y common. It was
there adorned with green twigs as well as with candles and coloured
paper, and had more resemblance to the Christmas-tree.{11} Tieck refers
to it in his story, "Weihnacht-Abend" (1805).{12}

Pyramids, without lights apparently, were known in England before 1840.
In Hertfordshire they were formed of gilt evergreens, apples, and nuts,
and were carried about just before Christmas for presents. In
Herefordshire they were known at the New Year.{13}

|267| The Christmas-tree was introduced into France in 1840, when
Princess Helene of Mecklenburg brought it to Paris. In 1890 between
thirty and thirty-five thousand of the trees are said to have been sold
in Paris.{14}

In England it is alluded to in 1789,{15} but its use did not become at
all general until about the eighteen-forties. In 1840 Queen Victoria and
Prince Albert had a Christmas-tree, and the fashion spread until it
became completely naturalized.{16} In Denmark and Norway it was known in
1830, and in Sweden in 1863 (among the Swedish population on the coast of
Finland it seems to have been in use in 1800).{17} In Bohemia it is
mentioned in 1862.{18} It is also found in Russia, the United States,
Spain, Italy, and Holland,{19} and of course in Switzerland and Austria,
so largely German in language and customs. In non-German countries it is
rather a thing for the well-to-do classes than for the masses of the
people.

The Christmas-tree is essentially a domestic institution. It has,
however, found its way into Protestant churches in Germany and from them
into Catholic churches. Even the Swiss Zwinglians, with all their
Puritanism, do not exclude it from their bare, white-washed fanes. In the
Muensterthal, for instance, a valley of Romonsch speech, off the Lower
Engadine, a tree decked with candles, festoons, presents, and
serpent-squibs, stands in church at Christmas, and it is difficult for
the minister to conduct service, for all the time, except during the
prayers, the people are letting off fireworks. On one day between
Christmas Eve and New Year there is a great present-giving in
church.{20}

In Munich, and doubtless elsewhere, the tree appears not only in the
church and in the home, but in the cemetery. The graves of the dead are
decked on Christmas Eve with holly and mistletoe and a little
Christmas-tree with gleaming lights, a touching token of remembrance, an
attempt, perhaps, to give the departed a share in the brightness of the
festiva