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Horace brings out his log and his best wine, as some of his winter comforts.
" Dissolve frigus, ligna super foco Large reponens; atque benignius Deprome quadrimum Sabina, 0 Thaliarche memm diota,"
and in the same ode, refers to pastimes similar to some of ours at Christmas,—
" Nunc et latentis proditor intimo Gratus puellse risus ab angulo, Pignusque dereptum lacertis, Aut digito male pertinaci."
Christmas candles of large size, frequently presents from the chandlers, were at the same time used in some places; and, when tired of the sports, the party gathered round the log, and sang carols, or told legendary tales. The Essex logs appear to have been in repute, " We shall have some Essex logs yet to keep Christmas with," says a character in one of Middleton's plays; and there were sometimes services reserved to furnish these Christmas logs; as the cellarist of St. Edmundsbury, for instance, held Hardwick under the Abbey, and was bound annually to provide four Christmas stocks, each of eight feet in length. The strangest log on record, however, is that mentioned by Froissart, at a great feast held by the Count de Foix. After dinner he went up into a gallery, to which there was an ascent of twenty-four steps; it being cold, he complained that the fire was not large enough, on which a person named Ernauton d'Espaign, having seen below several asses laden with wood, went down aW brought up-stairs on his back one of the largest, with his |
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