Their whistle shrill, and oft their faithful dog ENGLISH GARDEN, The farmer usually finishes his ploughing this month. Cattle and horses are taken into the farmyard; sheep are sent to the turnip-field; ant-hills are destroyed; and bees are put under shelter. Now serveth the season to sowe wheate and rie, Then tart receipts make thee. You Misrulde Lordes make no delay But whosoever keepes the key, Have care yourselves to gard the bore. -- DESCRIPTION OF FRUIT TREES. WALNUT-TREE (juglans regia). — The walnuttree is originally a native of Persia, and attains, in this country, the height of from fifty to sixty feet; having a beautiful erect trunk, that branches out into a large spreading crown, which is furnished with pinnated leaves. There are numerous varieties, generally raised for their palatable fruit, which ripens from the beginning of September till the end of October. The fruit of the walnut-tree is used at two different periods of its growth, when green for pickling, and in a ripe state at the dessert. For the former purpose, the nuts are fit in July or August, when they are about half or three-fourths grown. Wal f nuts are ripe in the months of September and Octeber, when they are usually beaten down by means of long poles. No place of equal extent is supposed to possess so many valuable walnut-trees, as Norbury Park in Surrey, which, about a century ago, was said to contain nearly forty thousand. It is remarked as a proof of the uncertainty of their produce, that, in some years, six hundred pounds worth of walnuts have been gathered from the trees in this park, whereas, in others, they have yielded scarcely a single bushel. Croydon fair is remarkable for its profusion of walauts. The walnut-tree flourishes both in a rich as well as a chalky soil, and, when planted in rows, has a very respectable sppearance. The fruit, when fresh, is very grateful; it contains much oil. The juice of the green coat of the walnut will dye the skin of a tawny hue; an expedient resorted to by the gipsies, not only to give themselves a dingy appearance, but to disguise any child whom they may have enticed from its parents. The wood was formerly much used for furniture, as the bureaus and bedsteads of our grandfathers sufficiently attest: its place is now supplied by foreign articles. DECEMBER. DECEMBER was called winter-monat by the Saxons, but after they were converted to Christianity it received the name of heligh-monat, or holy month. Remarkable Days In DECEMBER 1819. *2. 1697.-ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL OPENED, Although the building was not finished till 1710. The cost was estimated at £1,000,000. St. Paul's C c was first built on the foundation of an old temple of Diana, in 610; burnt 964; rebuilt 1240, having been 150 years building; the steeple fired by lightning 1443; rebuilt, having been in great part burnt down, 1631; totally destroyed by fire, 1666; and the first stone of the present structure laid in 1675. 6.-ST. NICHOLAS. Nicholas was Bishop of Myra, in Lycia, and died about the year 392. He was of so charitable a disposition, that he portioned three young women, who were reduced in circumstances, by secretly conveying a sum of money into their father's house. Milner, in his History of Winchester, describes a curious font preserved in the cathedral of Winchester, and applies the carvings on it to the life and miracles of this saint. The annual ceremony of the boy-bishop, once observed on this day, is described at length in T.T. for 1814, p. 306. *6. 1718. NICHOLAS ROWe died, æt. 44, One of our best dramatic writers after Shakspeare. His tragedies are frequently composed in a strain of religion and piety, which gives them a species of sanctity not always attaching to those more serious efforts of the muse. 8.-CONCEPTION OF THE VIRGIN MARY. This festival was instituted by Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, because William the Conqueror's fleet, being in a storm, afterwards came safe to shore. The council of Oxford, however, held in 1222, permitted every one to use his discretion in keeping it. *11, 1732.-JOHN GAY DIED. Life is a jest, and all things show it; I thought so once, but now I know it. It was Gay's last request to Mr. Pope, that these words should be inscribed on his tomb: a remarkable proof, connected with his frequent melancholy and dejection, that no success, either as a poet, a dramatic writer, or a man of the world (and Gay was emi nently successful in each of those characters), could either insure his happiness, or divest him of one galling recollection-that he was not in favour at court! though, in truth, his own spleen at a fancied slight received from royalty, had produced his disgrace in that quarter. Oh!' says he, that I had never known what a court was! Dear Pope, what a barren soil (to me so) have I been striving to make some thing out of!****It is my hard fate, I must get nothing, write for them or against them.' Not all the noble additions to his fame, his fortune, and his friendships, procured him by the unrivalled eclat of the Beggar's Opera,' could temper his mortification at the rejection of his Wife of Bath;' and the success of the Boggar's Opera' itself was far from commensurate to the disappointment he experienced on finding that his satire had failed of awing the court into a disposition to take him into favour, in order to keep so powerful a pen in good humour, as he had anticipated. *12. 1757.-cOLLEY CIBBER DIED, ÆT. 86, Well known as a manager, an actor, and a dramatic writer. We are most indebted to him for finishing Vanburgh's Journey to London,' under the title of The Provoked Husband.'-See March 26. "1. 1014 MOWHEE DIED. This interesting youth was a d of New-Zealand, who, from an acquaintance with sionaries sent thither from this country, became a convert to Christianity; and, subsequently, having entered himself a common sailor on board the Jefferson whaler, arrived in London during the spring of 1816. He was immediately taken care of by the Church Missionary Society; and great expectations were formed of his usefulness in a mission with which he was about to be entrusted, when he died of a malignant putrid fever, at Paddington. A funeral sermon was preached by the Rev. Basil Wood, of that place, out of respect to his memory, on the 12th of January, 1817. 13.-SAINT LUCY. This virgin martyr was born at Syracuse. She refused to marry a young man who paid his addresses to her, because she had determined to devote herself to religion, and, to prevent his importunities, gave her whole fortune to the poor. The youth, enraged at this denial, accused her before Paschasius, the heathen judge, of professing Christianity; and Lucy, after much cruel treatment, fell a martyr to his revenge, in the year 305. *13. 1769.-C. T. GELLERT DIED. The amiable' Gellert is best known in England by his interesting Letters.' In his own country, among the many flattering instances of public approbation which his works in general, and his Tales and Fables' more particularly, produced, Gellert was chiefly pleased with that of a Saxon peasant. One day, about the beginning of winter, he saw a man drive up to his door a cart loaded with firewood. Observing Gellert, he asked him whether he was the gentleman who wrote such fine tales. Being answered in the affirmative, he begged pardon for the liberty he took, and left the contents of his cart being the most valuable present - uu make. a man of the easiest and most conGellert ating manners; pleasing even to strangers; and of a disposition to form and preserve the most valuable friendships. He was open and enthusiastic in his attachments, ready at all times to give his counsel, labour, and money, to serve his friends. In himself, of a timid and hypochondriac habit, and disposed to criticise both his own character and works with a severity of which his friends could not acknowledge the justice. He had a constitutional fear of death, which, notwithstanding, receded as the hour of trial approached; so that he died with calmness and |