St. Catharine’s Day
“Catherning,” or “Cattaring,”—that is, the observance of St. Catharine’s Day (Nov. 25) has not yet gone out of remembrance in Worcestershire. It was formerly the custom of the Dean and Chapter—that day being the last of their audit—to distribute amongst the inhabitants of the College precincts a rich compound of wine, spices, &c., called “the Cattern bowl.” A modified edition of the custom, I believe, is still observed. At Leigh, Harvington, Offenham, and other parishes, the young people had a custom of going round to the houses and asking for apples and beer, using a doggrel rhyme on the occasion which differs in most places, and St. Thomas’s and old Christmas Day are sometimes selected for the purpose. The St. Thomas’s Day perambulation is in some places called “Going a gooding.” The rhyme or carol more usually sung on St. Catharine’s Day began thus:
“Catt’n and Clement comes year by year,
Some of yr apples and some of yr beer;
Some for Peter, some for Paul,
Some for Him who made us all.
Peter was a good old man,
For his sake give us some:
Some of the best and none of the worst,
And God will send yr souls to roost.”
Concluding thus:
“Up the ladder and down with the can,
Give me red apples and I’ll begone.”
The ladder alluding to the store of apples, generally kept in a loft; and the can, doubtless, to the same going down into the cellar for the beer. In some districts of the county the following doggrel is repeated:
“St. Clements! St. Clements! A cat by the ear!
A good red apple—a pint o’ beer!
Some o’ your mutton, some o’ your vale! [veal]
If it’s good, gie us a dale, [deal]
If its naught, gie us some saut! [salt]
Butler, butler, fill the bowl—
If you fill it of the best,
God will send your soul to rest;
But if you fill it of the small,
The Devil take butler, bowl, and all!”
A correspondent states that this custom originated, or was revived, when Queen Elizabeth visited Worcester, the inhabitants sparing no expense to give her Majesty a gracious reception upon St. Catharine’s Day, when a number of apples were strung before the fire and the citizens went with a can from house to house, begging apples and beer, and repeating the above lines.