JANUARY 19 



difference has increased to thirteen days. If it seems 

 strange to us that a great commercial nation like 

 Russia, in common with all States recognising officially 

 the Greek hierarchy, should be content with the incon- 

 venience of lagging nearly a fortnight behind the rest 

 of the civilised world, we have only to reflect upon our 

 own obstinacy in refusing to accept the decimal system 

 in our coinage and mensuration. 



The reader may ask what on earth all this has to do 

 with the heading of this paper. Well, this much 

 that all our ancient weather-saws apply, not to the 

 seasons as they are now marked off in our calendar, 

 but to the seasons of centuries ago, when they were 

 several days in retard. One often hears it remarked 

 that we seldom have an old-fashioned Christmas of the 

 traditional snowy type; but Christmas, according to 

 Old Style, now falls on what is January 7th in our 

 reckoning that is, in the very coldest part of the 

 year ; wherefore we must not test the truth of the 

 proverb, ' A green Yule makes a full kirkyard ' by the 

 effect of open weather at Christmas time, but watch 

 the result of a dripping January, which is apt to be 

 avenged by fierce cold in February and March, and 

 that is what sets the sexton to work overtime. Our 

 sires would never have sanctioned so inept a saying as 

 that wet and warmth in December heightened the 

 bills of mortality. 



So, again, all prognostications of the consequences of 

 rain or shine on St. Swithin's Day are vitiated by un- 

 certainty about the age of the saying; for the differ- 

 ence between the Julian and Gregorian calendars has 



