Nov. 30.]

ST. ANDREW’S DAY.

The commencement of the ecclesiastical year is regulated by the feast of St. Andrew, the nearest Sunday to which, whether before or after, constitutes the first Sunday in Advent, or the period of four weeks which heralds the approach of Christmas. St. Andrew’s Day is thus sometimes the first and sometimes the last festival in the Christian Year.—Book of Days, vol ii. p. 636.

Kent.

Hasted, in his History of Kent (vol. ii. p. 757), speaking of the parish of Eastling, says that, on St. Andrew’s Day, there is a yearly diversion called squirrel-hunting in this and the neighbouring parishes, when the labourers and lower kind of people, assembling together, form a lawless rabble, and being accoutred with guns, poles, clubs and other such weapons, spend the greater part of the day in parading through the woods and grounds, with loud shoutings, and under pretence of demolishing the squirrels, some few of which they kill, they destroy numbers of hares, pheasants, partridges, and, in short, whatever comes in their way, breaking down the hedges, and doing much other mischief, and, in the evening betaking themselves to the ale-houses, finish their career there as is usual with such sort of gentry.

Middlesex.

Strype, in his Ecclesiastical Memorials (1822, vol. iii. pt. ii. p. 21), says:—“The 30th November [1557] being St. Andrew’s Day, was a procession at Paul’s, and a priest of every parish attending, each in his cope, and a goodly sermon preached, and after that, the procession, with salve festa dies.”

Northamptonshire.

Tander and Tandrew are the names given to the festival of St. Andrew, of which they are corruptions.

The anniversary of this saint is, or rather was, kept by the lacemakers as a day of festivity and merry-making; but since the use of pillow-lace has in a great measure given place to that of the loom, this holiday has been less and less observed. The day in former times was one of unbridled licence: village “scholards” barred out their master; the lace schools were deserted; and drinking and feasting prevailed to a riotous extent. Towards evening the villagers used to become suddenly smitten with a violent taste for masquerading. Women might be seen walking about in male attire, while men and boys clothed in female dress visited each other’s cottages, drinking hot “eldern wine,” the staple beverage of the season. Then commenced the mumming.—Sternberg, Dialect and Folk Lore of Northamptonshire, 1851, p. 183; A. E. Baker, Glossary of Northamptonshire Words and Phrases, 1854, vol. ii. p. 326.

Sussex.

A correspondent of the AthenÆum (No. 993) says that the custom of squirrel-hunting was at one time kept up in this county, but, in consequence of the inclosure of the coppices and the more strict observance of the game, it has wholly dropped.

SCOTLAND.

In Scotland this day is called Andrys Day, Androiss Mess, and Andermess.

Singed sheep’s heads are borne in the procession before the Scots in London on St. Andrew’s Day.—Brand’s Pop. Antiq. 1849, vol. i. p. 415.