ROLLICKING GAIETY

Taranaki Daily News, 17 December 1926, Page 5 (Supplement)

ROLLICKING GAIETY

CHRISTMAS WITH DICKENS. ; (Specially written for the News.) j No writer has ever thrown such a i glamour of romance and rollicking gaiety over Christmas as that most I jovia£ big-hearted of men, Charles : Dickens. Where else, indeed, will you find the' magic that conjures up such delightful visions of steaming punch-bowls, the ‘odours of savoury viands, the sheltered warmth and jollity of wayside inns, the joyous shouts of young voices, the beaming rotundity of their elders, the merry rhythm of dancing feet, and all the atmosphere of infectious gaiety which seems to bubble over on his pages from the sheer joy of living? You can spend many a jovial Christmas with Boz; you can Wiitch with amused and sympathetic eyes Mr. Pickwick in all the glory of speckled silk stockings leading the old lady in her | rich brocade to the dance; you can eat ! your goose with Bob Cratchit in the most hilarious of company: or join with Mr. and Mrs*. Fezziwig in stepping through the mazes of Sir Roger de Coverley. In fact. ’ with Dickens as | comrade you can taste your Y'uletide | pleasures in scores of different ways, all | equally delightful. j And how the tables and sideboards groaned under their burdens of seduc- | tive eatables at these old-world Christj mases! Such visions we get of rounds . of beef, of colossal pork-pies, turkeys | and geese, brawn and chine, capons and i pheasants; of flaming plum-puddings, j and luscious mince-pics, with a l»e- -| wiklering choice of liquids, from ale to I champagne, to wash them down. And : after dinner what glorious fun. in which (old and young shared alike—all the oldl fashioned games, blindman's buff, forfeits, and hunt the slipper, followed by country dances and round games at cards; the. whole to wind up with a midnight supper of oysters, cold beef and game, broiled bones and mincepics, with more ale and sherry, and a I liberal nightcap of hot punch! Whatever our forefathers of past centuries missed, they certainly had no lack of tempting Christmas fare, or appetite for it. Take, for example, the dinner to which Pepps sat down on Christinas Day, 1658, which consisted of “a dish of marrow-bones, a leg of mutton, and a loin of veal: three pullets and a dozen larks, all in a great dish. Also a great (tart, a neat’s tongue, a dish of anchovies and prawns, and cheese.” And what hungry Briton of to-day would not hail a Christmas pie like that provided for his guests in 1770 by a Sir Henry Grey? “It was,” we read, “nine feet in circumference, weighed 1651 b.. and contained among other ingredients four geese, two turkeys, two rabbits, four wild-duck, two snipe, seven black-birds, and half-a-dozen pigeon*.” This leviathan pie, we are told, “was brought round at (able on a four wheeled truck specially constructed for the purpose."

A few years earlier the Earl and Countess of -Northumberland gave a Christmas supper, the principal feature of which was a colossal cake crowned by the presentment in sugar of a chaise and six horses, with coachman and footman. and Lady Yarmouth seated inside. A Frenchman who visited England a couple, of centuries ago waxes eloquent over bis Christmas pie. which seems to have been in high favour as a, Ynletide ! delicacy. This delicious “nostrum,” as ihe calls it, was a “most learned niix- ' ture of. neats’ tongues, chicken, eggs, ■ sugar, raisins, lemon and orange-peel, j and various kinds of spicery.” And it i had for rival, for many a generation, : plum broth, or plum porridge, a con- : coction of ‘ibeef or mutton, boiled with ( broth and thickened with brown bread.” ■to whie>, when the boiling was half : completed, were added “raisins, currants, prunes, cloves, mace, and ginger.”