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that evinced a spirit not to be repressed, and talents that excited greater expectations, which were afterwards completely realized; and these northern critics made the amende honorable to his lordship in several studied eulogies of his subsequent productions.

25.-CONVERSION OF SAINT PAUL.

Saint Paul suffered martyrdom under the general persecution of Nero. Being a Roman citizen, he could not be crucified by the Roman laws, as his colleague St. Peter was; he was, therefore, beheaded-hence the usual representation of him with a sword in his hand.

A singular custom was observed on this day in St. Paul's Cathedral, until the reign of Elizabeth. Sir William de Baud, who was Sheriff of Essex and Hertfordshire, in the year 1375, obtained liberty to inclose within his parish at Corringham, in Essex, twelve or twenty-two acres of land, of the Dean of St. Paul's, in consideration of presenting them with a fat buck and doe yearly, on the days of the Conversion and Commemoration of St. Paul. On these days, the buck and the doe were brought by one or more servants at the hour of the procession, and through the midst thereof, and offered at the high altar of St. Paul's Cathedral: after which the persons that brought the buck, received of the Dean and Chapter, by the hands of their Chamberlain, twelve pence sterling for their entertainment; but nothing when they brought the doe. The buck being brought to the steps of the altar, the Dean and Chapter, apparelled in copes, and proper vestments, with garlands of roses on their heads, sent the body of the buck to be baked, and had the head and horns fixed on a pole before the cross, in their procession round about the church, till they issued at the west door, where the keeper that brought it blowed the death of the buck, and then the horns that were about the city answered him in like man

ner; for which they had each, of the Dean and Chapter, three and fourpence in money, and their dinner; and, the keeper, during his stay, meat, drink, and lodging, and five shillings in money at his going away; together with a loaf of bread, having in it the picture of St. Paul'.'

*26. 1789.-MRS. BROOKE DIED.

She was a woman of first rate abilities, and as remarkable for gentleness and suavity of manners, as for her literary talents. She wrote some admirable novels and plays. Her opera of Rosina is almost a perfect model of that species of drama.

30. SEPTUAGESIMA SUNDAY.

The institution of this and the two following Sundays cannot be traced higher than the beginning of the sixth or the close of the fifth century. When the words Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima (seventieth, sixtieth, and fiftieth), were first applied to denote these three Sundays, the season of Lent had generally been extended to a fast of six weeks, that is, thirty-six days, not reckoning the Sundays, which were always celebrated as festivals. At this time also, the Sunday which we call the first Sunday in Lent, was styled simply, Quadragesima, or the fortieth, meaning, no doubt, the fortieth day before Easter. Quadragesima was also the name given to the season of Lent, and denoted the quadragesimal or forty days' fast. When the three weeks before Quadragesima ceased to be considered as weeks after the Theophany (or Epiphany), and were appointed to be observed as a time of preparation for Lent, it was perfectly conformable to the ordinary mode of computation to reckon backwards, and, for the sake of even and round numbers, to count by decades.'-(Shepherd.)

"Beauties of England and Wales,' vol. v, p. 486, and the authorities there cited.

30.-KING CHARLES I, MARTYR.'

*30. 1661.-SOLEMN FAST.

This, says Mr. Evelyn, in his Memoirs,' (vol, i, p. 330) was the first solemn fast and day of humiliation to deplore ye sinns which so long had provoked God against this afflicted church and people, ordered by Parliament to be annually celebrated to expiate the guilt of y' execrable murder of the late King.

"This day (O the stupendious and inscrutable judgments of God!) were the carcasses of those arch rebells Cromwell, Bradshaw the Judge who condemned his Majestie, and Ireton, sonn-in-law to ye Usurper, dragg'd out of their superb tombs in Westminster among the Kings, to Tyburne, and hanged on the gallows there from 9 in ye morning till 6 at night, and then buried under that fatal and ignominious monument in a deepe pitt; thousands of people who had seene them in all their pride being spectators. Looke back at Nov. 22, 1658, [Oliver's funeral,] and be astonished! and feare God and honor ye King; but meddle not with them who are given to change!'

*JAN. 1815.-GOTTFRIED MIND DIed.

This artist resided at Berne in Switzerland, and was so notorious for his extraordinary delineations of Bears and Cats, that he obtained the name of the Cat's Raphael. Mind, it is said, was worthy of this epithet, not only on account of the correctness of his drawings of those animals, but more especially for the life and spirit which he transfused into them in his pictures. His affection for the feline race

'For an account of the character and manners of King Charles, we refer to T. T. for 1815, p. 16, and our last vol. p. 12-13; some particulars of his trial will be found in T. T. for 1815, p. 18, and in the subsequent volume, p. 6. See also T. T. for 1814, p. 8, for a description of the finding of the king's body in St. George's Chapel, Windsor.

might be termed fraternal. When he was at work, a favourite cat generally sat by his side; and he was often seen employed at his table with an old cat on his lap, and two or three kittens on both shoulders, or even in the hollow formed at the back of his neck by the inclination of his head. Thus encumbered, he would sit for hours together at his work, and abstain from every motion that could in the least incommode his beloved favourites.

In winter evenings, Mind used to amuse himself with carving bears, cats, and other animals in miniature, out of chesnut-wood, with such accuracy and skill that they had a rapid sale, and were bought up by many people as ornaments for their chimney pieces. It is to be regretted that insects attacked the wood, and soon destroyed these pretty little figures.

Mind passed many of his happiest hours at the Bears' Den, in Berne, where, from remote antiquity, two live bears have been continually kept. No sooner did Friedli (for by that name he was known at Berne) make his appearance, than the bears hastened to him with a friendly kind of growl, and were invariably rewarded with a piece of bread, or an apple, from the pocket of their benefactor and friend. Lugete, O feles, ursique lugete,

Mortuus est vobis amicus.

Mourn, all ye Cats! Ye Bears, in sorrow bend,
For Death has robbed you of your dearest friend.

Astronomical Occurrences

In JANUARY 1820.

Obliquity of the Ecliptic.

HAVING, in the preceding volumes of Time's Telescope, explained the nature and variation of this obliquity, we must refer the youthful reader to

C

these for information on the subject, and, in this place, merely state the magnitude of the ecliptic angle at various epochs during the present year; which are contained in the following

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The equation of the equinoctial points at the same epochs of the present year are also as follow: viz.

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The Sun enters Aquarius at 28 m. after 1 in the morning of the 21st of this month. The following table will also shew the time of his rising and setting at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, on certain days during the same period; and the times for any intermediate days may be readily found by simple proportion, in the manner already explained.

TABLE

Of the Sun's Rising and Setting for every fifth

Day.

January 1, Sun rises 5 m. after 8. Sets 55 m. after 3

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