In Chester, and its neighbourhood, numerous singers parade the streets and are hospitably entertained with meat and drink at the various houses where they call.—See Book of Days, vol. ii. p. 736.
Cornwall.
On Christmas Eve, in former days, says Hunt (Romances of the West of England, 1871, p. 349), the small people, or the spiggans, would meet at the bottom of the deepest mines, and have a midnight mass. In this county the yule log is called “the mock.”
Derbyshire.
In some parts the village choir meet in the church on Christmas Eve, and there wait until midnight, when they proceed from house to house, invariably accompanied by a small keg of ale, singing “Christians awake;” and during the Christmas season they again visit the principal houses in the place, and having played and sung for the evening, and partaken of the Christmas cheer, are presented with a sum of money.—Jour. of the Arch. Assoc. 1852, vol. vii. p. 208.
Devonshire.
The ashton faggot is burned in Devonshire on Christmas Eve. The faggot is composed entirely of ash timber, and the separate sticks or branches are securely bound together with ash bands. The faggot is made as large as can conveniently be burned in the fire-place, or rather upon the floor, grates not being in use. A numerous company is generally assembled to spend the evening in games and amusements, the diversions being heightened when the faggot blazes on the hearth, as a quart of cyder is considered due and is called for and served upon the bursting of every hoop or band round the faggot. The timber being green and elastic, each band generally bursts open with a smart report when the individual stick or hoop has been partially burned through.—N. &. Q. 1st S. vol. iv. p. 309.
In one or two localities, it is still customary for the farmer with his family and friends, after partaking together of hot cakes and cider (the cake being dipped in the liquor previous to being eaten), to proceed to the orchard, one of the party bearing hot cake and cider as an offering to the principal apple-tree. The cake is formally deposited on the fork of the tree, and the cider thrown over the latter.[88]—See Book of Days, vol. ii. p. 736.
[88] In some places this custom is observed on New Year’s Eve.
A superstitious notion prevails in the western parts of Devonshire that, at twelve o’clock at night on Christmas Eve, the oxen in their stalls are always found on their knees, as in an attitude of devotion, and that since the alteration of the style they continue to do this only on the eve of Old Christmas Day.—Brand, Pop. Antiq. 1849, vol. i. p. 473.