this day
was one of going a-nutting, alluded to in the old play of "Grim, the
Collier of Croydon" (ii. 1):

"To morrow is Holy-rood day,
When all a-nutting take their way."

[685] See "British Popular Customs," pp. 372, 373. In
Lincolnshire this day is called "Hally-Loo Day."

Shakespeare mentions this festival in "1 Henry IV." (i. 1), where he
represents the Earl of Westmoreland relating how,

"On Holy-rood day, the gallant Hotspur there,
Young Harry Percy and brave Archibald,
That ever-valiant and approved Scot,
At Holmedon met."

_St. Lambert's Day_ (September 17). This saint, whose original name was
Landebert, but contracted into Lambert, was a native of Maestricht, in
the seventh century, and was assassinated early in the eighth.[686] His
festival is alluded to in "Richard II." (i. 1), where the king says:

"Be ready, as your lives shall answer it,
At Coventry, upon Saint Lambert's day."

[686] See Butler's "Lives of the Saints."

_Michaelmas_ (September 29). In the "Merry Wives of Windsor" (i. 1),
this festival is alluded to by Simple, who, in answer to Slender,
whether he had "the Book of riddles" about him, replies: "Why, did you
not lend it to Alice Shortcake upon All-hallowmas last, a fortnight
afore Michaelmas,"--this doubtless being an intended blunder.

In "1 Henry IV." (ii. 4), Francis says: "Let me see--about Michaelmas
next I shall be."

_St. Etheldreda_, or _Audry_, commemorated in the Romish Calendar on the
23d of June, but in the English Calendar on the 17th of October, was
daughter of Annas, King of the East Angles. She founded the convent and
church of Ely, on the spot where the cathedral was subsequently
erected. Formerly, at Ely, a fair was annually held, called in her
memory St. Audry's Fair, at which much cheap lace was sold to the poorer
classes, which at first went by the name of St. Audry's lace, but in
time was corrupted into "tawdry lace." Shakespeare makes an allusion to
this lace in the "Winter's Tale" (iv. 4), where Mopsa says: "Come, you
promised me a tawdry lace, and a pair of sweet gloves;" although in his
time the expression rather meant a rustic necklace.[687] An old English
historian makes St. Audry die of a swelling in her throat, which she
considered as a particular judgment for having been in her youth
addicted to wearing fine necklaces.[688]

[687] See Nares's "Glossary," vol. ii. p. 868; Brady's "Clavis
Calen