handsel

• Such was the handsel (for Scott protested against its being considered as the house-heating_) of the new Abbotsford When I began this chapter, I thought it would be a short one, but it is surprising how, when one digs into his memory, the smallest details of a scene that was interesting at the time, shall by degrees come to light again. —  Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Volume V (of 10)
• A handsel is a gift Footnote 55: Druids. —  Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Turn to the first time when Marius--under Marcus Aurelius--is present at a Christian ceremony, and sees, for the first time, the "wonderful spectacle of those who believed The people here collected might have figured as the earliest handsel or pattern of a new world, from the very face of which discontent had passed away.... They had faced life and were glad, by some science or light of knowledge they had, to which there was certainly no parallel in the older world. —  A Writer's Recollections — Volume 1
• Then he must give them handsel, and after that they would make a large fire and swear fealty to him round it, as was the manner of the gipsies, for the band was mostly composed of gipsies, and numbered about fifty men altogether Summa_.--A great fire was kindled, round which they all took the oath of obedience to their captain, and he swore fidelity to them in return. —  Sidonia, the Sorceress : the Supposed Destroyer of the Whole Reigning Ducal House of Pomerania — Volume 1
• So he took it as a handsel 143. —  The Life of Sir Richard Burton

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