The Mallard of All Souls

On 14 January All Souls College held a great merrymaking in memory of an enormous mallard said to have been found in a drain when the foundations were dug in 1437. The story goes that Archbishop Chichele dreamed he would find a fat mallard shut up in a sewer at the corner of the site, and the diggers heard it struggling and quacking before they brought out a bird the size of a bustard. The college sang the Mallard Song, with its chorus of a swapping, swapping mallard. The song is still sung at All Souls, and the full Mallard ceremony is held once a century.