The Christmas Dinner E-Book

Washington Irving

• Herausgeber: Renard Press
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 29

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

'We were ushered into this banqueting scene with the sound of minstrelsy, the old harper being seated on a stool beside the fireplace and twanging his instrument with a vast deal more power than melody. Never did Christmas board display a more goodly and gracious assemblage of countenances.' First published in 1820 in Irving's masterpiece, The Sketch Book, The Christmas Dinner is a charming tale by the great American writer behind such timeless classics as The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle. Painting the scene of a Christmas dinner spent at the table of Bracebridge Hall, a countryside manor, the merry songs and stories of the dinner table echo with jollity of Christmases long past.

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The ChristmasDinner first published in 1820

This edition first published by Renard Press Ltd in 2021

Edited text and Notes © Renard Press Ltd, 2023

Illustrations and cover lettering after William Morris

Cover design by Will Dady

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The ChristmasDinner

washington irving

renard press

the christmas dinner

Ihad finished my toilet and was loitering with Frank Bracebridge in the library when we heard a distant thwacking sound, which he informed me was a signal for the serving up of the dinner. The Squire kept up old customs in kitchen as well as hall, and the rolling pin, struck upon the dresser by the cook, summoned the servants to carry in the meats.

Just in this nick the cook knocked thrice,

And all the waiters in a trice

His summons did obey;

Each serving man, with dish in hand,

Marched boldly up, like our train band,

Presented and away.*

The dinner was served up in the great hall, where the Squire always held his Christmas banquet. A blazing, crackling fire of logs had been heaped on to warm the spacious apartment, and the flame went sparkling and wreathing up the wide-mouthed chimney. The great picture of the crusader and his white horse had been profusely decorated with greens for the occasion, and holly and ivy had likewise been wreathed round the helmet and weapons on the opposite wall, which I understood were the arms of the same warrior. I must own, by the by, I had strong doubts about the authenticity of the painting and armour as having belonged to the crusader, they certainly having the stamp of more recent days; but I was told that the painting had been so considered time out of mind, and that, as to the armour, it had been found in a lumber room and elevated to its present situation by the Squire, who at once determined it to be the armour of the family hero; and as he was absolute authority on all such subjects in his own household, the matter had passed into current acceptation. A sideboard was set out just under this chivalric trophy, on which was a display of plate that might have vied (at least in variety) with Belshazzar’s parade of the vessels of the temple – ‘flagons, cans, cups, beakers, goblets, basins, and ewers* – the gorgeous utensils of good companionship that had gradually accumulated through many generations of jovial housekeepers. Before these stood the two Yule candles beaming like two stars of the first magnitude; other lights were distributed in branches, and the whole array glittered like a firmament of silver.

We were ushered into this banqueting scene with the sound of minstrelsy, the old harper being seated on a stool beside the fireplace and twanging his instrument with a vast deal