The long-expected death of this good and great man took place at
Abbotsford on Friday, September 21. Our seventh volume contains
a Portrait and Memoir of his life to the year 1826; and it is our
intention to prepare for our ensuing number, a brief memoir continued
to his last days, with a wood-cut portrait from the latest painting.
About twelve months since, Sir Walter wrote, with almost prophetic
pen, the following passage in the introduction to his last published
work: "The gentle reader is acquainted, that these are, in all
probability, the last tales which it will be the lot of the author to
submit to the public." The sequel has not been so far realized, though
the accordance of the closing line with the last hours of the deceased
bears a consoling balm: "He is now on the eve of visiting foreign
parts; a ship of war is commissioned by its royal master to carry the
Author of Waverley to climates in which he may possibly obtain such a
restoration of health as may serve him to spin his thread to an end in
his own country."
_Eating Goose on Michaelmas Day_.--Although this custom can be traced
through upwards of three centuries, its origin has not been decided by
antiquaries. The commonly received belief is that a goose forming part
of the royal dinner when the news was brought to Queen Elizabeth of
the defeat of the Spanish Armada, her chivalrous majesty commanded
that the dish (a goose) then before her, might be served up on every
29th of September, to commemorate the above glorious event. Mr. Douce,
the learned antiquarian illustrator, saw the above reason "somewhere"
(such is his expression); but Mr. Brand thinks this rather to be a
stronger proof that the custom prevailed at court in Queen Elizabeth's
time. Its origin, however, is referable to the previous century:
since, bringing a goose "fit for the lord's dinner," on this day
appears to have been customary even in the time of Edward IV.; and,
that it was common before the Armada victory, is shown the following
passage in Gascoigne, who died in 1577, or eleven years before the
above event:--
"And when the tenauntes come to pay their quarter's rent,
They bring some fowle at Midsummer, a dish of fish at Lent;
At Christmasse a capon, _at Michaelmas a goose_,
And somewhat else at New Yere's-tide, _for feare their leave flies
loose_."
The reason given by Blount, in his _Tenures_, is considered far from
satisfactory. Beckwith, his editor, says, "Probably no other reason
can be given for this custom, but that Michaelmas Day was a great
festival, and geese at that time were most plentiful." The origin of
the saying that "if you eat goose on Michaelmas Day, you will never
want money all the year round," is explained, in the _British Apollo_,
as follows:--
The custom came up from the tenants presenting
Their landlords with geese to incline their relenting
On following payments.