toast, and roasted apples. This practice, however, which originated in pure kindness and benevolence, soon degenerated into little better than a mere pecuniary traffic. In Selden's time it appears to have lost much of its original character from the following comparison which he drew. "The Pope, in sending relicks to Princes, does as wenches do by their wassails at New Year's tide; they present you with a cup, and you must drink of a flabby stuff; but the meaning is, you must give them money ten times more than it is worth."* The custom of interchanging gifts on this day, though now nearly obsolete, was in old times observed most rigidly, and not merely in the country, but in the palace of the monarch. The wardrobe and jewellery of Queen Elizabeth appear to have been supported principally by these annual contributions. Nichols in his " Progresses" of this queen, furnishes a curious enumeration of these gifts, the original rolls of account of which are still remaining, and on which he observes, " from all these rolls (and more of them are perhaps still existing), it appears that the greatest part, if not all the peers and peeresses of the realm, all the bishops, the chief officers of state, and several of the queen's household servants, even down to her apothecaries, master cook, serjeant of the pastry, and even the dustman, gave New Year's Gifts to her majesty, consisting, in general, either of a sum of money, or jewels, trinkets, wearing apparel, &c. The largest sum given by any of the temporal lords was £20; but the Archbishop of Canterbury gave £40; the Archbishop of York £30, and the other spiritual lords £20 and £10; Selden's Table Talk. many of the temporal lords and great officers, and most of the peeresses, gave rich gowns, petticoats, smocks, kirtles, silk stockings, Cyprus garters, sweet bags, doublets, mantles, some embroidered with pearls, garnets, &c. looking-glasses, fans, bracelets, caskets studded with precious stones, jewels ornamented with sparks of gold in various devices, and other costly trinkets. Sir Gilbert Dethick, Garter King at Arms, gave a book of the States in William the Conqueror's time; Absalom, the Master of the Savoy, a bible covered with cloth of gold, garnished with silver and gilt, and two plates with the royal arms; Petruchio Ubaldino, a book covered with vellum, of Italian; Lambarde, the antiquary, his Pandecta of all the Rolls, &c. in the Tower of London. The queen's physician presented her with a box of foreign sweetmeats; another physician with two pots, one of green ginger, the other of orange flowers; two other physicians gave each a pot of green ginger, and a pot of rinds of lemons; her apothecaries, a box of lozenges, a box of ginger candy, a box of green ginger, a box of orange candit, a pot of preserves, a pot of Warden's candit, a box of wood with prunelyn, and two boxes of manus Christi; Mrs. Blanch, a parry, a little box of gold to put in comfits, and a little spoon of gold; Mrs. Morgan, a box of cherryes, and one of aberycocks; her master cook, a faire march payne; her serjeant of the pastry, a faire pie of quinces oranged, a box of peaches of Janneway (Genoa), a great pie of quinces and Warden's guilte; Putrino, an Italian, presented her with two pictures; Innocent Corry, with a box of lute strings; Ambrose Lupo, Joseph Lupo, and Cæsar Caliardo, each with a pair of sweet gloves; a cutler, with a meat knife with a fan-baft of bone, a conceit in it; Jaromy, with twenty-four drinking glasses; Smyth, dustman, two boltes of cambrick. To all which articles, the queen, though she made return in plate, &c. always took care the balance should be in her own favour. The rewards given by King Edward V1. in the fifth year of his reign, on New Year's Day, to his officers and servants in ordinary, amounted to £155 5s. The only remains however of giving presents on this day at Court is to the two chaplains in waiting, who still have each a crown piece laid under their plates at dinner. In a MS. book of accounts of the household expenses of Sir John Franklyn, 1624, printed in the Archæologia, under the date of January 1, occur the following items, illustrative of New Year's Day customs at that period : 8. d. Item to the musitioners uppon New Year's Day in the morning 1 6 Item to the woman which brought the apple stuck with nuts 1 0 1 0 ... Item to the boy who brought two capons 66 wassailing cup) 1 6 The apple stuck with nuts" seems to have been presented as an humble substitute for an orange stuck with cloves, which was, at this time, a common New Year's Gift. Ben Jonson in his Christmas Masque, says:- -“He has an orange and rosemary, but not a clove to stick in it." The presenting of capons on this day, as a usual gift, is thus alluded to by Cowley : Ye used in the former days to fall Prostrate unto your landlord in his hall; When with low legs, and in an humble guise, Ye offered up a capon sacrifice Unto his worship, at a New Year's tide. For the close of our first day we shall avail ourselves of the following NEW YEAR'S OFFERING. "A happy new year," thou lovely one, On thy smooth cheek health's mantling glow "A happy new year," thou lovely one, L. M. Francis. 6. EPIPHANY; OR, TWELFTH DAY. Now Twelf Day is coming goode housewife I trowe, And fire your oven all ready to bake, For Emma come hither a bonnie Twelfth cake. Round the wassaile bowle drawing for king and for queene. I would rather have Emma and dwell in a cotte. Anthologia. The feast of the Epiphany, which means appearance or manifestation, is a festival established from the earliest period of Christianity, in commemoration of the day when Christ manifested himself to the Jews, by a star which conducted the wise men to Bethlehem. It is usually called Twelfth Day, from its being twelve days after Christmas or the Nativity. In the time of Alfred the whole twelve days were ordered to be kept as festivals by a law made respecting holydays*, Brand observes that the customs of this day, though various in different countries, agree in doing honour to the Eastern Magi, or Wise Men, who are supposed to have been of royal dignity; and in this opinion Selden appears to agree when he says in his Table Talk-" Our choosing kings and queens on Twelfth Night has reference to the three kings." These eastern magi, or kings, are still held in much veneration by Catholics; *See Collier's Ecclesiastical History. |