"Tobacco was another home-grown stimulant: in 1655, it was cultivated and sold in 14 English and Welsh counties. ... a comforting pipe of English tobacco could not be enjoyed legally, as Cromwell’s government clamped down on the trade and insisted that all tobacco should be the duty-heavy variety imported from the colonies." https://thehistoryofparliament.wo…
And in 1660 Parliament tries again to make tobacco a revenue-producing import, but clearly it was easy to grow at home and hid from the tax collector.
"Tobacco was another home-grown stimulant: in 1655, it was cultivated and sold in 14 English and Welsh counties. ... a comforting pipe of English tobacco could not be enjoyed legally, as Cromwell’s government clamped down on the trade and insisted that all tobacco should be the duty-heavy variety imported from the colonies." https://thehistoryofparliament.wo…
And in 1660 Parliament tries again to make tobacco a revenue-producing import, but clearly it was easy to grow at home and hid from the tax collector.
The Holly and the Ivy is a "modern" work, from about 1700. The song may have derived from earlier songs in which holly and ivy feature, of which there are many including one version supposedly set to music by Henry VIII.
However, the song has its roots in even more ancient traditions, to those of the Druids and Romans. The holly was symbolic of man (rigid with prickly leaves and berries like drops of blood) and the ivy of woman (gentle, clinging, requiring support). Holly was associated with the Roman Saturnalia, while ivy was associated with Bacchus, the Roman god of wine. Holly was considered lucky and a symbol of immortality; the Romans used it to decorate their homes and to make wreathes for celebrations such as weddings. The Romans considered ivy a symbol of prosperity, charity and fidelity.
In Celtic tradition, holly was a feature of summer and winter solstice celebrations. From earliest times, decorating with evergreens during the dark winter months was popular. When absorbed into Christian tradition, the holly represents Christ (the Crown of Thorns, and the Blood of the Crucifixion), and the ivy represents Mary. Apparently, the bitterness of holly’s bark was associated with the vinegar and gall given to Christ during the Crucifixion. The twining habit of ivy was supposed to remind the faithful to rely on God.
The words were first published in 1710 in a broadside sheet. They are not logical, and ivy is only mentioned in the title and the first verse. This absence leads to speculation about missing verses, or changes of lyrics.
The music with which we are familiar today was documented in 1909, but the origins are apparently unknown. This version was done by Kings College, Cambridge in 2008, shown on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7…
People have used songs and music as a part of celebration for as long as we have recorded history. The word ‘carol’ comes from Latin, meaning both sing and joy. Thus, carols are songs of joy.
The songs we know as Christmas carols have both sacred and secular roots. Some began as hymns of the church.
Secular celebratory carols have a long history, well established in the British Isles by the time of Christianity. These songs were incorporated into rites that marked the arrival of each new season and integrated into observances of Michaelmas, Christmas, Easter and Mid-Summer Day.
By the 17th century, carols fell out of favor for most celebrations, except Christmas. Many of the songs retained their secular, even profane and sacrilegious nature. Consequently, when Cromwell came to power in the mid-1600’s, carols were strictly forbidden, as was any celebration of Christmas.
After the Restoration of the Monarchy, carol singing was embraced once again. God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen and I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing In are lyrics found in 17th century texts.
The practice of going door-to-door singing carols was known in the time of Shakespeare. Groups of usually lower-class men went singing from house-to-house and remaining until someone paid them for the efforts. Payment was more likely to make them go away rather than in appreciation of their songs and talent.
Carols sung while going house-to-house included both secular and sacred songs, some of which are familiar today, including: Deck the Halls, Here We Come a-Wassailing, We Wish you a Merry Christmas, and The Twelve Days of Christmas.
During the 18th century, the lyrics of Christmas carols became more decorous and gentile. They even became popular among the upper classes. Families sang carols in their homes and religious-themed carols were sung in the church.
Carol hymns which are familiar today include: While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks at Night (written by Nahum Tate, published in 1702). [the list then goes into 18th and 19th century songs - SDS]
"Will he ever give Elizabeth a Christmas present?" Probably not -- gifts were usually given on New Year's Day. The 3 Wise Men were not at the nativity.
Last year brother John delivered a new cloak and muff on Christmas morning, which had just been made for Elizabeth. I suspect these were practical necessities more than gifts as we think of them today. Yes, they doubled as her New Year's gifts, but she needed them ASAP.
"... in the late 1650’s, the authorities were still instructing Justices of the Peace to stop the festivities, a clear admission that ban on Christmas hadn't worked.
"John Evelyn’s diary shows that he was unable to find a service to go to until 1656. Then on 25 December, 1657, John Evelyn was with his wife in the private chapel of Exeter House, on the north side of the Strand, when he was arrested. The sermon had ended, and the priest was distributing communion, when soldiers burst in. “These wretched miscreants”, he later wrote, “held their muskets against us as we came up to receive the Sacred Elements, as if they would have shot us at the Altar.” Evelyn was held for 24 hours, lectured on his "ignorance", and then released.
"After the Restoration of Charles II, Christmas Day that year witnessed open, well-decorated, and well-attended churches. John Evelyn went to Westminster Abbey, where he was thrilled to find that “The Service was also in the old Cathedral Musique.”
"Christmas traditions condemned by the Puritans were now seen as signs of loyalty to the restored monarchy and the re-established Church of England. The “good ribs of beef roasted and mince pies . . . and plenty of good wine” with which Samuel Pepys typically marked the festival were symbols not only of Christmas, but also of the return to right order of the nation as a whole.
"Not everyone approved, for John Evelyn recorded on 25 December 1662, that the curate had preached on “how to behave ourselves in festival rejoicing”."
Diary of Ralph Josselin (Private Collection) (Thursday 25 December 1660)
"25. This day I preached a sermon of Christ from. Jo: 3.16. divers not there and some in their antique postures, lord I desire to advance thy name, no profaneness nor formality, accept me and pardon me in thy christ."
The Puritans protested by their absence from church.
Perhaps I should have said New Year's or year end's gift instead Christmas gift. New Years was more traditionally when gifts were given (the 3 wise men were not at the nativity).
Tim, reread Vincent above https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… Ignore the Latin, but it does show how long people have been warned about not accepting gifts that end up obligating the receiver to the giver.
Coventry is the secretary (secretary means 'Keeper of the Secrets') to Lord High Adm. James, Duke of York. Being on the right side of Coventry is important for Pepys and Pett.
Pett's experience of giving Coventry an expensive gift, only to have it gratefully received but politely refused -- meaning Coventry understood the esteem in which he was held by Pett, but nevertheless maintained his integrity by not keeping the gift -- enabled the thrifty Pepys to buy some silver candlesticks he liked, which SPOILER he will give to Coventry, secure in the knowledge they will end up back on his own fireplace very shortly.
You don't find servants refusing gifts. They already know they are obligated. Coventry is not Pett or Pepys' servant. He is their de facto boss.
Don't confuse this Christmas gift with the gratuities commonly given by people to bureaucrats who performed services or obtained favors for them. This is not a thank-you for services rendered.
IMHO this is one of the episodes which gives Pepys confidence in Coventry as being an ethical and reliable professional to team with in the administration.
"This act essentially converted feudal dues owed by a farmer to the lord/ landowner (e.g. providing a crop grown on the land, or military service in wartime) to the cash payment of rent."
So was this the end of the obligation of the nobility to provide a company of soldiers whenever the king declared war? If that's true, it must mean that Parliament has tactically accepted the necessity of having a national army, not a part-time, ad hoc, partisan, unreliable rabble, hopefully under the supervision of a experienced soldier? Charles II needed a Royalist New Model Army -- but we know Parliament wasn't supportive of that idea.
Winstanley wrote down all the old games to be played - "Hoodman Blind, Shoe The Wild Mare, Hunt The Slipper, Hide And Seek, and Stool-Ball" - and encouraged chess, backgammon and dice, all of which the Puritans had frowned upon. Most important, there had to be lots of carol-singing - "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and "I Saw Three Ships" were favorites, as well as gossiping at the table and story-telling round the fire, bible tales of course, but also ghost stories. There should be dancing too, he insisted, with "the whole company, young and old, footing it lustily to the merry sound of the pipe and fiddle".
This fun went on for the traditional 12 days of Christmas, beginning with holly-gathering on Christmas Eve as the house filled with family and friends. William Winstanley even composed a ditty for the revelers to sing as they trooped through the snow with the greenery: "Now Christmas is come Let us beat up the drum, And call all our neighbors together. And when they appear, Let us make them such cheer As will keep out the wind and the weather."
On Christmas morning, everyone went to church for the nativity, "the most blithesome day of the year", as the God-fearing William Winstanley described it. Then it was home for the first of many feasts in which "the dishes marched up piping hot and everyone fell to".
Between now and Twelfth Night (January 6) there would be "foot-ball play" against other villages, skating on frozen ponds, country walks, horse rides and visits to other houses for more hospitality.
In one way Winstanley differs from modern conventions. In Winstanley's version of Christmas, New Year's Day was the best day for the giving of presents. William Winstanley gave the women homemade perfume and the men quill pens he had expertly cut from feathers, while his wife, Anne, handed out sweets, jars of jam and slabs of dark, spicy gingerbread. The children received "drums, trumpets and books".
And so to Twelfth Night, to be marked by wassail songs around the tallest apple tree in the orchard, and the dousing of its roots with cider for good luck. Then came the final supper - of roast swan, followed by "caudle Sack [sherry] posset", a thick, extremely alcoholic custard.
After nearly a fortnight of festivities, William Winstanley's Christmas was over - for now. But come early November he would be in London as the first merchant ships came sailing up the Thames from the Indies with prunes and raisins - and he could begin stocking up for a new round of the festivities he had ensured would never again disappear from our calendar.
FROM: • William Winstanley: The Man Who Saved Christmas by Alison Barnes was published by Poppyland years ago at £10.95 at the time. Scour the second hand bookstores. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/a…
William Winstanley's willingness to risk life and liberty to celebrate Christmas was not because of bacchanalian desires. He was an educated man, an amateur historian, a lover of folklore and of literature, and although he was a Royalist in his political leanings, he was as pious as any Puritan. "He believed it was the duty of all Christians to celebrate the birth of their Savior, with joyous festivity and open-handed generosity towards friends, relations and more especially the poor." And William Winstanley would not stop doing so for all the promulgations of Parliament and the presence of soldiers.
In 1658, Cromwell died, to a collective sigh of relief.
Two years later Charles II was back from exile. At the Restoration, Charles II was lobbied by William Winstanley to restore Christmas traditions. The anti-Christmas legislation was repealed. Good cheer returned. Perhaps surprisingly, the nation did not instantly return to the traditional feasting and celebration. For most people, Christmas as a time of rejoicing had almost been forgotten in those 18 years, and there was no great groundswell to restore it.
It is here that William Winstanley becomes a hero. He was by now a well-regarded writer of poems, pamphlets and books. In these, under the pen-name of Poor Robin Goodfellow, he extolled the joys of Christmas.
William Winstanley also had friends in high places, and he lobbied these powerful lords and earls - even Charles II, who invited him to Court - to set an example to their family friends and tenants by opening their houses for feasting and entertainment, "much mirth and mickle glee".
Again, William Winstanley's reasons were high-minded not licentious. Christmas was for helping the poor and destitute, and he believed celebrating it properly gave them something to look forward to as winter set in and provided fond memories to see them through to the spring.
For 38 years, until his death, Winstanlet kept up a stream of propaganda, instructing the nation on the festivities it had forgotten. So persistently and enthusiastically did he drum in the message that by the late 1680s Christmas had taken root again. Holly and ivy were back. In William Winstanley's ideal Christmas, there had to be roaring log fires in every room and an 'especially jolly blaze' in the hall. "Good, nappy [nut-brown] ale" was to be on tap, and the sideboards should groan with "chines of beef, turkeys, geese, ducks and capons", then "minc'd pies, plumb-puddings and frumenty [a sweet milky porridge seasoned with cinnamon]".
If it hadn't been for William Winstanley, December 25 would be just another chill winter's day, without a hint of merriment or celebration. William Winstanley deserves his place in history as the man who saved Christmas.
In 1644, 2 years into the fighting, the Puritan faction in Parliament made its fundamentalist religious presence felt by drawing up the first of several laws banning Christmas. They objected to the binge-drinking and the debauchery that accompanied the traditional revelries of Christmas week. One of them noted that "more mischief is committed at that time than in all the year besides". He went on: "What eating and drinking, what feasting, and all to the great dishonor of God and the impoverishment of the realm."
But the Puritans did not just object to over-indulgence. They didn't like the name either. "Christ's Mass" had a ring of Roman Catholicism about it, which was anathema for Protestants. So the season was changed to "Christ tide" and any celebration confined to one day - of fasting!
Wassailing (lively and noisy festivities involving the drinking of plentiful amounts of alcohol) and wenching were out. So too was decking the halls with boughs of holly, a heathen practice. And the ban was no idle gesture. For the "sin" of celebrating Christ's birth on December 25 in the traditional manner, a man or woman could be fined or put in the stocks. No one was allowed to take a holiday. Government officers, sheriffs and justices of the peace forced markets and shops to open and business to carry on as usual. Anyone holding or attending a special Christmas church service faced penalties. In London, soldiers patrolled the streets and seized any food they suspected of being stored for illicit festive purposes.
Wgen the war was over, with King Charles beheaded and Oliver Cromwell triumphant, the injunction continued. For 18 barren years Britain was officially a country without Christmas.
However, in secret the festivities went on. And one of those who refused to cease being merry at this time of year was an Essex farmer's son - diarist and writer William Winstanley. The Winstanleys lived in a Tudor farmhouse at Quendon, a village between Bishop's Stortford and Saffron Walden. The farmhouse was aptly named Berries, and it was in the hall that, when the doors of the parish church were locked against them, the family held its clandestine carol services. Their home became open house for visitors who knew their secret.
These were dangerous times, and Republican England under its Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell - a military dictator by any other name - was a sinister place of suspicion and discontent. Spies and informers were everywhere, the knock of a chain-mailed fist on the door a real threat.
'Christmas has often been as much about violence and rioting as it has about sharing and caring. It is well known that Oliver Cromwell and the puritans sought to abolish Christmas, which they viewed as a "popish superstition". One parliamentary ordinance in June 1647 threatened with punishment anyone who celebrated this festival. This ban did not go down well in all quarters. In December 1647 many of the citizens of Canterbury defied it, taking to the streets to riot. The pamphlet Canter-bury Christmas: Or a True Relation of the Insurrection in Canterbury on Christmas Day Last describes how shops that stayed open on this holy day were ransacked. The city's mayor, aldermen and constables were attacked, and the sheriff knocked down, his head "fearfully broke, it was gods mercy his brains were not beat out".' https://www.historyextra.com/peri…
Britain probably obtained its first turkeys from the Spanish, who had brought the birds back to Europe after encountering them in the Aztec empire. However it’s possible that they were introduced by William Strickland, a Yorkshire merchant and MP who travelled to the New World in the 16th century. He certainly seems to have wanted to promote a link with the bird, as the family coat of arms, which was granted in about 1550, has a turkey as a crest.
Henry VIII is the first known English king to have eaten turkey. At that time the bird was seen as something of an exotic delicacy and would have been just one of a variety of fowl to be placed before the hungry monarch. One of the reasons for turkey’s appeal was that it was not only large enough to make a fine display on the table but also had tastier and less stringy flesh than that other exotic royal favourite, the peacock.
For centuries the turkey was the preserve of the well-to-do and middle classes and it was only after WWII, when it became cheaper to rear, that the turkey became the population’s Christmas bird of choice. They're also the food of choice for Thanksgiving dinners in the USA.
If a working-class family in the 19th century ate a bird, it was more likely to have been a goose, and Christmas ‘goose clubs’ were established to help them save up for it.
Note how the poverty-stricken Swans, peacocks and boars’ heads graced aristocrats’ tables; more modest households made do with whatever seasonal fare they could find – chicken or goose, perhaps, or the odd pigeon.
Bob Cratchit in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol scrapes enough money together to buy a goose before the reformed Scrooge presents his family with a massive turkey.
By the end of the 19th century turkey was the most popular choice of Christmas roast.
Geese and turkeys were, and still are, extensively reared in East Anglia. In the 18th century, before the introduction of the railways, thousands were walked to London in large flocks along what is now the A12. Norfolk farmers would dip turkeys’ feet in tar and sand to make ‘wellies’ for the walk to London, which could take up to 2 months.
Like so many traditions, roasted turkey became synonymous with Christmas when immortalised by Charles Dickens. At the end of the classic A Christmas Carol, the humbled Scrooge sends a boy to buy the biggest turkey in the shop.
But it wasn’t until the 20th century that Hollywood movies popularised the dish in the UK, and prices fell thanks to new farming methods. https://www.historyextra.com/peri…
17. If there be no cotes given between a brace of greyhounds and that the one of them serves the other as turning, then he that gives the hare most turns wins the wager; and if one give as many turns as the other, he that beareth the hare wins the wager.
18. Sometimes the hare doth not turn but wrencheth, for she is not properly said to turn, unless she turns as it were round; and two wrenches stand for a turn.
19. He that comes in first to the death of the hare, takes her up and saves her from breaking, cherishes the dogs and cleanses their mouths from the wool, is adjudged to have the hare for his pains.
20. Those that are judges of the leash must give their judgment presently, before they depart the field.
Coursing: the pursuit of running game with dogs that follow by sight instead of by scent
The Duke of Norfolk’s “Lawes of Leashing and Coursing” as listed in Harding Cox’s essay “Coursing”:
The date when matches were first made between dogs is not known, but it was before Queen Elizabeth's time, during whose reign, by command of the Queen, ‘laws of the Leash or Coursing’ were drawn up and “allowed and subscribed by Thomas, Duke of Norfolk’:
1. That he that is chosen Fewterer, or that lets loose the greyhounds, shall receive the greyhounds matched to run together, into his Leash, as soon as he comes into the field, and follow next to the hare-finder, or he who is to start the hare until he come unto the form ; and no horseman or footman is to go before, or on any side, but directly behind, for the space of about 40 yards.
2. You ought not to course a hare with more than a brace of greyhounds.
3. The hare-finder ought to give the hare three so-ho's before he puts her from her form or seat, that the dogs may gaze about and attend her starting.
4. They ought to give 12 score yards law before the dogs are loosed, unless there be danger of losing her.
5. The dog that gives the first turn, if after that there be neither cote, slip, nor wrench, wins the wager.
6. If the dog give the first turn, and the other bear the hare, he that bears the hare shall win.
7. A go-by, or bearing the hare, is equivalent to two turns.
8. If neither dog turn the hare, he that leads last to the covert wins.
9. If one dog turn the hare, serve himself, and turn her again, it is as much as a cote, and a cote is esteemed 2 turns.
10. If all the course be equal, he that bears the hare shall win, and if she be not borne, the course shall be adjudged dead.
11. If a dog take a fall in a course, and yet performs his part, he may challenge the advantage of a turn more than he gave.
12. If a dog turn the hare, serve himself, and give divers cotes, and yet in the end stands still in the field, the other dog, if he turn home of the covert, although he gives no turn, shall be adjudged to win the wager.
13. If by misfortune a dog be ridden over in his course, the course is void, and to say the truth, he that did the mischief ought to make reparation for the damage.
14. If a dog give the first and last turn and there be no other advantage between them, he that gives the odd turn shall Win.
15. A cote is when a greyhound goeth endways by his fellow, and gives the hare a turn.
16. A cote serves for two turns, and two tripplings or jerkings for a cote; and if she turneth not right about she only wrencheth. The first version has it thus: — A cote shall be more than two turns, and a go-by or bearing the hare equal to two turns.
Comments
Third Reading
About Wednesday 26 September 1660
San Diego Sarah • Link
We have a TOBACCO encyclopedia page:
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
About Tobacco
San Diego Sarah • Link
"Tobacco was another home-grown stimulant: in 1655, it was cultivated and sold in 14 English and Welsh counties. ... a comforting pipe of English tobacco could not be enjoyed legally, as Cromwell’s government clamped down on the trade and insisted that all tobacco should be the duty-heavy variety imported from the colonies."
https://thehistoryofparliament.wo…
And in 1660 Parliament tries again to make tobacco a revenue-producing import, but clearly it was easy to grow at home and hid from the tax collector.
About Tobacco
San Diego Sarah • Link
"Tobacco was another home-grown stimulant: in 1655, it was cultivated and sold in 14 English and Welsh counties. ... a comforting pipe of English tobacco could not be enjoyed legally, as Cromwell’s government clamped down on the trade and insisted that all tobacco should be the duty-heavy variety imported from the colonies."
https://thehistoryofparliament.wo…
And in 1660 Parliament tries again to make tobacco a revenue-producing import, but clearly it was easy to grow at home and hid from the tax collector.
About Thursday 25 December 1662
San Diego Sarah • Link
Merry Christmas, Pepysians:
The Holly and the Ivy is a "modern" work, from about 1700. The song may have derived from earlier songs in which holly and ivy feature, of which there are many including one version supposedly set to music by Henry VIII.
However, the song has its roots in even more ancient traditions, to those of the Druids and Romans. The holly was symbolic of man (rigid with prickly leaves and berries like drops of blood) and the ivy of woman (gentle, clinging, requiring support). Holly was associated with the Roman Saturnalia, while ivy was associated with Bacchus, the Roman god of wine. Holly was considered lucky and a symbol of immortality; the Romans used it to decorate their homes and to make wreathes for celebrations such as weddings. The Romans considered ivy a symbol of prosperity, charity and fidelity.
In Celtic tradition, holly was a feature of summer and winter solstice celebrations. From earliest times, decorating with evergreens during the dark winter months was popular.
When absorbed into Christian tradition, the holly represents Christ (the Crown of Thorns, and the Blood of the Crucifixion), and the ivy represents Mary. Apparently, the bitterness of holly’s bark was associated with the vinegar and gall given to Christ during the Crucifixion. The twining habit of ivy was supposed to remind the faithful to rely on God.
The words were first published in 1710 in a broadside sheet. They are not logical, and ivy is only mentioned in the title and the first verse. This absence leads to speculation about missing verses, or changes of lyrics.
The music with which we are familiar today was documented in 1909, but the origins are apparently unknown. This version was done by Kings College, Cambridge in 2008, shown on You Tube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7…
Taken from http://englishhistoryauthors.blog…
About Thursday 25 December 1662
San Diego Sarah • Link
Agreed, London Miss -- and they didn't have Midol!
About Wednesday 25 December 1661
San Diego Sarah • Link
People have used songs and music as a part of celebration for as long as we have recorded history. The word ‘carol’ comes from Latin, meaning both sing and joy. Thus, carols are songs of joy.
The songs we know as Christmas carols have both sacred and secular roots. Some began as hymns of the church.
Secular celebratory carols have a long history, well established in the British Isles by the time of Christianity. These songs were incorporated into rites that marked the arrival of each new season and integrated into observances of Michaelmas, Christmas, Easter and Mid-Summer Day.
By the 17th century, carols fell out of favor for most celebrations, except Christmas. Many of the songs retained their secular, even profane and sacrilegious nature. Consequently, when Cromwell came to power in the mid-1600’s, carols were strictly forbidden, as was any celebration of Christmas.
After the Restoration of the Monarchy, carol singing was embraced once again. God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen and I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing In are lyrics found in 17th century texts.
The practice of going door-to-door singing carols was known in the time of Shakespeare. Groups of usually lower-class men went singing from house-to-house and remaining until someone paid them for the efforts. Payment was more likely to make them go away rather than in appreciation of their songs and talent.
Carols sung while going house-to-house included both secular and sacred songs, some of which are familiar today, including: Deck the Halls, Here We Come a-Wassailing, We Wish you a Merry Christmas, and The Twelve Days of Christmas.
During the 18th century, the lyrics of Christmas carols became more decorous and gentile. They even became popular among the upper classes. Families sang carols in their homes and religious-themed carols were sung in the church.
Carol hymns which are familiar today include: While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks at Night (written by Nahum Tate, published in 1702).
[the list then goes into 18th and 19th century songs - SDS]
17th century info taken from
http://englishhistoryauthors.blog…
About Wednesday 25 December 1661
San Diego Sarah • Link
"Will he ever give Elizabeth a Christmas present?"
Probably not -- gifts were usually given on New Year's Day. The 3 Wise Men were not at the nativity.
Last year brother John delivered a new cloak and muff on Christmas morning, which had just been made for Elizabeth. I suspect these were practical necessities more than gifts as we think of them today. Yes, they doubled as her New Year's gifts, but she needed them ASAP.
About Tuesday 25 December 1660
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... in the late 1650’s, the authorities were still instructing Justices of the Peace to stop the festivities, a clear admission that ban on Christmas hadn't worked.
"John Evelyn’s diary shows that he was unable to find a service to go to until 1656.
Then on 25 December, 1657, John Evelyn was with his wife in the private chapel of Exeter House, on the north side of the Strand, when he was arrested. The sermon had ended, and the priest was distributing communion, when soldiers burst in. “These wretched miscreants”, he later wrote, “held their muskets against us as we came up to receive the Sacred Elements, as if they would have shot us at the Altar.” Evelyn was held for 24 hours, lectured on his "ignorance", and then released.
"After the Restoration of Charles II, Christmas Day that year witnessed open, well-decorated, and well-attended churches. John Evelyn went to Westminster Abbey, where he was thrilled to find that “The Service was also in the old Cathedral Musique.”
"Christmas traditions condemned by the Puritans were now seen as signs of loyalty to the restored monarchy and the re-established Church of England. The “good ribs of beef roasted and mince pies . . . and plenty of good wine” with which Samuel Pepys typically marked the festival were symbols not only of Christmas, but also of the return to right order of the nation as a whole.
"Not everyone approved, for John Evelyn recorded on 25 December 1662, that the curate had preached on “how to behave ourselves in festival rejoicing”."
Excerpted from
http://hoydensandfirebrands.blogs…
But meanwhile, in Earls Colne, in Puritan Essex:
Diary of Ralph Josselin (Private Collection)
(Thursday 25 December 1660)
"25. This day I preached a sermon of Christ from. Jo: 3.16.
divers not there and some in their antique postures,
lord I desire to advance thy name, no profaneness nor formality, accept me and pardon me in thy christ."
The Puritans protested by their absence from church.
About Monday 24 December 1660
San Diego Sarah • Link
Happy and merry everything, Pepysians -- may 2024 be kind to us all.
About Monday 24 December 1660
San Diego Sarah • Link
Perhaps I should have said New Year's or year end's gift instead Christmas gift. New Years was more traditionally when gifts were given (the 3 wise men were not at the nativity).
About Monday 24 December 1660
San Diego Sarah • Link
Tim, reread Vincent above
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
Ignore the Latin, but it does show how long people have been warned about not accepting gifts that end up obligating the receiver to the giver.
Coventry is the secretary (secretary means 'Keeper of the Secrets') to Lord High Adm. James, Duke of York. Being on the right side of Coventry is important for Pepys and Pett.
Pett's experience of giving Coventry an expensive gift, only to have it gratefully received but politely refused -- meaning Coventry understood the esteem in which he was held by Pett, but nevertheless maintained his integrity by not keeping the gift -- enabled the thrifty Pepys to buy some silver candlesticks he liked, which SPOILER he will give to Coventry, secure in the knowledge they will end up back on his own fireplace very shortly.
You don't find servants refusing gifts. They already know they are obligated. Coventry is not Pett or Pepys' servant. He is their de facto boss.
Don't confuse this Christmas gift with the gratuities commonly given by people to bureaucrats who performed services or obtained favors for them. This is not a thank-you for services rendered.
IMHO this is one of the episodes which gives Pepys confidence in Coventry as being an ethical and reliable professional to team with in the administration.
About Monday 24 December 1660
San Diego Sarah • Link
"This act essentially converted feudal dues owed by a farmer to the lord/ landowner (e.g. providing a crop grown on the land, or military service in wartime) to the cash payment of rent."
So was this the end of the obligation of the nobility to provide a company of soldiers whenever the king declared war?
If that's true, it must mean that Parliament has tactically accepted the necessity of having a national army, not a part-time, ad hoc, partisan, unreliable rabble, hopefully under the supervision of a experienced soldier?
Charles II needed a Royalist New Model Army -- but we know Parliament wasn't supportive of that idea.
About Monday 24 December 1660
San Diego Sarah • Link
The Clocks and Watches encyclopedia page is at
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
About Christmas
San Diego Sarah • Link
CONCLUSION
Winstanley wrote down all the old games to be played - "Hoodman Blind, Shoe The Wild Mare, Hunt The Slipper, Hide And Seek, and Stool-Ball" - and encouraged chess, backgammon and dice, all of which the Puritans had frowned upon.
Most important, there had to be lots of carol-singing - "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and "I Saw Three Ships" were favorites, as well as gossiping at the table and story-telling round the fire, bible tales of course, but also ghost stories.
There should be dancing too, he insisted, with "the whole company, young and old, footing it lustily to the merry sound of the pipe and fiddle".
This fun went on for the traditional 12 days of Christmas, beginning with holly-gathering on Christmas Eve as the house filled with family and friends. William Winstanley even composed a ditty for the revelers to sing as they trooped through the snow with the greenery:
"Now Christmas is come
Let us beat up the drum,
And call all our neighbors together.
And when they appear,
Let us make them such cheer
As will keep out the wind and the weather."
On Christmas morning, everyone went to church for the nativity, "the most blithesome day of the year", as the God-fearing William Winstanley described it.
Then it was home for the first of many feasts in which "the dishes marched up piping hot and everyone fell to".
Between now and Twelfth Night (January 6) there would be "foot-ball play" against other villages, skating on frozen ponds, country walks, horse rides and visits to other houses for more hospitality.
In one way Winstanley differs from modern conventions. In Winstanley's version of Christmas, New Year's Day was the best day for the giving of presents.
William Winstanley gave the women homemade perfume and the men quill pens he had expertly cut from feathers, while his wife, Anne, handed out sweets, jars of jam and slabs of dark, spicy gingerbread. The children received "drums, trumpets and books".
And so to Twelfth Night, to be marked by wassail songs around the tallest apple tree in the orchard, and the dousing of its roots with cider for good luck. Then came the final supper - of roast swan, followed by "caudle Sack [sherry] posset", a thick, extremely alcoholic custard.
After nearly a fortnight of festivities, William Winstanley's Christmas was over - for now.
But come early November he would be in London as the first merchant ships came sailing up the Thames from the Indies with prunes and raisins - and he could begin stocking up for a new round of the festivities he had ensured would never again disappear from our calendar.
FROM:
• William Winstanley: The Man Who Saved Christmas by Alison Barnes was published by Poppyland years ago at £10.95 at the time. Scour the second hand bookstores.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/a…
About Christmas
San Diego Sarah • Link
PART 2
William Winstanley's willingness to risk life and liberty to celebrate Christmas was not because of bacchanalian desires. He was an educated man, an amateur historian, a lover of folklore and of literature, and although he was a Royalist in his political leanings, he was as pious as any Puritan.
"He believed it was the duty of all Christians to celebrate the birth of their Savior, with joyous festivity and open-handed generosity towards friends, relations and more especially the poor." And William Winstanley would not stop doing so for all the promulgations of Parliament and the presence of soldiers.
In 1658, Cromwell died, to a collective sigh of relief.
Two years later Charles II was back from exile.
At the Restoration, Charles II was lobbied by William Winstanley to restore Christmas traditions. The anti-Christmas legislation was repealed. Good cheer returned.
Perhaps surprisingly, the nation did not instantly return to the traditional feasting and celebration. For most people, Christmas as a time of rejoicing had almost been forgotten in those 18 years, and there was no great groundswell to restore it.
It is here that William Winstanley becomes a hero. He was by now a well-regarded writer of poems, pamphlets and books. In these, under the pen-name of Poor Robin Goodfellow, he extolled the joys of Christmas.
William Winstanley also had friends in high places, and he lobbied these powerful lords and earls - even Charles II, who invited him to Court - to set an example to their family friends and tenants by opening their houses for feasting and entertainment, "much mirth and mickle glee".
Again, William Winstanley's reasons were high-minded not licentious. Christmas was for helping the poor and destitute, and he believed celebrating it properly gave them something to look forward to as winter set in and provided fond memories to see them through to the spring.
For 38 years, until his death, Winstanlet kept up a stream of propaganda, instructing the nation on the festivities it had forgotten. So persistently and enthusiastically did he drum in the message that by the late 1680s Christmas had taken root again.
Holly and ivy were back. In William Winstanley's ideal Christmas, there had to be roaring log fires in every room and an 'especially jolly blaze' in the hall.
"Good, nappy [nut-brown] ale" was to be on tap, and the sideboards should groan with "chines of beef, turkeys, geese, ducks and capons", then "minc'd pies, plumb-puddings and frumenty [a sweet milky porridge seasoned with cinnamon]".
About Christmas
San Diego Sarah • Link
If it hadn't been for William Winstanley, December 25 would be just another chill winter's day, without a hint of merriment or celebration. William Winstanley deserves his place in history as the man who saved Christmas.
In 1644, 2 years into the fighting, the Puritan faction in Parliament made its fundamentalist religious presence felt by drawing up the first of several laws banning Christmas.
They objected to the binge-drinking and the debauchery that accompanied the traditional revelries of Christmas week. One of them noted that "more mischief is committed at that time than in all the year besides". He went on: "What eating and drinking, what feasting, and all to the great dishonor of God and the impoverishment of the realm."
But the Puritans did not just object to over-indulgence. They didn't like the name either. "Christ's Mass" had a ring of Roman Catholicism about it, which was anathema for Protestants. So the season was changed to "Christ tide" and any celebration confined to one day - of fasting!
Wassailing (lively and noisy festivities involving the drinking of plentiful amounts of alcohol) and wenching were out. So too was decking the halls with boughs of holly, a heathen practice.
And the ban was no idle gesture. For the "sin" of celebrating Christ's birth on December 25 in the traditional manner, a man or woman could be fined or put in the stocks.
No one was allowed to take a holiday. Government officers, sheriffs and justices of the peace forced markets and shops to open and business to carry on as usual.
Anyone holding or attending a special Christmas church service faced penalties. In London, soldiers patrolled the streets and seized any food they suspected of being stored for illicit festive purposes.
Wgen the war was over, with King Charles beheaded and Oliver Cromwell triumphant, the injunction continued. For 18 barren years Britain was officially a country without Christmas.
However, in secret the festivities went on. And one of those who refused to cease being merry at this time of year was an Essex farmer's son - diarist and writer William Winstanley.
The Winstanleys lived in a Tudor farmhouse at Quendon, a village between Bishop's Stortford and Saffron Walden.
The farmhouse was aptly named Berries, and it was in the hall that, when the doors of the parish church were locked against them, the family held its clandestine carol services. Their home became open house for visitors who knew their secret.
These were dangerous times, and Republican England under its Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell - a military dictator by any other name - was a sinister place of suspicion and discontent. Spies and informers were everywhere, the knock of a chain-mailed fist on the door a real threat.
About Christmas
San Diego Sarah • Link
Christmas had not been abolished without a fight
'Christmas has often been as much about violence and rioting as it has about sharing and caring. It is well known that Oliver Cromwell and the puritans sought to abolish Christmas, which they viewed as a "popish superstition". One parliamentary ordinance in June 1647 threatened with punishment anyone who celebrated this festival. This ban did not go down well in all quarters. In December 1647 many of the citizens of Canterbury defied it, taking to the streets to riot. The pamphlet Canter-bury Christmas: Or a True Relation of the Insurrection in Canterbury on Christmas Day Last describes how shops that stayed open on this holy day were ransacked. The city's mayor, aldermen and constables were attacked, and the sheriff knocked down, his head "fearfully broke, it was gods mercy his brains were not beat out".'
https://www.historyextra.com/peri…
About Turkey
San Diego Sarah • Link
Britain probably obtained its first turkeys from the Spanish, who had brought the birds back to Europe after encountering them in the Aztec empire. However it’s possible that they were introduced by William Strickland, a Yorkshire merchant and MP who travelled to the New World in the 16th century. He certainly seems to have wanted to promote a link with the bird, as the family coat of arms, which was granted in about 1550, has a turkey as a crest.
Henry VIII is the first known English king to have eaten turkey. At that time the bird was seen as something of an exotic delicacy and would have been just one of a variety of fowl to be placed before the hungry monarch.
One of the reasons for turkey’s appeal was that it was not only large enough to make a fine display on the table but also had tastier and less stringy flesh than that other exotic royal favourite, the peacock.
For centuries the turkey was the preserve of the well-to-do and middle classes and it was only after WWII, when it became cheaper to rear, that the turkey became the population’s Christmas bird of choice. They're also the food of choice for Thanksgiving dinners in the USA.
If a working-class family in the 19th century ate a bird, it was more likely to have been a goose, and Christmas ‘goose clubs’ were established to help them save up for it.
Note how the poverty-stricken Swans, peacocks and boars’ heads graced aristocrats’ tables; more modest households made do with whatever seasonal fare they could find – chicken or goose, perhaps, or the odd pigeon.
Bob Cratchit in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol scrapes enough money together to buy a goose before the reformed Scrooge presents his family with a massive turkey.
By the end of the 19th century turkey was the most popular choice of Christmas roast.
Geese and turkeys were, and still are, extensively reared in East Anglia. In the 18th century, before the introduction of the railways, thousands were walked to London in large flocks along what is now the A12. Norfolk farmers would dip turkeys’ feet in tar and sand to make ‘wellies’ for the walk to London, which could take up to 2 months.
Like so many traditions, roasted turkey became synonymous with Christmas when immortalised by Charles Dickens. At the end of the classic A Christmas Carol, the humbled Scrooge sends a boy to buy the biggest turkey in the shop.
But it wasn’t until the 20th century that Hollywood movies popularised the dish in the UK, and prices fell thanks to new farming methods.
https://www.historyextra.com/peri…
About Hunting
San Diego Sarah • Link
CONCLUSION:
17. If there be no cotes given between a brace of greyhounds and that the one of them serves the other as turning, then he that gives the hare most turns wins the wager; and if one give as many turns as the other, he that beareth the hare wins the wager.
18. Sometimes the hare doth not turn but wrencheth, for she is not properly said to turn, unless she turns as it were round; and two wrenches stand for a turn.
19. He that comes in first to the death of the hare, takes her up and saves her from breaking, cherishes the dogs and cleanses their mouths from the wool, is adjudged to have the hare for his pains.
20. Those that are judges of the leash must give their judgment presently, before they depart the field.
About Hunting
San Diego Sarah • Link
Coursing: the pursuit of running game with dogs that follow by sight instead of by scent
The Duke of Norfolk’s “Lawes of Leashing and Coursing” as listed in Harding Cox’s essay “Coursing”:
The date when matches were first made between dogs is not known, but it was before Queen Elizabeth's time, during whose reign, by command of the Queen, ‘laws of the Leash or Coursing’ were drawn up and “allowed and subscribed by Thomas, Duke of Norfolk’:
1. That he that is chosen Fewterer, or that lets loose the greyhounds, shall receive the greyhounds matched to run together, into his Leash, as soon as he comes into the field, and follow next to the hare-finder, or he who is to start the hare until he come unto the form ; and no horseman or footman is to go before, or on any side, but directly behind, for the space of about 40 yards.
2. You ought not to course a hare with more than a brace of greyhounds.
3. The hare-finder ought to give the hare three so-ho's before he puts her from her form or seat, that the dogs may gaze about and attend her starting.
4. They ought to give 12 score yards law before the dogs are loosed, unless there be danger of losing her.
5. The dog that gives the first turn, if after that there be neither cote, slip, nor wrench, wins the wager.
6. If the dog give the first turn, and the other bear the hare, he that bears the hare shall win.
7. A go-by, or bearing the hare, is equivalent to two turns.
8. If neither dog turn the hare, he that leads last to the covert wins.
9. If one dog turn the hare, serve himself, and turn her again, it is as much as a cote, and a cote is esteemed 2 turns.
10. If all the course be equal, he that bears the hare shall win, and if she be not borne, the course shall be adjudged dead.
11. If a dog take a fall in a course, and yet performs his part, he may challenge the advantage of a turn more than he gave.
12. If a dog turn the hare, serve himself, and give divers cotes, and yet in the end stands still in the field, the other dog, if he turn home of the covert, although he gives no turn, shall be adjudged to win the wager.
13. If by misfortune a dog be ridden over in his course, the course is void, and to say the truth, he that did the mischief ought to make reparation for the damage.
14. If a dog give the first and last turn and there be no other advantage between them, he that gives the odd turn shall Win.
15. A cote is when a greyhound goeth endways by his fellow, and gives the hare a turn.
16. A cote serves for two turns, and two tripplings or jerkings for a cote; and if she turneth not right about she only wrencheth. The first version has it thus: — A cote shall be more than two turns, and a go-by or bearing the hare equal to two turns.