Passion Flower. _Passiflora cærulea._
Dedicated to the _Exaltation of the Cross_.
[317] Fosbroke’s British Monachism.
[318] Ibid.
[319] Stow’s Chron.
[320] Hume.
[321] Brady’s Clavis Calendaria.
[322] Slater’s Schol. Eton, A. D. 1560. M. G. Donat. Brit. Mus. 4843
Brand.
[323] Gentleman’s Magazine.
~September 15.~
_St. Nicetas_, 4th Cent. _St. Nicomedes_, A. D. 90. _St. John_, the
Dwarf, 5th Cent. _St. Aicard_, or _Achart_, Abbot, A. D. 687. _St.
Aper_, or _Evre_, Bp. A. D. 486.
The weather on an average is, at least, six times out of seven fine on
this day.[324]
It yet is not day;
The morning hath not lost her virgin blush,
Nor step, but mine, soiled the earth’s tinsel robe.
---- How full of heaven this solitude appears,
This healthful comfort of the happy swain;
Who from his hard but peaceful bed roused up,
In ’s morning exercise saluted is
By a full quire of feathered choristers,
Wedding their notes to the inamoured air.
Here Nature, in her unaffected dresse,
Plaited with vallies, and imbost with hills,
Enchast with silver streams, and fringed with woods,
Sits lovely in her native russet.
_Chamberlayne._
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