of calling it by his name, but as he reigned only six months, the change did not take place.

While July and August have remained unaltered from the periods they were first so called, thereby evidencing the constant veneration in which JULIUS and AUGUSTUS CÆSAR Continued to be regarded in Rome, all the variations made in the name of September were of but short duration, and it still retains its original appellation. This, although improper according to its present station in the year, nevertheless tends, as do the three months immediately following it, to court investigation as to their primitive places in the calendar; an inquiry which leads to the different progressions towards improvement made in the register of time, until brought to its present state of perfection.

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September was named, by the antient Saxons, Gerst monat, for that barley which that moneth commonly peelded was antiently called Gerst, the name of barley being given unto it by reason of the drinke therewith made called beere, and from beezlegh it came to berlegh, and from berlegh to barley; so in like manner beerheym, to wit, the overdecking or covering of beere, came to be called berham, and afterwards barme, having since gotten I wot not how many names besides.—This excellent and healthsome liquor beere, antiently also called del, as of the Danes it pet is (beere and ale being in effect all one), wag first of the Germans invented, and brought into use.” The more modern Saxons called it haerfest monath.

or harvest month, when they varied the original title of August, which before alluded to the harvest, and changed that latter to weod or weed month: September, therefore, in the illustrations of the characters of this month, in some of the old Saxon calendars, after such alteration, is depicted as a vintager, whereas prior to that, this month was characterized by a boar-hunt, the men armed with spears, and dogs in full pursuit. After Christianity became established, September was called balig monath, or holy month, in reference to some important religious ceremonies then peculiarly attended to. In other paintings of less antient date September is drawn as a man cloathed in a purple robe, with a cheerful counte nance, and adorned with a coronet of white and purple grapes, holding in his left hand a small bundle of oats, and in his right a cornucopic of pomegranates and other fruits, together with a balance; the latter in token of the sign Libra, which the sun enters on the 23d of this month, and makes the autumnal equinox, or that period designed to be typified by the balance, when the heat and cold are supposed to be equally striving for predominance.

October

was the eighth month in the Alban year and in that of ROMULUS, whence the name it now bears, from the Latin words Octo, eight, and Imber, a shower of rain; although it is the 10th month in our present calendar, as it was also in those of NUMA POMPILIUS, JULIUS, and AUGUSTUS Cæsar. In the Alban Calendar it contained 39, and in the amended one by ROMULUS 31 days: NUMA reduced it to 29 days; but one of these so expunged was restored by JULIUS, and the other by AUGUSTUS CÆSAR, since which last alteration it has retained its present number. It was placed under the protection of MARS.

Like September this month has undergone some temporary changes of name, and like that month it soon reverted to the one by which it was originally distinguished. The Senate, out of respect to the emperor ANTONINUS, surnamed PIUS, first altered October to Faustinas from Faustina his amiable consort; as they had also, out of compliment to that much-loved emperor, changed the title of September to the name he bore. DOMITIAN, the deceitful and detestable despot, who in his reign caused September to bear the surname he had assumed of GERMANICUS, likewise changed the antient appellative of this

month to Domitianus: and COMMODUS, one of the vainest and most cruel tyrants that ever disgraced humanity, who had commanded September to be called Herculeus, from his arrogant assumption of that hero's name, likewise changed October to Invictus, or invincible, in allusion to his skill in athletic exercises, of which he was so. extremely fond as even to abandon his palace and reside among the gladiators.

Our Saxon ancestors called October Wyn moneth, or wine month; "and albeit they had not antiently wines made in Germany, pet in this season had they them from dive:s countries adjoining;" also Winter-fyllith, from the winter approaching with the full moon of that month.

Some of the very old Saxon calendars have marked the character of this month by the figure of a husbandman carrying a sack on his shoulders and sowing of corn; as expressive that October was a proper time for that important part of agricultural labour, when the weather was cool and dry. In others less antient, hawking is the emblem of the month; and in yet more modern times October has been depicted as a man clothed in a garment of the colour of decaying leaves, with a garland of oak branches and acorns on his head, holding in his left hand a basket of chesnuts, medlars, services, &c. and in his right, Scorpio, being the sign of the zodiac the sun enters on the 23d of the month. The scorpion is alleged to have been allusive to the growing power of the

cold over the before presumed equal influence of the heat, typified by the balance in the former month; that reptile being of a destructive character, as cold also is over nature.

November.

This month was called by the Saxons "Tintmonat,” to wit, “wind moneth, whereby we may see that our ancestors were in this season of the peace made acquainted with blustring Boreas, and it was the ancient custome for ship-men then to shroud themselves at home, and to give over sea-faring (notwithstanding the littlenesse of their then used voyages) untill blustring March had hidden them well to fare." And it afterwards obtained the name of Blotmonath, from the Saxon Blotan, to sacrifice or slaughter, to denote that it was usual at this season to slaughter oxen, sheep, hogs, &c. for the service of the ensuing winter; artificial pasturage, drying of grass into hay, and other important circumstances in agricultural pursuits, having been then unknown. The stock of salted meat prepared was to last throughout the whole of the winter months, until vegetation again became sufficiently forward to enable them to resume the use of fresh provisions; and we may form an idea of the vast extent to which the opulent provided themselves and their