After labour\u2019s long turmoil,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sorry fare and frequent fast, <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two-and-fifty weeks of toil,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pudding-time is come at last\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This post is set to appear on December 24. So, while it will remain \u2018out there\u2019 for anyone to discover on any day after, I thought I\u2019d find a selection of clippings from Cumbrian newspapers that illustrate Christmas Eves in times past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sort of like the TV compilations that pop up in the schedules at pudding-time. Or a selection box of chocolates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The verse at the start is from Thomas Hood’s The Pauper’s Christmas Carol<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A \u2018soul-stirring\u2019 band of violins, tambourines, triangles (\u2018etc\u2019) struck up at one end of the vale at 10pm on Christmas Eve, and played their way to the other, finishing at 6am.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Among the numerous tunes played was <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018the old and favourite ode, common to the season, Huntsop through the Woods<\/em>\u2019.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n 2023 note: this Victorian chart-topper is today proof that the internet doesn\u2019t know everything!<\/p>\n\n\n\n As reported in the Cumberland and Westmorland Advertiser, and Penrith Literary Chronicl<\/em>e.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Daring Act. \u2014Our soldiers are daring enough to do anything. One of them, on Christmas Eve, rowed across the harbour of Sebastopol to cut holly and mistletoe, when a Russian sentry shot him in the arm. But the bold Briton got back in safety.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n It doesn\u2019t say why a soldier in a war zone wanted mistletoe<\/p>\n\n\n\n The bells tolled out on Christmas Eve and junior bands played round the streets and \u2018in front of the different gentlemen\u2019s residences\u2019. While nearly 200 inmates at the Union Workhouse eagerly anticipated the roast beef dinner, and \u2018tea and loaf\u2019 (women and children) or \u2018ale and loaf\u2019 (men) provided for them the following day, courtesy of Sir George Musgrave, of Eden Hall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And yes, there was plum pudding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Christmas Eve, the Rev J Heelis delivered an able and instructive lecture on Air to members of the village library, and others, in the schoolroom.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n The Chronicle<\/em> noted that although the lecture occupied nearly two hours, \u2018the greatest attention was paid throughout\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The vicar of Long Marton was the Rev Edward Heelis, so either it was another relative also in the church, or the Chronicle<\/em> was paying less attention than the audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The village blacksmith reported that he got up at 6am on Christmas Eve to \u2018sharp\u2019 a horse. But so keen was the frost, that when he touched the nails they instantly froze to his fingers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This \u2018story\u2019 was given ten lines in the Penrith Observer<\/em>. Underneath it, the inquest into the accidental drowning of five-year-old John Hutchinson, near Camerton, was accorded six lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The annual sports were held on Christmas Eve, and the gathering <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018was allowed to be the largest that has been seen in the village for upwards of thirty years\u2019.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Events included wrestling, a foot race, a hurdle race, and a shooting contest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The winner of that wound up with a fat goose. The other 43 competitors had to find something else to cook next day for their dinner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Christmas Eve, gas was burned for the first time at St. Bees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018It is expected that street lamps will be erected and lighted shortly.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n C. Parker, Esq., of Skirwith Abbey, ordered eight prime fat sheep slaughtered, and distributed among the deserving poor residents in the town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There a lot of these instances of gifts of food, drink, and even things like coal and clothing, to the poor at Christmas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One the one hand, like Thomas Hood\u2019s pauper, it must have seemed like a too-brief (if welcome) respite from \u2018diet scant and usage rough\u2019. On the other, those providing eight prime sheep, or beef and ale for 200, couldn\u2019t possibly have afforded to do so every day of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Rev Christopher Parker of Skirwith Abbey having died in 1865, \u2018C Parker\u2019 has to be his son Christopher Parker \u2013 who was to die in 1869, aged just 25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n1855. Matterdale<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
1856. Crimea <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
1858. Penrith<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
1859. Long Marton<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
1861. \u2018A village not far from Kendal\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
1863 Great Salkeld<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
1865. St Bees<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
1867. Skirwith<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
1869. Cumberland<\/h2>\n\n\n\n