E-text prepared by Robert Cicconetti, Turgut Dincer, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 22042-h.htm or 22042-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/2/0/4/22042/22042-h/22042-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/2/0/4/22042/22042-h.zip) Transcriber's note: In this text a character with macron is represented as [=x]. Superscripted characters are enclosed by curly brackets and preceed by a caret character (example: ^{th}). [Illustration: BRINGING IN THE YULE LOG. _Frontispiece._] CHRISTMAS: _ITS ORIGIN AND ASSOCIATIONS,_ TOGETHER WITH ITS HISTORICAL EVENTS AND FESTIVE CELEBRATIONS DURING NINETEEN CENTURIES: DEPICTING, BY PEN AND PENCIL, MEMORABLE CELEBRATIONS, STATELY MEETINGS OF EARLY KINGS, REMARKABLE EVENTS, ROMANTIC EPISODES, BRAVE DEEDS, PICTURESQUE CUSTOMS, TIME-HONOURED SPORTS, ROYAL CHRISTMASES, CORONATIONS AND ROYAL MARRIAGES, CHIVALRIC FEATS, COURT BANQUETINGS AND REVELLINGS, CHRISTMAS AT THE COLLEGES AND THE INNS OF COURT, POPULAR FESTIVITIES, AND CHRISTMAS-KEEPING IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE WORLD, DERIVED FROM THE MOST AUTHENTIC SOURCES, AND ARRANGED CHRONOLOGICALLY. BY W. F. DAWSON. At home, at sea, in many distant lands, This Kingly Feast without a rival stands! LONDON ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. 1902. REPUBLISHED BY GALE RESEARCH COMPANY, BOOK TOWER, DETROIT, 1968 [Illustration] PREFACE.