Wassailing Orchards in Sussex.
—I am happy to be able to send you the following particulars respecting the apple-tree superstitions, as they prevail in this county; and it is as well to preserve the recollection of them, for I suspect they are wearing away. In this neighbourhood (Chailey) the custom of wassailing the orchards still remains. It is called apple-howling. A troop of boys visit the different orchards, and encircling the apple-trees they repeat the following words:
"Stand fast root, bear well top,
Pray the God send us a good howling crop.
Every twig, apples big,
Every bough, apples enow.
Hats full, caps full,
Full quarters, sacks full."
They then shout in chorus, one of the boys accompanying them on the cow's horn; during this ceremony they rap the trees with their sticks. This custom is alluded to in Herrick's Hesperides, p. 311.
"Wassail the trees that they may beare