Where are those Spaniards That makes so great a boast O ! They shall eat the grey goose feather And we will eat the roast O ! In every land O ! The land where’er we go, With Hal-an-tow, Jolly rumble O ! Chorus: And we were up, &c. {245} As for St. George O ! St. George he was a knight O ! Of all the knights in Christendom St. George he is the right O ! In every land O ! The land where’er we go, With Hal-an-tow, Jolly rumble O ! Chorus: And we were up, &c. God bless Aunt Mary Moyses, And all her power and might O ! And send us peace in merry England, Both day and night O ! And send us peace in merry England, Both now and evermore O ! With Hal-an-tow, Jolly rumble O ! Chorus: And we were up, &c. The custom is popularly attributed to the escape of the town from the threatened attack of a fiery dragon, who, in days when dragons were more common than they are now, hung in mid-air over the place, driving the inhabitants to the greenwood tree for shelter. On his disappearance the people returned with great rejoicings and to this day commemorate their fortunate escape. The true explanation is probably that the festival is simply a survival of the old celebration in honour of _Flora_. In some few country villages a May-pole still survives. One such is to be seen in the little village of Welford, in Gloucestershire, painted in stripes of red, white, and blue. It was decked with flowers on May Day not many years ago, owing to the exertions of some of the local lovers of things ancient; but the genuine spirit of the festival seems to have entirely disappeared, and the ceremony has not been repeated. What’s not destroyed by Time’s relentless hand? Where’s Troy? and where’s the May-pole in the Strand? In the early days of May occur what used to be known as the Gange Days, on which the ceremony of beating the parish bounds was, and still {246} is in some places, undertaken, the work of the day being wound up by a more or less liberal distribution of buns and ale. Sums of money were occasionally left to provide the refreshments for these parish perambulations. At Edgcott, in Buckinghamshire, there was an acre of land called “Gang Monday Land,” the income of which was devoted to the provision of cakes and ale for those who took part in the business of the day; and in Clifton Reynes, in the same county, a devise of land for a like purpose provides that one small loaf, a piece of cheese, and a pint of ale, should be given to every married person, and half a pint of ale to every unmarried person, resident in Clifton, when they walked the parish boundaries in Rogation week.