488 



NOTES AND QUlERlES. 



t2»* 8. VIII. Dec. 17. '69. 



CHRISTMAS CUSTOMS AND rOLK-LOBE. 



Old and Neio Style. — Last Christmas I met 

 with the following scrap of Shropshire folk-lore. 

 It was to determine the question between the Old 

 and New Style ; though the prescription would be 

 both a dangerous and a costly one to carry out. 

 It ran thus : If you throw a shovelful of hot 

 coals on the table-cloth they will not burn it, if it 

 is really Old Christmas Day. Ctjthbert Bede. 



A Herefordshire Christmas Custom. — A Here- 

 fordshire farmer's wife told me that the first thing 

 on the morning of Christmas Day a good feed of 

 hay (instead of straw, &c.) was given to every 

 beast, and that on that day all the house-servants 

 were given white bread instead of brown. 



Cdthbebt Bede. 



The Thirteen Fires on the Vigil of Twelfth Day. 

 — The same farmer's wife told me that where 

 she had lived in Herefordshire, twenty years ago, 

 they were wont on Twelfth Night Eve to light 

 in a wheat field twelve small fires, and one large 

 one. The custom was observed in all its particu- 

 lars, as mentioned by Brand. But Brand (as 

 quoted in Hone's Every Day Book, i. 43.) does 

 not give the reason for kindling the thirteen fires. 

 My Herefi)rdsbire informant told me that they 

 were designed to represent the blessed Saviour 

 and his twelve Apostles. The fire, representing 

 Judas Iscariot, after being allowed to burn for a 

 brief time, was kicked about, and put out. 



CuTHBERT Bede. 



The OxerHs Twelfth Cake. — The same person 

 also told me that the ceremony of placing the 

 twelfth-cake on the horn of the ox was observed 

 in all those particulars, which, as they are also 

 mentioned by Brand, I need not here repeat. It 

 was twenty years since she had left the farm, and 

 had last observed the custom, and she had forgot- 

 ten all the words of the toast used on that occasion ; 

 she could only remember one verse out of three 

 or four : — 



"Fill your cups, my merry men all! 

 For here's the best ox in all the stall ; 

 Oh ! he is the best ox, of that there's no mistake, 

 And so let us crown him with the Twelfth-cake." 



CuTHBERT Bede. 

 Michaelmas Goose. — During the last month I 

 have been amusing myself in transcribing some 

 scores of grants from lords of manors to their 

 free tenants in the thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, 

 and sixteenth centuries. In the series which I 

 have had before me, the lord almost uniformly 

 covenants, among other reserved rents and services, 

 • for a goose at Michaelmas. To this manorial cus- 

 tom, therefore, we must look for the origin of the 

 " Michaelmas Goose," rather than to nursery tales 

 about Queen Bess, who, like the parish clerk (god- 

 father to all who can find no other), has had to 

 stand sponsor for all the mythical stories and 

 facetiae to which no parentage can be assigned. 



A stubble goose is in prime order at Michaelmas, 

 as the manorial lords, jolly fellows in their day, 

 well knew ; so they kept their table well supplied 

 at that season, by reserving one from each of their 

 tenants. 



My sei'vice to you, my jovial friend, " N. & Q." 

 I hope that you will agree with me that I have 

 found the true solution of this vexata questio, and 

 will eat your next Michaelmas goose with me, and 

 wash it down with a magnum of " liquid ruby " 

 — supernaculum — the blood of purple berries 

 mellowed by Lusitanian suns somewhere about the 

 year 1815. V. R. 



Minced Pies. — The learned Dr. Parr was asked 

 •by a lady on what day in December it was proper 

 to begin eating mince pie. " Begin on O Sapien- 

 tia," replied the doctor (Dec. 16). " But please 

 to say Christmas pie, not mince pie. Mince pie 

 is puritanical." The following extract from The 

 Patrician of Dec. 27, 1845, will serve to confirm 

 the doctoi-'s statement : — 



" liven the poor minced pies ar.d the plum-porridge 

 came under the interdict of the Puritans at this season of 

 the year, though they allowed that they might be law- 

 fully and piously eaten in any month except December. 

 Needham, in his History of the Rebellion, says: — 



"All plums the prophet's sons deny, 

 And spice broths are too hot ; 

 Treason's in a December pye, 

 And death within the pot. 



" Christmas, farewell ! thj' days, 1 fear, 

 And merry days are done ; 

 So they may keep feast all the year, 

 Our Saviour shall have none." 



Thomas Boys. 



Hour-glass in Churches. — The following cutting 

 from a Scotch paper is worthy of preservation in 

 " N. & Q." In preaching on the shortness of 

 life, the old preachers had before them a very 

 apt illustration of their subject ; and it strikes 

 me I have read repeatedly in the sermons of the 

 older divines pointed allusions to the fleeting 

 " sands of time," though I cannot charge my me- 

 mory with them at present. Perhaps some of 

 your correspondents would favour me, through 

 your pages, with a few illustrative extracts of the 

 kind indicated : — 



" A Sand-Glass used in Church, — A sand-glass for 

 marking time having been seen in the Established Church 

 of a parish near Perth, a gentleman residing near Dundee 

 sent to the clergyman requesting particulars about it, and 

 received in reply the following account of its purpose and 

 uses : — ' Our sand-glass is a relic of antiquity. There 

 used to be one in every church in the olden time. Their 

 use was to regulate the length of the long-winded ora- 

 tions with which the ministers of those days were wont 

 to favour their hearers. Watches were not so common 

 then as now ; and, as the sermons were not written, the 

 preachers, when once set a-going, did not know when to 

 stop without some reasonable monition. With a view to 

 this, a sand-glass ^vas erected on a stand in front of the 

 precentor's desk, so as to be seen both by minister and 

 people. When the sand ran out, the precentor, whose 

 duty it was to attend to it, held it up in front of the 



