338 



Mr. Edwin Lees, says quaintly in one of his boolis, * " the Druids thought 

 the Mistletoe would cure everything, we only think it worth . . a kiss." Whea 

 it received this specific valuation seems a mystery. " Why Roger claims the 

 privilege to kiss Margery under the Mistletoe at Christmas," says the learned 

 Editor of Notes and Queries, " appears to have baffled our Antiquaries." Brand 

 states that this Druidic plant never entered our sacred edifices but by mistake, and 

 consequently assigns it a place in the kitchen, where, he says, it was hung up in 

 great state with its white berries, and whatever female chanced to stand under it, 

 the young man present either had a right, or claimed one, of saluting her, and of 

 plucking off a berry at each kiss. Nares, however, makes it rather ominous for 

 the fair sex not to be saluted under the famed Viscum album. He says the 

 custom longest preserved, was the hanging up of the bunch of Mistletoe in the 

 kitchen, or servants' hall, with the charm attached to it, that the maid who was 

 not kissed under it at Christmas, would not be married in that year." (ist s., Vol. 

 V. p. 13.) Mr. Shirley Hibberd thinks this account altogether unsatisfactory. 

 "Would it be not more reasonable," he sa3's, " to refer it to the Scandinavian 

 mythology, wherein the Mistletoe is dedicated to Friga, the Venus of the Scan- 

 dinavians." (Ibid p. 208.) It seems rather doubtful whether this custom would 

 be likely to originate in any deduction from " reason " at all ; and I am quite 

 sure the privilege could not rightly be claimed on Christmas Day. The only other 

 suggestion that offers itself is, that tradition should have handed down this 

 pleasant ceremony from the New-year's day festivities of Druidical times. If it 

 be not so, where history is silent, and antiquaries at fault, we are only left to sup- 

 pose the present existence of some mutual attraction — given, the feasting and 

 festivities below stairs — and the conduct of Roger and Margery seems natural 

 enough, t 



Herefordshire may be considered the centre of the Mistletoe district of Eng- 

 land ; with Shropshire to the North, and Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, and 

 Monmouthshire, to the East, South, and West : and when, moreover, it is con- 

 sidered, how comparatively isolated its situation was before the introduction of 

 Railways, here we might expect to find remaining, if anywhere, the existence of a 

 belief in its special Druidical repute, and here — though authors for centuries have 

 ceased to mention it — it still does exist. It is somewhat altered in character, as 

 might be expected. I have asked the question of many old agriculturists and 

 people learned in country customs, ' Is the Mistletoe ever used for any purpose 

 now ' ? and it is a fact that the one answer I have had from every single person 

 has been "Yes, it is an excellent thing to give sheep after lambing," and some add, 



* " Pictures of Nature" around Malvern Hills and the Vale of Severn— a book that every 

 loverof nature, who has seen or known the hills, must rejoice in possessing. It deserves to be 

 much more freely illustrated when it could not fail to be still more generally attractive. 



t Hone, in his "Every Day Booi," relates a discussion which took place at a Christmas 

 party, as to which might be the great and crowning glory of Christm.is festivity. One said 

 " mince pie " ; another said " beef and plum pudding " ; some said " wassail-bowl " ; but a lair 

 maiden blushingly suggested " the Mistletoe." (Notes and Queries, Vol. vi.) 



" But when Mistletoe is not to be obtained" says Halliwell " t/u- kissin^-hunch," a garland 

 of evergreens, ornamented with ribbons and oranges, may be substituted for it at Christmas." 

 (Ibid.). 



