CHAP. XLII. ROSA CEiE. PY V 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 bowl, 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 

 Allother fields." 



3o 4 



