Autumnal Dandelion. _Apargia Autumnalis._
Dedicated to _St. Pambo_.
~September 7.~
_Cloud_, A. D. 560. _St. Regina_, or _St. Reine_, A. D. 251. _St.
Evurtius_, A. D. 340. _St. Grimonia_, or _Germana_. _St. Madelberte_,
A. D. 705. _Sts. Alchmund_ and _Tilberht_, Bps. of Hexham, A. D. 780
and 789. _St. Eunan_, first Bp. of Raphoe.
_St. Enurchus_, or _Evurtius_.
This saint is in the church of England calendar, and therefore in the
English almanacs, but on what ground it is difficult to conjecture; for
Butler himself merely mentions him as a bishop of Orleans, who lived in
the reign of Constantine, and died about 340:--he adds, that “his name
is famous, but his history of no authority.”
“_Fine Feathers make fine Birds._”
The subjoined letter, dated the 7th of September, 1825, appears in _The
Times_ newspaper of the following day:--
_To the Editor of the Times._
Sir,--I consider it necessary to inform the public, through your paper,
that there is a fellow going about the town, (dressed like a painter,)
imposing upon the unwary, by selling them painted birds, for foreign
ones. He entered my house on Monday last, and after some simple
conversation with the customers in the room, he introduced the topic of
his birds, which he had in a paper bag, stating that he had been at work
in a gentleman’s family at the west end of the town, and the gentleman
being on the point of leaving England for a foreign country, he made him
a present of them; “but,” says he, “I’m as bad as himself, for I’m going
down to Canterbury to-morrow morning myself, to work, and they being of
no use to me, I shall take them down to Whitechapel and sell them for
what I can get.” Taking one out of the bag, he described it as a
Virginia nightingale, which sung four distinct notes or voices: the
colour certainly was most beautiful; its head and neck was a bright
vermilion, the back betwixt the wings a blue, the lower part to the tail
a bright yellow, the wings red and yellow; the tail itself was a
compound mixture of the above colours, the belly a clear green--he said
it was well worth a sovereign to any gentleman. However, after a good
deal of lying, bidding, and argument, one of the party offered five
shillings, which he at last took; and disposing of the others much in
the same way, he quickly decamped. In the course of an hour after, a
barber, a knowing hand in the bird way, who lives in the neighbourhood,
came in, and taking a little water, with his white apron he transferred
the variegated colours of the nightingale to the white flag of his
profession. The deception was visible--the swindler had fled--and the
poor hedge-sparrow had his unfortunate head severed from his body, for
being forced to personate a nightingale.