CHAP. XLII. ROSA CEE. PY‘RUS. 901 
Tour in Scotland, speaking incidentally of the English customs respecting 
cider, among others, which, he says, they derived from the Danes, mentions 
that, in some parts of the country, the servants, after the gathering of the 
apple harvests, anciently feasted on cakes made with caraway and other seeds 
in them, and soaked with cider. The wassail bow], drunk on All-Hallow 
E’en, Twelfth Day Eve, Christmas Eve, and on other festivals with the church, 
was compounded of ale, sugar, nutmeg, and roasted apples, which every per- 
son partook of; each taking out an apple with the spoon, and then drinking 
out of the bowl. Sometimes the roasted apples were bruised and mixed with 
milk, or white wine, instead of ale; and, in some parts of the country, apples 
were roasted on a string, till they dropped off into a bowl of spiced ale be- 
neath, which was called lamb’s wool. The reason of this name, which is 
common to all the compounds of apples and ale, being given to the wassail 
bowl, is differently explained by different writers. Brand attributes it to the 
softness given to the liquor by the apples and the sugar ; but Vallancey says it 
arose from the lamb’s wool being drunk on the 31st of October, All-Hallow 
E’en ; “ the first day of November, being dedicated to the angel presiding over 
fruit, seeds, &c., and, therefore, named La Mas Ubhal, that is, the day of the 
apple fruit; and this, being pronounced lamosool, soon became corrupted by 
the English into lamb’s wool. Shakspeare alludes to the custom of putting 
roasted apples in ale, in the Midsummer Night's Dream. When Puck is de- 
scribing his feats, he says, — 
** Sometimes I lurk in a gossip’s bowl, 
In very likeness of a roasted crab ; 
And, when she drinks, against her lips I bob, 
And on her wither’d dewlap pour the ale.” 
(See Every Day Book, and the Gentleman’s Magazine for 1789.) Apples 
were blessed by the priests on July 25.; and an especial form for this purpose 
is preserved in the manual of the church of Sarum. The custom of bobbing 
for apples on All-Hallow E’en, and on All Saints’ Day, which was formerly 
common all over England, and is still practised in some parts of Ireland, has 
lately been rendered familiar to the public by M‘Clise’s masterly painting 
of the Sports of All-Hallow E’en. A kind of hanging beam, which was 
continually turning, was suspended from the roof of the room, and an apple 
placed at one end, and a lighted candle at the other. The parties having their 
hands tied behind them, and being to catch the apples with their mouths, of 
course frequently caught the candle instead. In Warwickshire, apples are 
tied to a string, and caught at in the same manner, but the lighted candle is 
omitted; and, in the same county, children roast apples on a string on 
Christmas Eve; the first that can snatch an apple, when it drops from the 
string, getting it. In Scotland, apples are put into a tub of water, and 
bobbed for with the mouth. Apples are used as part of the ingredients of 
mince pies, which, in some parts of the country, would ‘be thought to lose 
their power of “ producing a happy month for every one tasted in the 12 
days of Christmas,” if this fruit were omitted. The custom of grippling, 
which may be called apple gleaning, is, or was formerly, practised in Here- 
fordshire. It consists in leaving a few apples, which are called the gripples, 
on every tree, after the general gathering, for the boys, who go with climbing- 
poles and bags to collect them. The principal poets who have sung the 
apple are Phillips and Thomson. The former, in his poem entitled Cider, 
particularly mentions, — 
“ The pippin, burnish’d o’er with gold, the moyle 
Of sweetest honied taste ; the fair pearmain, 
Temper’d, like comeliest nymph, with white and red.” 
And also his favourite, the redstreak, of which he sings, — 
** Let every tree in every garden own 
The redstreak as supreme, whose pulpous fruit 
With gold irradiate, and vermilion shines. 
_ Hail Herefordian plant! that dost disdain 
All other fields.” 
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