Provision for the Poor on Christmas Day.
the giving away of christmas doles.
By the will of John Popple, dated the 12th of March, 1830, £4 yearly is to be paid unto the vicar, churchwardens, and overseers of the poor of the parish of Burnham, Buckinghamshire, to provide for the poor people who should be residing in the poorhouse, a dinner, with a proper quantity of good ale and likewise with tobacco and snuff on Christmas Day.[87]
This kindly provision of Mr. Popple for the poor shows that he wished to keep up the good old Christmas customs which are so much admired by the "old man" in Southey's "The Old Mansion" (a poem of this period). In recalling the good doings at the mansion "in my lady's time" the "old man" says:—
"A woful day 'Twas for the poor when to her grave she went! - - - - - Were they sick? She had rare cordial waters, and for herbs She could have taught the doctors. Then at winter, When weekly she distributed the bread In the poor old porch, to see her and to hear The blessings on her! And I warrant them They were a blessing to her when her wealth Had been no comfort else. At Christmas, sir! It would have warmed your heart if you had seen Her Christmas kitchen; how the blazing fire Made her fine pewter shine, and holly boughs So cheerful red; and as for mistletoe, The finest bough that grew in the country round Was mark'd for madam. Then her old ale went So bountiful about! a Christmas cask,— And 'twas a noble one!—God help me, sir! But I shall never see such days again."
The Royal Christmases
In the reigns of George IV. and William IV., though not kept with the grandeur of earlier reigns, were observed with much rejoicing and festivity, and the Royal Bounties to the poor of the metropolis and the country districts surrounding Windsor and the other Royal Palaces were dispensed with the customary generosity. In his "Sketch Book," Washington Irving, who was born in the reign of George III. (1783), and lived on through the reigns of George IV., and William IV., and the first two decades of the reign of Queen Victoria, gives delightful descriptions of the