CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



with a lamb standing beside her. Perhaps this 

 legend has been partly founded on the resemblance 

 of the name Agnes to Agnus, Latin for a lamb, 

 for mere coincidences of sound often led to very 

 important ideas in the middle ages. At Rome, 

 on St Agnes's Day, during mass, and while the 

 Agnus is saying, two lambs as white as snow, 

 and covered with finery, are brought in and 

 laid upon the altar. Their fleeces are afterwards 

 shorn and converted into palls, which are highly 

 valued. 



Throughout the Christian world, and in England 

 as much as elsewhere, it was customary for young 

 women on St Agnes's Eve to endeavour to divine 

 who should be their husbands. This was called 

 fasting St Agnes's Fast. The proper rite was to 

 take a row of pins, and pull them out one after 

 another, saying a Paternoster, and sticking one 

 pin in the sleeve. Then going to rest without 

 food, their dreams were expected to present to 

 them the image of the future husband. In Keats's 

 poem entitled The Eve of St Agnes, the custom 

 is thus alluded to : 



They told her how upon St Agnes' Eve, 



Young virgins might have visions of delight, 



And soft adorings from their loves receive, 



Upon the honied middle of the night, 



If ceremonies due they did aright ; 



As, supperless to bed they must retire, 



And couch supine their beauties, lily-white ; 



Nor look behind, nor sideways, but require 



Of heaven with upward eyes for all that they desire. 



25. Sexagesima Sunday j eight weeks before 

 Easter. 



Con-version of St Paul. A festival of the 

 Romish and English Churches, and in London a 

 holiday at the public offices, excepting the Excise, 

 Stamps, and Customs. The populace in former 

 times thought this day prophetic as to the weather 

 of the year : 



If St Paul's Day be fair and clear, 



It doth betide a happy year ; 



If blustering winds do blow aloft, 



Then wars will trouble our realm full oft ; 



And if it chance to snow and rain, 



Then will be dear all sorts of grain. 



In Germany, when the day proved foul, the com- 

 mon people used to drag the images of St Paul 

 and St Urban in disgrace to duck them in the 

 river. 



Natural History. January, in our climate, is 

 the coldest month of the year, on an average ; 

 for in some years February and March are both 

 colder. The store of heat acquired in summer is 

 now completely dissipated, and the sun has not 

 yet attained sufficient power to replace it. In the 

 central parts of the island of Great Britain, the 

 general average of the thermometer this month is 

 37 degrees. Vegetation is nearly at a stand during 

 January. Our ancestors thought it necessary that 

 it should be a severe month, for the sake of the 

 rest of the year. This mode of judging, however, 

 is not confirmed by modern experience ; for a 

 mild winter is often followed by a warm summer. 

 In sheltered situations, a few flowers, as the 

 crocus, mezereon, and polyanthus, are occasionally 

 seen to blossom in the latter part of January ; 

 and about the same time (in England) the hedge- 

 sparrow, thrush, and wren begin to pipe. 



450 



FEBRUARY. 



The establishment of February as the second 

 month of the year by Numa Pompilius has already 

 been mentioned. According to Ovid in his Fasti, 

 a curious record of Roman customs, all objects 

 which were thought to have the effect of moral 

 purgation in the religious ceremonials of that 

 people were called Februa. Ceremonials of this 

 kind took place at this season ; hence the name of 

 the month. The vanity of Augustus is said to 

 have been the cause of this month being so much 

 shortened. The arrangement of Julius Caesar 

 seems to have contemplated an alternation of 

 months of thirty with those of thirty-one days. 

 August was one of thirty days ; but when Augustus 

 gave it his name, he could not endure that it 

 should be one of the shorter class, and therefore 

 gave it an additional day, at the expense of Feb- 

 ruary, already one of that class. Our ancestors 

 called February sprout kale, from the sprouting of 

 the cabbage, still called kale in Scotland. 



1. Quinquagesima Sunday; seven weeks before 

 Easter : called also Shrove Sunday. 



2. Candlemas-day, or the Purification of the 

 Virgin, a festival of the Church of Rome, and 

 holiday in the English Church. It is said to have 

 been founded upon Roman rites in which candles 

 were carried. The early Fathers of the Church 

 held it in commemoration of the attendance of 

 Mary in the Temple, forty days after childbirth, 

 as commanded by the law ; and it was their 

 custom on this day to bless candles and distribute 

 them among the people, by whom they were car- 

 ried in solemn procession. The saying of Simeon 

 respecting the infant Christ in the Temple, that 

 he would be a light to lighten the Gentiles, prob- 

 ably supplied an excuse for adopting the candle- 

 bearing procession of the heathen, whose external 

 religious practices the founders of the Romish 

 Church made a practice of imitating, in order to 

 take advantage of the habits of the people. Ap- 

 parently in consequence of the celebration of 

 Mary's purification by candle-bearing, it became 

 customary for women to carry candles with them 

 when, after childbirth, they went to be churched. 



Candlemas-day is a holiday at the public offices, 

 excepting the Stamps, Excise, and Customs. It 

 is called a Grand Day in the Inns of Court, a 

 Gaudy Day at the two universities, and a Collar 

 Day at St James's, being one of the three great 

 holidays, during the terms, on which all legal and 

 official business is suspended. 



There is an ancient superstitious notion, uni- 

 versal in Europe, that if Candlemas be a sun- 

 shiny day, the winter is not half finished. The 

 Germans say : The badger peeps out of his hole 

 on Candlemas-day, and if he finds snow, he walks 

 abroad ; if he sees the sun shining, he draws back 

 again into his hole. 



3. St BlaisSs Day.St Blaise, who has the 

 honour of a place in the Church of England 

 calendar, was a bishop of Sebaste, in Armenia, 

 and suffered martyrdom in 316. He is the patron 

 saint of the craft of wool-combers, and his name 

 was once considered potent in curing sore throats. 

 At Bradford there is still a septennial procession 

 of the wool-trade upon his day. Formerly, it was 

 celebrated extensively by fires lighted on hills, 

 and this is still done in Scotland on the previous 





