un had
warmed the room, but at 9 o'clock, new time, the sun has scarcely
looked in at the window; a fire is probably lighted and to save
trouble kept up all day. If the new arrangement is continued, and I
understand that it was tried more than 100 years ago and abandoned as
a mistake, it would be much better to begin it at least a month later.
Our present May Day is nearly a fortnight earlier than before the New
Style was introduced, which is the reason why old traditions of May
Day merry-makings appear unseasonable; and probably the promoters of
summer time have not heard of "blackthorn winter" and "whitethorn
winter," which, in the country, we experience regularly every year in
April and May.

"When the grass grows in Janiveer
It grows the worse for it all the year,"

and

"If Candlemas-Day be fine and fair
The half of winter's to come and mair;
If Candlemas-Day be wet and foul
The half of winter was gone at Yule,"

are both rhymes suggesting the probability of wintry weather to
follow, if the early weeks of the year are mild and unseasonable, and
they may be considered as generally correct prognostications. A
neighbouring village had the distinction of possessing a weather
prophet, with the reputation also of an astrologer; he could be seen
when the stars were gleaming brightly, late at night, gazing upwards
and making his deductions, though, in reality, I fancy, his
inspiration came from the study of almanacs which profess to foretell
the future. He was quiet and reserved, with a spare figure, dark
complexion, and an abstracted expression. Occasionally I could induce
him to talk, but he did not like to be "drawn." He told me, as one of
his original conceptions, that he thought the good people were
accommodated in the after-life within the limits of the stars of good
influence, and that the wicked had to be content with those of an
opposite character.

The proverb about March dust, and "A dry March and a dry May for old
England," are both apposite, for they are busy months on the land, and
a wet March amounts to a national disaster; but everyone forgives
April when showery, for we all know that "April showers bring forth
May flowers." Shakespeare, too, says:

"When daffodils begin to peer,
With heigh! the doxy over the dale,
Why, then comes in the sweet of the year."

A charming sentiment and charmingly rendered, but possibly more
accurate when the Old Styl