FLORAL DIRECTORY.

Arbor vitæ. Thuja occidentalis. Dedicated to the Conception of the B. V. Mary.

December 9.

St. Leocadia, A. D. 304. The Seven Martyrs at Samosata, A. D. 297. St. Wulfhilde, A. D. 990.

BURIED ALIVE.

A remarkable instance of premature interment, is related in the case of the rev. Mr. Richards, parson of the Hay, in Herefordshire, who, in December, 1751, was supposed to have died suddenly. His friends seeing his body and limbs did not stiffen, after twenty-four hours, sent for a surgeon, who, upon bleeding him, and not being able to stop the blood, told them that he was not dead, but in a sort of trance, and ordered them not to bury him. They paid no attention to the injunction, but committed the body to the grave the next day. A person walking along the churchyard, hearing a noise in the grave, ran and prevailed with the clerk to have the grave opened, where they found a great bleeding at the nose, and the body in a profuse sweat; whence it was conjectured that he was buried alive. They were now, however, obliged to let him remain, as all appearance of further recovery had been precluded by his interment.*

A writer in the "Gentleman's Magazine" some years before, observes, "I have undoubted authority for saying, a man was lately (and I believe is still) living at Hustley, near Winchester, December,1747, who, after lying for dead two days and two nights, was committed to the grave, and rescued from it by some boys luckily playing in the churchyard!"

FLORAL DIRECTORY.

Corsican Spruce. Pinus Laricio.
Dedicated to St. Leocadia.

December 10.

St. Melchiades, Pope, A. D. 314.
Eulalia.

BIG MAN.

obliged to be taken off before the coffin could be admitted, and it was so heavy, that the attendants were forced to move it along the churchyard upon rollers.*

FLORAL DIRECTORY.

Portugal Cyprus.

Cupressus Lusitanica. Dedicated to St. Eulalia.

December 11.

St. Damasus, Pope, A. D. 384. Sts. Fuscian, Victoricus, and Gentian, A. d. 287. St. Daniel, the Stylite, A. D. 494.

ST. NICHOLAS IN RUSSIA.

A gentleman obligingly contributes the subjoined account of a northern usage on the 5th of December, the vigil of St. Nicholas. He communicates his name to

the editor, and vouches for the authenticity of his relation, " having himself been

an actor in the scene he describes.'

(For the Every-Day Book.) In the fine old city of Leewvarden, the capital of West Friezland, there are some curious customs preserved, connected with the celebration of the anniversary of this saint. From time immemorial, in this province, St. Nicholas has been hailed as the tutelary patron of children and confections; no very inappropriate association, perhaps. On the eve, or Avond, as it is there termed, of this festival, the good saint condescends, (as currently asserted, and religiously believed, by the younger fry,) to visit these sublunar spheres, and to irradiate by his majestic presence, the winter fireside of his infant votaries.

During a residence in the above town, some twenty years agone, in the brief days of happy boyhood, (that green spot in our existence,) it was my fortune to be present at one of these annual visitations. Imagine a group of happy youngsters sporting around the domestic hearth, in all the buoyancy of riotous health and spirits, brim-full of joyful expectation, but yet in an occasional pause, casting St. frequent glances towards the door, with a

On the 10th of December, 1741, died Mr. Henry Wanyford, late steward to the earl of Essex. He was of so large a size, that the top of the hearse was

Gentleman's Magazine, 1751.

comical expression of impatience, mixed up with something like dread of the impending event. At last a loud knock is heard, in an instant the games are suspended, and the door slowly unfolding, reveals to sight the venerated saint himself, arrayed in his pontificals, with pas

Gentleman's Magazine.

toral staff and jewelled mitre. Methinks
I see him now! yet he did "his spiriting
gently," and his tone of reproof,
more in sorrow than in anger!"

"was

In fine, the family peccadillos being tenderly passed over, and the more favourable reports made the subject of due encomiums, good father Nicholas gave his parting benediction, together with the promise, (never known to fail,) of more substantial benefits, to be realized on the next auspicious morning. So ends the first act of the farce, which it will be readily anticipated is got up with the special connivance of papa and mamma, by the assistance of some family friend, who is quite au fait to the domestic politics of the establishment. The concluding scene, however, is one of unalloyed pleasure to the delighted children, and is thus arranged.

Before retiring to rest, each member of the family deposits a shoe on a table in a particular room, which is carefully locked, and the next morning is opened in the presence of the assembled household; when lo! by the mysterious agency (doubtless) of the munificent saint, the board is found covered with bons bons, toys, and trinkets.

It may not be deemed irrelevant to add, that on the anniversary, the confectioners' shops display their daintiest inventions, and are gaily lighted up and ornamented for public exhibition, much in the same way as at Paris on the first day of the new year.

These reminiscences may not prove unacceptable to many, who contemplate with satisfaction the relics of ancient observances, belonging to a more primitive state of manners, the memory of which is rapidly passing into oblivion; and who, perhaps, think with the writer, in one sense at least, that modern refinements, if they tend to render us wiser, hardly make us happier!

FLORAL DIRECTORY.

H. H.

Aleppo Pine. Pinus Halipensis.

Dedicated to St. Damasus.

Becember 12.

A. D. 552.

Sts. Epimachus and Alexander,&c.A.D. 250. St. Finian, or Finan, Bp. in Ireland, St. Columba, son of Crimthain, A. D. 548. St. Cormac. St. Colman, Abbot, A. D. 659. St. Eudburge, A. D. 751. St. Valery, Abbot,

A. D. 622. St. Corentin, 1st. Bp. of Quimper, 5th Cent. Another St. Corentin, or Cury, a. n. 401

An intoxicated Servant.

In Lloyd's Evening Post of December 12-14, 1781, there is the following advertisement:

YOUNG MAN having yesterday

A left his master's service in Smith

field, on a presumption of his pocket being picked of one hundred pounds, his master's property, when he was in liquor; this is to inform him, that he left it in the shop of his master, who has found it; and if he will return to his master's service he will be kindly received

Such was the state of society, in the year 1781, that a drunken servant would be "kindly received" by his employer. We are so far better, in the year 1825, that if such a servant were kindly received, he would not be permitted to enter on his duties till he was admonished not to repeat the vice. Drunkenness is now so properly reprobated, that no one but a thorough reprobate dares to practise it, and the character of sot or drunkard in variably attaches to him.

In the subjoined extract taken from an old author, without recollection of his name, there is something apt to the occasion.

THE TRADE OF BREWING.

By a writer, in the year 1621.

Of all the trades in the world, a brewer is the loadstone which draws the cus tomes of all functions unto it. It is the mark or upshot of every man's ayme, and the bottomlesse whirlepoole that swallowes up the profits of rich and poore. The brewer's art (like a wilde kestrell or lemand hawke,) flies at all games; or like a butler's boxe at Christmasse, it is sure to winne, whosoever loses. In a word, it rules and raignes, (in some sort,) as Augustus Cæsar did, for it taxeth the whole earth. Your innes and alehouses are brookes and rivers, and their clients are small rills and springs, who all, (very dutifully) doe pay their tributes to the boundless ocean of the brewhouse. For, all the world knowes, that if men and women did drinke no more than sufficed nature, or if it were but a little extraor dinary now and then upon occasion, or by chance as you may terme it; if drinking were used in any reason, or any rea son used in drinking, I pray ye what

is a post, beam, or pillar, which holds up the brewhouse; for as the barke is to the tree, so is a good drinker to the brewer.

St. Lucy, A. D. 304. St. Jodoc, or Josse, A. D. 669. St. Kenelm, King, A. D. 820. St. Aubert, Bp. of Cambray and Arras, A. D. 669. B. John Marinoni, A. D. 1562. St. Othilla, A. d. 772.

This saint is in the church of England calendar and the almanacs. She was a young lady of Syracuse, who preferring a religious single life to marriage, gave Havaway all her fortune to the poor. ing been accused to Peschasius, a heathen judge, for professing christianity, she was soon after barbarously murdered by his officers.*

TRANSATLANTIC VERSES.

effusions from The following America. The first, by Mr. R. H. Wilde, a distinguished advocate of Georgia; the second, by a lady of Baltimore, who moots in the court of the muses, with as much ingenuity as the barrister in his

own court.

ANSWER.

The dews of night may fall from heaven,
Upon the wither'd rose's bed,
And tears of fond regret be given,

To mourn the virtues of the dead.
Yet morning's sun the dews will dry,
And tears will fade from sorrow's eye,
Affection's pangs be lull'd to sleep,
And even love forget to weep.

The tree may mourn its fallen leaf,

And autumn winds bewail its bloom,
And friends may heave the sigh of grief,

O'er those who sleep within the tomb.
Yet soon will spring renew the flowers,
And time will bring more smiling hours;
In friendship's heart all grief will die.
And even love forget to sigh.
The sea may on the desert shore,

Lament each trace it bears away;
The lonely heart its grief may pour

O'er cherish'd friendship's fast decay:
Yet when all trace is lost and gone,
The waves dance bright and daily on;
Thus soon affection's bonds are torn,
And even love forgets to mourn.

A Winter Piece.

It was a winter's evening, and fast came down the snow,
And keenly o'er the wide heath the bitter blast did blow;
When a damsel all forlorn, quite bewilder'd in her way,
Press'd her baby to her bosom, and sadly thus did say :
"Oh! cruel was my father, that shut his door on me,
And cruel was my mother, that such a sight could see;
And cruel is the wintry wind, that chills my heart with cold;
But crueller than all, the lad that left my love for gold!
"Hush, hush, my lovely baby, and warm thee in my breast;
Ah, little thinks thy father how sadly we're distrest!
For, cruel as he is, did he know but how we fare,
He'd shield us in his arms from this bitter piercing air.
"Cold, cold, my dearest jewel! thy little life is gone:
Oh! let my tears revive thee, so warm that trickle down;
My tears that gush so warm, oh! they freeze before they fall
Ah! wretched, wretched mother! thou 'rt now bereft of all."
Then down she sunk despairing upon the drifted snow,
And, wrung with killing anguish, lamented loud her woe:
She kiss'd her babe's pale lips, and laid it by her side;
Then cast her eyes to heaven, then bow'd her head, and died.

FLORAL DIRECTORY.
Pitch Pine. Pinus resinosa.
Dedicated to St. Florence.
December 16.

St. Ado, Abp. of Vienne, A. D. 875.
Alice, or Adelaide, Empress, A. D.
St. Beanus, Bp. in Leinster.

[Cambridge Term ends.]

"O Sapientia.

St.

999.

This day is so marked in the church of England calendar and the almanacs. Many have been puzzled by this distinc

tion, and some have imagined that "o SAPIENTIA" was a saint and martyr, one of the celebrated eleven thousand virgins of St. Ursula. Mr. Audley, however, has rightly observed that, "This day is so called from the beginning of an anthem in the service of the Latin church, which used to be sung for the honour of Christ's advent, from this day till Christmas eve."-The anthem commenced with these words, "O SAPIENTIA quæ ex ore altissimi prodidisti," &c.