fine highly-flavoured pear on dwarfs and standards, and comes in after the St. Germain. It continues in eating from December till the end of March. The Swan's egg is a middle sized pear, shaped like an egg; it is of a green colour thinly covered with brown; the flesh is melting, and full of a pleasant musky juice. It is ripe in November. The tree is healthy and bears well, either as a standard, or in any other way. The pear called Bergamot de pasque is also called the Terling, the Amoselle, the Paddington, and the Tarquin. It is a fine handsome fruit, of a green colour when gathered, and of a yellowish or straw colour when ripe; it comes into eating about the month of April, continues till June, and makes a very handsome appearance at table. The Golden Beurré is a very fine pear, of a beautiful scarlet colour next the sun, and of a gold colour on the other side; the flesh is melting, and the juice highly-flavoured; it is a plentiful bearer, and will grow best in an eastern aspect and upon a loamy soil. The Lansac, or Dauphiny pear, is generally about the size of a Bergamot; of a roundish figure, flat towards the head; the skin is smooth and of a yellowish green colour; the flesh is yellow, tender, and melting; the juice is sugared and a little perfumed; the eye and flower are very large, and the stalk is long and straight. When this pear is upon a free stock, and planted on a good soil, it is one of the best fruits of the season; but when it is on a quince stock, or upon a very dry soil, the fruit will be small, stony, and worth little: it ripens at the end of November. There are many other sorts of pears which might be here mentioned, but those above described are the most worthy of notice, and, therefore, we shall only add the Saint Martial, which is sometimes called the Angelic pear. It is shaped like the Bonchrêtien, but is flatter at the crown, and not so large; the stalk is long; the skin smooth and yellowish, but turning purple next to the sun; the flesh

is tender and buttery, and the juice very sweet; it is in eating in February and March.

From the above description it will be easy for every person to select such sorts as will be agreeable to their palates; and the time at which they ripen being exhibited, it will be easy to know when to apply for each particular sort. The liquor called perry, which is made from pears, as cyder is from apples, by means of fermentation, is a wholesome beverage. The best pears for making it are those which are so excessively tart that even pigs will not eat them readily. The Bosbury, the Bareland, and the Horse pear are most esteemed in Worcestershire, and the Squash pear1 in Gloucestershire. In grinding, the pulp and rind of the pear, like that of the apple in cyder-making, should be perfectly reduced. The managing the liquor during the process of fermentation is nearly the same. The juices of both fruits contain the same component parts in different proportions. The liquor is fined by isinglass, but, if it can be refined without it, the best judges think it will retain more of its genuine flavour, which resembles wine. On the whole, the pear furnishes a less popular beverage than the apple, but the tree is capable of being grown on a greater variety of soil, and is more productive. The pear tree is a native of Europe, was familiar to the antients, and has long

The squash pear, so called from the tenderness of its pulp, has probably furnished England with more Champaigne than was ever imported into it.

Some cyders have by art or age unlearned
Their genuine relish, and of sundry vines
Assumed the flavour: one sort counterfeits
The Spanish product; this to Gauls has seemed
The sparkling nectar of Champaigne; with that
A German oft' has swilled his throat, and sworn,
Deluded, that imperial Rhine bestowed

The gen'rous rummer; whilst the owner, pleased,
Laughs inly at his guests thus entertained
With foreign vintage from his cider cask.

PHILIPS.

been a great favourite with the French. The wood is light, smooth, and compact; it is used by turners; also for joiners' tools, and for picture frames to be stained black. The leaves yield a yellow dye, and will give a green tinge to blue cloths.

AUGUST.

SEXTILIS was the antient Roman name of this month, being the sixth from March. The Emperor Augustus changed this name, and gave it his own, because in this month Cæsar Augustus took possession of his first consulship, celebrated three triumphs, reduced Egypt under the power of the Roman people, and put an end to all civil wars. The Saxons called August arn-monat (more rightly barn-monat), intending thereby the then filling of their barnes with

corne.'

Remarkable Days

In AUGUST 1819.

1.-LAMMAS DAY.

THIS day, in the Romish church, is generally called St. Peter in the Fetters, in commemoration of this apostle's imprisonment. It is probably derived from an old Saxon term, signifying Loaf-Mass; as it was customary for the Saxons to offer an oblation of loaves, made of new wheat, on this day, as the first-fruits of their new corn.

*4. 1808.-JOHN HOME DIEd, Æt. 82,

Author of the Tragedy of Douglas, a work of the highest merit, if we may judge from the circumstance, that it is the only tragedy since Addison's Cato which has become a stock-piece' upon the stage.

*5. 1786.-JONAS HANWAY DIED,

Well known for his various and extensive charities. A circumstance which gives him a peculiar claim to a place in a work treating of the seasons and

weather is, that to him we owe the introduction into Britain of that most useful article, the UMBRELLA. He had seen it, in his travels in Persia, used as a defence against the burning rays of the Sun, and, converting it into a protection from the rain, was generally mobbed as he walked on a wet day through the streets of London. Now the poorest cottager frequently can boast the possession of a convenience, at that time an object of universal curiosity and wonder-a lesson this, not to be deterred from the introduction or adoption of any thing really useful, by the idle laugh of the ignorant and thoughtless.

6. TRANSFIGURATION.

Though this day was observed in remembrance of our Lord's Transfiguration on the Mount, by the primitive Christians, yet it is but of recent date in the church of Rome; as it was not instituted by Pope Calixtus until the year 1455.

7.-NAME OF JESUS.

Before the Reformation, this day was dedicated to Afra, a woman who had been converted to Christianity by Narcissus, Bishop of Jerusalem, and who afterwards suffered martyrdom; and the breviary was recognized by Paul V. Afterwards Donatus, who became a martyr in the time of Julian for refusing to sacrifice, was substituted in her place. Our re formers devoted it to the NAME OF OUR BLESSED LORD.

10. SAINT LAWRENCE.

St. Lawrence was, by birth, a Spaniard, and treasurer of the church of Rome, being deacon to Pope Sextus, about the year 259. Soon afterwards, his bishop was killed by the soldiers of Valerian the emperor, with whom our saint would willingly have died. Lawrence refusing to deliver up the church treasure, which they imagined to be in his custody, he was laid upon a gridiron, and broiled over a fire. The celebrated palace of the Escurial is dedicated to

R

this saint. See this described in T.T. for 1814, p. 199.

12. 1762.-PRINCE REGENT BORN.

*12. 1817.-THOMAS SHERIDAN DIED, The only son of the celebrated Richard Brinsley Sheridan. He early entered the army, and Lord Moira, then commander-in-chief in Scotland, appointed him one of his aides-de-camp. Having contracted the habit of keeping bad hours, the noble Earl exposed the impropriety of such conduct in the following very gentle but most effectual way. In the capacity of aide-de-camp, the young man resided in the splendid mansion of his patron; and one evening his lordship purposely, sending all the servants to bed, sat up himself till four or five in the morning, when Mr. Sheridan, who happened to be the junior officer on his staff, returned in high spirits from a ball. He was not permitted to knock long, for his illustrious commander obeyed the first summons with the utmost promptitude, and, going down with a couple of candles, ceremoniously lighted the astonished subaltern to his bed-chamber!

15.-ASSUMPTION.

This is a festival in the Greek and Romish churches, in honour of the supposed miraculous ascension of the Virgin Mary into heaven.

*18. 1812.-WOODLAND CONVERTED INTO WATER.

After a long continued draught at Giessen, in the circle of the Upper Rhine, the following curious phenomena commenced upon this day. A piece of woody ground, comprising twelve English acres, suddenly sunk about five feet; on the 20th it fell two feet more; on the 24th it sunk another foot; and continued giving way almost imperceptibly, until, by the 4th of September, it had descended 15 feet. This frightful chasm remained near a week, and was visited by thousands. On the 12th, the surface of the land became marshy; since which water was ob