Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/614

506 of Importance in their Day,' where Dodington figures as one of that class. But there is no reason, I think, to doubt the genuineness of his patronage of the poetic tribe in the early years of his life, and his wit in conversation was acknowledged by all his contemporaries. A lively description of his ways in social life, his absence of taste, with his occasional lapses into indiscretion in conversation, his appreciation of the classics, especially Tacitus, and the flashes of his ready wit when he was lolling in his chair "in perfect apathy and self-command" without dozing or snoring, is given by Richard Cumberland in his 'Memoirs.' Cumberland adds that Dodington "had his serious hours and gravest topics, which he would handle with all due solemnity of thought and language."

Herrick (Robert), 1647-8.—The following references are to the edition by George Saintsbury, 1893:—

Doddridge (P.), 1725.—Often preached on 25 December, which he calls "Christmas" in his letters. See his 'Works,' Leeds, 1803, vol. ii.

Christmas games, 1491.—See the Court Rolls of Dunster in Maxwell-Lyte's 'History of Dunster,' 1909: "Nobody shall henceforth play at dice or cards in the borough, save only during ten days at Christmas."'

Boy-Bishop, on St. Nicholas's Day.—Colet encouraged the observance; see his 'Life' by J. H. Lupton, 1887 (1909, pp. 175, 278). Much also about Christmas and the Lord of Misrule in Machyn's ' Diary,' Camd. Soc., index under 'Christmas' and 'Misrule.'

Waits.—In 'A Proper Dyaloge,' 1530 reprinted by Arber at the end of 'Rede me and be nott wrothe,' 1871, p. 164, Ezekiel xxxiii. 6 is expounded as "ye wayte or ye watcheman yat shulde haue blowen his horne."

In Scotland.—An Act of Parliament in 1712 "enforced on the Scottish law courts a Christmas vacation," which was offensive to the nation (Clarke & Foxcroft, 'Life of Gilbert Burnet,' 1907, p. 451).

King's Lynn.—The following curious epitaph is given in 'A General History of the County of Norfolk,'- 1829, as in the south aisle of St. Stephen's Chapel in St. Margaret's Church, King's Lynn:—