The ox is then tickled, to make him toss his head; if he throw the cake behind, it is the mistress's perquisite; if before (in what is termed the boosy) the bailiff himself claims the prize. The company then return to the house, the doors of which they find locked, nor will they be opened until some joyous songs are sung. On their gaining admittance a scene of mirth ensues, which lasts the greater part of the night.-Gent. Mag. 1791, vol. lxi. p. 116.

STAFFORDSHIRE.

According to Blount the inhabitants of this county at one time made a fire on the eve of the Epiphany, in memory of the blazing star that conducted the three Magi to the manger at Bethlehem.

YORKSHIRE.

In the neighbourhood of Leeds, families formerly invited their relations, friends, and neighbours to their houses, for the purpose of playing at cards, and partaking of a supper of which mince pies were an indispensable ingredient. After supper was over the wassail-cup or wassailbowl was brought in, of which every one partook, by taking with a spoon out of the ale a roasted apple and eating it, and then drinking the healths of the company out of the bowl, wishing them a merry Christmas, and a happy New Year. The festival of Christmas used in this part of the country to be held for twenty days, and some persons extended it even to Candlemas.

The ingredients put into the bowl, viz., ale, sugar, nutmeg, and roasted apples, were usually called lambs' wool, and the night on which it was drunk was commonly called Wassail Eve.-Gent. Mag. 1784, vol. liv. p. 98.

IRELAND.

In Ireland " on Twelve Eve in Christmas, they use to set up as high as they can a sieve of oats, and in it a dozen of candles set round, and in the centre one larger, all lighted.

This in memory of our Saviour and his Apostles, lights of the world."-Sir Henry Piers' Description of the County of Westmeath, 1682, in Vallancey's Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis, vol. i. No. 1, p. 124.

JAN. 6.]

TWELFTH DAY.

THE EPIPHANY.

In its character as a popular festival, Twelfth Day stands only inferior to Christmas. The leading object held in view is to do honour to "the three wise men," or, as they are more generally denominated, "the three kings." It is a Christian custom, ancient past memory, and probably suggested by a pagan custom, to indulge in a pleasantry called the Election of kings by beans. Some, however, maintain it to have been derived from the custom observed by the Roman children, who, at the end of their saturnalia, drew lots with beans, to see who would be king.

In England in later times, a large cake was made, with a bean or silver penny inserted, and this was called Twelfthcake. The family and friends being assembled, the cake was divided by lot, and whoever got the piece containing the bean was accepted as the king for the day, and called King of the Bean. It appears also that there was always a queen as well as a king on Twelfth-Night. A writer, speaking of the celebration in the South of England in 1774, says: "After tea a cake is produced. with two bowls containing the fortunate chances for the different sexes. The host fills up the tickets, and the whole company, except the king and queen, are to be ministers of state, maids of honour, or ladies of the bed-chamber. Often the host and hostess, more by design than accident, become king and queen. According to Twelfth Day law, each party is to support his character till midnight."

In the sixteenth century it would appear that some peculiar ceremonies followed the election of the king and queen. Barnaby Googe, in his paraphrase of the curious poem of

Naogeorgus, The Popish Kingdom, 1570, states that the king, on being elected, was raised up with great cries to the ceiling, where with chalk he inscribed crosses on the rafters to protect the house against evil spirits.-Book of Days, 1863, vol. i. p. 62. See also Every Day Book, 1827, vol. i. p. 51. Herrick, the poet of our festivals, has several allusions to the celebration of this day of our ancestors, as may be seen in the subjoined poem:

"TWELFE-NIGHT, OR KING AND QUEENE.

"Now, now the mirth comes
With the cake full of plums,

Where beane's the king of the sport here;

Besides, we must know,

The pea also

Must revell, as queene, in the court here.

Begin then to chuse

(This night as ye use)

Who shall for the present delight here,

Be a king be the lot,

And who shall not

Be Twelfe-day queene for the night here.

Which knowne, let us make
Joy-sops with the cake;

And let not a man then be seene here.
Who unurg'd will not drinke,

To the base from the brink,

A health to the king and queene here.

Next crowne the bowle full
With gentle lamb's-wooll:
Adde sugar, nutmeg, and ginger,
With store of ale too;

And thus ye must doe

To make the wassaile a swinger.

Give them to the king

And queene wassailing;

And though with ale ye be whet here:

Yet part ye from hence,

As free from offence,

As when ye innocent met here."

In the last century Twelfth Night Cards represented ministers, maids of honour, and other attendants of a court, and

the characters were to be supported through the night. John Britton, in his Autobiography tells us "he suggested and wrote a series of Twelfth Night characters, to be printed on cards, placed in a bag, and drawn out at parties on the memorable and merry evening of that ancient festival. They were sold in small packets to pastrycooks, and led the way to a custom which annually grew to an extensive trade. For the second year my pen-and-ink characters were accompanied by prints of the different personages by Cruikshank (father of the inimitable George), all of a comic or ludicrous kind." Such characters are still printed.-Book of Days, vol. i. p. 64.

Formerly the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, and the Guilds of London, used to go to St. Paul's on Twelfth Day to hear a sermon. This is mentioned as an old custom in the early part of Queen Elizabeth's reign.

Twelfth Day and its customs appear to have been observed by royalty almost from time immemorial. At the English court in the eighth year of the reign of Edward III., the majestic title of King of the Bean was conferred upon one of the king's minstrels, as appears by a Compotus of that date, which states that sixty shillings were given by the king on the day of the Epiphany to Regan, the trumpeter, and his associates, the court minstrels, in the name of the king of the bean. Strutt, Sports and Pastimes, 1801, p. 255.

The grand state of the sovereign on Twelfth Day, and the manner of keeping festival at court, in the reign of King Henry VII., are set forth in Le Neve's MS., called The Royalle Book, to the following effect:

As for Twelfth Day, the king must go crowned in his royal robes, kirtle, surcoat, his furred hood about his neck, his mantle with a long train, and his cutlas before him; his armills upon his arms, of gold set full of rich stones; and no temporal man to touch it but the king himself; and the squire for the body must bring it to the king in a fair kerchief, and the king must put them on himself; and he must have his sceptre in his right hand, and the ball with the cross in the left hand, and the crown upon his head. And he must offer that day gold, myrrh, and sense; then must the dean of the chapel send unto the Archbishop of Canterbury by clerk or priest the king's offering that day;

and then must the Archbishop give the next benefice that falleth in his gift to the same messenger. And then the king must change his mantle when he goeth to meat, and take off his hood and lay it about his neck, and clasp it before with a great rich ouche; and this must be of the same colour that he offered in. And the queen in the same form when she is crowned.

The same day that he goeth crowned he ought to go to matins; to which array belongeth his kirtle, surcoat, tabard, and his furred hood slyved over his head, and rolled about his neck; and on his head his cap of estate, and his sword before him.

At even-song he must go in his kirtle and surcoat, and hood laid about his shoulders, and clasp the tippet and hood together before his breast with a great rich ouche, and his hat of estate upon his head.

Night, the king and the
And as for the wassail,

As for the void on the Twelfth queen ought to have it in the hall. the steward, the treasurer, and the controller, shall come for it with their staves in their hands; the king's sewer and the queen's having fair towels about their necks, and dishes in their hands, such as the king and queen shall eat of; the king's carvers and the queen's shall come after with chargers or dishes, such as the king or the queen shall eat of, and with towels about their necks. And no man shall bear anything unless sworn for three months. And the steward, treasurer, comptroller, and marshall of the hall shall ordain for all the hall. And, if it be in the great chamber, then shall the chamberlain and ushers ordain, after the above form; and if there be a bishop, his own squire, or else the king's, such as the officers choose to assign, shall serve him; and so of all the other estates, if they be dukes or earls; and so of duchesses and countesses. And then there must come in the ushers of the chamber, with the pile of cups, the king's cups and the queen's, and the bishop's with the butlers and wine to the cupboard, and then a squire for the body to bear the cup, and another for the queen's cup, such as is sworn for hire.

The singers [of the chapel] may stand at the one side of the hall, and when the steward cometh in at the hall-door,