174 JOURNAL OF THE [July, 



ture was one Robert Burton, a resident of London, who, to- 

 wards the close of the seventeenth century, produced nearly a 

 dozen of what his publisher, with excusable partiality, called 

 " very useful, pleasant and necessary books," to be sold at a 

 shilling each. One of these works is entitled "The Surprising 

 Miracles of Nature and Art," &c. ; and another, " Admirable 

 Curiosities, Rarities, and Wonders in England, Scotland and 

 Ireland," &c. As the author himself states, the events of which 

 he treats are given "as they^ are recorded by the most authen- 

 tick and credible historians of former and latter ages," and I 

 therefore think we may take their accounts as at least indi- 

 cating the common belief as to the frequent occurrence of 

 certain prodigies down to the beginning of the eighteenth 

 century. In quoting from Burton I shall endeavor to omit 

 those matters which have been already referred to in quota- 

 tions from more ancient authors, though this is not always an 

 easy point to determine, owing to the general carelessness and 

 uncertainty as to dates in early writers and the varying systems 

 of chronology employed by them. 



In common with other chroniclers. Burton records cases of 

 miraculous sweating and weeping of crosses, images, etc., which 

 are not worth repetition here. We may also for the present 

 pass over the reports of the descent of corn and other articles of 

 food from the sky. The wonders which particularly interest 

 us are the following: In A.D. 50, "in and about the coasts of 

 England, for certain days, the sea seemed as blood ; " and in 

 A.D. 63 " the ocean seemed to be blood." In A.D. Si it rained 

 blood in Germany. In 323 a fountain ran with oil in Italy. In 

 434 it rained blood in Savoy. In 529 it rained blood for four days 

 together in Piedmont. In A.D. 570, "at York, in England, the 

 fountains ran blood ; likewise blood fell from the clouds in 

 Lombardy." In 639 it rained blood in Naples. In 688 it 

 rained blood for seven days "throughout all Britain," and in 

 the same year milk, cheese, and butter were reported to have 

 been turned into blood. In 735 it rained oil in Spain. In 778 

 it rained blood, as well as earth and ashes, in Rome. In 808 it 

 rained blood in Holland. In 1022 it rained milk in Rome, and 

 a fountain of water in Lorrain was turned into blood. In iioo 

 a well in Finchamsted, Barkshire, England, " boiled up with 

 streams of blood and continued so fifteen days together, and 



