Today the clocks change and today is St Crispin’s Day, anniversary of the battles of Agincourt and Balaclava. 

Legend says Crispin and Crispinian were twins, beheaded under Diocletian. Aristocratic Romans who supported themselves in exile as shoemakers, they are the patron saints of cobblers, tanners, saddlers, and curriers. The feast fell from observance long after the professions it celebrated had ceased to be common. But Shakespeare keeps it alive.

The clocks fall back and winter’s footsteps remind us of what is inevitable – and that we should eat, drink, and be merry before it arrives

The clocks fall back and winter’s footsteps remind us of what is inevitable – and that we should eat, drink, and be merry before it arrives

Perhaps we are not now that strength which in old days moved earth and heaven, but that which we are, we are: we have our inherited culture still. Saints’ days have largely passed from our interest, but we are still stirred by anniversaries of defeating the French, or of fighting beside them, and stirred by Shakespeare.‘O that we now had here / But one ten thousand of those men in England / That do no work to-day!’ said Westmoreland to Henry V, on the morning of Agincourt.

‘No, my fair cousin,’ replied the King:‘If we are mark’d to die, we are enough To do........

© The Spectator