After looking up 'Wassail Bowl' in Dorothy Hartley's 'Food in England' I also found the following on 'Dorset Moss': Irish Moss, or Dorset Moss (Chrondrus Crispus) Though now thought of as an Irish speciality, was called 'Dorset weed', and near Cerne Abbas I found it hung up in bags in cottages, where they used it medicinally. In Yorkshire it was made into blancmanges. The chemist knows it as Iberian moss. It is vegetable gelatine, and can be used instead of gelatine or isinglass. As it has iodine and other valuable salts it is rightly considered better than ordinary jelly for invalids. It is specially valuable for some gland troubles. Children with adenoids or sore throats were dosed with it hot at bedtime. It is gathered in April or May (realise that there is a season for plants in the sea as well as on the land), and when gathered it is light brown; or sometimes you can gather it, already bleached, on the shore. Wash it well in running brook water, and spread it out to dry on the grass. If the wind blows you must pack it down under a fish-net so that it does not get blown away. Keep pouring buckets of fresh water over it, or if it rains, that is very good. When bleached a creamy white, trim off rough places, stalks, etc. (you can see to do this better when it is white than when it is brown). Give it a final wash, dry thoroughly, until it is really crisp, and then store it in bags hung up in a dry place. Note: Properly prepared, it will keep indefinitely, but if you have not got the salt out, like all salt things, it will pick up the damp. Regards - Judith Gibbons Coventry, UK