4aa 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. VIII. Deo. 17. '59^ 



Some deep in dung, instead of litter — 

 His verj- soul was in a, twitter. 

 The teat still weeping for tlie Pail, 

 In every Barn slept every Flail. 



His Servants fast — but, hark ! one stirs ; 

 Down step the Maids in loose attire 

 To dress them prattling round the fire. 

 The maids at sight of Master fled 

 To dress above ; then down came Ned, 

 And Tom, and Will, and James and John — 

 ' You drones ! are these your goings on ? 

 ' Out of my house ' — their due he paid, 

 And turned off every Man and Maid, 

 Takes a new set — his ride renews ; 

 Each morning all his ground reviews. 

 The Landlord all the country .... 



Large ricks and barns too you might see 

 Arise around the great Oak Tree, 

 And Satfield, to his heart's content. 

 Is thanked — with what? — a twelvemonth's rent." 

 Can any of your readers supply the missing 

 verses ? And can they tell me how many acres at 

 that period a farm consisted of which might be 

 described " nor large nor small " ? A. A. 



Poets' Corner. 



A GOSSIP ABOUT CHRISTMAS AND ITS POLK LOBE. 



Marry, this is a subject well calculated to fill 

 an entire number of " N. & Q.," if indeed it 

 would not rather call for a goodly volume to itself 

 to do it justice. Yet peradventure one may in a 

 page or two touch upon a few of its pleasant points 

 and bygone memories. 



How bound up with the social history of Eng- 

 land is the history of Christmas ; how strongly is 

 the national mind reflected in its time-honoured 

 observances ; and what a store of new and pleasant 

 reading might any Dry-as-dust (if the shelves of 

 his library, on which his Folk-lore Collections are 

 ranged, be but fitly garnished) gather together in 

 a few hours, to show us on the one hand the way 

 in which 



" The great King Arthur made a sumptuous feast, 

 And held his Royal Christmas at Carlisle ; " 



and in strange contrast how at Christmas the 

 Groom Porter set the tables for play, even 



" In the old time when George the Third was King." 

 Of a truth, his difficulty would be, not what to 

 say, but what to omit; — not where to begin, but 

 when to leave off. 



Is it not strange, then, that with a theme so 

 rich, we find year after year, and Christmas after 

 Christmas, this season of Peace and Goodwill, and 

 all its associations, treated of by everybody, not 

 with a rich outpouring of his own spirit, but with 

 a refashioning of the old materials gathered ready 

 to his hands by Brand, Hone, and such like wor- 

 thies. Why should not the same research which 

 Sandys, Rimbault, and Chappell, have employed 

 upon the subject of Christmas Carols be ex- 



tended to other remarkable features of the great 

 Christian Festival ? 



What though the Waits seem to be tired of 

 waiting, and to have disappeared, is there not 

 much yet to be gathered concerning their past 

 history and that of their continental brethren ? 

 The admirable translation of Vinny Bourne's 

 address to David Cook, " a vigilant and circum- 

 spect watchman of Westminster," which appeared 

 in your first volume *, called forth a mass of 

 curious information touching the old Watchman, 

 his Bell, his Dog, and his Song. Yet the subject 

 can scarcely be said to have received due attea- 

 tion at the hands of the antiquary. Walter Scott 

 in the Illustrations of Northern Antiquities, and 

 Edgar Taylor in his capital little book on the 

 Troubadours and Minnesingers, have each given 

 us a specimen of the German Watchman Songs ; 

 but surely, seeing what an addition has been made 

 of late years to the collected Ballad Poetry of Ger- 

 many, some fresh examples might well be given 

 of this peculiar expression of the popular voice. 



Has any curious student of old customs learned 

 the origin of the Christmas Pieces, in which the 

 children of our Charity Schools some thirty or 

 forty years since were wont to try their skill at 

 calligraphy, and then to make the exhibition of 

 their work a means of extracting Christmas Boxes 

 from their friends and patrons? Are any early 

 specimens of these Christmas Pieces known to 

 exist ? 



Again, how many quaint and apparently un- 

 meaning customs exist, or have existed lately, in 

 various parts of the country, on which, obscure as 

 they may at first sight seem, some light might be 

 thrown by research among the traditions of the 

 neighbourhood, or the labours of Continental An- 

 tiquaries. 



Gay's Epilogue to The What d!ye call it — 



" Our Stage Play has a moral, and no doubt 

 You all have sense enough to find it out," — 



might well be parodied, with reference to such 

 inquiries, after this fashion : — 



" Each custom has its meaning, there's no doubt. 

 Had we but sense enough to find it out." 



For instance, the Kentish custom of Hoden- 

 ing: — 



" Hodening in Kent.— At Ramsgate, in Kent, they begin 

 the festivities of Christmas by a curious musical proces- 

 sion. A party of young people procure the head of a 

 dead horse, which is affixed to a pole about four feet in 

 length. A string is tied to the lower jaw ; a horse-cloth 

 is then attached to the whole, under which one of the 

 party gets, and, by frequently pulling the string, keeps 

 up a loud snapping noise, and is accompanied by the 

 rest of the party grotesquely habited, and ringing hand- 

 bells. They thus proceed from house to house, sounding 

 their bells, and singing carols and songs. They are com- 

 monly gratified with beer and cake, or perhaps with 



♦ It S. i. 152. 



