CHRONOLOGY. 720, B. c. the first eclipse of the moon on record happened on this day. 1355, Pressing for seamen to man the navy commenced. 1668, Sir John Denham, poet, died in London; he was born in Dublin, 1615. 1719, A surprising meteor was seen about eight o'clock in the evening, from all parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland. To an observer in St. Paul's churchyard, it appeared a ball of fire as large as the moon, of a pale bluish light, and with little motion, till in a moment it assumed the shape of a common meteor with a stream of light, double the diameter of its first appearance, emitting a splendour by which the smallest print might have been read. Its duration was not above half a minute, and its greatest light about the tenth part of a minute. At Exeter its light exceeded that of the sun at noonday, and there it seemed to break like a skyrocket, into sparks of red fire, which reflected that colour on the houses, and shortly after a report, loud as cannon, shook the windows, succeeded at the interval of a minute by about thirty others; they sounded just as the tower guns did in Mincing-lane, but shook the houses and windows much more." Mr. Whiston " calculated the greatest height of this extraordinary meteor to have been fortythree or fifty-one statute miles: it gradually descended lower till it came to De vonshire, where it was about thirty-nine miles high, and broke over the sea, near the coast of Brittany; its altitude then being about thirty miles.* CHRONOLOGY. 1727, Sir Isaac Newton died; he was born December 25th, 1742. 1751, Frederick, prince of Wales, father of king George III. died aged 44. 1793, Died William Murray, earl of Mansfield. He was born on the 2d of March, 1705, and during thirty years, and until his death, presided as lord chief justice of the court of King's Bench. He was eminent as a lawyer, and dignified as a judge. It is said that he altered the common law of England, by engrafting upon it the civil law in his decisions. As an elegant scholar,of highly cultivated, and vigorous intellect, he shone in the constellation of great men, which arose in the reign of queen Anne. In eloquence and beauty of diction, he outrivalled his predecessors, and has not been excelled by any successor in the high office he filled. 1811, Napoleon, son of the late emperor of France, by the empress Maria Louisa, was born, and received the title of king of Rome. On the 20th of March, the sun enters the constellation T Aries, or the Ram, which is the first zodiacal sign; and this day is the first day of Spring. By an accident, the remarks relating to SPRING were inserted under MARCH 6, instead of this day and as the error is thus particularly noticed, in order as far as possible to rectify it, the reader will please to consider all that has been said Whiston's Account of a Meteor, 8vo. 1719. VERNAL EQUINOX. Aries. The remarks on the Vernal Equinox, immediately following, are communicated by a respected scientific friend to the editor. This is a day of great consequence in the year, and one that must excite many associations in the mind of the astronomer, and of every one who entertains a due reverence for our sacred records. The sun on this day passes the imaginary line in the heavens, called the equator, or equinoctial; it being the middle circle equally distant in every part from the north or the south poles. The line is passed to an observer on Greenwich hill, at ten minutes past nine in the morning; and, consequently, when it is on the meridian, or its highest point at noon, it will appear to every observer in the united kingdom at some distance from the equator. It is commonly said, that at this time the day is equal to the night all the world over; but this is a vulgar error. The day is not equal to the night in this country; that is, the sun appears for more than twelve hours above the horizon, and, consequently, a less time than twelve hours elapses before it shines again to us in the morning. Besides, the fallacy of this common saying is perceived at once by any one who considers, that the inhabitant of the north pole, if there is any inhabitant there, has already seen for some days the sun above his horizon, and it will not set to him for above six months. The day then is not equal to the night, either in the unitedkingdom, or at the north pole. We will leave to the astronomer to determine at what part of the earth this circumstance really takes place; in the investigation of the problem he may encounter some difficulties, of which at present he is probably not aware. The sun crosses the equinoctial line at ten minutes past nine; it was therefore at its rising south of that line, and at its setting it will be north of that line. The line it marks out in the heavens is an arc of a spiral; but had it risen and set in the equinoctial line, the arc would have been circular. To leave, however, the circumstances peculiarly relative to astronomy, let us consider this day in another point of view. The sun and the moon are the regulators of days, and months, and years, and times, and seasons. Every nation in the world pays some regard to their motions; and in this country they are the subjects of legislative enactments-enactments which have been laughed at by our makers of almanacks; disregarded by the church, though sanctioned in its rubricks; and set at naught by courts of justice, whose openings at certain periods depend on prescribed appearances in the heavens. Of this, hereafter, sufficient proof will be given; and, in thus noticing the errors of past times, there is a chance, that a statute of importance, certainly, as it has been thought worthy of legislation, should not be hereafter violated without the interposition of the legislature. Our ancestors began their year about this time, and not without reason; for they had for it the sanction of a divine command. To the Israelites it was commanded, that this should be the beginning of their sacred year, on which the great festivals prescribed by their law should depend. Their civil year begins in September, and they continue to observe the command, having an almanack founded on the complicated motions of the sun and moon, whose calculations are of a very subtle nature, and whose accuracy far exceeds that of the polished nations of Europe. That the year should begin either at the vernal or the spring equinox, or at the autumnal equinox, good reasons may be given; but for our taking the first of January for the commencement of the year, nothing more can be said, than the old theme, Sic volo, sic jubeo, stet pro ratione voluntas. -Such is my will, the sun and moon may move as they please. Except for the refraction of the atmosphere, the inhabitants of the equator would have at all times twelve hours day and twelve hours night; the sun being north or south of this circle not causing any difference, for the equator and ecliptic being both great circles of the sphere, the two points of intersection must be in the same diameter. By the almanack it will be found, that there are nearly eight days more in the interval between the vernal and the autumnal equinox, than between the latter and the return of the vernal equinox. No. 13. As, therefore, from the vernal to the autumnal equinox, the sun is on the northern side of the equator, our summer occurring during this period, gives us an advantage of nearly eight days, in this respect, over the southern hemisphere. This difference arises from the oval or elliptical form of the earth's orbit. The earth, therefore, being at different distances from the sun during the year, it is found to move with different velocities; moving slowest when furthest from the sun, and quickest when nearest to that luminary. It happens to be at its greatest distance just after our Midsummer, and moving consequently slower during our spring and summer months; our summer is about eight days longer than that of the southern hemisphere, our winter eight days shorter than theirs. 4 Care Sunday. Care Sunday; care away, Shrove Tuesday, consequently it is the Care Sunday is the fifth Sunday from the second Sunday before Easter. Why next Sunday before Palm Sunday, and it is denominated Care Sunday is very uncertain. It is also called Carle Sunday, and in some parts Carling Sunday. A native of Newcastle-upon-Tyne* observes, that in that town, and many other places in the north of England, peas after having been steeped a night in water, are fried with butter, given away, eaten at a kind of entertainment on Carle Sunday, and are called Carlings, "probably as we call the presents at fairs, fairings." To this he attaches a query, whether Carlen termination in en, as hosen, &c." The may not be formed from the old plural only attempt at a derivation of the word Care, is, that "the Friday on which Mr. Brand. 66 a Christ was crucified, is called in German both Gute Freytag and Carr Freytag;" and that the word karr signified a satisfaction for a fine, or penalty. The inference is corroborated, by the church of Rome anciently using rites on this day peculiar to Good Friday, whence it was also called Passion Sunday. It is noted in an old calendar, that on this day dole is made of soft beans," which was also "a rite in the funeral ceremonies of heathen Rome." This "dole" of soft beans on Care Sunday, accounts for the present custom of eating fried peas on the same day. No doubt the beans were a very seasonable alms to help out the poor man's lent stock of provision. "In Northumberland the day is called Carling Sunday. The yeomanry in general steep peas, and afterwards parch them, and eat them on the afternoon of that day, calling them carlings. This is said by an old author, to have taken its rise from the disciples plucking the ears of corn, and tubbing them in their hands."+ Hence it is clear, that the custom of eating peas or beans upon this day, is only a continuation of the unrecollected "dole" of the Romish church. It is possible, however, that there may have been no connection between the heathen funeral rite of giving beans, and the church donation, if the latter was given in mere charity; for there was little else to bestow at such a time of the year, when dried pulse, variously cooked, must have been almost the only winter meal with the labourer, and a frequent one with his employer. The couplet at the head of this article Mr. Nichols says he heard in Nottinghamshire. There is another, Tid, Mid. Misera, Carling, Palm, Paste Egg day. The first line is supposed to have been formed from the beginning of Psalms, &c. viz. Te deum-Mi deus-Miserere mei.‡ But how is it that Care Sunday is also called Carl Sunday and Carling Sunday; and that the peas, or beans, of the day are called carlings? Carle, which now means a churl, or rude boorish fellow, was anciently the term for a working countryman or labourer; and it is only altered in the spelling, without the slightest deviation in sense, from the old Saxon word ceorl, the name for a husbandman. The older denomination of the day, then, may not have been Cure but Carl Sunday, from the benefactions to the carles or carlen. These are still the northern names for the day; and the dialect in that part of the kingdom is nearer to Saxon etymology. But whether the day were called Carle or Care Sunday it is now little known, and little more can be said about it, withoutthe reader feeling inclined to say or sing, 'Begone dull Care."! FLORAL DIRECTORY. Dog's Violet. Viola Canina. Dedicated to St. Wulfran. March 21. St. Benedict, or Bennet, Abbot, a. D. 543. St. Serapion, called the Sindonite, A. D. 388. St. Serapion, Abbot. St. Serapion, Bishop, 4th Age. St. Enna, or Endeus, Abbot, 6th Cent. ST. BENEDICT, or BENNET, Founder of the order of St. Benedict. The accounts of distinguished persons of the Romish church written by its ecclesiastics are exceedingly curious. The rev. Alban Butler states of St. Bene dict, that he was born in Umbria about 480, sent to school at Rome, and afterwards being determined to leave the world, "therefore left the city privately, and made the best of his way to the deserts." Here he remained secreted at a place called Sublacum, till a "certain pious priest," whilst preparing a dinner on easter-day, heard a voice say to him, you are preparing for yourself a banquet whilst my servant Benedict at Sublacum is distressed with hunger." Then the priest found out Benedict, and invited him to eat, "saying it was Easter-day, on which it was not reasonable to fast." Bennet answered, he did not know it; and Alban Butler says, "nor is it to be wondered at that he should not understand the Lunar cycle, which at that time was known by very few." Soon after, some shepherds found him near his cave, and "took him for a wild beast; for he was clad with the skins of beasts, and they imagined no human creature could live *Brand's Pop. Antiq. from Marshal on the Saxon among those rocks." From that time he Gospels. + Gentleman's Magazine, 1786. Brand's Pop. Antiquities. began to be known and visited, and the devil came to him " in the shape of a little blackbird." After this, Benedict rolled himself in briars and nettles, till he was covered with blood; and his fame spreading still more abroad, several forsook the world to live with him; and he became an abbot, and built twelve monasteries. In one of these, a monk becoming slothful, St. Benedict said, "I will go and correct him myself;" and Butler says, "such indeed was the danger and enormity of this fault, as to require the most speedy and effectual remedy;" wherefore St. Benedict coming to the lazy monk "at the end of the divine office,saw a little black boy leading him by the sleeve out of the church," and applied the "speedy and effectual remedy" to the monk's shoulders,in the shape of a cudgel; and so "the sinner was freed from the temptation" of the little black boy, who was the devil. Then by Benedict's prayers a fountain sprung up; and a monk cleaving wood with a hedging bill, and the iron falling into the water, by holding the wooden handle in the water, the iron miraculously swam up to it of its own accord. Such growing fame brought to Benedict "many who came clad in purple with gold and precious stones." "He seemed,” says Alban Butler, "indued with an extraordinary power,commanding all nature, and foreseeing future events; he baffled the various artifices of the devil, with the sign of the cross; rendered the heaviest stone light; by a short prayer raised to life a novice who had been crushed by the fall of a wall;" and after other wonders died, about the year 543, aged 63.* Pope St. Gregory, of whom some account is given on his festival, (see MARCH 12,) wrote the life and miracles of St. Benedict.† This work of many chapters relates how Benedict dispossessed a certain clerk of the devil; how he miraculously discovered the hiding of a flagon of wine; how in a scarcity two hundred bushels of meal were miraculously brought to his monastery; how a boy marvellously cast out of his grave, was miraculously kept in it by St. Benedict putting the host on his body; how a glass bottle cast down on the stones was not broken; how an empty tun was filled with oil by his prayers; how he gave another monk a slap in the face and drove *Alban Butler, the English biographer of St. Benedict, and the rest of the saints, died in May, 1773, aged 63. + Pope St. Gregory's labour is translated under the title of "The Life and Miracles of our Holie Father St. Benedict-Permissu Superiorum. Printed an 1628," 18mo, the devil out of him; how he saw the sout of his sister in form of a dove; how he foretold his own death; how he performed miracles too many to be here related; all which, however, may be seen in the said life of St. Benedict, by the said pope St. Gregory, who it will be remembered is called by way of distinction St. Gregory the Great. St. Benedict founded the order of monks under his name. A reader who desires to be acquainted with its rules may consult Mr. Fosbroke's "British Monachism," who remarks, that monkery is an institution founded upon the first principles of religious virtue, wrongly understood and wrongly directed. He then proceeds to remark, that "If man be endowed with various qualities, in order to be severely punished for using them, God is made the tempter of vice, and his works foolish. If voluntary confinement, vegetable eating, perpetual praying, wearing coarse clothing, and mere automatical action through respiration, be the standard of excellence, then the best man is only a barrel organ set to psalm-tunes." CHRONOLOGY. 1556. Thomas Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, was burnt for heresy at Oxford, between Baliol college and St. Mary's church. 66 of A correspondent, LECTOR,Communicates that there is against the south wall of Camberwell church, an inscription commemorative of "Bartholomew Scott, esq. justice of peace in the county Surrey," in which he is said to have mar ried Margaret, the widow of the right reverend prelate and martyr Thomas Cranmer, archbishop of Canterburie." Strype, (Life, p. 418. b. iii. ch. xxviii.) says, that the name of Cranmer's last wife was Ann; and that she survived him, was living towards the latter end of archbishop Parker's time, and "for her subsistence enjoyed an abbey in Nottinghamshire." He does not seem very sanguine on this head, but gives the passage on authority of "a very angry book, writ against the execution of justice in England by cardinall Allen." Fox, in his "Actes and Monumentes," says, that Cranmer's wife was "a Dutchewoman, kynne to the wyfe of Osiander ;" and that Cranmer having "sold hys plate, and payed all his debts, so that no man could ask him a grote," left his wife and children unprovided. The marriage of “ Bartholo |