Out went the taper as she hurried in ; As though a tongueless nightingale should swell A casement high and triple arch'd there was, Of fruits, and flowers, and bunches of knot grass, Full on this casement shone the wintry moon, Her vespers done Soon, trembling in her soft and chilly nest, Stol'n to this paradise, and so extranced, Shaded was her dream By the dusk curtains:-'twas a midnight charm He took her hollow lute, Tumultuous, and, in chords that tenderest be, Upon his knees he sank, pale as smooth-sculptured stone. Her eyes were open, but she still beheld, "Ah, Porphyro!" said she, "but even now " Thy voice was at sweet tremble in mine ear, "Made tuneable with every sweetest vow; "And those sad eyes were spiritual and clear: "Those looks immortal, those complainings dear! "For if thou diest, my love, I know not where to go." Beyond a mortal man impassion'd far Solution sweet: meantime the frost-wind blows "Hark! 'tis an elfin-storm from faery land, And they are gone: ay, ages long ago FLORAL DIRECTORY. St. Fabian Large Dead Nettle. Larnium garganicum: Aquarius, OR, THE WATER BEARER. The sun enters Aquarius on this day, though he does not enter it in the visible zodiac until the 18th of February. Ganymede, who succeeded Hebe as cup-bearer to Jove, is fabled to have been changed into Aquarius. Canobus of the Egyptian zodiac, who was the Neptune of the Egyptians, with a water-vase and measure, evidently prefigured this constellation. They worshipped him as the God of many breasts, from whence he replenished the Nile with fertilizing streams. Aquarius contains one hundred and eight stars, the two chief of which are about fifteen degrees in height : His head, his shoulders, and his lucid breast, Glisten with stars; and when his urn inclines, Rivers of light brighten the watery track. January 21. Eudosia. St. Agnes. St Fructuosus, &c. Vimin, or Vivian. St. Publius. Epiphanius. St. Agnes. "She has always been looked upon," says Butler, "as a special patroness of purity, with the immaculate mother of God." According to him, she suffered martyrdom, about 304, and performed wonderful miracles before her death, which was by beheading, when she was thirteen years old; whereupon he enjoins females to a single life, as better than a married one, and says, that her anniversary "was formerly a holiday for the women in England." Ribadeneira relates, that she was to have been burned, and was put into the fire for that purpose, but the flames, refusing to touch her, divided on each side, burnt some of the bystanders, and then quenched, as if there had been none made: a compassionate quality in fire, of which iron was not sensible, for her head was cut off at a single blow Her legend further relates, that eight days after her death she came to her parents arrayed in white, attended by virgins with garlands of pearls, and a lamb whiter than snow; she is therefore usually represented by artists with a lamb by her side; though not, as Mr. Brand incautiously says, "in every graphic representation." It is further related, that a priest who officiated in a church dedicated to St. Agnes, was very desirous of being married. He prayed the pope's license, who gave it him, together with an emerald ring, and commanded him to pay his addresses to the image of St. Agnes in his own church. Then the priest did so, and the image put forth her finger, and he put the ring thereon; whereupon the image drew her finger again, and kept the ring fast, and the priest was contented to remain a ba chelor; " and yet, as it is sayd, the rynge secrated animals were afterwards shorn, is on the fynger of the ymage In a Romish Missal printed at Paris, in After this state, with grief opprest From Naogeorgus, we gather that in St. Agnes' church at Rome, it was customary on St. Agnes' Day to bring two snow-white lambs to the altar, upon which they were laid while the Agnus was singing by way of offering. These con and palls made from their fleeces; for each But where was Agnes at that time? The two white lambes? where then was as it is used now? Yea, where was then the Popish state, no palles at Rome to see, &c. St. Agnes' Shrine. Where each pretty Ba-lamb most gaily appears, Yet to me they seem'd crying, alack, and alas! Then they're brought to the Pope, and with transport they're kiss'd, Blessing of Sheep. sung the mass of the Holy Ghost, and at the conclusion, an offering of fourpence was for himself, and another of threepence was for the poor. This ceremony was adopted by the Romish church from certain customs of the ancient Romans, in their worship of Pales, the goddess of sheepfolds and pastures. They prayed her to bless the sheep, and sprinkled them with water. The chief difference between the forms seems to have consisted in this, that the ancient Romans let the sheep remain in their folds, while the moderns drove them into the church. FLORAL DIRECTORY. Christmas Rose. St. Agnes. Helleborus niger flore albo. THE CROCUS. Dainty young thing Of life!-Thou vent'rous flower, - Thou various-hued, Soft, voiceless bell, whose spire In solitude Like Patience, thou Art quiet in thy earth, Thy fancied bride! The delicate Snowdrop, keeps ment of his fees; if convicted, he was set in the stocks on each of the three subsequent market-days in Halifax, with the stolen goods on his back, if they were portable; if not, they were placed before his face. This was for a terror to others, Her home with thee; she wakes and sleeps and to engage any who had aught against Near thy true side. Will Man but hear! A simple flower can tell What beauties in his mind should dwell CHRONOLOGY. 1793. On the 21st of January, Louis XVI. was beheaded at Paris, in the thirty- THE HALIFAX GIBBET AND GIBBET-LAW. The History of Halifax in Yorkshire, 12mo. 1712, sets forth "a true account of their ancient, odd, customary gibbetaw; and their particular form of trying and executing of criminals, the like not us'd in any other place in Great Britain.” The Halifax gibbet was in the form of the guillotine, and its gibbet-law quite as remarkable. The work referred to, which is more curious than rare, painfully endeavours to prove this law wise and salutary. It prevailed only within the forest of Hardwick, which was subject to the lord of the manor of Wakefield, a part of the duchy of Lancaster. If a felon were taken within the liberty of the forest with cloth, or other commodity, of the value of thirteen-pence halfpenny, he was, after three market-days from his apprehension and condemnation, to be carried to the gibbet, and there have his head cut off from his body. When first taken, he was brought to the lord's bailiff in Halifax, who kept the town, had also the keeping of the axe, and was the executioner at the gibbet. This officer summoned a jury of frith-burghers to try him on the evidence of witnesses not upon oath: if acquitted, he was set at liberty, upon pay him, to bring accusations, although after that a return thereof would be made into In April, 1650, Abraham Wilkinson and Anthony Mitchell were found guilty of stealing nine yards of cloth and two colts, and on the 30th of the month received sentence, 66 to suffer death, by having their heads severed and cut off from their bodies at Halifax gibbet," and they suffered accordingly. These were the last persons executed under Halifax gibbet-law. The execution was in this manner :The prisoner being brought to the scaffold by the bailiff, the axe was drawn up by a pulley, and fastened with a pin to the "The bailiff, the side of the scaffold. jurors, and the minister chosen by the prisoner, being always upon the scaffold with the prisoner, in most solemn manner, after the minister had finished his ministerial office and christian duty, if it was a horse, an ox, or cow, &c. that was taken with the prisoner, it was thither brought along with him to the place of execution, and fastened by a cord to the pin that stay'd the block, so that when the time of the execution came, (which was known by the jurors holding up one of their hands,) the bailiff, or his servant, whipping the beast, the pin was pluck'd out, and execution done; but if there were no beast in the case, then the bailiff, or his servant, cut the rope.” |