Copy 1, Volume 1

Observations on the popular antiquities of Great Britain: chiefly illustrating the origin of our vulgar and provincial customs, ceremonies, and superstitions / by John Brand.

  • Brand, John, 1744-1806.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the popular antiquities of Great Britain: chiefly illustrating the origin of our vulgar and provincial customs, ceremonies, and superstitions / by John Brand. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    549/570 (page 523)
    From this it should seem that holly was used only to deck the inside of houses at Christmas; while ivy was used not only as a vintner’s sign, but also among the evergreens at funerals. Bourne observes that this custom of adorning the windows at this season with bav and laurel is but seldom used in the c/ north ; but in the south, particularly at our universities, it is very common to deck not only the common windows of the town, but also the chapels of the colleges, with branches of laurel, which was used by the ancient Romans as the emblem of peace, joy, and victory. In the Christian sense, it may be applied to the victory gained over the Powers of Darkness by the coming of Christ. In a curious tract, entitled Round about our Coal Fire, or Christmas Entertainments, I find the following passage on this subject: “ The rooms were embowered with holly, ivy, Cyprus, bays, laurel, and misletoe, and a bouncing Christmas log in the chimney.” In this account the “cyprus” is quite a new article. Indeed I should as soon have expected to have seen the yew as the cypress used on this joyful occasion. Coles, however, in his Introduction to the Knowledge of Plants (Art of Simpling, 1656), p. 64, tells us: “ In some places setting up of holly, ivy, rosemary, bayes, yew, &c., in churches at Christmas is still in use.” The use of box as well as yew, “to decke up houses in winter,” is noticed in Parkinson’s Garden of Flowers, 1629, p. 606. [And, accord- ing to Aubrey, “in several parts of Oxfordshire, particularly at Lanton, it is the custom for the maid servant to ask the man for ivy to dress the house, and if the man denies or neglects to fetch in ivy, the maid steals away a pair of his breeches, and nails them up to the gate in the yard or high- way.”] Coles, in the Introduction just quoted, p. 41, speaking of mistletoe, says : “ It is carryed many miles to set up in houses about Christmas time, when it is adorned with a white glister- ing berry.” I am of opinion, although Gay mentions the mistletoe among those evergreens that were put up in churches, it never entered those sacred edifices but by mistake, or ignorance of the sex- tons ; for it was the heathenish or profane plant, as having been of such distinction in the Pagan rites of Druidism, and