It appears, from a statement of charities in an old book, that John Martyn, by will, 28th of November, 1729, gave to the churchwardens and overseers of the poor of the parish of St. Mary Major, Exeter, twenty pounds, to be put out at interest, and the profits thereof to be laid out every Christmas Eve in twenty pieces of beef, to be distributed to twenty poor people of the parish, such as had no relief on that day, for ever.—Old English Customs and Charities, 1842, p. 4.
Gloucestershire.
It appears by the benefaction table in the church of Ruardean, that the Rev. Mr. Anthony Sterry, vicar of Lidney, gave by deed, in the fortieth year of Queen Elizabeth, five shillings per annum, payable out of an estate called the Glasp, in this parish, for ringing a peal on Christmas Eve, about midnight, for two hours, in commemoration of the Nativity.—Old English Customs and Charities, 1842, p. 6.
Hampshire.
In the neighbourhood of the New Forest the following lines are sung on the wassailing of the trees:
“Apples and pears with right good corn,
Come in plenty to every one;
Eat and drink good cake and hot ale,
Give earth to drink and she’ll not fail.”
Christmas in the Olden Time, London, 1839.
Herefordshire.
In the Gent. Mag. (vol. xc. pt. i. p. 33) is the following account of a custom that formerly existed at Tretyre on Christmas Eve. The writer says:—They make a cake, poke a stick through it, fasten it upon the horn of an ox, and say certain words, begging a good crop of corn for the master. The men and boys attending the oxen, range themselves around. If the ox throws the cake behind, it belongs to the men, if before, to the boys. They take with them a wooden bottle of cyder and drink it, repeating the charm before mentioned.