Formerly the bailiffs of Maldon sent on the first day of the year, to the king’s vice-admiral of Essex a present of oysters and wild fowl. Sir John Bramston notices the arrival of the gift on New Year’s Day (March 26), 1688, in his _Autobiography_, printed for the Camden Society in 1845. HEREFORDSHIRE. At Bromyard and its neighbourhood, as twelve o’clock on the 31st of December draws near, and the last of the Christmas carols are heard without doors, and a pleasurable excitement is playing on the faces of the family around the last Christmas log within, a rush is made to the nearest spring of water, and whoever is fortunate enough to first bring in the “cream of the well,” as it is termed, and those who first taste of it, have “prospect of good luck through the forthcoming year.” Also, in the early hours of the New Year, after a funeral service has been said over “Old Tom” as the old year is called, at the public-houses and ale and cider stores, the streets are filled with boys and men, singing in the loudest tones possible: “I wish you a merry Christmas And a happy New Year, A pocket full of money, And a cellar full of beer, And a good fat pig To serve you all the year. Ladies and gentlemen Sat (_sic_) by the fire, Pity we poor boys Out in the mire.” _The Antiquary_, 1873, vol. iii. p. 7. In the neighbourhood of Ross, it is deemed most unfortunate for a woman to enter the house first, and therefore an inquiry is generally made whether a male has previously been there. It is customary for the peasantry to send about on this day a small pyramid, made of leaves, apples, nuts, &c.--Fosbroke, _Sketches of Ross_, 1822, p. 58. LANCASHIRE. Should a female, or a light-haired male, be the first to enter a house on the morning of New Year’s Day, it is supposed to bring bad luck for the whole of the year then commencing. Various precautions are taken to prevent this misfortune: hence many male persons with black or dark hair are in the habit of going from house to house, on that day, to take the New Year in; for which they are treated with liquor, and presented with a small gratuity. So far is the apprehension carried, that some families will not open the door to any one until satisfied by the voice that he is likely to bring the house a year’s good luck by entering it. The most kindly and charitable woman in a neighbourhood will strongly refuse to give any one a light on the morning of New Year’s Day, as most unlucky to the one who gives it away.--Harland and Wilkinson’s _Lancashire Folk-Lore_, 1867, p. 214. ISLE OF MAN. On this day an old custom, says Train in his _History of the Isle of Man_ (1845, vol. ii. p. 115), is observed called the _quaaltagh_. In almost every parish throughout the island, a party of young men go from house to house singing the following rhyme: