perience, it certainly strengthens them, and adds
greatly to their Credit that they have been esteemed evident Signs of
the same Effects, by the greatest Masters in this Kind of Science. The
Art of prognosticating the Weather may be considered as a Kind of
decyphering, and in that Art it is always allowed a point of great
Consequence, when several Masters therein agree as to the meaning of a
Character, and it is from thence very justly presumed that this
Character is rightly decyphered.

I have also endeavoured to explain most of his Observations, according
to the Rules of the new Philosophy, which, as it is grounded upon.
Experiments, so it generally speaking enables us to give a fair and
rational Account of almost all the Phaenomena taken notice of by the
Shepherd of _Banbury_.

I likewise have added some other Rules in Relation to the Weather,
taken from the common sayings of our Country People, and from old
_English_ Books of Husbandry, but I have distinguished all these from
the Observations themselves, so that the Reader will have no Trouble to
discern the Text from the Commentary, or to know what belongs to the
Shepherd of _Banbury_, and what to the Editor of his Observations. This
I think may serve by the Way of Introduction, let us now proceed to the
Rules themselves.

THE

_Country Calendar_,

OR THE

SHEPHERD OF BANBURY's

OBSERVATIONS.

I.

SUN. _If the Sun rise red and firey._ } Wind and Rain.

THE Reason of this Appearance is, because the Sun shines through a
large Mass of Vapours, which occasions that red Colour that has been
always esteemed a Sign of Rain, especially if the Face of the Sun
appear bigger than it ought, for then in a few Hours the Clouds will
grow black, and be condensed into Rain, sudden and sharp, if in the
Summer, but settled and moderate if in Winter.

THE old _English_ Rule published in our first Almanacks agrees exactly
with our Author's Observation.

If red the Sun begins his Race,
Be sure that Rain will fall apace.

IF the Reader would see this elegantly described, the Master of Poets
hath it thus.[_a_]

Above the Rest, the Sun, who never lies,
Foretels the Change of Weather in the Skies;
For if he rise unwilling to his Race,
Clouds on his Brow, and Spots upon his Face,
Or if thro' Mists he shoots his sullen Beams,
Frugal of light, in loose and straggling Streams,
Suspect a drizzling Day and southern Rain,
Fata