LUKE TIDE. 295 



OCT, 21. SS. Ursula, and other virgins, martyrs, 



about A.D. 650. 

 St. Hilarion, institutor of the monastic state in the 



East. 

 St. Fintan, abbot in Ireland. 



Obs. St. Ursula and her companions were holy martyrs, who seem to have 

 left Britain about tlie time when the pajan Saxons laitl'waste our island from 

 sea to sea. They met a s^lorious death in defence of their virginity from the 

 army of the Huns. St. Ursula was the conductor and eiicourager of this holy 

 troop. Sigebert's Chronicle places their martyrdom in Ab'6; it happened near 

 the Lower Rhine, and they were buried at Cologne. St. Ursula, who conducted 

 so many holy and youn? virgins to a glorious martyrdom, is styled the patron 

 of those who undertake the education of youth, anil hence the Order of Ursu- 

 lines, which were originally religious establishments for the education of 

 youth, first inslituti'd in Italy by B. Angela of Brescia in 1.W7, approved by 

 Paul III. ill 1544, and obliged to inclosure, and declared a religious nrder under 

 the Kule of St. Augustine by Gregory XIll. in 1.572, at the instigation of St. 

 C. Bonomes, who much approved of this holy iriftitution. There are now 

 many Ursuline convents of holy nuns, who attend to their respective schools, 

 and contribute at once to give nnmberlfss young females a literary and reli- 

 gious education, who would otherwise be lost in the temptations of the world ; 

 these refute the contemptible charge of idleness, maliciously and enviously pre • 

 ferred by many illiberal profane writers against the reliijioiis orders. In 

 France, England, Ireland, and indeed in most parts of Europe, not only the 

 cheapest and the most reliL'ioiis and moral, but the best education in a lite- 

 rary point of view, is conducted at the Conventual Schools. As, for instance, 

 the Benedictines at Winchester and at Eversham, the Augustinians at Spetis- • 

 bury, the Sepnlchrines at New Hall, and many others, besides Conventual 

 Schools in Ireland, France, and Flanders, too many to be enumerated. For 

 boys, too, for sound moral, religious, and literary education, combined with 

 oeconomy, wliat institutions equal the schools of the Jesuit Colleges ? 



There is an Office today for St. Hilarion. 



Starlike Silphium Silphium asteriscus fullfl. 



Ivy Hedera helix fl. 



Redwing Turdus iliacus arrives. 



Fieldfare Turdus pilaris returns. 



Martin Hirundo xirbica last seen. 



The Lapwings, or Peewits as they are called, Vnnellus Gnvia, are now seen 

 in large flocks, in which they first assemble early in AUL'Ust, after the young 

 broods are fledged. They are more clamorous before rain. For a copious ac- 

 count of all the signs of rain and other sorts of weather, see Forsfer's Pocket 

 Etici/dopafdia of Natural Fhnwmena, published bv John Nicholls and Co. 

 London 18L7. Also Researches about Atmospheric Plicnomena, 8vo. London, 

 in which the various clouds are figured. 



After this time Martins are not seen about, except perhaps here and there a 

 straggler. We have before observed that their general migration takes place 

 during Angels Tide; and the Swallows migrate about Michaelmas. Rare in- 

 stances occur of both the^e species beini; Seen ever so late as Allhaljowtide. 



The musical notes of numerous packs of Harriers, of Beagles, and some- 

 times of Foxhounds, now fills the hollow woods, and echoes from the hills, 

 reminding the early pilgrim of Milton's lines \n Allegro : 

 Oft listening how the hounds and horn 

 Cheerly rouse the slumbering morn. 

 Modern hunting heing now practised later in the day than it used to be, we 

 no longer hear of people getting up before light to be ready for that sport. 



