December 24th – Three cheers for Christmas

Tonight, being Christmas Eve, many will indeed be welcoming in Christmas and hopefully much joy, as captured in the jolly carol recorded by W.T. Stead as “A Christmas Song”:

Now thrice welcome Christmas!

Which brings in good cheer,

Mince pies and plum porridge,

Good ale, and strong beer;

 With pig, goose and capon,

The best that can be,

So well doth the weather

With our stomachs agree (1)

(extract, taken from “The poets’ Christmas “, W.T. Stead, pp. 19 – 20)

Stead records that the song originated in “Poor Robin’s Almanac”, a satirical journal published pseudonymously by “Poor Robin”, in Saffron Walden, Essex, from 1663 onwards. The song goes on in sympathy for anyone unable to join the celebrations, and cautions against those who would be “curmudgeons who will not be free”.

While feasting for Christmas may not have been introduced into the University’s seasonal calendar until the 19^th century, the colleges certainly knew good food and drink made for a good party. Indeed, the preserved account for the victuals ordered to celebrate the admission, in 1713, of Alexander Scrimgeour, as Professor of Divinity in the College of St Mary, could almost have been inspired by the fictional feast described in Poor Robin’s carol.

On the admission feast order list were:

Four capons (check – for those who have not recently had an eighteenth-century blow-out meal, a capon is a castrated male chicken);

‘Ane bacon hame’ (pig: check);

‘A dozen chikens’ and a ‘pigeon pastie*’, as well as ‘an salmon’ (goose replacement: check);

8 bottles of ale (ale: check)

Half a pound of sugar (no mince pies or plums, but surely something sweet?).

The Scrimgeour party forewent beer, they did instead indulge in ‘eleven bottells wine’ and ‘a pint of Brandie’ – hic!

To round the day off, this casual sketch of a reaction to receiving cake in the post, doodled by Professor Jack Williams in 1921, seems to perfectly capture the joy in sharing gifts, food and the good spirits of the season with loved ones.

*We are unsure of the reading of pigeon ‘pastie’(?) in the account for Prof. Scrimgeour’s feast. Should you have a suggestion, please do let us know!