y
must have been very full, for he ordered for the royal banquets 7000
fowls, 1750 partridges, besides immense numbers of boars, swans,
pheasants, &c. Of course the king had a very large retinue of
vassals and feudal lords to provide for; but the store seems
sufficiently vast to supply the wants of an army of faithful, but
hungry, subjects. Sometimes, when the king was short of money, there
was a considerable reduction in the amount of good things consumed
at Christmas.

Our ancestors were very careful to attend the services of the
church, which their loving hands had adorned with holly, bay,
rosemary, and laurel. They considered it a day of special
thanksgiving and rejoicing, as an old poet observed--

"At Christmas be merry and thankful with all,
And feast thy poor neighbours, the great and the small."

The solemn service of Holy Communion was celebrated on Christmas
Eve, in mediaeval times--the only night in all the year when an
evening celebration was allowed. The halls of the knights and barons
of ancient days were thrown open to all comers, and open house was
kept for a fortnight. Rejoicing at Christmas time seems to have been
universal, and it is not for us to judge whether in their mirth they
sometimes forgot the reason of true Christmas joy, and thought more
of their feasting than of Him who was born on Christmas Day. But by
their hearty manner of keeping this annual festival, by the
hospitality which the farmers and rich men showed to their labourers
and poorer neighbours, they promoted, at any rate, "goodwill amongst
men"--old animosities, quarrels, and bitternesses were forgotten,
and the hearts of the poor cheered.

In the North of England every farmer gave two feasts, one called
"the old folks' night," and the other "the young folks' night." The
old Squire used to receive his tenants and neighbours at daybreak,
when the black-jacks were passed round, and woe betide the luckless
cook who had overslept herself, and had not boiled the Hackin, or
large sausage, ere the day dawned, for then she was seized by the
arms and made to run round the market-place, or courtyard, until
she was ashamed of her laziness.

And now let us enter the hall of some great baron and see how our
ancestors kept a merry Christmas. The panelled walls, and stags'
horns, and gallery at one end of the great room were hung with holly
and mistletoe. The Yule-log blazed upon the hearth, and then entered
the vassals, tenants,