"This carol (says Warton,) with many alterations, is yet retained at Queen's College, Oxford," though "other ancient carols occur with Latin burthens or Latin intermixtures." But, "Being anxious to obtain a correct copy of this ballad," says Dr. Dibdin, in his AMES, "as I had myself heard it sung in the Hall of Queen's College, I wrote to the Rev. Mr. Dickinson, Tutor of the College, to favour me with an account of it: his answer, which may gratify the curious, is here subjoined. "'_Queen's College, June 7th_, 1811. "'DEAR SIR,--I have much pleasure in transmitting you a copy of the old _Boar's Head Song_, as it has been sung in our College-hall, every Christmas Day, within my remembrance. There are some barbarisms in it, which seem to betoken its antiquity. It is sung to the common chaunt of the prose version of the Psalms in cathedrals; at least, whenever I have attended the service at Magdalen or New College Chapels, I have heard the Boar's Head strain continually occurring in the Psalms. "'The boar's head in hand bring I, Bedeck'd with bays and rosemary; And I pray you, my masters, be merry, Quot estis in convivio. _Caput apri defero_ _Reddens laudes Domino_. "'The boar's head, as I understand, Is the rarest dish in all this land, Which thus bedeck'd with a gay garland, Let us servire Cantico. _Caput apri defero_ _Reddens laudes Domino_. "'Our steward hath provided this In honour of the King of Bliss; Which on this day to be served is, In Regimensi Atrio. _Caput apri defero_ _Reddens laudes Domino_.'"