producing so abundantly, as to be suffered to let fall its fruits wastefully on the ground.

The red berries on the Mountain Ash now fall apace; and the Acorns are found strewed on the ground among the dead leaves.

DIANA.-Foxhunting may be said now to begin, as before this time it is confined to cubhunting, only pursued by the huntsman and a few attendants; but by this time the hunts in different parts of England generally assemble, and continue to pursue the chase till the end of March. The Royal Hunt of Wild Boars at Chantilly begins much sooner, as there are grounds set apart on purpose, and there are some persons in this country who contrive to hunt all the year.

An old Hunting Song.

A southerly wind and a cloudy sky
Proclaim a hunting morning;
Before the Sun rises we nimbly fly,
Dull sleep and a downy bed scorning.
To horse, my boys, to horse, away;
The chase admits of no delay;

On horseback we've got, together we'll trot:
On horseback, on horseback, together we'll trot,

Leave off your chat, see the cover appear;

The hound that strikes first, cheer him without fear;
Drag on him! ah, wind him, my steady good hounds,
Drag on him! ah, wind him, the cover resounds.

How complete the cover and furze they draw!
Who talks of Jolliffe, or Meynell?

Young Rockwood he flourishes now through the shaw,
And Ringwood roars out in his kennel.

Away we fly, as quick as thought;

The newsown ground soon makes them fault;

Cast round the sheep's train, cast round, cast round!
Try back the deep lane, try back, try back.

Hark! I hear some hound challenge in yonder spring sedge;
Comfort bitch hits it there, in that old thick hedge.
Hark forward! hark forward! have at him, my boys,

Hark forward! hark forward! Zounds, don't make a noise.

A stormy sky, o'ercharged with rain,

Both hounds and huntsmen opposes;

In vain on your mettle you try, boys, in vain,
But down, you must, to your noses.

Each moment, now, the sky grows worse,

Enough to make a parson curse :

Pick thro' the ploughed grounds, pick thro', pick thro',
Well hunted, good hounds, well hunted, well hunted,

If we can but get on, we shall soon make him quake;
Hark! I hear some hounds challenge in midst of the brake,
Tallio! tallio, there! across the green plain!

Tallio! tallio, boys! have at him again!

Thus we ride, whip and spur, for a two hours' chase,
Our horses go panting and sobbing;
See Ranter and Riot begin now to race;
Ride on, Sir, and give him some mobbing.
But, hold-alas! you'll spoil our sport,

For through the pack you'll head him short.
Clap round him, dear Jack, clap round, clap round!
Hark Lasher, hark Jowler, hark back, hark back!
He's jumping and dangling in every bush;

Little Riot has fastened his teeth in his brush!
Whohoop, whowhoop, he's fairly run down!
Whohoop, whohoop, give Tom his halfcrown.

October 14. St. Calixtus P. M. St. Donatian. St. Burckhard. St. Dominic Confessor.

CHRONOLOGY.-Battle of Hastings 1066.

Tycho Brae died at Prague in 1601.

William Penn the illustrious Quaker born 1644.
Battle of Jena in 1806.

URANIA.-Under October 2 will be found a more complete account of the appearance of the heavens in this month. Suffice it then only to say, that as the stars rise about four minutes earlier every night, there is about half an hour's difference in the time of the same phenomena being seen.

Both the eastern and western hemisphere present very beautiful appearances this month, which vary of course from -sunset through the night. As soon as it is dark Arcturus may still be seen setting in the West; Lucida Lyrae, the bright stars in Cygnus, and those in Aquila, westering from their culmination; Taurus, made conspicuous by Aldebaran and the Hyades and the Pleiades, is rising in the East. As night advances it is followed by Orion rising in east southeast. Cassiopeia is culminating rather North of the zenith, and Capella in the northeast. Later, and indeed about midnight, we may see the two stars of Gemini, called Castor and Pollux, rising nearly in a vertical line in northeast. We extract the following from Friend's Evening Amusements:

Appearance of the Heaven to Night at about Midnight, being the same as on the same Day in November at Ten o'Clock.*-The sixth of the Bear is now in the meridian in the North, and in the South the second of Andromeda is about seventeen degrees from the zenith.

In the north by west the Lesser Bear is below midheaven, and still lower the first of the Dragon. In the northwest,

As this author affects to use the English names, we must refer our readers to January 3, p. 3, for the real names.

about the same height with the first, are the second and third of the Dragon. A line drawn from the zenith to the point northwest by west passes near the second of Cassiopeia, within ten degrees of the zenith and the first of the Harp, below midheaven. To the west of west northwest in midheaven is the first of the Swan, whence the whole constellation may be easily discovered. To the south of west is the first of the Eagle near the horizon, and, of course, higher up in west by south, the four stars of the Dolphin. The four stars in the square of Pegasus and Andromeda are near midheaven, between southwest by west and south southwest. The first star of the Fish is near the horizon to the west of south southwest.

In the eastern hemisphere we perceive Orion rising with his usual splendour to the east southeast. A line drawn from the zenith to the south southeast passes near the third of Andromeda near the zenith, the first of the Ram above midheaven, and the first of the Whale below midheaven. Lower down in the southeast is the third of the River, inferior in brightness to, but rather higher than the second of Orion. A line from the zenith to the southeast by east passes through the Pleiades above midheaven; below whom we of course mark Aldebaran, and lower still Orion. We may observe, that the first of Perseus, Aldebaran, and the second of Orion, are in a line, Aldebaran being nearest to the second of Orion. Capella is rather above midheaven in east by north, and the line between it and the first of Orion passes to the east of the second of the Bull, which is at nearly an equal distance from each star. In east northeast,

about twenty degrees above the horizon, are the two first stars of the Twins; and a line, joining the first of Orion and the second of the Twins, passes through the third of the Twins, which is nearer to Orion. The five first stars of the Great Bear are in the north by east.

October 15.

St. Teresa Virgin. St. Tecla Virgin Abbess. St. Hospicius Anchoret.

Orises at vI. 39'. and sets at v. 21'.

St. Teresa was foundress of the Reformation of the Barefooted Carmelites, and died in 1582. See Butler's Lives, vol. x. p. 308. For many particulars relative to the religious orders see Recueil de tous les Costumes Religieux, &c. par M. Bar, Paris, 1785.

IDUS.-Mercurio Mercatores Sacr. Marti October. Equus immolatur. Festum Virgilii natalis.-Rom. Cal.

CHRONOLOGY.-Prince Potemkin died in 1791.

The Meteorological Society of London was founded this day in 1823, at a meeting held at the London Coffeehouse in Fleet Street, being Wednesday, in the evening. Dr. Birkbeck in the chair. Dr. Clutterbuck, Mr. Luke Howard, Dr. Forster, Mr. Richard Taylor, and others present.-Vivat valeatque.

FLORA.-Autumn, still advancing, gradually diminishes the flowers and leaves, often the later Aster and Michaelmas Daisy standing up in flower among dead weeds.

COELUM.-The weather is often fine at this time, and when this is the case it is a very agreeable time of year, since hunting and other rural sports make up the amusement of the morning; after which, dining late at the first introduction of candles, we finish the evening round a comfortable fire, and with a pipe and a spicy bowl of punch, talk over the exploits of the day, occasionally enlivening our narratives with a vocal stanza often like the following:

Classical Hunting Song.

Of all our fond diversions, a hunter's is the best,

In spite of wars and party jars, that sport has stood the test.
Of Nimrod and of Esau, what gallant feats they tell!

On foot they followed hunting, they loved the sport so well.
O hadst thou, brave Acteon, but minded more thy game,
Thou ne'er hadst paid so dearly for peeping at-that same.
And chaste Diana goddess, the pride of female race,
Preferred to amorous fooling, the pleasures of the chace.
Orion, foolish hunter, lured by a petticoat,

In the midchace did loiter, and so his fate he got.
But after this disaster, he's made a heavenly sign,
That he may view the sport he can no longer join.
Had Dido not loved hunting, the amorous Trojan brave,
Her Highness ne'er had solaced in Juno's friendly cave.
Euripides, if hunting thou'd loved but like thy books,

The hounds had not devoured thee, they know a sportsman's looks.
If, friend, you're called a hunting, throw all your books aside,
'Tis Horace thus advises, and mount your horse and ride.

Something should be said of the ancient Roman feast today, which was sacred to Mercury the messenger of Jupiter called in Latin Mercurius, a celebrated god of antiquity, called Hermes by the Greeks. There were no less than five of this name according to Cicero; a son of Coelus and Lux; a son of Valens and Coronis; a son of the Nile; a son of Jupiter and Maia; and another called by the Egyptians Thaut. Some add a sixth, a son of Bacchus and Proserpine. To the son of Jupiter and Maia, the actions of all the others have been probably attributed, as he is the most famous and the best known. Mercury was the messenger of the gods, and of Jupiter in particular; he was the patron of travellers and of shepherds; he conducted the souls

of the dead into the infernal regions, and not only presided over orators, merchants, declaimers, but he was also the god of thieves, pickpockets, and all dishonest persons. His name is derived à mercibus, because he was the god of merchandise among the Latins. The Roman merchants yearly celebrated a festival on the 15th of May, in honour of Mercury, in a temple near the Circus Maximus. See the Ides of May, p. 234 of our Calendar. A pregnant sow was then sacrificed, and sometimes a calf, and particularly the tongues of animals were offered. After the votaries had sprinkled themselves with water with Laurel leaves, they offered prayers to the divinity, and intreated him to be favourable to them, and to forgive whatever artful measures, false oaths, or falsehoods they had used or uttered in the pursuit of gain. Sometimes Mercury appears on monuments with a large cloak round his arm, or tied under his chin. The chief ensigns of his power and offices are his caduceus, his petasus, and his talaria. Sometimes he is represented sitting upon a cray fish, holding in one hand his caduceus, and in the other the claws of the fish. At other times he is like a young man without a beard, holding in one hand a purse, as being the tutelary god of merchants, with a cock on his wrists as an emblem of vigilance, and on his feet a Goat, a Scorpion, and a Fly. In Aegypt his statues represented him with the head of a Dog, whence he was often confounded with Anubis, and received the sacrifice of a Stork. Offerings of milk and honey were made because he was the god of eloquence, whose powers were sweet and persuasive. The Greeks and Romans offered tongues to him by throwing them into the fire, as he was the patron of speaking, of which the tongue is the organ. Sometimes his statues represent him as without arms, because, according to some, the power of speech can prevail over every thing, even without the assistance of arms. Homer, Od. i. &c. Il. i. &c. Hymn in Merc. Lucian in Mort. Dial. Ovid. Fast. v. 667. Met. i. 4, 11, 14. Martial. ix. ep. 35. Stat. Theb. iv. Paus. i. 7, 8, 9. Orpheus. Plut. in Num. Varro de L. L. vi. Plato in Phoed. Liv. xxxvi. Virg. G. i. Aen. i. v. 48. Diod. iv. & v.. Apollod. i. ii. & iii. Apollon. Arg. i. Horat. i. od. 10. Hygin. fab. P. A. 2. Tzetz. in Lyc. 219. Cic. de Nat. D. Lactantius. Philostr. i. Icon. 27. Manil. Macrob. i. Sat. c. 19.

Mercury is now used as the figurative representative or tutelary deity of communicated intelligence in general. And he patronizes no institution of more wonderful order and utility than the General Post of Europe, whereby the sentiments of individuals are communicated to their friends daily,