In most of the western parts of Devonshire a superstitions custom prevails, that on Christmas Eve, at twelve o'clock, oxen in their stalls are always kneeling, as in the attitude of devotion; but since the style was altered, they do this on Old Christmas Eve only. At Whitbeck, in Cumberland, they have a similar superstition; the _bees_ are said to sing on the midnight before Christmas Day, and the oxen to kneel at the same hour. In many parts of the north too it should be observed, it is customary for men to go out and cut large ash and holly sticks and entwine them over the doors of their houses. And in Cumberland, little maidens assemble on Christmas to _guess who their husband shall be_, which is done by collecting peculiar sticks, and looking for some singular mark upon them. This is the time when sweethearts too send round their presents to the young lasses, by whom others are returned. The custom of keeping open house is, I think, obsolete. Haddon Hall (so late as Queen Elizabeth) was kept open during twelve days after Christmas, with the _old English_ hospitality. I observe also in some old books accounts of a feast of "cakes and ales" being usual.[9] In the book of _Christmasse Carolles_, by Wynkyn de Worde in 1521, are the following verses on bringing in the Boar's head:-- "A Carrol bryngyne in the boar's head, _Caput Apri defero._ _Redden laudes Domino._ "The bore's head in hande brynge I, With garlaudes gay and rosemary I praye you all synge merely, _Qui estis in convivio._ "The bore's head I understande Is the chefe servyce in this lande, Looke wherever it be fand, _Servite cum cantico._ "Be gladde both man and lasse For this hath ordayned our stewarde To chere you all this Christmasse The bore's head with mustarde." Upon the young prince's coronation, 1170, Henry II. "served his son at the table as server, bringing up the _bore's head_ with _trumpets_ before it, according to the manner."--_Hollinshed_. The boar's head was stuffed "_with branches of rosemary_, "it appears with trumpets playing, so that "_it was a grande syghte_." It would appear they had grand doings at the inns of court during Christmas. The usual dish at the first course at dinner was "a large _bore's head_ upon a silver platter, with minstralsye."--_Dugdale's Orig. Jur._ Before the last civil wars, the first diet in gentlemen's houses that was brought to table at Christmas was a _boar's head with a lemon in his mouth_. At Queen's College, Oxford, the custom is retained; the bearer of it brings it into the hall singing to an old tune, an old Latin rhyme, _Caput Apri Defero, &c._