380 THE MISTLETOE IN HEREFORDSHIRE. 
out of the Church.” (Hone; Hook; Moroni; Bescherelle; Du 
Cange, etc. etc.) 
Mr. Edwin Lees says quaintly, * The Druids thought the Mistletoe 
would cure everything; we only think it worth ...a kiss.” When 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, says he, it was hung up in great slate with its 
white berries, aud 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 hang- 
ing up of the bush 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.” (1st series, vol. v. 
p.13.) Mr. Shirley Hibberd thinks this account altogether unsatis- 
factory. ‘ Would it not be more reasonable," he says, **to refer it to 
the Scandinavian mythology, wherein the pug is dedicated to 
Friga, the Venus of the Scandinavians?” (Ibid. p. 208.) It seems 
rather doubtful whether this custom would be likely ^s 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 sug- 
gestion that offers itself is, that tradition should have handed down 
this pleasant ceremony from the New Year's Day festivities of Drui- 
dical times. If it be not so, where history is silent and antiquaries at 
fault, we are only left to suppose the present existence of some mutual 
attraction,—given, the feasting and festivities below-stairs, and the con- 
duct of Roger and Margery seems natural enough.* 
Herefordshire may be considered the centre of the Mistletoe district 
* Hone, in his ‘ Every Day Book,’ relates a discussion which took place al a 
Christmas party, as to which might be the great and crowning glory of Christmas 
s tivity. One said, *' mince pie;" another said, “ beef and plum-pudd Me some 
à wassail-bowl ; ? but a fair maiden blushin ngly suggested, “the Mi stletoe." 
un 5 Ais vol. Am " “But -a ltem is not to be obtained," says Halliwell, 
e kissin a garland of evergreens, ornam 
* may be s en for it at Christe " (Ibid.) — — 
