LUKE TIDE. 285 



OCT. 11. St. Ethi:lburge, virgin and abbess, 

 A.D. 664. 

 SS, Tarachus, Probus, and Andronicus, mm. 304. 

 St. Gummar, confessor, 774. 

 St. Canicus or Kenny, abbot in Ireland, 599. 



Obs. St. Ethelburge was an English Saxon princess, sister to 

 St. Eronwalcl bishop of London. She in her youth renounced the 

 world, and neither riches nor the tempting splendor of a court could 

 shake her resolution. She was appointed by Ereonwald abbess of a 

 great nunnery which he founded in Essex, and by her example and 

 piety led on all the chaste spouses of Christ in the paths of true 

 virtue. A raging pestilence swept off part of this community in 664. 

 St. Ethelburge survived this mortality for the support and comfort 

 of the rest. Having sent before her so many saints to heaven, she 

 met her own death with a great spirit, and her glory was manifested 

 by miraculous visions. St. Ethelburge is called Alburg for shortness, 

 and Aiburg's Day was always kept as a festival in early times. A 

 memorandum of Barking Nunnery in Essex is still preserved, relating 

 to charges for Wheat and iVlilk and Frimitie for St. Alburge's Day. 

 See Fosbroke's. £riti«/t MonaUicnn and ^TZ.nA'% Antiquities. 



This is Old Michaelmas Day, and many rents and tenures are 

 dated from today instead of the 29th of September. 



Holly Ilex aquiJoUum baccipr. 



I find Holly recorded as reddening its berries about this time. 



Aikin observes the gloom of the falling year is in some measure 



enlivened during this month, especially by the variety of colours, 



some lively and beautiful, put on by the fading leaves of trees and 



shrubs. 



Those virgin leaves, of purest vivid green, 



VViiitn eliHrnud ere yet tiiey treiiihleil on tlie trees, 



Noiv clieer the sober landscape in decay. 



The J^inie tirst fading; and the irolden'Birch, 



A\'ith hark of silver nue; the mossfrrown Oak, 



Tenacious of its leaves of russet hrown ; 



Tlie ensanguined Dogwood; and a thousand tints, 



M'hich Flora, dressed in all her pride ot hlooni, 



Could scarcely equal, decorate the groves. 



To these temporary colours are added the more durable ones of 



ripened berries, a variety of which now enrich our hedges. Among 



these are particularly distinguished the Hip, the fruit of the Wild 



Rose ; the Haw, of the Hawtliorn ; the Sloe, of the Blackthorn ; the 



Blackberry, of the Bramble; and the berries of the Alder, Holy, 



and Woody Nightshade : and the orange berries of the Pyrucanthus 



against our houses. These are a providential supply for the birds 



during the winter season ; and it is said that they are most plentiful 



when the ensuing winter is to be most severe. 



