276 OF METEOROLOGICAL CHAP. 10. 1. 



above, are given in Robert of Avesburg's 

 History of Edward III. edited by Hearne, 

 thus translated in the same work : 

 " If St. Paul's Day be fair and cleare, 



It doth betide a happy yeare ; 



If it do chance to snow or raiue, 



Then shall be deere all kinds of graine : 



But if the Wind then be alofte, 



Warres shall vex ther realm full ofte ; 



And if the clouds make darke the Skie, 



Both Neate and Fowle this yeare shall dye." 



Gay, in his Trivia, quotes the superstition 

 relating to the atmosphere on St. Paul's Day, 

 and concludes 



" Let no such vulgar tales debase thy mind, 

 Nor Paul nor Swithin rule the Clouds and Wind."* 



Schenck in his Treatise on Images says, that 

 in Germany they used to drag St. Paul and 



* Mutual abuse seems the privilege of birds of a feather, 

 and of one vulgar poet to abuse another. Nothing is so in- 

 tollerable to superstition as a rival absurdity. Perhaps no poet 

 ever made choice of more vulgar subjects than Gay. Among 

 oth^r elegantiae we find Mulciber personified in a country 

 blacksmith forging, not Thunderbolts but Pattens for a 

 milkmaid whose name happened to be Patty, whence those 

 implements took their origin and name. 



We find him also eulogizing clean windows, dreading the 

 Rain from Waterspouts from the roofs, and fainting at the 

 sound of Signs in the street creeking in the Wind. This 



