“We have ploughed, we have sowed,
We have reaped, we have mowed,
We have brought home every load,
Hip, hip, hip! harvest home.”[684]
In “Poor Robin’s Almanack” for August, 1676, we read:
“Hoacky is brought home with hallowing,
Boys with plumb-cake the cart following.”
Holyrood Day (September 14). This festival,[685] called also Holy-Cross Day, was instituted by the Romish Church, on account of the recovery of a large piece of the supposed cross by the Emperor Heraclius, after it had been taken away, on the plundering of Jerusalem, by Chosroes, king of Persia. Among the customs associated with this day was one of going a-nutting, alluded to in the old play of “Grim, the Collier of Croydon” (ii. 1):
“To morrow is Holy-rood day,
When all a-nutting take their way.”
Shakespeare mentions this festival in “1 Henry IV.” (i. 1), where he represents the Earl of Westmoreland relating how,
“On Holy-rood day, the gallant Hotspur there,
Young Harry Percy and brave Archibald,
That ever-valiant and approved Scot,
At Holmedon met.”
St. Lambert’s Day (September 17). This saint, whose original name was Landebert, but contracted into Lambert, was a native of Maestricht, in the seventh century, and was assassinated early in the eighth.[686] His festival is alluded to in “Richard II.” (i. 1), where the king says:
“Be ready, as your lives shall answer it,
At Coventry, upon Saint Lambert’s day.”
Michaelmas (September 29). In the “Merry Wives of Windsor” (i. 1), this festival is alluded to by Simple, who, in answer to Slender, whether he had “the Book of riddles” about him, replies: “Why, did you not lend it to Alice Shortcake upon All-hallowmas last, a fortnight afore Michaelmas,”—this doubtless being an intended blunder.