Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/179

 12 S. 1. FEB. 26, 1916.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

173

life of the author by the Rev. Wm. Shepherd, another well-known Liverpool character published in 1824.

1 have a copy of both editions, and should be glad to lend either of them on hearing.

A. H. ARKLE. Elmhurst, Oxton, Birkenhead.

If MB. POTTS will refer to The Times Literary Supplement of Jan. 20, 1916, he will find a letter from C. H. H. on the subject of Rushton and his poem on Chatterton. It is to be found in " Poems and Other Writings, by the late Edward Rushton," London, 1824. The poem is in fourteen stanzas of twelve lines each, and, according to the writer of the letter, '' the mannerisms of its period do not prevent it from being a fine and vigorous piece of work." Rushton, as stated by your correspondent, -was a sailor who, after he lost his sight, settled in Liverpool, where for a brief period he edited The Liverpool Herald. He afterw r ards became a bookseller there, and died in 1814. T. F. D.

FATHER CHRISTMAS AND CHRISTMAS STOCK- INGS (12 S. i. 69). Probably the growth of the Christinas tree in England was promoted by such books as ' Struwwelpeter ' and 'King Nut-cracker, or the Dream of Poor Reinhold,' both by Dr. Heinrich Hoffman. They made their appearance with English text about, I think, 1850. The former has two Christmas trees on p. 1. The latter has two, the first on p. 23 :

At a sign from the Cook, come three Urchins, who bear a Christmas tree, The largest and finest ever seen A taper on ev'ry branch so green, &c. The second is on p. 28 :

The Christmas tree, Glittering with its many tapers, Decked with bells and birds so fair ; And beneath it hang a pair Of Jackadandies that cut capers, &c. Among the toys hanging from this second tree is a book with the title ' Der Struwwel- peter.' Besides little Reinhold there are in the story Karl, Casper, Hans, Mary, &c. Although a fairy with wdngs appears at Reinhold' s bedside, there is no mention of St. Nicholas or of a stocking.

In ' The History of a Nut-cracker,' bv Hoffman, presumably Dr. Heinrich Hoff- man, being the second story in ' A Picture Story Book,' 1850, is the following, chap. i. p. 9 of the first part :

" In England, New Year's Day is the grand day tor making presents, so that many parents would >e glad if the year always commenced with the 2nd of January. But in Germany the great day for presents is the 24th of December, the one

preceding Christmas Day. Moreover, in Germany, children's presents are given in a peculiar way. A large shrub is placed upon a table in the drawing- room ; and to all its branches are hung the toys to be distributed among the children. Such play- things as are too heavy to hang to the shrub, are placed on the table ; and the children are then told that it is their guardian angel who sends them all those pretty toys."

Chap. ii. describes the Christmas tree. Reference is made to the joy of English children in seeing and choosing toys on the toy-stalls in the Soho Bazaar, the Pantheon, and the Lowther Arcade, and comparison is made with the joy

" felt by Fritz and Mary when they entered the drawing-room and saw the great tree growing as it were from the middle of th< table, and covered with blossoms made of sugar, and sugar-plums instead of fruit the whole glittering by the light of a hundred Christmas candles concealed amidst the leaves."

Then follow the toys.

The scene of the story is Nuremberg. Who translated arid adapted the story from the German I do not know\ No doubt the passages in which the English New Year's Day custom, and the Soho Ba/aar, &c., are mentioned are interpolations by the adapter.

' King Nut-cracker, or the Dream of Poor Reinhold,' was " freely rendered " by J. R. Planche, published at Leipsig and London. My copy has on the title-page an embossed stamp giving the arms of Saxony, and " Vertrag vom 13 Mai 1846."

In Hone's ' Eveiy-Day Book,' vol. i. col. 1604, under ' Customs on Christmas Eve,' in a quotation from S. T. Coleridge's Friend, is a description of a Christmas tree at Ratzeburg, in the north of Germany. A great yew bough is fastened on the table, a multitude of tapers are fixed thereon, with the presents meant by the children for their parents laid out underneath, while those meant by the children for each other are concealed in their pockets. According to custom the bough takes fire at last. On Christmas Day the parents lay on the table presents for the children. The Christmas Eve ceremony is spoken of as a practice

" very similar to some on December the 6th, St. Nicholas' -day."

" Formerly, and still in all the smaller towns and villages throughout North Germany, these presents were sent by all the parents to some one fellow, who, hi high buskins, a white robe, a mask, and an enormous flax wig, personates Knccht Rupert, i.e., the servant Rupert. On Christmas- right he goes round to every house, and says that Jesus Christ, his master, sent him thither," &c.

In ; A Laughter Book for Little Folk,' from the German of Th. Hosemann, by Madame