  Dec. 24.] CHRISTMAS EVE. Cheshire.In Chester, and its neighbourhood, numerous singers parade the streets and are hospitably entertained with meat and drink at the various houses where they call.—See Book of Days, vol. ii. p. 736. Cornwall.On Christmas Eve, in former days, says Hunt (Romances of the West of England, 1871, p. 349), the small people, or the spiggans, would meet at the bottom of the deepest mines, and have a midnight mass. In this county the yule log is called “the mock.” Derbyshire.In some parts the village choir meet in the church on Christmas Eve, and there wait until midnight, when they proceed from house to house, invariably accompanied by a small keg of ale, singing “Christians awake;” and during the Christmas season they again visit the principal houses in the place, and having played and sung for the evening, and partaken of the Christmas cheer, are presented with a sum of money.—Jour. of the Arch. Assoc. 1852, vol. vii. p. 208. Devonshire.The ashton faggot is burned in Devonshire on Christmas Eve. The faggot is composed entirely of ash timber, and the separate sticks or branches are securely bound together with ash bands. The faggot is made as large as can conveniently be burned in the fire-place, or rather upon the floor, grates not being in use. A numerous company is generally assembled to spend the evening in games and In one or two localities, it is still customary for the farmer with his family and friends, after partaking together of hot cakes and cider (the cake being dipped in the liquor previous to being eaten), to proceed to the orchard, one of the party bearing hot cake and cider as an offering to the principal apple-tree. The cake is formally deposited on the fork of the tree, and the cider thrown over the latter. [88] In some places this custom is observed on New Year’s Eve. A superstitious notion prevails in the western parts of Devonshire that, at twelve o’clock at night on Christmas Eve, the oxen in their stalls are always found on their knees, as in an attitude of devotion, and that since the alteration of the style they continue to do this only on the eve of Old Christmas Day.—Brand, Pop. Antiq. 1849, vol. i. p. 473. It appears, from a statement of charities in an old book, that John Martyn, by will, 28th of November, 1729, gave to the churchwardens and overseers of the poor of the parish of St. Mary Major, Exeter, twenty pounds, to be put out at interest, and the profits thereof to be laid out every Christmas Eve in twenty pieces of beef, to be distributed to twenty poor people of the parish, such as had no relief on that day, for ever.—Old English Customs and Charities, 1842, p. 4. Gloucestershire.It appears by the benefaction table in the church of Ruardean, that the Rev. Mr. Anthony Sterry, vicar of Lidney, gave by deed, in the fortieth year of Queen Elizabeth, five shillings per annum, payable out of an estate called the Glasp, in this parish, for ringing a peal on Christmas Eve, about midnight, for two hours, in commemoration of the Nativity.—Old English Customs and Charities, 1842, p. 6. Hampshire.In the neighbourhood of the New Forest the following lines are sung on the wassailing of the trees: “Apples and pears with right good corn, Come in plenty to every one; Eat and drink good cake and hot ale, Give earth to drink and she’ll not fail.” Christmas in the Olden Time, London, 1839. Herefordshire.In the Gent. Mag. (vol. xc. pt. i. p. 33) is the following account of a custom that formerly existed at Tretyre on Christmas Eve. The writer says:—They make a cake, poke a stick through it, fasten it upon the horn of an ox, and say certain words, begging a good crop of corn for the master. The men and boys attending the oxen, range themselves around. If the ox throws the cake behind, it belongs to the men, if before, to the boys. They take with them a wooden bottle of cyder and drink it, repeating the charm before mentioned. Kent.Hasted (History of Kent, vol. iii. p. 380) says there was a singular custom used of long time by the fishermen of Folkestone. They chose eight of their largest and best whitings out of every boat when they came home from the fishery and sold them apart from the rest, and out of the money arising from them they made a feast every Christmas Eve which they called a “Rumbald.” The master of each boat provided this feast for his own company. These whitings, which are of a very large size, and are sold all round the country as far as Canterbury, are called Rumbald whitings. This custom (which is now left off, though many of the inhabitants still meet jovially on Christmas Eve, and call it Rumbald Night) might have been anciently instituted in honour of St. Rumbald, and at first designed as an offering to him for his protection during the fishery. [89] Cole, in his History and Antiquities of Filey (1828, p. 143), gives the following account of a custom that existed in his time in connection with the herring fishery at that place. He says, during the time the boats are on the herring fishery the junior part of the inhabitants seize all the unemployed waggons and carts they can find and drag them down the streets to the cliff tops; then leaving them to be owned and taken away by their respective proprietors on the following morning; this is carried into effect about the third Saturday night after the boats have sailed from Filey, under a superstitious notion that it drives the herrings into the nets. Previously to the fishermen setting out upon their expedition they send a piece of sea-beef on shore from each boat to such of their friends at the public houses as they wish “weel beea;” this occasions “a bit of a supper,” at which those who are going away and those who stay enjoy good cheer, heightened by mutual good-will. The Sunday preceding their departure is called Boat Sunday, when all their friends from the neighbouring villages attend to bid them farewell. Isle of Man.Waldron, in his Description of the Isle of Man (1859, p. 125) says that on Christmas Eve every one leaves off work, and rambles about till the bells begin to ring at midnight. Lord Teignmouth (Sketches of the Coast of Scotland and the Isle of Man, vol. ii. p. 264) states that they then all flock to the churches, bearing the largest candle they can procure. The churches are decorated with holly, and the service, in commemoration of the birth of our Saviour is called Oiel Verry.—See Train’s History of the Isle of Man, 1845, vol. ii. p. 127. Norfolk.In some parts of Norfolk libations of spiced ale used to be sprinkled on orchards and meadows.—Book of Days, vol. ii. p. 736. Northamptonshire.On Christmas Eve, 1815, says Cole (History of Ecton, 1825), the musicians of Ecton, accompanied by the vocalists of the church, revived the custom of going round the village at midnight and singing a carol at the principal houses. Nottinghamshire.At Nottingham, on Christmas Eve, as well as in many other of the villages, it is customary to toast apples on a string until they drop into a bowl of hot spiced ale, which is placed to receive them; this, from the softness of the beverage is called “lamb’s-wool.” Oxfordshire.Pointer, in his Oxoniensis Academia (1749, p. 20), says that, at Merton College, Oxford, the fellows meet together in the Hall on Christmas Eve and other solemn times to sing a psalm and drink a grace-cup to one another (called Poculum Charitatis), wishing one another help and happiness. These grace-cups they drink to one another every day after dinner and supper, wishing one another peace and good neighbourhood. Sussex.At Chailey, the following doggerel is sung at the wassailing of the apple trees: N. & Q. 1st S. vol. v. p. 293. [90] See Eve of Epiphany, p. 21. Warwickshire.A correspondent of the Gent. Mag. (1795, vol. lxv. p. 110) thus describes an amusement practised on Christmas Eve at Aston Hall, down to the end of last century. As soon as supper is over a table is set in the hall. On it is placed a brown loaf, with twenty silver threepences stuck on the top of it, a tankard of ale, with pipes and tobacco, and the two oldest servants have chairs behind it to sit as judges if they please. The steward brings the servants, both men and women, by one at a time, covered with a winnow sheet, and lays their right hand on the loaf, exposing no other part of the body. The older of the two judges guesses at the person, by naming a name, then the younger judge, and lastly, the older again. If they hit upon the right name, the steward leads the person back again; but if they do not, he Yorkshire.There is in Yorkshire a custom, which has been by the country people more or less revived, ever since the alteration in the style and calendar, namely, of watching, on the midnight of the new and old Christmas Eve, by beehives, to determine upon the right Christmas from the humming noise which they suppose the bees will make when the birth of our Saviour took place.—Gent. Mag. 1811, vol. lxxxi. part. i. p. 424. Christmas Eve in Yorkshire, says a writer in Time’s Telescope (1822, p. 298), is celebrated in a peculiar manner at eight o’clock in the evening the bells greet “Old Father Christmas” with a merry peal, the children parade the streets with drums, trumpets, bells, or perhaps, in their absence, with the poker and shovel, taken from their humble cottage fire; the yule candle is lighted, and— “High on the cheerful fire Is blazing seen th’ enormous Christmas brand.” Supper is served, of which one dish, from the lordly mansion to the humblest shed, is invariably furmety; yule cake, one of which is always made for each individual in the family, and other more substantial viands are also added. At St. Cuthbert’s Church, Ackworth, a sheaf of corn was at one time suspended on Christmas Eve outside the porch, At Dewsbury, one of the church bells is tolled as at a funeral; this is called the Devil’s Knell, the moral of which is that “the Devil died when Christ was born.” This custom was discontinued for many years, but revived by the vicar in 1828.—Timbs’ Something for Everybody, 1861, p. 150. At Ripon, on Christmas Eve, the grocers send each of their customers a pound or half of currants and raisins to make a Christmas pudding. The chandlers also send large mould candles, and the coopers logs of wood, generally called yule clogs, which are always used on Christmas Eve; but should it be so large as not to be all burnt that night, which is frequently the case, the remains are kept till old Christmas Eve.—Gent. Mag. 1790, vol. lx. p. 719. Cole in his Historical Sketches of Scalby, Burniston, and Cloughton (1829, p. 45) says the village choristers belonging to Scalby assemble on Christmas Eve, and remain out the whole night singing at the principal houses. IRELAND.A correspondent of N. & Q. (3rd S. vol. viii. p. 495) says that, in the south-east of Ireland on Christmas Eve, people hardly go to bed at all, and the first who announces the crowing of the cock, if a male, is rewarded with a cup of tea, in which is mixed a glass of spirits; if a female, with the tea only, but as a substitute for the whisky she is saluted with half-a-dozen of kisses. Ornamental line
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