jFe&ruarp 



XIV 



WE have lost something in discarding the Anglo- 

 Saxon names for the months in favour of the classical 

 Anglo-Saxon style. It was ridiculous to borrow the name 

 month-names Februarv f rom our R oman conquerors, be- 

 cause they chose to celebrate their Februa, Lupercalia 

 or purifying festivals, in that month ; there was some 

 sense in the Saxon name Sol monath, mire month, 

 which, like many of the other month-names, gives us 

 a glimpse of England as it was when the earliest 

 ploughs had just begun to scratch its surface. The 

 mire month just as the old Dutch used to call it 

 Sprokkel-maand, the thaw month, when the earth 

 softens after the whiter cold. 



The Saxons had their purifying season also in the 

 old pagan days, but it was September, which they 

 called Halig monath, which is quite as sensible as our 

 servile compliance with the Eoman calendar in calling 

 it the seventh month, whereas it is the ninth in our 

 year. Then what a finely descriptive title they gave 

 to March Hreth monath, the fierce month. As for 

 the other months, December was Se serra Geola, the 

 former Yule, as January was Se aeftera Geola, the latter 



