You see, your man Handsel used to sail with me.

From the first he stood beside me for taking Handsel.

We will need an envoy, a path and a handsel.

I've brought you the handsel of my innocence!"

The company is now called Handsel Press.

"The other would have," Handsel said grimly. "

The first handsel today, gentleman.

On the evening of Handsel Monday, as it is called, some of his neighbours came to make merry with him.

The four Handsel sisters were of Danish origin but they had moved to the Wilton area.

"You will stay with the fluyt," I told Handsel.

Their brief meetings were usually concluded by the unobtrusivepassing of a comfortable handsel from uncle to nephew.

"You know Handsel best.

A Scots handsel (1980)

The envoy finds the person summoned, the path brings him to the summoner and the handsel (or gift) binds him to come.

This is an out-of-print booklet that was published in 1978 by Handsel Publications (formerly of Dundee).

Peter Sacks, Handsel Books, 2003.

Faith theology, and imagination (Edinburgh: Handsel Press, 1987)

Edinburgh: The Handsel Press, 1981.

Where's Peter Handsel?"

New York: Handsel Books/Other Press.

He named next year's apples and pears from Mr Norrell's trees as the handsel the King was to receive.

Handsel was a word for gift box and hence Handsel Day.

The town is said to have gained its name from Handsel Burrow Blanks, of Warren County, Mississippi.

Earliest day on which Handsel Monday can fall, while January 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Monday of the year.

HANDSEL, first money taken.

And now by such illumination, jubilee, dancing and fire-working, do we joyously handsel the new Social Edifice, and first raise heat and reek there, in the name of Hope.

The television, which normally hansel led in the first of January, was blank and silent in the corner.

In the run-up to next month's Twickenham showdown, discussions are understood to be taking place on the staging of a floodlit fixture to officially hansel the completed Murrayfield super-stadium in the autumn of 1994.

Certainly there is Biblical precedent for splashing out on special occasions - Martha's anointing of Jesus with the expensive ointment could easily be used as a justification for spraying around a little champagne to hansel a special occasion.