* * * * *
The “Gentleman’s Magazine” notices a singular custom at
Kidderminster--“On the election of a bailiff the inhabitants assemble in
the principal streets to throw cabbage stalks at each other. The
town-house bell gives signal for the affray. This is called lawless
hour. This done, (for it lasts an hour,) the bailiff elect and
corporation, in their robes, preceded by drums and fifes, (for they have
no waits,) visit the old and new bailiff, constables, &c. &c. attended
by the mob. In the mean time the most respectable families in the
neighbourhood are invited, to meet and fling apples at them on their
entrance. I have known forty pots of apples expended at one house.”
_Michaelmas Goose._
“September, when by custom (right divine)
Geese are ordain’d to bleed at Michael’s shrine.”
_Churchill._
Mr. Brand notices the English custom of having a roast goose to dinner
on Michaelmas-day. He cites Blount as telling us that “goose-intentos”
is a word used in Lancashire, where “the husbandmen claim it as a due to
have a goose _intentos_ on the sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost; which
custom took origin from the last word of the old church-prayer of that
day: ‘Tua, nos quæsumus, Domine, gratia semper præveniat et sequitur; ac
bonis operibus jugiter præstet esse intentos.’ The common people very
humourously mistake it for a goose with _ten toes_.” To this Mr. Brand
objects, on the authority of Beckwith, in his new edition of the
“Jocular Tenures:” that “besides that the sixteenth Sunday after
Pentecost, or after Trinity rather, being movable, and seldom falling
upon Michaelmas-day, which is an immovable feast, the service for that
day could very rarely be used at Michaelmas, there does not appear to be
the most distant allusion to a goose in the words of that prayer.
Probably no other reason can be given for this custom, but that
Michaelmas-day was a great festival, and geese at that time most
plentiful. In Denmark, where the harvest is later, every family has a
roasted goose for supper on St. Martin’s Eve.”
Mr. Douce is quoted by Mr. Brand, as saying, “I have somewhere seen the
following reason for eating goose on Michaelmas-day, viz. that queen
Elizabeth received the news of the defeat of the Spanish Armada, whilst
she was eating a goose on Michaelmas-day, and that in commemoration of
that event she ever afterwards on that day dined on a goose.” This Mr.
Brand regards as strong proof that the custom prevailed even at court in
queen Elizabeth’s time; and observing that it was in use in the tenth
year of king Edward the Fourth, as will be shown presently, he
represents it to have been a practice in queen Elizabeth’s reign, before
the event of the Spanish defeat, from the “Posies of Gascoigne,”
published in 1575.
“And when the tenauntes come
to paie their quarter’s rent,
They bring some fowle at Midsummer,
a dish of fish in Lent,
At Christmasse a capon,
at _Michaelmasse_ A GOOSE;
And somewhat else at New-yeres tide,
_for feare their lease flie loose_.”
_Gascoyne._
So also the periodical paper called “The World,” represents that “When
the reformation of the calendar was in agitation, to the great disgust
of many worthy persons who urged how great the harmony was in the old
establishment between the holidays and their attributes, (if I may call
them so,) and what confusion would follow if MICHAELMAS-DAY, for
instance, was not to _be celebrated when stubble-geese are in their
highest perfection_; it was replied, that such a propriety was merely
imaginary, and would be lost of itself, even without any alteration of
the calendar by authority: for if the errors in it were suffered to go
on, they would in a certain number of years produce such a variation,
that we should be mourning for a good king Charles on a false thirtieth
of January, at a time of year when our ancestors used to be tumbling
over head and heels in Greenwich-park in honour of Whitsuntide: and at
length be choosing king and queen for Twelfth Night, when we ought to be
admiring the London prentice at Bartholomew-fair.”
According to Brand, geese are eaten by ploughmen at the harvest-home;
and it is a popular saying, “If you eat goose on Michaelmas-day you will
never want money all the year round.”
In 1470, John de la Hay took of William Barnaby, lord of Lastres, in the
county of Hereford, one parcel of the land of that demesne, rendering
twenty-pence a year, and one _goose_ fit for the lord’s dinner on the
feast of St. Michael the archangel, with suit of court and other
services.
* * * * *
According to Martin, in his “Description of the Western Islands of
Scotland,” the protestant inhabitants of Skie, observe the festivals of
Christmas, Easter, Good Friday, and that of St. Michael, on which latter
day they have a cavalcade in each parish, and several families bake the
cake called St. Michael’s bannock. So also, “They have likewise a
general cavalcade on St. Michael’s-day in Kilbar village, and do then
also take a turn round their church. Every family, as soon as the
solemnity is ended, is accustomed to bake St. Michael’s cake, and all
strangers, together with those of the family, must eat the bread that
night.” We read too, in Macauley’s History, that “It was, till of late,
a universal custom among the islanders, on Michaelmas-day, to prepare in
every family a loaf or cake of bread, enormously large, and compounded
of different ingredients. This cake belonged to the archangel, and had
its name from him. Every one in each family, whether strangers or
domestics, had his portion of this kind of shew-bread, and had, of
course, some title to the friendship and protection of Michael.”
* * * * *
Macauley, in the “History of St. Kilda,” says, that “In Ireland a sheep
was killed in every family that could afford one, on the same
anniversary; and it was ordained by law that a part of it should be
given to the poor. This, and a great deal more was done in that kingdom,
to perpetuate the memory of a miracle wrought there by St. Patrick
through the assistance of the archangel. In commemoration of this,
Michaelmas was instituted a festival day of joy, plenty, and universal
benevolence.”
_Ganging Day._
Mr. Brand found in a London newspaper of October 18, 1787, the following
extraordinary _septennial_ custom at Bishops Stortford, in
Hertfordshire, and in the adjacent neighbourhood, on _old_
Michaelmas-day: “On the morning of this day, called Ganging-day, a great
number of young men assemble in the fields, when a very active fellow is
nominated the leader. This person they are bound to follow, who, for the
sake of diversion, generally chooses the route through ponds, ditches,
and places of difficult passage. Every person they meet is bumped, male
or female; which is performed by two other persons taking them up by
their arms, and swinging them against each other. The women in general
keep at home at this period, except those of less scrupulous character,
who, for the sake of partaking of a gallon of ale and a plumb-cake,
which every landlord or publican is obliged to furnish the revellers
with, generally spend the best part of the night in the fields, if the
weather is fair; it being strictly according to ancient usage not to
partake of the cheer any where else.”
M. Stevenson, in “The Twelve Moneths, Lond. 1661, 4to.” mentions the
following superstition; “They say, so many dayes old the moon is on
Michaelmass-day, so many floods after.”
_Anecdote of a Goose._
An amusing account of a Canada goose once the property of Mr. Sharpe, at
Little Grove, near East Barnet, was inserted by that gentleman in his
copy of “Willughby’s Ornithology.” He says:--
The following account of a Canada goose is so extraordinary, that I am
aware it would with difficulty gain credit, were not a whole parish able
to vouch for the truth of it. The Canada geese are not fond of a
poultry-yard, but are rather of a rambling disposition. One of these
birds, however, was observed to attach itself, in the strongest and most
affectionate manner, to the house-dog; and would never quit the kennel,
except for the purpose of feeding, when it would return again
immediately. It always sat by the dog; but never presumed to go into the
kennel, except in rainy weather. Whenever the dog barked, the goose
would cackle and run at the person she supposed the dog barked at, and
try to bite him by the heels. Sometimes she would attempt to feed with
the dog; but this the dog, who treated his faithful companion rather
with indifference, would not suffer.
This bird would not go to roost with the others at night, unless driven
by main force; and when, in the morning, she was turned into the field,
she would never stir from the yard gate, but sit there the whole day, in
sight of the dog. At last, orders were given that she should be no
longer molested, but suffered to accompany the dog as she liked: being
thus left to herself, she ran about the yard with him all the night; and
what is particularly extraordinary, and can be attested by the whole
parish, whenever the dog went out of the yard and ran into the village,
the goose always accompanied him, contriving to keep up with him by the
assistance of her wings; and in this way of running and flying, followed
him all over the parish.
This extraordinary affection of the goose towards the dog, which
continued till his death, two years after it was first observed, is
supposed to have originated from his having accidentally saved her from
a fox in the very moment of distress. While the dog was ill, the goose
never quitted him day or night, not even to feed; and it was apprehended
that she would have been starved to death, had not orders been given for
a pan of corn to be set every day close to the kennel. At this time the
goose generally sat in the kennel, and would not suffer any one to
approach it, except the person who brought the dog’s or her own food.
The end of this faithful bird was melancholy; for, when the dog died,
she would still keep possession of the kennel; and a new house-dog being
introduced, which in size and colour resembled that lately lost, the
poor goose was unhappily deceived; and going into the kennel as usual,
the new inhabitant seized her by the throat, and killed her.
* * * * *
Michaelmas-day is one of the “four usual quarter-days, or days for
payment of rent in the year.”
_A Michaelmas Notice to quit._
To ALL gad-flies and gnats, famed for even-tide hum,
To the blue-bottles, too, with their gossamer drum;
To all long-legs and moths, thoughtless rogues still at ease,
Old Winter sends greeting--health, friendship, and these.
WHEREAS, on complaint lodged before me this day,
That for months back, to wit, from the first day of May,
Various insects, pretenders to beauty and birth,
Have, on venturesome wing, lately traversed the earth,
And, mistaking fair Clara’s chaste lips for a rose,
Stung the beauty in public--and frightened her beaux.
AND, WHEREAS, on the last sultry evening in June,
The said Clara was harmlessly humming a tune;
A blue-bottle, sprung from some dunghill, no doubt,
Buzzed about her so long--he at last put her out.
AND WHEREAS sundry haunches and high-seasoned pies,
And a thousand sweet necks have been o’errun with flies;
In his wisdom, Old Winter thinks nothing more fit
Than to publish this friendly ‘memento to quit.’
AT YOUR PERIL, ye long-legs, this notice despise!
Hasten hence, ye vile gad-flies! a word to the wise!
Hornets, horse-stingers, wasps, fly so hostile a land,
Or your death-warrant’s signed by Old Winter’s chill hand.[332]
* * * * *