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