At such times, the vapour appears to be now and then thrown up, in too great plenty, into the cold region above; where being suddenly decomposed, the temperature falls back for awhile, amidst wind, showers, and hail, attended, in some instances, with frost at night." Our ancestors varied their clothing according to the season. Strutt has given the spring dress of a man in the four teenth century, from an illumination in a manuscript of that age: this is a copy of it. In "Sylvan Sketches," a new and charming volume by the lady who wrote the "Flora Domestica," it is delightfully observed, that, "the young and joyous spirit of spring sheds its sweet influence upon every thing: the streams sparkle and ripple in the noon-day sun, and the birds carol tipseyly their merriest ditties. It is surely the loveliest season of the year." One of our living minstrels sings of a spring day, that it Looks beautiful, as when an infant wakes From its soft slumbers; and the same bard poetically reminds us, with more than poetical truth, that at this season, when we See life and bliss around us flowing, Wherever space or being is, Another, whose numbers are choralled by worshipping crowds, observes with equal truth, and under the influence of high feelings, for seasonable abundance, that Sweet is thy coming, Spring!-and as I pass Thy hedge-rows, where from the half-naked spray That whispers to the warm noon-breeze; nor flow'r While sun, and fields, and air, the sense have wrought In spring the ancient Romans celebrated the Ludi Florales. These were annual games in honour to Flora, accompanied by supplications for beneficent influences on the grass, trees, flowers, and other products of the earth, during the year. The Greeks likewise invoked Athenæum. fertility on the coming of spring with many ceremonies. The remains of the Roman festivals, in countries which the Roman arms subdued, have been frequently noticed already; and it is not purposed to advert to them further, than by observing that there is considerable difficulty in so apportioning every usage in a modern ceremony, as to assign each to its proper origin. Some may have been common to a people before they were conquered; others may have been the growth of later times. Spring, as the commencement of the natural year, must have been hailed by all nations with satisfaction; and was, undoubtedly, commemorated, in most, by public rejoicing and popular sports. CHRONOLOGY. Heigho! heigho! heigho! Summer is at hand! Heigho' heigho! heigho! Summer is at hand! Dr. Samuel Parr died on the 6th of distich in the ballad before quoted: March, 1825. A SPRING FESTIVAL. Now we've vanquish'd Death, But of late years the spirit of this festival has disappeared. Lately, winter was uncouthly shaped of wood, and being covered with straw, was nailed against a large wheel, and the straw being set on fire, the apparatus was rolled down a steep hill! Agreeably to the intention of its inventors, the blazing wheel was by degrees knocked to pieces, against the precipices below, and then-winter's effigy, to the admiration of the multitude, split into a thousand fiery fragments. This custom too, merely from the danger attending it, quickly feli into disuse; but still a shadow of the original festivity, which it was amongst the people of Eisenach. “Almeant to commemorate, is preserved though" says the writer of these particulars, 66 we find winter no longer sent into banishment, as in former times, yet an attempt is made to represent and conciliate spring by offerings of nosegays and sprays of evergreen, adorned with birds The Germans retain many of the annual customs peculiar to themselves before the Roman conquest. Whether a ceremony described in the "Athenæum," as having been observed in Germany of late years, is derived from the victors, or from the ancient nations, is not worth discussing The approach of spring was there commemorated with an abundance of display, its allegorical character was its most remarkable feature. It was called Der Sommers-gewinn, the acquisition of summer; and about thirty years ago was celebrated at the begining of spring by the inhabitants of Eisenach, in Saxony, who, for that purpose, divided themselves into two parties. One party carried winter under the shape of a man covered with straw, out of the town, and then, as it were, sent him into public exile; whilst the other party, at a distance from the town, decked spring, or, as it was vulgarly called, summer, in the form of youth, with boughs of cypress and May, and marched in solemn array to meet their comrades, the jocund executioners of winter. In the meanwhile national ballads, celebrating the delights of spring and summer, filled the skies; processions paraded the meadows and fields, loudly imploring the blessings of a prolific summer; and the jovial merry-makers then brought the victor-god home in triumph. In the course of time, however, this ceremonial Lent Lily. underwent various alterations. The parts, before personified, were now performed by real dramatis persona; one arrayed as spring, and another as winter, entertained the spectators with a combat, wherein winter was ultimately vanquished and stripped of his emblematical attire; spring, on the contrary, being haled as victor, was led in triumph, 1st the loud acclamations of the mulinto the town. From this festival ted a popular ballad, composed of each of which conclude thus ; Probably the latter usages may not or eggs, emblematical of the season." have been consequent upon the decline of the former, but were coeval in their origin, and are the only remains of ancient customs peculiar to the season. FLORAL DIRECTORY. Narcissus Pseudonarcissus multiplex. Dedicated to St. Colette March 7. St. Thomas Aquinas, A. v. 1274. Sts. Perpetua and Felicitas, A. D. 203. St. Paul, Anchoret. St. Perpetua. This saint is in the church of England calendar. She was martyred under the emperor Severus in 205. St. Paul the Anchoret. This saint was 66 a man of profound ignorance." Butler says he was named "the simple." He journeyed eight days into the desert on a visit, and to become a disciple of St. Antony, who told him he was too old, and bade him return home, mind his business, and say his prayers; he shut the door upon him. Paul fasted and prayed before the door till Antony opened it, and out of compassion made a monk of him. One day after he had diligently worked at making mats and hurdles, and prayed without intermission, St. Antony bid him undo his work and do it all over again, which he did, without asking for a morsel of bread though he had been seven days without eating; this was to try Paul's obedience. Ano ther day when some monks came to Antony for advice, he bid Paul spill a vessel of honey and gather it up without any dust this was another trial of his obedience. At other times he ordered him to draw water a whole day and pour it out again; to make baskets and pull them to pieces; to sew and unsew garments and the like: these were other trials of his obedience. When Antony had thus exercised him he placed him in a cell three miles from his own, proposed him as a model of obedience to his disciples, sent sick persons to him, and others possessed with the devil, whom he could not cure himself, and "under Paul," Butler says, "they never failed of a cure." He died about 330. awoke people from their sleep and frightened them out of their houses. A servant maid in Charterhouse-square, was thrown from her bed, and had her arm broken; bells in several steeples were struck by the chime hammers; great stones were thrown from the new spire of Westminster Abbey; dogs howled in uncommon tones; and fish jumped half a yard above the water. London had experienced a shock only a month before, namely, on the 8th of February 1750, between 12 and 1 o'clock in the day. At Westminster, the barristers were so alarmed that they imagined the hall was falling. Scots' mists, like Scots' men, are proverbial for their penetration; Plymouth showers for their persevering frequency. The father of Mr. Haydon, the artist, relates that in the latter portion of 1807, and the first three or four months of 1808, there had been more than 160 successive days in which rain, in more or less quantities, had fallen in that neighbourhood. He adds, indeed, by way of consolation, that in winter it only rained there, while it snowed elsewhere. It has been remarked that in this opinion he might be correct; at least if he compared the climate of Plymouth with that of the western highlands. A party of English tourists are said to have stopped for several days at an uncomfortable inn, near Inverary, by the unremitting rains that fall in that country about Lammas, when one of them pettishly asked the waiter, "Does it rain here ALWAYS?" "Na! na!" replied Donald, "it snaws whiles," i. e. sometimes. FLORAL DIRECTORY. On the 8th of March, 1750, an earth- Petticoat Daffodil. Narcissus Bulboco quake shook all London. The shock was at half past five in the morning. It dium. Dedicated to St. Catherine, The first View of the New Riber-from London. This is seen immediately on coming within view of Sadler's Wells, a place of dramatic entertainment. After manifold windings and tunnellings from its source, the New River passes beneath the arch in the engraving, and forms a basin within a large walled enclosure, from whence diverging main pipes convey the water to all parts of London. At the back of the boy angling on the wall, is a public-house with tea-gardens and a skittle-ground, "commonly called, or known by the name or sign of, the sir Hugh Myddleton, or of the sir Hugh Myddleton's head," a portrait of sir Hugh hangs in front of the house. To this stream, as the water nearest London favourable to sport, anglers of inferior note repair :Here" gentle anglers," and their rods withal, Essaying, do the finny tribe inthrall. Here boys their penny lines and bloodworms throw, And scare, and catch, the " silly fish" below: Backstickles bite, and biting, up they come, And now a minnow, now a miller's thumb. Here too, experienced youths of better taste And higher aim resort, who bait with paste, Or push beneath a gentle's shining skin The barbed hook, and bury it within; The more he writhes the better, if he die Not one will touch him of the finny fry; If in strong agony the sufferer live, Then doth the "gentle angler" joy receive, Down bobs the float, the angler wins the prize, And now the gentle, now the gudgeon dies, Concerning Sir Hugh Myddleton there relate that such mutton given to a will be occasion to speak again. GLOVE OF DEFIANCE In the Church. In the notice of Bernard Gilpin, March 4, (p. 332,) it is said, "another incident further illustrating the manners of the Northern Borderers will be mentioned below." The observation refers to a singular challenge, which the arrangements of that day could not include, and is now inserted. On a certain Sunday Mr. Gilpin going to preach in those parts wherein deadly feuds prevailed, observed a glove hanging up on high in the church. He demanded of the sexton what it meant, and why it hung there. The sexton answered, that it was a glove which one of the parish hung up there as a challenge to his enemy, signifying thereby, that he was ready to enter combat hand to hand, with him or any one else who should dare to take the glove down. Mr. Gilpin requested the sexton to take it down. “Not I, sir," replied the sexton, "I dare do no such thing." Then Mr. Gilpin, calling for a long staff, took down the glove himself, and put it in his bosom. By and by, when the people came to church, and Mr. Gilpin in due time went up into the pulpit, he in his sermon reproved the barbarous custom of challenges, and especially the custom which they had, of making challenges by the hanging up of a glove. "I hear," said he," that there is one amongst you, who, even in this sacred place, hath hanged up a glove to this purpose, and threateneth to enter into combat with whosoever shall take it down. Behold, I have taken it down myself." Then plucking out the glove, he showed it openly, and inveighing against such practices in any man that professed himself a Christian, endeavoured to persuade them to the practice of mutual love and charity. THE SEASON. The memory of man supplies no recollection of so wet a season as from September 1824 to March 1825; it produced the rot in sheep to an alarming extent. In consequence of the animals being killed in this disease, the mutton is unwholesome for human food, and produces mortality even in dogs, The newspapers No. 12. kennel of dogs rendered them fat, till on a sudden their good looks declined, they became lean, and gradually died, without any other cause being assignable for the mortality, than the impure flesh of the sheep. In such a season, therefore, families should shrink from the use of mutton as from a pestilence. There is no security, but in entire abstinence. Almost every hare shot during the same period had a tainted liver. Under such circumstances lamb should be sparingly used, and, if possible, refrained from altogether, in order to secure mutton at a reasonable price hereafter. CHRONOLOGY. 1792. John, earl of Bute, died. He sion of George III.; and of all who guided was prime minister soon after the accesthe helm of state, the most unpopular. On the 10th of March, 1820, died Benjamin West, esq., president of the of his age. It was his delight to gently Royal Academy, in the eighty-second year lead genius in a young artist; and Mr. WILLIAM BEHNES, the sculptor, was honoured by the venerable president with the means of transmitting his parting looks to an admiring world, upon whom he was soon to look no more. Mr. West's sittings to Mr. Behnes were about two months before his death. Expressing himself to his young friend in terms of high satisfaction at the model, he enbranch of art which Mr. Behnes has since couraged him to persevere in that distinguished, by admirable power of design and use of the chisel. To speak of Mr. Behnes's model as a mere likeness, is meagre praise of an effort which clearly marks observation, and comprehension, of Mr. West's great mental powers. The bust, as it stands in marble, in sir John Leicester's gallery, is a perfect resemblance of Mr. West's features, and an eloquent memorial of his vigorous and unimpaired intellect in the last days of earthly existence. If ever the noblest traits of humanity were depicted by the hand of art, they are on this bust. Superiority of mind is so decidedly marked, and blended, with primitive simplicity, and a beaming look of humanity and benevolence, that it seems the head of an apostle. Mr. West was an American; he was |