324 PRESENTAl lOK TIDE. 



NOV. 19. St. Elizabeth, widow, a.d. 1231. 

 St. Pontian, pope and martyr, 230. 

 St. Barlaam, martyr. 



Obs. St. Elizabeth was the daughter of Alexander the Second, kini; of 

 Hungary, and his queen Gertrude. She was born in 1207, and died in 1531. 

 Aware of the fugitive nature of all worldly pleasures, the vanitr of riches, and 

 the truinpetv dross of worldly honours ; considering that this life will soon be 

 over, and our busy pursuits n vail us nothing; this holy and noble lady devoted 

 lier whole tiine to the service of God, and placed her affections on the impe- 

 rishable treasures of a better state of existence- She founded many charitable 

 and relitious institutions, and was assi.^ted in her devotions by lier husband, 

 the young Landgrave Lewi<. Her marriage only increased her virtues, and 

 she lived a life of more austerity than a recluse, and spun wool wiih her own 

 hands, and made woofs tor the poor of the religious orders. After the death 

 of the landgrave she was persecuted with violence and bigotry, and was 

 turned out of the castle by her brother in law Henry, and otherwise ill used. 

 At her ill treatment she onlv seemed to rejoice; and one evening hearing the 

 bell sound for matins at the church of the Franciscan Friars, she went thither, 

 and implored them to sing a Te Deura for the trials of virtue with which God 

 had proved her. See Bnt/irU Lires, xi. 329. 



We have alluded before to the Franciscan orders: if the reader should de- 

 sire an account of these and other orders, they may be found in Butler's Lives, 

 and in a large folio French work, entitled Recufii dei< On^/umes des Ordrcs, 

 Kc. with numerous coloured plates, printed at Paris in 1784. 



Applefruited Passionflower Passiftora maliformis fi. 



Many species of Passionflower blowing late in the autumn, require the 

 shelter of the greenhouse and even of the stove in cold situations. They are 

 beautiful trailing plants, and their leaves, reddening in decay, are often as or- 

 namental as their flowers when in prime. 



If the weather be dry and fair a; this time of year, the borders of the garden 

 should be dug, at leas; tliose which have not been dug up before earlier in the 

 autumn. Herbaceous and bulbous plants may also be put into the ground ; 

 and, the leaves being nearly all down, the gardener may begin to clear up the 

 garden for the winter. 



At this time of year great numbers of birds of various liinds live -n flocks, 

 which, bein; composed chiefly of the numerous young of suinmer'.i broods, are 

 often very large. The great destruction which goes on annually among birds 

 can be no where better i)roved than by observing the disproportion between 

 the numbers of any species in autumn and those of the 'ollowing soring, in 

 the fens of Cambtideeshire, Lincolnshire, and in Holland, this is particularlv 

 observable. \\'e have been in those flat and fenny districts at this present 

 time of year, and have been astonished at the vast quantity noi only of Geese 

 ana Ducks, but of Crows, Rooks, Daws, and other common birds, with which 

 in some places the air seems darkened. About ihe r. cky shore- of tlii. island 

 stili greater numbers of sea biids inhabit, and I'lc poet has justly spoken of 

 the plumeHarii air in those ornithophnrous regions. 



The dark time of year is now approaching, when Cocks are said to crow 

 more than ordinary. That the antients counted the watches of the nigiii b; 

 Cockcrowiiigs, we have abundant proof. .So in King Lear, "Hebrgins :it 

 Curfew, and walks till the first Cock." .Again, in the i welve Meiy Jestes ut 

 the Widow Edith, 1573: 



The time they pas merely til ten of the clok. 

 Yea, and 1 shall not lye til after the first Cok. 



It appears from a passage in Romeo and J uliet, that they were carousing till 

 tliree o'clock : 



The second Cock liasciow'd, 



The Curtew bell has toU'd: 'tis three o'clock. 



