Nottinghamshire.
Of the New Year’s customs observed in this county the wassail was until recently observed to a considerable extent. This friendly custom was observed by the young women of the village, who accustomed themselves to go about from door to door on New Year’s Eve, neatly dressed for the occasion, and bearing a bowl richly decorated with evergreens and ribbands, and filled with a compound of ale, roasted apples, and toast, and seasoned with nutmeg and sugar. The bowl was offered to the inmates with the singing of the following amongst other verses:
“Good master, at your door,
Our wassail we begin;
We all are maidens poor,
So we pray you let us in,
And drink our wassail.
All hail, wassail!
Wassail, wassail!
And drink our wassail!”
Jour. of the Arch. Assoc. 1853, vol. viii. p. 230.
On this night also, in many parts of this county, as well as in Derbyshire, a muffled peal is rung on the church bells till twelve o’clock, when the bandages are removed from the bells whilst the clock is striking, and a merry peal is instantly struck up; this is called “ringing the old year out and the new year in.”—Jour. of the Arch. Assoc., 1853, vol. viii. p. 230.