In Mason's Handful of Essaies 1621: "Like a swine, he never doth good till his death; as an apprentice's box of earth, apt he is to take all, but to restore none till hee be broken."
In the frontispiece to Blaxton's English Usurer, 1634, the same simile is used:—
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Both with the Christmas Boxe may well comply, It nothing yields till broke; they till they die. |
And again, in Browne's Map of the Microcosme, 1642, speaking of a covetous man, he says, he "doth exceed in receiving, but is very deficient in giving; like the Christmas earthen Boxes of apprentices, apt to take in money, but he restores none till hee be broken, like a potter's vessell, into many shares."
Aubrey, in his Wiltshire Collections, circ. 1670 (p. 45), thus describes a trouvaille of Roman coins. "Among the rest was an earthen pott of the colour of a Crucible, and of the shape of a prentice's Christmas Box, with a slit in it, containing about a quart, which was near full of money. This pot I gave to the Repository of the Royal Society at Gresham College."
And, to wind up these Christmas box notices, I may quote a verse from Henry Carey's "Sally in our Alley" (1715?).
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When Christmas comes about again, Oh! then I shall have money; I'll hoard it up, and box and all, I'll give it to my honey. |
There used to be a very curious custom on St. Stephen's day, which Douce says was introduced into this country by Danes—that of bleeding horses. That it was usual is, I think, proved by very different authorities. Tusser says:—
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Yer Christmas be passed, let horsse be let blood, For manie a purpose it dooth him much good; The day of S. Steeven old fathers did use; If that do mislike thee, some other day chuse. |