Before storms kine and also sheep assemble at one corner of the field, and are observed to turn all their heads toward the quarter from whence the wind doth not blow. The appearance of sea gulls, petrels, or other sea fowl in the inlands, indicates stormy weather. In fine weather the bat is observed to continue flying abont very late of an evening. In autumn before rain some flies bite, and others become very troublesome, and gnats are more apt to sting.* When flocks of wild geese are observed flying in a westward or southern direction in autumn, it indicates a hard winter. The floating of gossamer, and its alighting on the rigging of ships, foretels fine weather. The clamorous croaking of frogs indicates rainy weather. The appearance of beetles flying about of an evening in summer, indicates that the next day will be fair. Before rain dogs are apt to grow very sleepy and dull, and to lay all day before the fire. Before rain moles throw up the earth more than usual, The appearance of rare foreign birds in this country, such as rollers, hoopoos, &c. indicates hard weather. When spiders are seen crawling on the walls more than usual, rain will probably ensue. The much barking of dogs in the night frequently indicates a change in the weather. When the trees and hedges are very full of berries, it indicates a hard winter. The abundance of woodseare and honeydew on herbs indicates fair weather, as does floating gossamer. It is said in Wiltshire, that the dunpickles or moor buzzards alight in great numbers on the downs before rain. Before storms the missel thrush is observed to sing particularly loud, and to continue so till the commencement of the rain; from which circumstance it is in some places called the storm cock. It is a sign of rain when pigeons return slowly to the dovehouses. When bees do not go out as usual, but keep in or about their hives, rain may be expected. Before wind, swine run squeaking about as though they were mad; which has given rise to the notion that pigs can see the wind. Before rain the pintados called comebacks squall more than usual; as do peacocks. The early appearance of woodcocks, snipes, swinepipes, fieldfares, &c. are prognostications of severe winters. When the dew lies plenteously upon the grass in the evening, the next day will probably be fine; when there is little or no dew, probably wet. Dr. Forster observes, on the authority of Virgil," that the blowing about of feathers, or any light substances on the water, is also a sign of rain." SPRING. In the "Indicator" Mr. Leigh Hunt discourses of this beautiful season with his usual grace. He says "The spring is now complete. The winds have done their work. The shaken air, well tempered and equalized, has subsided; the genial rains, however thickly they may come, do not saturate the ground, beyond the power of the sun to dry it up again. There are clear crystal mornings; noons of blue sky and white cloud; nights, in which the growing moon seems to lie looking at the stars, like a young shepherdess at her flock. "Then the young green. This is the most apt and perfect mark of the season, the true issuing forth of the spring. The trees and bushes are putting forth their crisp fans; the lilac is loaded with bright young grass, running into sweeps bud; the meadows are thick with the of white and gold with the daisies and buttercups. The orchards announce their riches, in a shower of silver blossoms. The earth in fertile woods is spread with violets, and hyacinths, over which the yellow and blue carpets of primroses, birch-trees, like stooping nymphs, hang with their thickening hair. Lilies of the valley, stocks, columbines, lady-smocks, and the intensely red piony which seems to anticipate the full glow of summertime, all come out to wait upon the season, like fairies from their subterrane ous palaces." So hath "divinest Spenser" represented the fifth month of the year, in the grand pageant which, to all who have seen it, is still present; for neither the laureate's office nor the poet's art hath devised a spectacle more gorgeous. Castor and Pollux, "the twinnes of Leda," who appeared to sailors in storms with lambent fires on their heads, mythologists have constellated in the firmament, and made still propitious to the mariner. Maia, the brightest of the Pleiades, from whom some say this month derived its name, is No. 18. Spenser. fabled to have been the daughter of Atlas, the supporter of the world, and Pleione, a sea-nymph. Others ascribe its name to its having been dedicated by Romaius te the Majores, or Roman senators. Verstegan affirms of the Anglo-Saxons, that "the pleasant moneth of May they termed by the name of Trimilki, because in that moneth they began to milke their kine three times in the day." Scarcely a poet but praises, or describes, or alludes to the beauties of this month. Darwin sings it as the offspring of the solar beams, and invites it to approach and receive the greetings of the elementa beings: Born in yon blaze of orient sky,ma Sweet May! thy radiant form unfold. For thee descends the sunny shower; And brighter blossoms gem the bower. Light Graces dress'd in flowery wreaths, And tiptoe Joys their hands combine; And Love his sweet contagion breathes, And laughing dances round thy shrine. пoom Song on May Morning. Now the bright morning star, day's harbinger, With exquisite feeling and exuberant grace he derives Mirth from The frolic wind that breathes the spring -beds of violets blue, ingale warbling on a bloomy spray" at eve, while, as he figures, The jolly hours lead on propitious May Mn "a Conversational Poem written in April," by Mr. Coleridge, there is a a description of the nightingale's song, so splendid that it may take the place of extracts from other poets who have celebrated the charms of the coming month, wherein this bird's high melody prevails with increasing power: All is still, A balmy night and tho the stars be dim, -I know a grove Of large extent, hard by a castle huge Which the great lord inhabits not: and so This grove is wild with tangling underwood, „dyuod azonqro MAnd the trim walks are broken up, and grass, ¡yalbyjä TM * godcast Thin grass and king-cups grow within the paths. And one low piping sound more sweet than all- 14h jut es You may perchance behold them on the twigs, והיי to Their bright, bright eyes, their eyes both bright and full, TaytonLights up her love-torch. Oft, a moment's space, porch putzi ba▲ On blos'my twig, still swinging from the breeze, St. Philip, and St. James, the less. St... Philip is supposed to have been the Calendar. May-Day. Hail! sacred thou to sacred joy, To mirth and wine, sweet first of May! ΠΑ Hail! thou, of ever-circling time bec Aye, hastening on to winter's snow! bad When first young Spring his angel fácei Tulip. Tulipa Gesneri in liq A So fresh, so fragrant is the gale, Dedicated to St. Philip 19 of mid Which o'er the islands of the blest Red Campion. Lychnis dioica rubra,dSweeps where nor aches the limbs assail, Red Bachelor's Buttons. Lychnis dioica Nor age's peevish pains infest. Dedicated to St. James.ud alias Where thy hushed groves, Elysium, sleep; So, where dull Lethe's waters creep, They heave, scarce heave the cypress-bough. The First of May Colin met Sylvia on the green, Once on the charming first of May, And shepherds ne'er tell false I ween, Yet 'twas by chance the shepherds say Colin he bow'd and blush'd, then said, Will you, sweet maid, this first of May Begin the dance by Colin led, To make this quite his holiday? Sylvia replied, I ne'er from home And make a shepherd's holiday." It is most fit, replied the youth, Lady Craven. "We call," says Mr. Leigh Hunt "we call upon the admirers of the good and beautiful to help us in rescuing nature from obloquy." All you that are lovers of nature in books, lovers of music, painting, and poetry,-lovers of sweet sounds, and odours, and colours, and all the eloquent and happy face of the rural world with its eyes of sunshine, -you, that are lovers of your species, of youth, and health, and old age, of manly strength in the manly, of nymphlike graces in the female,-of air, of exercise, of happy currents in your veins, of the light in great Nature's picture, of all the gentle spiriting, the loveliness, the luxury, that now stands under the smile of heaven, silent and solitary as your fellow-creatures have left it, go forth on May-day, or on the earliest fine May morning, if that be not fine, and pluck your flowers and your green boughs to adorn your rooms with, and to show that you do not live in vain. These April rains (for May has not yet come, accordng to the old style, which is the proper one of our chmate), these April rains are fetching forth the full luxury of the trees and hedges; by the next sunshine, all the green weather,' as a little gladsome child called it, will have come again; the hedges will be so many thick verdant walls, the fields mossy carpets, the trees clothed to their finger-tips with foliage, the birds saturating the woods with song. Come forth, come forth."* This was the great rural festival of our forefathers. Their hearts responded merrily to the cheerfulness of the season. At the dawn of May morning the lads and lasses left their towns and villages, and repairing to the woodlands by sound of music, they gathered the May, or blossomed branches of the trees, and bound them with wreaths of flowers; then returning to their homes by sunrise, they decorated the lattices and doors with the sweetsmelling spoil of their joyous journey, and spent the remaining hours in sports and pastimes. Spenser's "Shepherd's Calendar" poetically records these customs in a beautiful eclogue: Youths folke now flocken in every where To gather May - buskets, and smelling breere; And home they hasten, the postes to dight, And all the kirke pillers, ere daylight, With hawthorne buds, and sweet eglantine, And girlonds of roses, and soppes in wine. Siker this morrow, no longer ago, Before them yode a lustie tabrere, maide. To see these folkes make such jovisaunce, Forbear censure, gentle readers and kind hearers, for quotations from poets, བད』་ ་ ་ *Examir.er 1818. |