ain, of the rainy saint, St. Swithin, we are reminded that:--

"Against St. Swithin's hastie showers,
The lily white reigns queen of the flowers"--

A festival around which so much curious lore has clustered.

In former years St. Margaret's Day (July 20) was celebrated with many
curious ceremonies, and, according to a well-known couplet in allusion
to the emblem of the vanquished dragon, which appears in most pictures
of St. Margaret:--

"Poppies a sanguine mantle spread
For the blood of the dragon that Margaret shed."

Archdeacon Hare says the Sweet-William, designated the "painted lady,"
was dedicated to Saint William (June 25), the term "sweet" being a
substitution for "saint." This seems doubtful, and some would corrupt
the word "sweet" from the French _oeillet_, corrupted to Willy, and
thence to William. Mr. King, however, considers that the small red pink
(_Dianthus prolifer_), found wild in the neighbourhood of Rochester, "is
perhaps the original Saint Sweet-William," for, he adds, the word
"saint" has only been dropped since days which saw the demolition of St.
William's shrine in the cathedral. This is but a conjecture, it being
uncertain whether the masses of bright flowers which form one of the
chief attractions of old-fashioned gardens commemorate St. William of
Rochester, St. William of York, or, likeliest perhaps of the three, St.
William of Aquitaine, the half soldier, half monk, whose fame was so
widely spread throughout the south of Europe.

Roses were said to fade on St. Mary Magdalene's Day (July 20), to whom
we find numerous flowers dedicated, such as the maudlin, a nickname of
the costmary, either in allusion to her love of scented ointment, or to
its use in uterine affections, over which she presided as the patroness
of unchaste women, and maudlin-wort, another name for the moon-daisy.
But, as Dr. Prior remarks, it should, "be observed that the monks in the
Middle Ages mixed up with the story of the Magdalene that of another St.
Mary, whose early life was passed in a course of debauchery."

A German piece of folk-lore tells us that it is dangerous to climb a
cherry-tree on St. James's Night, as the chance of breaking one's neck
will be great, this day being held unlucky. On this day is kept St.
Christopher's anniversary, after whom the herb-christopher is named, a
species of aconite, according to Gerarde. But, as Dr. Prior adds, the
name is applied to many plants which have no qualit