ossing the river
unnoticed on the ice, found her way to Abingdon. The long anarchy was
ended by the Treaty of Wallingford (1153), Stephen being recognised as
king during his life, and the succession devolving upon Matilda's son
Henry. A year had hardly passed from the signing of the treaty, when
Stephen's death gave Henry the crown, and his coronation took place at
Christmastide, 1154, at Westminster.

THE REIGN OF HENRY II.,

it has been truly said, "initiated the rule of law," as distinct from
despotism, whether personal or tempered by routine, of the Norman
kings. And now the despotic barons began gradually to be shorn of
their power, and the dungeons of their "Adulterine" castles to be
stripped of their horrors, and it seemed more appropriate to celebrate
the season of glad tidings. King Henry the Second kept his first
Christmas at Bermondsey with great solemnity, marking the occasion by
passing his royal word to expel all foreigners from the kingdom,
whereupon William of Ypres and his Flemings decamped without waiting
for further notice. In 1158 Henry, celebrating the Christmas festival
at Worcester, took the crown from his head and placed it upon the
altar, after which he never wore it. But he did not cease to keep
Christmas. In 1171 he went to Ireland, where the chiefs of the land
displayed a wonderful alacrity in taking the oath of allegiance, and
were rewarded by being entertained in a style that astonished them.
Finding no place in Dublin large enough to contain his own followers,
much less his guests, Henry had a house built in Irish fashion of
twigs and wattles in the village of Hogges, and there held high
revelry during Christmastide, teaching his new subjects to eat cranes'
flesh, and take their part in miracle plays, masques, mummeries, and
tournaments. And a great number of oxen were roasted, so that all the
people might take part in the rejoicings.

CHRISTMAS ENTERTAINMENTS AT CONSTANTINOPLE.

In his description of Christian Constantinople, Benjamin of Tudela, a
Spanish Jew, who travelled through the East in the twelfth century
(1159 or 1160), describes a "place where the king diverts himself,
called the hippodrome, near to the wall of the palace. There it is
that every year, on the day of the birth of Jesus the Nazarene, the
king gives a grand entertainment. There are represented by magic arts
before the king and queen, figures of all kinds of men that exist in
the world; thither also are take