Correspondence.

American Ereemason" would not , we feel assured , have been written and sent to us , unless the writer had conscientiously believed in the correctness of the position he therein assumed ; and coming from so high an authority iu Freemasonry , and so valued a contributor , we did not hesitate to grant his request—to

give the letter immediate insertion ; especially as we were also at that time without auy official information as to Colonel M'Leod Moore's appointment . However , we are assured , that in the future such a source of misconception will not he allowed to intervene , which we shall be right glad ofand thus we may

, congratulate our illustrious Bros . Colonel M'Leod Moore , Douglas Harrington , and "An American Ereemason , " as well as ourselves , upon this case having proved a practical illustration of the truth of the adage that " out of evil cometh good . "—ED . E . M . ]

Antiquity Of Christmas Games.

ANTIQUITY OF CHRISTMAS GAMES .

TO THE EDITOR OF TIIE FREF . tfASOXs' MAGAZIXE AXD MASOXIC MIRROR . Dear Sir aud Brother , —In the days of our ancestors , Christmas was a period sacred to mirth and hospitality . Though not wholly neglected now , it cannot boast of the honours it once had . The veneration for religious seasons fled with popery , and old English

hospitality is long since deceased . Our modern playthings of fortune , who make the whole year a revolution of dissipation and joyous festivity , cannot distinguish this season unless resting from its laborious pleasures , aud ( if they can think ) find a happy serenity in solitude and reflection unknown in

the tumult of hurricanes . The ancient Christmas gambols were , in my opinion , superior to our modern spectacles and amusements . Wrestling , hurling the ball , and dancing in the woodlands were pleasures for men . It is true the conversation of the hearthside was the tales of superstition ; the faries

, Robin Goodfellow , and hobgoblins never failed to make the trembling audience mutter an Ave Maria and cross their chins , but the laughable exercises of blindman ' s buff , riddling , and question and command ,

sufficiently compensated for tho few sudden starts ol terror . Add to these amusements the wretched voices of the chanters and subchanters howling carols in Latin ; the chiming of consecrated bells ; the burning consecrated wax-candles , curiously representing the Virgin Mary ; praying with the Saint whose

monastery stood nearest ; the munching consecrated cross-loaves , sold b y the monk ; all which effectually eradicated the spectres of their terrific stories . Nor were these the onl y charms against the foul fiends aud nightmare ; sleeping cross-legged , like the effigies ot Knights Templar and warriors , , and the holy bush and church

yard jew , were certain antidotes against those invisible beings . After this representation I may be thought partial to my own hobby-horse , as an antiquary in giving the preference to the amusements of the days of ° old . But let the sentimental reader consider that the tales

of superstition , when believed , affect the soul with a sensation pleasurably horrid . We may paint in more lively colours to the eye , they spoke to the heart . The great barons and knights usually kept open house during the season , when their villains * or vassals were entertained with bread , beef or beer , and

a pudding , wastol cake , or Christmas kitchel , and a groat in silver at parting ; being obliged , iu return , to wave the full flagon rouud their heads in honour of the master of the house . Sometimes the festivals continued to Twelfthday , when the baron , or his steward , took the deis , or upper seat of the table ,

and after dinner gave every man a new govvu of his livery and two Christmas kitchels . This kind of liberality endeared the barons to the common people , and made them ever ready to take up arms under their banners . A register of the Nunnery of Keynsham relates

that " William , Earl of Glocester , entertained two hundred knights with tilts and fortuuys at his great Manor of Keynsham ; provided thirty pies of eels of Avon , as a curious dainty ; and on the Twelfthday began the plays for the knights by the monks , with miracles and maumeries for the henchmen and

servants by minstrels . ' Here is plainly a distinction made between maumeriess and miracles , and the more noble representations comprehended under the name " plays . " The first were the holiday entertainments of the vulgar , the other of the barons and nobility . The private exhibitions at the manors of the barons were usually

family histories . The monk , who represented the master of the family , being arrayed in a tabard ( or herald ' s coat without sleeves ) painted with all the hatchments of the names . In these domestic

performances absurdities were unavoidable ; and m a play wrote by Sir Tibbet Gouges , Constance , Countess of Bretagne and Richmond , marries aud buries her three husbands in the compass of an hour . Sometimes these pieces were merely relations , and had only two characters of this kind , as that in Weever ' s funeral monuments .

None but the patrons of monasteries had the service of the monks in performing plays on holidays , provided the same contained nothing against God or the Church . The public exhibitions were superior to the private ; the plot generally the life of some Pope , or the founder of the abbey the monks belonged to .

I have seen several of these pieces , mostly Latin , and cannot think our ancestors so ignorant of dramatic excellence as the generality of modern writers would represent . They had a good moral in view , and some of the maumeries abound with wit , which , though low now , was not so then . Minstrelsjestersand

, , mummers was tho next class of performers ; every knight had two or three minstrels and jesters , who were maintained in his house to entertain his family in their hours of dissipation . These Chaucer mentions in the following passages : — "Doe commehe saiedmyn mynstrales

, , , And jestours , for to telen us tales , Aram in mye armj-age . Of Romaunces yatto been royals , Of Popes and of Cardinals , And eke of love longynge . " ( Rime of Sir Thopas . )

" Of all manere of mynstrales , And jestours that telleu tales , Both of weepynge and of yame , And of all thatte longeth longethunto fame . " ( Third Boole of Fame . ) Tours fraternally , J . F . § . Scarborough , Dec . 21 , 1 SGS .