Easter Eve.- Various superstitions crept in by degrees among the rites of this day: such as putting out all the fires in churches, and kindling them anew from flint; blessing the Easter Wax, &c..

They are described by Hospinian, in the poetical language of Thomas Naogeorgus, in his Fourth Book of "The Popish Kingdome," thus translated by Barnaby Googe:

On Easter eve the fire all is quencht in every place,

And fresh againe from out the flint is fetcht with solemne grace:
The priest doth halow this against great daungers many one,
A brande whereof doth every man with greedie minde take hoine,
That when the fearefull storme appeares, or tempest black arise,
By lighting this he safe may be from stroke of hurtfull skies.

Easter Day, or Easter Sunday.- Much difference of opinion prevailed in the Eastern and Western churches respecting the precise time of observing Easter, till, in 325, the Council of Nice declared that the feast should be kept by all churches on the same day. Easter is styled by the fathers the highest of all festivals, the feast of feasts, the queen of festivals, and Dominica Gaudii, the joyous Sunday. Masters granted freedom to their slaves at this season, and valuable presents were made to the poor.

A very singular custom formerly prevailed at Lostwithiel, in Cornwall, on Easter Sunday. The freeholders of the town and manor having assembled together, either in person or by their deputies, one among them, each in his turn, gaily attired and gallantly mounted, with a sceptre in his hand, a crown on his head, and a sword borne before him, and respectfully attended by all the rest on horseback, rode through the principal street in solemn state to the church. At the churchyard stile, the curate, or other minister, approached to meet him in reverential pomp, and then conducted him to church to hear divine service. On leaving the church, he repaired, with the same pomp and retinue, to a house previously prepared for his reception. Here a feast, suited to the dignity he had assumed, awaited him and his suite; and, being placed at the head of the table, he was served, kneeling, with all the rites and ceremonies that a real prince might expect. This ceremony ended with the dinner; the prince being voluntarily disrobed, and descending from his momentary exaltation to mix with common mortals. On the origin of this custom, but one opinion can be reasonably entertained, though it may be difficult to trace the precise period of its commencement. It seems to have originated in the actual appearance of the prince, who resided at Restormel Castle in former ages;

but on the removal of royalty, this mimic grandeur stepped forth as its shadowy representative, and continued for many generations as a memorial to posterity of the princely magnificence with which Lostwithiel had formerly been honoured. -Hitchins's History of Cornwall, 4to.

On Easter Sunday, the grandest Catholic festival of the year, the church puts forth all her pomp and splendour, which are seen to the greatest advantage in the noble Cathedral of St. Peter's at Rome. The Pope assists at high mass, and there is a very grand procession.

Some account of Easter Eggs, or those boiled in colours, will be found in Brand's Popular Antiquities, vol. i.

April 11.
St. Leo the Great, P.
St. Antipas.
St. Guthlake, Hermit of Croyland Abbey.

FLORA. The Garden Hyacinth Hyacinthus Orientalis, and the Oriental Narcissus Narcissus Õrientalis, begin now to blow out of doors, and to ornament the parterres of the Flowergarden. The Early Sweet Scented Tulip of Vanthol Tulipa Suaveolens, and the Clarimond variety of Tulipa Gesneriana, also blow out of doors about this time. The various Daffodils and Jonquils are now in full blow, and ornament the gardens in large batches, while Crown Imperials adorn the corners of the parterres.

Verses on Spring, by Charlotte Smith.

The Gorse is yellow on the heath,
The banks with Speedwell flowers are gay,
The Oaks are budding, and beneath

The Hawthorn soon will bear the wreath,
The silver wreath of May.

The welcome guest of settled Spring,
The Swallow, too, is come at last;
Just at sunset, when Thrushes sing,
I saw her dash with rapid wing,
And hailed her as she passed.

Come, summer visitant, attach

To my old roof your nest of clay,

And let my ear your music catch

Low twittering underneath the thatch,

At the green dawn of day.

On the Return of Vernal Birds, by the Abbé De Lille.

Revenez, peuple heureux, revoir votre patrie;
Revenez habiter votre rive chérie.

Quel bien manque à vos voeux, intéressants oiseaux ?
Vous possédez les airs, et la terre, et les eaux;
Sous la feuille tremblante un zéphyr vous éveille,
Vos couleurs charment l'oeil, et vos accents l'oreille;
Vos désirs modérés ignorent à la fois

Et les vices du luxe, et la rigueur des lois;

Un coup d'aile corrige une amante coquette,
Un coup de bec suffit à sa simple toilette.
Si vous prenez l'essor vers des bords reculés,
Vous êtes voyageurs, et non pas exilés;
Le bocage qui vit votre famille éclorre,
Sur le même rameau vous voit bâtir encore;
Même ombrage revoit vos amoureux penchants,
Et les mêmes échos répondent à vos chants.

CHRONOLOGY.-Battle of Ravenna in 1512. K. William and Q. Mary crowned in 1700. Abdication of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1814.

April 12. St. Sebas. St. Zeno. St. Julius. St. Victor of Braga, M.

Magna Mater Romam adducta.- Liv.

FAUNA. The Wood Wren Ficedula Sylvicola appears about this time. This species is the Sylvia Sylvicola of Latham, and the Trochilus major of Forster's Synop. Catalogue Brit. Birds. It is the largest and yellowest of the three Willow Wrens. Towards May they become pretty common, and, after the flight of the young broods in July, they are very frequently seen on our large trees.

CHRONOLOGY.

1782.

Admiral Rodney's Victory over the French Fleet in

Young the Poet, in 1765, doomed no longer in this world to be refreshed by "Tired Nature's sweet restorer, balmie Sleep," at length exchanged the soft embraces of Morpheus for the Boat of Charon, and was this day registered in the Temple of Libertina.

Those who are still attached to the Old Style, and averse to the alteration of the Calendar, may perhaps desire some information today respecting All Fools' Feast; we refer them, however, to April 1, and subjoin Shakespeare's account of a fool for their entertainment; for this Author has given us an admirable description of one, in his charming play of As You Like It.

Jaq. A fool, a fool!

I met a fool i' the forest,
A motley fool! a miserable world!

As I do live by food, I met a fool;

Who laid him down, and basked him in the sun,
And railed on lady Fortune in good terms,

In good set terms-and yet a motley fool.

"Good morrow, fool," quoth I: "No, sir," quoth he,

"Call me not fool, till heaven hath sent me fortune:"

And then he drew a dial from his poke,

And, looking on it with lacklustre eye,

Says, very wisely, "It is ten o'clock:

Thus may we see," quoth he, "how the world wags:

'Tis but an hour ago since it was nine;

And, after one hour more, 'twill be eleven;

And so, from hour to hour, we ripe, and ripe,

And then, from hour to hour, we rot, and rot,
And thereby hangs a tale." When I did hear
The motley fool thus moral on the time,
My lungs began to crow like chanticleer,
That fools should be so deep contemplative;
And I did laugh, sans intermission,
An hour by his dial.-O noble fool!
A worthy fool! Motley's the only wear.
Duke Sen. What fool is this?

Jaq. O worthy fool!-One that hath been a courtier;
And says, if ladies be but young and fair,

They have the gift to know it: and in his brain

Which is as dry as the remainder biscuit

After a voyage-he hath strange places crammed
With observation, the which he vents

In mangled forms:-O, that I were a fool!
I am ambitious for a motley coat.

See Erasmus' Eloge de la Folie.

April 13. St. Hermenegild, M.

St. Guinoch, B. C.

St. Caradoc, Priest and Hermit.

IDUS. Jovi Victori, et Libertati. - Rom. Cal.

Today let pass in mirth and glee

For Victor Jove, and Liberty.

The goddess Liberty, celebrated by the ancient Romans on the Idus of April, differed essentially from the goddess Liberty of revolutionary France. The former answers Milton's description,

The mountain nymph sweet Liberty,

and is distinguished from the latter in the following lines:

On Roman Republican and French Republican Liberty.
And canst thou be the same sweet Liberty
Which on Mount Aventine, in ancient Rome,
Waved in thy hand the equal scourge of guilt
To punish crime, yet held the tempting cap
To freeborn Romans as a sacred lure?
For thou didst then with thy fair hand protect
Laws, Virtue, Order, and Sobriety; but now,
Polluted with the crimes of popular fury
And mob oppression, with thy two false Sisters,
Naked and shameless, dost thou trample down
All social order: - mitres and kingly crowns
Crumble beneath thy tread, while Hecate,

With parricidal hand, reigns dominant.-Anthol. Bor. et Aust. Libertas, a goddess of Rome, who had a temple on Mount Aventine, raised by T. Gracchus, and improved and adorned by Pollio with many elegant statues and brazen

columns, and a gallery in which were deposited the public acts of the state. She was represented as a woman, in a light dress, holding a rod in one hand, and a cap in the other, both signs of independence, as the former was used by the magistrates in the manumission of slaves, and the latter was worn by slaves, who were soon to be set at liberty. Sometimes a cat was placed at her feet, as this animal was very fond of liberty, and impatient when confined. Liv. 24. c. 16. 1. 25. c. 7. Ovid. Trist. 3. el. 1. v. 72. Plut. in Grac. Dio. Cas. 44.

An old epigram says:—

Libertatis ego pedibus moestissima feles
Infernum subito vulnere missa lacum.

The

FLORA. The Wood Anemony Anemone nemorosa is in flower now, and generally in considerable abundance, in damp shady groves and woods, and often in wet pastures. The Crowsfoots begin to increase in numbers, and the Dandelion often covers the meadows with its yellow flowers, previous to the bulbous, the creeping, or the upright meadow Crowsfoots, which in succession, and more or less in different pastures, begin to appear scantily as April advances, and which, by their numbers, in May, give to the meadows and fields a beautiful yellow appearance. Ladies' Smock or Chemise de Nôtre Dame Cardamine pratensis is now plentiful, and every moist piece of grass abounds with it. The Germander Speedwell Veronica Chamaedris now begins to abound in mild seasons, and to strew its beautiful blue flowers on every sunny bank. This plant is also cultivated in gardens in clumps, as is the Alkanet Anchasa semperoireus, and the Hound's Tongue Cyroglossum omphalodes, both of whose flowers somewhat resemble in colour those of the Speedwell above noticed.

April 14. St. Benezet, Patron of Avignon. SS. Tiburtius, &c. Martyrs. B. Lidwina, V.

CHRONOLOGY.-Handel the Composer died in 1759, aged 75.

FAUNA. The Bittern Ardea Stellata begins to make a booming noise in marshy places at eventide. The deep and peculiar hollow tone of this Bird in the breeding season can hardly be mistaken for that of any other: it differs essentially from the note of the same Bird when on the wing.

The Bittern booms along the sounding marsh,

Mixt with the cries of Heron and Mallard harsh.

The Bittern sits all day hid among the reeds and rushes with its head erect; at night it rises on the wing, and soars to a vast height in a spiral direction. Those who desire to see it must pursue a swampy route, through watery fens, quagmires, bogs, and marshes. The Heron Ardea major has now a nest, and is seen sailing about slowly in the air in search of its fishy prey, travelling from one Fish Pond to another, over a large tract of country. It is a bird of slow and heavy flight, though it floats on large and expansive wings.