Page:Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern.djvu/66

 the best receipts for mince-meat contain little or no meat, and it consequently keeps fresher, and eats lighter. The following is a valued receipt that has been handed down in a Cornish family for many generations, and the hand-writing of the receipt book will vouch for its antiquity. “A pound of beef-suet chopped fine; a pound of raisins do. stoned. A pound of currants cleaned dry. A pound of apples chopped fine. Two or three eggs. Allspice beat very fine, and sugar to your taste. A little salt, and as much brandy and wine as you like. An ancient Cornish custom at Christmas.” A small piece of citron in each pie is an improvement.

There is a superstition existing in some places, that in as many different houses as you eat mince-pies during Christmas, so many happy months will you have in the ensuing year. Something like this is mentioned in “ Dives and Pauper,” by W. de Worde (1496), where a custom is reprobated of judging of the weather of the ensuing twelve months, by that of the twelve days at Christmas. If Christmas-day fell on a Sunday, it was also thought fortunate. In the “Golden Legend,” of the same printer, (folio vi.) is a more laudable prejudice, “That what persone beynge in clene lyfe: desyre on thys daye a boone of God; as ferre as it is ryghtfull & good for hym; our lorde at reuerēce of thys blessid & hye feste of his natiuite wol graūt it to hym.”

The North of England is celebrated for Christmas pies of a different description, composed of birds and game, and frequently of great size. Hone in his “Table Book,” (vol. ii. p. 506.) gives the following extract front the “ Newcastle Chronicle” of 6th January 1770, describing a giant of this race. “Monday last was brought from Howick to Berwick,