visions
for the army, which are so artificially done as to seem to drive the
water before them. The city and the citadel are very fine, with all
its outworks, ravelins, horn-works, counter-scarps, half-moons, and
palisades; the French horse marching out at one gate, and the
confederate army marching in at the other; the prince's travelling
coach with two generals in it, one saluting the company as it passes
by; then a trumpeter sounds a call as he rides, at the noise whereof a
sleeping sentinel starts, and lifts up his head, but, not being
espied, lies down to sleep again; beside abundance more admirable
curiosities too tedious to be inserted here.' He then modestly adds,
'In short, the whole piece is so contrived by art that it seems to be
life and nature.'"

[Illustration: A DRUID PRIESTESS BEARING MISTLETOE.]

Tumbling and feats of agility were also fashionable during the
Christmas festival at this period, for in one of the _Tatlers_ (No.
115, dated January 3, 1709) the following passage occurs: "I went on
Friday last to the Opera, and was surprised to find a thin house at
so noble an entertainment, 'till I heard that the tumbler was not to
make his appearance that night." The sword-dance--dancing "among the
points of swords and spears with most wonderful agility, and even with
the most elegant and graceful motions"--rope-dancing, feats of
balancing, leaping and vaulting, tricks by horses and other animals,
and bull-baiting and bear-baiting were also among the public
amusements. And _Hot Cockles_ was one of the favourite indoor
amusements of Christmastide. Strutt, in his "Sports and Pastimes,"
says, _Hot Cockles_ is from the French _hautes-coquilles_, "a play in
which one kneels, and covering his eyes, lays his head in another's
lap and guesses who struck him." John Gay, a poet of the time, thus
pleasantly writes of the game:--

"As at Hot Cockles once I laid me down,
And felt the weighty hand of many a clown,
Buxoma gave a gentle tap, and I
Quick rose, and read soft mischief in her eye."

[Illustration]

On the death of Queen Anne (August 11, 1714) Prince George Louis of
Hanover was proclaimed King of England as

GEORGE THE FIRST.

There was little change in the Christmas festivities in this reign,
for, as Mr. Thackeray says in his lively sketch of George I.: "He was
a moderate ruler of England. His aim was to leave it to itself as much
as possible, and to live out of it as much as he could. His