The cackling of the goose saved Rome. According to a very old story, the guards of the city were asleep, and the enemy taking advantage of this, were making their way through a weak part of the fortifications, expecting to take the city by surprise. The wakeful geese hearing them, at once commenced cackling, and their noise awoke the Romans, who soon made short work of their foes. This circumstance greatly increased the gratitude of the Roman citizens for the goose. We gather from the quaint words of an old chronicler a probable solution of the familiar phrase, "To cook one's goose." "The kyng of Swedland"--so runs the ancient record--"coming to a towne of his enemyes with very little company, his enemyes, to slyghte his forces, did hang out a goose for him to shoote; but perceiving before nyghte that these fewe soldiers had invaded and sette their chief houlds on fire, they demanded of him what his intent was, to whom he replyed, 'To cook your goose'." In the days when the bow and arrow were the chief weapons of warfare, it was customary for the sheriffs of the counties where geese were reared to gather sufficient quantities of feathers to wing the arrows of the English army. Some of the old ballads contain references to winging the arrow with goose feathers. A familiar instance is the following: "'Bend all your bows,' said Robin Hood; 'And with the gray goose wing, Such sport now show as you would do In the presence of the king'." To check the exportation of feathers, a heavy export duty was put upon them. The goose frequently figures in English tenures. In a poem by Gascoigne, published in 1575, there is an allusion to rent-day gifts, which appear to have been general in the olden time: "And when the tenants come to pay their quarter's rent, They bring some fowle at Midsummer, a dish of fish in Lent, At Christmasse a capon, and at Michaelmasse a goose." A strange manorial custom was kept up at Hilton in the days of Charles II. An image of brass, known as Jack of Hilton, was kept there. "In the mouth," we are told, "was a little hole just large enough to admit the head of a pin; water was poured in by a hole in the back, which was afterwards stopped up." The figure was then set on the fire; and during the time it was blowing off steam, the lord of the manor of Essington was obliged to bring a goose to Hilton and drive it three times round the hall-fire. He next delivered the goose to the cook; and when dressed, he carried it to the table and received in return a dish of meat for his own mess.