Great Mullen. _Verbuscum Virgatum._
Dedicated to _St. Ignatius_.
[235] Butler’s Saints.
[Illustration: AUGUST.]
The eighth was August, being rich array’d
In garment all of gold downe to the ground:
Yet rode he not, but led a lovely mayd
Forth by the lily hand, the which was crown’d
With eares of corne, and full her hand was found.
That was the righteous Virgin, which of old
Liv’d here on earth, and plenty made abound;
But after wrong was lov’d, and justice solde,
She left th’ unrighteous world, and was to heav’n extoll’d.
August is the eighth month of the year. It was called Sextilis by the
Romans, from its being the sixth month in their calendar, until the
senate complimented the emperor Augustus by naming it after him, and
through them it is by us denominated August.
Our Saxon ancestors called it “_Arnmonat_, (more rightly _barn-moneth_,)
intending thereby the then filling of their barnes with corne.”[236]
_Arn_ is the Saxon word for harvest. According to some they also called
it _Woedmonath_, as they likewise called June.[237]
The sign of the zodiac entered by the sun this month is Virgo, the
Virgin. Spenser’s personation of it above is pencilled and engraved by
Mr. Samuel Williams.
“Admire the deep beauty of this allegorical picture,” says Mr. Leigh
Hunt. “Spenser takes advantage of the sign of the zodiac, the Virgin, to
convert her into Astrea, the goddess of justice, who seems to return to
earth awhile, when the exuberance of the season presents enough for
all.”
Mr. Leigh Hunt notes in his _Months_, that,--“This is the month of
harvest. The crops usually begin with rye and oats, proceed with wheat,
and finish with peas and beans. Harvest-home is still the greatest rural
holiday in England, because it concludes at once the most laborious and
most lucrative of the farmer’s employments, and unites repose and
profit. Thank heaven there are, and must be, seasons of some repose in
agricultural employments, or the countryman would work with as unceasing
a madness, and contrive to be almost as diseased and unhealthy as the
citizen. But here again, and for the reasons already mentioned, our
holiday-making is not what it was. Our ancestors used to burst into an
enthusiasm of joy at the end of harvest, and appear even to have mingled
their previous labour with considerable merry-making, in which they
imitated the equality of the earlier ages. They crowned the
wheat-sheaves with flowers, they sung, they shouted, they danced, they
invited each other, or met to feast, as at Christmas, in the halls of
rich houses; and what was a very amiable custom, and wise beyond the
commoner wisdom that may seem to lie on the top of it, every one that
had been concerned, man, woman, and child, received a little
present--ribbons, laces, or sweatmeats.
“The number of flowers is now sensibly diminished. Those that flower
newly are nigella, zinnias, polyanthuses, love-apples, mignionette,
capsicums, Michaelmas daisies, auriculus, asters, or stars, and
China-asters. The additional trees and shrubs in flower are the
tamarisk, altheas, Venetian sumach, pomegranates, the beautiful
passion-flower, the trumpet-flower, and the virgin’s bower, or clematis,
which is such a quick and handsome climber. But the quantity of fruit is
considerably multiplied, especially that of pears, peaches, apricots,
and grapes. And if the little delicate wild flowers have at last
withdrawn from the hot sun, the wastes, marshes, and woods are dressed
in the luxuriant attire of ferns and heaths, with all their varieties of
green, purple, and gold. A piece of waste land, especially where the
ground is broken up into little inequalities, as Hampstead-heath, for
instance, is now a most bright as well as picturesque object; all the
ground, which is in light, giving the sun, as it were, gold for gold.
Mignonette, intended to flower in the winter, should now be planted in
pots, and have the benefit of a warm situation. Seedlings in pots should
have the morning sunshine, and annuals in pots be frequently watered.
“In the middle of this month, the young goldfinch broods appear,
lapwings congregate, thistle-down floats, and birds resume their spring
songs:--a little afterwards flies abound in windows, linnets congregate,
and bulls make their shrill autumnal bellowing; and towards the end the
beech tree turns yellow,--the first symptom of approaching autumn.”
The garden blooms with vegetable gold,
And all Pomona in the orchard glows,
Her racy fruits now glory in the sun,
The wall-enamour’d flower in saffron blows,
Gay annuals their spicy sweets unfold,
To cooling brooks the panting cattle run:
Hope, the forerunner of the farmer’s gain,
Visits his dreams and multiplies the grain.
More hot it grows; ye fervours of the sky
Attend the virgin--lo! she comes to hail
Your sultry radiance.--Now the god of day
Meets her chaste star--be present zephyr’s gale
To fan her bosom--let the breezes fly
On silver pinions to salute his ray;
Bride of his soft desires, with comely grace
He clasps the virgin to his warm embrace.
The reapers now their shining sickles bear
A band illustrious, and the sons of Health!
They bend, they toil across the wide champaign,
Before them Ceres yields her flowing wealth;
The partridge-covey to the copse repair
For shelter, sated with the golden grain,
Bask on the bank, or thro’ the clover run
Yet safe from fetters, and the slaughtering gun.
[236] Verstegan.
[237] Dr. F. Sayers.
~August 1.~
_St. Peter ad Vincula_, or St. Peter’s chains. _The seven Machabees_,
Brothers, with their Mother. _Sts. Faith, Hope, and Charity_. _St.
Etholwold_, Bp. A. D. 984. _St. Pellegrini_, or _Peregrinus_, A. D.
643.
_St. Peter ad Vincula, or the Feast of St. Peter’s chains._
The Romish church pretending to possess one of the chains wherewith
Peter was bound, and from which the angel delivered him, indulges its
votaries with a festival in its honour on this day. “Pagan Rome,” says
Alban Butler, “never derived so much honour from the spoils and trophies
of a conquered world, as christian Rome receives from the corporal
remains of these two glorious apostles, (Peter and Paul,) before which
the greatest emperors lay down their diadems, and prostrate themselves.”
Be it observed, that the papacy also pretends to possess the chains of
Paul: pope Gregory writing to the empress Constantia tells her he will
quickly send her some part of Paul’s chains, if it be possible for him
to file any off;--“for,” says Gregory, “since so many frequently come
begging a benediction from the chains, that they may receive a little of
the filings thereof, therefore a priest is ready with a file; and when
_some_ persons petition for it, presently in a moment something is filed
off for them from the chains; but when _others_ petition, though the
file be drawn a great while through the chains, yet cannot the least jot
be got off.” Upon this, bishop Patrick says,--“One may have leave to
ask, why should not this miraculous chain of St. Paul have a festival
appointed in memory of it, as well as that of St. Peter? you may take
Baronius’s answer to it till you can meet with a better.” Baronius, the
great Romish luminary and authority in the affairs of papal martyrs,
relics, and miracles, says,--“Truly the bonds of St. Peter seem not
without reason to be worshipped, though the bonds of the other apostles
are not: for it is but fit, that since he has the chief power in the
church of binding and loosing other men’s bonds, that his bonds also
should be had in honour of all the faithful.” This is a sufficing reason
to the believers in the “binding and loosing” according to the gloss put
upon that power by Romish writers.
The empress Eudocia is affirmed to have brought the two chains of St.
Peter from Jerusalem, in the year 439, one whereof she gave to a church
in Constantinople, and sent the other to Rome, where the old lady’s
chain has yielded, or not yielded, to the raspings of the file from time
immemorial. This chain was pleased to part with some of its particles to
the emperor Justinian, who sent ambassadors begging to the pope for a
small portion. “The popes,” says Butler, “were accustomed to send the
filings as precious relics to devout princes--they were often
instruments of miracles--and the pope himself rasped them off for king
Childebert, and enclosed them in a golden _key_ to be hung about the
neck.” Childebert, no doubt, experienced its aperient qualities. They
would be very serviceable to the papal interest at this period.
_Gule of August._
The first day of August is so called. According to Gebelin, as the month
of August was the first in the Egyptian year, it was called Gule, which
being latinized, makes Gula, a word in that language signifying throat.
“Our legendaries,” says Brand, “surprised at seeing this word at the
head of the month of August, converted it to their own purpose.” They
made out of it the feast of the daughter of the tribune Quirinus, who
they pretend was cured of a disorder in the throat, (Gula,) by kissing
the chain of St. Peter on the day of its festival. Forcing the _Gule_ of
the Egyptians into the _throat_ of the tribune’s daughter, they
instituted a festival to _Gule_ upon the festival-day of _St. Peter ad
Vincula_.
_Lammas-day._
So stands the first of August in our English almanacs, and so it stands
in the printed _Saxon Chronicle_. “Antiquaries,” says Brand, “are
divided in their opinions concerning the origin of _Lammas_-Day; some
derive it from Lamb-Mass, because on that day the tenants who held lands
under the cathedral church in York, which is dedicated to St. Peter ad
Vincula, were bound by their tenure to bring a live lamb into the church
at high mass: others derive it from a supposed offering or tything of
lambs at this time.” Various other derivations have been imagined.
Blount, the glossographer, says, that Lammas is called Hlaf-Mass, that
is Loaf-Mass, or Bread-Mass, which signifies a feast of thanksgiving for
the first fruits of the corn. It was observed with bread of new wheat,
and in some places tenants are bound to bring new wheat to their lord,
on, or before, the first of August. New wheat is called Lammas-Wheat.
Vallancey affirms that this day was dedicated, in Ireland, to the
sacrifice of the fruits of the soil; that _La-ith-mas_ the day of the
obligation of grain, is pronounced La-ee-mas, a word readily corrupted
to Lammas; that _ith_, signifies all kinds of grain, particularly wheat,
and that _mas_ signifies fruit of all kinds, especially the acorn,
whence the word mast.[238] From these explications may easily be derived
the reasonable meaning of the word Lammas.