This is the fourth series of rimes on the subject, and the constant demand for apples and ale was to make a “wassail” bowl of “lambswool,” or hot spiced ale, with toast and roasted apples in it.
Souling seems to have been confined to, or at all events to have only survived, in the counties of Cheshire and Shropshire, though why this should be so it is difficult to say. It is also met with in the adjacent counties of Staffordshire and Lancashire, but only because it seems to have drifted over the borders. One curious reference to it occurs in Tales and Traditions of Tenby:[58]—
“What was called ‘souling,’ or ‘sowling,’ was practised by the female portion of the poor, who visited their wealthier neighbours, demanding ‘soul’ (possibly from the French soûl, signifying ‘one’s fill,’ or from saouler, ‘to satisfy with food.’ See Wright’s Provincial Dictionary), which signified, in its provincial acceptation, any condiment eaten with bread, such as meat, fish, etc., but especially cheese. As the usage was very generally recognised, souling-day proved, and still proves, one of the most profitable days in the calendar.”
[58] Published by R. Mason, Tenby, 1858, p. 17.
The fanciful derivation of “souling” may be passed by, but it is hard to account for this reference to it in “little England beyond Wales.”
At Oswestry, on the Welsh border, it is customary to begin with:—
“Wissal, wassal, bread and possel,
Cwrw da, plas yma,[59]
Apple or a pear, plum or a cherry,
Any good thing that will make us merry.”