“U. P. K. spells May-goslings” is an expression used by boys at play as an insult to the losing party. U. P. K. is _up-pick_, that is, up with your pin or peg, the mark of the goal. An additional punishment was thus: the winner made a hole in the ground with his heel, into which a peg about three inches long was driven, its top being below the surface; the loser, with his hands tied behind him, was to pull it up with his teeth, the boys buffeting with their hats, and calling out, “Up-pick! you May gosling!” or “U. P. K., gosling in May.”[45] [45] See p. 265. BERKSHIRE. At Abingdon the children and young people formerly went about in groups on May morning, singing the following carol:-- “We’ve been a-rambling all the night, And sometime of this day; And now returning back again, We bring a garland gay. Why don’t you do as we have done On this first day of May? And from our parents we have come, And would no longer stay. A garland gay we bring you here, And at your door we stand; It is a sprout well budded out, The work of our Lord’s hand. Why don’t you do, &c. So dear, so dear as Christ loved us, And for our sins was slain; Christ bids us turn from wickedness Back to the Lord again. Why don’t you do,” &c.-- _N. & Q. 4th S._ vol. iii. p. 401. BUCKINGHAMSHIRE. In a MS. in the British Museum entitled _Status Scholæ Etonensis_, A.D. 1560, it is stated that on the day of St. Philip and St. James, if it be fair weather, and the master grants leave, those boys who choose it may rise at four o’clock, to gather May-branches, if they can do it without wetting their feet; and that on that day they adorn the windows of the bed-chambers with green leaves, and the houses are perfumed with fragrant herbs. CAMBRIDGESHIRE. Some derive May from Maia, the mother of Mercury, to whom they offered sacrifices on the first day of it; and this seems to explain the custom which prevails on this day at Cambridge of children having a figure dressed in a grotesque manner, called a _May-lady_, before which they set a table having on it wine, &c. They also beg money of passengers, which is considered as an offering to the _Maulkin_; for their plea to obtain it is “Pray remember the poor May-lady.” Perhaps the garlands, for which they also beg, originally adorned the head of the goddess. The bush of hawthorn, or, as it is called, May, placed at the doors on this day, may point out the firstfruits of the spring, as this is one of the earliest trees which blossoms.--Audley, _Companion to the Almanack_, 1816, p. 71. CHESHIRE. In this county the young men formerly celebrated May-day by placing large bidden boughs over the doors of the houses where the young women resided to whom they paid their addresses; and an alder bough was often placed over the door of a scold.--Lysons’ _Magna Britannia_, 1810, vol. ii. pt. ii. p. 462.