its figurative inference, that plenty of bread ever ensues from a "dry March."

In the antient dialect of Cornwall this month was called Meurz, or Merk, an evident corruption of MARCH.

April

is the fourth month of the year, and consists of 30 days, which was the number assigned to it by ROMULUS: NUMA POMPILIUS deprived it of one day, which JULIUS CÆSAR restored, and which it has ever since retained. This month held the first station in the Alban calendar, and then consisted of 36 days.

The three preceding months received their appellations from causes totally unconnected with the particular character of that portion of the year to which they were assigned: but the name of this month was meant to be expressive of the season in which it has been placed; the word APRIL being universally allowed to be derived from "Aprilis," of "aperire, to open," in allusion to the buds then beginning to open, and to the earth generally shooting forth fresh vegetation. Our forefathers aptly depicted APRIL as a young man, winged, and clad in green, crowned with a

garland of myrtle and hawthorn buds, holding in one hand primroses and violets, and in the other the sign Taurus, the Bull, which the sun enters on the 19th of this month; an emblem peculiarly appropriate, as the bull is one of the strongest of all domestic animals, and consequently the best familiar object to signify the power which the sun's rays have usually acquired at that season.

By the Anglo-Saxons, APRIL was called "DsterVonat, Oster-Yonath, and Easter-Monath. Some thinke of a Goddesse called Eoster, whereof I see no great reason, for if it took appellation of such a goddesse, (a supposed causer of the easterly windes) it seemeth to have bin somewhat by some miswritten, and should rightly be Dster, and not Eoster. The winds indeed, by antient observation, were found in this moneth most commonly to blow from the East, and East in the Teutonicke is Dst, and Dst-end, which rightly in English is East-end, hath that name for the ease terne situation thereof, as to the ships it appeareth which through the narrow seas do come from the West. So as our name of the feast of Easter may be as much to say as the feast of Oster, being yet at this present, in Barony called Ostern, which cometh of Oster-Monat, their and our old name of April." Verstegan.

The Romans dedicated APRIL to Venus,—though amongst the moderns, MAY has usually been dedicated to this goddess, and hence sometimes called it Mensis Veneris, as well as Aprilis : the name of this month in the Cornish language

was Eprell, a corruption evidently from its Latin appellative.

The inclination our ancestors had to prognostication, made them, as shewn in the preceding article, particularly attentive to every operation of nature; MARCH, for the reason assigned, was regarded by them as most favourable when dry s the month of APRIL, on the contrary, as most propitious when wet, which indeed it usually is; and they expressed this idea in many of their proverbs

"March winds, and April showers,
Bring forth May flowers."

both of which, relating to March as well as April, are selected for notice; the first alluding to the windy or dry weather of March, in the proverb adapted to that month; and the latter to the king's ransom, also mentioned in that proverb, or "good," as it is called for the sake of the rhyme, which would seem to have been a favourite and strong expression with the people. The Dove is a river of Staffordshire; and when it overflows in consequence of a great fall of rain, the adjoining meadows are fertilized, and hence, by analogy, similar favourable results are inferred to the kingdom at large.

May

was the second month in the old Alban calendar, the third in that of ROMULUS, and the fifth in the one instituted by NUMA POMPILIUS-a station it has held from that distant date to the present period. It consisted of 22 days in the Alban, and of 31 in ROMULUS's calendar; NUMA deprived it of the odd day, which JULIUS CAESAR restored, since which it has remained undisturbed. RoMULUS continued to this month the name of Maius, out of respect to the counsellors or senate appointed to assist him when he was elected king, who were distinguished by the epithet of Majores; evincing by that act, as he did in almost every instance throughout his reign, a profound knowledge of mankind, and an ardent desire of being esteemed the friend, as well as the sovereign of his people,

As on the first day of this month the Romans offered sacrifices to Maia, the mother of Mercury, some authors affirm, that ROMULUS was from that circumstance led to retain the name of this month; while others assert that it is derived from Madius, eo quod tunc terra madeat. But as that great man endeavoured to withdraw the minds of his subjects as much as possible from the superstitions then prevalent, by passing a law forbidding fabulous stories to be mingled with

the mysteries of religion; there is reason to infer that he would compliment the senate in preference to the supposed mother of MERCURY: especially as, MARCH alone excepted, which was named from his reputed father, there seems not in any instance to be an allusion to the heathen mythology, in the titles of the months.

On the 20th of this month the sun enters the sign Gemini, or the Twins, expressive of the heat of that orb, and his typified twin brother, the cold Ether, then bearing an equal share in the system of nature.

The Saxons called this month Tri-Milki, and Tri-Milchi; the juices of the young grass then vigorously growing, being so beneficial to the cows, as to enable them to afford milk Tri, or three times in the day; and the antient painters emblematized May by a youth with a lovely countenance, clothed in a robe of white and green, embroidered with daffodils, hawthorns, and bluebottles, his head adorned with a garland of white and damask roses; in one hand holding a lute, and on the forefinger of the other a nightingale, in token that now this harbinger of Spring first warbles forth his melodious and enchanting song.

Me, an evident corruption of May, was the old Cornish name of this month; and there is cause to conclude from that, and other similar corruptions in the Cornish names of the different months, that their Roman titles were more general in this island than those given by the Saxons.