laughter for the young folks of the company, who are privileged, on this occasion, to exercise their risible faculties without let or hindrance. The wine passes gaily round; the enlivening song is heard, and shouts of joy burst from the assembled company; altogether forming a picture which strikingly reminds us of the ancient Saturnalia, particularly if we recollect that the servants partake of the hilarities of the evening, and may be kings as well as their masters.

At the end of the year 1792, the Council-General of the French Commons passed an Arrêt, in consequence of which La Fête des Rois' (Twelfth Day) was thenceforth to be called La Fête des Sans-Culottes,' it being considered an anti-civic feast which made every priest that kept it a Royalist!

7.-PLOUGH MONDAY.

This is always the Monday following the Epiphany. For an account of some curious ceremonies on this day, see T.T. for 1822, p. 9.

8.-SAINT LUCIAN.

He was presbyter of the church at Antioch, and, as some affirm, a disciple of St. Peter. He flourished about A.D. 80, and founded a church at Winchester.

*9. 1827.-ELIZ. O. BENGER DIED.

Early in her literary carcer, Miss Benger was induced to fix her hopes of fame upon the drama, for which her genius appeared in many respects peculiarly adapted; but after ample experience of the anxieties, delays, and disappointments, which, in this age, sicken the heart of almost every candidate for celebrity in this department, she tried her powers in other attempts, and produced first, her poem on the Abolition of the Slave Trade, and, afterwards, two novels published anonymously. These productions had great merit, but wanted something of regular and finished excellence; and her success was not decided till she embarked in biography, and produced,

in succession, her Memoirs of Mrs. Elizabeth Hamilton, Memoirs of John Tobin, and Notices of Klopstock and his Friends, prefixed to a translation of their Letters from the German; and finally rising to the department of history, her Life of Anne Boleyn, and Memoirs of Mary Queen of Scots, and of the Queen of Bohemia. All these works attained deserved popularity; and she would probably have added to her reputation by the Memoirs of Henry IV of France, had longer life been lent her for their completion.

*10. 1827.--JOHN JONES, LL.D. died;

Author of a valuable Greek and English Lexicon,' and several other learned and critical works.

13.-SAINT HILARY,

A pious Father of the Christian church, a native, and afterwards bishop of Poictiers, where he died in the year 367.

18. SAINT PRISCA.

She was a Roman virgin, and put to death by order of the Emperor Claudius, A.D. 47.

*18.-SAINT ANTHONY.

Most of our readers have heard of St. Anthony and his pigs, and the way in which they were fed. In an order of the Police of the town of Bonneval (in France) of the 3d August 1581, made during the time of the plague, 'It is commanded that no inhabitant shall suffer his hogs to run about the streets, except when they are going to, or returning from the fields, and, at all other times, shall keep them shut up; and it is permitted to every person, who shall find them wandering about the said town, except at the said hours, to kill the same, the two hogs which are kept by the Company of St. Anthony being always excepted out of the said order.'-For an account of some absurd, but amusing legends respecting St. Anthony, still current in Portugal, see our last volume, pp. 7-10.

20.-SAINT FABIAN

Was the nineteenth Bishop of Rome. He was chosen to that office in the year 241, and, after being bishop thirteen years, suffered martyrdom in the Decian persecution.

21.-SAINT AGNES.

This beautiful girl was beheaded at the early age of thirteen, by order of Dioclesian. For an account of the superstitions on the Eve of St. Agnes, see our former volumes.

22.-SAINT VINCENT Suffered martyrdom under the Dioclesian persecution, A.D. 304.

25.-CONVERSION OF SAINT PAUL.

This festival was not adopted in the ritual of the Church of England till the year 1662.-Whoever wishes to become acquainted with the character of this apostle, should read Mrs. H. More's Essay on the Character and Practical Writings of St. Paul,' which, for depth of observation, practical instruction, and beauty of style, is, perhaps, superior to any other publication upon the subject.

*25. 1827.-REV. JOHN EVANS, LL.D. DIED ;

Author of A Sketch of the Denominations of the Christian Religion,' of which more than 100,000 copies have been circulated; a Sequel' to the same; and of many other useful and interesting works eminently adapted to form the taste and improve the morals of youth.

*27. 1567.-LADY CATHERINE HERTFORD DIED.

A heart-stirring narrative of the untoward fortunes of the sister of Lady Jane Grey and her husband will be found in the Second Series of Mr. Ellis's Original Letters, (vol. ii, pp. 272-290.) The account of her last moments, or the manner of her departing' (as it is termed in the Harleian MS.) is singularly affecting, and must excite universal sympathy.

*29. 1820.-KING GEORGE III DIED, ÆT. 81. In Mr. Ellis's prefatory remarks on his very interesting Series of Letters illustrative of the reign of George III, he justly observes, In any retrospect which future times may make, the reign of George the Third will be found as instructive to the philosopher as the historian. In duration it extended to the full limit of an ordinary life; in greatness of events it had no parallel in the ages which went immediately before it. It was marked by the loss of a vast empire upon the Western continent, and by the acquisition of sixty millions of subjects upon the Eastern side of the globe; by the dawn of restoration to the Arts; by the most important discoveries in every science; by the greatest naval, and the greatest military glory. Nor must it be forgotten that George the Third released the Judges of the land from dependence upon himself. Some of the Letters,' continues Mr. E. ' will be found of no ordinary import. None are probably of higher interest than those which depict the conduct of the Sovereign himself amid trials. The integrity of his mind, his powers of persuasion, the kindness of his heart, his decision, and his magnanimity, are every where apparent.'-See the Second Series of Mr. Ellis's Original Letters, vol. iv. particularly pp. 467-472.

29. 1820-King George THE FOURTH'S

ACCESSION.

30.-KING CHARLES I, MARTYR.

Among the Tracts relating to the Civil War which were given to the British Museum, by his late Majesty K. George III, in 1762, there are three which relate to the man who actually beheaded King Charles, and who after all, notwithstanding the various persons to whom this horrid deed was attributed, was, most probably, the common executioner.

The first Tract is intitled The Confession of Richard Brandon the hangman (upon his death-bed) concerning his beheading his

B

Jate Majesty. Printed in the year of the hang-man's downfall, 1649.' The second is intitled The Last Will and Testament of Richard Brandon,' printed in the same year. The third is 6 A Dialogue or Dispute between the late hangman' (the same person) and Death,' in verse, without date. All three are in quarto. The following are the most important paragraphs of the first Tract:

The Confession of the Hangman concerning His beheading his late Majesty the King of Great Brittain (upon his Deathbed), who was buried on Thursday last, in White Chappell Church-yard, with the manner thereof.

Upon Wednesday last (being the 20th of this instant June, 1649,) Richard Brandon, the late Executioner and Hang-man, who beheaded his late Majesty, King of Great Britain, departed this life; but during the time of his sicknesse, his conscience was much troubled, and exceedingly perplexed in mind, yet little shew of repentance for remission of his sins and by-past transgressions, which had so much power and influence upon him, that he scemed to live in them, and they in him. And on Sunday last, a young man of his acquaintance going in to visit him, fell into discourse, asked him how he did, and whether he was not troubled in conscience for cutting off the King's head. He replyed, yes! by reason that (upon the time of his tryall, and at the denouncing of Sentence against him) he had taken a vow and protestation, wishing God to perish him body and soul, if ever he appeared on the Scaffold to do the act or lift up his hand against him. He likewise confessed that he had thirty pounds for his pains, all paid him in half-crowns within an hour after the blow was given; and that he had an Orange stuck full of Cloves, and a handkircher out of the King's pocket, so soon as he was carryed off from the Scaffold, for which Orange he was profferd twenty shillings by a gentleman in White-hall, but refused the same; and afterwards sold it for ten shillings in Rosemary Lane. About six of the clock at night, he returned home to his wife living in Rosemary Lane, and gave her the money, saying, that it was the deerest money that ever he earn'd in his life, for it would cost him his life. Which prophetical words were soon made manifest, for it appeared, that ever since he hath been in a most sad condition, and upon the Almighties first scourging of him with the rod of sicknesse, and the friendly admonition of divers friends for the calling of him to repentance, yet he persisted on in his vicious vices, and would not hearken thereunto, but lay raging and swearing, and still pointing at one thing or another, which he conceived to appear visible before him.

"About three days before he dy'd he lay speechlesse, uttering many a sigh and heavy groan, and so in a most desperate manner departed from his bed of sorrow. For the buriall whereof great store of Wines were sent in by the Sheriff of the City of London,