DECEMBER.

And after him came next the chill December;Yet he, through merry feasting which he madeAnd great bonfires, did not the cold remember;His Saviour’s birth so much his mind did glad.Upon a shaggy bearded goat he rode,The same wherewith Dan Jove in tender years,They say was nourisht by the Idæan mayd;And in his hand a broad deepe bowle he beares,Of which he freely drinks an health to all his peers.Spenser.

Spenser.

This is the twelfth and last month of the year. By our ancestors “December hath his due appellation given him in the name ofwinter-monat, to wit,winter-cometh; but after the Saxons received Christianity, they then, of devotion to the birth-time of Christ, termed it by the name ofheligh-monat, that is to say, holy-cometh.”[401]They also called itmidwinter-monathandguil erra, which means the former or firstgiul. The feast of Thor, which was celebrated at the winter solstice, was calledgiulfromiol, orol, which signifiedale, and is now corrupted intoyule. This festival appears to have been continued through part of January.[402]

Our pleasant guide to “The Months,” Mr. Leigh Hunt, says of December thus:—

It is now complete winter. The vapourish and cloudy atmosphere wraps us about with dimness and chilliness; the reptiles and other creatures that sleep or hide during the cold weather, have all retired to their winter quarters; the farmer does little or nothing out of doors; the fields are too damp and miry to pass, except in sudden frosts, which begin to occur at the end of the month; and the trees look but like skeletons of what they were—

Bare ruined choirs in which the sweet birds sang.Shakspeare.

Bare ruined choirs in which the sweet birds sang.

Shakspeare.

The evergreen trees with their beautiful cones, such as firs and pines, are now particularly observed and valued. In the warmer countries, where shade is more desirable, their worth and beauty are more regularly appreciated. Virgil talks of the pine as being handsomest in gardens; and it is a great favourite with Theocritus, especially for the fine sound of the air under its kind of vaulted roof.

But we have flowers as well as leaves in winter-time; besides a few of last month, there are the aconite and hellebore, two names of very different celebrity; and in addition to some of the flourishing shrubs, there is the Glastonbury thorn, which puts forth its beauty at Christmas. It is so called, we believe, because the abbots of the famous monastery at that place first had it in their garden from abroad, and turned its seasonable efflorescence into a miracle.

The evergreens and winter flowers are like real friends, who, whatever be their peculiar disposition, whether serious or gay, will never forsake us. Even roses, with which we are so apt to associate summer weather, flourish from May to December inclusive; and during the winter months will live and prosper in apartments. We need never be without them from the first day of the year to the last; and thus, to the numerous comparisons made between roses and the fair sex, may be added this new one, as complimentary to their friendship as it is true.

We have anticipated our general observations on winter-time in our remarks at the beginning of the year. December is in general too early a month for the fine manly exercise of skating, which indeed can be taken but rarely, on account of our changeful weather and the short continuance of frost. Like swimming, all the difficulty of it is in the commencement, at least for the purposes of enjoyment. The graces of outside strokes, and spread eagles, are the work of time and ambition.

But December has one circumstance in it, which turns it into the merriest month of the year,—Christmas. This is the holiday, which, for obvious reasons, may be said to have survived all the others; but still it is not kept with any thing like the vigour, perseverance, and elegance of our ancestors. They not only ran Christmas-day, new-year’s-day, and twelfth-night, all into one, but kept the wassail-bowl floating the whole time, and earned their right to enjoy it by all sorts of active pastimes. The wassail-bowl, (as some of our readers may know by experience, for it has been a little revived of late,) is a composition of spiced wine or ale, with roasted apples put into it, and sometimes eggs. They also adorned their houses with green boughs, which it appears, from Herrick, was a practice with many throughout the year,—box succeeding at Candlemas to the holly, bay, rosemary, and misletoe of Christmas,—yew at Easter to box,—birch and flowers at Whitsuntide to yew,—and then bents and oaken boughs. The whole nation were in as happy a ferment at Christmas, with the warmth of exercise and their firesides, as they were in May with the new sunshine. The peasants wrestled and sported on the town-green, and told tales of an evening; the gentry feasted then, or had music and other elegant pastimes; the court had the poetical and princely entertainment of masques; and all sung, danced, revelled, and enjoyed themselves, and so welcomed the new year like happy and grateful subjects of nature.

This is the way to turn winter to summer, and make the world what heaven has enabled it to be; but as people in general manage it, they might as well turn summer itself to winter. Hear what a poet says, who carries his own sunshine about with him:—

As for those chilly orbs, on the verge of creationWhere sunshine and smiles must be equally rareDid they want a supply of cold hearts for that station,Heaven knows we have plenty on earth we could spare.Oh, think what a world we should have of it here,If the haters of peace, of affection, and glee,Were to fly up to Saturn’s comfortless sphere,And leave earth to such spirits as you, love, and me.Moore.

Oh, think what a world we should have of it here,If the haters of peace, of affection, and glee,Were to fly up to Saturn’s comfortless sphere,And leave earth to such spirits as you, love, and me.

Moore.

Nor is it only on holidays that nature tells us to enjoy ourselves. If we were wise, we should earn a reasonable portion of leisure and enjoyment day by day, instead of resolving to do it some day or other, and seldom doing it at all. Company is not necessary for it, at intervals, except that best and most necessary company of one’s family-partners in life, or some one or two especial friends, truly so called, who are friends for every sort of weather, winter as well as summer. A warm carpet and curtains, a sparkling fire, a book, a little music, a happy sympathy of talk or a kind of discussion, may then call to mind with unenvying placidity the very rarest luxuries of the summer-time; and instead of being eternally and foolishly told, that pleasures produce pains, by those who really make them do so with their profligacy or bigotry, we shall learn the finer and manlier knowledge—how to turn pain to the production of pleasure.

Lawrence, of virtuous father, virtuous son,Now that the fields are dank and ways are mire,Where shall we sometimes meet, and by the fireHelp waste a sullen day, what may be wonFrom the hard season gaining? Time will runOn smoother, till Favonius re-inspireThe frozen earth, and clothe in fresh attireThe lily and rose, which neither sowed nor spun.What neat repast shall feast us, light and choice,Of Attick taste, with wine, whence we may riseTo hear the lute well touched, or artful voiceWarble immortal notes and Tuscan air?He who of these delights can judge, and spareTo interpose them oft, is not unwise.Milton.

Milton.

[401]Verstegan.[402]Dr. F. Sayers

[401]Verstegan.

[402]Dr. F. Sayers

St. Eligius, orEloy, Bp. of Noyon.A. D.659.

It is observed by Dr. Forster in the “Perennial Calendar,” that the weather at this time is usually mild, and wet, with fogs; we have an occasional interchange of frosts. On some occasions a kind of weather occurs now which occasionally happens during all the winter months. The air becomes perfectly calm, the sky clouded and dark, without much mist below, the ground gets dry, and not a leaf stirs on the trees, and the sounds of distant bells, and other sounds and noises are heard at a great distance, just as they are on other occasions before rain. The thermometer is often from 45° to 52°. The barometer rises to “set fair” and remains steady, and the current of smoke from the chimnies either goes straight upright into the air in a vertical column, or inclines so little with the breath of air as to indicate sometimes one wind and sometimes another. At this time the crowing of the cocks, the noise of busy rooks and daws, which feed in flocks in the meadows, and fly at morning and eventide in flocks to and from their nests, the music of distant singing, and the strokes of the church clocks and chimes are heard for miles, as if carried along under the apparent sounding board of the clouds above. Even the voices of persons are heard at a vast distance, all being hushed around.

Dark Stapelia.Stapelia pulla.Dedicated toSt. Eligius.

St. Bibiania,A. D.363.

On the 2d of December, 1823, theLondon Mechanics’ Institution was formed, and on the anniversary of the day, in 1824, the first stone of its theatre for the delivery of the lectures, in Southampton Buildings, Chancery-lane, was laid by Dr. Birkbeck. In a cavity of the stone was placed a bottle, wherein were sealed up a book of the laws of the institution—the tenth number of the “Mechanics’ Magazine,” which contained an account of the first meeting of the members—a vellum roll, on which was inscribed the names of the officers of the institution,—and a portrait of Dr. Birkbeck, the president. The bottle having been deposited, the president proceeded to lay the stone, which bears the following inscription, with the names of all the officers of the institution:—

This Stone, the first of the Lecture Room,was laid on the 2d of December, 1824,Being the First Anniversary of the Establishmentof theLONDON MECHANICS’ INSTITUTION,byGEORGE BIRKBECK, M. D. PRESIDENT,In the presence of the following Officers of the Institution,Vice-Presidents, Trustees, Auditors,John Martineau, Esq.,Professor Millington,John Borthwick Gilchrist, LL. D.Robert M‘William, Esq.

After the stone was laid, Dr. Birkbeck addressed the meeting in nearly the following words:—“Now have we founded our edifice for the diffusion and advancement of human knowledge. Now have we begun to erect a temple, wherein man shall extend his acquaintance with the universe of mind, and shall acquire the means of enlarging his dominion over the universe of matter. In this spot, hereafter, the charms of literature shall be displayed, and the powers of science shall be unfolded to the most humble inquirers; for to ‘the feast of reason’ which will be here prepared, the invitation shall be as unbounded as the region of intellect. For an undertaking so vast in its design, and so magnificent in its objects (nothing short, indeed, of the moral and intellectual amelioration and aggrandizement of the human race), the blessing of heaven, I humbly trust, will not be implored in vain. If, in this institution, we seek to obey the mandate which has gone forth, that knowledge shall be increased; if we act in obedience to the injunction, that in all our gettings we should get understanding; if we succeed in proving, that for the existence of the mental wilderness, the continuance of which we all deeply deplore, we ought ‘to blame the culture, not the soil;’ if by rendering man more percipient of the order, harmony, and benevolence, which pervade the universe, we more effectually ‘assert eternal Providence, and justify the ways of God to man;’ and if thus we shall be the happy means of rendering it palpable, that the immortal essence within us, when freed from the deformity of ignorance and vice, has been created in the express image of God—then may we confidently hope that Omniscience will favourably behold our rising structure; and that in its future progress, Omnipotence, without whose assistance all human endeavours are vain, will confer upon us a portion of his powers. Whilst I remind you that the illustrious Bacon, long ago, maintained that ‘knowledge is power,’ I may apprize you that it has, since his time, been established that knowledge is wealth—is comfort—is security—is enjoyment—is happiness. It has been found so completely to mingle with human affairs, that it renders social life more endearing; has given to morality more sprightliness; and, politically, has produced more consistent obedience—it takes from adversity some of its bitterness, and enlarges the sphere, as well as augments the sweetness of every laudable gratification; and lastly, unquestionably one of its brightest influences, it becomes at once an avenue and a guide to that ‘temple which is not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.’”

Lemon Geodorum.Geodorum citrinum.Dedicated toSt. Bibiania.

St. Francis Xavier,A. D.1552.St. Birinus, first Bp. of Dorchester,A. D.650.St. Sola,A. D.790.St. Lucius, King,A. D.182.

Berlin, December 3, 1821.—Of all the entertainments which took place in this capital, on the occasion of the marriage of the prince royal with the princess of Bavaria, none appeared so extraordinary to foreigners, as thedance of torches, (Fakeltanz.) It was executed after the grand marriage feast, in the following manner:—“The royal family, followed by all the personages who had partook of the feast at separate tables, proceeded to the white saloon. The dance was immediately opened by the privy councillor, marshal of the court, the baron de Maltzahn, bearing his baton of order. After him followed two and two, according to seniority of rank, the privy councillors and the ministers of state, bearingwax torches. The august bride and bridegroom preceded the above dancers, and walked round the saloon. The princess royal stopped before the king, and making him a profound reverence, invited him to dance. After having danced one turn with his majesty, she danced with all the princes. The prince royal, in like manner, danced with all the princesses. After the ball, the royal family passed into the apartment of Frederick I., where the grand mistress, countess of Norde, distributed the garter of the bride.”

Indian Tree.Euphorbia Tirucalli.Dedicated toSt. Francis Xavier.

St. Peter Chrysologus,A. D.450.St. Barbara,A. D.306.St. Anno, Abp. of Cologne,A. D.1075.St. Osmund, Bp.A. D.1099St. Maruthas, Bp. 5th Cent.St. Siran, orSigirannus,A. D.655.St. Clement, of Alexandria,A. D.189.

From the following lines of Barnaby Googe, it appears that rustic young girls in ancient times, indulged at this season in attempting to divine the name of the man they were to marry, from forcing the growth of onions in the chimney-corner, and that they ascertained the temper of the good man, from the straitness or crookedness of a faggot-stick drawn from a woodstack. Advent seems likewise to have been a time wherein the young ones went about and levied contributions

Three weekes before the day whereon was borne the Lorde of Grace,And on the Thursday boyes and girles do runne in every place,And bounce and beate at every doore, with blowes and lustie snaps,And crie, theadventof the Lord not borne as yet perhaps.And wishing to the neighbours all, that in the houses dwell,A happie yeare, and every thing to spring and prosper well:Here have they peares, and plumbs, and pence, ech man gives willinglee,For these three nightes are always thought unfortunate to bee:Wherein they are afrayde of sprites, and cankred witches spight,And dreadfull devils blacke and grim, that then have chiefest might.In these same dayes yong wanton gyrles that meete for marriage bee,Doe search to know the names of them that shall their husbands bee.Foure onyons, five, or eight, they take and make in every one,Such names as they do fansie most, and best do thinke upon.Thus neere the chimney them they set, and that same onyon than,That first doth sproute, doth surely beare the name of their good man.Their husbandes nature eke they seeke to know, and all his guise,When as the sunne hath hid himselfe, and left the starrie skies,Unto some woodstacke do they go, and while they there do standeEche one drawes out a faggot sticke, the next that commes to hande,Which if it streight and even be, and have no knots at all,A gentle husband then they thinke shall surely to them fall.But if it fowle and crooked be, and knottie here and theare,A crabbed churlish husband then, they earnestly do feare.These thinges the wicked papistes beare, and suffer willingly,Because they neyther do the ende, nor fruites of faith espie:And rather had the people should obey their foolish lust,Than truely God to know; and in him here alone to trust.

Barbados Gooseberry.Cactus Pereskia.Dedicated toSt. Peter Chrysologus.

St. Sabas, Abbot,A. D.532.St. Crispina,A. D.304.St. Nicetius, Bp. of Triers,A. D.566.

On Tuesday the 5th of December, 1815, a great foot-ball match took place at Carterhaugh, Ettrick Forest (a spot classical in minstrelsy), betwixt the Ettrick men and the men of Yarrow; the one party backed by the earl of Home, and the other by sir Walter Scott, sheriff of the forest, who wrote two songs for the occasion, one whereof follows:—

Lifting the Banner of the House of Buccleugh,at the great Foot-ball match, on Carterhaugh.From the brown crest of Newark its summons extending,Our signal is waving in smoke and in flame;And each forester blithe from his mountain descending,Bounds light o’er the heather to join in the game.Chorus.Then up with the banner, let forest winds fan her,She has blazed over Ettrick eight ages and more;In sport we’ll attend her, in battle defend her,With heart and with hand, like our fathers’ before.When the southern invader spread waste and disorder,At the glance of her crescents he paus’d and withdrewFor around them were marshal’d the pride of the border,The flowers of the forest, the bands of Buccleuch.Then up with the banner, &c.A stripling’s weak hand to our revel has borne her,No mail glove has grasp’d her, no spearmen around;But ere a bold foeman should scathe or should scorn her,A thousand true hearts would be cold on the ground.Then up with the banner, &c.We forget each contention of civil dissension,And hail, like our brethren, Home, Douglas, and Car;And Elliot and Pringle in pastime shall mingle,As welcome in peace as their fathers in war.Then up with the banner, &c.Then strip lads, and to it, though sharp be the weather,And if, by mischance, you should happen to fall,There are worse things in life than a tumble on heather,And life is itself but a game at foot-ball!Then up with the banner, &c.And when it is over, we’ll drink a blythe measureTo each laird and each lady that witness’d our fun,And to every blythe heart that took part in our pleasure,To the lads that have lost and the lads that have won.Then up with the banner, &c.May the forest still flourish, both borough and landwardFrom the hall of the peer to the herd’s ingle nook;And huzza! my brave hearts, for Buccleuch and his standardFor the king and the country, the clan and the duke!Then up with the banner, &c.QUOTH THE SHERIFF OF THE FORESTAbbotsford,Dec.1, 1815.

Lifting the Banner of the House of Buccleugh,at the great Foot-ball match, on Carterhaugh.

From the brown crest of Newark its summons extending,Our signal is waving in smoke and in flame;And each forester blithe from his mountain descending,Bounds light o’er the heather to join in the game.Chorus.Then up with the banner, let forest winds fan her,She has blazed over Ettrick eight ages and more;In sport we’ll attend her, in battle defend her,With heart and with hand, like our fathers’ before.When the southern invader spread waste and disorder,At the glance of her crescents he paus’d and withdrewFor around them were marshal’d the pride of the border,The flowers of the forest, the bands of Buccleuch.Then up with the banner, &c.A stripling’s weak hand to our revel has borne her,No mail glove has grasp’d her, no spearmen around;But ere a bold foeman should scathe or should scorn her,A thousand true hearts would be cold on the ground.Then up with the banner, &c.We forget each contention of civil dissension,And hail, like our brethren, Home, Douglas, and Car;And Elliot and Pringle in pastime shall mingle,As welcome in peace as their fathers in war.Then up with the banner, &c.Then strip lads, and to it, though sharp be the weather,And if, by mischance, you should happen to fall,There are worse things in life than a tumble on heather,And life is itself but a game at foot-ball!Then up with the banner, &c.And when it is over, we’ll drink a blythe measureTo each laird and each lady that witness’d our fun,And to every blythe heart that took part in our pleasure,To the lads that have lost and the lads that have won.Then up with the banner, &c.May the forest still flourish, both borough and landwardFrom the hall of the peer to the herd’s ingle nook;And huzza! my brave hearts, for Buccleuch and his standardFor the king and the country, the clan and the duke!Then up with the banner, &c.QUOTH THE SHERIFF OF THE FOREST

Chorus.

Then up with the banner, let forest winds fan her,She has blazed over Ettrick eight ages and more;In sport we’ll attend her, in battle defend her,With heart and with hand, like our fathers’ before.

When the southern invader spread waste and disorder,At the glance of her crescents he paus’d and withdrewFor around them were marshal’d the pride of the border,The flowers of the forest, the bands of Buccleuch.Then up with the banner, &c.

A stripling’s weak hand to our revel has borne her,No mail glove has grasp’d her, no spearmen around;But ere a bold foeman should scathe or should scorn her,A thousand true hearts would be cold on the ground.Then up with the banner, &c.

We forget each contention of civil dissension,And hail, like our brethren, Home, Douglas, and Car;And Elliot and Pringle in pastime shall mingle,As welcome in peace as their fathers in war.Then up with the banner, &c.

Then strip lads, and to it, though sharp be the weather,And if, by mischance, you should happen to fall,There are worse things in life than a tumble on heather,And life is itself but a game at foot-ball!Then up with the banner, &c.

And when it is over, we’ll drink a blythe measureTo each laird and each lady that witness’d our fun,And to every blythe heart that took part in our pleasure,To the lads that have lost and the lads that have won.Then up with the banner, &c.

May the forest still flourish, both borough and landwardFrom the hall of the peer to the herd’s ingle nook;And huzza! my brave hearts, for Buccleuch and his standardFor the king and the country, the clan and the duke!Then up with the banner, &c.

QUOTH THE SHERIFF OF THE FOREST

Abbotsford,Dec.1, 1815.

Something has been said concerningball-play, atp. 863, and more remains to be observed, with which foot-ball will be mentioned hereafter. At present the year hastens the volume to a close, and we must put by many things to make ready for the “great festival:”—

Christmasis a coming,We’ll have flowing bowls,Laughing, piping, drumming,We’ll be jovial souls.

Longstalked Hibiscus.Hibiscus pedunculatus.Dedicated toSt. Crispina.

St. Nicholas, Abp. of Myra,A. D.342.Sts. Dionysia,Dativa,Æmilianus,Boniface,Leontia,Tertius, andMajoricus, Martyrs.St. Peter Paschal,A. D.1300.St. Theophilus, Bp. of Antioch,A. D.190.

He is in the almanacs, and church of England calendar. He is patron or titular saint of virgins, boys, sailors, and the worshipful company of parish clerks of the city of London. Mr. Audley briefly observes of him, that he was remarkable in his infancy for piety, and the knowledge of the scriptures; that he was made bishop of Myra, in Lycia, by Constantine the Great, and that “he was present in the council of Nice, where, it is said, he gave Arius a box on the ear.”[403]

According to catholic story, St. Nicholas was a saint of great virtue, and disposed so early in life to conform to ecclesiastical rule, that when an infant at the breast he fasted on Wednesday and Friday, and sucked but once on each of those days, and that towards night.[404]A story is related to his credit which is of considerable curiosity. It is told, that “an Asiatic gentleman” sent his two sons to “Athens” for education, and ordered them to wait on the bishop for his benediction. On arriving at Myra with their baggage they took up their lodging at an inn, purposing, as it was late in the day, to defer their visit till the morrow; but in the mean time the innkeeper, to secure their effects to himself, wickedly killed the young gentlemen, cut them into pieces, salted them, and intended to sell them for pickled pork. Happily St. Nicholas was favoured with a sight of these proceedings in a vision, and in the morning went to the inn, and reproached the cruel landlord with his crime, who immediately confessed it, and entreated the saint to pray to heaven for his pardon. Then the bishop, being moved by his confession and contrition, besought forgiveness for him, and supplicated restoration of life to the children; whereupon the pickled pieces reunited, and the reanimated youths stepping from the brine-tub threw themselves at the feet of St. Nicholas, who raised them up, exhorted them to return thanks to God alone, gave them good advice for the future, bestowed his blessing on them, and sent them to Athens with great joy to prosecute their studies.[405]

St. Nicholas

The Salisbury missal of 1534, fol. xxvii. contains a prayer to St. Nicholas, before which is an engraving on wood of the bishop with the children rising from the tub; but better than all, by a licence that artists formerly assumed of representing successive scenes in the same print, the landlord himself is shown in the act of reducing a limb into sizes suitable for his mercenary purpose. There are only two children in the story, and there are three in the tub of the engraving; but it is fairly to be conjectured, that the story was thought so good as to be worth making a little better. It is deemed seemly to introduce this narration by afac-simileof the missal cut. Ribadeneira says of St. Nicholas, that “being present at the council of Nice, among three hundred and eighteen bishops, who were there assembled together to condemn the heresy of Arius, he shone among them all with so great clarity, and opinion of sanctity, that he appeared like a sun amongst so many stars.” It will be remembered that he is affirmed to have given Arius a clarifying “box on the ear.”

If there were no other, the miracle of the pickled children would be sufficient to establish Nicholas’s fame as the patron of youth, and we find his festival day was selected by scholars, and the children of the church, for a remarkable exhibition about to be described.

Anciently on the 6th of December, it being St. Nicholas’s day, the choir boys in cathedral churches, chose one of their number to maintain the state and authority of a bishop, for which purpose the boy was habited in rich episcopal robes, wore a mitre on his head, and bore a crosier in his hand; and his fellows, for the time being, assumed the character and dress of priests, yielded him canonical obedience, took possession of the church, and except mass, performed all the ecclesiastical ceremonies and offices. Though the boy bishop’s election was on the 6th of December, yet his office and authority lasted till the 28th, being Innocents’ day.

It appears from a printed church book containing the service of the boy bishop set to music, that at Sarum,[406]on the eve of Innocents’ day, the boy bishop and his youthful clergy, in their copes, and with burning tapers in their hands, went in solemn procession, chanting and singing versicles as they walked into the choir by the west door, in such order that the dean and canons went foremost, the chaplains next, and the boy bishop with his priests in the last and highest place. He then took his seat, and the rest of the children disposed themselves on each side of the choir upon the uppermost ascent, the canons resident bore the incense and the book, and the petit-canons the tapers according to the Romish rubric. Afterwards the boy bishop proceeded to the altar of the Holy Trinity, and All Saints, which he first censed, and next the image of the Holy Trinity, while his priests were singing. Then they all chanted a service with prayers and responses, and the boy bishop taking his seat, repeated salutations, prayers, and versicles, and in conclusion gave his benediction to the people, the chorus answering,Deo gratias. Having received his crosier from the cross-bearer other ceremonies were performed; he chanted the complyn; turning towards the quire delivered an exhortation; and last of all said, “Benedicat Vos omnipotens Deus, Pater, et Filius, et Spiritus Sanctus.”

By the statutes of the church of Sarum, for the regulation of this extraordinary scene, no one was to interrupt or press upon the boy bishop and the other children, during their procession or service in the cathedral, upon pain of anathema. It farther appears that at this cathedral the boy bishop held a kind of visitation, and maintained a corresponding state and prerogative; and he is supposed to have had power to dispose of prebends that fell vacant during his episcopacy. If he died within the month he was buried like other bishops in his episcopal ornaments, his obsequies were solemnized with great pomp, and a monument was erected to his memory, with his episcopal effigy.

About a hundred and fifty years ago a stone monument to one of these boy bishops was discovered in Salisbury cathedral, under the seats near the pulpit, from whence it was removed to the north part of the nave between the pillars, and covered over with a box of wood, to the great admiration of those, who, unacquainted with the anomalous character it designed to commemorate, thought it “almost impossible that a bishop should be so small in person, or a child so great in clothes.”

Mr. Gregorie found the processional of the boy bishop. He notices the same custom atYork; and cites Molanus as saying, “that this bishop in some places didreditat census, et capones annuo accipere, receive rents, capons, &c. during his year,” &c. He relates that a boy bishop in the church of Cambray disposed of a prebend, which fell void during his episcopal assumption to his master; and he refers to the denunciation of the boy bishop by the council of Basil which, at the time of the holding of that council, was a well-known custom. Mr. Gregorie, who was a prebendary of Salisbury, describes the finding of the boy bishop’s monument at that place, and inserts a representation of it in his treatise, from which the annexedengravingis taken.

Monument to a Boy BishopIN SALISBURY CATHEDRAL.

The ceremony of the boy bishop is supposed to have existed not only in collegiate churches, but in almost every parish in England. He and his companions walked the streets in public procession. A statute of the collegiate church of St. Mary Overy, in 1337, restrained one of them to the limits of his own parish. On December 7, 1229, the day after St. Nicholas’s day, a boy bishop in the chapel at Heton, near Newcastle-upon-Tyne, said vespers before Edward I. on his way to Scotland, who made a considerable present to him and the other boys who sang with him. In the reign of king Edward III., a boy bishop received a present of nineteen shillings and sixpence for singing before the king in his private chamber on Innocents’ day. Dean Colet in the statutes of St. Paul’s school which he founded in 1512, expressly ordains that his scholars should every Childermas (Innocents) day, “come to Paulis Churche and hear the Chylde-Bishop’s sermon: and after be at the hygh masse, and each of them offer a penny to the Chylde-Bishop: and with them the maisters and surveyors of the scole.”

By a proclamation of Henry VIII. dated July 22, 1542, the show of the boy bishop was abrogated, but in the reign of Mary it was revived with other Romish ceremonials. A flattering song was sung before that queen by a boy bishop, and printed. It was a panegyric on her devotion, and compared her to Judith, Esther, the queen of Sheba, and the Virgin Mary.

The accounts of St. Mary at Hill, London, in the 10th Henry VI., and for 1549, and 1550, contain charges for the boy bishops of those years. At that period his estimation in the church seems to have been undiminished; for on November 13, 1554, the bishop of London, issued an order to all the clergy of his diocese to have boy bishops and theirprocessions; and in the same year these young sons of the old church paraded St. Andrew’s, Holborn, and St. Nicholas Olaves, in Bread-street, and other parishes. In 1556, Strype says that the boy bishops again went abroad singing in the old fashion, and were received by many ignorant but well-disposed persons into their houses, and had much good cheer.[407]

Nestflowered Heath.Erica nidiflora.Dedicated toSt. Nicholas.

WINTER.

Hoary, and dim, and bare, and shivering,Like a poor almsman comes the aged Year,With kind “God save you all, good gentlefolks!”Heap on fresh fuel, make a blazing fire,Bring out the cup of kindness, spread the board,And gladden Winter with our cheerfulness!Wassail!—To you, and yours, and all!—All health!*

[403]Audley’s Companion to the Almanac.[404]Ribadeneira.[405]Rev. Mr. Cole; see Gentleman’s Magazine.[406]Processionale ad usum insignit et preclare Ecclesie Sarum, Rothomagi, 1556, 4to.[407]Hone on Ancient Mysteries.

[403]Audley’s Companion to the Almanac.

[404]Ribadeneira.

[405]Rev. Mr. Cole; see Gentleman’s Magazine.

[406]Processionale ad usum insignit et preclare Ecclesie Sarum, Rothomagi, 1556, 4to.

[407]Hone on Ancient Mysteries.

St. Ambrose,A. D.397.St. Fara, Abbess,A. D.655.

The natural commencement of the winter season, according to Mr. Howard’s “Tables,” is on the 7th of December. This quarter of the year comprehend eighty-nine days, except in leap-year when it has ninety days. Winter exhibits as large a proportion of the cold, as summer did of the heat. In spring the cold gradually goes off, to be replaced inthe middle of the season by warmth; the respective proportions being like those which obtain in autumn, while their positions are reversed.

“The mean temperature of the season in the country is 37.76 degrees. The medium temperature of the twenty-four hours, descends from about 40 to 341⁄2degrees, and returns again to the former point.

“The mean height of thebarometeris 29.802 inches, being .021 inches above that of autumn. The range of the column is greatest in this season; and in the course of twenty winters it visits nearly the two extremities of the scale of three inches. The mean winter range is however 2.25 inches.

“The predominatingwindsat the beginning of winter are the south-west: in the middle these give place to northerly winds, after which the southerly winds prevail again to the close: they are at this season often boisterous at night.

“The meanevaporation, taken in situations which give more than the natural quantity from the surface of the earth, (being 30.467 inches on the year,) is 3.587 inches. This is a thirdlessthan the proportion indicated by the mean temperature; showing thedampnessof the air at this season.

“De Luc’s hygrometer averages about 78 degrees.

“The averagerainis 5.868 inches. The rain is greatest at the commencement, and it diminishes in rapid proportion to the end. In this there appears a salutary provision of divine intelligence: for had it increased, or even continued as heavy as in the autumnal months, the water instead of answering the purpose of irrigation, for which it is evidently designed, would have descended from the saturated surface of the higher ground in perpetual floods, and wasted for the season the plains and valleys.

“Notwithstanding the sensible indications of moisture, which in the intervals of our short frosts attend this season, the actual quantity of vapour in the atmosphere is now, probably, at its lowest proportion, or rather it is so at the commencement of the season; after which it gradually increases with the temperature and evaporation.”[408]

Winter.This is the eldest of the seasons: heMoves not like spring with gradual step, nor growsFrom bud to beauty, but with all his snowsComes down at once in hoar antiquity.No rains nor loud proclaiming tempests fleeBefore him, nor unto his time belongThe suns of summer, nor the charms of song,That with May’s gentle smiles so well agree.But he, made perfect in his birth-day cloud,Starts into sudden life with scarce a sound,And with a tender footstep prints the ground,As tho’ to cheat man’s ear: yet while he staysHe seems as ’twere to prompt our merriest days,And bid the dance and joke be long and loud.Literary P. Book.

Winter.

This is the eldest of the seasons: heMoves not like spring with gradual step, nor growsFrom bud to beauty, but with all his snowsComes down at once in hoar antiquity.No rains nor loud proclaiming tempests fleeBefore him, nor unto his time belongThe suns of summer, nor the charms of song,That with May’s gentle smiles so well agree.But he, made perfect in his birth-day cloud,Starts into sudden life with scarce a sound,And with a tender footstep prints the ground,As tho’ to cheat man’s ear: yet while he staysHe seems as ’twere to prompt our merriest days,And bid the dance and joke be long and loud.

Literary P. Book.

Hairy Achania.Achania pilosa.Dedicated toSt. Ambrose.

[408]Howard’s Climate of London.

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