Christmas Customs. 99 
candles at the ale-house with muzzle-loader guns for 
wagers of liquor, the wind of the cap alone being suffi- 
cient for the purpose at a short distance. 
The children never forget St. Thomas’s Day, which 
ancient custom has consecrated to alms, and they 
wend their way from farmhouse to farmhouse through- 
out the parish ; it is usual to keep to the parish, for 
some of the old local feeling still remains even in these 
cosmopolitan times. At Christmas sometimes the 
children sing carols, not with much success so far as 
melody goes, but otherwise successfully enough ; for 
recollections of the past soften the hearts of the 
crustiest. 
The young men for weeks previously have been 
practising for the mumming—a kind of rude drama 
requiring, it would seem, as much rehearsal before- 
hand as the plays at famous theatres. They dress in 
a fantastic manner, with masks and coloured ribbons ; 
anything grotesque answers, for-there is little attempt 
at dressing in character. They stroll round to each 
farmhouse in the parish, and enact the play in the 
kitchen or brewhouse; after which the whole company 
are refreshed with ale, and, receiving a few coins, go 
on to the next homestead. Mumming, however, has 
much deteriorated, even in the last fifteen or twenty 
years. On nights when the players were known to 
be coming, in addition to the farmer’s household and 
visitors at that season, the cottagers residing near used 
-to assemble, so that there was quite an audience. 
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