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carols, wassail-bowls, dancing of Sellenger's round in moonshine about maypoles, shoeing the mare, hoodman-blind, hot-cockles, or any of our old Christmas gambols; no, not so much as choosing king and queen on Twelfth Night."
With Elizabeth's fondness for luxury and dress, and her passion for adulation, it may well be imagined that her New Year's Gifts were rigidly expected, or exacted, from all classes connected with her; from Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, down to Smyth the dustman; and they were of a most miscellaneous description. In the preceding reigns, when she was princess, she was in the habit of giving and receiving them, but in a comparatively quiet and unobtrusive manner, frequently consisting of presents of gilt plate, and the messengers with gifts to her always receiving rewards; but on one occasion she gave her brother, King Edward, a translation in Latin, in her own hand, of an Italian sermon of Occhini; her pride of scholarship even then showing itself. There are many instances of authors giving compositions of their own as New Year's Gifts, and of books being printed with that name, no doubt by way of attracting at this season. On New Year's Day, 1561, Nowell, Dean of St. Paul's, who preached before the queen on that day, got much blamed by her, for having laid on her cushion, as a New Year's Gift, a prayer-book richly bound, having several fine cuts and pictures of the stories of saints and martyrs; for she considered these as being contrary to the proclamation against images, pictures, and Romish relics in churches, and desired such mistake might never occur again. One can fancy the venerable Dean shrinking under the stern rebuke of the peremptory young lady on a point of ecclesiastical disoipline. In return for the gifts presented to her, she generally gave |
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