that we have had both hand and heart in it. {130}

And so, with all the earnestness and heartiness which befit this happy
season, when

"No spirit stirs abroad;
The nights are wholesome; when no planet strikes,
No fairy takes, no witch hath power to charm,
So hallow'd and so gracious is the time,"

do we greet all our friends, whether contributors or readers, with the
good old English wish,

A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

* * * * *

SIR E. DERING'S HOUSEHOLD BOOK.

The muniment chests of our old established families are seldom without
their quota of "household books." Goodly collections of these often turn
up, with records of the expenditure and the "doings" of the household,
through a period of two or more centuries. These documents are of
incalculable value in giving us a complete insight into the domestic
habits of our ancestors. Many a note is _there_, well calculated to
illustrate the pages of the dramatist or the biographer, and even the
accuracy of the historian's statements may often be tested by some of
the details which find their way into these accounts; as for the more
peculiar province of the antiquary, there is always a rich store of
materials. Every change of costume is _there_; the introduction of new
commodities, new luxuries, and new fashions, the varying prices of the
passing age. Dress in all its minute details, modes of travelling,
entertainments, public and private amusements, all, with their cost, are
there: and last, though not least, touches of individual character ever
and anon present themselves with the force of undisguised and undeniable
truth. Follow the man through his pecuniary transactions with his wife
and children, his household, his tenantry, nay, with himself, and you
have more of his real character than the biographer is usually able to
furnish. In this view, a man's "household book" becomes an impartial
autobiography.

I would venture to suggest that a corner of your paper might sometimes
be profitably reserved for "notes" from these household books; there can
be little doubt that your numerous readers would soon furnish you with
abundant contributions of most interesting matter.

While suggesting the idea, there happens to lie open before me the
account-book of the first Sir Edward Dering, commencing with the day on
which he came of age, when, though his father was still living, he felt
himself an independent man.

One