CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



lasted forty days, by which time the priests became 

 convinced that it was designed to stop them in 

 a work which, though well meant on their part, 

 was ill taken on that of the saint ; and they gave 

 up the point. Ever since then, it has been held 

 as a maxim that if there be rain on St Swithin's 

 Day (the i5th of July), there will be rain for the 

 forty ensuing days. 



20. St Margaret's Day. This day figures in 

 the Church of England calendar. St Margaret 

 was a holy Italian virgin, martyred in 278. She 

 seems to have been the Christian Lucina ; for- 

 merly, at Paris, there was a flocking to church on 

 this day of all women who were pregnant, or 

 thought they might be so in the course of the 

 year. 



25. St James the Apostle, a holiday of the 

 Church of England. In Catholic times, it was 

 customary for the priests on this day to bless the 

 apples. 



Natural History. July is the warmest month 

 of the year, the general average temperature 

 being 61 degrees. With us it may be accounted 

 the most important, as its temperature in a good 

 measure regulates the ripening of the crop that 

 is to say, determines whether it shall be early or 

 late ; and in our climate this for the most part 

 may be reckoned a criterion of its value. Flora 

 is in her glory this month. The greatest display 

 of flowers in the whole year takes place in the 

 course of July in our climate. The list includes 

 all the hardy annuals and a great many others. 

 At the same time all our small fruit are in abun- 

 dance, cherries and strawberries in the beginning 

 being followed by currants, gooseberries, and 

 raspberries, in all their varieties. In the early 

 part of the month, barley and oats come into ear, 

 and sometimes, in very forward seasons, a little 

 barley is cut before the end of July ; but very 

 rarely any other kind of grain is ready for the 

 sickle before the middle of August. A great part 

 of the produce of the garden comes to perfection, 

 such as early cabbage, cauliflower, turnips, peas, 

 beans, lettuce, &c. Early potatoes also make 

 their appearance, but are not mature till next 

 month. 



AUGUST. 



In early Reman times, this month was called 

 Sextilis, as being the sixth of the year. The 

 Julian arrangement made it the eighth. It ac- 

 quired the name Augustus in honour of the 

 second of the Caesars, to whom it had been a 

 fortunate period, he having in it assumed his first 

 consulship, celebrated three triumphs, subdued 

 Egypt, received the oath of allegiance of the 

 legions that occupied the Janiculum, and termi- 

 nated the civil wars of Rome. As already 

 mentioned, being dissatisfied with its being a 

 month of thirty days, Augustus took a day from 

 February, to make it one of the longer class, like 

 that (July) of his uncle Julius. At the same time, 

 September and November were each deprived of 

 a day, which was added in the one case to 

 October, and in the other to December. 



i. Lammas-day, called also the Gule of August. 

 It is now only remarkable as a day of term for 

 some purposes. It was probably one of the great 

 festival-days of our heathen ancestors ; and it is 

 worthy of observation that it occurs exactly three 



458 



months after another of these 

 mac, bishop of Cashel in the 



Beltane. Cor- 

 m the tenth century, 



records that in his time four great fires were 

 lighted up on the four great festivals of the 

 Druids namely, in February, May, August, and 

 November : probably Beltane and Lammas were 

 two of these. Lammas was held as a day of 

 thanksgiving for the new fruits of the earth. It 

 was observed with bread of new wheat. The word 

 is a softened form of the Ang.-Sax. Hlaf-maesse 

 (loaf-mass, or the loaf-festival). Till the middle 

 of the last century, the shepherds in various 

 parts of Scotland were accustomed to hold festive 

 meetings on Lammas-day on the tops of con- 

 spicuous hills. The Gule of August is probably 

 from the Celtic Cul or Gul (a festive anniversary). 

 The early Christian priesthood finding this word 

 in vogue, Latinised it into Gula, which means 

 throat. This, taken in connection with its being 

 the day of the festival of St Peter ad Vincula 

 (instituted in honour of a relic of St Peter's 

 chains), seems to have suggested to them to make 

 up a story of a daughter of the tribune Quirinus 

 having been cured of a disorder in the throat by 

 kissing the said relic on the day of its festival. 

 And the Celtic gul (an anniversary) has thus been 

 the remote cause of a Christian festival being 

 instituted to Gula (the throat), and held on the 

 day of St Peter's Chains. 



15. The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, a 

 grand festival of the Romish Church. It was 

 instituted in 813, to celebrate the ascension of 

 the Virgin into heaven. In Catholic countries, 

 this day is marked by splendid ceremonies and 

 processions. 



24. St Bartholomew's Day, a holiday of the 

 Church of England. Bartholomew was an apostle, 

 but there is no scriptural account of his labours 

 or death. The legend of the Roman Church 

 represents him as preaching in the Indies, and 

 concluding his life by being flayed alive by order 

 of a brother of the king of Armenia. The day 

 has a horrible celebrity in connection with the 

 massacre of the Protestants at Paris in 1 572. 



Natural History. The mean average heat of 

 this month (60 degrees) approaches so near that 

 of July, that a warm dry August often com- 

 pensates for a low temperature in the preceding 

 month. In the beginning of August we have 

 often the heaviest rain of the whole year, termed 

 in Scotland the Lammas Flood. July and 

 August, always our warmest, are often our wettest 

 months. Southerly and westerly winds have 

 now the ascendency, but in the case of very 

 heavy rain the wind usually falls. Harvest, in the 

 average, commences about the middle of this 

 month, but in late seasons not till the very end. 

 The order of ripening of our cereal grains is 

 barley, wheat, oats. The earliest of our larger 

 fruit begin to ripen this month apples and pears, 

 but hardly plums. The later and more tender 

 exotic annuals now come into flower, such as the 

 amaranths, xeranthemum, zinnia, jacobea, China 

 asters, &c. ; also the gigantic biennial shepherd's 

 club, which sows itself, and the also gigantic 

 annual sunflower. St John's wort, monkshood, 

 flox, and others, also flower about this time. 

 This month is likewise the busiest season of the 

 herring-fishery, an important branch of industry, 

 which affords lucrative employment to vast num- 

 bers of the working population. 







