Christmas: Its Origin and Associations Part 17

Lord Warden of the four Ports _Damporte._

Secretary of State _Jones._

Lord Admiral _Cecil (Richard)._

Lord Treasurer _Morrey._

Lord Great Chamberlain _Southworth._

Lord High Constable.

Lord Marshal _Knapolck._

Lord Privy Seal _Lamphew._

Lord Chamberlain of the House-hold _Markham._

Lord High Steward _Kempe._

Lord Chancellor _Johnson._

Archbishop of St. Andrews in Holborn _Bush._

Serjeant at Arms, with the Mace _Flemming._

Gentleman-Usher _Chevett._

The Shield of Pegasus, for the Inner-Temple _Scevington._

Serjeant at Arms, with the Sword _Glascott._

Gentleman-Usher _Paylor._

The Shield of the Griffin, for Gray's-Inn _Wickliffe._

The King at Arms _Perkinson._

The great Shield of the Prince's Arms _Cobley._

The Prince of Purpoole _Helmes._

A Page of Honour _Wandforde._

Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber, six couples.

A Page of Honour _Butler (Roger)._

Vice-Chamberlain _Butler (Thomas)._

Master of the Horse _Fitz-Hugh._

Yeomen of the Guard, three couples.

Townsmen in Liveries.

The Family and Followers."

CHRISTMAS'S LAMENTATION

is the subject of an old song preserved in the Roxburgh Collection of Ballads in the British Museum. The full t.i.tle is: "Christmas's Lamentation for the losse of his acquaintance; showing how he is forst to leave the country and come to London." It appears to have been published at the end of the sixteenth or the beginning of the seventeenth century. The burden of the song is that Christmas "charity from the country is fled," and the first verse will sufficiently indicate the style of the writing:--

Christmas is my name, far have I gone, Have I gone, have I gone, have I gone, without regard, Whereas great men by flocks there be flown, There be flown, there be flown, there be flown, to London-ward; Where they in pomp and pleasure do waste That which Christmas was wonted to feast, Welladay!

Houses where music was wont for to ring Nothing but bats and owlets do sing.

Welladay! Welladay! Welladay! where should I stay?

OLD CHRISTMAS RETURNED

is the t.i.tle of a lively Christmas ditty which is a kind of reply to the preceding ballad. It is preserved in the collection formed by Samuel Pepys, some time Secretary to the Admiralty, and author of the famous diary, and by him bequeathed to Magdalene College, Cambridge.

The full t.i.tle and first verse of the old song are as follows:--

"Old Christmas returned, or Hospitality revived; being a Looking-gla.s.s for Rich Misers, wherein they may see (if they be not blind) how much they are to blame for their penurious house-keeping, and likewise an encouragement to those n.o.ble-minded gentry, who lay out a great part of their estates in hospitality, relieving such persons as have need thereof:

'Who feasts the poor, a true reward shall find, Or helps the old, the feeble, lame, and blind.'"

"All you that to feasting and mirth are inclined, Come, here is good news for to pleasure your mind; Old Christmas is come for to keep open house, He scorns to be guilty of starving a mouse; Then come, boys, and welcome, for diet the chief, Plum-pudding, goose, capon, minc'd pies, and roast beef."

CHRISTMAS-KEEPING IN THE COUNTRY

was revived in accordance with the commands of Queen Elizabeth, who listened sympathetically to the "Lamentations" of her lowlier subjects. Their complaint was that the royal and public pageants at Christmastide allured to the metropolis many country gentlemen, who, neglecting the comforts of their dependents in the country at this season, dissipated in town part of their means for a.s.sisting them, and incapacitated themselves from continuing that hospitality for which the country had been so long noted. In order to check this practice, the gentlemen of Norfolk and Suffolk were commanded by Queen Elizabeth to depart from London before Christmas, and "to repair to their counties, and there to keep hospitality amongst their neighbours." The presence of the higher cla.s.ses was needed among the country people to give that a.s.sistance which was quaintly recommended by Tusser in his "Hundreth good Points of Husbandrie":

"At Christmas be mery, and thanke G.o.d of all: And feast thy pore neighbours, the great with the small.

Yea al the yere long have an eie to the poore: And G.o.d shall sende luck to kepe open thy doore."

Henry Lord Berkeley, who had a seat in Warwickshire, appears to have set a good example in this respect to the n.o.blemen of the period, for, according to Dugdale, "the greatest part of this lord's abydinge after his mother's death, happenynge in the sixth yeare of Queen Elizabeth, was at Callowdon, till his own death in the eleventh of Kinge James, from whence, once in two or three yeares, hee used in July to come to Berkeley."

The historic house of Berkeley essentially belongs to Gloucestershire; but on the death of Edward VI., Henry Lord Berkeley,

[Ill.u.s.tration:

"With a good old fashion, when Christmas was come, To call in all his old neighbours with bagpipe and drum."]

by descent from the Mowbrays and the Segraves, became possessed of the ancient Manor and castellated mansion of Caludon, near Coventry, where he lived in splendour, and kept a grand retinue, being profuse in his hospitalities at Christmas, as well as in his alms to the poor throughout the year. "As touchinge the Almes to the poore of 5 & six country p'ishes & villages hard adjoyninge to Callowdon were relieved, with each of them a neepe of holsome pottage, with a peece of beoffe or mutton therin, halfe a cheate loafe, & a kan of beere, besides the private Almes that dayly went out of his purse never without eight or ten shillings in single money of ijd iijd & groates, & besides his Maundy & Thursday before Ester day, wherein many poore men and women were clothed by the liberality of this lord and his first wife, whilest they lived; and besides twenty markes, or twenty pound, or more, which thrice each yeare, against the feaste of Christmas, Ester, and Whitsontide, was sent by this Lord to two or three of the chiefest Inhabitants of these villages, and of Gosford Street at Coventry, to bee distributed amongst the poore accordinge to their discretions.

Such was the humanity of this Lord, that in tymes of Christmas and other festyvalls, when his neighbor townships were invited and feasted in his Hall, hee would, in the midst of their dynner, ryse from his owne, & goynge to each of their tables in his Hall, cheerfully bid them welcome. And his further order was, having guests of Honour or remarkable ranke that filled his owne table, to seate himselfe at the lower end; and when such guests filled but half his bord, & a meaner degree the rest of his table, then to seate himselfe the last of the first ranke, & the first of the later, which was about the midst of his large tables, neare the salt."

Another home of Christmas hospitality in the days of "Good Queen Bess"

was Penshurst in Kent, the birthplace of the distinguished and chivalrous Sir Philip Sidney. "All who enjoyed the hospitality of Penshurst," says Mills's _History of Chivalry_, "were equal in consideration of the host; there were no odious distinctions of rank or fortune; 'the dishes did not grow coa.r.s.er as they receded from the head of the table,' and no huge salt-cellar divided the n.o.ble from the ign.o.ble guests." That hospitality was the honourable distinction of the Sidney family in general is also evident from Ben Jonson's lines on Penshurst: