have partaken of a goose, which the knight, knowing her taste for high-seasoned dishes, had provided; that after her dinner she drank a half-pint bumper of Burgundy to the destruction of the Spanish Armada; soon after which she received the joyful tidings that her wishes had been fulfilled; and that, being delighted with the event, she commemorated the day annually by having a goose for dinner, in imitation of Sir Neville's entertainment; and that, consequently, the court adopted the like practice, which soon became general throughout the kingdom. This anecdote is a strong proof that the usage was sanctioned by royalty in the days of Queen Bess, but there is evidence that it was practised long anterior to the destruction of the Spanish Armada.] Among other services, John de la Haye was bound to render to William Barnaby, Lord of Lastres, in the county of Hereford, for a parcel of the demesne lands, one goose fit for the lord's dinner on the feast of St. Michael the Archangel. And this as early as the tenth year of King Edward the Fourth. The custom may have originated in a habit among the rural tenantry, of their bringing a good stubble goose with their rent to the landlord at Michaelmas, in the hope of making him lenient. In the Poesies of George Gascoigne, 1575, are the following lines:

"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 Yere's tide, for feare their lease flie

loose."

A pleasant writer in the periodical paper called The World, No. 10 (if I mistake not, the late Lord Orford), remarking on the effects of the alteration of the style, tells us : "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

"Crossthwaite church, in the Vale of Keswick, in Cumberland, hath five chapels belonging to it. The minister's stipend is £5 per annum, and Goose-grass, or the right of commoning his geese; a Whittle-gait, or the valuable privilege of using his knife for a week at a time at any table in the parish; and, lastly, a hardened sark, or a shirt of coarse linen."-Note by Mr. Park.

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 good King Charles on a false 30th of January, at a time when our ancsetors 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."

It is a popular saying, "If you eat goose on Michaelmasday you will never want money all the year round.” Geese are eaten by ploughmen at harvest home.1 In Poor Robin's Almanack for 1695, under September, are the following quaint lines:

"Geese now in their prime season are,
Which, if well roasted are good fare:
Yet, however, friends, take heed
How too much on them you feed,

Lest when as your tongues run loose,
Your discourse do smell of goose."

Buttes, in his Dyets dry Dinner, 1599, says, on I know not what authority, that " a goose is the emblem of meere modestie."

In a curious tract entitled A Health to the Gentlemanly Profession of Servingmen, or the Servingman's Comfort, 1598, is the following passage: "He knoweth where to have a man that will stande him in lesse charge-his neighbour's sonne, who will not onely maynteine himselfe with all necessaries, but also his father will gratifie his maister's kindnesse at Christmas with a New Yeere's Gyft, at other festivall times with pigge, goose, capon, or other such like householde provision." It appears, by the context, that the father of the serv

1 In the margin of a MS. in the Harleian Collection, No. 1772, fol. 115 b, is written, in a hand of the ninth or tenth century, the following, which I give as I find it: "Cave multum ne in his tribus diebus, sanguinem minuas, aut pocionem sumas, aut de Anxere" (Ansere) " manducas; nono Kalendis Aprilis die lunis; intrante Augusto die lunis xx; exeunte Decembris die lunis."

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ingman does this to keep his son from going to serve abroad as a soldier. In Deering's Nottingham, p. 107, mention occurs of "hot roasted geese" having formerly been given on Michaelmas-day there by the old mayor, in the morning, at his house, previous to the election of the new one.

In the British Apollo, fol. Lond. 1708, vol. i. No. 74, is the following:

"Q. Supposing now Apollo's sons

Just rose from picking of goose bones,
This on you pops, pray tell me whence
The custom'd proverb did commence,
That who eats goose on Michael's-day
Shan't money lack his debts to pay.

A. This notion, fram'd in days of yore,
Is grounded on a prudent score;
For, doubtless, 'twas at first designed
To make the people Seasons mind,
That so they might apply their care
To all those things which needful were,
And, by a good industrious hand,

Know when and how t'improve their land."

In the same work, 1709, ii. 55, we have:

"Q. Yet my wife would persuade me (as I am a sinner)
To have a fat goose on St. Michael for dinner :
And then all the year round, I pray you would mind it,
I shall not want money-oh! grant I may find it.
Now several there are that believe this is true,
Yet the reason of this is desired from you.

A. We think you're so far from the having of more,

That the price of the goose you have less than before :
The custom came up from the tenants presenting
Their landlords with geese, to incline their relenting
On following payments."

Our ancestors, when they found a difficulty in carving a goose, hare, or other dish, used to say, jestingly, that they should hit the joint if they could but think on the name of a cuckold.

ST. MICHAEL'S CAKE OR BANNOCK.

MARTIN, in his Description of the Western Islands of Scotland, p. 213, speaking of the Protestant inhabitants of Skie, says, They observe the festivals of Christmas, Easter, Good Friday, and that of St. Michael's. Upon the latter they have a cavalcade in each parish, and several families bake the cake called St. Michael's Bannock." In the same work, p. 100, speaking of Kilbar village, he observes: "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."

In Macauley's History of St. Kilda, p. 82, we read: "It was, till of late, an universal custom among the islanders, on Michaelmas-day, to prepare in every family, a loaf of 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." He adds, "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, as we gather from Keating's General History of Ireland, ii. 12, 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 festal day of joy, plenty, and universal benevolence."

The following very extraordinary septennial custom at Bishops Stortford, in Hertfordshire, and in the adjacent neighbourhood, on Old Michaelmas-day, I find in a London newspaper, Oct. 18, 1787: "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 plumcake, 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 anywhere else."

ST. FAITH, VIRGIN AND MARTYR.

[On St. Faith's-day, Oct. 6th, a very curious love charm is employed in the north of England. A cake, of flour, springwater, salt, and sugar, must be made by three maidens or three widows, and each must have an equal share in the composition. It is then baked before the fire in a Dutch oven, and all the while it is doing, silence must be strictly observed, and the cake must be turned nine times, or three times to each person. When it is thoroughly done, it is divided into three parts, each one taking her share, and cutting into nine slips, must pass each slip three times through a wedding-ring, previously borrowed from a woman who has been married at least seven years. Then each one must eat her nine slips as she is undressing, and repeat the following verses:

"O good St. Faith, be kind to-night,
And bring to me my heart's delight;
Let me my future husband view,

And be my visions chaste and true."

Then all three must get into one bed, with the ring suspended by a string to the head of the couch; and they will be quite sure to dream of their future husbands.]