Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/507

 ii s. VIIL DEC. 27, i9i3.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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LONDON, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1913.

CONTENTS. No. 209.

NOTES : Christmas Eve, 501-The Candle, 502 J. F. Meehan, Bookseller, 504-Epitaphiana The First Christ- mas Card 'The Times' and Christmas Day, 505-The Little Dauphin The Great Eastern, the First of the Leviathans, 506 Miss Boydell and Deputy Ellis Henry Garnett the Jesuit Grosvenor Chapel, 507.

QUERIES -Song Wanted, 507 " Double entendre " Alban Dolman " Boss "George Frederick Raymond, 508-Capt. John Warde " Whorlgogy" Rubens and Gerard Dou Louis Gabriel Cottington Higham Ferrers Scarlet Gloves and Tractarians Anthony Munday, Dramatist ' Musarmn Delici*,' 1656 Agnes rophall, Lady Devereux, 509 Thomas Fulling Smith : Name in the Vasconcellos Family Pre - Reformation Almsdishes ' Coriolanus ' Predecessor of Madame Tussaud's ' Mensfe Secundse ' " Man's extremity is God's opportunity," 510.

REPLIES : " Merrygreek " : Ralph Roister Doister,' 510 Colonial Governors, 512 Author Wanted Finger Board 'The Silver Domino ' General Wolfe "Pro pelle cutem" Words and Phrases in 'Lorna Doone,' 514 Carlyle Quotation Dunstable Larks Uncollected Kipling Items The Colour of Liveries Groom of the Stole" Barring - out," 515 Rooks' Justice Flower- Name Old London Streets The Legend of St. Christopher, 516 " Rucksac " or " Rucksac " Two Curious Place - Names Greek Typography The Roar of Guns Andrea Ferrara and the Freemasons' State Sword of Shrewsbury Ancient Wit and Humour, 517.

"NOTES ON BOOKS : ' Insulae Britannicse ' Whitaker's Almanac and Peerage, and ' The International Whitaker ' ' Who's Who ' and ' Who's Who Year- Book English- woman's Year- Book Writers' and Artists' Year- Book' ' The Antiquary ' ' The Imprint.'

Booksellers' Catalogues. "Notices to Correspondents.

CHRISTMAS EVE.

IT is delightful, when Christmas comes round with all its blessed sameness, to fly away on the wings of thought to spend half an hour in some part of Christendom where the customs differ from our own, and where plum -puddings and mincepies which I do not wish to disparage take no part in the due celebration of the festival. I have been glad to flutter down to Limousin, and thence to make my way still further south to the Jougla country, which is, or was, one of the colliery districts of France. Two eminent novelists have shown me something of the mode in which the faithful prepare to keep the Feast of the Nativity in these far-off localities.

In ' L' Ombre de 1' Amour ' Marcelle Tin- ayrejdraws a picture of Christmas Eve in

which we are shown country folk in Correez assembling in a village inn to await the stroke of midnight, the outburst of joy- bells, and the celebration of Mass. Those who were to communicate came not to eat or drink ; but others, often mere lookers-on, who \vere brought to church on this occasion, by force of habit, did not stint themselves of refreshments, and entertained the company by telling discreditable tales of priests. Gogues, a variety of sausage, were con- sidered pertinent to the feast. In church the creche, veiled until the Elevation, was disclosed to an expectant congregation. In Madame Tinayre's story the priest, a man of some originality, hearing the voice of a child in the crowd just as he was on the point of beginning his sermon, remarked:

" Quand Notre Seigneur dit, ' Laissez venira nioi les petits enfants,' il n'etait pas minuit sonne Et voyez bien sur que la Vierge n'aurait pas sorti de la creche son divin nourrisson, quand memo il eut pleure pour voir les bergers, les mages. 1'etoile." P. 66.

There is a charming atmosphere of Christmas Eve in Herault, in about 1843, pervading Ferdinand Fabre's fascinating idyll ' Monsieur Jean.' The housekeeper at the Presbytery and the landlady at the inn are intent on providing good fare for all who may come. We sniff the barquettes, the coques, the tortillons, and the biscotins, which may be had on reasonable terms at the hostel, and view with admiration the viands which Prudence, the priest's servant, makes ready for parishioners who will gather round her master's board for supper (reveillon) after midnight Mass and the Low Mass, which directly follows ; but it is sometimes, judging from M. Fabre's book, after 3 A.M. before this is ended.

A difficult thing it must be for the cele- brant (to say nothing of anybody else) to remain fasting until then, after acting as confessor during the greater part of the previous day. Abbe Fulcran, a saintly man, was obliged to seek sustenance after spend- ing five hours in removing the burdens of his repentant flock, and he came to his house from the church for a while to enjoy iceuds and chick-pea salad. He was fond of nceuds, which are knots of paste cooked in boiling oil. We are assured, indeed :

"II fallait bien que ce saint hoiume tint par luelque chose a notre humanit4 ! II y tenait par es nceuds sucres de Prudence Ricard." P. 229.

It was he, by the way, who maintained that every creature knows the Pater when lie comes into the world, and thought he heard