Ben Jonson, in his _Christmas Masque_, among other characters introduces “New Year’s gift in a blue coat, serving-man like, with an orange, and a sprig of rosemary on his head, his hat full of brooches, with a collar of gingerbread, his torch-bearer carrying a marchpane, with a bottle of wine on either arm.” An orange stuck with cloves was a common present, and is explained by Lupton, who says that the flavour of the wine is improved, and the wine itself preserved from mouldiness, by an orange or lemon stuck with cloves being hung within the vessel, so as not to touch the liquor. When pins were first invented, and brought into use about the beginning of the sixteenth century, they were a New Year’s gift very acceptable to ladies, instead of the wooden skewers which they had hitherto used. Sometimes, however, in lieu of pins, they received a composition in money, called _pin money_, an expression which has been extended to a sum of money secured by a husband on his marriage for the private expenses of his wife. Gloves, too, were customary New Year’s gifts. They were far more expensive than nowadays, and occasionally a sum of money was given instead, which was called _glove money_. A hundred years ago, the Poet Laureate not only wrote a New Year’s ode, by way of salutation to the sovereign and royal family, but those illustrious personages sat in state at St. James’s, and heard it, as it was sung by celebrated vocalists, for whom it had been composed by some expert in music. Now that the Laureate’s song would be worth the listening to, we have none written especially for the New Year. This musical festival has ceased to be.--_N. & Q. 4th S._ vol. xi. p. 8. Latterly, New Year’s Day has been celebrated with but little public festivity, the only open joyous demonstration being the sound of merry peals from the church bells, as they ring out the Old and ring in the New Year. Many persons make a point of wearing new clothes on this day, and consider any omission of the kind unlucky. At court it is one of the twelve _Offering Days_.--_Med. Ævi Kalend._ Hampson, 1841, vol. i. p 33. In the North of England it is considered unlucky for any inmate to go out of the house until some one from without has entered it; and the first foot across the threshold is watched with great anxiety, the good or bad luck of the house during the year, depending on the first comer being a man or a woman.--_N. & Q. 2nd S._ vol. xi. p. 244.