The Lord Mayor of London* is now elected for the ensuing year, and the two sheriffs, who have been previously chosen, are solemnly sworn into office. The custom of eating geese upon this day has been a sad puzzle to antiquarians, and to the present time no reasonable cause has been assigned for it. Some have sug fendimus, quam temporum gloriæ, quæ tum est major cùm vobis contra morem parentum intelligitis nil licere? Repetimus igitur religionum statum 'qui Reip. diu profuit. Certe numerentur principes utriusque sectæ, utriusque sententiæ; proximus eorum ceremonias patrum coluit, recentior non removit. Si exemplum non facit religio veterum, faciat dissimulatio proximorum. Quis ita familiaris est barbaris ut aram Victoriæ non requirat? Cauti in posterum sumus, et tristium rerum ostenta vitamus; reddatur tantùm nomini honor qui numini denegatus est. Multa Victoriæ debet æternitas vestra, et adhuc plura debebit. Aversantur hanc potestatem quibus nihil profuit; vos amicum triumphis patrocinium nolite deserere. Cunctis potentia ista votiva est. Nemo colendam neget quam profitetur optandam. Quod si numinis non esset justa curatio, saltim ornamentis Curiæ decuit abstineri. Præstate, oro vos, ut ea quæ pueri suscepimus, senes posteris relinquamus. Consuetudinis amor magnus est." Now, so far from there being any of that luxuriance, which Gibbon reprehends, the style is extremely terse, simple, and energetic. The corruptions of the text are evident, but I have not ventured to touch them. * It would seem that in former times the Lord Mayor of London was always elected, or supposed to be elected, from one of the twelve privileged companies. If he did not actually belong to any of them, the difficulty was got over by translating him, as it were, to one of the twelve; nor was the custom discontinued till the time of Sir Brook Watson, in 1796. Pennant, when speaking of the Mercers, observes, "this company is the first of the twelve, or such who are honoured with the privilege of the Lord Mayor's being elected out of one of them. The name by no means implied originally a dealer in silks; for mercery included all sorts of small wares, toys, and haberdashery. But as numbers of this opulent company imported great quantities of rich silks from Italy, the name became applied to the company and all dealers in silk." PENNANT'S LONDON, p. 440. 4to. Lond. 1793. gested that it may have arisen from the fact of geese just now being in high season; but this seems to be rather a cutting of the knot than an untying of it. That, like most of our other customs and festivals, it has been derived from Paganism, I have no doubt whatever, though the connecting link in the chain is now lost to us. The goose, as we all know, was amongst the Egyptians sacred to Isis and Osiris,* and amongst the Romans to Junof and Priapus, and when we consider that in so many instances we find the prototypes of the saints in the Gods and Goddesses of heathendom, there seem to be strong grounds for suspecting that Saint Michael is here only occupying the place, and receiving the honours of some pagan deity." When St. Eloy, who is the saint for smiths, "Nec defensa juvant Capitolia, quo minus anser Ovidii Fastor. lib. i. v. 453. "Isidi anser propria victima dicata fuit." Alexander ab AlexandroGENIALES DIES. Lib. iii. cap. xii. p. 705., tom. i. Lugd. Bat. 1673. Juvenal too assures us that Osiris was particularly fond of goose, and when offended by the ladies in certain delicate matters was to be bought off by the sacrifice of a fat one, and her anger thus completely mollified: "Illius lacrymæ meditataque murmura præstant Ut veniam culpæ non abnuat, ansere magno Satira vi., v. 540. +"Anseres non fefellere, quibus sacris Junoni in summa inopia cibi tamen abstinebatur." -T. Livii. Hist. lib. v. cap. 48. Here we find that the people would starve rather than eat a piece of goose, leaving Juno to consume it by her deputies, the priest. The modern mode of folks devouring their own geese is a great improvement upon ancient manners. "Occidisti Priapi delicias, anserem omnibus matronis acceptissimum."-T. Petronii Arbitri Satyricon, cap. 137. The fact is, that the goose had the same imaginary qualities amongst the profligate Romans that our elder dramatists attributed to eryngo and other roots of the same kind. doth hammer his irons, is he not instead of God Vulcan ? And do they not give the same titles to St. George, which in old times were given to Mars? And do they not honour St. Nicholas after the same manner that pagans honoured God Neptune? And when St. Peter is made a porter, doth he not represent God, Janus? Nay, they would faine make the angell Gabriel beleeve that he is God Mercury. And is not Pallas the Goddesse of arts and sciences represented to us by St. Katherine? And have they not St. Hubert, the God of hunters instead of Diana? --which office some give to St. Eustace.—And when they apparell John Baptist in a lion's skin, is it not to represent Hercules unto us? And is not St. Katherine commonly painted with a wheele as they were wont to paint Fortune?"* Mr. Douce has imagined that the custom originated from Queen Elizabeth's receiving the news of the defeat of the Spanish Armada, while dining off a goose, and hence that which had been merely casual grew into an observance. The story, sufficiently improbable in itself, is rendered absolutely impossible by the fact of the custom having existed so early as the time of Edward the Fourth. —“ John de la Hay took of William Barnaby, Lord of Lastres, in the county of Hereford, one parcel of land of the demesne lands, rendering therefore twenty-pence a year, and one goose fit for the lord's dinner, on the feast of St. Michael, the archangel, suit of court, and other services thereupon due, &c."t * WONDERS OF THE WORLD, p. 308, as quoted by Brand, vol. i. p. 203. Joannes de la Hay cepit de Will. Barnaby, domino de Lastres in com. Heref. unum parcellum terræ de terris dominicalibus. Reddend. inde per annum xxd, et unam aucam habilem pro prandio domini in festo Sancti Michaelis, archangeli, sectam curiæ, et alia servitia inde debita &c. Rot. Cur. 10 Edw. IV.-Blount, 8. See Beckwith's edition of the Fragmenta Antiquitatis, p. 412. A singular custom connected with this day prevails at Kidderminster in Worcestershire. "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."* In St. Kilda, one of the Scottish isles, it was a custom at one time upon this day to bake a large loaf, or cake rather, compounded of various ingredients, which had its name from St. Michael and was said in popular parlance to belong to him. Every one in the family, even to strangers and domestics, had his allotted portion of this cake, by the eating of which he testified his respect to the archangel, and laid a claim to his protection.† In the island of Barray they have a similar custom, but attended with other ceremonies. Previously to eating of the cake they form a cavalcade in the village of Kilbar, and march about the church. Finally, to conclude our account of this month, there was a superstition attached to it, that "so many dayes old the moon is on Michaelmass day, so many floods after."§ * GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE for May, 1790, vol. 60, part ii. p. 1191. + See Macaulay's Hist. of St. Kilda, p. 22, 8vo. London, 1764. See Martin's Western Islands of Scotland, p. 100, 8vo, London, 1716. § Stevenson's TWELVE MONTHS, p. 44. 4to. London, 1661. A SINGULAR PRAYER. MANY ingenious folks-of that class, which in proverbial language sees farther into a mill-stone than its neighbours have never been able to bring themselves to believe in the character of Louis the Eleventh, as drawn by Sir Walter Scott in Quentin Durward. Even history itself has failed to convince them that a man could play fast and loose with his conscience as Louis is described to have done; yet here we have a man in our own country, and not so very long ago, who seemed to keep his reckonings with Heaven much after the same fashion. I allude to John Ward, of Hackney. This worthy and pious man, whose ideas of religion would have done honour to the most ignorant and bigotted of the Scotch covenanters, is the very John Ward, upon whom Pope has conferred an infamous immortality by placing him, where no doubt he well deserved to be placed, in company with Chartres and the devil. "Like doctors thus, when much dispute has past Both fairly owning riches in effect No grace of Heaven, no token of th' elect, Giv'n to the fool, the mad, the vain, the evil, To Ward, to Waters, Chartres, and the devil."* * Epistle to Allen, Lord Bathurst. |