Whom all the people worshippeth with rosted geese and wine.">[
Kissing under the Mistletoe.
—What is the origin of kissing under the mistletoe?
AN M.D.
[Why Roger claims the privilege to kiss Margery under the mistletoe at Christmas, appears to have baffled our antiquaries. Brand states, that this druidic plant never entered our sacred edifices but by mistake, and consequently assigns it a place in the kitchen, where, says he, "it was hung up in great state, with its white berries; and whatever female chanced to stand under it, the young man present either had a right, or claimed one, of saluting her, and of plucking off a berry at each kiss." Nares, however, makes it rather ominous for the fair sex not to be saluted under the famed Viscum album. He says, "The custom longest preserved was the handing up of a bush of mistletoe in the kitchen, or servants' hall, with the charm attached to it, that the maid who was not kissed under it at Christmas, would not be married in that year.">[
Trinity Chapel, Knightsbridge.
—Was Trinity Chapel, Knightsbridge, which has been rebuilt several times, ever parochial? Can I be referred to any memoir of the Rev. —— Gamble, Chaplain to H. R. H. the Duke of York, who in the early part of the present century was minister of it?
H. G. D.
[The chapel, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, belonged originally to an ancient hospital, or lazar-house, under the patronage of the abbot and convent of Westminster. It was rebuilt in 1629, at the cost of the inhabitants, by a license from Dr. Laud, then Bishop of London, as a chapel of ease to St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, within the precincts of which parish it was situated; but the site was subsequently assigned to the parish of St. George, Hanover Square, and at present forms a part of that of Kensington. The Rev. J. Gamble was minister of this chapel in 1794-5; in 1796 he was appointed chaplain of the forces, and in 1799 rector of Alphamstone, and also of Bradwell-juxta-Mare, in Essex. In 1805 he was married to Miss Lathom of Madras, by whom he had a son. His death took place at Knightsbridge, July 27, 1811.]