294 OF METEOROLOGICAL CHAP. 10. 1. 



joie, in celebration of the beginning year, for- 

 merly counted from the summer instead of 

 the winter solstice.* In Sir Isaac Newton's 

 Observations on the Prophecies of Daniel, are 

 some curious observations on the adoption of 

 Heathen customs by the Christians, which 

 Gregory the Bishop encouraged, in order to 

 convert infidels to Christianity. f Borlase in 

 his Antiquities of Cornwall, mentions the cus- 

 tom of festive Bonfires, and similar customs. 

 Some of the ancient stone crosses found still 

 standing in that county, are supposed to be 

 Druidical Monuments older than the Christian 

 aera; and that, like the cruciform figure of 

 ancient cities, and other monumental references 

 to the four cardinal points of the compass, they 

 were originally astronomical emblems. At 

 cross roads garlands were often hung up on St. 

 John the Baptist's Day. 



The forty days' Rain, now ascribed to St. 

 Swithin, used also to belong to this Saint. A 

 very old memorial informs us, Pluvias S. 

 Joannis 40 dies pluvii sequuntur, certa nucum 



* Hence Junius is the young month, May or Major the 

 eldest. 



t See Gent. Mag. for May, 1733, vol. iii. p. 225, and 

 Hone on the Mysteries, London, 1823. 



