Aug. 25. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



137 



LONDON. SATUBDAY, AUGUST To, 1859. 

 SAINT SWITHIN AND UMBRELLAS. 



So certainly of late years is a period more or 

 less approximating to the prescribed one_ of 

 forty days characterised by i'ltermittent solstitial 

 showers, that we almost forget to take note whe- 

 ther St. Swithin, whom we were wont to consider 

 our true mugister diluviorum, inaugurated the 

 series on the day (July 15) dedicated to him in 

 the calendar of popular superstition. Many, how- 

 ever, still watch the passing clouds with anxiety 

 on this important day, oblivious of the circum- 

 stance that total change of date has been effected 

 by the Gregorian reformation of the calendar, 

 and that they should, consequently, make their 

 atmospheric observations eleven days later. But 

 this is a matter of little moment. Foster, in his 

 Perennial Calendar, gives us (p. 344.) the origin 

 of the belief, viz. that on the canonisation of this 

 toly man, known in the flesh as Bishop of Win- 

 chester, the monks, holding it not fitting that a 

 saint should lie in a public cemetery (in which, 

 according to his desire, he had been interred), 

 determined to exhume his body with a view to its 

 deposition in the choir ; but that this design, 

 which was to have been carried into effect with 

 solemn procession on July 15, was rendered im- 

 practicable by reason of the violent rains, which 

 commenced thereabouts, and continued for forty 

 days without cessation. (See also Hone's Every- 

 Day Book, vol. i. p. 953.) 



A difference of climate has led our neighbours 

 to look somewhat earlier for a patron of showers. 

 The following couplets have for centuries held 

 a high place in France among meteorological 

 canons : 

 " S'il pleut le jour de la Saint Medard [June 8], 



II pleut quarante jours plus tard ; 



S'il pleut le jour de Saint Gervais et de Saint Protais 



' [June 19], 



II pleut quarante jours apres." 



M. Quitard, in his Dictionnaire des Proverhes, 

 gives the following legend of St. Medard : 



" C'est le 8 Juin qu'arrive la fete de cet admirable 

 fondateur de la rosifere de Salency, lorsque les roses bril- 

 lent dans toute leur pompe, et une circonstance si peu 

 auspeete ferait plutot penser que s'il avait quelque autorite 

 sur I'atmosphfere, il aimerait mieux en preparer les plus 

 pures influences, ne fut-ce que pour ces belles tleurs qu'il 

 a destinees a couronner la vertu ; un pareil emploi parai- 

 troit du moins assort! aux habitudes de sa vie. Pourquoi 

 done a-t-on imagine de lui assigner un role tout oppose? 

 A quel propos I'a-t-on represente' triste et sombre aupres 

 <l'un long baromfetre qui marque une pluie de quarante 

 jours ? C'est que les legendaires rapportent que, se 

 trouvant un jour au milieu des champs en nombreuse 

 compagnie, une forte averse fondit tout-k-coup d'un ciel 

 sans nuage. Tout le monde en fut mouille jusqu'a la 

 peau, et lui seul n'en re9ut pas la moindre goutte : un 

 No. 304.J 



aigle ^tait venu deployer ses vastes ailes audessus de sa 

 tete, et lui servir de parapluie jusqu'au logis paternel. A 

 cette occasion, dans les vieilles chroniques, on lui doane 

 le nom de maitre de la pluie." 



The French have a conundrum : 



^ Quel est I'objet que Ton recherche le plus quand on 

 sent des gouttes ? (On s'ea degoute : c. h. d. un Para- 

 pluie.)" 



This malicious answer contains a truth and a 

 paradox ; for true it is that in the fair weather 

 and sunshine of life we are too apt to neglect the 

 humble, unobtrusive friends whom we hunted up 

 from their modest seclusion, when the storms of 

 adversity were gathering around us, and for whosQ 

 timely assistance we were then so profusely grate- 

 ful. Thus, a continuance of the shower which 

 suggested the foregoing notes, allows time for a 

 word on the modest despised umbrella, which its 

 cessation might have caused me to omit. A 

 learned dissertation on "The Spoon," from the 

 pen of an American writer, formed a welcome 

 addition to the libraries of the curious; why not a 

 companion on the neglected umbrella ? The his- 

 tory of this indispensable utensil would surely 

 form an interesting volume, and afford a fine 

 scope for the display of archaeological and anec- 

 dotical lore. No little labour and research would 

 be required in tracing the origin, uses, and me- 

 chanical development of the instrument from the 

 earliest times, — from the " Tholiura reticulum, 

 quoddam fastigiatum et fornicatum, quo pro um- 

 bella mulieres-utuntur" of Pollux ; the "muni- 

 men ad imbres " of Virgil ; the " scortea " and 

 " umbracula " of Martial ; the " oily shed " of 

 Gay {Trivia., b. i. 1. 211.), — down to the last 

 improvements of the present day, the " parapluie- 

 canne, dont le fourreau se plie a volonte pour le 

 mettre dans sa poche " of M. Cazal, and the 

 " china crapes " and " alpacas " of Messrs. Sang- 

 ster. We have, indeed, an attempt towards such 

 a history in the Essai Historique-Anecdotique sur 

 le Parapluie, VOmbrelle, et la Canne, et sur leur 

 Fabrication, par Rene-Marie-Cazal, Fournisseur 

 de S. M. La Heine des FranQais, 12mo., Paris, 

 1844, pp. 106 ; but still much yet remains to be 

 done. 



Modern improvements, in attenuating the form 

 and changing the materials of the umbrella, have 

 blunted the sting of the conundrum with which I 

 ushered in the subject ; and one can now-a-days 

 be his own umbelliferus without fainting beneath 

 the shelter. The dropsical, parturient gingham of 

 former days will soon share the fate of the equally 

 unwieldly Dodo, and exist only in our museums in 

 a fragmentory state ; or, embalmed in the inimit- 

 able conception of Dickens, may be affectionately 

 remembered by posterity as a "Gamp," just as 

 such a primitive, cumbrous instrument has been 

 styled for a century in France " un Robinson," 

 from the huge umbriferous machine beneath 



