Rural Sports of Old England. 
BY FRANK S. FINN. 
Number IX. 
The lovely month of September receives 
high praise from Leigh Hunt, who says of 
it: “This is the month of the migration of 
birds, of the finished harvest, of nut gath- 
ering, of cider and perry making, and 
towards the conclusion of the change of 
color in trees. The remainder of the har¬ 
vest is got in; and no sooner is this done, 
than the husbandman ploughs up his land 
again preparing it for the winter grain. 
The noblest feature of this season is a cer 
tain festive abundance for the supply of 
all the creation. There is grain for the 
men, birds and horses, hay for the cattle, 
loads of fruit on the trees, and swarms of 
fish in the ocean.” * 
Besides this, there are many rural sports 
to indulge in, many pleasures to be enjoy 
ed and much to make the people happier 
and healthier. 
“Ganging Day” was a sort of septennial 
time of festivity, occuring in September, 
and the following extraordinary custom 
took place at that time. “On the morning 
of this day, a great number of young men 
assemble in the fields, when a very active 
fellow is nominated the leader. This per¬ 
son they are bound to follow, who for the 
sake of diverson, generally chooses the 
route through ponds, ditches and places of 
difficult passage. Every person th3y meet 
s obliged to take a ride, which is accom¬ 
plished by two other persons taking them 
up by their arms and swinging them 
against each other. The feminine part of 
the population, 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 plum cake—which 
every landlord or publican is bound to fur¬ 
nish the revelers 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.” 
Michaelmas Day occurs this month, as 
therein is celebrated the feast of St. Mich¬ 
ael, and the mass said on that day, in the 
Catholic churches, is called “St. Michael’s 
Mass” from which we get the somewhat 
abbreviated term Michael-mas. In an old 
work, published in 1681, there is the follow¬ 
ing superstition: “They say, so many 
days old the moon is on Michael mass-day, 
so many floods after.” So there were 
weather prophets even in those days. As 
the turkey is the principal dish at our 
Thanksgiving dinner, so is the eating of 
the goose necessary to the full enjoyment 
at Michaelmas—it being the dish of the 
queen as well as that of the peasant. This 
custom is said to have arisen from the fol¬ 
lowing circumstance, which is well-vouch¬ 
ed for. Queen Elizabeth received the news 
of the defeat of the Spanish Armada while 
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. An old proverb runs: “If you eat 
goose on Michaelmas day, you will never 
want money all the year ‘round.” There 
seems to have been the usual kind of fes¬ 
tivities on this day, such as picnics, dan¬ 
cing, running and wrestling. 
On the first Monday after Michaelmas 
day a most peculiar custom took place at 
Kidderminster, of which the following is 
a very graphic account. “The magistrate 
and other officers which are annually elect¬ 
ed, are, on this day, inaugurated; in cele¬ 
bration of which they each of them cause 
to be thrown open to the populace (who 
assemble to the number of thousands) from 
the windows of their houses, or, sometimes 
from the town hall, a large quantity of ap¬ 
ples; in the whole, often amounting from 
twenty to thirty pots—baskets, containing 
five pecks each. This practice of course, 
occasions a kind of prescriptive holiday in 
the town, and any one having the temerity 
to refuse his apprentice or servant leave to 
attend the ‘apple throwing’ would probably 
have cause to repent such an invasion of 
right. A ruffe concourse therefore fills the 
streets which are the scenes of action; and 
as a sort of safety ‘valve’ if one may ‘com¬ 
pare great things with small,’ recourse is 
had to the flinging about of old shoes, cab¬ 
bage stalks, and almost every accessible 
kind of missile; till at length the sashes are 
raised and the gifts of Pomona begin to 
shower down upon the heads of the multi- 
