Commencement of Christ-tide--"O Sapientia!"--St. Thomas's day--William the Conqueror and the City of York--Providing for Christmas fare--Charities of food--Bull-baiting--Christ-tide charities--Going "a-Thomassing," etc.--Superstitions of the day 45 CHAPTER VII Paddington Charity (Bread and Cheese Lands)--Barring-out at Schools--Interesting narrative 53 CHAPTER VIII The Bellman--Descriptions of him--His verses. The Waits--Their origin--Ned Ward on them--Corporation Waits--York Waits (17th century)--Essay on Waits--Westminster Waits--Modern Waits 63 CHAPTER IX Christ-tide Carols--The days of Yule--A Carol for Christ-tide--"Lullaby"--The Cherry-tree Carol--Dives and Lazarus 70 CHAPTER X Christmas Eve--Herrick thereon--The Yule Log--Folk-lore thereon--The Ashen Faggot--Christmas Candles--Christmas Eve in the Isle of Man--Hunting the Wren--Divination by Onions and Sage--A Custom at Aston--"The Mock"--Decorations and Kissing Bunch--"Black Ball"--Guisers and Waits--Ale Posset 75 CHAPTER XI Christmas Eve in North Notts--Wassailing the Fruit Trees--Wassail Songs--Wassailing in Sussex--Other Customs--King at Downside College--Christ-tide Carol--Midnight Mass--The Manger--St. Francis of Assisi 84 CHAPTER XII Decorating with Evergreens--Its Origin and Antiquity--Mistletoe in Churches--The permissible Evergreens--The Holly--"Holly and Ivy"--"Here comes Holly"--"Ivy, chief of Trees"--"The Contest of the Ivy and the Holly"--Holly Folk-lore--Church Decorations--To be kept up till Candlemas day 91 CHAPTER XIII Legends of the Nativity--The Angels--The Birth--The Cradles--The Ox and Ass--Legends of Animals--The Carol of St. Stephen--Christmas Wolves--Dancing for a Twelve-months--Underground Bells--The Fiddler and the Devil 97 CHAPTER XIV The Glastonbury Thorn, its Legend--Cuttings from it--Oaks coming into leaf on Christmas day--Folk-lore--Forecast, according to the days of the week on which Christmas falls--Other Folk-lore thereon 105 CHAPTER XV Withholding Light--"Wesley Bob"--Wassail Carol--Presents in Church--Morris Dancers--"First Foot"--Red-haired Men--Lamprey Pie--"Hodening"--Its Possible Origin--The "Mari Lhoyd" 111 CHAPTER XVI Curious Gambling Customs in Church--Boon granted--Sheaf of Corn for the Birds--Crowning of the Cock--"The Lord Mayor of Pennyless Cove"--"Letting in Yule"--Guisards--Christmas in the Highlands--Christmas in Shetland--Christmas in Ireland 117 CHAPTER XVII Ordinance against out-door Revelry--Marriage of a Lord of Misrule--Mummers and Mumming--Country Mummers--Early Play--Two modern Plays 125 CHAPTER XVIII A Christmas jest--Ben Jonson's Masque of Christmas--Milton's Masque of Comus--Queen Elizabeth and the Masters of Defence 138 CHAPTER XIX The Lord of Misrule--The "Emperor" and "King" at Oxford--Dignity of the Office--Its abolition in the City of London--The functions of a Lord of Misrule--Christmas at the Temple--A grand Christmas there 143 CHAPTER XX