The Eve of St. Agnes. St. Agnes' Eve? Ah, titter chill it was! They told her how, upon St. Agnes' Eve, Full of this whim was thoughtful Madeline Out went the taper as she hurried in; As though a tongueless nightingale should swell A casement high and triple arch'd there was, Of fruits, and flowers, and bunches of knot grass, ▲ shielded 'scutcheon blush'd with blood of queens and king Full on this casement shone the wintry moon, Stol'n to this paradise, and so extranced, -Shaded was her dream By the dusk curtains:-'twas a midnight charm He took her hollow lute, Tumultuous, and, in chords that tenderest be, Upon his knees he sank, pale as smooth-sculptured stone. Ah, Porphyro!" said she, "but even now "Those looks immortal, those complainings dear! Oh, leave me not in this eternal woe, "For if thou diest, my love, I know not where to go." Beyond a mortal man impassion'd far Solution sweet: meantime the frost-wind blows “Hark! 'tis an elfin-storm from faery land, And they are gone: ay, ages long ago FLORAL DIRECTORY, St. Fabian Large Dead Nettle. Larnium garganicum. AQUARIUS, OR, THE WATER BEARER. The sun enters Aquarius on this day, though he does not enter it in the visible zodiac until the 18th of February. Ganymede, who succeeded Hebe as cup-bearer to Jove, is fabled to have been changed into Aquarius. Canobus of the Egyptian zodiac, who was the Neptune of the Egyptians, with a water-vase and measure, evidently prefigured this constellation. They worshipped him as the God of many breasts, from whence he replenished the Nile with fertilizing streams. Aquarius contains one hundred and eight stars, the two chief of which are about fifteen degrees in height : His head, his shoulders, and his lucid breast, Glisten with stars; and when his urn inclines, Rivers of light brighten the watery track. January 21. Eudosia. St. Agnes. St Fructuosus, &c. Vimin, or Vivian. St. Pubius. Epiphanius St. St. St. Agnes. "She has always been looked upon," says Butler," as a special patroness of purity, with the immaculate mother of God." According to him, she suffered martyrdom, about 304, and performed wonderful miracles before her death,which was by beheading, when she was thirteen years old; whereupon he enjoins females to a single life, as better than a married one, and says, that her anniversary "was formerly a holiday for the women in England." Ribadeneira relates, that she was to have been burned, and was put into the fire for that purpose, but the flames, refusing to touch her, divided on each side, burnt some of the bystanders, and then quenched, as if there had been none made: a compassionate quality in hre, of which iron was not sensible, for her head was cut off at a single blow Her legend further relates, that eight days after her death she came to her parents arrayed in white, attended by virgins with garlands of pearls, and a lamb whiter than snow; she is therefore usually represented by artists with a lamb by her side; though not, as Mr. Brand incautiously says, in every graphic representation." It is further related, that a priest who offi ciated in a church dedicated to St. Agnes, was very desirous of being married. He prayed the pope's license, who gave it him, together with an emerald ring, and commanded him to pay his addresses to the image of St. Agnes in his own church Then the priest did so, and the image pur forth her finger, and he put the ring there on; whereupon the image drew her fin ger again, and kept the ring fast, and the priest was contented to remain a be chelor;" and yet, as it is sayd, the rynge secrated animals were afterwards shorn, is on the fynger of the ymage In a Romish Missal printed at Paris, in 1520, there is a prayer to St. Agnes, remarkably presumptive of her powers; it is thus englished by Bp. Patrick: Agnes, who art the Lamb's chaste spouse, O, Lady, singularly great, After this state, with grief opprest From Naogeorgus, we gather that in St. Agnes' church at Rome, it was customary on St. Agnes' Day to bring two snow-white lambs to the altar, upon which they were laid while the Agnus was singing by way of offering. These con and palls made from their fleeces; for each But where was Agnes at that time? The two white lambes? where then was as it is used now? Yea, where was then the Popish state, no palles at Rome to see, &c. St. Agnes' Shrine. Where each pretty Ba-lamb most gaily appears, Yet to me they seem'd crying, alack, and alas! Then they're brought to the Pope, and with transport they're kiss'd, Stopford, in "Pagano-Papismus," re- sung the mass of the Holy Ghost, and at They prayed FLORAL DIRECTORY. Christmas Rose. St. Agnes. Helleborus niger flor, albo. THE CROCUS. Dainty young thing Of life!-Thou vent'rous flower, Thou various-hued. Like Patience, thou Art quiet in thy earth, Instructing Hope that Virtue's birth Is Feeling's vow. Thy fancied bride! The delicate Snowdrop, keeps ment of his fees; if convicted, he was set in the stocks on each of the three subsequent market-days in Halifax, with the stolen goods on his back, if they were portable; if not, they were placed before his face. This was for a terror to others, Her home with thee; she wakes and sleeps and to engage any who had aught against Near thy true side. Will Man but hear! A simple flower can tell What beauties in his mind should dwell CHRONOLOGY. J. R. Prior. 1793. On the 21st of January, Louis XVI. was beheaded at Paris, in the thirtyninth year of his age, and nineteenth of his reign, under circumstances which are in the recollection of many, and known to most persons. A similar instrument to the guillotine, the machine by which Louis XVI. was put to death, was formerly used in England. It was first introduced into France, during the revolution, by Dr. Guillotine, a physician, and hence its name. THE HALIFAX GIBBET AND GIBBET-LAW. The History of Halifax in Yorkshire, 12mo. 1712, sets forth ❝ a true account of their ancient, odd, customary gibbetlaw; and their particular form of trying and executing of criminals, the like not us'd in any other place in Great Britain." The Halifax gibbet was in the form of the guillotine, and its gibbet-law quite as remarkable. The work referred to, which is more curious than rare, painfully endeavours to prove this law wise and salutary. It prevailed only within the forest of Hardwick, which was subject to the lord of the manor of Wakefield, a part of the duchy of Lancaster. If a felon were taken within the liberty of the forest with cloth, or other commodity, of the value of thirteen-pence halfpenny, he was, after three market-days from his apprehension and condemnation, to be carried to the gibbet, and there have his head cut off from his body. When first taken, he was brought to the lord's bailiff in Halifax, who kept the town, had also the keeping of the axe, and was the executioner at the gibbet. This officer summoned a jury of trith-burghers to try him on the evidence of witnesses not upon oath: if acquitted, he was set at liberty, upon pay him, to bring accusations, although after the three market-days he was sure to be executed for the offence already proved upon him. But the convict had the satisfaction of knowing, that after he was put to death, it was the duty of the coroner to summon a jury," and sometimes the same jury that condemned him," to inquire into the cause of his death, and that a return thereof would be made into the Crown-office; "which gracious and sage proceedings of the coroner in that matter ought, one would think, to abate, in all considering minds, that edge of acrimony which hath provoked malicious and prejudiced persons to debase this laudable and necessary custom." So says the book. In April, 1650, Abraham Wilkinson and Anthony Mitchell were found guilty of stealing nine yards of cloth and two colts, and on the 30th of the month received sentence," to suffer death, by having their heads severed and cut off from their bodies at Halifax gibbet," and they suffered accordingly. These were the last persons executed under Halifax gibbet-law. The execution was in this manner :The prisoner being brought to the scaffold by the bailiff, the axe was drawn up by a pulley, and fastened with a pin to the side of the scaffold. "The bailiff, the jurors, and the minister chosen by the prisoner, being always upon the scaffold with the prisoner, in most solemn manner, after the minister had finished his ministerial office and christian duty, if it was a horse, an ox, or cow, &c. that was taken with the prisoner, it was thither brought along with him to the place of execution, and fastened by a cord to the pin that stay'd the block, so that when the time of the execution came, (which was known by the jurors holding up one of theit hands,) the bailiff, or his servant, whipping the beast, the pin was pluck'd out, and execution done; but if there were no beast in the case, then the bailiff, or his servant, cut the rope." |