ertained at the vicarage on the afternoon of
Christmas Day, with four bushels of malt brewed into ale and beer, two
bushels of wheat made into bread, and half a hundred weight of cheese.
The remainder was given to the poor the next morning after divine
service."

Mason ("Statistical Account of Ireland," 1814) records the following

IRISH CHRISTMAS CUSTOMS:--

"At Culdaff, previous to Christmas, it is customary with the labouring
classes to raffle for mutton, when a sufficient number can subscribe
to defray the cost of a sheep. During the Christmas holidays they
amuse themselves with a game of kamman, which consists in impelling a
wooden ball with a crooked stick to a given point, while an adversary
endeavours to drive it in a contrary direction."

YORKSHIRE.

A writer in "Time's Telescope" (1822) states that in Yorkshire at
eight o'clock on Christmas Eve 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.

SOME SOCIAL FESTIVITIES

of Christmastide are sketched by a contributor to the _New Monthly
Magazine_, December 1, 1825, who says:--

"On the north side of the church at M. are a great many holly-trees.
It is from these that our dining and bed-rooms are furnished with
boughs. Families take it by turns to entertain their friends. They
meet early; the beef and pudding are noble; the mince-pies--peculiar;
the nuts half play-things and half-eatables; the oranges as cold and
acid as they ought to be, furnishing us with a superfluity which we
can afford to laugh at; the cakes indestructible; the wassail bowls
generous, old English, huge, demanding ladles, threatening overflow as
they come in, solid with roasted apples when set down. Towards
bed-time you hear of elder-wine, and not seldom of punch. At the
manorhouse it is pretty much the same as elsewhere. Girls, although
they be ladies, are kissed under the mistletoe. If any family among us
happen to have hit upon an exquisite brewing, they send some of it