The Mistletoe Bough

Whilst scouring old books for words to collage recently, I stumbled across a great story. G. M. Valois, in Antiques and Curious in our Homes, was regaling his readers with some scintillating facts and figures about bridal coffers and wood worm when he recounts the story of the Mistletoe Bough:

It all fits on one long page because I photoshopped two pages together; rest assured the content remains exactly as printed in the book. I like Vallois' telling of the story a lot, but then I just looked it up on Wikipedia and that spoiled it. So, don't do that!