6o 
MODERN APPLE LORE. 
In the same article is described another old Herefordshire custom, which followed the 
thirteen fires on the same evening. It is thus described:—“ A large cake is always provided, with a 
hole in the middle of it. After supper the company all attend the bailiff (or head of the oxen) to the 
wainhouse, where the following particulars are observed : The master, at the head of his friends, 
fills the cup 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, then it is the mistress’s (or milkmaid’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 and jollity ensues, which lasts the greatest part of the 
night.” This custom was kept up in Herefordshire until some thirty, or perhaps twenty years 
ago, in some of the leading farm-steads ; but it has now wholly disappeared. Formerly there 
were many more men kept regularly on the farm throughout the year, when there would naturally 
be a greater home feeling amongst them, and a greater interest in observing old customs. Now, the 
permanent staff of labourers is much fewer, and the additional hands required are only employed 
temporarily, at the busy seasons of the year. 
The old Twelfth Night rhymes are now only used by the boys on New Year’s Day, who 
sing them from door to door, to get what they can in the shape of New Year gifts. 
I 
Some fifty or sixty years ago, apple-scoops were in general use, and were even placed on the 
dessert table with a dish of apples, as crackers are with nuts. Clare, the Northamptonshire poet, 
notices this, in his “ Shepherd’s Calendar ” : 
“ Some spent the hour in leisure’s pleasant toil, 
Making their apple-scoops of bone the while.” 
but the fashion has changed, and it is rare now to meet with one ol the old bone scoops, and still 
more rare to see any person scooping an apple in the old-fashioned way. 
“ The eating of a Quince Pear to be preparative of sweete and delightfull dayes,” is noted as 
a wedding custom, in “ The Praise of Musicke ” (1586). And a present of Quinces from the husband 
to his bride, is noticed at an English marriage in 1725, “reminding <pne,” says the correspondent of 
Notes and Queries, of the ancient Greek custom that the married couple should eat a Quince 
together.” (Brand, by Hazlitt, II., 97.) 
The “ Apple Cure ” was once a remedy in great vogue for the treatment of all diseases that 
flesh is heir to. In Heath’s Account of the Islands of Scilly, mention is made of one Mr. Atwell, 
the Rector of St. Ives in Cornwall, who about the year 1562 attained great success in the treatment 
of the sick by giving to all of them apples and milk. His reputation spread into the neighbouring 
counties and patients flocked to him in great numbers. It was a remedy, it must be admitted, much 
more safe and effective than many others which have since been fashionable. 
Apples are not unfrequently used as a charm to cure warts. The apple is cut in half, and 
