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their vines. The gathering of the very late sorts of Apples and of Winter Pears still continues, and these fruits are, like those of the earlier year, laid up in the loft to complete their process of ripening, few of the Winter fruits ripening while on the trees.

PALES. The appearance of Sheep wandering on the downs and through stubble fields grazing strikes us more at this season of the year than it does earlier, as they begin to be more conspicuous through the thinned and falling foliage, which now begins to yield to the blowing weather of October. In the next month, however, is the general destruction of the leaves, which for this reason has been called the Fall.

HYGEIA. We have elsewhere adverted to the practice of being blooded at spring and fall, which was the custom of our ancestors. About this time from ten to twelve ounces of blood used annually to be taken away by the lancet. This custom is now very properly laid aside, and it is found that a few gentle doses of opening medicine given when from the first setting in of the autumnal chilling weather the body becomes indisposed, answers all the purposes of bleeding without its inconveniences. The bleeding at the nose and the fluxes called the cholera and diarrhea, which occur spontaneously in Autumn, have been considered as natural indications that the system requires depletion in this season. COELUM.-A living poet thus very naturally describes a blowing wet afternoon at this time of

year:

An Autumnal Evening.

It was an Autumn evening, and the rain

Had ceased awhile, but the loud winds did shriek,

And called the deluging tempest back again;

The flagstaff on the churchyard tower did creak,

And through the black clouds ran a lightning vein,
And then the flapping Raven came to seek
Its home: its flight was heavy, and its wing
Seemed weary with a long day's wandering.

October 27. St. Frumentius Bishop and Confessor. St. Elesbaan King and Confessor. St. Abban Abbot in Ireland.

St. Frumentius is styled the Apostle of Ethiopia, whose inhabitants he converted in the fourth age. He was the friend of St. Athanasius. The Greek church commemorates him on the 30th of November.

St. Elesbaan was King of Ethiopia during the reign of Justin the Elder.

CHRONOLOGY.-" Michael Servetus was burnt to death at Geneva in 1553, for holding those tenets now held and defended publicly by the sect called Unitarians. His execution by fire was ordered by Protestant Calvinists, and affords one, among many proofs, that the martyrdom and tortures of the unenlightened ages were not an effect of Catholicism, but of the prevalent barbarity of the times. The Catholics, in proportion to their numbers, not having made more persecutions than the Protestant seceders from the general faith."

D'Alembert the celebrated philosopher, and perhaps the acutest mathematical reasoner who ever lived, died at Paris in 1783. His Essai sur les Causes Générales des Vents, though the least known of his compositions, is perhaps the most calculated to display his philosophical acumen.

FAUNA. The Longtailed Titmouse Parus caudatus is seen often at this time in flocks pursuing a wandering and uncertain course by short flittings. These birds alight in hedgerows, shrubs, and in gardens on their passage, and the precise time of their appearance is always uncertain.

Starlings congregate and fly in a sort of vortex; they also sit in the form of a circle, as we have repeatedly noticed.

FLORA.-Fungi and Mushrooms still continue to be seen abundantly in moist places, if the season be favourable to them. The common edible Mushroom Agaricus Campestris now declines, but several other sorts are eaten, particularly by foreigners. We remember, October 6, 1819, to have seen several sorts vended in the markets of Antwerp for sale, among others the Boletus edulis. The Peziza coccinea still abounds. The Campanula rotundifolia still flowers.

October 28. ST. SIMON and ST. JUDE Apostles. St. Faro. St. Neot Anchoret. Alfred the Great.

St. Simon is called the Canaanite, from the Hebrew word Cana, to be zealous: hence his name of Simon Zelotes, or the Zealot, Luke vi. 15. After enduring various troubles and afflictions, he with great cheerfulness suffered death on the cross.

St. Jude is called both by the name of Thaddaeus and Libbaeus-Matt. x. 3. and Mark iii. 18. Jude, the brother of James Jude, v. 1. And Judas, not Iscariot-John xiv. 22. He was of our Lord's kindred; " Is not his mother called Mary, and his brethren James and Joses, and Simon and Judas?" Matt. xiii. 55. After great success in his apostolic ministry, he was at last put to death for a free and open reproof of the superstitious rites of the Magi. He has left one Epistle, esteemed to be of universal concern to Christians.

The Feast of St. Simon and St. Jude was superstitiously considered rainy, as well as that of St. Swithin, and this, probably, because the Autumnal Rains began on or about that

day. We have seen this passage somewhere, quoted from the very old play of the Roaring Girls, "I know it as well as I know t'will raine on Simon and Jude's Day." Holinshed informs us, that so great a quantity of rain fell on this day, in 1536, as to prevent the action of a great battle that was to have been fought between the king's troops and the rebel

army.

The commencement of cold weather probably suggested the following rhymes of Buckler :

Festa dies Judae prohibet te incedere nudè,
Sed vult ut corpus vestibus omne tegas.
Festa dies Judae cum transiit atque Simonis,
In foribus nobis esse putatur hyems.
Simonis, Judae post festum vae tibi nudè,

Tunc inflant genti mala gaudia veste carenti.

In the Runic Calendar St. Simon and Jude's Day was marked by a ship, on account of their having been fishermen. Wormii Festi Danici, lib. ii. c. 9.

"A la Saint Simon et Saint Jude on envoi au Temple les Gens un peu simple, demander des Nefles," (Medlars,)" afin de les attraper et faire noircir par des Valets." Sauval Antiq. de Paris, tom. ii. p. 617.

Alfred the Great.-Butler, in his account of this great man today, describes a very curious manner that he adopted of measuring time, so as to be enabled to observe canonical hours more punctually, clocks at that time being unknown. Alfred caused waxen candles, marked by notches every inch, to be kept burning in his oratory before the figures of the saints, hence measuring the hours. These candles were put into horn lanterns, which gave rise to the introduction of lanterns into general use.

FLORA. In fine weather many plants yet remain in flower which belong to Summer; indeed most of the aestival plants still hold out a few flowers from their wet and semirotten stalks, which in a fine sunny noon would almost remind one of Summer, were it not for the quantity of dead leaves which now cover the ground, and the deep autumnal colouring of those which remain on the trees. The Ash by this time has oftentimes quite cast its leaves; those of the Elm are greatly thinned, and the rest quite yellow. The Poplars are fast falling, and the light foliage of the Mountain Ash lie scattered, like its mouldering red berries, on the ground. The Beech, the Hornbeam, and the Oak, retain their leaves the longest, and even keep them all the Winter. Of fruit trees the Cherries, Apples, and Pears are now shedding their leaves, while the Mulberry retains its green leaves to the last, and often keeps them all till the first smart

frost, when they fall all at once. We have seen them drop on the rising of the Sun, after a frosty night, altogether like a shower. The fall of the leaf can be considered only as a "sloughing or casting off diseased or worn out parts," whether the injury to their constitution may arise from causes or from an exhaustion of their vital powers. Hence a separation takes place, either in the footstalk, or more usually at its base, and the dying part quits the vigorous one, which is promoted by the weight of the leaf itself, or by the action of autumnal winds upon its expanded form.

The woodpath is carpeted over with leaves,
The glories of Autumn decay;

The Goddess of Plenty has bound up her sheaves,
And carried the harvest away.

OPS.-The Opera et Dies of Hesiod contain useful observations in agriculture, and state the labour proper for each time of year. It were to be wished that an extensive work on this subject were compiled as adapted to our climate. The labour of the husbandman at this time consists chiefly in sowing his Wheat. In the garden, when the weather permits, the digging borders, laying out parterres, and planting many plants and shrubs, are the common employment of the horticulturalist. Small trees of Lavender, Rosemary, Old Man or Sudderwood, and various others, should now be planted out, besides Roses and other ornamental bushes.

CHRONOLOGY.-The celebrated metaphysician John Locke, author of the Essay on the Human Understanding, died today in 1704. Mr. Fox styles Locke the chiefest glory of the University of Oxford, and the most successful adversary of superstition. Mr. Locke has left many valuable and unpublished Papers and Letters now in possession of T. J. Forster, Esq. of Walthamstow, in whose family they have remained ever since Mr. Locke's death.

October 29. St. Narcissus Bishop. St. Chef

Abbot.

CHRONOLOGY.-Sir Walter Raleigh was on this day in 1618 inhumauly and basely decapitated, and afterwards brutally buried in St. Margaret's church, Westminster.

FAUNA. After having dismissed the subject of our Summer birds of passage, the next consideration is that of the birds which arrive here in Autumn and remain with us all the Winter, retiring in Spring about the time that the vernal migratory birds arrive. We have already noticed the Woodcock and Snipe. The following will be found to be a pretty accurate account of the times of the arrival of the other

Winter Birds which frequent our island. We do not,
however, herein include the numerous Sea Fowls which either
at stated periods or at uncertain intervals revisit the shores,
or perform short migrations to and from different parts of
the island:-
:-

The Ring Ouzel Merula torquata arrives soon after Michaelmas.
Redwing Turdus iliacus, middle of October.

Fieldfare Turdus pilaris, October and November.

Royston Crow Corvus Cornix, October.

Woodcock Scolopax rusticola keeps arriving all October and November.
Snipe Scolopax gallinago, the same time, some of them breed here.
Jack Snipe Scolopax minima, ditto.

Pidgeon or Stock Dove, Columba Oenas, end of November, some abide here all the year.

Wood Pidgeon Ring Dove Columba Palumbes, some abide all the year, some arrive in Spring, others perform partial migrations.

The following are mere occasional visitors, frequently changing their Summer and Winter quarters :

Wild Swan Cygnus ferus.
Wild Goose Anas anser.
Wild Duck Anas torquata.
Pochard Anus fusca.

Teal Anas querquedula.

The following birds appear at uncertain intervals:

Grosbeak Leria coccothraustes.

Crossbill Lexia carvirostra.

Silk Tail or Waxen Chatterer Ampelis garrula.

When great abundance of Winter migratory birds, and particularly Fieldfares, arrive early, they usually forebode a hard Winter.

The same prognostic of a severe winter is to be inferred from the early or numerous migration of Wild Geese, Wild Ducks, and other Winter fowls, or the appearance of Sea Gulls in the inland marshes.

The harsh screaming of aquatic fowls as they pass over us may often be heard at night, when they themselves are unseen. Cranes, Storks, Geese, and Ducks, all fly by night as well as by day; and the Stork is the only one of them who is not clamorous: he takes to wing in silence, and pierces the aërial regions unheard. The Cranes on the contrary are the most sonorous. We have no doubt that we once saw a flight of them in this country, in November 1799, at Hackney in Middlesex; they flew at an immense height. The flight of Cranes has been always notable, and Homer has a beautiful passage in the third Iliad, in which he compares their bold flight to the march of the Trojan phalanx. In the Summer they spread themselves over the North of Europe and Asia as far as the Arctic Circle, and in

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