Rhymes regarding June:—
(a) A dripping June
Brings all things in tune.
(b) If St. Vitus' Day (June 14th) be rainy weather,
It will rain for thirty days together.
(c) He who bathes in May will soon be laid in clay;
He who bathes in June will sing a merry tune;
But he who bathes in July will dance like a fly.
(d) Look at your corn in May,
And you will come weeping away:
Look at the same in June,
And you'll sing a merry tune.
(e) June, damp and warm, does the farmer no harm.
(f) If it rains on Midsummer Eve, the filberts will be spoilt.
JULY
This month was so named in honor of Julius Caesar, whose birth-month it was. The Saxons called it Hey Monat on account of the hay harvest.
The following old sayings regarding July may be noted with interest:—
(a) A shower of rain in July,
When the corn begins to fill
Is worth a plough of oxen
And all belonging theretill.
(b) Ne'er trust a July sky.
(c) Whatever July and August do not boil, September cannot fry.
(d) If the first of July it be rainy weather,
It will rain more or less for four weeks together.
(e) Dog days bright and clear
Indicate a happy year.
But when accompanied by rain,
For better times our hopes are vain.
(The dog days are from July 3rd to Aug. 11th.)
(f) St. Swithin's Day, if ye do rain,
For forty days it will remain.
St. Swithin's Day an ye be fair,
For forty days 'twill rain nae mair.
(St. Swithin's Day is July 15th.)
(h) Whoever eats oysters on St. James's Day will never want
money. (July 25th.)
AUGUST
Augustus Caesar, not to be behind Julius, named this month in honor of himself. He was born in September, and it may seem strange that he did not bestow his name on that month; but he preferred August as a number of lucky incidents befell him then, and he gained several important victories.
Rhyming prophecies regarding this month are as follows:—
(a) If Bartlemy's Day (Aug. 24th) be fair and clear,
Hope for a prosperous autumn that year.
(b) Dry August and warm,
Doth harvest no harm.
(c) Yet there is a saying that "A wet August never brings dearth."
(d) On St. Mary's Day (Aug. 15th) sunshine
Brings much good wine.
(e) So many August fogs,
So many winter mists.
(f) Mud in May means bread in August.
(g) After Lammas (Aug. 1st) the corn ripens as much by
night as by day.
(h) As the Dog days commence, so they end.
(The Dog days are from July 3rd to Aug. 11th.)
(i) All the tears that St. Swithin can cry,
St. Bartlemy's dusty mantle wipes dry.