days immediately preceding Christmas, instituted as a preparation for the Feast of the Nativity (the celebration of Christ's birth). 195-30. Sherris sack: sherry wine.

196-8. Wassailings: drinking bouts, carouses.

196-26. Waits: a band of singers, particularly at Christmas. 196-29. "When deep sleep falleth upon man": Job iv. 13, and xxxiii. 15. Irving misquotes "man" for "men.”

196-37. "Telling the night watches," etc.: a rough quotation from Milton's Comus, lines 346-47.

197-3ff. "Some say that ever 'gainst," etc.: Hamlet, i., i., 158; 'gainst (against), when (adverb of time); strike, to strike down, to exert a malign influence.

THE STAGE COACH

The old verses are bad Latin, but they seem to mean: "All is well: now we may play without penalty; the time is come to lay aside our books without delay."

199-11. Bucephalus: Alexander the Great's favorite horse, which no one else could ride; the steed accompanied Alexander through all his campaigns and was finally buried with military pomp.

200-24. Stage: the coach route was divided into sections, or stages, the horses being exchanged for fresh ones at the end of each stage of the journey.

200-25. Great coat: the British equivalent of our "over-coat." 201-26. Cyclops: the cyclops (or cyclopes) were, in the Greek myths, the one-eyed giants who forged the thunderbolts in their workshop under Mt. Etna.

202-9. Square it: range themselves with.

202-11. Get them a heat: keep warm.

202-12. Leaves half her market: forgets to bring home half the things she was sent to market for.

202-14. The contention of holly and ivy: referring to some obscure custom of determining, perhaps by effigies made of holly and of ivy respectively, whether husband or wife was the better "man." 202-16. Wit: intelligence, common sense.

203-28. Smoke-jack: an automatic contrivance for turning a spit. 203-30. Deal table: a table made of the wood of a pine or a fir

tree.

204-3. Poor Robin: the imaginary author of a series of almanacs, the first appearing in 1663. The name is sometimes applied to Robert Herrick, the poet (see note 148-2), because he is said to have contributed poems to the first numbers of the almanac. 204-11. Post-chaise: a travelling carriage.

CHRISTMAS EVE

205-1. Saint Francis (of Assisi) and Saint Benedight (Benedict) were two medieval Italian monks, the first of whom founded the order of Franciscans, and the second, the order of Benedictines— two of the more important religious societies of the Roman Catholic Church.

205-4. Hight good fellow Robin: called good fellow Robin. Robin Goodfellow is a playful, mischievous elf in folklore; and passes under a variety of other names, such as Puck, and Will-o'-the-wisp.

205–7. From curfew time to the next prime: from bedtime to the next dawn.

205-19. The old English country gentleman: the sort of Englishman typified in Sir Roger de Coverley.

205-25. The Earl of Chesterfield (1694-1773) was renowned in his day as a man of fashion; he is now chiefly remembered through his book entitled Letters to His Son (1774), a series of epistles on manners and morals.

206-24. Park: the wooded estate surrounding an English gentleman's country residence is regularly known as a park.

207-31. "Merry disport": merry sport.

207-38. "Mongrel, puppy," etc.: from Goldsmith's Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog.

208-4. "The little dogs and all," etc.: Shakespeare's King Lear, iii., vi., 65.

208-21. The Restoration: the return of the Stuart Kings to the throne in 1660, after the rule of the Cromwells.

209-13. Twelve days of Christmas: the twelve days of festivities at Christmas time. Shakespeare's Twelfth Night may have gotten its name from the fact that it embodies the spirit of the twelfth night after Christmas.

209-26. Oxonian: a graduate of Oxford University.

210-8. Round game: a game in which each participant plays for himself without a partner.

210-34. Overwhelming: overhanging.

211-7. Beaufet: a sideboard, buffet.

212-20. Tight: neatly dressed, tidy-an archaic word.

213-27. Jumping with: agreeing with sympathetically.

213-37. Split reed: a species of pipe used in the construction of a pipe-organ; when the tongue at the base of the pipe is split, the pipe yields an especially quivering, vibrating sound.

214-9. Strumming: playing carelessly.

214-25. Rigadoon: an old, lively dance, for two persons.

214-26. Had assørted himself with: had chosen as his partner.

216-22. No spirit dares stir abroad: from the quotation on page

197.

216-34. Bow-window: same as bay-window.

CHRISTMAS DAY

218-6. Meade new-shorne: new-mown meadow.

218-16. Burden: refrain.

219-31. Hassocks: cushions upon which to kneel while at prayer. 220-10. 'Tis thou that crown'st my glittering hearth, etc.: from Herrick's A Thanksgiving to God, for His House.-Soiles: makes the soil rich.

221–31. His tail falleth: sheds the feathers in his tail.

222-23. The Compleat Angler (1653) is the only one of these books now read; it is a treatise on the art of fishing, and has secured for Walton the name of "the father of Angling."

224-7. A complete black-letter hunter: i. e., he would read only the very old books, which were printed in heavy-faced type, called black-letter. William Caxton (the first English printer) and Wynkyn de Worde (his successor) both printed books in this type; the first book printed in English came from Caxton's press, about 1474. Modern English books are printed in "Roman character." 224-17. Adust: fiery.

224-30. The Druids were the priests of Druidism, which was the religion of the ancient Celts of Gaul, Britain, and Ireland. To the Druids, God was symbolized by the oak tree; and the dependence of man upon God was symbolized by the mistletoe, growing upon the oak.

224-33. The Fathers: the early teachers and defenders of Christianity.

225–32. Cremona: a town in Italy, in which were made, from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, the finest violins the world has ever known.

226-3. At the death: when the fox is killed.

226-13. Horn spectacles: spectacles with rims made of horn. 226-33. Sectarian controversies: as early as 1570, there was a strong political party coming into prominence, which called for the disestablishment of the Episcopal church as the state church of England; by 1644, the contention between the Presbyterians (Puritans, Roundheads) and the adherents to the established church (Cavaliers) was at fever-heat; under the Protectorate the Puritan party gained control of church affairs and introduced many vigorous measures, aiming at the abolition of some of the stricter forms of Episcopal worship; but 1660 saw the return of Charles II

and the reëstablishment of the Episcopal Church as the state church.

228-1. Ule is an old form of Yule (Christmas).

228-37. Pule: apparently a meaningless rhyme-word.

229-9. Those who at Christmas, etc.: from Poor Robin's Almanac (see note, 204-3); to dine with Duke Humphrey is to go without dinner; Squire Ketch is a common name for the hangman.

229-18. Humming: strong.

229-33. Broached: tapped, set flowing.

231-3. When the Romans held possession: Julius Cæsar invaded Britain in 55 and 54 B. C.; the island was subjugated by the Romans in 43 A. D., and abandoned by them in 410.

231-26. Tolled: took toll of, sampled.

232-10. Smart: showily dressed, decked up, spruce.

THE CHRISTMAS DINNER

233–3. Yvie: ivy; hap: happen; wee'le: we'll. 234-20. Belshazzar's parade: see Daniel v. 2. 234-25. First magnitude: biggest size.

235-9. The Conquest: in 1066. William the Norman, surnamed "the Conqueror," became William I. of England. An old English family which can trace its lineage clearly from this date is accounted particularly stable.

235-33. Caput apri defero Reddens laudes Domino: The boar's head bring I, returning praises unto the Lord. Qui estis in convivio: you who are at the banquet.

237-15. Most authentical: most in keeping with the old, established customs.

237-24 Servire cantico: serve with a song.

237-29. In Reginensi Atrio: in Queen's Hall.

238-30. Justice Shallow: a comic character in Shakespeare's King Henry IV., Part II.

238-32. Massinger: an Elizabethan dramatist just after Shakespeare.

239-24. Crabs: crab-apples.

241-20. Isis: a name sometimes given to the upper course of the Thames River, England.

242-10. He must not stand, etc.: he must not assume a hesitating attitude. The words shall I, shall I, have been contracted into our word shilly-shally.

242-14. Out of Joe Miller: out of Joe Miller's Jest Book (1739), a well-known storehouse of jokes, puns, and comic stories.

242-36. Worshippe (worship): worthiness, gentility.-Were he spirituall or temporall: were he a nobleman of the church, or of the state-for example, an archbishop, or an earl.

244-24. On Midsummer eve, on the eve of the feast of St. John the Baptist (June 24th), it was the custom, in old England, to Aindle fires upon hills in celebration of the Summer Solstice. A variety of other customs and ceremonies gradually arore, many of them carrying an air of mystery, which fed the sensitive superstition of the ignorant.

245-27. Van: vanguard.

245-32. Covenanters: a body of Scotch Presbyterians who, in 1638-43, entered into a "solemn league and covenant for the restoration and defense of religion," etc., as against popery and prelacy.

246-5. Robin Hood: a legendary hunter and outlaw of England, of about the twelfth century. Maid Marian (line 12) was the sweetheart of Robin Hood. Forbidden by her father to marry him, she dressed as a page, and followed him on all his expeditions.

246-6. Kendal green: a coarse woolen cloth, originally made in Kendal, England. A foraging cap: a small low cap worn by military men when not in full-dress uniform.

246-33. The dark ages: the period of European history beginning with the irruption of the barbarian hordes before the fall of the Western Roman Empire (476), and lasting for more than five centuries. The period was characterized by the decay of civilization.

246-33. Rigadoons: see note, 214-25.

246-34. Queen Bess (Elizabeth) reigned over England from 1558 to 1603.

247-13. Posting: hastening.

247-39. Newstead Abbey was, for a time, the residence of Lord Byron (1788-1824), the poet; he sold the place in 1818—the year when the Sketch-Book began to come out. "The author's account" of the abbey is to be found in The Crayon Miscellany (1835); see especially the chapter, "Plow Monday."

248-8. In writing to amuse: although Irving's purpose in his early writings was mainly to amuse, he undertook several serious works later in life, such as the Life and Voyages of Columbus (1828), Oliver Goldsmith (1849), and the Life of Washington (1855–9).

LONDON ANTIQUES

249-2. Guido Vaux: Guy Fawkes.

249-4. William o' the Wisp: see note, 205–4.

250-17. Knights Templars: a medieval order of knighthood