CHILDERMAS TIDE. 365 



DEC. 30. St. Sabinus, bp. of Assisium, a.d. 304. 

 St. Anysia, martyr, 304. 

 St. Maximus, confessor, 662. 



Obs. St. Sabinus bishop of Assisium and several of his clergy 

 suffered by the infernal edicts of Dioclesian and Maximian about 

 the year 304. At the conclusion of this saint's short history in But- 

 ler's Lives we find the following lines, in allusion to the eternal 

 peace which crowns our martyred saints ; they were lines composed 

 by, and at length inscribed on, the tomb of Antonio Castalio in the 

 Cathedral of Florence : 



Quam vivens nunquam potui gustare quietem 



Mortuus in solid&,jam statione fruor 

 Passio, cura, labor, mors tandem, et pugna recessit 

 Corporea, et solum mens quod avebet, habet. 



Pontieva Pontieva Glandolum fl. 



Winter in the Country, 

 All outdoor work 

 Now stands ; the waggoner, with wispwound feet. 

 And wheelspokes almost filled, his destined stage 

 Scarcely can gain. O'er hill, and vale, and wood, 

 Sweeps the snowpinioned blast, and all things veils 

 In white array, disguising to the view 

 Objects well known, now faintly recognised, 

 t One colour clothes the mountain and the plain. 



Save where the feathery flakes melt as they fall 

 Upon the deep blue stream, or scowling lake. 

 Or where some beetling rock o'erjutting hangs 

 Above the vaulty precipice's cove. 

 Formless, the pointed cairn now scarce o'ertops 

 The level dreary waste ; and coppice woods, 

 Diminished of their height, like bushes seem. 

 With stooping heads, turned from the storm, the flocks, 

 Onward still urged by man and dog, escape 

 The smothering drift ; while, skulking at a side. 

 Is seen the Fox, with close downfolded tail, 

 Watching his time to seize a straggling prey ; 

 Or from some lofty crag he ominous howls. 

 And makes approaching night more dismal fall. 



Grahame. 

 The churches and houses are still decorated with Evergreens, and 

 the berries of Ivy, Holly, and the Missletoe, give a liveliness to the 

 internal decorations of apartments at this dull season. 

 Virgil thus describes the Missletoe, Aen. vi. 205 : 

 Quale solel sylvis brumali frigore viscum 

 Fronde virere nova, quod non sua seminat arbos, 

 Et croceo foetu teretes circumdare truncos ; 

 Talis erat species auri frondentis opaca 



mice; siclenicrepitabat braciea vento, ■' 



Ii2 



