Category: Time Period

Posted on

Becket & St. Thomas Day & Wassailing December 29th

Murder of Becket at Canterbury Cathedral 1170
Murder of Becket at Canterbury Cathedral on 29th December 1170 (Late 12th Century Manuscript from British Museum)

On the fifth day of Christmas
my true love sent to me:
5 Golden Rings; 4 Calling Birds; 3 French Hens; 2 Turtle Doves
and a Partridge in a Pear Tree

St Thomas Becket

The fifth day of Christmas is dedicated to Thomas Becket, our most famous Archbishop of Canterbury. He was martyred at Canterbury on this day in 1170. But, he was made a Saint in 1173.  This is double-quick time, as the Pope was determined to rub Henry II’s nose in his complicity with the murder.

Becket was a Londoner from a well-known London family, who became a friend of Henry II. Henry was troubled by the freedoms and fees owed to the Catholic Church. So he thought it would be a good idea to make his friend Archbishop. But as soon as Becket became Archbishop he went ‘native’, became a very stubborn and adamant defender of the Pope’s privileges in Britain. After various confrontations, Henry said, in anger, ‘Who will rid me of this troublesome priest?’ And three knights took him at his word, so Becket was murdered in the Cathedral in Canterbury.

Illustration from ‘an old manuscript’ showing Henry II being scourged in penance for his part in the death of Becket

Lousy Saints

In November 2023 Katherine Harvey wrote an article, in History Today’ called ‘Lousy Saints’. It began with the discovery that Becket wore a hair shirt.  This is how it was described:

‘This goat hair underwear was swarming, inside and out, with minute fleas and lice, masses of them all over in large parches, so voraciously attacking his flesh that it was nothing short of a miracle that he was able to tolerate such punishment.’

Becket was a former sophisticated courtier.  The assumption is that Becket sought this discomfort deliberately. He also concealed the horror under magnificent clothes. The monks duly cited the lice as evidence of the piety of the man who was willing to suffer for his religion. They even suggested that the daily agony of the lice was worse than the swift death at the hands of the Knights.

Many other pious clerics were similarly lousy by choice. Society as a whole found uncleanliness of this magnitude disgusting. They had the technology to avoid it too. Becket himself had a manservant to look after his clothes and access to a bath. But he limited his baths to once every 40 days by choice. The fact that it was a choice is why people admired such discipline on the part of people like Becket. Altogether very strange and disturbing to this modern reader.

Bridge and Pilgrimage

Soon, a new, magnificent bridge was built to replace the wooden London Bridge. In the centre of that Bridge was a grand Chapel dedicated to St Thomas Becket. It was refurbished by the renowned architect Henry Yevele (c. 1320 – 1400). It was here that pilgrims began their pilgrimage to Canterbury. That is, they travelled from where he was born, to where he was martyred.

Stained Glass window showing St Thomas's Chapel on London Bridge (Window is in St Magnus the Martyr's Church on the site of the approach to London Bridge
Stained Glass window showing St Thomas’s Chapel on London Bridge (this window is in St Magnus the Martyr’s Church on the site of the approach to London Bridge

The Legend of the Epic Walk of Mathilda Becket

In London, there was a legend that his mother, Mathilda, was a Muslim who fell in love with Thomas’s dad, Gilbert, during the Crusades. She helped him escape captivity. He abandoned her and return to England. She then found her own way from Acre to London. She made the journey knowing only the name ‘London’ in English and walked most of the way.  On St Thomas Day, people walked around St Paul’s multiple times to commemorate her epic walk of love.

The story was told as true from the 13th Century until the 19th Century. Then researchers found that Mathilda had more prosaic Norman origins. The speculation is that the foundation of the Hospital St Thomas of Acre on the site of Becket’s birthplace led to the story of his connection with Acre. I was quite disappointed to find out the tale I told was a myth which is told in full here:

Medieval St Thomas’s Pilgrim’s Badge showing the murder of Becket. The ampullae contained holy water.

Henry VIII’s hatred of Becket

When Henry VIII began the reform of the Church of England, he was particularly keen to end the cult of Becket. This rebel against one of the great Kings of England.

‘Thomas Becket, sometime archbishop of Canterbury, shall no longer be named a saint, as he was really a rebel who fled the realm to France and to the bishop of Rome to procure the abrogation of wholesome laws, and was slain upon a rescue made with resistance to those who counselled him to leave his stubbornness. His pictures throughout the realm are to be plucked down and his festival shall no longer be kept, and the services in his name shall be razed out of all books.‘

Westminster, 16 Nov. 30 Hen. VIII’

A blog post by the British Museum highlights some fascinating research.  Henry’s government ordered the deleting of unacceptable content in church service books.  Research into the deletion of content found that it was very varied in extent, except where it concerned Becket.  The vast majority of references to him were either completely defaced or mostly defaced, suggesting that Henry had a particular hatred of Becket.

Henry made a lot of money from the gold and jewels that were stripped from Becket’s magnificent shrine at Canterbury Cathedral.

Another of my posts is on Becket and can be read here.

Wassailing

Black and white drawing of a servant Bringing in the Wasaill Bowl (from Washington Irving's 'Old Christmas
Bringing in the Wassail Bowl (from Washington Irving’s ‘Old Christmas’)

The Twelve Days of Christmas are full of wassailing.

Was hail Drinc hail

The name comes from the Anglo-Saxon version of ‘Cheers’ or good health. Its ceremonial use is described by Geoffrey of Monmouth, writing in 1135.

‘From that day to this, the tradition has endured in Britain that the one who drinks first at a banquet says “was hail” and he who drinks next says “drinc hail.”‘

Geoffrey is explaining how Vortigern, in the 5th Century, betrayed Britain for the love of Rowena. She was the Saxon King Hengist’s daughter, and, only incidentally, speculating on the origins of the tradition of wassail.

Geoffrey of Monmouth tells us that the word means ‘Good Health’ or as we would say ‘Cheers!’

For more on Vortigern, leader of the Britons in the 5th Century read my post here.

Wassail

This has at least two different facets. Firstly, it is a formal drinking tradition at the centre of Christmas hospitality. Secondly, it is part of the tradition of the Waits, the Mummers, and Carol Singers. These are groups who go around the village singing or performing in exchange for a drink or some food, or money.

Wassailing is either a lovely gentle social activity, or it is an anti-social custom in which the drunkards get to stand outside your house caterwauling. In effect they are demanding drink with menaces. Imagine a Trick or Treat with the drunkards from the pub instead of children!

A Wassail bowl would be full of some form of mulled alcohol or hot punch. A couple of pints of ale or cider, a pint of wine/brandy/mead. Add sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. You should have an apple or crab-apple floating in the bowl. To find out more, look at ‘British Food, a History’ here.

‘Into the bowl is first placed half a pound of sugar in which is one pint of warm beer; a little nutmeg and ginger are then grated over the mixture, and 4 glasses of sherry and 5 pints of beer added to it. It is then stirred, sweetened to taste and allowed to stand covered for 2 to 3 hours. Roasted apples are then floated on the creaming mixture and the wassail bowl is ready.‘

The Curiosities of Ale and Beer, by John Bickerdike, published about 1860 from a Jesus College, Oxford recipe of 1732. (From Recipes of Old England by Bernard N. Bessunger

Wassail in the Orchard

For this New Year’s Eve custom see my post here:

First Published on 29th December 2022, republished in December 2023, 2024,2025

Posted on

Childermas & Christmas Games December 28th

Pick-up-sticks or Spillikins

On the fourth day of Christmas
My true love sent to me
Four calling birds, Three French hens, Two turtle-doves
And a partridge in a pear tree.

Holy Innocents Day or Childermas is dedicated to children on the day Herod ordered the slaughter of children aged two or under, in an attempt to kill the prophesied Messiah. However, the massacre is only mentioned by Matthew, and other classical sources, despite being anti-Herod, don’t mention it. It is thought to be ‘modelled’ on the massacre of young children mentioned in Exodus when the Pharoah hears about the birth of Moses.

It is, therefore, as far as folklore is concerned, an ill-omened day so don’t begin any new enterprise or, indeed, attempt to go back to work. And remember, as Childermas falls on a Sunday this year, Sundays throughout the year are all ill-omened days. There was a medieval tradition that people should avoid work on the day of the week that Childermas fell until the next childermas. Bad luck this year as it’s a Sunday!

Weather wise, according to a 17th formulae, as the fourth day of Christmas is warm, expect the fourth month, April to be similarly warm.

Christmas Games

So, no sloping off to the Study, it’s best to spend the time playing Christmas Games. The one I remember, most fondly, is pick-up-sticks or spillikins. You drop a pile of sticks onto a table-top or the floor. Then have to pick up as many sticks as you can without disturbing any others. Your turn ends when you move a stick. Different sticks have different values. We also played Dominoes, Ludo and Snakes and Ladders.

But, to get the whole room joining in, we played two card games. Participants could sit in their comfy armchairs rather than at a table.  Chase the Ace.  Newmarket. 

Chase the Ace is, apparently, also, rather unpleasantly, called Screw Your Neighbour in the US! Each person is dealt a card. In turn, they choose to swap it with their neighbour.  At the end of the round, the lowest cardholder (ace is low) loses a life.  A player is excluded after losing 3 lives. Last one standing is the winner.

Newmarket (or Michigan) is a gambling game in which everyone places a stake on 4 picture cards. Theare are placed in the centre of the room.  If your cards comes out in the play, you win the money staked on the card.  The point of both these games is that any number of people can play, and they are simple and fast.

Another game we played at parties was Bullet Pudding. Players cut off bits of a flour pudding until the coin or bullet falls into the basin.  The unlucky player (me last time I played) has to pick it up with his teeth.

Bullet Pudding Christmas game as played in the Flude family 24th December 2024

Here is a photo of the one we played on 24th December,2024. My 97-year-old dad is in the background. You can see what a messy game it can be!

I have moved the 18th Century Jane Austen Christmas Games content from here to the page shown below.

Christmas with Jane Austen December 20th

Santa Klaus for the Elite

Apparently, the development of the American Santa Klaus was a way for the elite to keep control of the rowdy working class in New York. The argument, in a nutshell, is that the folk Christmas was outside and rowdy. Then Clement Moore wrote “A Visit from St. Nicholas”. This introduced a domesticated indoor middle-class version of Father Christmas. It’s a fascinating spin on the traditional story.

https://skippedhistory.substack.com/p/professor-stephen-nissenbaum-on-santa-a48?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=53190&post_id=90879443&isFreemail=true&utm_medium=email

First written on December 28th 2022, revised and republished in December 2023, 2024, 2025

Posted on

St John’s Day. Forecasting the Weather. December 27th

Photo by Thomas Charters on Unsplash

On the third day of Christmas
My true love sent to me:
3 French Hens
2 Turtle Doves
And a Partridge in a Pear Tree

Folklore is full of risible methods of forecasting the future and Gervase Markham’s ‘The English Husbandman of 1635 is no exception. He says:

‘What weather shall be on the sixth and twentieth day of December, the like weather will be all the month of January.’

Then and so on for the 12 days of Christmas. Please note that he numbers the 12 days from the 26th, not as I have done from the 25th. I deal with this in one of the forthcoming posts.

So the weather today, the 27th, will be the weather for ‘the following February’ if you follow Markham, or March if you follow me. And so on until the 12th Day when that will give you the weather on December 2026.

According to Gervase’s method, then weather in early 2026 will be cold but sunny.

The St Johns

This is St, John’s Day, he who was loved by Jesus and, possibly also wrote the Gospel. So, he is the patron saint of booksellers, publishers, printers, writers and friendship. Lecterns in the Church of England are normally shaped as an Eagle as this is the symbol of St John.

Black and white advert for a lectern with an eagle at the top from 19th Century Ecclesiastical Suppliers Catalogue
19th Century Ecclesiastical Suppliers Catalogue

John was the brother of James, and with Peter the three were Jesus inner support group. In the Gospel, an unnamed disciple is called ‘the disciple who Jesus loved’. This is thought to be John. The loved one is said to have ‘borne witness and wrote’ the gospel according to John. John the Evangelist is often identified as John the Apostle. There are also three letters attributed to John, as well as the Book of Revelations. It is still a controversial subject, but Revelations is generally thought to be by a different John. Some believe the letter writer was another John. There could be as many as 4 Johns or as few as one. ‘He’ appears to have lived to a grey haired old age, was not martyred, although escaping death from a poisoned chalice. He was supposed to have been challenged by a pagan to drink a poison potion. He took on the challenge and, not only survived, but resurrected two people killed by the poison.

It worries me all these saints who resurrect people. There is St Winifred whose head St Bono successfully put back on her shoulder. Then St Werburgh of Chester who’s favourite goose had been cooked, and she managed to resurrect him. Surely, if you are a believer then the Resurrection is the central miracle (along with the virgin birth) which ‘legitimises’ your faith? And these other miracles make it somewhat ‘trivial’? In the case of the Goose almost a party trick? Although maybe the Goose and St Winifred thought differently about it? Please read my post on St Bono and St Winifred here.

In the beginning was the Word

The Gospel opens with these famous words:

‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.’

John is normally depicted with an Eagle, or at the bottom of the Cross with Mary. Or with a palm frond which I always think of as a quill (he being a writer). Or with a chalice.

The use of the Eagle as a symbol goes back to

‘Jerome’s Commentary on Matthew, which says it signifies “John the Evangelist who, having taken up eagle’s wings and hastening toward higher matters, discusses the Word of God”‘

according to www.christianiconography.info

Or perhaps referring to his ‘soaring’ prose?

On This Day

Today, is the day, Freemasons install their Grand Master. I wonder if this has anything to do with the Holy Grail being a chalice?

Ring in the New Year.

Remember, on 1st January 7.30 I am doing my annual ‘Ring in the New Year’ virtual walk for London Walks where I look at all things New Year. To see more details, click here:

First Published in December 2021, revised and republished in December 2023, 2024,2025

Posted on

Birthday Of The Sun December 25th

The First Day of Christmas, my true love sent to me a Partridge in a Pear Tree

Nebra Sun disc from Stonehenge Exhibition British Museum
Nebra Sun disc. Photo from Stonehenge Exhibition British Museum (photo Kevin Flude) The Disc shows the Sun, the Moon, the Pleides, and illustrates the Summer and Winter Solstice movements of the Sun.

Dies Natalis Solis Invicti

On the 25th December were born Jesus, Mithras, Attis, Saturn, Apollo, and the Invincible Sun.

The Sun Gods have quite a complicated interrelationship. Zeus, and Apollo are both also considered to be Sun Gods. Apollo is particularly interrelated to Helios, the Greek God who drives the Chariot that carries the Sun across the skies every day. The Romans had a God called Sol who some say was a deity but who declined to be of minor importance. Then Sol was championed by the transexual Emperor Elagabalas. Aurelian revived the cult in 274 AD. Sol Invictus was the focus of Constantine the Great. Sol has been suggested as a response of the Romans to a trend towards monotheism in the later Roman period. Sol for Constantine was a gateway God to Christianity.

It is also notable that early worship of Jesus is full of solar metaphors, Jesus being, for example, the light of the world. Churches are also virtually all orientated East West, aligned with the rising and setting suns. The Altar is always at the East End, and effigies on tombs face the rising sun.

First Christmas?

The first recorded Christmas Day is in AD336. It was in an almanac that lists Roman Holidays, officials and martyrs. The entry for December 25th says: ‘natus Christus in Betleem Judeae’. For more early Christian Dates have a look here.

Celtic Sun Gods?

The Golden Wheel from Haute Marne in France

The Golden Wheel from Haute Marne in France, (Public Domain, Wikipedia)

Did the Celts have a sun-god? Belenos is a contender, but linguists are proposing his name does not come from words meaning bright but from strong. The God Lugh’s name is suggested to mean ‘shining’ but his attributes are more of a warrior than a sun god. Taranis is probably the best candidate, but he is more of a sky or thunder god than specifically a sun god. However, his symbol is a 8 spoked wheel is said to be symbolic of the Sun. It also represents the division of the year by the 4 quarterly sun festivals (Winter Solstice, Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice and Autumn Equinox) and the 4 cross-quarter festivals, (Samhain or Halloween, Imbolc or Candlemas, Beltane or May Day, Lughnasa or Harvest Festival).

December 25th is a few days after our reckoning of the Solstice. But, as we have previously seen, Christians believed the world was created on the Spring Equinox, and humans on the 4th day, so Adam was created on March 25th. Mary conceived on the same day, and therefore Jesus, after a perfect labour was born 9 Months later on December 25th. (See my post on March 25th and the Creation)

Christmas Cake

Today, you might be tucking into a Christmas Cake (originally eaten on Twelfth Night). Now, I know many Americans have a bizarre belief that fruit cake is the cake of the devil. Something you receive as a gift and give away to someone else, as most Americans hate it. More fool them for missing out on one of the delights of the Christmas period, that and cold turkey sandwiches. Christmas Cake is made on stir up Sunday, the last Sunday in November, to let the ingredients develop their flavour. They are then covered with marzipan and decorative icing.

19th Century Christmas Cake, generally now the icing continues down the side of the cake.

In Germany, they also eat a fruit bread called Stollen or Weihnachtsstollen. The tradition is said to have been started in the 15th Century, when the Pope gave dispensation to allow the use of butter in the fasting period of Advent. Previously, the Germans had to use oil to replace the banned butter, but they could only make oil from turnips, so eventually the Pope allowed the use of butter, with which they made bread with added dried fruits.

Stollen By Gürgi – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3720379

In Italy, they eat Panettone, a fruit bread/cake. It is a sourdough, and a cross between a brioche and a cake. It often comes in a beautiful decorative tin, and is delicious. The centre of panettone production is Milan. Last year was the 200th Anniversary of Milan’s famous Marchesi 1824 which makes artisanal Panettone. It used ‘fine ingredients such as six-crown sultan as, naturally candied fruit, Bourbon vanilla from Madagascar, Italian honey and eggs from free-range hens, blended in a slow-rising dough with the exclusive use of Marchesi 1824 sourdough starter‘. Thank you, Mara from Milan, for the heads-up.

Screen shot from website – does not click through to sales!

Which is best? The only way to find out is to eat several slices of each. America, you don’t know what you are missing.

For stir up sunday see the second half of this post of mine.

Stir Up Sunday! Late November

First Published 24th December 2022, Republished 25th December 2023, 2024, 2025

Posted on

Eve of the Birthday Of the Sun God December 24th

Helios, Colossus of Rhodes, artist's impression, 1880
Helios Colossus of Rhodes, artist’s impression, 1880

The Eve of the Day

Tomorrow is the Dies Natalis Solis Invicti – the birth of the Invincible Sun.  In some calendars, such as the Celtic & the Anglo Saxon, the day begins at dusk.  So Christmas Eve is not the evening before Christmas Day. It is the beginning of Christmas Day itself.

So some countries celebrate the eve as much or more than the day.  The Church would have encouraged this to accommodate former pagan belief into newly converted societies. (the most obvious example is Halloween see my post here).

But the Church also suggests celebration of the Eve derives from the Jewish tradition of the beginning of the day at dusk.  In Genesis are the words;

‘And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.’

Christian tradition holds that Jesus was born on the holy night and thus is celebrated by the midnight mass.

When does the day begin?

This seems a silly question.  In our society, the day officially begins at midnight.  But it clearly begins at dawn. This was the normal start of day for Ancient Egypt,
Republican Romans, and Western Europe till the coming of clocks in about 1400. We have already seen there are calendars that start the day at Sunset: Muslim, Jews, Celts, and the
Saxons. In Britain, astronomers started the day at midday until an Act of Parliament reset it to midnight as recently as 1925.

Dawn seems the obvious choice, it’s called daybreak after all. But the problem is that the first light is so variable.  It is an opinion when the light arrives and will vary depending on clouds, hills and height above sea level etc. Midnight is halfway between dawn and dusk, and I assume can be determined mathematically and astronomically.  So Julius Caesar changed the Roman start of day to midnight when he reformed the Roman Calendar. (See my post on the Julian Calendar here).

Dusk is a counterintuitive choice, I think. The reasoning is that the Sun has gone down. It is finished for the day.   Sunset is the end of the day. So it is also the start of the next daily cycle. 

The Celts started their year at Halloween for similar reasons.  In autumn, the various harvests have been collected.  Most plants have ended their growing cycle and shed their leaves. Therefore, November 1st (or its eve) is the end of the growing year. On the ground, the seeds are ready and waiting to begin sprouting to bring new life. So, this is the new year.  Sort of makes sense?

Christmas Eve Celebrations

In Britain, among the general population, there are no special customs except for preparing for the arrival of Father Christmas, and perhaps going to Midnight Mass.  In Germany, Heiliger Abend is when Gifts are exchanged.  Afterwards, is a relatively light dinner, often consisting of potato salad and sausages. 

In my experience, Christmas Eve is a relaxing evening in front of the TV while wrapping presents.  (After the children have gone to bed of course). Sometimes in front of the first roaring fire of the winter.

Then the filling of pillow cases or stockings full of presents. Last thing is tip-toeing upstairs placing a plate in the hall upstairs with a mince pie, shot of brandy for Father Christmas and a carrot for the reindeer. Then the crinkle of the wrapping paper as the presents are placed on the children’s bed.  Now, the little darlings are finally fast asleep after an overexcited bedtime. These are the precious moments of family life.

Mothers of God’s Eve

December 24th is a day for Mothers, as tomorrow, the 25th, will be born Jesus, Mithras, Attis, Saturn, Apollo, and the Day of the Birth of the Invincible Sun, Solis Invictus. And so we think of Mary, Isis, Theia, the Three Mother Goddesses and mothers everywhere.

First Published 24th December 2022, Republished 2023,2024,2025

Posted on

No More Christmas December 23rd, 1652

1653 Illustration of Old Christmas being rejected by the Puritan from London and welcome from the rustic from Dorset
1653 Illustration of Old Christmas being rejected by the Puritan from London and welcome from the rustic from Dorset

23rd December 1652 Resolved by Parliament. : ‘That no Observation shall be had of the five-and-twentieth day of December, commonly called Christmas-Day.’

This was one of several bans on Christmas that Parliament introduced. (Parliament not Cromwell). It banned Christmas Services and ordered that shops be kept open, but it was, at least, inside people’s homes, largely unenforceable.

The logic for banning it was that Christmas is not mentioned in the Bible and was thus a Catholic superstition.

Christmas struggled through the Commonwealth, and then came back with a bang in 1660 on the Restoration of Charles II. However, it did shorten the period of Christmas festivities and make it more low-key, really all the way till the 19th Century when Dickens and Washington Irving revived the traditions of Christmas.

For my post on Cromwell’s lucky Day click here

On This Day

1800 – Jacquard Patents his First loom, and begins the digitisation of the world.

First Published in 2023, revised 2025

Posted on

Drink at a Georgian Christmas December 23rd

Wassail Bowl being brought in by a Servant into a dining hall on Christmas Day
From ‘Old Christmas’ by Washington Irving

Drink at a Georgian Christmas might well be port. Then the next favourites would brandy, claret, punch, rum, porter. So says my source Henry Jeffreys in his book ‘Empire of Booze’ and in this Guardian article:

Claret, probably, originally outsold port. But the wars against France and the difficulty of importing French wine, saw a transfer to wines from our ‘oldest ally’ Portugal. But the travel distance was longer, so the wine was fortified to help preserve it better. Hence, the British addiction to port. Sherry was also popular for similar reasons, being a fortified white wine. Shakespeare calls it ‘sack’ and sometimes ‘Canary’. (Toby Belch ‘says thou lack’st a cup of canary ‘ in ‘Twelfth Night’, which is a Christmas play.) See below for more on Sack and Shakespeare.

Louis Philippe Boitard 'Imports from France' Looking east towards the Tower of London. Barrels at the front right are marked Claret, Burgundy and Champagne
Louis Philippe Boitard‘s satirical engraving ‘Imports from France’ Looking east towards the Tower of London. Barrels at the front right are marked Claret, Burgundy and Champagne.

Georgian Alcohol consumption was prodigious. Samuel Johnson said, ‘All the decent people in Lichfield (where Johnson came from) got drunk every night and were not the worst thought of‘. The Prime Minister. William Pitt the Younger said, ‘I have drunk three bottles of port without being the worst for it. University College has witnessed this.’ He is referring to his college at the Oxford University. He might be considered to be another of our Prime Ministers who have first disgraced themselves at Oxbridge only to rise to rule the unfortunate British nation? However, in those days, Port was sold in pint measures (45cl) and was 16%, while now it is 20% and sold in 75cl bottles. So, maybe we are almost as bad?

Even so, three bottles is still a lot. A drunken population would have not only increased the death rate but also increased violence and abuse. Gout was one result of too much drinking and a rich diet.

Gout. 18th Century Bath

However, this is Christmas so let’s end on a high note, so here are a couple of recipes!

To make ye best punch

“Put 1½ a pound of sugar in a quart of water, stir it well yn put in a pint of Brandy, a quarter of a pint of Lime Juice, & a nutmeg grated, yn put in yr tosts or Biskets well toasted.”

Katherine Windham’s Boke of Housekeeping, 1707

Gin

And Gin? The cheap gin panic had calmed down by the 1770s after no less than eight Gin Acts of Parliament. Booths and Gordon’s Gins were established in London during this period and Gin almost a respectable drink.

There appears to have been a shortage of Gin punch recipes in the 18th Century, but by the end of that century this recipe survives from London’s Garrick Club

– half a pint of gin, lemon peel, lemon juice, sugar, maraschino, a pint and a quarter of water and two bottles of iced soda water.

You would not need many of these to become quite relaxed quite quickly!

Sack and Falstaff.

Sir John Falstaff in Henry IV eulogies on sack saying it not only makes for excellent wit but also the best soldiers:

“A good sherris sack hath a two-fold operation in it. It ascends me into the brain, dries me there all the dull and crudy vapors which environ it, makes it apprehensive, quick, forgetive, full of nimble, fiery, and delectable shapes, which, delivered o’er to the voice, the tongue, which is the birth, becomes excellent wit“. 

The second your excellent sherris is the warming of the blood; which
cold and settled, left the liver white and pale, which is the
badge of pusillanimity and cowardice; but the sherris warms
and makes it course from the inwards to the parts extremes.
illumineth the face, which, as a beacon, gives warning to all
rest of this little kingdom, man, to arm; and then the vital
commoners and inland petty spirits muster me all to their
captain, the heart, who, great and puff’d up with this
doth any deed of courage—and this valour comes of sherris.
that skill in the weapon is nothing without sack, for that
it a-work; and learning, a mere hoard of gold kept by a devil
till sack commences it and sets it in act and use. Hereof
it that Prince Harry is valiant; for the cold blood he did
naturally inherit of his father, he hath, like lean, sterile,
bare land, manured, husbanded, and till’d, with excellent
endeavour of drinking good and good store of fertile sherris,
that he is become very hot and valiant. If I had a thousand
the first humane principle I would teach them should be to
forswear thin potations and to addict themselves to sack.

Merry Wives of Windsor

In the Merry wives of Windsor Falstaff is still always drinking sack.  He asks Bardolph ‘Go fetch me a quart of sack; put a toast in’t.‘ Toast is thought to freshen up stale sack.  Also, it could be drunk hot as suggested by Falstaff asking for:

‘Go brew me a pottle of sack finely.’

Bardolph asks if he wants the sack with eggs but Falstaff refuses asking for his sack to be a

‘Simple of itself; I’ll have no pullet-sperm in my brewage.’

A simple is the opposite of a compound, so pure with no additions (apart from the toast!).  Pullet sperm is, in think, a dismissive reference to eggs. Sack posset was original a medicine but later a popular treat made with eggs, cream, spices and sack. Once concocted, the top would be a foamy or crusty cap, the middle a custard and the bottom a spicy hot alcohol.

First Published in 2022 and revised December 2023, 2024, 2025

Posted on

December 21 – Reflections on the Solstice

The Solstice and the East Pediment of the Parthenon

British Museum Shop, reproductions of Hestia and Selene’s Horse from the Parthenon Marbles

At the Summer Solstice, I took a group to the British Museum and, a few days later, to Stonehenge, and managed to ‘integrate’ the two into a solstice narrative. At the BM, over years of trying to explain the sculptures, I have been building in my mind an interpretation of the Pediment that gives, I hope, an original insight into the possible intentions of the sculptors. I don’t know how ‘true’ it is, but I do think it gives an insight into metaphor and symbolism in great works of art. Bear in mind that there is a lot of uncertainty about some of the attributions, and, that the male and female virtues that I am talking about are traditional ones, not necessarily how we would express it in the modern world.

Pediment Sculptures Photo by Nicole Baster on Unsplash

At the left of the above photography, you see the horses that take Helios chariot into the sky to bring up the sun to light the world every day. Most sun deities are male, and the Sun gives light and life to the world, without it this earth is an inert block of ice cold stone. The next statue is casually laying back and looking fit, relaxed and not looking as if he is in that position because of the impossible triangular Pediment space he inhabits. He is the epitome of male strength, usually identified with Hercules but other people have other ideas and a young Dionysus is another suggestion. Whoever he is he represents male beauty and strength. So this end of the pediment represents the Sun and male virtues. This is the East Pediment of the Parthenon which is orientated to the rising sun, a little north of east.

Next figure is Demeter, the goddess of fertility, the goddess of the earth. Placed here to remind us that the Sun needs the Earth to create life and sustenance. It reminds us that the universe is not male, the male only works in conjunction with the female. Demeter is cuddling her daughter Persephone, the Goddess of Hades. She reminds us that life is a cycle of death and life. Plants die, turn into soil and create the conditions for future life.

Next is Hebe, daughter of Zeus and Hera, wife of Heracles (Hercules). She is the cupbearer to the Gods and gives them the ambrosia that keeps them forever young. She is the Goddess of Immortality, a reminder that the universe is eternal.

Next to Hebe is a void where there was the central statue of the east pediment depicting the Birth of Athena (according to Pausanias who wrote a guide in the 2nd Century BC to the Temple). Athena was born from the head of her father Zeus- a virgin birth. Athena therefore is, in some ways, the greatest of the Olympians, as she has the virtues of her female sex and the virtues of her father’s masculinity (and, dear Gods, hopefully not the massive ‘Me Too’ vices of her father). She is therefore, wise, nurturing, just, intuitive, decisive, a leader; an ideal combination of male and female.

Zeus (sitting) Hephastus to right (looking back with Axe) Athena just visible above Zeus's head
Zeus (sitting) Hephastus to right (looking back with Axe) Athena just visible above Zeus’s head

Her back story is that her dad, Zeus eats her mum, Metis, who is pregnant with her. Sometime later, he has a cracking headache. Hephaestus, the disabled artificer God hits Zeus over the head with an axe to clear the headache. Zeus gives birth to a fully formed Athena through the split in his head. She was known as Athena Parthenos, Athena the Virgin. Her name is originally Athene but it got changed to Athena in 500 BC.

Hestia, Dione, Aphrodite, Horse of Selene’s chariot

To Athene’s left is Hestia (Vesta for the Romans). Her name means “hearth, fireplace, altar” and she is the goddess of the domestic sphere, of the comforts of home, of a warm fire enjoyed by a loving family.

The next set are two beautifully draped women languidly leaning on each other, and these are Dione, with her daughter Aphrodite – the Goddess of Love. Dione is the daughter of Gaia and Uranus daughter of earth and sky. So, here, counterpoised to Hercules, are epitomes of women. Women of power, creation, and love.

Finally, we have the exhausted horse of Selene. Her chariot takes the moon into the sky, positioned opposite to Helios and the Sun. Selene is the Moon goddess, and the Moon is beautiful, powerful as it gives us the tides and fundamental to the life of humans as she presides over the menstrual cycle. Compared to the movements of the Sun which any fool can work out, and which are relentless (symbolising Justice) the movements of the Moon are mysterious to most of us. So Selene is beautiful, powerful, creative and the Goddess of Intuition.

So, if you put it all together, the East Pediment of the Parthenon shows that the world is a union of the male and the female, balanced between the two with Zeus and Athene in the middle, with Athene holding the main part because she, in her person, represents both the male and the female.

Of course, we know that the Athenian society was a patriarchal one with women mostly kept in the domestic sphere. But here, at least, women were given an equal billing in the organisation of the Cosmos.

Sculptures from the east pediment of the Parthenon
Sculptures from the east pediment of the Parthenon

I must end by warning the reader that this is only my interpretation. I am not a scholar of Ancient Greece. I have come to my own conclusion based on spending a lot of time looking at the marbles, doing Solstice Virtual Tours, and mostly informed by the labels in the gallery, with of course, some reading including Mary Beard’s book entitled ‘Parthenon’ and the BM’s guidebook. In particular, I have not incorporated into my ‘story’ the sculptures that were in the gaps that do not survive or only in fragments scattered throughout the Museum world. However, what we do know is that in the centre is Zeus and Athene and at the edges are the chariots of the Sun and the Moon. And so fitting to celebrate the Solstice.

For a look at the Winter Solstice in general, look at my post here:

Originally written in 2022 and revised 2024, 2025

Posted on

Winter Solstice, December 21st

Mass Clock Steventon Church Hampshire

The Winter Solstice this year is: Sunday, December 21, at 3.03pm GMT in the UK. according to the Royal Museums Greenwich. Today, the Sun is at its lowest midday height of the year.  This morning was the most southerly rising of the Sun this year. If the southward diminishing of the Sun everyday were to continue, life will be extinguished on earth. The world would have no light and no heat. So, societies all round the world, made a point of honouring their Sun Gods and Goddesses on this day.

And so on this day, or so it was thought, our Deities renew their promises as the Sun begins its rebirth. It begins to rise further north each day, the Sun at noon is higher, and it sets further north. So the days are longer, brighter, eventually warmer. Thank God(s)!

For some, it’s just the turn in the cycle of life. For others, it’s the death of the old Sun and the birth of a brand-new Sun.  The Egyptians believed that the sun was reborn every day as a dung beetle.

Symbolically, the winter solstice is an ending as well as a beginning. It is a turning point and a promise by the Deity that the world will continue. It will turn, the wheel will turn. Warmth and growth will return. Buds already growing in the earth will break out and bring new growth.

The Winter Solstice – time for a party!

Culturally, it’s a time to have a party before the weather gets really cold. It is a time to evaluate your life; look back at the lessons from the last year. A time to begin, like the Sun, a new and hopefully better cycle.

Note. So if the Sun is at its shortest and weakest, why isn’t it the coldest time of the year? That is because the earth and particularly the oceans retain the heat of the Sun, and so the coldest time is at the end of January.

For a discussion, on the Solstice and the Parthenon Marbles look at my post:

December 21 – Reflections on the Solstice

First published on Dec 21st 2021, revised and republished on Dec 22nd 2023, Dec 21st 2024,2025

Posted on

Christmas with Jane Austen December 20th

Christmas with Jane Austen and Bullet Pudding

Christmas at Godmersham Park

Fanny Austen Knight was the daughter of Jane Austen’s rich older brother Edward. He, rather strangely to our modern minds, was adopted by distant relatives who were childless. ‘Hey! We have enough boys to be going on with – happy for you to take one, particularly as you own two stately homes!’ as Mr and Mrs George Austen probably never said.

One of those homes was Godmersham Park in Kent, the other was in Chawton, a lovely Hampshire Village where Jane, Cassandra and Mum Cassandra lived, and is now a Museum dedicated to Jane Austen.

Fanny also rather cruelly remembers Jane and Cassandra as being unfashionably dressed and not up with upper-class etiquette. She wrote this when she was an old woman. When she was a teenager and being well brought up, she wrote letters to friends of the family and relatives. Here are extracts from her Christmas letters.

Christmas Games

1811 to 1812 Fanny writing to a friend, Miss Dorothy Chapman

‘I don’t know whether I told you that Misss Morris’s are at home for the Christmas holidays. They are very nice girls and have contributed a good deal to our entertainment. None of us caught the whooping cough and have been very well the whole time. We have, in general, had cards, snapdragons, bullet pudding etc on any particular evening and Whist, Commerce and others and tickets were the favourite games. I think when cards fail the boys played every evening at draughts, chess, and backgammon.‘

Commerce is a three card poker type game played with counters. Tickets was Lydia Bennett’s favourite game, which is a gambling game based on luck. It is called, in Pride and Prejudice, ‘Lottery Tickets.’ One imagines it is not a compliment to Lydia’s intelligence that she prefers a game of pure chance.

Bullet Pudding

Bullet Pudding is explained by Fanny in another letter

‘You must have a large pewter dish filled with flour which you must pile up into a sort of pudding with a peak at the top, you must then lay a Bullet at the top & everybody cuts a slice of it & the person who is cutting it when the Bullet falls must poke about with their noise & chins until they find it & then take it out with their mouths which makes them strange figures all covered with flour, but the worst is that you must not laugh for fear of the flour getting up your nose & mouth & choking you. You must not use your hands in taking the bullet out.’

I used to play this as a child at Christmas. We used a coin, not a bullet. The contestants walk around the table with the flour pudding on which has a knife ready for cutting the pudding. When the music stops, the one the knife is pointing at cuts off a slice of the flour pudding. They hope not to make the flour collapse and the coin fall. In my family, we pushed the winner’s head into the flour to maximise the fun. Snapdragons is a lively game, you put some brandy in a tray or flat dish, add a few raisins, light the brandy and the game is to pick up and eat the raisins without getting burnt!

Other games mentioned by Fanny

Hunt the Slipper, Oranges and Lemons, Wind the Jack; Lighting a Candle in Haste; Spare Old Noll.

Another niece Anna received Jane Austen’s advice on writing a novel:

‘You are now collecting your people delightfully, getting them exactly into such a spot as is the delight of my life. Three or four families in a country village is the very thing to work on, and I hope you will do a great deal more, and make full use of them while they are so very favourably arranged.’

Follow this link to see my post on Mary Musgrove’s Christmas Letter to Anne Elliot in Persuasion.

First Published 20th December 2022, revised and republished December 2023, 2024, 2025