Sept. 28.]

MICHAELMAS EVE.

Surrey.

A curious custom once existed at Kingston, viz., that of the congregation cracking nuts during the performance of divine service on the Sunday next before the eve of St. Michael’s Day: hence the phrase, “Crack-Nut Sunday.” This custom is considered by some to have had originally some connection with the choosing of the bailiff and other members of the corporate body on St. Michael’s Day, and of the usual civic feast attending that proceeding. It would seem, however, from the following passage in Goldsmith’s Vicar of Wakefield (chap. iv.), that the custom was not confined to Kingston; for the good vicar, speaking of his parishioners, says:—“They kept up the Christmas carol, sent true-love-knots on Valentine morning, ate pancakes on Shrovetide, showed their wit on the first of April, and religiously cracked nuts on Michaelmas eve.”—Brayley, Topographical History of Surrey, 1841, vol. iii. p 41.

IRELAND.

The last Sunday of summer has been, heretofore, a day of great importance with the Irish, as upon it they first tried the new potato, and formed an opinion as to the prospects of the future harvest. The day was always called, in the west in particular, “Garlic Sunday,” perhaps a corruption of Garland Sunday.—N. & Q. 1st. S. vol. ix. p. 34.