Editing All Souls College, Oxford (section)

==Customs==
Every hundred years, and generally on 14 January, there is a commemorative feast after which the fellows parade around the college with flaming torches, singing the ''[[Mallard Song]]'' and led by a "Lord Mallard" who is carried in a chair, in search of a legendary mallard that supposedly flew out of the foundations of the college when it was being built.<ref>{{cite web|website= British Folk Customs |url= http://www.information-britain.co.uk/customdetail.php?id=59 |title=Hunting the Mallard, Oxfordshire }}</ref> During the hunt the Lord Mallard is preceded by a man bearing a pole to which a mallard is tied – originally a live bird, latterly either dead (1901) or carved from wood (2001). The last mallard ceremony was in 2001<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mallard leads Oxford fellows a merry dance |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1314859/Mallard-leads-Oxford-fellows-a-merry-dance.html|first= Linus |last=Gregoriadis |author2=Sean O'Neill |access-date=2023-06-29 |website=www.telegraph.co.uk}}</ref> and the next is due in 2101. The precise origin of the custom is not known, but it dates from at least 1632.<ref>HOLE, Christina, ''English Custom and Usage'', London, Batsford, 1941, p.28: "...we know that the custom existed at least as early as 1632, for in that year Archbishop Abbot censured the college for a riot "in pretence of a foolish Mallard". "Mallard" has since become a colloquialism at the college, generally meaning "rubbish".</ref> A benign parody of this custom has been portrayed as the [[Unseen University]]'s "Megapode chase" in Sir [[Terry Pratchett]]'s 2009 novel ''[[Unseen Academicals]]''.