Jan. 5.]

EVE OF THE EPIPHANY.

Formerly itinerant minstrels used to bear a bowl of spiced wine to the houses of the gentry and others, from whom they expected a hospitable reception, and calling their bowl a wassail-bowl, they drank wassail to their entertainers.

In ancient kalendars is an observation on the 5th day of January, the Vigil of the Epiphany, “Kings created by beans,” and the sixth day is called “Festival of Kings,” with another remark, that “the ceremony of electing kings was continued with feasting for many days.”—Med. Ævi Kalend. vol. i. p. 134.

Devonshire.

At Kingsbridge and Salcombe it was formerly customary for the ciderist, attended by his workmen with a large can or pitcher of cider, guns charged with powder, &c., to repair to the orchard, and there at the foot of one of the best-bearing apple-trees, drink the following toast three times repeated, discharging the fire-arms in conclusion:

The pitcher being emptied, they returned to the house, the doors of which they were certain to find bolted by the females; who, however bad the weather might be, were inexorable to all entreaties to open them, till some one had divined what was on the spit. This was generally not easily thought of, and if edible was the reward of him who first named it. The party were then admitted.—Kingsbridge and Salcombe Historically Depicted, 1819, p. 71. Vide Gent. Mag. 1791, vol. lxi. p. 403.

Brand, on the authority of a Cornishman, relates it also as a custom with the Devonshire people to go after supper into the orchard with a large milk-pan full of cider, having roasted apples pressed into it. Out of this each person in company takes what is called a clome—i.e. earthenware—cup, full of liquor, and standing under each of the more fruitful apple-trees, passing by those that are not good bearers, he addresses them in the following words:

and then drinking up part of the contents, he throws the rest, with the fragments of the roasted apples, at the tree. At each cup, the company set up a shout.—Pop. Antiq. 1849, vol. i. p. 29.

Herrick thus alludes to this custom and the superstition attached to it:

Gloucestershire.

In the parish of Pauntley, and the surrounding neighbourhood, the servants of each farmer formerly assembled together in one of the fields that had been sown with wheat. At the end of twelve lands, they made twelve fires in a row with straw, around one of which, much larger than the rest, they drank a cheerful glass of cider to their master’s health, and success to the future harvest; then, returning home, they feasted on cakes soaked in cider, which they claimed as a reward for their past labours in sowing the grain.—Fosbrooke, Hist. of Gloucestershire, 1807, vol. ii. p. 232.

Herefordshire.

At the approach of the evening, the farmers with their friends and servants meet together, and about six o’clock walk out to a field where wheat is growing. In the highest part of the ground, twelve small fires and one large one, are lighted up.[6] The attendants, headed by the master of the family, pledge the company in old cider, which circulates freely on these occasions. A circle is formed round the large fire, when a general shout and hallooing takes place, which you hear answered from all the adjacent villages and fields. Sometimes fifty or sixty of these fires may be seen all at once. This being finished, the company return home, where the good housewife and her maids are preparing a good supper. A large cake is always provided, with a hole in the middle. After supper, the company all attend the bailiff (or head of the oxen) to the wain-house, where the following particulars are observed: The master, at the head of his friends, fills the cup (generally with strong ale), and stands opposite the first or finest of the oxen. He then pledges him in a curious toast, the company follow his example with all the other oxen, addressing each by his name. This being finished, the large cake is produced, and, with much ceremony put on the horn of the first ox, through the hole above mentioned.

The ox is then tickled, to make him toss his head; if he throw the cake behind, it is the mistress’s perquisite; if before (in what is termed the boosy) the bailiff himself claims the prize. The company then return to the house, the doors of which they find locked, nor will they be opened until some joyous songs are sung. On their gaining admittance a scene of mirth ensues, which lasts the greater part of the night.—Gent. Mag. 1791, vol. lxi. p. 116.

Staffordshire.

According to Blount the inhabitants of this county at one time made a fire on the eve of the Epiphany, in memory of the blazing star that conducted the three Magi to the manger at Bethlehem.

Yorkshire.

In the neighbourhood of Leeds, families formerly invited their relations, friends, and neighbours to their houses, for the purpose of playing at cards, and partaking of a supper of which mince pies were an indispensable ingredient. After supper was over the wassail-cup or wassail-bowl was brought in, of which every one partook, by taking with a spoon out of the ale a roasted apple and eating it, and then drinking the healths of the company out of the bowl, wishing them a merry Christmas, and a happy New Year. The festival of Christmas used in this part of the country to be held for twenty days, and some persons extended it even to Candlemas.

The ingredients put into the bowl, viz., ale, sugar, nutmeg, and roasted apples, were usually called lambs’ wool, and the night on which it was drunk was commonly called Wassail Eve.—Gent. Mag. 1784, vol. liv. p. 98.

IRELAND.

In Ireland “on Twelve Eve in Christmas, they use to set up as high as they can a sieve of oats, and in it a dozen of candles set round, and in the centre one larger, all lighted. This in memory of our Saviour and his Apostles, light of the world.”—Sir Henry Piers’ Description of the County of Westmeath, 1682, in Vallancey’s Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis, vol. i. No. 1, p. 124.