Come, guard this night the Christmas pie, That the thiefe, though ne'r so slie, With his flesh hooks don't come nie To catch it; From him, who all alone sits there, Having his eyes still in his eare, And a deale of nightly feare, To watch it. Fletcher, in his poem _Christmas Day_,[78] thus describes the pie:-- Christmas? give me my beads; the word implies A plot, by its ingredients, beef and pyes. The cloyster'd steaks, with salt and pepper, lye Like Nunnes with patches in a monastrie. Prophaneness in a conclave? Nay, much more Idolatrie in crust! Babylon's whore Rak'd from the grave, and bak'd by hanches, then Serv'd up in _coffins_ to unholy men: Defil'd with superstition like the Gentiles Of old, that worship'd onions, roots, and lentils. [Footnote 78: _Ex Otio Negotium_, etc., ed. 1656, p. 114.] The _Grub Street Journal_ of 27th December 1733 has an essay on Christmas Pye; but it is only a political satire, and not worth quoting here. There was once a famous Christmas pie which obtained the following notice in the _Newcastle Chronicle_, 6th January 1770: "Monday last, was brought from Howick to Berwick, to be shipp'd for London, for sir Hen. Grey, bart., a pie, the contents whereof are as follows: viz. 2 bushels of flour, 20 lbs. of butter, 4 geese, 2 turkies, 2 rabbits, 4 wild ducks, 2 woodcocks, 6 snipes, and 4 partridges, 2 neats' tongues, 2 curlews, 7 blackbirds, and 6 pigeons; it is supposed a very great curiosity, was made by Mrs. Dorothy Patterson, house keeper at Howick. It was near nine feet in circumference at bottom, weighs about twelve stones, will take two men to present it to table; it is neatly fitted with a case, and four small wheels to facilitate its use to every guest that inclines to partake of its contents at table." Brand says that in the north of England a goose is always the chief ingredient in the composition of a Christmas pie. Ramsay, in his _Elegy on Lucky Wood_, tells us that, among other baits by which the good ale-wife drew customers to her house, she never failed to tempt them at Christmas with a _Goose pie_-- Than ay at _Yule_ whene'er we came, _A bra' Goose Pye_; And was na that a good Belly baum? Nane dare deny. A writer in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ (May 1811, p. 423), speaking of Christmas in the North Riding of Yorkshire, says: "On the feast of St. Stephen large goose pies are made, all which they distribute among their needy neighbours, except one, which is carefully laid up, and not tasted till the purification of the Virgin, called Candlemas Day."