1821. A newspaper of January 8, mentions an extraordinary feat by Mr.
Huddy, the postmaster of Lismore, in the 97th year of his age. He
travelled, for a wager, from that town to Fermoy in a Dungarvon
oyster-tub, drawn by a pig, a badger, two cats, a goose, and a hedgehog;
with a large red nightcap on his head, a pig-driver’s whip in one hand,
and in the other a common cow’s-horn, which he blew to encourage his
team, and give notice of this new mode of posting.
* * * * *
Let us turn away for a moment from the credulity and eccentricity of
man’s feebleness and folly, to the contemplation of “the firstling of
the year” from the bosom of our common mother. The Snow-drop is
described in the “Flora Domestica” as “the earliest flower of all our
wild flowers, and will even show her head above the snow, as if to prove
her rivalry in whiteness;” as if
--Flora’s breath, by some transforming power,
Had chang’d an icicle into a flower.
_Mrs. Barbauld._
One of its greatest charms is its “coming in a wintry season, when few
others visit us: we look upon it as a friend in adversity; sure to come
when most needed.”
Like pendent flakes of vegetating snow,
The early herald of the infant year,
Ere yet the adventurous crocus dares to blow,
Beneath the orchard-boughs, thy buds appear.
While still the cold north-east ungenial lowers,
And scarce the hazel in the leafless copse,
Or sallows, show their downy powder’d flowers,
The grass is spangled with thy silver drops.
_Charlotte Smith._
~January 9.~
_St. Peter of Sebaste._ _St. Julian and Basilissa._ _St. Marciana._
_St. Brithwald._ _St. Felan._ _St. Adrian._ _St. Vaneng._
Of the seven Romish saints of this day scarcely an anecdote is worth
mentioning.