262 MERRIE ENGLAND
of Fitzstephen and for centuries afterwards? In the countryside,
even if the opportunities for merriment were more limited, the
great Church festivals of Christmas and Easter, or the more
popular festivals associated with the harvests, gave considerable
opportunities for enjoyment. At Christmas, for'example, work
ceased altogether for some fourteen or fifteen days, and often a
feast was provided for the peasantry by the lord.1 Thus in 1314
the customal of Northcory in the diocese of Wells tells us
of one William Brygge, a villein who had the right of "gestum
and medale.. .but he must bring with him to the gestum his own
cloth, cup and trencher, and take away all that is left on his
cloth, and he shall have for himself and his neighbours one
wastel [loaf] cut in three, for the ancient Christmas game to be
played with the said wastel".2
What exactly took place at the "Christmas game" is a matter
of some dispute, and we need not stay to argue it, but from fre-
quent references to "the Christmas play", or to expenses during
the Christmas season, we may infer that the manor house saw
much conviviality and mirth during the period brought to a
close by Twelfth Night. On one of the manors of St Paul's, for
example, a peasant was appointed to watch all night and to keep
up a good fire in the hall,3 while on many Glastonbury manors
there was a feast at the manor hall. The tenants cut and carried
the logs for the Yule fire: each brought his faggot of brushwood,
lest the cook should serve his portion raw, and each had his own
dish and mug, and a napkin of some kind, "if he wanted to eat
off a cloth". There was plenty of bread and broth and beer, with
two kinds of meat. At East Pennard the serfs had the right to
four places at the Yule feast and each man was entitled to have a
fine white loaf, and a good helping of meat, and to sit drinking
after dinner in the manor hall.4
To while away the long winter nights popular amusements
were everywhere to be found. They were essentially of the folk,
although they had been much affected by Christian elements, so
that it was a strange mixture of pagan and Christian that had
1 Law Mag. N.S. xiv, 351. Cf. Tusser, ed. Hartley, 122; Sussex Rec. Soc.
xi, 15, 18, 23, 42, etc.
3 Hist. MSS. Com. Wells, i, 335.
8 D.S.P, xxxiv.
4 Glas. Rentalia, 244, For details, see 97, 126, 127.