CHRISTMAS. 9 



the wall, covering it all over on both sides ; then it 

 climbs up a second wall at right angles to the first, 

 and throws its trailing branches down to the very 

 ground : and now they are one mass of blossom. 



It is from this ivy that we gather our best 

 Christmas greenery; but there are also cuttings 

 from the Box, Yew, and Holly ; and one varie- 

 gated Holly has been beautiful, for its mottled 

 leaves have in some sprays become of a perfectly 

 clear and creamy white the colour of fine old ivory. 

 Mistletoe does not grow with us, and we have to 

 buy it in the market of our town. By the way, 

 how strangely the idea of an English Mistletoe 

 bough now associates itself with that very uncom- 

 fortable Italian story of the bride and the oaken 

 chest. How curious, too, that, in this country at 

 least, the memory of poor Ginevra is due not to 

 Rogers's poem, but to Haynes Bayly's ballad. 



To-morrow will be -Christmas Eve, and to- 

 morrow (so the legend says), in the vale of Avalon, 

 at the old abbey, where King Arthur was buried 

 and St. Dunstan lived " outbuds the Glastonbury 

 Thorn" the sacred Thorn, which sprang from the 

 staff St. Joseph planted there. Unhappily no such 

 Thorns grow in my Lancashire garden. 



