Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/180

 174

NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. i. FEB. 26, uie.

de Chatelairi (c. 1850), p. 17, is a picture of a Christmas tree.

One may, at all events, conjecture that the Christmas tree was " made in Germany," and that Father Christmas is an English re- j presentation of Knecht Rupert.

Probably the American si cry which ST. S WITHIN remembers is ' How Santa Claus j came to Simpson's Bar,' by Bret Harte, c. 1872.

Is not Santa Claus, for St. Nicholas, a spurious Am eric an- Germ an term ?

Like ST. S WITHIN, I do not remember anything about gifts being found in stockings when I was a child.

ROBERT PIERPOINT.

Santa Claus really looks like a mixture of Italian and German, but, according to ' Chambers' s Encyclopaedia,' ** it is a corrup- tion of the name introduced into England from America ; the old Dutch settlers in New York kept a San Claus holiday." The custom of giving presents to the children on St. Nicholas's feast may have been kept in England before the Reformation ; we have a reference to it in the ' Diary ' of the Catholic Henry Machyii (1550-63) :'

" In many places it was the custom for parents, on the vigil of St. Nicholas, to convey secretly presents of various kinds to their little sons and daughters, who were taught to believe that they -owed them to the kindness of St. Nicholas and his train, who, going up and down among the towns and the villages, came in at the windows, though they were shut, and distributed them. This custom originated from the legendary account of that saint having given portions to three daughters of a poor_ citizen whose necessities had driven him to an intention of prostituting them, and this he effected by throwing a purse filled with money privately at night in at the father's bedchamber window, to enable him to portion them out honestly."

We ought, perhdpe, to notice the exact similarity between the tradition so described and the same as actually known on the Continent. But I should like to know what was understood as St. Nicholas's train. Was it something remaining of the old humorous pomp of the " episcopus In- nocent ium " ? The ass, for instance, on which the saint bishop sits, or the terrible-looking old personage known in France as the " PC re Fouettard " (Whipping Father). I expect the allusion of Henry Machyn is not a unique instance. The legend of St. Nicholas, in any case, was, everywhere through England, represented in painted glass. Many examples are given in Mr. Philip Nelson's book ' Ancient Painted Glass in England,' but his list is far from being ex- haustive.

I had, last year, the pleasure of finding in the church of Upper Hardres (Kent) a- very good early thirteenth - century medallion on the said subject. It had never been described before, arid I had some difficulty in identifying it, as the painter had mixed together two different legends of St. Nicholas. I hope the description will be of some interest to the readers of ' N. & Q.,' and give it. On the left of the medallion the three daughters are standing, lifting up their hands to heaven ; the father is sitting with his chin in his hand, looking sad and depressed. On the right stands the saint, dressed as a bishop with mitre and crosier ; he opens the doors of a curiously-shaped tower, which is in the middle of the medallion, though, as far as I know, it has nothing to do with the subject, and may only be an allusion to another well-known legend of the saint.

A second contemporary medallion, in the same place, represents the saint standing with this text in two parts : NTERFI. , . .LAVS, the first part seeming obviously to have been misplaced, the second one being the end of the word Nicholaus. I took a drawing of both of these medallions.

A third one, of the same size, represents the Blessed Virgin sitting on a throne, holding a Lceptro " flory," arid having the child Jesus on her lap, between two kneeling figures. Around the medallion is the puzzling Lombardic inscription " Salamoni Philipi." Though it really looks ancient, so cleverby is it made, it is, of course, to be understood as the name of the stained-glass artist who in 1795, according to Hasted, transferred the glass from the church of Stelling (Kent), its former place, to Upper Hardres Church. I supposed he was called Salamon Philip, and made an inquiry about him in ' N. & Q.,' 11 S. xii. 379, but, unfor- tunately, I have not had any answer.

PIERRE TURPIN.

The I'ayle, Folkestone.

Aii interesting account of the series of feasts which lasted, in the Middle Ages, from Dec. 16 (the day of O Sapientia) to Jan. 6, will be found in the last book pub- lished by the late Mr. A. F. Leach, to wit, ' The Schools of Medieval England/ pp. 144- 155. Santa Claus (Nicholas of Myra) and Father Christmas are direct descendants from the performances of the Boy-Bishop, and through him, to a. certain extent, from the Roman Saturnalia. Th(P three days following Christmas Day became known as the Feast of Fools, the Feast of Asses, and the Feast of the Boy-Bishop."' On the eve of