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Bryng us in good ale, and bryng us in good ale;

© Stuart Buchanan MacWatt

Travelsleuth Stuart Buchanan MacWatt traces the long history of the Christmas Carol; its near demise and reinvention in Victorian times by the headmaster of Wellington College who became the Queen's Chaplain and then Archbishop of Canterbury.

At Christmas of Christ many carols we sing Door to door carol singing is a treasured memory of my early adulthood. Two weeks before Christmas Day, I would meet meet up at a friend's house to rehearse a medley of popular carols and wassail songs, enjoy a glass or two of mulled beer, cider or wine, and work out the route we would take on our charity carol singing jaunt around the leafy avenues of Hampstead in North London.

The following Sunday evening we would gather again at the house to venture forth on our round. Our original group of six or seven had by then swollen to double that number with the accretion of brothers, sisters, girlfriends and boyfriends eager to join us on our Christmas parade through the quiet streets.

Armed with lanterns, carol sheets and collecting boxes, and well muffled up against chill mists of the December night, we set out. Our perambulating route might have seemed erratic but had been carefully pre-planned down to the last ornate brass doorknocker.

We were calling on households which were expecting us, thanks to judicious advance telephoning by our appointed coordinator. And what a welcome we received. After singing our chosen carol at the front door we would be invited in to enjoy a miniature buffet and a glass of hot toddy awaiting us in the dining room - and when we left we were handed a handsome donation, usually in the form of a fat cheque.

When in later life I had settled with my family in a remote Cornish farmhouse on Bodmin Moor, we were the recipients of such an annual door-to-door visit of carol singers. But moorland farmsteads are some miles apart down unlit country lanes and the carolers beat their path to our door in a convoy of Range Rovers.

They were unwittingly carrying on a centuries old West country tradition of the "Holly Riders"; moorland groups of carol singers touring remote farms with lanterns and wearing a sprig of holly on their coats and a holly wreath around hats. Their lusty singing was reputedly rewarded with pennies or cakes and cider. The Holly riders were,in turn, following the much older custom of "wassailing" at Christmastide, where groups called on households to drink a round of good health for the coming year and receive gifts.