216 JULY. 



which we might fly to the lofty sanctuary of Nature, 

 for power to withstand him. 



July is named after Julius Caesar, one of whose 

 best deeds was to reform the Calendar. The Saxons 

 called it Heu-monalh, or hay-month ; and Lida- 

 aftera, or second month after the sun's descent. 



About the middle of the month, the shoals of that 

 migratory fish, the pilchard, begin to appear off the 

 coast of Cornwall. The fishermen, to whom, and 

 indeed to the inhabitants generally, the plentiful 

 arrival of this fish is most important, keep a sharp 

 look out from the tops of the hills on the coast, and 

 can discern their approach at a great distance by 

 the colour of the waves where they swim. Bees 

 begin to kill and expel drones ; and flying ants quit 

 their nests. Hens moult or lose their feathers. The 

 smaller birds do not moult so early, but all renew 

 their plumage before winter, when they are in their 

 finest and warmest clothing. Young partridges are 

 found among the corn at this time. Flax and hemp 

 are pulled this month. 



RURAL OCCUPATIONS. 



Hay-harvest is now general, and fills the whole 

 country with animation. Honest Tusser, in his 

 " Five hundreth Poynts of Good Husbandrie," gives 

 the following pithy exhortation to the farmer in his 

 hay-making month: 



