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On the passive main
Descends th' ethereal force, and with strong gust
Turns from its bottom the discoloured deep.
Meantime the mountain-billows, to the clouds
In dreadful tumult swelled, surge above surge,
Burst into chaos with tremendous roar,

And anchored navies from their stations drive,
Wild as the winds across the howling waste
Of mighty waters.

Our gardens begin now to assume somewhat of a cheerful appearance. Crocuses, exhibiting a rich mixture of yellow and purple, ornament the borders; mézereon is in all its beauty; the little flowers ' with silver crest and golden eye,' the daisies, are scattered over dry pastures; and the pilewort (ranunculus ficaria) is seen on the moist banks of ditches. The primrose, also (primula veris), peeps out beneath hedges.

Ask me why I send you here

The firstling of the infant year;
Ask me why I send to you

This PRIMROSE, all bepearled with dew;
I straight will whisper in your ears,
The sweets of love are washed with tears.
Ask me why this flower doth show
So yellow, green, and sickly too;
Ask me why the stalk is weak,
And bending, yet it doth not break ;-
I must tell you these discover
What doubts and fears are in a lover.

I-this bold floweret climbs the hill,
Hides in the forest, haunts the glen,
Plays on the margin of the rill,
Peeps round the fox's den.

Within the garden's cultured round
It shares the sweet carnation's bed;
And blooms on consecrated ground
In honour of the dead.

The lambkin crops its crimson gem,
The wild-bee murmurs on its breast,
The blue fly bends its pensile stem
Light o'er the skylark's nest.

CAREW.

MONTGOMERY.

BURNS has a beautiful little poem addressed to this' wee, mo

dest, crimson-tipped flow'r.'

The sweet violet (viola odorata)' sheds its delicious perfumes. The leaves of honeysuckles are nearly expanded; in our gardens, the buds of the cherry-tree (prunus cerasus), the peach (amygdalus persica), the nectarine, the apricot, and the almond (prunus armeniaca), are fully opened in this month. The buds of the hawthorn (cratogus oxycantha) and of the larchtree (pinus larix) begin to open; and the tansy (tanacetum vulgare) emerges out of the ground; ivyberries are ripe; the daffodil (pseudonarcissus) in moist thickets, the rush (juncus pilosus), and the spurge laurel (daphne laureola) found in woods, are now in bloom. The common whitlow grass (draba verna) on old walls; the yellow Alpine whitlow grass (draba aizoides) on maritime rocks; and the mountain pepper-wort (lepidum petræum) among limestone rocks, flower in this month.

The gannets, or Soland geese (pelicanus bassanus), resort in March to the Hebrides, and other rocky isles of North Britain, to make their nests, and lay their eggs. In the months of May and June their nests are described as so closely placed together, that it is difficult to walk without treading upon some of them; and it is said that the swarms of the old birds are so prodigious, that, when they rise into the air, they stun the ear with their noise, and overshadow the ground, like the clouds. The Bass Isle, in the Frith of Forth, is farmed out at a considerable rent for the eggs of the various kinds of water-fowl with which it swarms; and the produce of the Soland geese forms a large portion of this rent; for great numbers of their young ones are taken every season, and sold for about twenty-pence each, in Edinburgh, where

1

This most delightfully fragrant of all flowers has been the theme of many an admiring poet;--the address To a Tuft of early Violets,' from the pen of Mr. Gifford, the translator of Juvenal, is an exquisite little poem.

2This bird is generally about seven pounds in weight, three feet in length, and six in breadth.

they are esteemed a favourite dish, being generally roasted, and eaten before dinner. From the nests placed upon the ground, the eggs are easily picked up*. Among the innumerable objects which are every day presented to the notice of the observant mind, in the grand theatre of nature, nothing can be more delightful than the various motions and pursuits of animals. The sportive skipping and playing of the young lambs, most of which are yeaned this month, are truly amusing; when they have gained strength, they are sent to the pastures :

Like the fond dove from fearful prison freed,
Each seems to say, come, let us try our speed;'
Away they scour, impetuous, arduous, strong,
The green turf trembling as they bound along:
Adown the slope, then up the hillock climb,
Where every mole-hill is a bed of thyme;
There panting stop; yet scarcely can refrain;
A bird, a leaf, will set them off again.

The farmer dresses and rolls his meadows; spreads ant-hills; plants quicksets, osiers, &c.; sows flax seed, artificial grasses, beans and peas, broom and whin seeds, and grass seeds among wheat. About the 23d, he ploughs for and sows oats, and hemp and flax. A dry season is very important to the farmer, that he may get the seed early into the ground.

1

In robbing the nests built in the precipices, chiefly for the sake of the birds, the business wears a very different aspect. The adventurous fowler, trained to it from his youth, and familiarized to the danger, is let down by a rope, either held fast by his comrades, or fixed into the ground on the summit, with his signalcord, his pole-net, his pole-hook, &c. Thus equipped, he is enabled, in his progress, either to stop, to ascend, or de scend, as he sees occasion. Sometimes, by swinging himself from one ledge to another, with the help of his hook, he mounts upwards, and clambers from place to place; and, at other opportunities, by springing backwards, he can dart himself into the hollow caverns of the projecting rock.

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The

THE word April is derived from Aprilis, of aperio, I open; because the earth in this month begins to open her bosom for the production of vegetables : or, according to others,, from the Greek word Apodity, one of the numerous epithets given to Venus. April is described by PEACHAM (p. 418) as a young man in green, with a garland of mirtle and hawthorn buds, winged; in one hand primroses and violets, in the other the sign Taurus.' Saxons called April by the name of Oster-Monat, some thinke of a goddesse called Goster, whereof I see no great reason, for if it tooke appellation of such a goddesse (a supposed causer of the Esterly windes), it seemeth to have bin somewhat by some miswritten, and should rightly be Oster, and not Goster. The winds indeed, by antient observation, were found in this moneth most commonly to blow from the East, and East in the Teutonicke is Ost, and

Ost-end, which rightly in English is East-end, hath that name for the Easterne situation thereof, as to the ships it appeareth which through the narrow seas doe come from the West. So as our name of the feast of Easter may be as much to say as the feast of Oster, being yet at this present in Saxon called Ostern, which commeth of Öster-monat, their and our old name of April.'-(Verstegan, p. 60.)

Remarkable Days.

1.-ALL FOOLS' DAY.

On this day every body strives to make as many fools as he can: the wit chiefly consists in sending persons on what are called sleeveless errands, for the history of Eve's mother, for pigeon's milk, stirrup oil, and similar ridiculous absurdities.

mean

In Poor Robin's Almanack for 1760, there is a pleasant, and what is for a poetical, description of the modern fooleries on the 1st of April:

The first of April, some do say,
Is set apart for all-fools' day;
But why the people call it so,
Nor I, nor they themselves, do know:
But on this day are people sent
On purpose for pure merriment;

And though the day is known before,

Yet frequently there is great store

Of these forgetfuls to be found,

Who're sent to dance Moll Dixon's round;

And having tried each shop and stall,

And disappointed at them all,

At last some tells them of the cheat;
Then they return from their pursuit,

And straightway home with shame they run,
And others laugh at what is done.
But 'tis a thing to be disputed,
Which is the greatest fool reputed,
The man that innocently went,
Or he that him designedly sent.

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