In 1855 author Nathaniel Hawthorne included the following Christmas observation in his english notebooks: "There were little branches of mistletoe hanging in several parts of our house... The maids did their utmost to entrap the gentlemen-boarders, old and young, under these privileged places, and there to kiss them, after which they were expected to pay a shilling. It is very queer, being customarily so respectful, that they should assume this license now, absolutely trying to pull the gentlemen into the kitchen by main force, and kissing the harder and more abundantly, the more they were resisted. A little rosy-cheeked lass - at other times very modest - was the most active in this business. I doubt whether any gentleman but myself escaped. I heard old Mr. Smith parleying with the maids last evening, and pleading his age, but he seems to have met with no mercy, for these was a sound of prodigious smacking immediately afterwards."