was born at Antioch in 344, and, after becoming Archbishop of Constantinople, died in 407. CHRONOLOGY.-Duke of Sussex born in 1773. FLORA.-The Christmas Rose, Helleborus niger, exhibits its flowers at this inclement season. The blowing of this plant was formerly regarded as no less than a miracle, worked by the staff of the devout Joseph of Arimathea, which was stuck in the ground by him, at Glastonbury Priory in Somersetshire, where the Hellebore has ever since continued to bloom and surprise the beholders. Buds and embryo blossoms, in their silky downy coats, often finely varnished to protect them from, the wet and cold, are the principal botanical subjects for observation in January, and their structure is particularly worthy of notice: to the practical gardener an attention to their appearance is indispensable, as by them alone can he prune with safety. Buds are always formed in the spring preceding that in which they open, and are of two kinds, leaf buds and flower buds, distinguished by a difference of shapes and figure, easily discernible by the observing eye; the fruit buds being thicker, rounder, and shorter, than the others - hence the gardener can judge of the probable quantity of blossom that will appear: Lines on Buds, by Cowper. When all this uniform uncoloured scene From dearth to plenty, and from death to life, Is Nature's progress, when she lectures man In heavenly truth; evincing, as she makes The grand transition, that there lives and works A soul in all things, and that soul is God. He sets the bright procession on its way, He marks the bounds which winter may not pass, And, ere one flowery season fades and dies, Buds possess a power analogous to that of seeds, and have been called the viviparous offspring of vegetables, inasmuch as they admit of a removal from their original connexion, and, its action being suspended for an indefinite time, can be renewed at pleasure. D On Icicles, by Cowper. The milldam dashes on the restless wheel, Large growth of what may seem the sparkling trees And prop the pile they but adorned before. January 28. St. Margaret, Princess of Hungary, V. St. Cyril. A second commemoration of St. Agnes takes place today-perhaps that of her funeral; for an account of which see the Sanctuaries of St. Gregory the Great, and Butler's Lives of the Saints, p. 392. St. Cyril, who is recorded today, was patriarch of Alexandria, and is mentioned by Socrates, and by Marius Mercator. See Butler, p. 393. St. Cyril is styled the Doctor of the Incarnation, as St. Austin is that of the Grace of Jesus Christ. He died in 444, leaving behind him writings of notorious celebrity. CHRONOLOGY.-The Abdication of the Throne voted by Parliament in 1689. FLORA. A single Snowdrop or two in the garden, and perhaps here and there a Primrose on a bank, come out about this time in mild seasons. In Devonshire these early phenomena are, from the warmness of the climate, more common than about London. Work to be done in the Orchard and Olitory garden in January, from Evelyn's Kalendarium Hortense: You may now begin to nail and trim your Wallfruit, and Espaliers. Cleanse Trees of Moss, &c. if the Weather be moist. Gather scions for graffs before the buds sprout; and about the latter end, graff them in the stock Pears, Cherries, and Plums; and remove your Kernel stocks to more commodious distances in your Nursery, cutting off the top root: set Beans, Pease, &c. Sow also seed for early Cauliflowers. Sow Chervil, Lettuce, Radish, and other more delicate salladings, if you will raise in the hotbed. In over wet, or hard weather, cleanse, mend, sharpen, and prepare garden tools. Turn up your Beehives, and sprinkle them with a little warm and sweet Wort. Trench the ground, and make it ready for Spring. Dig round the roots of Trees where ablaqueation is necessary. Fruits in Prime, and yet lasting. APPLES.-Kentish Pippin, Russet Pippin, Golden Pippin, French Pippin, Kirton Pippin, Holland Pippin, John Apple, Winter Queening, Marigold, Harvey Apple, Pomewater, Pomeroy, Golden Doucet, Reineting, Lones Pearmain, Winter Pearmain, &c. PEARS. Winter Musk, Winter Norwich, excellent when well baked; Winter Bergamot, Winter Bon Chretien, both mural: the great Surrein, and others. Philips, in his poem entitled Cyder,' thus elegantly enumerates the most esteemed Apples: The Pippin burnished o'er with gold; the Moile Tempered, like comeliest nymph, with red and white; The Russet, or the Cat's Head's weighty orb, But how with equal numbers shall we match Of no regard, till Scudamore's skilful hand Hence styled the Scudamorean plant; whose wine January 29. St. Francis of Sales, Confessor. SS. Gildas. - Equiria in Campo Martio. Rom. Cal. Proverbs relating to January, from Ray's Collection, and others: : Janiveer is the coldest month in the year. Who in Janiveer sows oats, gets gold and groats, If Janiveer calends be summerly gay, "Twill be winterly weather till the calends of May. Jack Frost in Janiveer Nips the nose of the nascent year. December's Frost and January's Flood, The death of George the Third occurred today, as our chronology records above, and the slow and solemn sound of St. Paul's bell announced the event a short time after, and was heard to a great distance around the country. The mournful proclamation of departed Royalty, reminded us of the following lines, written to go to a funeral peal on eight bells, as early as 1630, which are to be found in Heywood's Rape of Lucrece. Come list and hark, the Bell doth toll Lament; hark! I hear the wilde wolfe howle In this black night that seems to scowle, The Passing Bell owes its origin to an idea of Sanctity attached to Bells by the early Catholics, who believed that the sound of these holy instruments of percussion actually drove the Devil away from the soul of the departing Christian. Bells were moreover regarded formerly as dispelling Storms, and appeasing the imagined wrath of Heaven, as the following lines from Barnaby Googe will show : Lines on Belles. If that the thunder chaunce to rore, and stormie tempest shake, With wondrous sound and deeper farre, than he was wont before, For in these christned Belles they thinke, doth lie such powre and might I saw myself at Nurmberg once, a towne in Toring coast, The Thunder's crackes and hurtfull Stormes, and every wicked Spright. We find the following observations on Bells, in Ellis's edition of Brand's Pop. Antiq.-" An old Bell at Canterbury required twenty-four men, and another required thirty-two men, ad sonandum. The noblest peal of ten Bells, without exception, in England, whether tone or tune be considered, is said to be in St. Margaret's Church, Leicester. When a full Peal was rung, the Ringers were said pulsare Classicum." Bells were a great object of superstition among our Ancestors. Each of them was represented to have its peculiar name and virtues, and many are said to have retained great affection for the Churches to which they belonged, and where they were consecrated. When a Bell was removed from its original and favourite situation, it was sometimes supposed to take a nightly trip to its old place of residence, unless exercised in the evening, and secured with a chain or rope. Mr. Warner, in his Topographical Remarks on the S. W. Parts of Hampshire, vol. ii. p. 162, thus enumerates the virtues of a Bell, in a translation of two lines quoted from the Helpe to Dis course.' Men's deaths I tell by doleful knell. Men's cruel rage I doe asswage." Refer to the old Wiltshire Legend of the Tenor Bell conjured into the River; and the lines of the Ringer, who lost it by his pertinacious garrulity: In spite of all the Devils in Hell Here comes our old Bell. Wm. Taylor's Stories. |