About the year A.D. 960 wood tankards were in everyday use in all households, large or small, the early specimens being made with small staves held together by hoops of wattle or hide on a solid wood base, the inside being well lined with pitch. These tankards were fitted with wood handles and lids, and were the recognised drinking in vessels in taverns and inns during the reigns of the last Saxon kings; they were made to hold two quarts of liquor and the contents were consumed at such a speed that both the State and the Church had to step in. King Edgar, the son of King Edmund, was the originator of the idea of decreasing drunkenness by limiting the quantity to be drunk at one time; thus we read that he: Ordained certain cups, with pins or nails set in them, adding thereto a law, that what person drank past the mark at one draught should forfeit a penny, whereof half should fall to the accuser and the other half to the ruler of the town where the offence was done. These vessels became known as " peg tankards, or " pin tankards, and were divided into eight sections, each marked off by a peg driven into the wood on the inside of the tankard. The theory was to prevent a member of a company drinking more than his share, or to a point below the next pin, but apparently it did not have much effect, for we read that in later years Archbishop Anselm found it necessary to inveigh against he practice of over drinking, also decreeing: Ut presbyteri non eant ad potationes, nec ad pinneas bibant," which being translated means that priests shall not resort to taverns and banquets, " nor drink to pins"!

It is to the Saxons we owe the title of wassail" bowl, and the meaning of the name is plain when we remember the tradition that the Lady Rowena, a daughter of the Saxon King Hengist, toasted King Vortigern of Britain in a chased golden goblet on her knees with the words " Liever Kyning, Wass Hael ! which being interpreted is Lord King, Your Health! "

'Health, my lord King,' the sweet Rowena said,
'Health,' cried the chieftain to the Saxon maid;
Then gaily rose, and 'mid the concourse wide,
Kissed her pale lips and placed her by his side.

The Saxons rarely, if ever, had a feast without handing round the Wassail Bowl, a custom merged into the handing round of the Loving Cup, of which anon.
Robert Herrick (1591-1674), (one of the sweetest lyrical poets and the author of Cherry Ripe ) in his " Twelfth Night or King & Queen, sang thus, at a later date. of a wassail bowl which was still in fashion in his day at festivals :

"And let not a man then be seene here
Who unurg'd will not drinke,
To the base from the brinke
A health to the King & Queen here,
Next crown the bowl full
With gentle lamb's wool;
Addle sugar, nutmeg and ginger;
With store of ale too
And thus ye must doe
To make the wassaile a swinger.

Down to comparatively recent days wassailers used to go round in the villages of Lancashire at Christmas tide with their bunches of evergreens hung with seasonable fruit, singing:

"Here we come a wassailing
Among the leaves so green;
Here we come a singing,
So fair to be seen.
For it is in Christmas time
Strangers travel far and near;
So God bless you and send you
A Happy New Year.