of

It may be observed that in both the above descriptions of similar phenomena the East wind is recorded as bringing up the storm. There is something very remarkably unwholesome in East winds, and a change to that quarter often disturbs the nervous system and digestive organs many persons, causing headaches, fevers, and other disorders. Moreover, a good astronomical observation cannot be made when the wind is East: the star seems to oscillate or dance about in the field of the telescope. An old proverb says:

The happy boy now brings transported forth
His long forgotten scourge, and giddy gig:
O'er the white paths he whirls the rolling boop,
Or triumphs in the dusty fields of taw.

Not so the museful sage:- abroad he walks
Contemplative, if haply he may find
What cause controls the tempest's rage, or whence
Amidst the savage season winter smiles.

For days, for weeks, prevails the placid calm.
At length some drops prelude a change: the sun
With ray refracted bursts the parting gloom;
When all the chequer'd sky is one bright glare.

Mutters the wind at eve: th' horizon round
With angry aspect scowls : down rush the showers,

And float the deluged paths, and miry fields. This evening being the Vigil of St. Agnes, it used to be customary with Virgins to use many charms in order to dream of the man they should marry, to which Ben Jonson alludes :

And on sweet St. Agnes' night,
Please you with the promised sight,
Some of husbands, some of lovers,
Which an empty dream discovers.
The Ete of St. Agnes.

Ah! bitter chill it was !
The Owl, for all his feathers, was acold;
The Hare limped trembling through the frozen grass,
And silent was the flock in woolly fold :
Numb were the Beadsman's fingers, while he told
His rosary, and while his frosted breath,
Like pious incense from a censer old,

Seemed taking flight for Heaven, without a death,
Past the sweet Virgin's picture while his prayer he saith.

The precautions to be observed by the fair Madeline differ somewhat from those just mentioned, and are thus enumerated :

They told her how, upon St. Agnes' Eve,
Young Virgins might have visions of delight,
And soft adorings from their loves receive
Upon the honied middle of the night,
If ceremonies due they did aright;
As, supperless to bed they must retire,
And couch supine;

Nor look behind, nor sideways, but require
Of heaven with upward eyes for all that they desire.

A casement high and triple arched there was,
All garlanded with carven imag'ries
Of fruits and flowers, and bunches of knot grass,
And diamonded with panes of quaint device,
Innumerable of stains and splendid dyes,
As are the tiger moth's deep damasked wings ;
And in the midst, 'mong thousand heraldries,

And twilight saints, with dim emblazonings,
A shielded scutcheon blushed with blood of queens and kings.

Full on this casement shone the wintry moon,
And threw warın gules on Madeline's fair breast,
As down she knelt for Heaven's grace and boon;
Rosebloom fell on her hands, together prest,
And on her silver cross soft amethyst,
And on her hair a glory, like a saint:
She seemed a splendid angel, newly drest,
Save wings, for Heaveu :
Soon, trembling in her soft and chilly nest,
In sort of wakeful swoon, perplexed she lay,
Until the poppied warmth of sleep oppressed
Her soothed limbs, and soul fatigued away;
Flown, like a thought, until the morrow day;
Blissfully bavened both from joy and pain;
Clasped like a missal where swart Payniins pray;

Blinded alike from sunshine and from rain,
As though a rose should shut, and be a bud again.

January 21. St. Agnes, V. M. St. Vivian.

O rises at vii. 45'. sets iv. 15'. The Pleiades or Seven Stars pass Meridian at vi. 33'. St. Agnes was a Roman Virgin, who suffered martyrdom in the tenth persecution of the Emperor Dioclesian in the year 306. The images of this Saint are represented with a Lamb, in consequence of the appearance of a white Lamb by her side in the Vision of her, which was presented to her parents after her death.

The following lines of Barnaby Googe seem to relate to some religious ceremony on this day:

For in St. Agnes' church this day, the while the Mass they sing, Two Lambs as white as suow the Nuns do yearly use to bring.

In the Missale ad usum sacrum we find the following notice of St. Agnes :- Haec est Virgo sapiens quam Dominus vigilantem invenit.

Verses on St. Agnes' Shrine. WHERE each pretty Balamb most gayly appears, With ribands stuck round on its tail and its ears, On gold fringed cushions they're stretched out to eat, And piously ba, and to church musick bleat; Yet to me they seem crying, Alack, and alas ! What's all this white dažnask to daisies and grass ! Then they're brought to the Pope, and with transport they're kissed, And receive consecration from sanctity's fist: To chaste Nuns he consigns them, instead of their dams, And orders the Friars to keep them from rams.

January 22. St. Vincent, M. St. Anastasius, M.

St. Vincent was esteemed a most glorious martyr, as he actually seemed to glory in his sufferings. He was born at Ossa in Granada, and was barbarously destroyed by order of the Emperors Dioclesian and Maximian in the year 304.

There is an ancient admonition to note down whether or no the Sun shine on St. Vincent's Day:

Vincenti festo si sol radiet memor esto.
Remember on St. Vincent's Day

If that the Sun his Beams display. The particular origin of this command is unknown, but it may probably be from an idea that the Sun would not shine unominously on that day on which the martyrdom of the Saint was so inhumanly finished by burning.

Our Poet Lord Byron was born on St. Vincent's Day 1788. We select the following specimen of this author's turn of mind :

Inscription on the Monument of a Newfoundland Dog.
When some proud son of man returns to earth,
Unknown to glory, but upheld by birth,
The Sculptor's art exhausts the pomp of woe,
And storied urns record who rests below;
When all is done, upon the tomb is seen,
Not what he was, but what he should have been :
But the poor Dog, in life the firmest friend,
The first to welcome, foremost to defend,
Whose honest heart is still his master's own,
Who labours, fights, lives, breathes for him alone,
Unhonour'd falls, unnotic'd all his worth,
Denied in Heaven the soul he held on earth:
While Man, vain insect! hopes to be forgiven,
And claims himself a sole exclusive heaven.
Oh Man! thou feeble tenant of an hour,
Debas'd by slavery, or corrupt by power,
Who knows thee well must quit thee with disgust,
Degraded mass of animated dust!
Thy love is lust, thy friendship all a cheat,
Thy smiles hypocrisy, thy words deceit!
By nature vile, ennobled but by name,
Each kindred brute might bid thee blush for shame.
Ye! who perchance behold this simple urn,
Pass on—it honours none you wish to mourn :
To mark a friend's remains these stones arise,

I never knew but one, and here he lies.
Newstead Abbey, Oct. 30, 1808.

January 23. St. Emerentia, V. M. St. Eusebius.

Lyra occidit. - Rom. Cal.
Hilary term begins. William Pitt died in 1806.
Winter Scenes, written in January 1820. By John Mayne.

How keen and ruthless is the storm!
Stern Winter in its bitterest form!

Long, cheerless nights, and murky days!
No sunbeam gladdens Misery's ways !
The Frost has stopped yon Village Mill,
And Labour, every where, stands still !
Ev'n Birds, from leafless groves withdrawn,
Fall, torpid, on the frozen lawn -
No more, in Spring, to greet the morn,
Or build their nests in yonder thorn!
Loud howls the wind along the vale !
Shipwreck and death are in the gale !
Lorn, weary travellers, as they go,
Are wildered in the trackless snow,
And dread, at every step, that sleet
And snow may be their windingsheet!
To town or city if we turn,
What numbers weep, what numbers mourn!
Unshelter'd sons of Toil and Care,
Cold, shivering, comfortless, and bare !
Poor Seamen, erst in battle brave,
Half famish’d, sinking to the grave!
Sad groups, who never begged before,
Imploring aid from door to door!
While helpless Age, too frail to roam,
Is perishing, for want, at home!
Hard fate! when poverty and years
Assail us, in this vale of tears,
Till Death, the dismal scene to close,
In pity, terminates our woes

s!
O! ye, whom Providence hath blest,
With wealth to succour the distrest,
0! lend your help in time of need!
The naked clothe - the hungry feed,

And great, from Ileaven, shall be your meed !
Poor Robin observes of this month :

Now sharpnosed Janus, with his frozen face,
Congeales the moist Aquarius into ice :
Eat, drink, and smoke, clothe well, and keep good Fires,
Crack jokes, and dance to Fiddles, Harps, and Lyres;
Tell Tales of Ghosts, and let each jovial Soul
Sing Songs, and drink from spicy wassail Bowl;
Pot by Care's tenfold miseries to hereafter,
And with quaint Momus crack your sides with laughter.

January 24. Șt. Timothy." St. Cadoc. St. Macedonius.

Sementinae feriae. — Rom. Cal. The weather is commonly hard about this time. The wild quadrupeds are driven from their accustomed remote haunts. Hares enter the gardens to browze on the cultivated vegetables; and leaving their tracks in the snow, are frequently hunted down, or caught in snares; and the hen roosts are pillaged by foxes.