Ivy
Source: Brand's Popular Antiquities Of Great Britain
W. Carew Hazlitt, Faith and Folklore: A Dictionary of National Beliefs, Superstitions and Popular Customs, Past and Current, With Their Classical and Foreign Analogues, Described and Illustrated.
Forming A New Edition of "The Popular Antiquities of Great Britain" By Brand and Ellis, Largely Extended, Corrected, Brought Down To The Present Time, and Now First Alphabetically Arranged.
In Two Volumes
London: Reeves and Turner, 1905.
Vol. 2, p. 343
In "Whitts Recreations," 1640, occurs an epigram on "Christmasse Ivy":
"At Christmasse men do alwayes ivy get,
And in each corner of the house it set.
But why do they, then, use that Bacchus weed?
Because they mean then Bacchus-like to feed."
In the piece called "Hankins Heigh-ho," printed in Musarum Deliciæ, 1656, we have:
"Thrice had all new yeares guest they yewl guts fill'd
With embalm'd veal, buried in Christmas past:
Thrice had they ivy herby wreath well pill'd' --"
Aubry says that, in his time (1678) it was customary in several parts of Oxfordshire "for the maidservant to ask the man for ivy to dress the house, and if the man denies, or neglects to fetch in ivy, the maid steals away a pair of his breeches, and nails them up to the gate in the yard or highway."
