CHAP. 10. 1. ANTIQUITIES, &c. 295 



per nicies* The same prognostick is made if it 

 rain on the Festival of the Visitation of the 

 Blessed Virgin, July 2 ; and by others if wet on 

 the Eve of St. Peter and St. Paul, a circumstance 

 which confirms my explanation of this super- 

 stition, which I regard as founded on the 

 experience of those who had observed, that 

 whatever weather set in soon after the -summer 

 solstice was of long continuance, and which I 

 have confirmed myself by reference to journals. 

 I have hinted in the last section at the forty 

 days' Rain still ascribed to St. Swithin, July 

 15, and 1 have repeatedly observed the gardeners 

 look with anxious solicitude for a few drops on 

 this day, who like the Romans, desired 



Humida solstitia atquc hyemes instare serenas. 



Gay in his cockney and vulgar poem, the 

 Trivia., observes : 



" How, if on Swithin's Feast the welkin lours, 

 And every penthouse streams with hasty Showers, 

 Twice twenty days shall Clouds their Fleeces drain, 

 And wash the pavements with incessant Rain." 



Churchill observes : 



" July, to whom the Dog Star in her train, 

 St. James gives Oysters and St. Swithin Rain." 



* Calend. Astr. Priscum. 



