cud give
the Boy-Bishop a penny each !
This mockery was abolished ■t the Reformation,
in the thirty-third year of Henry VIII. c.; and
though revived by Mary, it ceased enbrtly at her
drath.

The exercise of quintaing was fl liciently much
practised in London Mt Christmas : a rriii.aM was
set up at that season in Cornhill, near Leadeuhall.
Ploys were also exhibited at Court ; but they only
tossisteal of pantomime sod buffosveiy until the
reign of Edward 111. The clergy in the reign of
Richard 11. possessed the exclusive right of get•
ling up Christmas plays flout Scripture subjects;

ti

An so well be patch tie fule about; that be is not `let
voreute."
Ware-lied thus became the name of the drinking-
cup of the Anglo-Saxons, and those cups were
afterwards constantly used at public entertaitunents.
In parts of the country remote from the metro-
polis, the singing of Ciwiastasaa-wels -yet usher&
ni the mornings. After breakfast the busy house-
wife prepares her plum-puddings, mince-pies, and
confectionary, which she decorates with the em-
blems of the time :—a scratch in the dough in
the shape of • hay-rack, •denoting the manger
of the infant Saviour, is one of those emblems
most commonly in use. The younger part of
the household hunt the garden for evergreens to
decorate the interior of the apartments ; and the
woods ere sought to bring home the mistime,
which is to be suspended in the room where the
ideasures of the evetring are to take place, and be-
neath which the ‘• sighing lips," as Moore calls
them, of many • lovely girl still continue to be
proved, despite of that coy resistance and those
blushes that so much heighten the charms of
beauty. They also paint candles of different co-
lours to be lighted up in the evening, • custom
perhaps borrosved front ancient Rumish practice;
though some imagine that lighting up houses form-
ed a part of the worship of the Teutonic God, Thor.
being one of the ceremonies observed at Juul-tider,
or the feast of Thor. from which it was introduced
into the Christian feast of Christmas. Thus if
some part of our Christmas ceremonies was derived
from the Saturnalia, another was evidently of
northern origin. The mieeltue was a plant held
sacred by the Druids. l'he Christmas carols also
were, it is probable, Juul or ille-songs, first sung
in honour of the heathen deity ; sod the use of
evergreens may be ascribed In the same origin. In
the evening the Ule-log. or Christmas-stock, as at
present denominated. is placed on the fire in the
principal apartment of the house. The company
seat themselves round it, and the cheerful cup is
yet handed about. which ()Beer contains nothing
inure than ale in the cottages of the peasantry.
What remains to modern times of Christmas
gambols then commences, and ancient Christmas
playa are even still plainly to be traced among
them. Illindinan'sebuff, hunt the slipper, the
game of the goose, soap-dregon, or push-pin, and
d•ncing, form the umusemessts of the younger part
I of the assemblage, and curds of the elder ; though
among the mote substantial people, as they are de-
iii i bated in the language of the country-folks,
the simpler aniusemesos begin to lose their value.
But their voy simplicity recalls the memory of
past tidies : they have is certain charm about them
worth all that is artificial, and they would not be
bereft of attraction to mouths of seipsibility, if they
were wholly abandoiled to the lowly; for they have
that in them which is fir more endearing than the
sordid Heartlessness of fashionable entertainments,
and the forni•lity of bigh life. Bereft of super-
stition. Christmas is thus • season of innocent
mirth—a pletasiug interlude to lighten and beguile
the horrors of our iiiclement winters. It &tinsels a
period for the exhibition of hospitable greeting.,
and the
..pleasing interchange of good offices, of
which, to the country. opportunities are rare.
How monk inisocent hearts rejoice there at antici-
pating the season and its f.sfiseties, whose feelings
have never been chilled by the artificial and eaten-
hating civiliti4s of metropolitan intercourse. But
the humbler inks hove been accused of supereti-
Bon because the stocking is still thrown, the pod
with nine peas hid over the door. and all the little
CCICCOODICI so admirably a.pleted by But us in his