Then came old January, wrapped well From whose wide mouth there flowed forth the Romane flood. sea Spenser. entries to the days, and months, ths, and sons, in every varied posture, place, and hour." JANUARY, besides the names already mentioned, was called by the AngloSaxons Giuli aftera, signifying the second Giul, or Yule, or, as we should say, the second Christmas.* Of Yule itself much will be observed, when it can be better * In vol. i. p. 2. said. To this month there is an ode with a zon. The Temperature rises in the day, on an average of twenty years, to 40-28° and falls in the night, in the open country to 31.36°-the difference, 8.92°, representing the mean effect of the sun's rays for the month, may be termed the solar variation of the temperature. The Mean Temperature of the month, if verse beautifully descriptive of the Roman the observations in this city be included, symbol of the year:† Tis he! the two-fac'd Janus comes in view; He spurns the goat aside, CLIMATE. Mr. Luke Howard is the author of a highly useful work, entitled "The Climate of London, deduced from Meteorological Observations, made at different places in the neighbourhood of the Metropolis: London, 1818." 2 vols. 8vo. Out of this magazine of fact it is proposed to extract, from time to time, certain results which may acquaint general readers with useful knowledge concerning the weather of our latitude, and induce the inquisitive to resort to Mr. Howard's book, as a careful guide of high authority in conducting their will not deem this an improper use of his researches. That gentleman, it is hoped, labours: it is meant to be, as far as regards himself, a humble tribute to his talents and diligence. With these views, under each month will be given a state of the weather, in Mr. Howard's own words: and thus we begin. JANUARY WEATHER The Sun in the middle of this month continues about 8 h. 20 m. above the hori is 36-34°. But this mean has a range, in ten years, of about 10-25°, which may be termed the lunar variation of the temperature. It holds equally in the decade, beginning with 1797, observed in London, and in that beginning with 1807, in the country. In the former decade, the month was coldest in 1802, and warmest in 1812, and coldest in 1814. I have likewise shown, that there was a tendency in the daily variation of temperature through this month, to proceed, in these respective periods of years, in opposite directions. The prevalence of different classes of winds, in the different periods, is the most obvious cause of these periodical variations of the mean tempera ture. The Barometer in this month rises, on an average of ten years, to 3.40 in., and falls to 28-97 in.: the mean range is therefore 1.43 in.; but the extreme range in ten years is 2·38 in. The mean height for the month is about 29-79 inches. The prevailing Winds are the class from west to north. The northerly predominate, by a fourth of their amount, over the southerly winds. The average Evaporation (on a total of 30-50 inches for the year) is 0-832 in., and the mean of De Luc's hydrometer 80. The mean Rain, at the surface of the earth, is 1.959 in.; and the number of days on which snow or rain falls, in this month, averages 14, 4. A majority of the Nights in this month have con constantly the temperature at or below the foregoing point. Long ere the lingering dawn of that blythe morn † See vol. i. p. 1. : Howard on Climate. * Sayers. Pronounced with honest warmth. In village, grange, January 1. Grahame good, or very bad indeed! And only to vropose to be better, is something; if The Saints of the Roman calendars and nothing else, it is an acknowledgment of martyrologies. So far as the rev. Alban Butler, in his every-day biography of Roman catholic saints, has written their memoirs, their names have been given, together with notices of some, and especially of those retained in the calendar of the church of England from the Romish calendar. Similar notices of others will be offered in continuation; but, on this high festival in the calendar of nature, particular or further remark on the saints' festivals would interrupt due attention to the season, and therefore we break from them to observe that day which all enjoy in common, New Year's Day. Referring for the " New-year's gifts," the "Candlemas-bull," and various observances of our ancestors and ourselves, to the first volume of this work, wherein they are set forth " in lively pourtraieture," we stop a moment to peep into the "Mirror of the Months," and inquire "Who can see a new year open upon him, without being better for the prospect-without making sundry wise reflections (for any reflections on this subject must be comparatively wise ones) on the step he is about to take towards the goal of his being? Every first of January that we arrive at, is an imaginary mile-stone on the turnpike track of human life; at once a resting place for thought and meditation, and a starting point for fresh exertion in the performance of our jour ney. The man who does not at least propose to himself to be better this year than he was last, must be either very our need to be so, which is the first step towards amendment. But, in fact, to propose to oneself to do well, is in some to do well, positively; for there is no such thing as a stationary point in human endeavours; he who is not worse to-day than he was yesterday, is better; and he who is not better, is worse." It is written, " Improve your time," in the text-hand set of copies put before us when we were better taught to write than to understand what we wrote. How often these three words recurred at that period without their meaning being discovered! How often and how serviceably they have recurred since to some who have obeyed the injunction! How painful has reflection been to others, who recollecting it, preferred to suffer rather than to do! The author of the paragraph quoted above, forcible remembrance of expresses his youthful pleasures on the coming in of the new year." Hail! to thee, JANUARY!-all hail! cold and wintry as thou art, if it be but in virtue of thy first day. THE DAY, as the French call it, par excellence, Le jour de l'an.' Come about me, all ye little schoolboys that have escaped from the unnatural thraldom of your taskwork-come crowding about me, with your untamed hearts shouting in your unmodulated voices, and your happy spirits dancing an untaught measure in your eyes! Come, and help me to speak the praises of new-year's day !your day-one of the three which have, of late, become yours almost exclusively, and which have bettered you, and have been bettered themselves, by the change. Christmay-day, which was; New-year'sday, which is; and Twelfth-day, which is to be; let us compel them all three into our presence-with a whisk of our imaginative wand convert them into one, as the conjurer does his three glittering balls-and then enjoy them all together, with their dressings, and coachings, and visiting3, and greetings, and gifts, and many happy returns"-with their plumpuddings, and mince-pies, and twelfthcakes, and neguses-with their forfeits, and fortune-tellings, and blindman's-buffs, and sittings up to supper-with their pantomimes, and panoramas, and new penknives, and pastrycooks' shops-in 1 short, with their endless round of ever new nothings, the absence of a relish for which is but ill supplied, in after life, by that feverish lingering and thirsting after excitement, which usurp without filling its place. Oh! that I might enjoy those nothings once again in fact, as I can in fancy! But I fear the wish is worse than an idle one; for it not only may not be, but it ought not to be. "We cannot have our cake and eat it too," as the vulgar somewhat vulgarly, but not less shrewdly, express it. And this is as it should be; for if we could, it would neither be worth the eating nor having."* the For the Antiquarian Repertory. In the parish of Berlen, near Snodland, in the county of Kent, are the vestiges of a very old mansion, known by the name of Groves. Being on the spot before the workmen began to pull down the front, I had the curiosity to examine its interior remains, when, amongst other things well worth observation, appeared in the large oak beam that supported the chimneypiece, a curious piece of carved work, of which the preceding is an exact copy. Its singularity induced me to set about an investigation, which, to my satisfaction, was not long without success. The large bowl in the middle is the figure of the old wassell-bowl, so much the delight of our hardy ancestors, who, on the vigil of the new year, never failed (says my author) to assemble round the glowing hearth with their cheerful neighbours, Buste hire and sitte hire adoune and glad dronke hire heil And so well he paith the fole Thomas De Le Moor, in his " Life of Edward the Second," says partly the same as Robert of Gloster, and only adds, that Wass-haile and Drinc-hail were the usual phrases of quaffing amongst the earliest civilized inhabitants of this island. The two birds upon the bowl did for some time put me to a stand, till meeting with a communicative person at Hobarrow, he assured me they were two hawks, as I soon plainly perceived by their bills and beaks, and were a rebus of the builder's name. There was a string from the neck of one bird to the other, which, it is reasonable to conjecture, was to note that they must be joined together to show their signification; admitting this, they were to be red hawks. Upon inquiry, I found a Mr. Henry Hawks, the owner of a farm adjoining to Groves; he assured me, his father kept Grove farm about forty years since, and that it was built by one of their name, and had been in his family upwards of four hundred years, as appeared by an old lease in his possession. The apple branches on each side of the bowl, I think, means no more than that they drank good cider at their Wassells. Saxon words at the extremities of the beam are already explained; and the mask carved brackets beneath correspond The following pleasant old song, inserted by Mr. Brand, from Ritson's collection of "Antient Songs," was met with by the Editor of the Every-day Book, in 1819, at the printing-office of Mr. Rann, at Dudley, printed by him for the Wassailers of Staffordshire and Warwickshire. It went formerly to the tune of "Gallants come away. A CARROLL FOR A WASSELL-BOWL. A jolly Wassel-Bowl, A Wassel of good ale, Our jolly Wassel. Good Dame, here at your door With our Wassel. |