Strange Christmas gifts

Press, 26 December 1986, Page 9

Strange Christmas gifts

Emperor Charles V, of Germany, was a very worried man as he sat down to his dinner one Christmas. He was deeply in debt. Glumly he began to cut into a portion of pie. He was astounded when inside he found his own lOU for three million thalers (about $400,000), with a note explaining that it was a Christmas gift from the man to whom he owed money. Hurriedly the Emporer swallowed it, thus cancelling the debt. The young wife of an elderly multi-millionaire received as a Christmas present from her husband in 1947, the deeds of the palatial home in which they lived on Fifth Avenue, together with its art treasures. The total value of the gift was reckoned at £750,000 although some of the works of art were priceless. In a note her husband explained that she could now throw him out — but, graciously, she didn’t! Another fantastic Christmas gift was presented in 1935. Mr Andrew Mellon, a former United States ambassador to Great Britain, gave his two children, Alisa and Paul, £13,600,000. Mr Mellon, whose fortune at the time was estimated to be £80,000,000, gave them this munificent present because he wanted “to test their ability to handle money." Philanthropy repaid In the United Kingdom, the elderly director of a philanthropic society once received, on its behalf, an unexpected Christmas gift which, because of failing eyesight, he almost threw away. On a cold Christmas morning he opened an envelope and found nothing inside but a dirty-looking piece of paper. He went to drop it into a nearby waste-paper basket, but then took a second look. The paper was £15,000 cheque signed by a firm of solicitors. Later they told him that their client, a wealthy and eccentric man, had wished to remain anonymous. He had instructed them to sign the cheque on his behalf and send it, without note or letter, so that it would reach the society’s director on Christmas Day. It was a thanks offering for assistance given by the society to an unnamed member of his family many years previously. A most inappropriate present was that sent to himself by John Donne, the seventeenth century poet. One Christmas morning a scared housemaid ran in and said that a very strange box had just been delivered by a carter, addressed to Donne. “It looks just like a coffin,” said the maid. Donne had arranged for it to be sent to him on Christmas Day, as a reminder of the life of dissipation he had led before he reformed. Despite his wife’s protests, Donne insisted on sleeping in the coffin that Christmas night, and kept it in the house for the rest of his life. Cash for debtors Thomas Guy, founder of Guy’s Hospital, paid 100 guineas to release poor people imprisoned for debt on Christmas Eve in 1721. He told a friend that his unique Christmas gift made him feel very happy

throughout the holiday period. Having amassed a large fortune from printing and speculation, he also founded an almshouse Tamworth, the constituency he represented in Parliament. The deeds to the property were handed over on a Christmas day. The little daughter of Henry C. Ide was born on Christmas day, and so always lost gifts by celebrating her birthday at Christmas. Hearing about this, the novelist, R. L. Stevenson, transferred his own birthday to the little girl as a Christmas present. When she died in 1945, she passed on the R.L.S. birthday to her own daughter who, by remarkable coincidence, had also been born on Christmas Day. One of the most original Christmas gifts ever given was inspired by John Byrom, an eighteenth century medical man. He wrote the words of one of the greatest of all carols “Christians Awake,” which were set to music by his friend John Wainwright, organist of Manchester Parish Church. "I wrote the carol as a Christmas gift for my little daughter,” Byrom revealed later.

So, at Christmas 1750 Dorothy Byrom awoke to hear her father and some choirboys singing the words of the gift-carol on the steps of their house, Kersal Cell, near Manchester.

Queen Victoria used to receive an unusual present every Christmas. The first time it happened she found it rather amusing. A large, well wrapped parcel arrived for her from Siam. Her Majesty, who usually opened her own parcels at Christmas, cut through the many wrappings and eventually brought to light a magnificent silver frying-pan,

sent with the compliments of the King of Slam. It was suggested that as it was obviously an error on some official’s part, it should be returned, but the Queen refused to allow this. Tactful inquiries Just suppose, she argued, that it was not an error. Think how embarrassed the King would be if it was returned. It might even cause an international incident. So a letter of thanks was sent and the matter was forgotten. The next year, however, a similarly wrapped parcel arrived from Siam and in it was another magnificent silver frying pan! The Queen agreed that tactful inquiries should be made, for she was curious to know the reason for such a strange gift. Carefully and diplomatically, inquiries were made, and it was discovered that the King of Siam believed that the Queen’s meals were cooked on a stove in her apartment, simply because his own meals were cooked in his living room. Therefore he thought that a silver frying pan would not only be useful, but would be the only type of frying pan suitable for a Queen. The Queen would not hurt him by explaining that her own culinary arrangements were different from his own, but sent a letter of gratitude for a well-chosen gift. So every year without fail until his death, the King of Siam sent her a silver frying pan. Tactful hints were given to his successor that another type of gift would be more acceptable. So for many years afterwards the Queen received a Christmas present of a shawl.