OLD ALMANACS. 201 



and Condition of every Yeare, by the onely Kalender of 

 Januarie, written by that auntient learned Leopoldus 

 Austriacus, and others, for the commodity of the wise 

 husbandman.' As 1864 began on a Friday, the vati- 

 cination of the learned Leopoldus was unusually interest- 

 ing. Here it is : " If the first daye of Januarie happen 

 on Friday e, then shall the winter be very cold and dry, 

 the springe boysterous and wette, the summer temper- 

 ate, the harvest more wette than drye, so that blear 

 dews and other diseases, with the filthinesse of matter, 

 and running in the eyes, is to be feared ; and the pin 

 and webbe is likewise to be doubted to happen that year. 

 And young children shall then dye, and a likelihood 

 that young women shall be lured into love through the 

 flatterye and great persuasion of men. Also plenty of 

 fruites is then promised, though much haile fall that 

 year." 



Our far-seeing, learned man, is also kind enough to 

 give us a peep into the coming year, by teaching us to 

 interpret the state of New Year's Night. " If it be 

 calm and cleare, without winde and raine, then doth 

 the same promise a prosperous year following ; and if, 

 the same night, the wind happen to blow out of the 

 east, then doth the same signifie the dearth of cattle ; 

 and if, the same night, the wind happen to blow out of 

 the west, then a likelihood of the death of kings or 

 princes to ensue that yeare. If, in the same night, it 

 blow out of the south, it signifieth the death of many 

 persons that yeare ; and if it blow out of the north, a 

 small yielde of all the fruits of the earth that yeare." 



In Dr Dee's 'Almanac newly set forthe,' in 1571, we 

 have prognostics of the weather as indicated by natural 

 objects, the redness of the moon foretelling wind 

 the moaning of the sea, storms the early flight of 

 swallows, a severe winter. All these, and the inevitable 

 " Thirty days hath September," &c., we find just as in 

 an almanac of this year. 



About the end of Elizabeth's reign, almanacs appear 



