OCR Text |
Show Ancient Christmas Custom. Many quaint customs are observed at Christmas time in various English country parishes. In that of Cumnor, in Berkshire, of which the living is a vicarage and the church a beautiful specimen of an old English parochial edifice, all who pay tithes repair, after af-ter evening service on Christmas day, to the vicarage where the vicar is held in duty bound, by a usage centuries cen-turies old, to regale them with four bushels of malt brewed into ale or beer, two bushels of wheat baked into bread, and half a hundred weight of cheese. Any remnants of this feast are distributed among the poor of the parish after morning prayer the next day. |