The German Christmas Tree

Introduction of the German Christmas tree to the English court is generally attributed to Queen Victoria. But it was around from at least the early 1700s. In a footnote on p.75 of The Loseley Manuscripts, the editor wrote:

We remember a German of the household of the late Queen Caroline, making what he termed a Christmas tree for the juvenile party at that festive season. The tree was a branch of some evergreen fastened on a board. Its boughs bent under the weight of gilt oranges, almonds, &c. and under it was a neat model of a farmhouse, surrounded by figures of animals, &c. and all due accompaniments. The forming Christmas trees is, we believe, a common custom in Germany: evidently a remain of the pageants constructed at that season in ancient days.

Note: The Queen Caroline referred to here is likely Caroline of Ansbach, wife of George II and queen from 1727-1737. Caroline of Brunswick was married to the Prince of Wales in 1795 (George IV) and was queen from January 1820 until her death in August, 1821. However, she was estranged from her husband and lived abroad from 1814 until she died.

Charlotte Papendiek, assistant wardrobe keeper and reader to Queen Charlotte (George III) observed in her 1789 journal:

This Christmas Mr. Papendiek proposed an illuminated tree, according to the German Fashion, but...I objected to it. Our eldest daughter, Charlotte, being only six the 30th of this November, I thought our children too young to be amused at so much expense and trouble. Mr. Papendiek was vexed--yet I do hope and trust the children were made happy.

In his Memoirs of Her Most Excellent Majesty, Sophia-Charlotte, Queen of Great Britain, John Watkins observed that at the beginning of October,1800:

...the royal family left the coast for Windsor, where Her Majesty kept the Christmas-day following in a very pleasing manner. Sixty poor families had a substantial dinner given them; and in the evening the children of the principal families in the neighbourhood were invited to an entertainment at the Lodge. Here, among other amusing objects for the gratification of the juvenile visitors, in the middle of the room stood an immense tub with a yew-tree place in it, from the branches of which hung bunches of sweetmeats, almonds, and raisins, in papers, fruits, and toys, most tastefully arranged, and the whole illuminated by small wax candles. After the company had walked around and admired the tree, each child obtained a portion of the sweets which it bore, together with a toy, and then all returned home quite delighted.

Amelia Murray wrote in her recollections of her mother, Lady Anne Murray (lady-in-waiting to Queen Charlotte, and later, Mistress of the Robes to Queen Victoria):

Christmas-trees are now common. In the early part of this century they were seldom seen, but Queen Charlotte always had one dressed up in the room of Madame Berkendorff her German attendant; it was hung with presents for the children, who were invited to see it, and I well remember the pleasure it was to hunt for one's own name, which was sure to be attached to one or more of the pretty gifts.

Georgina Townsend, housekeeper at Windsor Castle for 35 years (she died in 1835 at the age of 75) wrote that Queen Charlotte:

The Queen entertained the children here, Christmas Evening, in German fashion, A fir tree, about as high as any of us, lighted all over with small tapers, several little wax dolls among the branches in different places, and strings of walnuts and raisins alternately tied from one to the other, with skipping ropes for the boys, and each bigger girl had muslin for a frock, a muslin handkerchief, a fan, and a sash, all prettily done up in the handkerchief, and a pretty necklace and earrings besides. As soon as all the things were delivered by the Queen and Princesses, the candles on the tree were put out, and the children set to work to help themselves.

Years before she married her beloved Prince Albert, 13-year old Princess Victoria wrote in her diary on Christmas Eve, 1832:

After dinner we went upstairs. I then saw Flora, the dog which Sir John was going to give Mamma. Aunt Sophia came also. We then went into the drawing-room near the dining-room. After Mamma had rung a bell three times we went in. There were two large round tables on which were placed two trees with lights and sugar ornaments. All the presents being placed round the tree. I had one table for myself and the Conroy family had the other.

Resources:
The Loseley Manuscripts, edited by Alfred John Kempe; 1836: footnote p. 75

Court and Private Life in the Time of Queen Charlotte, Vol. 2; By Charlotte Louise Henrietta Papendiek; 1887; p.

Memoirs of Her Most Excellent Majesty, Sophia-Charlotte, Queen of Great Britain, by John Watkins; 1819; p.463

Recollections: 1803-1837,by Amelia Murray; published 1869 p.61

Queen Victoria: A Personal History by Christopher Hibbert, Da Capo Press;2000; footnote on p. 158

The Girlhood of Queen Victoria: a selection from her Majesty’s diaries Vol 1, published 1912; p. 61

Celebrating Horniness

October 18th is St. Luke’s Day. Legend has it that, on this date sometime during the 12^th century, King John passed through the village of Charlton near Greenwich while hunting. He stopped at a mill to rest and was captivated by the absent miller's beautiful wife. When the husband returned unexpectedly and caught the two dallying, he threatened to kill them. King John made a bargain: in exchange for their lives, he granted the man ownership of the land between Charlton and the bend in the Thames at Rotherhithe. With it came the right to hold a fair at Charlton every St. Luke’s Day.

So how did the festival become associated with horns?

St. Luke is represented by the horned ox. (See: Symbols of the Four Evangelists.) Furthermore, from the mid-15^th century onward, horns had a sexual connotation, most likely a reference to stags in rut. For a man “to wear the horns” meant to be cuckolded. (The word cuckold derives from the Old French word for the cuckoo, cucu. Cuckoos lay their eggs in other birds’ nests.)

The bend in the river at Rotherhithe was known as Cuckold's Point. A pole with ram's horns atop it stood there until at least the late 17th century. On St. Luke's Day, revelers sporting antlers and blowing on ram's horns would gather at the Point and riotously make their way to Charlton.

Daniel Defoe described the Horn Fair as a yearly collection of mad people. “[T]he mob…take all kinds of liberties, and the women are eminently impudent…as if it were a time that justified the giving themselves a loose to all manner of indecency without any reproach…”

Harper's New Magazine reported in 1888: "While Horn Fair is not so famous in literature as is Mayfair or the Fair of St. Bartholomew, it is worthy of a place in profane history on account of its noise, drunkenness, ribaldry, and riot. Nothing was sold at Horn Fair but horns and things made of horn, unless it were gingerbread as tough as horn, and the worst strong drink that was ever brewed or distilled, or ever quailed from horn. It was frequented by a most motley crew; rabble from tho East End of London and from the City proper; men and women in smock-frocks and new white caps from the country round about, who came to drink the lusty, lusty horn, and to dance and gape and brawl and fight; with a liberal smattering of belles and gallants from Westminster, who had a passion in those days for riot, no matter how rough and unrefined it might be."

Many believe the festival actually is rooted in Celtic tradition. Whatever its lascivious origins, the event was stopped by the Greenwich Council in 1873. One hundred years later, it was revived as a family event that is now held in June.

Resources:
Charlton
Rotherhithe
Cuckold's Point
The Horn Fair of London: London's First Carnival?
Harper's New Magazine, Vol. 77; 1888; p.990
Travels in England, by Paul Hentzner
A Tour Through the Island of Britain Vol. 1, by Daniel Defoe; 1762; p.129-131
The sign of the cuckold
Charlton's Horn Fair Parade Revived

Shoes in the Wall

One of the more unusual customs I’ve run across is the placing of worn shoes in the walls of buildings when they are constructed. Concealed shoes have been found in churches, cottages, manor houses, public buildings and castles. The Romans likely brought the custom to Britain. Food and drink sacrifices (and sometimes more gruesome offerings) were buried in the foundations of their own buildings.

In Britain, worn shoes have been discovered walled up over windows, doors, or in chimneys, but also in staircases and under floorboards. The oldest known concealed shoe was found in the wall of Winchester Cathedral’s choirstalls. It was put there in 1308. Recently a cache of shoes from the 17th-19th century was discovered in the walls of Liedberg Castle in Germany.

Shoes are a symbols of good luck. (Think of the old bridal poem, “something old, something new…and a silver six pence in her shoe.”) To put them near windows and doors indicates they were meant to prevent evil from coming inside.

The notion of shoes as protectors dates to the 14th century when John Schorn, rector of North Marston, Buckinghamshire is purported to have cast the devil into a boot.

Curse of the Slippers of Papillion Hall

In the early 18th century, David Papillon kept his Spanish mistress a virtual prisoner in the east attic of Papillon Hall in Leicestershire. She died mysteriously, and her date of death and place of burial went unrecorded.

In 1903, during a renovation of the attic, the skeleton of a woman was found in the walls. Believed to be the bones of that long ago Spanish mistress, the story goes that her former lover murdered her because she was a witch but that, before she died, she evoked a curse. If her slippers ever were removed from the property, ill fortune would befall the owner.

Each time the Hall was sold, the lady's slippers were given to the new owner. There were a few times, however, when this custom wasn't followed--with disastrous results. (To read more about the curse, and to learn the whereabouts of the slippers today, click on the link below.)

This story dovetails with the commonly held belief that bad luck will follow if a concealed shoe is removed from its resting place during renovations. Homeowners should either place them back when repairs are completed, or substitute another shoe.

Resources:
Brocade Shoes of Papillon Hall
The Curse of Papillon Hall -- the final
The Cutrsed Shoes of Papillon Hall