I DON'T know about you, but at this time of the year my thoughts turn to Christmases past – of memories of childhood, as newly-weds, of my own daughter growing up, then grandchildren, of loved ones no longer with us, of funny anecdotes, special presents and, of course, food and drink.
But then I suppose it’s always been the way – human nature being what it is.
We look back, we look forward, as well as (hopefully) savouring the moment. It’s easier to recall Christmas past if you have photos, or even keep a diary.
Someone who was famous for his diary was one of my all time local heroes, Dr John Henry Salter, of Tolleshunt D’Arcy.
He was a man who never did anything by halves, so it came as no surprise to me when I discovered that he kept a detailed daily diary from 1849 to 1932, from the age of eight to 91.
It ran into 80 volumes, represented 30,000 days and contained upwards of 10 million words.
Sadly, the original was destroyed during an air-raid on Chelmsford in the Second World War, but not before an abridged version was compiled by JO Thompson and published by Bodley Head in 1932.
Thompson understandably focused on the main events in Salter’s amazing life and omitted, what he probably thought of as mundane.
However, there are some domestic entries relating to how the good doctor kept the festive season.
So, using those entries, let’s join the Salters for Christmas.
He and his wife, Laura (née Duke), arrived at D’Arcy on October 29, 1864, and, in the words of the diary “sat down to dinner in the most cosy dining-room in the world”.
That was in D’Arcy House, the fine red-brick, Queen Anne, listed property, which can still be seen in South Street.
The young couple were apparently “received with great cheering at the entrance to the village”, and they clearly loved their new doctor right from the start. (He would go on to practise from there for 70 years and delivered thousands of local babies).
Of that first Christmas (of 1864) he says: “The village was extremely noisy all day – people Christmassing. Very busy”.
The following year (1865) Laura made a call on some newly-weds - “Mr and Mrs Wilkin, of Tiptree Heath”. That would have been Arthur Charles Wilkin and his wife, Mary Ann (née Swinborne) of ‘Trewlands’, fruit farmer and later of Tiptree Jam fame.
Among the products on offer by Wilkin and Sons today are English fruit gin liqueurs and it is clear from the diary that the Salters' favourite tipple at Christmas was gin.
The doctor specifically mentions a “Christmas gin punch” in 1870 and 1875. If you want to give it a try, then according to a Victorian recipe, take a large bowl, add nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves to brown sugar, add sliced lemons and honey, pour in the gin and some ginger wine, add boiling water and serve in cups.
Salter drank his gin punch “out of the Southminster Cups till they were replete”.
They must have had a few too many in 1888, because early that Christmas morning “the servants called us up at 2am, thinking a housebreaker was trying the doors, but it turned out to be the policeman, who found all the doors open!”
Later on he preferred “a glass of light beer” and “no wine or spirits” – oh dear!
So much for the drink - what about the food?
After the untimely death of Laura Salter in 1904, the doctor mostly kept Christmas at home, quietly alone (apart from the servants) and seemed to favour roast beef above turkey and, as he put it, “plum pudding of yore”.
Again, the old way was to string up a sirloin of beef, dredge it with flour and salt to form a crust on top, and roast it for two hours on a spit in front of an open fire of coal and wood.
Regular turning was necessary and the fat that dripped off was used towards the gravy. There was no need to rest it, as it was ready for carving straight away.
Meanwhile the mixture for the plum pudding (Christmas pudding to you and me) was tied up in a wet and floured cloth and boiled, also for two hours.
In addition to the fare, Dr Salter received cards and presents. Christmas cards were introduced in 1843, but became popular from the 1870s onwards, with the establishment of mass printing.
He had “a good number of cards” in 1917, “cards galore” in 1923, 76 in 1927, “lots” in 1929 and “pleasant” ones in 1930.
Presents were also exchanged. He received “woollen jackets and safety lamps” in 1923 and, in 1925, he “gave each of the girls a fiver and all the men a sovereign” (they were different times then!).
On what proved to be his last Christmas (in 1931) he was given “a beautiful gift of paper flowers from the infants of the school. The men all lined up and drank my health”.
And 92 Christmases on, so might we. Personally, I will toast him with gin punch!
May I wish all of you a very merry Christmas.
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