CHRISTM AS-KEEPING. 
in a similav manner, and was st3led “King’ of the Cockneys.” The 
g'eutlbmen of the gown thus kept a carnival in the very court of 
gravity itself. How edifying would it now be for the augmented 
number of students in the profession, to witness the be-wigged judges 
and benchers relaxing from that stiff solemnity of physiognomy, which 
so often passes current in the profession for wisdom — to sheep-tails 
and periwigs, filling the atmosphere of the legal arena with showers 
of perfumed dust — dissipating the labours of Danby and other emi- 
nent wdg-architects, by the shaking of their curls at the mummeries 
of the Zany and his followers decked with fools’ caps and bells ; 
and, the keeper of the king’s conscience himself “ holdirsg both his 
sides” at the sight of Robin Good fellow and the bear-skin man, for- 
merly called a Wodehouse, forgetting even chancery suits and fees, 
for a moment, in the indulgence of unrestrainable laughter. 
The Middle-temple lawyers, not to be outdone by their ‘Mearned 
brethren” of Lincoln’s Inn, elected a Prince of Christmas so late as 
the year 1635. This personage dined with them in their hall, having 
eight attendants. He w’as seated under a cloth of state, and served 
with great attention. To complete this climax of foolery, this Zany 
was afteiwards introduced at court, and actually knighted at White- 
hall, and was most probably not the first of his character who 
received that honour, as the prssent generation can testify he was not 
the last. 
But, as later periods have also shew'ii, the lawyers were far out- 
done by the clergy in matters appertaining to feasting and revelry. 
The former soon relapsed into their w'onted habits, the departure from 
which had been momentary ; for very few chancellors besides Sir 
Thomas More would have admitted, even in ancient days, that they 
were good throwers at cocks : Sir Thomas does not say he practised 
it after he came to the_ lord-chancellorship. — The clergy, however, 
seem to have had no scruples, and to have shared largely jn Christ- 
inas sports and revels of all sorts. Even at the universities they 
elected a “King of the Bean” on Christmas-dav. In cathedral churches 
there w as an “Archbishop or Bishop of Fools” elected, and in Catho- 
lic times a “ Pope of Fools.’' The office of “ King of Fools,” (Rex 
Stultorum) was abolished in 1731, perhaps as being derogatory to the 
dignity of kingship. These mummers attended divine service in pan- 
tomimical dresses, and w^ere followed by crowds of the laity in masks 
of different forms. Abroad, some assumed the habits of females, and 
displayed the most wanton gestures. One ceremony consisted in 
shaving a “ Precentor of Fools” before the church-door, in presence 
of the populace, w'ho where amused by a vulgar sermon. In England 
a Boy-Bishop was regularly elected in the churches at Christmas, 
who mimicked the service and office of bishop ; and the clergy even 
enjoined the children of St. Paul’s school to attend at the cathedral, 
and give the Boy-Bishop a penny each ! 
This mockery w'as abolished at the Reformation, in the thirty-third 
year of Henry the VIII. ; and tho^igh revived by Mary, it ceased 
entirely at her death. 
The exercise of quintin was anciently much practised in London 
at Christmas : a quintin was set up at that season in Cornhill, near 
