Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-01-01
OUR LONDON LETTER.
FESTIVITIES OF MERRY CHRISTMAS
IN MEERY OLD ENGLAND.
Some of the Customs and Modes of It's
Enjoyment Carol Singing = The
Waits Festive Dinners.
LONDON. December S. 1859.

REST of holidays in what is, perhaps, in
the best sense of that term, the merriest of
countries Merry Christmas and merry
England fit together admirably; SO when
their annual conjunction occurs you may
look out for fun. But the English people
are religious as well as jolly, and hence you
will find their Christmas festivities center
ing largely around their national church.
Christmas Day is always Sunday with
them, all mercantile business being sus-
pended, the trains and saloons being run
on Sunday hours, theaters closed, and the
sanctuaries open, in most places, for two
services. To those who cannot understand
how it is possible to serve the Lord and 90
in at the same time for the good things of
this life, such programme as the above
will wear forbidding aspect. But the
English people seem to hold a pretty
EVEN BALANCE BETWEEN BOTH WORLDS.
About Christmas time. They do not ig-
more the call of the church bell, and you
NAV be certain the dinner bell is not ne
elected, nor the bountiful fare with which
the table is laden. Speaking of bells, who
has not heard of the English Christmas
chimes The ringers in the village churches
are already in training, and if the few re-
hearssls l have heard in roaming through
the country are fair sample there will be
a changing and banging in the church
steeples of this land when the proper time
comes-bell answering to bell, and village
responding TO village-such as will set the
midnight air in commetion from Berwick
on-Tweed to Lands End, and the people,
too, unless their midnight slumbers should
happen to be unusually sound. In some
districts these church chimes will have
their sequel in Christmas week in noctur.
nal tours of the ringers, who will family
re-echo the tones with which they ushered
in the great day OF days by means of hand
bells, whose squeaky notes will suggest to
the objects OF the serenade how cold and
thirsty are the aforesaid ringers and how
very essential to their Christmas Joy Just
at that time is a flagon of beer or a bowl
of hot punch, and one or other of these
they will get, for it ia time-honored and,
with the ringers. highly esteemed GUS
tom. Another feature in many parts is
THE CAROL SINGING.
The choirs of the churches and chapels get
together. and, with few brass and string
instruments, proceed from street to street
in search of the houses of sympathetic
friends, before whose doors they halt ever
and anon and make the neighborhood
musical, or otherwise (often otherwise), by
the rendering of Christmas psalms and
HYMNS When good music is made the
effect ia charming. You will have gone to
sleep most likely in thorough Christmas
good humor, your thoughts full of good
will to your fellow man, and refreshed the
day before with the story of what took
place on the first Christmas morn upon the
plains of Bethlehem, and waking slowly to
the sound of sweet song, rendered all the
more enhancing by the darkness upon
which your eyes open, your first impress
sion will be of that joyous anthem which
the angels sang to the wondering shep
herds But those outside are not angels
as you will soon discover if you get up and
let them in and then do your proper duty
by bringing the cold pies from the pantry
and setting out the decanter and beer Jug
This also Is a good old English custom,
though, much to the regret of the per-
formers, to whom it gave an annual oppor-
tunity of illustrating the capacity of Eng
lish stomachs to get away with incredibly
large quantities of provisions, it is giving
way now, like so many other nice things,
before the march of that old vandal called
modern improvements.
H1DEoUs MUSIC OF THE WAITS.
But the a. Waits wait until tell you
something about them. Why they are
called by this particular name l have never
taken the trouble to inquire. Possibly it
is because they so often have 20 wait long
time for the money they expect to get as
their reward for making night hideous.
They consist usually of strolliRg bands of
wretched musicians, who proceed much as
do the carol singers. But they are treated
with less consideration than the latter, and
certainly there is no danger of any one
mistaking the noise they make for angels
music. Sometimes the reception they meet
is quite warm, the contents OF not water
pitcher being emptied by a disturbed
sleeper on their devoted heads, in which
cases they wait no longer, but 60 without
ceremony to seek other victims. London
is the place to hear the q" Waits to the
best advantage. Not unfrequently in this
city they are accompanied in their noctur-
nal perambulations by bands of medical
students, whose howlings, blending on the
midnight air with the cracked notes of an
antiquated trombone and broken. winded
oornet, make an effect not soon to be for
gotten. Just here, before dismissiug the
" Waits, l should like to wait long enough
for some one to explain to me why 1t IS
that on occasions ike this medical students
show such a ready faculty for making fools
Of themselves but this would keep your
readers waiting for my description OF an
English Christmas, so | must wait for an
other opportunity. A great time is Christ
mas among these people for
DISPLAYS OF FAT CATTLE.
To 20 through the markets for the next
few weeks Will be rare treat. Dressed
bullocks that weigh ton apiece, and hogs
that pull the scale at 500 pounds, and NUT
ton that looks big enough to hold its own
against beef-such things are not seen
everyday, but they are seen once year in
the meat markets of old England. And
when the beef and mutton are brought on,
smoking hot, imbedded in rich fat and
dreuched with the beautiful brown gravy,
which the Americans, with all their accom-
plishments, do not know how to make, you
may be sure that another rare treat awaits
you. No wonder that poets have snng
the merits OF these staples of the English
diet. and il IS not at all matter of surprise
that Americans should be captivated by
them, To be sure it is little annoying,
after YOU have extolled the meat upon
which you are dining to the disparagement
OF that you are accustomed to st home to
have your host raise laugh by assuring
the company that great many American
cattle are converted INTO English beef, and
that he happens to have JOINT of that de-
scription that very day; but you can easily
escape from such dilemma after a little
practice, such as l have had, for the simple
truth viii be that the meat you are eating
tastes better than what you eat in Amer
lea, whether OF really better quality or not.
Much of this Is owing to the cooking, and
some to the carving, Tor the English pAter
familias don't split up the roast into square
chunks as though he was a brickmAker,
unable even al the dinner table to divest
hlmse; Of the habits of the kiln, bat he
caryes it in broad, thin slices, as though
it was worth something to both you and
himself, as it Is, especially to him, when
the best cuts cost about 2S cents = pound.
CHRISTMAS TURKEY AND GOOSE CLUBS.
TurSeys-which here, as elsewhere, form