the red-star windflower, the three-leaved antirrhinum, two sorts of marigolds, the daisy, and the polyanthus, are added to the lauristine, which is in full blow at this time; the black hellebore, also called Christmas rose, is almost in flower.

In the Shepherd's Almanack for 1676, we find: "Some say that if on the 12th of January the sun shines, it foreshows much wind. Others predict by St. Paul's Day, saying, if the sun shine, it betokens a good year; if rain or snow, indifferent; if misty, it predicts great dearth; if it thunder, great winds, and death of people that year. Willsford, in his Nature's Secrets, tells us: "If fair and clear, plenty; if cloudy or misty, much cattle will die; if rain or snow fall that day, it presages a dearth; and if windy, wars; as old wives do dream." weather-saws of the month tells us :

If Janiveer Calends be summerly gay,

It will be winterly weather till the Calends of May.

Let us sum up with the satirist :

Froze January, leader of the year,

One of the

Minced pies in van, and calf's head in the rear.-Churchill.

Martyrdom of King Charles I.

Such is the designation of this anniversary of English history-one of the darkest, the deepest, and most impressive of any age or timeJanuary 30th, 1649; to commemorate which the day was set apart as a day of humiliation for fasting and prayer.

Of this great event it has been well observed, that "this grand crisis of morals, religion, and government is yet but imperfectly understood, notwithstanding so many books have been written and published in illustration of it." Coleridge attributes this labour lost to the want of genius or imagination in these works-" Not one of their authors seems to be able to throw himself back into that age; if they did, there would be less praise and less blame bestowed on both sides."

On

Charles was taken on the first morning of his trial, January 20th, 1649, in a sedanchair, from Whitehall to Cotton House, where he returned to sleep each day during the progress of the trial in Westminster Hall. After this, the king returned to Whitehall; but on the night before his execution he slept at St. James's. January 30th he was "most barbarously murthered at his own door, about two o'clock in the afternoon."-(Histor. Guide, 3rd imp., 1688.) Lord Leicester and Dugdale state that Charles was beheaded at Whitehall gate. The scaffold was erected in front of the Banqueting-house, in the street now Whitehall; and Sir Thomas Herbert states that the king was led out by "a passage broken through the wall," on to the scaffold; but Ludlow states that it was out of a window, according to Vertue, of a small building north of the Banqueting-house, whence the king stepped upon the scaffold. A picture of the sad scene, painted by Weesop, in the manner of Vandyke, shows the platform, extending only in length before two of the windows, to the commencement of the third casement. Weesop visited England from Holland in 1641, and quitted England in 1649, saying "he would never reside in a country where they cut off their king's head, and were not ashamed of the action."

After the execution, the body was embalmed under the orders of Sir Thomas Herbert and Bishop Juxon, and removed to St. James's. Thence the remains were conveyed to Windsor, where they were silently interred, without the burial service, on the 7th of February, in a vault about the middle of the choir of St. George's Chapel. In 1813, the remains of the king were found accidentally, in breaking away part of the vault of Henry VIII. On the leaden coffin being opened, the body appeared covered with cerecloth; the countenance of the king was apparently perfect as when he lived; the severed head had been carefully adjusted to the shoulders; the resemblance of the features to the Vandyke portraits was perfect, as well as the oval shape of the head, pointed beard, &c.; the fissure made by the axe was clearly discovered, and the flesh, though darkened, was tolerably perfect; the back of the head and the place where it rested in the coffin was stained with what, on being tested, was supposed to be blood. The coffin is merely inscribed "King Charles, 1648; the whole funeral charges were but £229 58.

Sir Robert Halford was one of the most staunch Royalists in Leicestershire, and frequently assisted the king with money in his difficulties; and it is a remarkable circumstance that a descendant of his family, the late Sir Henry Halford, should be the only person, besides the Prince Regent, who viewed the body of the decapitated king, upon its discovery at Windsor. Sir Henry cut off a lock of the king's hair, and made Sir Walter Scott a present of a part, which he had set in virgin gold; with the word "Remember" surrounding it in highly-relieved black letters.

Almost in proportion to the impressive character of the event, has been the care with which memorials of the fated monarch have been preserved. We can only enumerate a few of these relics :

1. The Silver Alarm Watch, which Charles usually placed at his bedside. The workmanship of this watch (maker, Edward East, London), is highly elegant; the face is beautifully engraved; the back and rim are chased and pierced with foliage and scroll-work. This watch was given by the king, on the morning of his execution, to Sir Thomas Herbert, . his faithful attendant.

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2. The Pocket-handkerchief used by Charles at the time of his execution it is of fine white cambric, and marked with the crown, and initials "C. R.;" its authenticity was certified by W. M. Pitt, of Dorchester, one of whose ancestors obtained the handkerchief after the king's death.

3 and 4. Gold Medal and George presented by Charles to Bishop Juxon, on the scaffold. The medal is a pattern; mint-mark, a rose, probably for a 57. or 67. piece, which had been submitted to the king by Rawlins, the engraver, for approval: the likeness of the sovereign is very good. The George (the jewel of the Order of the Garter) was worn by Charles but a few moments previous to his decapitation.

5. The King's Bible, presented by him to Sir Thomas Herbert; in the margin are annotations and quotations in the handwriting of Charles, who charged Herbert to give the Bible to the Prince so soon as he re

turned. The cover of the volume is decorated with the badge of the Principality within the Garter, surmounted by a royal coronet in silver gilt, inclosed by an embroidered border; the initials "C. P.," the latter apparently altered to an R, and the badges of the Rose and Thistle upon a ground of blue velvet. The book was, therefore, bound between the death of Prince Henry, 1612, and the accession of Charles to the throne, 1625, when such a coronet would be no longer used by him.

6, 7, 8, 9. The Shirt and Drawers worn by the king, the Holland Shirt which was thrown over his remains; also his Watch. The linen is fresh, as if new, but has faint spots of blood; the drawers are white knit silk the watch has an enamelled case, and flowers worked on the dial. These memorials of the execution are kept in a glass case, in the church of Ashburnham, near Battle, Sussex. They were bequeathed by Bertram Ashburnham, in 1727, to the parish clerks for ever.

In solemn observance of the day it was enacted that Parliament should attend the appointed service at St. Margaret's Church, Westminster, once on every January 30th, and there hear also an appropriate sermon preached by their chaplain. On January 30th, 1772, as usual, the discourse was but thinly attended; only the Speaker and four other members being present, and those, perhaps, not very attentive. Motions of thanks and for printing the sermon, were afterwards carried without notice or remark. But when the sermon came to be transmitted to the members in its printed form, it was found to convey most high-flown doctrines from the school of Filmer and Sacheverell, inculcating passive obedience, and repugnant to the principles of the Revolution of 1688. It was then moved that the sermon by Dr. Nowell should be burned by the hands of the common hangman, when the House just in time remembered their own former vote of thanks. The situation of the Commons now became very embarrassing, not to say ridiculous, and several acrimonious discussions ensued. At length it was agreed that in the Journals the vote of thanks should be expunged. These debates .brought out some severe allusions to the words of the service which the Church had appointed for King Charles's Day, and Mr. F. Montagu moved to repeal the Act for its observance. He declared that, to his mind, the service for that day was no less than blasphemous, as conveying a parallel between our Blessed Saviour and King Charles. On the other hand, Sir Roger Newdigate, member for the University of Oxford, resolutely stood forth in defence of the Liturgy, and on a division he was supported by 125 votes against 97. Eighty-six years later, in 1858, upon the motion of Earl Stanhope (from whose History of England the above details are quoted), moved an address to the Queen to discontinue the religious service on January 30th, which has accordingly been done.

It was in this very church of St. Margaret that, in Charles's time, all the Fast-day Sermions were preached before Pym, Cromwell, Harrison, Praise-God Barebones, and the rest of the then Parliament of England here also Hugh Peters preached, exciting the Parliament to

bring Charles to trial; and from that same pulpit were subsequently delivered many brilliant discourses in execration of the Martyrdom.

The sermon preached in this church by Dr. Croxall, before the House, on the 30th of January, 1730, from the text: "Take away the wicked from before the King, and his throne shall be established in righteousness," however, gave such offence to Sir Robert Walpole, that he prevented the thanks of the House being presented to the preacher. This was not lost upon Henley, the tub-orator, who wrote for the motto of his next lecture:

Away with the wicked before the King,
And away with the wicked behind him;
His throne it will bless

With righteousness,

And we shall know where to find him.

Howell wrote, upon the death of Charles I., these strange lines of outright bathos :

So fell the royal oak by a wild crew

Of mongrel shrubs, which underneath him grew;

So fell the lion by a pack of curs;

So the rose wither'd 'twixt a knot of burs;

So fell the eagle by a swarm of gnats;

So the whale perish'd by a shoal of sprats.

Among the indignities offered to the royal memory was an annual insult by holding, on the 30th of January, "the Great Feast of Calves' Heads," in which the principal dishes consisted of calves' heads dressed several different ways; a large pike, with a small one in his mouth, as an emblem of tyranny; a large cod's head, to represent the person of the King; a boar's head, with an apple in its mouth, &c. The whole was a wicked mummery.

The immediate act of the execution has thus been forcibly described:"Men could discover in the king no indecent haste or flurry of spirits -no trembling of limbs-no disorder of speech-no start of horror. The blow was struck. An universal groan, as it were-a supernatural voice-the like never before heard, broke forth from the dense and countless multitude. All near the scaffold pressed forward to gratify their opposite feelings by some memorial of his blood-the blood of a tyrant or a martyr! The troops immediately dispersed on all sides the mournful or the agitated people."

The following lines from a poem published on the subject, in the Times newspaper, are a sort of paraphrase of Hume's account of the immediate consequences of Charles's execution :

A few brief moments and the martyr dies:
Dies in that sweet serenity of soul!
Then rush quick tears into the nation's eyes,
Over all hearts Grief's sudden waters roll,
And Sorrow raves and sobs without control!
Now brave men's spirits are bow'd down to earth,
Slander is hushed, and vengeance droops her wing,
And women give their babes untimely birth,

Shock'd at the murder of their honour'd king!

And misery flings her mourning over mirth,

And fame (too late) is loud with the lost Monarch's worth.

By the regulation for the Lord Mayor's state, the black sword is to be used upon this day.

. Candlemas.

The Pagan Romans celebrated their Juno Februata on the day which is the vigil of Candlemas, Feb. 1st; and hence the name of the month February is unquestionably derived. In some of the ancient illuminated calendars, a woman holding a taper in each hand is represented in the month of February.

Candlemas is evidently traceable to the ancient custom of lighting up churches and chapels with candles and lamps, and carrying them in procession. The practice of lighting the churches has been discontinued in England since the second year of Edward VI.; in the Romish Church, the original name, and all its attendant ceremonies, are still retained. Herbert, in his Country Parson, refers to a relic of this practice in the custom of saying "when light is brought in, God sends us the light of Heaven, and the parson likes this very well. Light is a great blessing, and as great as food, for which we give thanks; and those that think this superstitious, neither know superstition nor themselves."

The candles for this festival were made in great quantities in Roman Catholic times; the Wax Chandlers' Company was incorporated as early as 1483; the chandler of old lent out wax-tapers for hire; and wax was brought to him to be made into "torches, torchettes, prykettes, or perchers, chaundelle or tapers for women ayenst Candlemas.'

Notwithstanding the Popish character of Candlemas, and its hallowing and conjuring of candles, in 1628 we find a Bishop of Durham climbing ladders to light up his cathedral with 220 candles and 16 torches ; and in 1790, the collegiate church of Ripon, Yorkshire, was, on the Sunday before Candlemas Day, one continued blaze of light all the afternoon by an immense number of candles."

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Ray, in his Proverbs, has: "On Candlemas Day, throw candle and candlestick away;" and "Sow or set beans on Candlemas waddle,” i.e., wane of the moon.

Another reason was that the use of lighted tapers, which was observed all winter at vespers and litanies, was then wont to cease till the next Allhallow Mass. Women used to carry candles when they were churched; in the north of England, this is called Wives' Feast Day. Christmas evergreens were removed, and box substituted in their place, as Herrick thus enjoins, in his Hesperides:

Down with the Rosemary and Bayes,

Down with the Misleto;

Instead of Holly, now up-raise

The greener Box (for show).