YOUR pardon, Gentles, while we thus implore, Those smiles we deem our best reward to catch, 'Tis said by some, perchance, to mock our toil, To brighter scenes we now direct our view- May each NEW YEAR new joys, new pleasures bring, To you, kind Sirs, we next our tribute pay : There was much of character in the men themselves. One was tall, and had that kind of face which distinguishes the Italian character; his complexiou a clear pale cream colour, with dark eyes, black hair, and a manner peculiarly solemn: the second was likewise tall, and of more cheerful feature; but the third was a short thick-set man, with an Oxberry countenance of rich waggery, heightened by large whiskers: this was the humorist. With a bit of cherry-tree held between the finger and thumb, they rapidly twirled the wires in accompaniment of various airs, which they sung with unusual feeling and skill. They were acquainted with every foreign tune that was called for. That Italian minstrels of this class should venture here for the purpose of perambulating our streets, is evidence that the refinement in our popular manners is known in the "land of song," and they will bear testinony to it from the fact that their performances are chiefly in the public-houses of the metropolis, from whence thirty years ago such aspirants to entertain John Bull would have been expelled with expressions of abhorrence. To the accounts of Christmas keeping in old times, old George Wither adds amusing particulars in rhime. Christmas. So now is come our joyfulst feast; And let us all be merry. Now all our neighbours' chimnies smoke, Now every lad is wond'rous trim, And dogs thence with whole shoulder run, Ned Squash hath fetcht his bands from pawn, With capons make their errants; They plague them with their warrants But now they feed them with good cheer, And what they want, they take in beer, For Christmas comes but once a year, And then they shall be merry. Good farmers in the country nurse The poor, that else were undone ; Some landlords spend their money worse On lust and pride at London. There the roysters they do play, Drab and dice their lands away, Which may be ours another day, And therefore let's be merry The client now his suit forbears, The prisoner's heart is eased; The debtor drinks away his cares, And for the time is pleased. Though others' purses be more fat, Why should we pine, or grieve at that? Hang sorrow! care will kill a cat, And therefore let's be merry. Hark! now the wags abroad do call, For nuts and apples scrambling. The wenches with their wassel bowls Young men and maids, and girls and boys, Our honest neighbours come by flocks, Give life to one another's joys; And you anon shall by their noise Perceive that they are merry. Rank misers now do sparing shun; Their hall of music soundeth; And here they will be merry. Now kings and queens poor sheepcotes have And mute with every body; The honest now may play the knave, Some youths will now a mumming go, Then, wherefore, in these merry daies, From Mr. Grant's "Popular Superstitions of the Highlands," we gather the following account :→ Highland Christmas. As soon as the brightening glow of the eastern sky warns the anxious housemaid of the approach of Christmas-day, she rises full of anxiety at the prospect of her morning labours. The meal, which was steeped in the sowans-bowie a fortnight ago, to make the Prechdachdan sour, or sour scones, is the first object of her attention. The gridiron is put on the fire, and the sour scones are soon followed by hard cakes, soft cakes, buttered cakes, brandered bannocks, and pannich perm. The baking being once over, the sowans pot succeeds the gridiron, full or new sowans, which are to be given to the family, agreeably to custom, this day in their beds. The sowans are boiled into the consistence of molasses, when the Lagan-le-vrich, or yeast-bread, to distinguish it from boiled sowans, is ready. It is then poured into as many bickers as there are individuals to partake of it, and presently served to the whole, old and young. It would suit well the pen of a Burns, or the pencil of a Hogarth, to paint the scene which follows. The ambrosial food is despatched in aspiring draughts by the family, who soon give evident proofs of the enlivening effects of the Lagan-le-vrich. As soon as each despatches his bicker, he jumps out of bed-the elder branches to examine the ominous signs of the day, and the younger to enter on its amusements. Flocking to the swing, a favourite amusement on this occasion, the youngest of the family get the first "shouder," and "A black Christmas makes a fat kirk-yard." A windy Christmas and a calm Candlemas are signs of good year the next oldest to him in regular succession. In order to add the more to the spirit of the exercise, it is a common prac tice with the person in the swing, and the person appointed to swing him, to enter into a very warm and humorous altercation. As the swinged person ap. proaches the swinger, he exclaims, Ei mi tu chal, "I'll eat your kail." To this the swinger replies, with a violent shove, Cha ni u mu chal, "You shan't eat my kail." These threats and repulses are sometimes carried to such a height, as to break down or capsize the threatener, which generally puts an end to the quarrel. As the day advances, those minor amusements are terminated at the report of the gun, or the rattle of the ball-clubs -the gun inviting the marksman to the the latter to "Luchd-vouil," or the ball "Kiavamuchd," or prize-shooting, and combatants-both the principal sports of the day. Tired at length of the active amusements of the field, they exchange them for the substantial entertainments of the table. Groaning under the "sonsy The "savoury haggis" (from hag to chop) is a dish commonly made in a sheep's maw, of its lungs, heart, and liver, mixed with suet, onions, salt and pepper; or of oatmeal mixed with the latter, withou any animal food. VOL. I. 817 3 G EVERGREENS AT CHRISTMAS. When Rosemary and Bays, the poet's crown, From ev'ry hedge is pluck'd by eager hands The old and pleasant custom of decking our houses and churches at Christmas with evergreens is derived from ancient heathen practices. Councils of the church forbad christians to deck their houses with bay leaves and green boughs at the same time with the pagans; but this was after the church had permitted such doings in order to accommodate its ceremonies to those of the old mythology. Where druidism had existed, "the houses were decked with evergreens in December, that the sylvan spirits might repair to them, and remain unnipped with frost and cold winds, until a milder season had renewed the foliage of their darling abodes." R. J Thorn. Polydore Vergil says that," Trimmy ng of the Temples, with hangynges, floures, boughes, and garlondes, was taken of the heathen people, whiche decked their idols and houses with suche array." In old church calendars Christmas-eve is marked " Templa exornantur." Churches are decked. The holly and the ivy still maintain some mastery at this season. At the two universities, the windows of the college chapels are decked with laurel. The old Christmas carol in MS at the British Museum, quoted at p. 1598, continues in the following words : Nay, Ivy! Nay, hyt shall not, &c. Mr. Brand infers from this, "that holly was used only to deck the inside of houses at Christmas: while ivy was used not only as a vintner's sign, but also among the evergreens at funerals." He also cites from the old tract, "Round about our Coal-fire, or Christmas Entertainments," that formerly "the rooms were em- Mr. Brand is of opinion that "although bowered with holly, ivy, cyprus, bays, Gay mentions the misletoe among those • Brand. evergreens that were put up in churches, it never entered those sacred edifices bat |