Notwithstanding these measures, the people still inclined to observe
Yule, for fifty-six years after, in 1649, the General Assembly appointed
a commission to make report of the public practices, among others, "The
druidical customs observed at the fires of _Beltane_, _Midsummer_,
_Hallowe'en_, and _Yule_." In the same year appears the following minute
in the session-book of the Parish of Slains.--(See Rust's _Druidism
Exhumed_.)
26th Nov., 1649.--"The said day, the minister and elders being convened
in session, and after invocation of the name of God, intimate that Yule
be not kept, but that they yoke their oxen and horse, and employ their
servants in their service that day as well as on other work days."
Dr. Jamieson quotes the opinion of an English clergyman in reference to
such proceedings of the Scotch Church:--"The ministers of Scotland, in
contempt of the holy-day observed by England, cause their wives and
servants to spin in open sight of the people upon Yule day, and their
affectionate auditors constrain their servants to yoke their plough on
Yule day, in contempt of Christ's nativity.
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