GREAT HARWOOD DISTRICT WI
MEMBERS of the WI were delighted to be entertained again by a Victorian lady - ‘Betsy’ portrayed by Joanne Halliwell, during their Christmas party meeting.
Betsy said that her mother-in-law, Hortense, was sick and had been ‘under the doctor all week’ so she’d been asked to replace her and discuss the very important matter of Christmas.
After struggling to pronounce Hortense’s words such as salutations, celebratory, soiree and camaraderie, Betsy commented that she was not the best person to discuss Christmas as it used to mean graft for her (when she was a scullery maid).
Up and to bed by candlelight, parquet floors had to be polished twice then tested with a cloth by the mistress, all the fires in the house lit and the coals washed and dried to reduce the mucky soot.
The servants did have some fun in the Butler’s pantry eating well for their Christmas dinner, though the food was allocated in the staff pecking order.
She described the master’s groaning table with turtle soup, marzipan moulded and painted to look like nuts, oysters and a big bowl of steaming punch.
Betsy was offered 1d to eat an oyster which she likened to a snotty purse and pleurisy and it smelled like it had fallen out of a seagull.
She slid it into her gob, was told to swallow it and did so but that led to a 20-minute tug of war between gut and gob.
Her advice was don’t swallow it.
Since her getting married ‘Christmas has gone queer’.
Her husband has put a tree in the entrance hall even though there are thousands in the grounds.
She assumed it was for the grate but was told it was the fashion.
She did not know what baubles were, why candles were to go on the tree or how crackers worked.
In the past she had been confused when her mistress told her to stuff stockings with oranges and nuts and pin them on the fireplace.
The Irish cook had explained more about Christmas to her.
The Puritans had banned Christmas pudding as being too rich for God fearing folk and the Quakers did the same, calling it an invention of the scarlet whore of Babylon.
The pudding should have 13 ingredients to represent Christ and the Apostles and be mixed from east to west in honour of the three kings.
It is bad luck to eat a mince pie before December.
Betsy made further comments picturing what the Nativity would have been like and offering a humorous alternative version.
Her father had put greenery in the house to ward off evil spirits, not a whole tree.
Christmas hymns used to be sung not carols that threatened householders if the singers were not given figgy pudding.
She had heard that a man comes down the chimney with a sack of presents in Germany but in this country, he comes through a window with an empty sack to fill.
Some members of the audience were then coaxed to sing an alternative Twelve Days of Christmas and Betsy finished with the comment that Christmas has actually gone quite ‘queer’ with people forgetting what it is all about.
The next meeting will be held at Bank Mill House, Great Harwood at 2pm on January 10 and will include a talk on ‘Jam Maker and Entrepreneur’ by the Reverend Keith Richardson.
Visitors and potential members are welcome.