As David kicks off the Shakespeare & Dickens Walk over at St Paul's, here's a Christmassy London List…
The five items on the menu at Old Fezziwig’s Christmas Party in A Christmas Carol
1. Cake
2. Negus* (see note below)
3. A great piece of Cold Boiled
4. A great piece of Cold Roast
5. Mince pies
(NB: This list does not include beer, the quantity of which Dickens simply lists as “plenty of”; nor does it take into account the pot of porter supplied at the request of the energetic fiddler who, after playing a particularly wild tune, liked to plunge his overheated face into the cooling ale.)
* Negus is a drink of the mulled wine family with port as its central alcoholic ingredient (often mixed with claret).
This is hooch with a serious literary pedigree. Not only does it cheer up the proceedings of Christmas Past in London’s greatest ghost story, but also crops up in the pages of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, John Galsworthy’s The Forsyte Saga, and on numerous occasions in the jottings of the ever-thirsty James Boswell.
And how does one make negus? Well, that will be the subject of our next post!
Christmas 2015 With London Walks
The Christmas Lights & Seasonal Cheer Pub Walk takes place on the 19th December meet at Embankment Tube 7:15p.m
On Christmas Day there are TWO London Walks:
Walk off the pudding with The Christmas Day Charles Dickens Walk – meet by the big tree in Trafalgar Square at 2:00pm
A London Walk costs £10 – £8 concession. To join a London Walk, simply meet your guide at the designated tube station at the appointed time. Details of all London Walks can be found at www.walks.com