Regency Pastimes: Michaelmas Goose

By | |

Michaelmas Goose 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 POOR ROBIN'S ALMANACK & c 1695 MICHAELMAS says Bailey is a festival appointed by the church to be observed in honour of St Michael the Arch Angel who is supposed to be the chief of the host of Heaven as Lucifer is of the infernal host and as he was supposed the protector of Jewish so is he now esteemed the guardian and defender of the Christian Church The custom of having a roast Goose for dinner on Michael mas or St Michael's Day September the 29th is of very ancient standing but whence it originated is unknown Churchill tells us that 86 By Custom right divine Geese are ordained to bleed at Michael's shrine yet the cause why remains unexplained though as Beckwith remarks in his new edition of Blount's Jocular Tenures it was probably for no other reason but that Michaelmas Day was a great festival and Geese at that time most plentiful We learn from the same work that as long ago as the tenth year of Edward IV among other services John de la Hay was bound to render to William Barnaby Lord of Lastres in Hereford shire for a parcel of the demesne lands xxd and one Goose fit for his lord's dinner on the Feast of St Michael the Arch Angel This proves the antiquity of the practice of Goose eating on St Michael's Day and it is demonstrative also that the vulgar opinion which attributes the origin of the cus tom to Queen Elizabeth having received the news of the defeat of the Spanish Armada whilst she was eating a Goose on this day cannot be the truth Like evidence may be found among the Posies of George Gascoigne Esq printed in 1575 wherein is the following paasage 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 There is a popular saying that If you eat Goose on Michaelmas Day you will never want money all the year round and it is not improbable that this adage has been the death of many a Goose at this season for far more people are influenced by these kind of proverbs than are willing to own it In Deering's History of Nottingham it is mentioned that hot roasted Geese have been formerly given in that town by the old Mayor on Michaelmas Day at his own house previously to the election of a new Mayor Popular pastimes, being a selection of picturesque representations of the customs & amusements of Great Britain, in ancient and modern times (1816).

Discover more from Regency Reader

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Comments are closed.