THE GHOST OF CHRISTMAS. 5 



DECEMBER. 



Last of the year that like a swan doth sing 

 Upon thy death-bed, and mirth thither bring ; 

 Oh ! may'st thou, drawn by turkeys vast, and geese, 

 With plums and suet strew the path of peace. 



DEC. 21. j&t- 'Sfjomag. Shortest day. Many about this time will 

 be so short, that their landlords will be long expecting them. 



Christmas Day. A day of general mourning. The ghost of 

 Old Christmas appears, and the reader will learn in the next 

 page '" who killed him/' 



26. j&t. J&tepDcn. Moon eclipsed. Numerous honourable mem- 

 bers of Lords and Commons will have a lucid interval like- 

 wise all Bedlamites. The Rev. Mr. Irving vanishes in a flash 

 of fire. 



All " Bills" presented at this time, ordered to " lie on the 

 table." 



Irnnocentg. The Lord Premier Scales and Messrs. Secretaries 

 Cobbett and Wakley impeached, or are now about to be. 



31. Great riots and conflagrations Several windows broken, 

 many apple stalls consumed. Divers will from these significa- 

 tions foretel the speedy approach of the Millenium ; others will 

 doubt, amongst whom, Lord Eldon, particularly. I say nothing 

 Time will shew. 



THE GHOST OP CHRISTMAS; SHEWING WHO 

 KILLED HIM. 



CHRISTMAS is dead and gone! The jovial fellow, known to our great 

 progenitors, to the stout hearts that grew stouter at wassail, is de- 

 funct. What a brave old boy he was what a jovial hundred-handed 

 giant, offering the good things of the earth with every fist. What 

 household ceremonies did herald his coming ! His was the advent 

 his the glorious triumph his were the spoils. His foot- fall was 

 accompanied by richer music than ever filled the ears of Roman 

 conqueror ; the bellowing of the slaughtered ox, the gobling of mul- 

 titudinous turkies, the rich cackling of a million geese, the rushing 

 torrents of mulberry, ale, and mead ; and for spices, every house w r as 

 a phrenix nest. Then each man, maid, and child had a song to 

 honour him, and the lusty varlet was carolled in, as the birds sing to 

 the budding leaves. 



" Come bring, with a noise, 



My merrie, merrie boys, 

 The Christmas log to the firing ; 



While my good dame, she 



Bids ye all be free, 

 And drink to your heart's desiring. 



