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The skipper gave him a dram as he lay,
And chafed his shivering skin;

And the angel returned that was flying away
With the spirit of Peter Fin.

SEPTEMBER.

SEPTEMBER derived its name from the place which it occupied in the Romulean calendar; it was the seventh. The sign Libra is appropriated to it.

Remarkable Days

In SEPTEMBER 1828.

1.-SAINT GILES.

GILES was born at Athens, but removed to France, and there died towards the end of the eighth century. On the Eve, and the day of the Fair of St. Gilles, established at Bonneval, on the 1st of September, 1260, the inhabitants were compelled to appear armed, in the great court of the Monastery of the Abbey of Saint Florentin of Bonneval, in consequence of the rights and privileges of the religious there: the officers of the house then made a census, or enumeration of the inhabitants, after which they left the monastery in due form, preceded by its officers. About six or seven o'clock in the evening, they went through the streets of the town, and into the field where the fair was held, to see that order was maintained, and that the hucksters were protected from insult and interruption, and their goods from pillage. The inhabitants making this search, or composing the Chevauchée, were also obliged, when the officers passed before their houses, to have fire and water at their doors, ignem et aquam ante domos exponebant.'-This custom existed also among the Romans, and was esteemed a public mark of hospitality.

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2.-LONDON BURNT.

The fire of London broke out on Sunday morning, September 2d, 1666, O.S.; and being impelled by strong winds, raged with irresistible fury nearly four days and nights: nor was it entirely mastered till the fifth morning after it began. See T.T. for 1816, p. 249; T.T. for 1820, p. 213; and T.T. for 1826, p.

217.

7.—SAINT EUNERCHUS.

Eunerchus was Bishop of Orleans in the year 375. The circumstances of his election were regarded as miraculous.

*7. 1736.-EXECUTION OF CAPTAIN PORteous.

The case of Captain Porteous was one of extraordinary interest at its time. As Captain Lieutenant of the City Guard of Edinburgh, he was charged with, and adjudged guilty of firing upon the populace without order from the magistrates, upon an attempt of the mob to seize the body of a culprit whose execution had just taken place, April 15th, 1736. On July the 20th, he was sentenced to die. Circumstances which were subsequently brought to light appeared to lessen his guilt; and Queen Caroline, who was then Guardian of the Realm, sent a reprieve for six weeks, which it was thought would be followed by a change of the sentence to transportation. His execution stood fixed, upon the expiration of the reprieve, for the 8th of September. Upon the night of the 7th, the populace seized the Toll-booth by surprise, found the prisoner, and hurried him by torchlight to the Grassmarket, where throwing a rope over a sign-post twenty feet high, belonging to a dyer, near the ordinary place of execution, they pulled him up; but his hands being loose, he fixed them between his neck and the rope, so that the mob were obliged to let him down again. Having on two shirts, they wrapped one about his face, tied his arms with the night-gown he had on, pulled him up again, and completed his execution.-A valu

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able illustration of this event is given by Mr. Ellis, to whom we are indebted for the above notice, in his Original Letters, Second Series (vol. iv, p. 347) in the shape of a letter from Major General Moyle to the Duke of Newcastle,' to which we refer our readers. And we need scarcely remind them, that Sir Walter Scott's admirable Tale of the Heart of Mid-Lothian' owes much of its interest to the happy skill with which the author has seized upon this event and its attendant circumstances, and interwoven them in the thread of his fascinating narrative.

*7. 1665.—THE PLAGUE IN LONDON.

Much curious information respecting the great plague will be found in our previous volumes. Some further particulars of this national calamity are given by Mr. Ellis, in his Original Letters, Second Series, (vol. iv, pp. 22, et seq.) to which we must refer our readers, subjoining only a few lines of observation by the acute and learned editor of these valuable documental illustrations of English history. 'To the full description of the great plague of 1665, (observes Mr. E.) neither the pencil nor the pen have yet been adequate. The desolation was too wide and too fearful for any one to seek materials for a picture of it while it raged; to the contemporary letters of survivors, therefore, and their diaries where such exist, can we alone look now for its minute details. These should be sought for, and formed into a volume. Such a publication might be useful, not only to those who read and reflect, but to all who, in the pride of science or the greediness of trade, would speculate upon the chances of contagion. De Foe's Journal of the Plague of 1665 was an entire fiction, though it deceived Dr. Mead.'

In August and September 1666, many parts of England were desolated by the plague: in the small parish of Eyam, in Derbyshire, 76 families were visited by this scourge, out of which 259 persons

died! An affecting history of this event is given in Rhodes's Peak Scenery,' where, as well as in 'Anecdotes of Illustrious Characters,' will be found an account of the heroic conduct of William and Catherine Mompesson. See also the 'Desolation of Eyam, and other Poems,' by WILLIAM AND MARY HOWITT, another offering at the shrine of the muses, highly creditable to the taste and talents of the authors of the Forest Minstrel.' We regret that our limits prevent us from giving specimens of the varied contents of this second volume of Poems; but, doubtless, they who possess the first, will immediately purchase the Desolation of Eyam;'-we earnestly recommend it to the attention of our readers.

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8.-NATIVITY OF THE VIRGIN MARY.

A concert of angels having been heard in the air to solemnize this important event, the festival was appointed by Pope Servius about the year 695. Innocent IV honoured this feast with an octave in 1244, and Gregory XI, about the year 1370, with a vigil. *10. 1827.-UGO FOSCOLO DIED,

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An Italian gentleman and scholar, who had resided for several years in London, and was well known to the whole circle of English literati. Foscolo was not only a distinguished classic, but a man of very considerable genius and general attainments. His memory was so remarkably tenacious, that he seemed hardly to have forgotten any author whose works he had ever read. In his own language, he was an elegant and fertile poet; and his prose style was of the highest order, refined and nervous. During his residence among us, Signor Foscolo wrote a great deal on miscellaneous subjects, and contributed essays, criticisms, &c. &c. to several of the most eminent periodical publications of the time. His admirable Essays on Petrarch' are well known to every admirer of that delightful poet. Under the assumed name of Jacopo Ortis, with whose Letters

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every one acquainted with Italian literature is conversant, Foscolo forcibly drew the picture of his own feelings. He lived to complete his great work, an edition of his favourite author DANTE,' with very able commentaries, which will shortly be published; he also left a version of seven books of Homer.

*13. 1827.—JOSEPH MAWMAN DIED, Author of a Tour in Scotland,' and, for many years, a most respectable bookseller and publisher in London.

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*13. 1603.-LORD BURGHLEY DIED.

The author of the very curious 'Observations on the Life and Reign of Elizabeth,' printed by Mr. Ellis, in his Original Letters, Second Series,' gives a highly interesting sketch of this great statesman.-See vol. iii, pp. 189-191, note.

14.-HOLY CROSS.

This festival was first observed in the year 615; see our volume for 1824, p. 236. For an account of the ceremony of kissing the cross, performed in the Greek church on this day, see T.T. for 1822, p. 245.-See also T.T. for 1826, p. 231, for a description of the Pentangle of Solomon, and other curious matters. Consult also our last volume, p. 300, for an account of the fragment of the true cross.

17.-SAINT LAMBERT.

Lambert was appointed Bishop of Maestricht in 673, and was murdered September 17th, 708. Hc was canonized in 1240.

17, 19, 20.-EMBER DAYS.-See p. 50. *17. 1827.—REV. ROBERT POLLOK DIED, Æt. 28, Author of The Course of Time,' a Poem in 2 vol. 12mo. He was on his way to Italy, the climate of which had been recommended to him for a consumptive complaint; but he was only enabled to reach Southampton, where, at the end of a few weeks, his mortal career was thus prematurely closed.-The

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