| Share page |
|
— 128 — |
||
|
rosemary, holly, ivy, box, and privet, and answers the objections made to the practice. Coles also, in his 'Art of Simpling,' 1656, says, that in some places setting up holly, ivy, rosemary, bays, &c. in churches at Christmas, was still in use. Aubrey mentions it as the custom in many parts of Oxfordshire for the maid-servant to ask one of the men for ivy to dress the house, and if he refused or neglected it, she was to steal a pair of his breeches, and nail them up to the gate in the yard or highway. Poor Robin, whose Almanac contains many allusions to Christmas customs, in a Christmas song of 1695, sings,
" With holly and ivy
So green and so gay, We deck np onr houses
As fresh as the day; With bays and rosemary,
And laurel compleate, And every one now
Is a king in conceite."
The practice has continued to the present time, when the addition of the chrysanthemum, satin flower, and other everlastings, mingling with the red berry of the holly and the waxen one of the mystic misletoe, together with occasionally the myrtle and laurustinum, have a very pleasing and cheerful effect. In most places these greens and flowers are taken down after Twelfth Day, except in churches, where they are frequently kept till Lent; but, according to Herrick, they should remain in houses until Candlemas Day, and then
" Down with the rosemary and so Down with the baies and misletoe ; Down with the holly, ivie, all Wherewith ye drest the Christmas hall; |
||