_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
You, many a plum, and many a peare,
For more or less fruits they will bring,
As you do give them _wassailing_."