OLD HOLIDAY AMUSEMENTS. 
247 
demand of the towns. Sprays and sprigs may be con- 
nived at, but this year I lost most of my beautiful young 
holly-trees, the cherished nurslings of my hedge-rows. 
The holly, though indigenous with us, is a very slow 
growing tree, and certainly the most ornamental of our 
native foresters. Its fine foliage shining in vigor and 
health, mingling with its brilliant coral beads, gives us 
the cheering aspect of a summer’s verdure when all 
besides is desolation and decay. It is not only grateful 
to the eye, but gives us pleasure, when we contemplate 
the food it will afford our poor hedgefaring birds, when 
all but its berries and those of the ivy are consumed ; 
and we are careful to preserve these gay youths of 
promise, when we trim our fences : but no sooner do 
they become young trees, in splendid beauty, than the 
merciless hatchet, in some December’s night, lops off 
their heads, leaving a naked unsightly stake to point 
out our loss ; and we grieve and are vexed, for they 
never acquire again comparative beauty. These young 
heads, that we have been robbed of, are in especial 
request to form a bush, dependent from the centre of 
the kitchen or the servants’ hall, which in this season 
of license and festivity becomes a station for extra 
liberty, as every female passing under it, becomes sub- 
ject to the salutation of her male companion. This centre 
bush is often the object of particular decoration, being 
surrounded by the translucent berries of the mistletoe, 
and those of the ivy, dipped in blue and white starch. 
But at this season I have noticed one remarkable deco- 
ration among the natives of the principality. A large 
white 'turnip is stuck as full as possible of black oats, 
so as to hide almost the substance in which they are 
set, and sometimes having compartments of white oats ; 
and being placed upon a candlestick, or some other ele- 
vation, on the mantle-tree, presents an extraordinary 
hedgehog-like appearance. The first adoption of this 
purely rural fancy, and its designation, I am perfectly 
unacquainted with ; but, when it is well executed, it 
requires attentive examination to detect the device. 
We are no votarists of fortune here, nor do we trou- 
ble ourselves concerning predestinate ordinations, or 
