Star.
London, England, 1821-12-22 00:00:00

CHRISTMAS GAMBOL&

•
There is not, perhaps, any part of Great Britain in
which Christmas is kept so splendidly as in Yorkshire.
The din of preparation commences for some weeks
before, and its sports and festivities continue beyond
the first month of the new year. The first intimaticra
of Clitistmas, in Yorkshire, is by what are there;
called the vessel-cup singers, generally poor old woes
men, who, about three weeks before Christmas, go
from house to house, with a waxen or wooden doll,
fantastically dressed, and sometimes adorned with an
orange, or a fine rosy-tinged apple. With this in
their bands, they sing or chaunt an old carol, of
which the following homely stanza forms a part :
Goo bless the master of this house,
The mistress also,
• ••• And all the little cisildren
That round the table go!
The image of the child is, no doubt, intended to
represent • the infant SAVIOUR ; and the vessel-cup
is, most probably, the remains of the wassail-bowl,
which, anciently, formed a part of the festivities of
this season of the year.
Another custom, which commences at the same
time as the vessel-cup singing, is that of the poor of
the parish visiting all the neighbouring farmers to
beg corn, which is invariably given to them, in the
quantity of a full pint, at least, to each. This is
called estentpiag; as is the custom which exists in
Bedfordshire, of The poor begging the broken victuals
the day after Christmas-day.
Christmas-eve is, in Yorkshire, celebrated in a pe-
culiar manner:. at eight o'clock in the evening, the
bells greet " old father Christmas" with a merry peal,
the children parade the streets with drums, trumpets,
bells,.or perhaps, in their absence, with the poker and
shovel, taken from their humble cottage fire; the yule
candle is lighted, and •
High ea the cheerful fire
Is bluing seen ds' enormous Christmas brand.
Supper is served, to which one dish from the lordly
mansion to the h umblest shed, is, invariably, furmety • ,
yule-cake, one of which is always made for each in-
dividual in the family, and other more substantial
viands, are ilso added. Poor Robin, in his Alma-
nack for the year 1676 ('peaking of the winter quar-
ter), says, " and lastly, who would but praise it, be-
cause of Christmas, when good cheer daft so abound,
,as if all the world were made of mince-pies, plum-
pudding, and futmety:' And Brand says, " on the
night of this eve our .ancestors were wont to light
candles of an enormous size, called Christmas can-
dles:' To enumerate all the good cheer which is pre-
pared at this festival, is by no means necessary. In
Yorkshire, the Christmas pia is still a regular dish,
and is regularly served to the higher:class of visitants,
while the more humble ones are tendered yule-cake,
or bread and cheese, in every house which they enter
during the twelve days of Christmas. The Christ-
mas pie is one of the good old dishes still retained
at a Yorkshire table; it is not of modern invention,
Allan Ramsay, in his poems, tells us, that among other
baits by which the good ale-wife drew customers to
her house, that there never failed to tempt them—
Ay at yuk whene'er they C 21114
brats goacTie.

And the intelligent and close observer of our cus•
toms, Nlisson, in his travels in England, says, "Dans
;Dates les families on fait a noel stn fameas pate qu'on
appeUe k pate de noel. C'est nu grande science gate la
composition de ce pate c'est tint dock hach is de langur
de Gaff; de Liana de volailk, d'anffs, de sucre,des rai-
sins de Corinthe, d'ecorce de citron et d'orangc, de diver-
se: sortes d'epker its," Ir. lye. The Christmas-pie of the
present day ts, however, more like that described by
Allan Ramsay, and generally consists of a goose,
sometimes two, and that with the addition of half a
dozen fowls. Such is the existing celebration of Christ-
mas in Yorkshire, and, we believe, in some other parts
of England; but these venerable customs are becoming
every year less common: the sending qfpresents also,
from friends in the country to friends in town at this
once cheerful season, is, in a great measure obsolete:
"nothing is to be had for nothing" now.; and,without
the customary bribe of a barrel of oysters, or a basket
of fish, we may look in vain for arrivals by the York
Fly, or the Norwich Expedition:
Few presents now oo friends are sent, •
Few hours in merry-making spent;
Old-fashioned folks there are, indeed,
Whose hogs and pigs at Christmas bleed ;
Whose honest hearts no modes refine,
"limy send their puddings and their c/daef
No Norfolk turkeys load the waggon,
Which once the horses scarce could drag on;
And, to increase the weight with these,
Came their attendant sausages!
Should we not then, as men of taste,
• Revive old customs gone and past?
And (fie for shame !), without reproach,
Stuff, as we ought, the Bury coach?
With strange old kindness, send up presents,
Of partnidges and dainty pleasants !
Of the Christmas I'lays anciently performed at
this season, some remains still exist in, the West of
England, particularly in Cornwall; bat the repre-
sentation of these dramatic exhibitions is almost
wholly confined to children, or very young per-
sons. The actors are fantastically dressed, decorated
with ribands and painted paper, and have wooden
swords, and all the equipage necessary to support,
the several characters they assume. To entertain
their auditors, they learn to repeat a -barbarous jar-
gon in the form of a drama, which has been handed
down from distant generations. War and love are
the general topics; and St. George and the Dragon
are always the most prominent characters. Interlude,
expostulation, debate, battle, and death, are sure to
find a place among this mimicry ; but a physician,
who is always at hand, immediately restores the dead
to life. It is generally understood that these Christ-
mas plays derived their origin from the ancient cru-
sades; and hence the feats of chivalry, and the ro-
mantic extravagance of knight-errantry, that ace still
preserved in all the varied pretensions and exploits.
In many placts in Cornwall these Christmas plays are
still kept alive; in others they are known only by re-
port ; and in all they are rapidly on the decline.
• Furmety, from frxmentuns, wheat. It is made of" creed
wheat," or wheat, which, after being beaten for some time with
a wooden mallet, is then boiled, and eaten with milk, sugar,
nutmeg, lfcc.
a

Yesterday, being St. Thomas's Day, the Stewards
of the Antelopian Society, which has been established
nearly a century, distrii:uted, according to annual cus-
tom, to the indigent families in the neighbourhood,
upwards of five -hundred of the best wheaten loaves,
from the Society's use, in White Hart-yard.