302 OF METEOROLOGICAL CHAP. 10. } 1. 



Capitol, of which Ovid reminds us, in speaking 

 of the original white colour of Crows before 

 their curse : 



" Nee servaturis vigili capitolia vore, 

 Cederet anseribus, nee amanti flumina cycno." 



Thus Rome was saved by Geese, and her 

 faithful children by St. Michael and his Angels, 

 hence perhaps the origin of the emblem.* 



The Feast of St. Simon and St. Jude, October 

 28, was considered rainy as well as that of St. 

 Swithin, and this, probably, because the autum- 

 nal rains began on or about that day. I have 

 seen this passage somewhere, quoted from the 

 very old Play of the Roaring Girls, " I know 

 it as well as I know, t'will Raine on Simon 

 and Jude's Day." Holinshed informs us, that 

 so great a quantity of Rain fell on this day, 

 in 1536, as to prevent the action of a great 

 battle that was to have been fought between 

 the King's troops and the Rebel army.f 



* St. Michael vanquishing the Devil is a humourous subject 

 for the figures of Vanes on the spires of churches, of which 

 a gigantic specimen surmounts the steeple of the Maison de 

 Ville at Bruxelles : there is a description and print of it in 

 the Delices des Pays Bas, vol. i. 



t In the Sententiae Rythmicae of Buchler, p. 300, are the 

 following lines : 



