*

WEATHER RULES.

(Vol. viii., pp. 50. 535.)

_St. Vincent's Day, Jan. 22._--In Brand's _Popular Antiquities_, Bohn's
edition, vol. i. p. 38., is to be found the following notice of this day:

"Mr. Douce's manuscript notes say: 'Vincenti festo si Sol radiet, memor
esto;' thus Englished by Abraham Fleming:

'Remember on St Vincent's Day,
If that the Sun his beams display.'

"[Dr. Foster is at a loss to account for the origin of this command,
&c.]"

It is probable that the concluding part of the precept has been lost; but a
curious old manuscript, which fell into my hands some years since, seems to
supply the deficiency. The manuscript in question is a sort of household
book, kept by a family of small landed proprietors in the island of
Guernsey between the years 1505 and 1569. It contains memoranda, copies of
wills, settlements of accounts, recipes, scraps of songs and parts of hymns
and prayers; some Romanist, some Anglican, some of the Reformed Church in
France. Among the scraps of poetry I find the following rhymes on St.
Vincent's Day; the first three lines of which are evidently a translation
of the Latin verse above quoted, the last containing the to be remembered:

"Prens garde au jour St. Vincent,
Car sy ce jour tu vois et sent
Que le soleil soiet cler et biau,
Nous erons du vin plus que d'eau."

These lines follow immediately after the rhymed prognostications to be
drawn from the state of the weather on St. Paul's Day, Jan. 28. As these
{308} verses differ from those quoted in Brand, from an _Almanack_ printed
at Basle in 1672, I here give the Guernsey copy:

"Je te donneray ugne doctryne
Qui te vauldra d'or ugne myne;
Et sordement sur moy te fonde,
Car je dure autant que ce monde:
Et sy te veulx byen advertir
Et que je ne veulx point mentir.
De mortaylle guerre ou chertey,
[A line appears to be lost here]
Si le jour St. Paul le convers
Se trouve byaucob descouvert,
L'on aura pour celle sayson
Du bled et du foyn a foyson;
Et sy se jour fait vant sur terre,
Ce nous synyfye guerre;
S'yl pleut ou nege sans fallir
Le chier tans nous doet asalir;
Si de nyelle faict, brunes ou brouillars,
Selon le dyt de nos vyellars,
Mortalitey nous est ouverte."

Another line appears to be omitted here; then follow immediately the lines
on St. Vincent's Day.

EDGAR MACCULLOCH.

Guernsey.

The following is copied from an old man