[656] John Brand, Popular Antiquities of Great Britain (London, 1882-1883), i. 467.

[657] J. Brand, op. cit. i. 455; The Denham Tracts, edited by Dr. James Hardy (London, 1892-1895), ii. 25 sq.

[658] Herrick, Hesperides, “Ceremonies for Christmasse”: 

“Come, bring with a noise,
My merrie merrie boyes,
The Christmas log to the firing;...
With the last yeeres brand
Light the neiv block”

And, again, in his verses, “Ceremonies for Candlemasse Day”: 

“Kindle the Christmas brand, and then
Till sunne-set let it burne;
Which quencht, then lay it up agen,
Till Christmas next returne. 
Part must be kept, wherewith to teend
The Christmas log next yeare;
And where ’tis safely kept, the fiend
Can do no mischiefe there”

See The Works of Robert Herrick (Edinburgh, 1823), vol. ii. pp. 91, 124.  From these latter verses it seems that the Yule log was replaced on the fire on Candlemas (the second of February).

[659] Miss C. S. Burne and Miss G. F. Jackson, Shropshire Folk-lore (London, 1883), p. 398 note 2.  See also below, pp. 257, 258, as to the Lincolnshire, Herefordshire, and Welsh practice.

[660] Francis Grose, Provincial Glossary, Second Edition (London, 1811), pp. 141 sq.; T.F.  Thiselton Dyer, British Popular Customs (London, 1876), p. 466.

[661] County Folk-lore, vol. iv. Northumberland, collected by M.C.  Balfour and edited by Northcote W. Thomas (London, 1904), p. 79.

[662] County Folk-lore, vol. ii. North Riding of Yorkshire, York and the Ainsty, collected and edited by Mrs. Gutch (London, 1901), pp. 273, 274, 275 sq.

[663] County Folk-lore, vol. vi. East Riding of Yorkshire, collected and edited by Mrs. Gutch (London, 1912), pp. 23, 118, compare p. 114.

[664] John Aubrey, Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme (London, 1881), p. 5.

[665] County Folk-lore, vol. v. Lincolnshire, collected by Mrs. Gutch and Mabel Peacock (London, 1908), p. 219.  Elsewhere in Lincolnshire the Yule-log seems to have been called the Yule-clog (op. cit. pp. 215, 216).

[666] Mrs. Samuel Chandler (Sarah Whateley), quoted in The Folk-lore Journal, i. (1883) pp. 351 sq.

[667] Miss C.S.  Burne and Miss G.F.  Jackson, Shropshire Folk-lore (London, 1883), pp. 397 sq.  One of the informants of these writers says (op. cit. p. 399):  “In 1845 I was at the Vessons farmhouse, near the Eastbridge Coppice (at the northern end of the Stiperstones).  The floor was of flags, an unusual thing in this part.  Observing a sort of roadway through the kitchen, and the flags much broken, I enquired what caused it, and was told it was from the horses’ hoofs drawing in the ‘Christmas Brund.’”