169 



Forster, in his " Perennial Calendar," mentions several of these 

 raining Saints in addition to St. Swithin. He quotes from an old 

 work, the " SenteutiBe Rythmicas of J. Buchlerus," a passage which 

 seems to prove that St. Vitus's Day was equally famous for rain 

 with St. Swithin's. 



Lux sacrata Vito si sit pluviosa, sequentes 

 Triginta facicnt onmo mudero solum. • 



Here it is a thirty-days' rain which is to follow a wet St. Vitus, this 

 Saint's Day occurring on the 15th June. 



Agah), speaking of St. John the Baptist's Day, the 24th June, 

 ho says : — " The forty-days rain, now ascribed to St. Swithin, used 

 also to belong formerly to this Saint. A very old memorial informs 

 us, Pluvias Sancti Joannis quad7'aginta dies pluvii seqvAmtur — certa 

 nucum pemicies."f 



In a later part of his work, he remarks that " the Feast of St. 

 Simon and St. Jude was superstitiously considered rainy, as well 

 as that of St. Swithin, and this probably, because the autumnal 

 rains began on or about that day." As an instance of this belief, 

 he quotes a line from an old play, " I know it as well as I know 

 t'will raine on Simon and Jude's Day. "J This festival is on the 

 28th October, and I shall have occasion to refer to it again in 

 connection with the weather at that period of the year. 



In Scotland there are two old lines relating to Bullion's Day^ 

 the 4th of July : — 



Bullion's day gif ye be fair, 



For forty days there'll be nae mair. 



The 4th of July is the day of the Translation of St. Martin, and 

 Chambers tells us that " in Scotland it used to be called St. 

 Martin of Bullion's Day, and the weather which prevailed upon it 

 was supposed to have a prophetic character. It was a proverb, 

 that if the deer rise dry and lie down dry on Bullion's Day, it 

 was a sign there would be a good harvest." And he adds that 

 " it was believed generally over Europe that rain on this day 

 betokened wet weather for the twenty ensuing days."i| 



* Per. Cal. p. 295. f Id. p. 311. + Id. p, 589. 



II Book of Days, vol. ii., p. 20. 



