The "New-come" of the year is born to-day, Throws flowers on her; pulls hard buds about, In re-creation of themselves; each loves, SPRING commences on the 6th of March, and lasts ninety-three days. According to Mr. Howard, whose practical information concerning the seasons is highly valuable, the medium temperature during spring is elevated, in round numbers, from 40 to 58 degrees. "The mean of the season is 48.94°-the sun effecting by his approach an advance of 11.18° upon the mean temperature of the winter. This increase is retarded in the forepart of the spring by the winds from north to east, then prevalent; and which form two-thirds of the complement of the season; but proportionately accelerated afterwards by the southerly winds, with which it terminates. A strong evaporation, in the first instance followed by showers, often with thunder and hail in the latter, characterises this period. The temperature commonly rises, not by a steady increase from day to day, but by sudden starts, from the breaking in of sunshine upon previous cold, cloudy weather. 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 ioyous 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, See life and bliss around us flowing, 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 My spirits light and pure confess thy pow'r 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! Summer maintain'd its fame; Dr. Samuel Parr died on the 6th of distich in the ballad before quoted: March, 1825. A SPRING FESTIVAL. 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 of 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 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 Now we've vanquish'd Death, But of late years the spirit of this festival FLORAL DIRECTORY. multiplex. Dedicated to St. Colette March 7. course of time, however, this ceremonial Lent Lily. Narcissus Pseudonarcissus underwent various alterations. The parts, before personified, were now performed by real dramatis personæ; 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 hailed as victor, was led in triumph, amidst the loud acclamations of the multitude, into the town. From this festival originated a popular ballad, composed of stanzas each of which conclude thus: St. Thomas Aquinas, A. D. 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 "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 himn. 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. Another 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 ot Westminster Abbey ; dogs howled in u common 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. in 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 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!" re plied 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. March 10. Forty Martyrs of St. Sebasti, A. D. 320. said to have been the day whereon died sir Hugh Myddleton; a man renowned in English annals for having abundantly supplied London with water, by conducting the New River from Ware, in Hertfordshire, to the Clerkenwell suburb of The 10th of March, 1702, is erroneously the metropolis. The first View of the New River-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. |