Yorkshire.
Blount tells us that, in Yorkshire and other northern parts, after sermon or service on Christmas Day, the people will, even in the churches, cry “Ule! Ule!” as a token of rejoicing; and the common sort run about the streets singing:
“Ule! Ule! Ule! Ule!
Three puddings in a pule,
Crack nuts and cry Ule!”
See Brand, Pop. Antiq. 1849, vol. i. pp. 476-477.
One never-failing remnant of the olden time observed in this county, says Soane (Curiosities of Literature), was the cheese, which had been especially made and preserved for the season. It was produced with much ceremony by every rustic dame, who, before she allowed it to be tasted, took a sharp knife and scored upon it rude resemblances to the cross. To this were added the mighty wassail bowl brimming with lamb’s-wool, and furmity made of barley-meal, which last was also an essential of the breakfast-table.
Between Christmas Day and the New Year it is customary in the North Riding of Yorkshire to give every visitor a slice of “pepper cake” (a spiced gingerbread cake) and cheese and a glass of gin.
In the North Riding of Yorkshire it is also the custom for the parishioners, after receiving the Sacrament on Christmas Day, to go from church directly to the ale-house, and there drink together as a testimony of charity and friendship.—Aubrey, MS. quoted in Time’s Telescope, 1826, p. 293.
At Filey, on Christmas morning before break of day, there existed formerly the greatest uproar, by numbers of boys going round from house to house, rapping at every door, and roaring out, “I wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year,” which words were vociferated again and again till the family awoke and admitted the clamorous visitor; who, if he were the first,[94] was treated with money or cheese and gingerbread, which were also distributed, but less liberally, to subsequent visitors. No persons (boys excepted) ever presumed to go out of doors till the threshold had been consecrated by the entrance of a male. Females had no part in this matter, and if a damsel, lovely as an angel, entered first, her fair form was viewed with horror as an image of death.—Cole, Antiquities of Filey, 1828, p. 137.
[94] The custom of first footing seems to have been confined in other places to New Year’s Morning.
At Huddersfield the children carry about a “wessel-bob,” or large bunch of evergreens hung with oranges and apples, and coloured ribbons, singing the following carol:
“Here we come a wassailing
Among the leaves so green,
Here we come a wandering
So fair to be seen.
Chorus.
For it is in Christmas time
Strangers travel far and near,
So God bless you and send you a happy
New year.
We are not daily beggars,
That beg from door to door,
But we are neighbours’ children,
Whom you have seen before.
Call up the butler of this house,
Put on his golden ring,
Let him bring us a glass of beer,
And the better we shall sing.
We have got a little purse
Made of stretching leather skin,
We want a little of your money
To line it well within.
Bring us out a table
And spread it with a cloth;
Bring out a mouldy cheese,
Also your Christmas loaf.
God bless the master of this house,
Likewise the mistress too,
And all the little children
That round the table go.
Good master and mistress,
While you’re sitting by the fire,
Pray think of us poor children
Who are wandering in the mire.”
N. & Q. 3rd S. vol. xi. p. 144.
Some years ago it was the custom in Leeds, and the neighbourhood, for children to go from house to house singing and carrying what they called a “wesley-bob.” This they kept veiled in a cloth till they came to a house door, when they uncovered it.
The wesley-bob was made of holly and evergreens, like a bower, inside were placed a couple of dolls, adorned with ribbons, and the whole affair was borne upon a stick. Whilst the wesley-bob was being displayed, a song or ditty was sung.
At Aberford, near Leeds, two dolls are carried about in boxes in a similar way, and such an affair here is called a wesley-box.—N. & Q. 3rd S. vol. vi. p. 494.
At Ripon, on Christmas Day, says a correspondent of the Gent. Mag. (1790, vol. lx. p. 719), the singing boys come into the church with large baskets full of red apples, with a sprig of rosemary stuck in each, which they present to all the congregation, and generally have a return made them of 2d., 4d., or 6d., according to the quality of the lady or gentleman.
The sword or morisco dance used to be practised at Richmond, during the Christmas holidays, by young men dressed in shirts ornamented with ribbons folded into roses, having swords, or wood cut in the form of that weapon. They exhibited various feats of activity, attended by an old fiddler, by Bessy in the grotesque habit of an old woman, and by the fool almost covered with skins, a hairy cap on his head, and the tail of a fox hanging from his head. These led the festive throng, and diverted the crowd with their droll antic buffoonery. The office of one of these characters was to go about rattling a box, and soliciting money from door to door to defray the expenses of a feast and a dance in the evening.—History of Richmond, 1814, p. 296.
In Sheffield, a male must be the first to enter a house on the morning of both Christmas Day and New Year’s Day; but there is no distinction as to complexion or colour of hair. In the houses of the more opulent manufacturers, these first admissions are often accorded to choirs of work-people, who, as “waits,” proceed at an early hour and sing before the houses of their employers and friends Christmas carols and hymns, always commencing with that beautiful composition:
“Christians, awake, salute the happy morn,
Whereon the Saviour of mankind was born.”
On expressing their good wishes to the inmates, they are generally rewarded with something warm and occasionally with a pecuniary present.
Among the class called “respectable,” but not manufacturers, a previous arrangement is often made; that a boy, the son of a friend, shall come and be first admitted, receiving for his good wishes a Christmas-box of sixpence or a shilling. The houses of the artisans and poor are successively besieged by a host of gamins, who, soon after midnight, spread themselves over the town, shouting at the doors, and through keyholes, as follows:
“Au wish ya a murry Chrismas,—
A ’appy new year,—
A’ pockit full of munny,
An’ a celler full a’ beer.
God bless the maester of this ’ouse—
The mistriss all-so,
An’ all the little childrun
That round the table go.
A apple, a pare, a plom, an’ a cherry;
A sup a’ good ale mak’ a man murry,” &c.
The same house will not admit a second boy. One is sufficient to protect it from any ill-luck that might otherwise happen. A penny is the usual gratuity for this service.—N. & Q. 3rd S. vol. v. p. 395.