342 



making a total of eighty-nine tons, three hundred weight, and three quarters, 

 actually sent oflf by invoice. But the guards and engine-drivers had the privilege 

 of exporting Mistletoe on their own account, and did so by almost every train that 

 left the County during the early part of December. An immense quantity went 

 off in this way, and I am told that I greatly under-estimate it, when I put it down 

 at 25 tons in addition — thus making a grand total of more than one hundred and 

 fourteen tons. 



The places to which it was chiefly sent were Manchester and Liverpool, — for 

 their supply, and that of Towns further north — London — and Birmingham. 



The established price paid for it, when delivered at the stations, was from four 

 to five shillings per cwt. according to its condition ; and the average rate of charge 

 for the transit was about thirty shillings per ton ; so that the whole expense of 

 delivery may be said to be from five to six pounds ten shillings per ton.* 



I have purposely given you all these details ; they are distinctive of the age 

 in which we live. It is a practical, commercial, unpoetical period, when trams 

 will wait for neither the peer nor the peasant ; and when common-place railway 

 trucks carry off romance — in the shape of Mistletoe — at so much per ton ! Had 

 good Sir Walter Scott lived m these days, it would never have occurred to him 

 to send his "merry men" to the "woods" for it — where, by the way, they would 

 never have found it — but the Mistletoe none the less, would have reached him ; 

 and if he had chanced to look over his greengrocer's bill, he would, doubtless, 

 have found some such items as these : 



To a bunch of Mistletoe, fine and full of berries £100 

 To pieces of ditto ditto, for decoration 076 



There only remains for me the pleasant duty of thanking those gentlemen 

 who have so kindly answered my enquiries and given me so much information. 

 To the Rev. F. T^ Havergal, I am indebted for the opportunity of consulting the 

 books in our valuable Cathedral Library : Thomas Blashill, jun., Esq., has been 

 most useful to me in looking up authorities in the British Museum and in other 

 ways: The Rev. Thomas Woodhouse has been a greater help to me than he would 

 be willing to allow, for an example, see Appendix b. The Rev. Thomas 

 Hutchinson, the Rev. W. H. Purchas, Dr. Willis, of Monmouth; Elmes Y. 

 Steele, Esq., Abergavenny ; and our Honorary Secretary,]R. M. Lingwood, Esq., 

 have kindly assisted me in various ways. Mr. Adams, of Marden, has taken 

 much trouble in his enquiries for» me, as has been acknowledged previously. 

 Flavell Edmunds, Esq., has given me much information on divers subjects: and 



* " Many people would be greatly amazed," says Mr. H.iy wood, " were they to stand on 

 Worcester bridge for a short time, any Market day a few weeks before Christmas, from about 

 six to nine o'cfock in the morning. They would see vehicles of every description, from the 

 largest waggon down to the donkey cart and wheel-harrow, loaded as high as can be piled with 

 the "hallowed mirth-mspiring Mistletoe." All this is eagerly bought up by men called 

 ' Badgers,' who pack it in casks or crates, and send it off to decorate the houses of our neigh- 

 bours in Manchester, Liverpool, &c. I have made enquirv of the Badgers, and they s.ay the 

 price of Mistletoe is about i^4 per ton, and that upwards of loc tons are annually sent from 

 Worcester." 



