The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1877-12-21

convey to modern ears very little idea of
what was the real nature of each com
pound. Dillegrout must have been some
thing very remarkable, for the tenant of
| the manor of Addingtou, in Surrey, held it
| by the service of making a mess of the
| delicacy on the day of the coronation. -
With what anxiety must not the ingred-
! tents, which were almo ld-milk, the Drawn
| OF capOns, sugar and spices, chickens par
| boiled and chopped fine, been put togetheri
| A little too much of one, too little of
| another, an instant's too long cooking per-
| haps, and the goodly manor was bestowed
| upon a greater artist or more lucky iu6i-
| vidual. Maupigyrum was the same dish
| with the addition of fat. OF the Christ
| mas drinks were hippocras, ale, mead, and
clanu. The English inlearly days were
| celebrated for their pre- eminence in drink
| ing. lago says, in reference to this char
| acteristic /: your Dane, your German,
and your swag beliied Hullander are moth
ing to your English" The Saxons drank
wine, mead, cyder, ale, pigment, and mo-
rat, to which the Normans added clane,
garhiofilac, and hippocras. OF course,
| these drinks were aside from the wassail-
! bowl, which still held its own.
Morat was made from honey and mul-
berries; claret, pigment, hippocras and
| garhioflac from the girofe, or cloves con-
| tanned in it, were different reparations of
\ v
! III. ordered his wine keepers to deliver to
| the sheriff of York white and red wine to
| make garhiofilac and claret for the next
| Christmas and in the twenty sixth year of
! his reign directed the sheriff of Gloucester
| to cause twenty salmous to be bought and
| put into pies for Christmas, and the sheriff
| of Sussex to buy ten brawns with the heads
Of ten peacocks, aud other provisions. I'm
| ag;ne the Lord High Sheriff of either of the
| above counties receiving such an order
I now "a days from Queen Victoria! To the
| crane, as the Christmas dish, succeeded,
| about this time, the boar's head. and it was
always brought in with great ceremony,
| preceded by musicians and an usher, and
welcomed with shouts and hurrahs.
Under Edward Ill. Christmas was held
in great style there were revellings, mask
ings, and dancings, the masks one year
taking the form of birds, dragons, etc, and
the next of elephants aud other frOlicsome
beasts. During the reign of Richard Ii. i'll
1898, two hundred tons of wine were drunk
and two thousand oxen eaten on this feast,
to say nothing of other dishes. These were
royal Christmases indeed. This king also
had his pageauts or maskings; but, IN
stead of birds or animals, there is On one
occasion in the wardrobe accounts charge
for twenty-one linen colts for counterfeit
ing men of the law in the kings play at
Christmas, 1899. Richard was murdered
Oh "elitH 1fOO, hii' SO chNSu ''ii us
earthly Christ masses. During the wars of
Henry V. in France, he always ceased hos
tilities on Christmas day, and during the
siege of Rouen offered food to those Of his
hungry enemies who would accept it from
him At the seige of Orleans in 1923, a
like truce was proclaimed, and the English
aud French exchanged gifts. When Hen
nv V ii. ended the wars of the Roses Christ
mas was celebrated in a most magnificent
manner. In 1893, on Twelfth night there
was great banqueting and wassail. The
king made the usual offerings of gold,
.rankincense, and myrrh, and in the even
lug wore his crown and royal robes kirtle
surcoat, furred hood, and mantle with long
train, and his sword borne before him his
armills of gold set with rich stones, and his
sceptre in his right hand. The wassail
was introduced in the evening with great
ceremony the steward treasurer, and
comptroller of the household going out for
it with their slaves of office the king and
the queens servers having fair towelsround
theii necks and dishes in their hands, such
as the king and queen should eat of the
kings and queens carvers followed IN IKE
manner Then came in ushers of the
chamber, with the pile of cups-the kings
the queens, and the bishOp's-with the
butlers and wine to the cupboard, or side
board as it would now be called, and squires
of the body to bear them. The gentlemen
of the chapel stood at one end OF the hall,
and. when the steward came IN with the
wassail, he was to cry out three times,
.sWassail wassal, wassail ~ to which they
answered with a good song-no doubt
wassail- song or a carol, as they were preva-
lent at that time. Henry WILL, in the
early part of his reign, did not neglect the
Christmas merry making; plays, masks,
papeants, and similar diversions were fire.
ouent aud splendid, for Henry was young,
CAV, and light-hearted III those days. In
his third year at Greenwich, there was
,,aoeapt arranged before the queen in
which he himself took part; but after he
grew corpulent, encumbered with his wives
and interested in the established religion,
these merry -makings fell off and gradually
ceased altogether at court.
At this period, the Christmas festivities
of the Inns of Court bad become celebrated
and afterward far surpassed those of the
court in fancy, if not in splendor nor is
this surprising, considering the talents that
INNS, aiways exist in these communities,
some fresh from the universities lmbued
with classic lore. others fraught with the
knowledge acquired in many years, with
wit sharpened by constant intercourse with
wits as keen as their own; and perhaps lew
are better able to appreciate true wit and
hnmor than those who turn to it from deep
and wearing mental labor. There was
rule which required the attendance OF all
who lived in the Inns at these merrymak-
ings, under the penalty of being disbarred,
a threat actually held out i'll the time OF
James l., at Lincoln's Inn, because the Of
fenders did not dance on Christmas day,
according to the ancient order of the SO
ciety, and some were indeed put out Of
Commons by defamation. Imagine law
yer coming into court to attend trial of
Importance stopped atsthe door and for
bidden to enter because he did not dance
with his opponents counsei on CHRISTMAS
eve! Dugdale gives programme of the
performances at one time
"First, the solemn revells (after dinner
and the play euded) are begun by the whole
house; Judges, serjeauts-at-law, benches,
the utter and inner bar, aud they led by the
master of the revelis; one of the gentlemen
of the utter barr is chosen to sing a song to
the judges serjeants. or masters of the bench,