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JANUARY.

Then came old January, wrapped well
In many weeds to keep the cold away;
Yet did he quake and quiver like to quell,
And blow his nayles to warm them if he may;
For they were numb'd with holding all the day
An hatchet keene, with which he felled wood,
And from the trees did lop the needlesse spray;
Upon a huge great earth-pot steane he stood,
From whose wide mouth there flowed forth the Romane flood.

Laus Beo!-was the first entry by merchants and tradesmen of our forefathers' days, in beginning their new account-books with the new year. LAUS DEO! then, be the opening of this 0ume of the Every-Day Book, wherein we 7. lake further "note of time," and inake VOL. II.-53.

entries to the days, and months, and sea sons, in " Spenser every varied posture, place, and hour."

JANUARY, besides the names already mentioned, was called by the Angin

In vol. i. p. 2.

Saxons 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 said.

To this month there is an ode with a verse beautifully descriptive of the Roman symbol of the year:†

Tis he! the two-fac'd Janus comes in view;
Wild hyacinths his robe adorn,
And snow-drops, rivals of the morn
He spurns the goat aside,
But smiles upon the new
Emerging year with pride:
And now unlocks, with agate key,
The ruby gates of orient day.

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 researches. That gentleman, it is hoped, will not deem this an improper use of his 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

• Sayers.

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 31.360-the difference, 8.92°, repre senting 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, it the observations in this city be included, is 36-34°. But this mean has a range, in termed the lunar variation of the temperaten years, of about 10-25°, which may be ture. 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 temperature.

The Barometer in this month rises, on falls to 28-97 in.: the mean range is therean average of ten years, to 3.40 in., and fore 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.

30-50 inches for the year) is 0.832 in., The average Evaporation (on a total of 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 mouth, averages 14, 4.

A majority of the Nights in this month have constantly the temperature at or below the foregoing point.

Long ere the lingering dawn of that blythe morn
Which ushers in the year, the roosting cock,
Flapping his wings, repeats his larum shrill;
But on that morn no busy flail obeys
His rousing call; no sounds but sounds of joy
Salute the ear-the first-foot's § entering step,
That sudden on the floor is welcome heard,
Ere blushing maids have braided up their hair;
The laugh, the hearty kiss, the good new year

+ See vol. i. p. 1.

: Howard on Climate. The first visitant who enters a house on New-year's day is called the first-foot.

Pronounced with honest warmth. In village, grange,
And burrow town, the steaming flaggon, borne
From house to house, elates the poor man's heart,
And makes him feel that life has still its joys.
The aged and the young, man, woman, child,
Unite in social glee; even stranger dogs,
Meeting with bristling back, soon lay aside
Their snarling aspect, and in sportive chace,
Excursive scour, or wallow in the snow.
With sober cheerfulness, the grandam eyes
Her offspring round her, all in health and peace;
And, thankful that she's spared to see this day
Return once more, breathes low a secret prayer,
That God would shed a blessing on their heads.

January 1.

Grahume

good, or very bad indeed! And only to oropose 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 journey. 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 such thing as a stationary point in human sort to do well, positively; for there is no endeavours; he who is not worse to-day than he was yesterday, is better; and he who is not better, is worse."

the text-hand set of copies put before us It is written," Improve your time," in when we were better taught to write than to understand what we wrote. How often these three words recurred at that period How often and how serviceably they have without their meaning being discovered! 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, expresses forcible remembrance of his youthful pleasures on the coming in of the new year." Hail! to thee, JANU ARY!--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 excel lence, 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's day, 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 visitings, 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

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 the having."

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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,
and then in the spicy wassell-bowl (which
testifies the goodness of their hearts)
drowned every former animosity—an ex-
ample worthy modern imitation. Wassell,
was the word; Wassell, every guest return-
ed as he took the circling goblet from his
friend, whilst song and civil mirth
brought in the infant year. This annual
custom, says Geoffrey of Monmouth, had
its rise from Rouix, or Rowen, or as some
will have it, Rowena, daughter of the
Saxon Hengist; she, at the command of
her father, who had invited the British
king Voltigern to a banquet, came in the
presence with a bowl of wine, and wel-
comed him in these words, Louerd king
wass-heil; he in return, by the help of an
interpreter, answered, Drinc heile; and,
if we may credit Robert of Gloster,

Ruste hire and sitte hire adoune and glad dronke hire heil
And that was tho in this land the verst was-hail

As in language of Saxoyne that we might evere iwite
And so well he paith the fole about, that he is put borgute.
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.

with such sort of work before the four-
teenth century.
T. N.

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 Juilt by one of their name, and had been n 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 WASSELI-BOWL.

A jolly Wassel-Bowl,

A Wassel of good ale,
Well fare the butler's soul,
That setteth this to sale;
Our jolly Wassel.
Good Dame, here at your door
Our Wassel we begin,
We are all maidens poor,
We pray now let us in,
With our Wassel

Our Wassel we do fill

With apples and with spice,
Then grant us your good will
To taste here once or twice
Of our good Wassei

If any maidens be

Here dwelling in this house,
They kindly will agree

To take a full carouse
Of our Wassę).

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