The book of days : a miscellany of popular antiquities in connection with the calendar, including anecdote, biography, & history, curiosities of literature and oddities of human life and character / edited by R. Chambers.

Date:
1863
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The book of days : a miscellany of popular antiquities in connection with the calendar, including anecdote, biography, & history, curiosities of literature and oddities of human life and character / edited by R. Chambers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    new-yeak’s gifts. THE BOOK OF DAYS. new-yeak’s gifts. the sovereigns of England may be traced back to the time of Henry VI. In Kymer’s Faedera, vol. x. p. 387, a list is given of gifts received by the king between Christmas Day and February 4, 1428, consisting of sums of 40s., 20s., 13s. 4<7., 10s., 6s. 8d., and 3s. 4cf. A manuscript roll of the public revenue of the fifth year of Edward VI. has an entry of rewards given on New-Year’s Day to the king’s officers and servants, amounting to £155, 5s., and also of sums given to the servants of those who presented New-Year’s gifts to the king. A similar roll has been preserved of the reign of Philip and Mary. The Lord Cardinal Pole gave a ‘ saulte,’ with a cover of silver and gilt, having a stone therein much enamelled of the story of Job; and received a pair of gilt silver pots, weighing 143J ounces. The queen’s sister, the Lady Elizabeth, gave the fore part of a kyrtell, with a pair of sleeves of cloth of silver, richly embroidered over -with Venice silver, and raved with silver and black silk; and received three gilt silver bowls, weighing 132 ounces. Other gifts were—a sacrament cloth; a cup of crystal; a lute in a case, covered with black silk and gold, with two little round tables, the one of the phisnamy of the emperor and the king’s majesty, the other of the king of Bohemia and his wife. Other gifts consisted of hosen of (Jarnsey-making, fruits, sugar-loaves, gloves, Turkey hens, a fat goose ancl capon, two swans, two fat oxen, conserves, rose-water, and other articles. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the custom of presenting New-Year’s gifts to the sovereign was carried to an extravagant height. The queen delighted in gorgeous dresses, in jewellery, in all kinds of ornaments for her person and palaces, and in purses filled with gold coin. The gifts regularly presented to her were of great value. An exact and descriptive inven- tory of them was made every year on a roll, which was signed by the queen herself, and by the proper officers. Nichols, in his Progresses of Queen Elizabeth, has given an accurate transcript of five of these rolls. The presents were made by the great officers of state, peers and peeresses, bishops, knights and their ladies, gentlemen and gentlewomen, physicians, apothecaries, and others of lower grade, down to her majesty’s dustman. The presents consisted of sums of money, costly articles of ornament for the queen’s person or apartments, caskets studded with precious stones, valuable necklaces, bracelets, gowns, embroidered mantles, smocks, petticoats, looking-glasses, fans, silk stockings, and a great variety of other articles. Howell, in his History of the World, mentions that ‘ Queen Elizabeth, in 1561, was resented with a pair of black silk knit stockings y her silk-woman, Mrs Montague, and thence- forth she never wore cloth hose any more.’ The value of the gifts in each year cannot be ascer- tained, but some estimate may be made of it from the presents of gilt plate which were in all instances given in return by the queen; an exact account having been entered on the roll of the weight of the plate which each individual received in return for his gift. The total weight in 1577-8 amounted to 5882 ounces. The largest sum of money given by any temporal lord was £20; but the Archbishop of Canterbury gave £40, the Archbishop of York £30, and other spiritual lords £20 or £10. The total amount in the year 1561-2 of money gifts was £1262, 11s. 8d. The queen’s wardrobe and jewellery must have been principally supplied from her New-Year’s gifts. The Earl of Leicester’s New-Year’s gifts ex- ceeded those of any other nobleman in costliness and elaborate workmanship. The description of the gift of 1571-2 may be given as a specimen: ‘ One armlet, or shakell of gold, all over fairely garnished with rubyes and dyamondes, haveing in the closing thearof a clocke, and in the fore part of the same a fayre lozengie dyamonde without a foyle, hanging thearat a round juell fully garnished with dyamondes, and perle pend- ant, weying 11 oz. qu. dim., and farthing golde weight: in a case of purple vellate all over em- branderid with Venice golde, and lyned with greene vellat.’ In the reign of James I. the money gifts seem to have been continued for some time, but the ornamental articles presented appear to have been few and of small value. In January 1604, Sir Dudley Carleton, in a letter to Mr Winwood, observes: ‘New-Year’s Day passed without any solemnity, and the accustomed present of the purse and gold was hard to be had without ask- ing.’ Mr Nichols, in a note on this passage, observes: ‘ During the reigns of King Edward VI., Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth, the ceremony of giving and receiving New-Year’s gifts at Court, which had long before been cus- tomary, was never omitted, and it was continued at least in the early years of King James ; but I have never met with a roll of those gifts similar to the several specimens of them in the Progresses of Queen Elizabeth.' He afterwards, however, met with such a roll, which he has copied, and in a note attached to the commencement of the roll, he makes the following remarks: ‘ Since the note in that page [471 of vol. i., Progresses of James I.] was printed, the roll here accurately transcribed has been purchased by the trustees of the British Museum, from Mr liodd, book- seller of Great Newport Street, in whose cata- logue for 1824 it is mentioned. It is above ten feet in length; and, like the five printed in Queen Elizabeth’s “Progresses,’’exhibits the gifts to the king on one side, and those from his ma- jesty on the other, both sides being signed by the royal hand at top and bottom. The gifts cer- tainly cannot compete in point of curiosity with those of either Queen Mary’s or Queen Eliza- beth’s reign. Instead of curious articles of dress, rich jewels, &c., nothing was given by the nobility but gold coin.’ The gifts from the nobility and prelates amounted altogether to £1293, 13s. M. The remainder were from per- sons who held some office about the king or court, and were generally articles of small value. The Duke of Lennox and the Archbishop of Canterbury gave each £40; all other temporal lords, £20 or £10; and the other spiritual lords, £30, £20, £13, 6s. 8d., or £10. The Duke of Lennox received 50 ounces of plate, the Arch- bishop of Canterbury 55 ounces; those who gave £20 received about 30 ounces, and for