186 



ing the apples ;" wliile, " among the people in Wiltshire and 

 Somerset," the apples are said to be " christened on St. James's 

 Day."* This, however, perhaps may be explained by the circum- 

 stance of the two Saints' Days falling about the same time, if we 

 take Old Style in the case of St. Swithin, and New Style in that 

 of St. James. 



In a parish in Huntingdonshire, the saying about St. Swithin 

 and the apples takes a different form. " A notion prevails there 

 that unless St. Swithin rains upon the apples they'll never keep 

 through the winter."t 



But it is unnecessary to pursue this subject further. Enough 

 has been said to break all connection between the legend of St. 

 Swithin and a forty days' rain,! at the same time that it has been 

 attempted to bring into view so much of latent truth as seems to 

 underlie, and in some degree substantiate the popular sayings 

 respecting the occun-ence of wet weather, more or less prolonged, 

 at stated seasons. 



We may smile at the various superstitions alluded to in the course 

 of this inquiry, and pity an age that can lend itself to such beliefs. 

 Or we may pride ourselves in being far removed from those yet 

 earlier times, in which men worshijjped the elements, esteeming 

 them to be living powers, whose favour had to be courted by 

 prayers and sacrifices in order to obtain what was needed for their 

 happiness and well-being. But let us not be unduly severe in 

 judging that ignorance, often quite unavoidable, and that weakness 

 of intellect not the fault of those who have it, to which such 

 superstitions owe their origin. Let us not forget that supersti- 

 tions, rightly viewed, are still gropings after truth ; first attempts, 

 however fruitless, to interrogate nature, to learn her laws, and to 



* "Notes and Queries," N.S., vol. i., p. 386. 

 t Id., Ser. III., vol. viii., p. 146. 

 % Ch.am'bers, in his " Book of Days" (Vol. i, p. 672,) under the head of 

 Quarantine, adduces a number of instances connected with our English legal 

 polity, in which a marked predilection formerly seems to have been shown for 

 the period of forty days, deriving it from the forty days of Lent, " itself a com- 

 memoration of the forty days' fast of Christ in the wilderness." This period is, 

 as all know, of frequent occurrence in Scripture. He thinks the exact period of 

 " forty days" assigned to St. Swithin' s rain may bo traced to the same origin. 



