Book 99: "The Keeping of Christmas at Bracebridge Hall" by Washington Irving

[kittiwake]

I felt an interest in the scene, from the consideration that these fleeting customs were passing fast into oblivion, and that this was, perhaps, the only family in England in which the whole of them were still punctiliously observed. There was a quaintness, too, mingled with this revelry, that gave it a peculiar zest: it was suited to the time and place; and as the old manor-house almost reeled with mirth and wassail, it seemed echoing back the joviality of long-departed years.

First published in 1822, this book tells of a young American travelling in Europe in the years after the Battle of Waterloo. Happening to meet his friend Frank Bracebridge at a coaching inn, he is invited to spend Christmas at his father's house, and later returns to Bracebridge Hall to attend the wedding of one of Frank's brothers. Given Squire Bracebridge's love of keeping up the old traditions (he thinks that travelling in coaches rather than on horseback has led to the English becoming effete shadows of their ancestors, and laments the changes wrought by the industrial revolution), he finds that the family and the inhabitants of the nearby villagers live in the style of earlier centuries as much as possible. An enjoyable Christmas read.