pool that then flowed to its base. This was probably about the year 1735. The willow-tree has long been associated with feelings of melancholy and disappointment; and to wear the willow' has generally been considered to imply a man's being forsaken by his mistress. Thus, the following, from A Pleasant Grove of New Fancies,' 8vo, Lond. 1657 : The WILLOW GARLAND. A Willow Garland thou didst send Since it is so, I'll tell thee what,— Thou art to all lost love the best, When once the lover's rose is dead, Or laid aside forlorne, Then Willow-garlands 'bout the head, When with neglect (the lover's bane) For their love lost, their onely gaine And underneath thy cooling shade The love-spent youth, and love-sick maid, In Lilly's Sappho and Phaon, act. ii, sc. iv, is the following passage:- Enjoy thy care in covert; weare willow in thy hat and bayes in thy heart.' A Willow, also, in Fuller's Worthies (Cambridgeshire, p. 144), is described as a sad tree, whereof such who have lost their love make their mourning garlands, and we know that exiles hung up their harps upon such dolefull supporters. The twiggs here of are physick to drive out the folly of children. This tree delighteth in moist places, and is triumphant in the Isle of Ely, where the roots strengthen their banks, and lop affords fuell for their fire. It groweth incredibly fast, it being a by-word in this county, that the profit by willows will buy the owner a horse before that by other trees will pay for his saddle. Let me adde, that if green Ashe may burn before a queen, withered Willows may be allowed to burne before a lady.' 6 To an inquiry in the British Apollo, vol. ii, No. 98 (fol. Lond. 1710), why are those who have lost their love said to wear the Willow-garlands?' it is answered, because Willow was in antient days, especially among herdsmen and rusticks, a badge of mourning, as may be collected from the several expressions of Virgil in his Eclogues, where the nymphs and herdsmen are frequently introduced sitting under a Willow mourning their loves. You may observe the same in many Greek authors, I mean poets, who take liberty to feign any sort of story. For the antients frequently selected, and, as it were, appro-priated several trees, as indexes or testimonials of the various passions of mankind, from whom we con-: tinue at this day to use Ewe and Rosemary at funerals, in imitation of antiquity; these two being representatives of a dead person, and Willow of love" dead, or forsaken. You may observe that the Jews, upon their being led into captivity, Psalm cxxxvii, are said to hang their harps upon Willows, i. e. trees appropriated to men in affliction and sorrow, who had lost their beloved Sion.' In The Comical Pilgrim's Travels thro' England,' Svo, Lond. 1723, p. 23, is the following:-Huntingdonshire is a very proper county for unsuccessful lovers to live in; for, upon the loss of their sweethearts, they will here find an abundance of Willow-trees, so that they may either wear the willow green, or hang themselves, which they please: 7 but the latter is reckoned the best remedy for slighted love.'-(See Brand's Observations on Popular Antiquities, vol. i, p. 105, note, 4to, Lond. 1813.) Shakspeare has a song of Willow,' in his Othello, Act iv, Scene 3. He makes Desdemona introduce it in this pathetic manner :— My mother had a maid, called Barbarie : She was in love; and he she loved forsook her, The willow is universally known to be an aquatic; and Virgil, speaking of the native soils of trees, fixes that of the willow to be the banks of rivers. Horace (Carm. ii, 5) gives the epithet moist to the willow grounds, which he paints as situated near the river's side:- Now from the summer's scorching beam The hoary leaf of the willow is one of the most striking characters in the rural landscape. Virgil (Georg. ii, 13) beautifully calls it "The willow hoary, with its sea-green leaf.' From the flowers of this tree the bees derive one of their most favourite and early foods. Here, again, the justness and beauty of Virgil's landscape painting are very conspicuous While from yon willow-fence, thy pasture's bound, 1 Shakspeare is said to have taken his song from some old stanzas which commence in the following manner:— A poore soul, sat sighing under a sicamore tree: With his hand on his bosom, his head on his knee, O willow, willow, willow! Sing, O the greene willow shall be my garland! Shall sweetly mingle with the whispering boughs (Ecl. i. 54.) The foliage of the willow afforded an agreeable browse to the cattle (Virg. Ecl. iii, 83. Georg. ii, 434). One of the most distinguishing properties of the willow is its flexibility: Virgil acccordingly terms it lenta salix, the pliant willow;' and Ovid uses it for a comparison to express the easy motion of the nymph Galatea. From this quality, one of its principal economical uses, that of making basket-work, has always been deduced. According to Virgil (Æn. vii, 632), targets were made from the willow. The species of willow which we call sallow, was, probably, the cheap material that composed the hospitable couch of Philemon, thus described by Ovid (in his Met. viii, 656) : A couch there was with sedgy covering spread; DECEMBER. DECEMBER was called winter-monat by the Saxons; but, after they were converted to Christianity, it received the name of heligh monat, or holy month. December, last of months, but best, who gave A Christ to man, a Saviour to the slave. CHURCHILL. Remarkable Days. 6. SAINT NICHOLAS. NICHOLAS was Bishop of Myra, in Lycia, and died about the year 392. He was of so charitable a disposition, that he portioned three young women, who were reduced in circumstances, by secretly conveying a sum of money into their father's house. Milner, in his History of Winchester, describes a curious font preserved in the cathedral of Winchester, and applies the carvings on it to the life and miracles of this saint. The annual ceremony of the boy-bishop, once observed on this day, is described at length in T. T. for 1814, p. 306-308. 8.-CONCEPTION OF THE VIRGIN MARY. This festival was instituted by Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, because William the Conqueror's fleet, being in a storm, afterwards came safe to shore. The Council of Oxford, however, held in 1222, permitted every one to use his discretion in keeping it. December 10th is a fast observed by the Jews, on account of the approaches then made by the Romans to besiege Jerusalem; the commencement of the national calamities of the Jews. December the 12th is, by devout Jews, observed as a fast, on account of the profanation of the Holy Writings by their translation into Greek; a calamity said to have been succeeded by three days' darkness. 13.-SAINT LUCY. This virgin martyr was born at Syracuse. She refused to marry a young man who paid his addresses to her, because she had determined to devote herself to religion, and, to prevent his importunities, gave her whole fortune to the poor. The youth, enraged at this denial, accused her before Paschasius, the heathen judge, of professing Christianity; and Lucy, after much cruel treatment, fell a martyr to his revenge, in the year 305. 16.-0 SAPIENTIA. This is the beginning of an Anthem in the Latin service to the honour of Christ's advent, which used to be sung in the church from this day until Christ mas-eve. |