These are but short extracts, but they comprise the whole of what is said on the first origin of fox-hunting. The rest of the article treats of the quality and breed of horses and hounds.
Frederick M. Middleton.
WEATHER RULES.
(Vol. viii., pp. 50. 535.)
St. Vincent's Day, Jan. 22.—In Brand's Popular Antiquities, Bohn's edition, vol. i. p. 38., is to be found the following notice of this day:
"Mr. Douce's manuscript notes say: 'Vincenti festo si Sol radiet, memor esto;' thus Englished by Abraham Fleming:
'Remember on St Vincent's Day,
If that the Sun his beams display.'
"[Dr. Foster is at a loss to account for the origin of this command, &c.]"
It is probable that the concluding part of the precept has been lost; but a curious old manuscript, which fell into my hands some years since, seems to supply the deficiency. The manuscript in question is a sort of household book, kept by a family of small landed proprietors in the island of Guernsey between the years 1505 and 1569. It contains memoranda, copies of wills, settlements of accounts, recipes, scraps of songs and parts of hymns and prayers; some Romanist, some Anglican, some of the Reformed Church in France. Among the scraps of poetry I find the following rhymes on St. Vincent's Day; the first three lines of which are evidently a translation of the Latin verse above quoted, the last containing the to be remembered:
"Prens garde au jour St. Vincent,
Car sy ce jour tu vois et sent