en during twelve days after
Christmas, with the _old English_ hospitality. I observe also in
some old books accounts of a feast of "cakes and ales" being usual.[9]

In the book of _Christmasse Carolles_, by Wynkyn de Worde in 1521,
are the following verses on bringing in the Boar's head:--

"A Carrol bryngyne in the boar's head,
_Caput Apri defero._
_Redden laudes Domino._

"The bore's head in hande brynge I,
With garlaudes gay and rosemary
I praye you all synge merely,
_Qui estis in convivio._

"The bore's head I understande
Is the chefe servyce in this lande,
Looke wherever it be fand,
_Servite cum cantico._

"Be gladde both man and lasse
For this hath ordayned our stewarde
To chere you all this Christmasse
The bore's head with mustarde."

Upon the young prince's coronation, 1170, Henry II. "served his son at
the table as server, bringing up the _bore's head_ with _trumpets_
before it, according to the manner."--_Hollinshed_.

The boar's head was stuffed "_with branches of rosemary_, "it
appears with trumpets playing, so that "_it was a grande syghte_."

It would appear they had grand doings at the inns of court during
Christmas. The usual dish at the first course at dinner was "a large
_bore's head_ upon a silver platter, with minstralsye."--_Dugdale's
Orig. Jur._

Before the last civil wars, the first diet in gentlemen's houses that
was brought to table at Christmas was a _boar's head with a lemon in
his mouth_. At Queen's College, Oxford, the custom is retained; the
bearer of it brings it into the hall singing to an old tune, an old
Latin rhyme, _Caput Apri Defero, &c._

Formerly, "An English gentleman at the opening of the great day, i.e. on
Christmas Day in the morning, had all his tenants and neighbours enter
his hall by day-break. The strong beer was broached, and the black jacks
went plentifully about with toast, sugar, nutmeg, and good Cheshire
cheese. The hackin (the great sausage) must be boiled by day-break, or
else two young men must take the maiden (the cook) by the arms, and run
her round the market-place till she is ashamed of her laziness."--_From
an old Tract, "Round about our Coal Fire, or Christmas Entertainments_."

Further, from the same Tract we find that "In Christmas holidayes," the
tables were all spread from the first to the last; the sirloins of beef,
the minched pies, the _plum porridge_, the capons, turkeys, geese
and pl