"They in the drama find no joys, But doat on mimicry and toys. Thus, when a dance is in my bill, Nobility my boxes fill; Or send three days before the time, To crowd a new-made pantomime."
"Old Merry Plentiful Christmas,"
at this period, is sketched by a writer in Poor Robin's Almanack, for 1723, thus:—"Now comes on old merry plentiful Christmas. The Husbandman lays his great Log behind the fire, and with a few of his neighbours, over a good fire, taps his Christmas beer, cuts his Christmas cheese, and sets forward for a merry Christmas. The Landlord (for we hope there are yet some generous ones left) invites his Tenants and Labourers, and with a good Sirloin of Roast Beef, and a few pitchers of nappy ale or beer, he wisheth them all a merry Christmas. The beggar begs his bread, sells some of it for money to buy drink, and without fear of being arrested, or call'd upon for parish duties, has as merry a Christmas as any of them all."
the mask dance.
So the people made merry at Christmas throughout the reign of George I., who died on June 10, 1727, and was succeeded by his son,
George the Second.
In this reign the customs of Christmas were kept up with unabated heartiness, and liberality to the poor was not forgotten. The customary distributions of creature comforts on Christmas Eve were continued, and, in some instances, provision for the maintenance of them was made in the wills of worthy parishioners. An instance of this kind is recorded in Devonshire. "It appears, from a statement of charities in an old book, that John Martyn, by will, 28th of November, 1729, gave to the churchwardens and overseers of the poor of the parish of St. Mary Major, Exeter, twenty pounds, to be put out at interest, and the profits thereof to be laid out every Christmas Eve in twenty pieces of beef, to be distributed to twenty poor people of the parish, such as had no relief on that day, for ever."[78]
That
Christmas Housekeeping in London,