64 On Wiltshire Weather Proverbs and Weather Fallacies. 



o'clock, and see which way the wind is : there it will stick for the 

 next three months " Christmas day too was another epoch worthy 

 of observation, as the following wise saws show: "A windy Christmas 

 and a calm Candlemas are signs of a good year;" "A warm Christmas 

 foretells a cold Easter : a green Christmas, a white Easter." 1 And 

 again on New Year's eve very anxious were the enquiries as to the 

 direction of the wind, as from that token the weather of the entire 

 coming year might be foreknown : — 



" If New Year's Eve night wind blows South, 



It betokeneth warmth and growth ; 



If West, much milk and fish in the sea, 



If North, much cold and storms there'll be ; 



If East, the trees will bear much fruit, 



If North-East, flee it man and brute." 



The festival of the Conversion of St. Paul 2 was another day from 

 which accurate prognostics of coming seasons might be framed, and 

 not only of the seasons but even of the welfare of the nation. The 

 rhymes run thus : — 



" If St. Paule's daie be faire and clear, 

 It doth betide a happy yeare ; 

 But if perchance it then should raine, 

 It will make dear all kinds of graine : 

 And if the clouds make dark the skie, 

 Then neate and fowls this yeare shall die ; 

 If blustering winds doe blowe aloft, 

 Then war shall vex the realm full oft." 



But the Feast of Purification 3 was perhaps the most noted, as a 

 day by which to foretell the coming weather. This is embodied in 

 the following well-known monkish legend to the effect that a bright 

 sun on the Feast of the Purification betokens more frost after than 

 before that festival : — 



" Si sol splendescat Maria Purificante, 

 Major erit glacies post festum quam fuit ante."* 



1 These prognostics from the state of the heavens on Christmas day are 

 carried to a great extent in Russia, where they have a proverb that " a dark 

 Christmas foretells that cows will give much milk ; and a bright Christmas that 

 hens will lay well." 



2 Jauuary 25th ; O.S. February 6th. 



3 February 2nd; O.S. February 14th. 



* Sir Thomas Brown's " Vulgar Errors," edit, folio., London, 1646, p. 289, 



