184 



this being the first day of note in the month and near its 

 commencement. The fruitfulness of the year, other things ahke, 

 would depend upon the weather of each month keeping to its 

 normal character, and not being what we term unseasonable. And 

 this, perhaps, would be more thought of in the early part of the 

 year, when new hopes and expectations arise, than later. January 

 is the month of greatest cold, when frost and clear skies would 

 ordinarily prevail. And when this is the case, and the frost breaks 

 up the end of that month or the beginning of Februaiy, rain and 

 cloud would succeed, giving February its proper character of 

 " fill-dj'ke." This sort of weather, a mixture of frost and thaw, 

 with its attendant wet, is well alluded to by Shakspere in " Much 

 Ado about Nothing," where Don Pedro, addressing Benedict, says — 

 " Why, what's the matter, that you have such a February face, so full of 

 frost, of storm, and cloudiness ?" 



Wet is considered as characteristic of February by some other of 

 our poets. Thus Spencer, personifying the month, describes 

 Cold February sitting 

 In an old wagon, for he could not ride, 

 Drawne of two Fishes for the season fitting, 

 Which through the Flood before did softly slyde 

 And swim away. * 

 The following old lines, too, are quoted by Forster in his 

 " Perennial Calendar :t" — 



Now old Aquarius from his rainie ume 

 Pours out the streams and fills both loch and bume, 

 While Februa, with waterie load opprest, 

 Cracks the crimp ice on winter's frozen breast. 

 But if after a wet and mild January, frost were to set in just at 

 the time when it ought to be breaking up, and the clear skies and 

 cold air of that month to be transferred to February, it might 

 cause apprehensions of a check to the proper advance of vege- 

 tation. I allow that this is a mere attempt at explanation of the 

 saying, but I see no other that is admissible. 



There is another Saint's Day that may be noticed, the Festival 

 of St. James, to which belongs a saying that seems to have some 

 truth in it, like the one last considered. I allude to the following 



distich : — 



* Fairie Queen, Canto vii. f p. 49. 



