Oxford.
_Ashton Faggot: A Devonshire Custom._--The ashton faggot is burned on
Christmas eve. The faggot is composed entirely of ash timber, and the
separate sticks or branches are securely bound together with ash bands.
The faggot is made as large as can conveniently be burned in the
fireplace, or rather upon the floor, grates not being in use. A numerous
company is generally assembled to spend the evening in games and
amusement, the diversion being heightened as the faggot blazes on the
hearth, as a quart of cider is considered due, and is called for, and
served upon the bursting of every hoop or band bound round the faggot.
The timber being green and elastic, each band generally bursts open with
a smart report when the individual stick or hoop has been partially
burned through.
_Offerings to the Apple-trees: Devonshire Superstition._--It was a
custom in Devonshire, and probably in some of the adjoining counties
also, to perform the following ceremonial on Old Christmas Eve, or
Twelfth Day, namely: In the evening the farmer's family and friends
being assembled, hot wheat-flour cakes were introduced, with cider; and
this was served round to the company, the cake being dipped in the
cider, and then eaten. As the evening wore on, the assembled company
adjourned into the orchard, some one bearing hot cake and cider as an
offering to the principal tree in the orchard; the cake was deposited on
a fork of the tree, and the cider was then thrown over it, the men
firing off muskets, fowling-pieces, pistols, &c., the women, girls, and
boys shouting and screaming to the trees with all the excitement of
young Indians the following rhyme:--
"Bear blue, apples and pears enoug';
Barn fulls, bag fulls, sack fulls. Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!"
Query, Do these customs prevail to this day either in Devonshire or in
other European countries?