The city became an attraction like never before. Especially
around the Twelve Days of Christmas. The merchants were feeling festive because
big money was arriving from out of town to pass the holiday in the mansions. Their servants would be buying supplies. Masters would be buying the cloth from the
London mercers to fulfill their obligation to provide their servants and the
ladies of the family with a new set of clothing. They would have it delivered
to London tailors. On the way, they might order the new shoes from a London sutor.
For the ladies there would be quantities from the lace makers. Local craftsmen and women would be stuffing pillows, sewing on fringes
and embroidering scenes, for Christmas gifts. The cheaps would be bustling with
huge crowds from opening to closing.
As for the noble household, in their London house they were likely near the palace in which the monarch would be celebrating the holiday. The Tudors from Henry to Queen Elizabeth I expected attendance, again to establish the modern principle that the power of the nobles depended upon the crown. To fail to attend was to be out of mind, to lose the offices and lands that the king or queen would distribute during the year.
At the same time, the merchants and their apprentices and
servants needed food and clothing.
Bakers were busy. Tailors had even more to do. Butchers struggled to keep up
with demand.
So then, as Christmas approached, the holly and ivy that had
traditionally decked the fronts of residents’ houses was even more in evidence.
It made even cleaner and better kept houses still more festive for residents
and visitors. The parish churches, the aquaducts that brought water into the
city, whatever the citizens were proud of that stood still was decked, as well.
As early as 1444, we know, a decorated Christmas tree of
some sort was set up in front of St. Paul’s Cathedral. We are informed by Stowe’s
Survey:
Against the feast of Christmas every man's house, as also the
parish churches were decked with holm, ivy, bays, and whatsoever the season of
the year, afforded to be green. The conduits and standards in the streets were
likewise garnished; amongst the which I read that, in the year 1444, by tempest
of thunder and lightning, on the 1st. of February, at night, Paul's steeple was
fired, but with great labour quenched; and towards the morning of Candlemas
Day, at the Leaden-hall in Cornhill, a standard of tree, being set up in midst
of the pavement, fast in the ground, nailed full of holm[1]
and ivy, for disport of Christmas to the people, was torn up, and cast down by
the malignant spirit (as was thought), and the stones of the pavement all about
were cast in the streets, and into divers houses, so that the people were sore
aghast of the great tempests.[2]
Perhaps the most fascinating fact is that Londoners already were
in the habit of leaving their Christmas decorations up well past the season —
let the Devil himself take them down if he doesn’t like it! How ironic are some
ancient Christmas traditions!
But the tailors and mercers, etc., aren’t the only businessmen
hard at work. As the household servants sought to fill their shopping lists in
the cheaps, pick-pockets were on the lookout for those too naïve to have properly
secured their purses.
And noblemen are not the only travelers to London. The
wealthier citizens of England’s other cities, or their sons, also arrived in
droves. Gambling — forbidden to commoners throughout the rest of the year — was
allowed during Christmastide. The wealthy commoners had no London houses and therefore
stayed at inns and ate at taverns both places abuzz with dicing and card play.
William Harrison tells us about the trade.
Seldom also are they or any other wayfaring men robbed,
without the consent of the chamberlain, tapster, or ostler where they bait and
lie, who feeling at their alighting whether their capcases or budgets be of any
weight or not, by taking them down from their saddles, or otherwise see their
store in drawing of their purses, do by-and-by give intimation to some one or
other attendant daily in the yard or house, or dwelling hard by, upon such
matches, whether the prey be worth the following or no. If it be for their
turn, then the gentleman peradventure is asked which way he travelleth, and
whether it please him to have another guest to bear him company at supper, who
rideth the same way in the morning that he doth, or not. And thus if he admit
him, or be glad of his acquaintance, the cheat is half wrought.[3]
Even highwaymen, it seems, must make a living. But the
territory in which they might lurk was divided amongst the ostlers of the
establishments in the area. They had to make arrangements with an agent from
among the staff of the inn or tavern. The agent would case the patrons, in
exchange for his cut, and pass the word to the robbers who was ripe for the picking.
And often it is seen that the new guest shall be robbed with
the old, only to colour out the matter and keep him from suspicion. Sometimes, when
they know which way the passenger travelleth, they will either go before and
lie in wait for him, or else come galloping apace after, whereby they will be
sure, if he ride not the stronger, to be fingering with his purse. And these
are some of the policies of such shrews or close-booted gentlemen as lie in
wait for fat booties by the highways, and which are most commonly practised in
the winter season, about the feast of Christmas, when serving-men and unthrifty
gentlemen want money to play at the dice and cards, lewdly spending in such wise
whatsoever they have wickedly gotten,…
They reinvest their profits into dicing and card-playing in
their own private clubs. Surely, it is soon time to get back to work.
[1]
holm] holly
[2]
Stowe, John. Survey of London (1603, 1908), I. 233-4.
[3] Elizabethan
England: from "A Description Of England," [1577] by William Harrison…
(No date. Withington ed.), 228.
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