Lobscouse and Ponsondie

In Cumberland and other northern parts of England, Twelfth Night ended the Christmas holidays with a dance in a large room from seven o’clock until twelve. Then the company sat down to lobscouse, a fry of beef, potatoes and onions, and ponsondie, hot ale boiled with sugar and nutmeg with roasted apples in it, which Hone took for the old wassail or lamb’s wool. The feast was paid for by subscription: two women went round the women with two wooden bowls set one inside the other, slipping each gift into the lower bowl, and two men did the same for the men, one of them writing down every sum.