Every year on the 17th of January the good people of Somerset Wassail the apple trees to make sure of a good apple harvest. The 17th is the old twelfth night. This is believed to be a very old custom. The word Wassail is an Anglo-Saxon Phrase and was used as an every day greeting.

The Somerset Wassail

Wassail and wassail all over the town
The cup it is white and the ale it is brown
The cup it is made of the good ashen tree
And so is the malt of the best barley

For its your wassail and its our wassail
And its joy be to you and a jolly wassail

Oh master and missus, are you all within?
Pray open the door and let us come in
O master and missus a-sitting by the fire
Pray think on us poor travelers, a traveling in the mire

Oh where is the maid with the silver-headed pin
To open the door and let us come in
Oh master and missus, it is our desire
A good loaf and cheese and a toast by the fire
There was an old man and he had an old cow
And how for to keep her he didn't know how
He built up a barn for to keep his cow warm
And a drop or two of cider will do us no harm

The girt dog of Langport he burnt his long tail
And this is the night we go singing wassail
O master and missus now we must be gone
God bless all in this house until we do come again.

A Great hound five miles long and one mile wide guards the land port. Allegedly the thirteenth sign of the Glastonbury zodiac (Map).

The nose is at Burrow Mump, Burrowbridge
The tail is at Wagg Drove, Huish Episcopi and was the last significant battle site of the civil war in July 1645
The ear is at Earlake Moor, near Othery
The river Parrett is his belly