Though early modern students at St Andrews were expected to live beneath one college roof, and eat at a common table, the presbyterian tradition, and students and masters pleading poverty, precluded any great Christmas feast. Indeed, the college diet books record the common meal of the 25th of December as being the same as every other day: bread, ale and perhaps some meat or fish.
But unlike presbyterian Scotland, our ancient sister universities in England had a long-standing tradition of collegiate Christmas feasting. A carol which appeared in several of the compilations consulted for this calendar was the “boar’s head carol”, said to be sung at Christmas dinners at the Oxford colleges. W.T. Stead offers this version:
‘Boar’s head carol (1521)’
“The boar’s head in hand bring I,
with garlands gay and rosemary,
I pray you all sing merrily,
Qui estis in convivio.
Caput Apri defero
Reddens laudes Domino. (1)
Be glad Lords both more and less,
For this hath ordained our Steward
To cheer you all this Christmas,
The Boar’s head with mustard.
Caput Apri defero
Reddens laudes Domino. (3)”
(Extract taken from “The poets’ Christmas”, W.T. Stead, pp. 18 – 19)
William Sandys also records a somewhat jauntier version of Oxford’s boar-centric feasting carol titled “On bringing in the bore’s head”. Sandys suggests this was specifically used at St John the Baptist’s College, Oxford (Christmas 1607). This rendition pairs ‘mustard’ with ‘custard’ for a neat rhyme if a rather experimental dinner:
“Then sett downe the Swineyard,
The foe to the Vineyard,
Lett Bacchus crowne his fall,
lett this Boares-head and mustard
stand for Pigg, Goose, and Custard,
and so ye are welcome all.” (3)
(Extract taken from “Christmas carols, ancient and modern”, William Sandys p. 37)
As the University of St Andrews itself has no tradition of serving boar, we’ve taken a wander to gather a sounder of boars from the historic collections.
Here are some charming woodcut boars taken from Konrad Gesner’s encyclopaedia of animals (1551 – 1558; TypSwZ.B51FG). What St Andrews did boast for a time in the 1950s, courtesy of the Abernethy Hotel, was house-resident ‘Pig McGinty’. This runt of the litter was adopted by hotel proprietors Mr and Mrs W. Jamieson and settled in well with their other animal residents.
For information on changing practices of Christmas feasting at St Andrews, see: https://university-collections.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/2016/12/15/christmas-feasting-in-st-andrews/
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Thoroughly enjoying the choices drawn from ‘Echoes from the Vault’ in the lead up to Christmas…Just one very minor observation~ the caption accompanying the photo of house pet Pig McGinty might give the impression that the Abernethy Hotel was in St Andrews.
Mr& Mrs Jamieson ~ whom I am old enough to remember!~ owned The Cross Keys Hotel in Market Street St Andrews which was where Pig McGinty resided.
The Jamiesons had adopted him from the owners of The Abernethy Hotel which was in the Town of Abernethy.