hardy ancestors, who, on the vigil of the New Year, never failed to assemble round the glowing hearth with their cheerful neighbours, and then in the spicy Wassel Bowl (which testified the goodness of their hearts) drowned every former animosity-an example worthy modern imitation. Wassel was the word, Wassel every guest returned as he took the circling goblet from his friend, whilst song and civil mirth brought in the infant year. A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine (liv. May, 1784, p. 347) tells us, that "The drinking the Wassail Bowl or Cup was, in all probability, owing to keeping Christmas in the same manner they had before the feast of Yule. There was nothing the Northern nations so much delighted in as carousing ale, especially at this season, when fighting was over. It was likewise the custom, at all their feasts, for the master of the house to fill a large bowl or pitcher, and drink out of it first himself, and then give it to him that sat next, and so it went round. One custom more should be remembered; and this is, that it was usual some years ago, in Christmas time, for the poorer people to go from door to door with a Wassail Cup, adorned with ribbons, and a golden apple at the top, singing and begging money for it; the original of which was, that they also might procure lamb's wool to fill it, and regale themselves as well as the rich."l [The following doggrel lines were communicated by a clergyman in Worcestershire, but the occasion and use of them appear to be unknown, and it is not unlikely some corruption has crept into them : 1 Milner, on an ancient cup (Archæologia, xi. 420), informs us, that "The introduction of Christianity amongst our ancestors did not at all contribute to the abolition of the practice of wasselling. On the contrary, it began to assume a kind of religious aspect; and the Wassel Bowl itself, which, in the great monasteries, was placed on the Abbot's table, at the upper end of the Refectory or eating-hall, to be circulated amongst the community at his discretion, received the honorable appellation of 'Poculum Charitatis.' This, in our universities, is called the Grace-cup." The Poculum Charitatis is well translated by the toast-master of most of the public companies of the city of London by the words, "A loving cup." After dinner the master and wardens drink" to their visitors, in a loving cup, and bid them all heartily welcome." The cup then circulates round the table, the person who pledges standing up whilst his neighbour drinks to him. "Wassail brews good ale, In the wane of the moon."] In Ritson's Antient Songs, 1790, p. 304, is given "A Carrol for a Wassell Bowl, to be sung upon Twelfth Day, at night, to the tune of Gallants come away,' from a collection of New Christmas Carols; being fit also to be sung at Easter, Whitsuntide, and other Festival Days in the year.' No date, 12mo, b. l., in the curious study of that celebrated antiquary, Anthony à Wood, in the Ashmolean Museum. "A jolly Wassel Bowl, A Wassel of good ale, Good Dame, here at your door We are all maidens poor, With our Wassel. Our Wassel we do fill With apples and with spice, To taste here once or twice If any maidens be Here dwelling in this house, They kindly will agree To take a full carouse Of our Wassel. But here they let us stand With our Wasse.. Much joy into this hall And after, his good wife For our Wassel. Some bounty from your hands, This is our merry night Of choosing King and Queen, Then be it your delight That something may be seen It is a noble part To bear a liberal mind; God bless our master's heart! For here we comfort find, And now we must be gone, Much joy betide them all, We hope, and ever shall, For this your great good will Macaulay, in his History and Antiquities of Claybrook, in Leicestershire, 1791, p. 131, observes: "Old John Payne and his wife, natives of this parish, are well known from having perambulated the hundred of Guthlaxton many years, during the season of Christmas, with a fine gewgaw which they call a Wassail, and which they exhibit from house to house, with the accompaniment of a duet. I apprehend that the practice of wassailing will die with this aged pair. are by no means so tenacious of old usages and diversions in this country, as they are in many other parts of the world." We In the Collection of Ordinances for the Royal Household, 4to, 1790, p. 121, we have some account of the ceremony of Wasselling, as it was practised at Court, on Twelfth Night, in the reign of Henry VII. From these we learn, that the ancient custom of pledging each other out of the same cup had now given place to the more elegant practice of each person having his cup, and that, "When the steward came in at the doore with the Wassel, he was to crie three tymes, Wassel, Wassel, Wassel; and then the chappell (the chaplain) was to answere with a songe." Under "Twelfth Day," an account will be found of the wassailing ceremonies peculiar to that season. At these times the fare, in other respects, was better than usual, and, in particular, a finer kind of bread was provided, which was, on that account, called Wassel-bread. Lowth, in his Life of William of Wykeham, derives this name from the Westellum or Vessel in which he supposes the bread to have been made. See Milner, ut supra, p. 421. [The earliest instance in which mention is made of Wastel-bread is the statute 51 Henry III., whence it appears to have been fine white bread, well baked. See Halliwell's Dictionary, p. 918.] The subsequent Wassailers' song, on New Year's Eve, as still sung in Gloucestershire, was communicated by Samuel Lysons, Esq. [and has since been given in Dixon's Ancient Poems, 8vo. 1846, p. 199.] The Wassailers bring with them a great bowl, dressed up with garlands and ribbons. "Wassail! Wassail! all over the town, Our toast it is white, our ale it is brown : Be here any maids? I suppose there be some Sure they will not let young men stand on the cold stone; Sing hey O maids, come trole back the pin, And the fairest maid in the house let us all in. The name of a cow. Come, butler, come bring us a bowl of the best: But if you do bring us a bowl of the small, 6 Hutchinson, in his History of Cumberland, i. 570, speaking of the parish of Muncaster, under the head of "Ancient Custom," informs us : "On the eve of the New Year the children go from house to house, singing a ditty which craves the bounty they were wont to have in old King Edward's days.' There is no tradition whence this custom rose; the donation is twopence, or a pye at every house. We have to lament that so negligent are the people of the morals of youth, that great part of this annual salutation is obscene, and offensive to chaste ears. It certainly has been derived from the vile orgies of heathens." The de SINGEN-EEN, Dr. Jamieson tells us, is the appellation given in the county of Fife to the last night of the year. signation seems to have originated from the Carols sung on this evening. He adds, "Some of the vulgar believe that the bees may be heard to sing in their hives on Christmas Eve." Dr. Johnson tells us, in his Journey to the Western Islands, that a gentleman informed him of an odd game. At New Year's Eve, in the hall or castle of the Laird, where, at festal seasons, there may be supposed a very numerous company, one man dresses himself in a cow's hide, upon which other men beat with sticks. He runs with all this noise round the house, which all the company quits in a counterfeited fright; the door is then shut. At New Year's Eve there is no great pleasure to be had out of doors in the Hebrides. They are sure soon to recover from their terror enough to solicit for readmission which, for the honour of poetry, is not to be obtained but by repeating a verse, with which those that are knowing and provident take care to be furnished. The learned traveller tells us that they who played at this odd game gave no account of the origin of it, and that he described it as it might perhaps be used in other places, where the reason of it is not yet forgotten. It is probably a vestige of the Festival of Fools. The "vestiuntur pellibus Pecudum" of Du Cange, and "a man's dressing himself in a cow's hide," both, too, on the 1st of January, are such circumstances as leave no : |