Some say, that ever 'gainst that season comes,
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
The bird of dawning singeth all night long.
And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad:
The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike;
No fairy takes; no witch hath power to charm;
So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.


It is to be lamented that the hearty diet, properly belonging to the
season, should have become almost peculiar to it; the _Tatler_
recommends it throughout the year. "I shall begin," says Steele, "with a
very earnest and serious exhortation to all my well-disposed readers,
that they would return to the food of their forefathers, and reconcile
themselves to beef and mutton. This was the diet which bred that hardy
race of mortals who won the fields of Cressy and Agincourt. I need not
go so high up as the history of Guy, earl of Warwick, who is well known
to have eaten up a dun cow of his own killing. The renowned king Arthur
is generally looked upon as the first who ever sat down to a whole
roasted ox, which was certainly the best way to preserve the gravy; and
it is farther added, that he and his knights sat about it at his round
table, and usually consumed it to the very bones before they would enter
upon any debate of moment. The Black Prince was a professed lover of the
brisket; not to mention the history of the sirloin, or the institution
of the order of Beefeaters, which are all so many evident and undeniable
proofs of the great respect which our warlike predecessors have paid to
this excellent food. The tables of the ancient entry of this nation were
covered thrice a day with hot roast-beef; and I am credibly informed by
an antiquary, who has searched the registers in which the bills of fare
of the court are recorded, that instead of tea and bread and butter