This day was formerly celebrated in All Souls College, Oxford, in commemoration of the discovery of a very large mallard or drake in a drain, when digging for the foundation of the college; and though this observance no longer exists, yet on one of the college “gaudies” there is sung in memory of the occurrence a very old song called “The swapping, swapping mallard.” “THE MERRY OLD SONG OF THE ALL SOULS MALLARD. “Griffin, bustard, turkey, capon, Let other hungry mortals gape on; And on the bones their stomach fall hard, But let All Souls’ men have their Mallard. Oh! by the blood of King Edward,[9] Oh! by the blood of King Edward, It was a swapping, swapping Mallard. The Romans once admired a gander More than they did their chief commander; Because he saved, if some don’t fool us, The place that’s called th’ ‘_head of Tolus_.’ Oh! by the blood of King Edward, &c. The poets feign Jove turned a swan, But let them prove it if they can; As for our proof, ’tis not at all hard, For it was a swapping, swapping Mallard. Oh! by the blood of King Edward, &c. Therefore let us sing and dance a galliard, To the remembrance of the Mallard; And as the Mallard dives in pool, Let us dabble, dive, and duck in bowl. Oh! by the blood of King Edward, Oh! by the blood of King Edward, It was a swapping, swapping Mallard.” [9] The allusion to King Edward is surely an anachronism, as King Henry VI. was reigning at the time of the foundation of the college.--_Book of Days_, vol. i. p. 114. When Pointer wrote his _Oxoniensis Academia_ (1749), he committed a grave offence by insinuating that this immortalised mallard was no other than a _goose_. The insinuation produced a reply from Dr. Buckler, replete with irresistible irony; but Pointer met a partisan in Mr. Bilson, chaplain of All Souls, who issued a folio sheet entitled ‘Proposals for printing by subscription the History of the Mallardians,’ with the figure of a cat prefixed, said to have been found starved in the college library.--_Hist. of Co. of Oxford_, 1852, p. 144. JAN. 17.] SEPTUAGESIMA. Septuagesima occurs between this day and February the 22nd, according as the Paschal full moon falls. It was formerly distinguished by a strange ceremony, denominated the _Funeral of Alleluia_. On the Saturday of Septuagesima, at nones, the choristers assembled in the great vestiary of the cathedral, and there arranged the ceremony. Having finished the last _benedicamus_, they advanced with crosses, torches, holy waters, and incense, carrying a turf in the manner of a coffin, passed through the choir, and went howling to the cloister as far as the place of interment; and then having sprinkled the water and censed the place, returned by the same road.--Fosbroke’s _British Monachism_, 1843, p. 56. JAN. 20.] ST. AGNES’ EVE.