Mr. Editor,--In reading your account of the “Boar’s Head Carol,” in your _Every-Day Book_, vol. i. p. 1619, I find the _old_ carol, but not the words of the carol as sung _at present_ in Queen’s College, Oxford, on Christmas-day. As I think it possible you may never have seen them, I now send you a copy as they were sung, or, more properly, chanted, in the hall of Queen’s, on Christmas-day, 1810, at which time I was a member of the college, and assisted at the chant. A boar’s head in hand bear 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; And when bedeck’d with a gay garland Let us servire cantico.-- Caput apri, &c. Our steward hath provided this, In honour of the King of bliss: Which on this day to be served is In reginensi atrio.-- Caput apri, &c. I am, &c. A QUONDAM QUEENSMAN. * * * * * BEATING THE LAPSTONE. _For the Table Book._ There is a custom of “beating the lapstone,” the day after Christmas, at Nettleton, near Burton. The shoemakers beat the lapstone at the houses of all water-drinkers, in consequence of a neighbour, Thomas Stickler, who had not tasted malt liquor for twenty years, having been made tipsy by drinking only a _half pint of ale_ at his shoemaker’s, at Christmas. When he got home, he tottered into his house, and his good dame said, “John, where have you been?--why, you are in liquor?”--“No, I am not,” hiccuped John, “I’ve only _fell over the lapstone_, and that has _beaten my leg_, so as I can’t walk quite right.” Hence the annual practical joke--“beating the lapstone.” P. ~Manners.~ GAMBLING-HOUSES A CENTURY AGO. From “The London Mercury” of January 13, 1721-2. There are, it seems, in the parish of Covent-garden, twenty-two such houses, some of which clear sometimes 100_l._, and seldom less than 40_l._ a night. They have their proper officers, both civil and military, with salaries proportionable to their respective degrees, and the importance they are of in the service, viz. _A commissioner_, or commis, who is always a proprietor of the gaming-house: he looks in once a night, and the week’s account is audited by him and two others of the proprietors. _A director_, who superintends the room. _The operator_, the dealer at faro. _Croupees_ two, who watch the card, and gather the money for the bank. _A puff_, one who has money given him to play, in order to decoy others. _A clerk_, who is a check upon the puff, to see that he sinks none of that money.--A _squib_ is a puff of a lower rank, and has half the salary of a puff. _A flasher_, one who sits by to swear how often he has seen the bank stript. _A dunner_, waiters. _An attorney_, or solicitor.