Part 33 (2/2)

”Most of the other Diversions are Cards and Dice, but they are seldom set on foot, unless a Lawyer is at hand, to breed some dispute for him to decide, or at least have some Party in.

”And now I come to another Entertainment frequently used, which is of the Story-telling Order, _viz._ of Hobgoblins, Witches, Conjurers, Ghosts, Fairies, and such like common Disturbers.”

At this period

DAVID GARRICK'S CHRISTMAS ACTING

won him great applause. At Christmas, 1741, he brought out at Goodman's Fields a Christmas Farce, written by himself, ent.i.tled ”The Lying Valet,” wherein the great actor took the part of ”Sharp.” It was thought the most diverting farce ever performed. ”There was a general roar from beginning to end. So great was his versatility that people were not able to determine whether he was best in tragedy or comedy.”

On his benefit, when his real name was placed on the bills for the first time, there was an immense gathering, and the applause was quite extraordinary.

The Christmas festivities of 1745 were marred by the

DISTURBANCES OF THE JACOBITES,

under the romantic ”Prince Charlie,” whose attempted invasion of England speedily collapsed.

Pointer, in his _Oxoniensis Academia_ (1749) refers to

AN OLD CHRISTMAS CUSTOM

of this period. He states that at Merton College, Oxford, the Fellows meet together in the Hall, on Christmas Eve, to sing a Psalm and drink a grace-cup to one another (called _Poculum Charitatis_), wis.h.i.+ng one another health and happiness.

The Christmas of 1752 was

THE FIRST CHRISTMAS UNDER THE ”NEW STYLE,”

and many refused to observe the festival eleven days earlier than usual, but insisted on keeping ”Old Christmas Day.” Why should they be robbed of eleven days by a new Act of Parliament? It was of no use to tell them that it had been discovered that the fractional few minutes which are tailed on to the days and hours which make up the year had, by neglect through many centuries, brought us into a wrong condition, and that to set us right it would be necessary to give credit for eleven days which n.o.body was conscious of having enjoyed. The law, however, had said that it should be so. Accordingly, the day after the 2nd of September, 1752, was called the 14th, to the great indignation of thousands, who reckoned that they had thus been cut off from nearly a fortnight of life which honestly belonged to them. These persons st.u.r.dily refused to acknowledge the Christmas Eve and Day of the new calendar. They averred that the true festival was that which now began on the 5th of January _next year_. They would go to church, they said, on no other day; nor eat mince-pies nor drink punch but in reference to this one day. The clergy had a hard time of it with these recusants. It will be well, therefore, to quote one singular example to show how this recusancy was encountered. It is from a collection of pamphlet-sermons preserved by George III., none of which, however, have anything curious or particularly meritorious about them save this one, which was preached on Friday, January 5, 1753, ”Old Christmas Day.” Mr. Francis Blackburne, ”one of the candid disquisitors,” opened his church on that day, which was crowded by a congregation anxious to see the day celebrated as that of the anniversary of the Nativity. The service for Christmas Day, however, was not used. ”I will answer your expectations so far,” said the preacher in his sermon, ”as to give you a _sermon on the day_; and the rather because I perceive you are disappointed of _something else_ that you expected.” The purport of the discourse is to show that the change of style was desirable, and that it having been effected by Act of Parliament, with the sanction of the King, there was nothing for it but acquiescence. ”For,” says the preacher, ”had I, to oblige you, disobeyed this Act of Parliament, it is very probable I might have lost my benefice, which, you know, is all the subsistence I have in the world; and I should have been rightly served; for who am I that I should fly in the face of his Majesty and the Parliament? These things are left to be ordered by the higher powers; and in any such case as that, I hope not to think myself wiser than the King, the whole n.o.bility, and princ.i.p.al gentry of Great Britain”!!

The peasants of Buckinghams.h.i.+re, however, pitched upon a very pretty method to settle the question of Christmas, left so meekly by Mr.

Blackburne to the King, n.o.bility, and most of the gentry. They bethought themselves of a blackthorn near one of their villages; and this thorn was for the nonce declared to be the growth of a slip from the Christmas-flowering thorn at Glas...o...b..ry. If the Buckinghams.h.i.+re thorn, so argued the peasants, will only blossom in the night of the 24th of December, we will go to church next day, and allow that the Christmas by Act of Parliament is the true Christmas; but no blossom no feast, and there shall be no revel till the eve of old Christmas Day. They watched the thorn and drank to its budding; but as it produced no promise of a flower by the morning, they turned to go homewards as best they might, perfectly satisfied with the success of the experiment. Some were interrupted in their way by their respective ”vicars,” who took them by the arm and would fain have persuaded them to go to church. They argued the question by field, stile, and church-gate; but not a Bucks peasant would consent to enter a pew till the parson had promised to preach a sermon to, and smoke a pipe with, them on the only Christmas Day they chose to acknowledge.

Now, however, this old prejudice has been conquered, and the ”new style” has maintained its ground. It has even done more, for its authors have so arranged the years and leap years that a confusion in the time of Christmas or any other festival is not likely to occur again.

[75] Ca.s.sell's ”History of England.”

[76] Grose.

[77] Herbert H. Adams.

[78] ”Old English Customs and Charities,” 1842.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

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