August who banished from her Smithfield Stand,
To Chelsea flies, with Dogget in her Hand;
September, when by Custom (right divine)
Geese are ordain'd to bleed at Michael's Shrine:†
October, who the Cause of Freedom join'd,
And gave a second George to bless Mankind;
November, who at once to grace our Earth,
St. Andrew boasts, and our Augusta's Birth;
December, last of Months, but best, who gave,
A Christ to Man, a Saviour to the Slave.
Whilst, falsely grateful, Man, at the full Feast,
To do God Honour, makes himself a Beast.

There is nothing Superstitious in the Prognostications of Weather from Achs and Corns: Achs and Corns, says the great Philosopher Bacon, do engrieve, (i. e. afflict) either towards Rain or Frost: The one makes the Humours to abound more, and the other makes them Sharper.

Loyd in his Diall of Daies, observes on St. Paul's, that" of this Day, the Husbandment prog"nosticate

called the weeping St. Swithin, for that about his Feast, Præsepe & Aselli, rainy Constellations arise cosmically, and commonly cause Rain. Blount in Verbo

* Alluding to the Interdiction of St. Bartholomew Fair.

† Goose intentos, as Blount tells us, is a Word used in Lancashire, where the Husbandmen claim it as a Due to have a Goose intentos on the 16th Sunday after Pentecost; which Custom took Origin from the last Word of this old Church Prayer of that Day, "Tua, nos quæsumus, Domine, gratia semper præveniat & sequa"tur; ac bonis operibus jugiter præstet esse intentos." The common People very humourously mistake it for a Goose with ten Toes.

Perhaps it will be thought no uninteresting Article in this little Code of Vulgar Antiquities, to mention a well-known Interjection used by the Country People to their Horses, when yoked to a Cart, &c. Heit or Heck! I find this used in the Days of Chaucer: "They

"nosticate the whole Year: If it be a fair Day, it "will be a pleasant Year;* if it be Windy, it will "be Wars; if it be Cloudy, it doth foreshew the Plague that Year."

Mr. Gay notices it thus in his Trivia:

All Superstition from thy Breast repel,

Let cred❜lous Boys, and prattling Nurses tell
How if the Festival of Paul be clear,

Plenty from lib'ral Horn shall strow the Year:
When the dark Skies dissolve in Snow or Rain,
The lab'ring Hind shall yoke the Steer in vain;
But if the threatning Winds in Tempest roar,
Then War shall bathe her wasteful Sword in Gore.
How if, on Swithin's Feast the Welkin lours,
And ev'ry Penthouse streams with hasty Show'rs,
Twice twenty Days shall Clouds their Fleeces drain,
And wash the Pavements with incessant Rain:
Let no such vulgar Tales debase thy Mind,
Nor Paul, nor Swithin, rule the Clouds and Wind.

Thus also some rural Prognostications of the Weather are alluded to in his first Pastoral:

-We learn'd to read the Skies,

To know when Hail will fall, or Winds arise;

"

They saw a Cart that charged was with Hay,

"The which a Carter drove forth on the Way:
"Depe was the Way, for which the Cart still stode;
"This Carter smote and cryde as he were wode,
"Heit Scot! heit Brok! what spare ye for the Nones,
"The Fend you fetch, quoth be, Body and Bones.

Fre. T. 275. The Name of Brok is still too in frequent Use amongst Farmers Horses.

* It is common in the North to plant the Herb House-leek upon the Tops of Cottage Houses. The learned Author of the Vulgar Errors informs us that it was an antient Superstition, and this Herb was planted on the Tops of Houses as a Defensative against Lightning and Thunder, Quincunx, 126.

A Highlander, says Mr. Pennant, never begins any Thing of Consequence on the Day of the Week, on which the Third of May falls, which he calls the dismal Day.

CHAP. XIX.

Of Candlemass-Day; why so called; the Blasphemy of the Church of Rome in consecrating Iar Candles.

THIS Day goes under several Denominations: It is called the Day of CHRIST's Presentation; because on it CHRIST was presented in the Temple; it is called the Holy-Day of St. Simeon; because it was on it, that he took our SAVIOUR up in his Arms: And it is called the Purification, because then the Holy Virgin was purified. It is generally a Day of Festivity, and more than ordinary Observation among Women, and is therefore called the Wives Feast-Day. The Feasting seems to be observed in Honour of the Virgin Mary; for as on the Day of a Woman's being church'd, there is no common Entertainment, so it seems, that this Feasting was begun in the Times of Popery, by Way of Compliment to the Churching-Day of the Virgin Mary.

It has the Name of* Candlemass-Day, be

cause

* Now Anglica, the Purification of our Lady. Vel comSermone potius, Candlemas-Day; A distributione & ges

tatione