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CXTIS AND THEIB CUSTOMS.
41
Lamb's
Wool.
To one quart of strong hot ale add the pulp of six
roasted apples, together with a small quantify of grated
nutmeg and ginger, with a sufficient quantity of raw
sugar to sweeten it; stir the mixture assiduously, and
let it be serFed hot.
Of equal antiquity, and of nearly the same composi-
tion;, is the Wassail Bowl, which in many parts of
England is still partaken of on Christmas Eve, and is
alluded to by Shakspeare In his " Midsummer Night
?
s
Dream/* In Jesus College, Oxford, we are told, it is
drunk on the Festival of St. David, out of a silver gilt
bowl holding ten gallons, which was presented to that
College by Sir Watkin William Wynne, in
1732.
The Wassail Bowl
Put into a quart of warm beer one pound of raw
sugar, on which grate a nutmeg and some ginger j
then add four glasses of sherry and two quarts more of
beer, with three slices of
lemon;
add more sugar, If
required, and serve it with three slices of toasted bread
floating In it.
Another genus of beverages, if so it may be termed,
of considerable antiquity, comprise those compositions
having milk for their basis, or, as Dr. Johnson describes
them,
i€
milk curdled with wine and other acids/* known
under the name of Possets—such as milk-posset, pepper-
posset, cider-posset, or egg-posset. Most of these, now-