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horses eat the leaves, but they are refused by sheep and hogs. When reared in coppices, the hazel produces abundance of underwood.

The wood of the hazel is employed for poles, hoops for barrels, spars, hurdles, handles for implements of husbandry, walking-sticks, fishing-rods, &c. Charcoal, made from the hazel, is highly esteemed by painters and engravers.

The HOLLY.

O Reader! hast thou ever stood to see
The holly tree?

The eye that contemplates it well perceives
Its glossy leaves

Ordered by an intelligence so wise,

As might confound the Atheist's sophistries.
Below, a circling fence, its leaves are seen
Wrinkled and keen;

No grazing cattle thro' their prickly round
Can reach to wound;

But as they grow where nothing is to fear,
Smooth and unarmed the pointless leaves appear.

SOUTHEY.

The HOLLY, ilex aquifolium (to quote the elegant language of Dr. Aikin), grows native in woods, to the height of twenty or thirty feet; but we more usually see it in gardens, in the state of a shrub. It is an evergreen, and, by its shining leaves and red berries, forms a principal decoration in the winter landscape. Armed by nature in its own defence, with thorns projecting from the indentations of the leaves, it has been selected by man for the protection of his cultivated plants, and formed into hedges impenetrable to all the foes of the garden. Were it not for its slow growth, no native of this climate would be preferred to the holly for this purpose '.' Evelyn thus speaks of his favourite holly: Is there, under heaven, a more glorious and refreshing object of the kind, than an impregnable hedge of

Woodland Companion, p. 38.

about four hundred feet in length, nine feet high, and five feet in diameter, which I can show in my now ruined gardens at Say's Court, at any time of the year, glittering with its armed and varnished leaves; the taller standards at orderly distances, blushing with their natural coral? It mocks the rudest assaults of the weather, beasts, or hedgebreakers, et illum nemo impune lacessit.'

Forty or fifty varieties of the common holly, depending on the variegation of the leaves or thorns, and the colour of the berries, all derived from this one species, by budding or engrafting, are raised by the nursery-gardeners for sale, and formerly were in very great esteem, but are now less regarded, since the old taste of filling gardens with shorn evergreens has been laid aside; a few, however, of the most lively varieties may be admitted in plantations, and will have a good effect in the winter season, if properly disposed.

The berries of the holly afford food in the winter to the feathered creation,-while, another part of the same tree assists in destroying them-the common bird-lime being prepared from holly-bark, after it is cleared of its woody fibres. Its wood is much used in veneering, and is frequently stained black, to imitate ebony. It is likewise advantageously employed in the making of handles for knives, and cogs for the wheels of mills.

[To be continued.]

JULY.

THIS word is derived from the Latin Julius, the surname of C. Cæsar, the dictator, who was born in it. Mark Anthony first gave to this month the name of July, which was before called Quintilis, as being the fifth month in the year, in the old Roman calendar established by Romulus. July was called by

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the Saxons, heu-monat, or hey-monat, because therein they usually mowed, and made their hay-harvest.

July, to whom the Dog-Star in her train,

Saint James gives oysters, and Suint Swithin rain.

Remarkable Days.

CHURCHILL.

2.-VISITATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. THIS festival was first instituted by Pope Urban VI, in commemoration of that remarkable journey which the Mother of our Lord took into the mountains of Judæa, in order to visit the mother of St. John the Baptist. It was afterwards confirmed, not only by a decree of Pope Boniface IX, but by the council of Basle, in 1441.'

3.-DOG-DAYS BEGIN.

These are a certain number of days before and after the heliacal rising of Canicula, or the dog-star, in the morning. The dog-days in our modern Almanacks occupy the time from July 3d to August 11th; the name being applied now, as it was formerly, to the hottest time of the year.

4. TRANSLATION OF SAINT MARTIN.

This day was appointed to commemorate the removal or translation of St. Martin's body from one tomb to another much more noble and magnificent ; an honour conferred upon the deceased saint by Perpetuus, one of his successors in the see of Tours. His festival is celebrated on the 11th of November, which see.

* 6. 1553.—QUEEN MARY began to reign.

The loss of Calais, the only place then remaining to England in France, is said to have broken Mary's heart, who died in 1558, in the 42d year of her life, and 6th of her reign. In this short period WERE BURNT, 1 archbishop, 4 bishops, 21 divines, 8 gentlemen, 84 artificers, 100 husbandmen, servants, and labourers, 26 wives, 20 widows, 9 virgins, 2 boys, and 2 infants. Several also died in prison, and many

were cruelly treated. This queen is not inappropriately termed the 'Bloody Mary.'

7.-THOMAS A BECKET.

This haughty prelate was born in London, in the year 1119, and was the son of Gilbert, a merchant, and Matilda, a Saracen lady, who is said to have fallen in love with him, when he was a prisoner to her father in Jerusalem. Thomas received the first part of his education at Merton Abbey in Surrey, whence he went to Oxford, and afterwards studied at Paris. In 1159 he made a campaign with King Henry into Toulouse, having in his own pay 1200 horse, besides a retinue of 700 knights or gentlemen. -For further particulars of Becket, see T. T. for 1814, p. 167; and our last volume, p. 219.

15. SAINT SWITHIN.

Swithin, in the Saxon, Swithum, received his clerical tonsure, and put on the monastic habit, in the old monastery at Winchester: he was of noble parentage, and passed his youth in the study of grammar, philosophy, and the Scriptures. Swithin was promoted to holy orders by Helmstan, Bishop of Winchester; at whose death, in 852, King Ethelwolf granted him the see. In this he continued eleven

years, and died in 868.

In Poor Robin's Almanack for 1697, are the following lines, allusive to this day :—

In this month is St. Swithin's-day;
On which, if that it rain, they say
Full forty days after it will,
Or more or less, some rain distil.
This Swithin was a Saint, I trow,
And Winchester's Bishop also,
Who in his time did many a feat,
As Popish legends do repeat:
A woman having broke her eggs
By stumbling at another's legs,
For which she made a woful cry,
St. Swithin chanced for to come by,
Who made them all as sound, or more
Than ever that they were before.

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She was born at Antioch, and was the daughter of a Pagan priest. Olybius, President of the East, under the Romans, wished to marry her; but, finding that Margaret was a Christian, he postponed his intended nuptials until he could prevail on her to renounce her religion. Our saint, however, was inflexible, and was first tortured, and then beheaded, in the year 278.

22.-MARY MAGDALEN.

This day was first dedicated to the memory of St. Mary Magdalen, by King Edward VI; and in his Common Prayer, the Gospel for the day is from St. Luke, chap. vii, verse 36. Our reformers, however, upon a more strict inquiry, finding it doubtful whether this woman, mentioned in the Gospel, was really Mary Magdalen, thought it prudent to discontinue the festival.

25.-SAINT JAMES.

James was surnamed the Great, either on account of his age, being esteemed older than the other James, or for some peculiar honour conferred upon him by our Lord. He was by birth a Galilean, and partner with Peter in fishing, from which our Lord called him to be one of his disciples: Mark i, 19, 20. Of his ardent zeal, no other proof is necessary, than his becoming the victim of Herod Agrippa. The Spaniards esteem James their tutelar saint.

This day is commemorated by the Jews, on account of Moses breaking the Tables of Stone;-a breach made in Jerusalem during the second Temple ;-A. Posthumius, the Roman General, burning the Holy Scriptures, and setting up an idol in the Inner Temple.

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