don and the sheriffs had their lords of misrule, ever
contending, without quarrel or offence, who should make the rarest
pastime to delight the beholders." Alas! where are all these, or any
similar, "merry disports" in our degenerate days? We have no "lords of
misrule" now; or, if we have, they are of a much less innocent and
pacific character. Mr. Cambridge, also, (No 104, of the _World_) draws a
glowing picture of an ancient Christmas. "Our ancestors," says he,
"considered Christmas in the double light of a holy commemoration and a
cheerful festival; and accordingly distinguished it by devotion, by
vacation from business, by merriment and hospitality. They seemed
eagerly bent to make themselves and every body about them happy. With
what punctual zeal did they wish one another a merry Christmas! and what
an omission would it have been thought, to have concluded a letter
without the compliments of the season! The great hall resounded with the
tumultuous joys of servants and tenants, and the gambols they played
served as an amusement to the lord of the mansion and his family, who,
by encouraging every art that conduced to mirth and entertainment,
endeavoured to soften the rigour of the season, and to mitigate the
influence of winter. How greatly ought we to regret the neglect of
mince-pies, which, besides the idea of merry-making inseparable from
them, were always considered as the test of schismatics! How zealously
were they swallowed by the orthodox, to the utter confusion of all
fanatical recusants! If any country gentleman should be so unfortunate
in this age as to lie under a suspicion of heresy, where will he find so
easy a method of acquitting himself as by the ordeal of plum-porridge?"
This alludes to the Puritans, who refused to observe Christmas, or any
other festival of the church, either by devotion or merriment. And I
regret to say there are certain modern "fanatical recusants," certain
modern Puritans, as schismatical in this particular as their gloomy
precursors. Mr. Cambridge then proceeds "to account for a revolution
which has rendered this season (so eminently distinguished in former
times) now so little different from the rest of the year," which he
thinks "no difficult task." The reasons he assigns are, the decline of
devotion, and the increase of luxury, the latter of which has extended
rejoicings and feastings, formerly peculiar to Christmas, through the
whole year; these have consequently lost their