Morning journal and courier., 1891-12-26
Hogmanay, Taollolay. Give us your white bread, And none Of your gray,

I
 In Lerwick they are accompanied by
 musical instruments, and agreeable music
 is often furnished. They are invariably
 offered refreshments; dancing and othel | amusements nre indulged in, for there ar,
 always crowds awaiting them at each | house; and they are often given money al | their departure. This is kept up through
 the entire night, varied by the explosion ot | fre-craekers and rockets, and the dragging
 through the narrow old streets of the | quaint Dutch built town of numberless
 blazing tsr-bsrrels.
 Probably nowhere in all the world i. Christmas time more thoroughly observed and enjoyed than in England. In what | ever else the English people are changing, | of the peerlessness of this time and hour | there can be no doubt. True, England can no longer boast of her royal Christ mas masquss costing often a quarter of 6 million Of our money; and the court Lord | of Misrule is 6 parsonage of the past. But royal and noble gluttony, guzzling and l licentiousness have given place to Chris | tian tenderness and almost regal opulence in help to humankind.
 Whatever may be the shortcomings in general of the English nobility, they should be credited with splendid munificsnce at this time of the year. The whole area of
 
 ened during the Christmas holiday season. It began away back in Elizabeth's reign. In 1889 there was such a crush at the roy al masque that an order WAS issued to the gentlemen of Suffolk and Norfolk, direct ing them to leave London before Christ mas and give their attention to keeping Christmas in their respective residences It is an inviolable social rule of the nobiI- ity to this day. Wherever English gen tlemen's or nOblemen's families may be during all the rest of the year, they are at their country seats and castles at Christ mas.
 This manor house sends it's folks and servants to that one; or the gentlemen With the gentlemen, shooting, coursing or athletic games, and with the ladies gra- cious calls upon tenants or each other, with most brilliant intercourse and always devout attendance at the little parish churches, rule the sweet and genial day. Great state marks this going and coming over the crisp country roads. At the cas- ties 1t is the same, save that the retinues are greater, the fessts more tremendous, and more respect is paid to proprieties and form. But it may truly be said that there is not dependent, a tenant or tradesman, and not human being suffering from sickness or poverty discoversbls in the neighborhood of these people of quality, who is not generously remembered, prec- tically aided and tenderly succored by this class at Christmas time. Politically We may abuse its members at will: but this custom makes a better Christmas for them and the world than any olden Yuletide of wassail and debauchery that ever was known
 Many of the olden English Christmas customs are truly disappearing, and good riddance to them. But there is not one sweet and good old thing or custom which has not been retained. Roast beef, plumb pudding, Christmas pies and buns, snap dragons with the mistletoe and holly, are all cherished with olden zest and zeal. Even the boar's head, decorated with rose mary or prickly holly is still brought in at thousands of English Christmas boards. The mummers are nearly gone and only finger, feeble reminder of their former organisms, in remote districts of Devon shire and Cornwall.
 The Yule-log may be to-day found in | more English homes than in the Tudor | Christmas times, and no home is 30 poor | in England that the glowing Christmas | tree we have all borrowed from Germany may not be found within it. The Christ | mas bells of England chime truer and | sweeter than ever. I have sometimes won dered if one could find a spot on English | soil where their tuneful voices could not | be heard. Much has been written of Eng | fish carols in the vein of their having dis | So they have, those of inex- pressible grossness and ribaldry that were l common from the fourteenth century to the eighteenth. But in their place, from Penrith in old Cumberland to renzance in Cornwall, there may now be heard through