presents of eatables to provide for the great consumption consequent upon such entertainments; the following is a list of those sent on this occasion: two sides of venison, two half brawns, three pigs, ninety capons, five geese, six turkeys, four rabbits, eight partridges, two pullets, five sugar loaves, half a pound of nutmegs, one basket of apples and eggs, three baskets of apples, two baskets of pears.[1]
Suitors also presented gifts to the Chancellor, for the purpose of influencing his judgment. Sir Thomas More always returned these, and it is related of him, that being presented by “one Mrs. Goaker” with a pair of gloves and forty pounds of angels put into them, he said to her, “Mistresse, since it were against good manners to refuse your New-year’s gift, I am content to take your gloves, but as for the lining I utterly refuse it.”[2]
The officers of his court also gave New-year’s gifts to the Chancellor; and the first judge that distinguished himself by refusing them was Lord Cowper, who came into office in 1705.[3] The Marshal of the King’s Bench likewise formerly presented the judges with a piece of plate as a New-year’s gift. Sir Matthew Hale wished to decline it, but finding such a precedent might injure his successors, he received the value of it in money, and applied it to the relief of the poor prisoners.
The Epiphany, or Twelfth-day, is a feast of very high antiquity. During the Saturnalia a king was elected, who was invested with full power over the assembled guests, and the custom of electing a Twelfth-day king may have been modified from this, although the office of Lord of Misrule appears
