us dimensions, hung round with copper and
tin vessels highly polished, and decorated here and there with a
Christmas green.... The scene completely realised poor Robin's [1684]
humble idea of the comforts of mid-winter:

'Now trees their leafy hats do bare
To reverence winter's silver hair;
A handsome hostess, merry host,
A pot of ale now and a toast,
Tobacco and a good coal fire,
Are things this season doth require.'"

Mr. Irving afterwards depicts, in his own graphic style, the Christmas
festivities observed at an old-fashioned English hall, and tells how
the generous squire pointed with pleasure to the indications of good
cheer reeking from the chimneys of the comfortable farmhouses, and low
thatched cottages. "I love," said he, "to see this day well kept by
rich and poor; it is a great thing to have one day in the year, at
least, when you are sure of being welcome wherever you go, and of
having, as it were, the world all thrown open to you; and I am almost
disposed to join with poor Robin, in his malediction on every churlish
enemy to this honest festival:

"'Those who at Christmas do repine,
And would fain hence despatch him,
May they with old Duke Humphry dine,
Or else may Squire Ketch catch 'em.'

"The squire went on to lament the deplorable decay of the games and
amusements which were once prevalent at this season among the lower
orders, and countenanced by the higher; when the old halls of castles
and manor-houses were thrown open at daylight; when the tables were
covered with brawn, and beef, and humming ale; when the harp and the
carol resounded all day long, and when rich and poor were alike
welcome to enter and make merry. 'Our old games and local customs,'
said he, 'had a great effect in making the peasant fond of his home,
and the promotion of them by the gentry made him fond of his lord.
They made the times merrier, and kinder and better; and I can truly
say with one of our old poets:

"'I like them well--the curious preciseness
And all-pretended gravity of those
That seek to banish hence these harmless sports,
Have thrust away much ancient honesty.'"

[Illustration]

THE CHRISTMASES OF QUEEN VICTORIA

have been kept with much bountifulness, but after the gracious manner
of a Christian Queen who cares more for the welfare of her beloved
subjects than for ostentatious display. Her Majesty's Royal bounties
to the poor of the metropolis and its environs, a