Old Christmas: From the Sketch Book of Washington IrvingDoldrums, 1876 - 29 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
ancient antique Bantam beautiful beef boar's head Caput apri defero carol chaise cheer CHIDDEN choir Christ Christmas candles Christmas day CHRISTMAS DINNER Christmas eve church cottage countenance customs dame dance decorated delight dish door dress enjoyment face fairies favourite feelings festival fire fireplace fond Frank Bracebridge frosty gallery gate girl greens hands happy heard heart holiday honest honour hospitality HOUSEMAID humour hung joviality kind kitchen laughing laughter light LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS look Lord of Misrule MAID MARIAN Master Simon merriment merry minuet mirth Misrule morning neighbours night NOTE oaken observed old Christmas old English old family old gentleman Oxonian parson passed peacock poor Poor Robin's Almanack porter's present RANDOLPH CALDECOTT Robin romping round scene season seemed servants song sound sound of music spirit Squire Squire's STAGE COACH thee tion village Washington Irving Wassail Bowl Wassel window worthy young officer YULE LOG Yule-clog
Popular passages
Page 15 - gainst that season comes Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, This bird of dawning singeth all night long : % And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad; The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike, No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm, So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.
Page 71 - Let not the dark thee cumber. What though the moon does slumber? The stars of the night Will lend thee their light, Like tapers clear without number.
Page 31 - Now capons and hens, besides turkeys, geese, and ducks, with beef and mutton — must all die — for in twelve days a multitude of people will not be fed with a little.
Page 16 - Surely happiness is reflective, like the light of heaven; and every countenance bright with smiles, and glowing with innocent enjoyment, is a mirror transmitting to others the rays of a supreme and ever shining benevolence.
Page 118 - Now, all our neighbours' chimneys smoke, And Christmas blocks are burning; Their ovens they with baked meats choke, And all their spits are turning. Without the door let sorrow lie; And if for cold it hap to die, We'll bury 't in a Christmas pie, And evermore be merry.
Page 71 - Her eyes the glow-worm lend thee, The shooting stars attend thee, And the elves also, Whose little eyes glow Like the sparks of fire, befriend thee.
Page 118 - Eache roome with yvie leaves is drest, And every post with holly. Now all our neighbours' chimneys smoke, And Christmas blocks are burning ; Their ovens they with bak't meats choke And all their spits are turning.
Page 82 - Which of thy kindness thou hast sent; And my content Makes those, and my beloved beet, To be more sweet. 'Tis thou that crown'st my glittering hearth With guiltless mirth; And giv'st me wassail bowls to drink, Spiced to the brink.
Page 127 - Oxonian, on receiving a hint from the squire, gave, with an air of the most comic gravity, an old carol, the first verse of which was as follows: Caput apri defero Reddens laudes Domino. The boar's head in hand bring I, With garlands gay and rosemary. I pray you all synge merrily Qui estis in convivio.
Page 120 - t in a Christmas pye, And evermore be merry. WITHERS' JDVBMIL I HAD finished my toilet, and was loitering with Frank Bracebridge in the library, when we heard a distant thwacking sound, which he informed me was a signal for the serving up of the dinner. The squire kept up old customs in kitchen as well as hall ; and the rolling-pin, struck upon the dresser by the cook, summoned the servants to carry in the meats. Just in this nick the cook knock'd thrice, And all the waiters in a trice His summons...