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"When, prompted by a mother's care, Thy warmth shall form th' imprisoned young, The pleasing task I'll gladly share,

Or cheer thy labours with a song.

"To bring thee food I'll range the fields, And cull the best of every kind, Whatever Nature's bounty yields,

And Love's assiduous care can find.

' And when my lovely mate would stray,
To taste the summer sweets at large,
I'll wait at home the live-long day,
And fondly tend our little charge.

Then prove with me the sweets of love,
With me divide the cares of life;
No bush shall boast in all the grove,
A mate so fond, so blest a wife!'

He ceased his song-the plumy dame
Heard with delight the love-sick strain,
Nor long concealed a mutual flame,
Nor long repressed his amorous pain.

He led her to the nuptial bow'r,

And perched with triumph by her side;
What gilded roof could boast that hour
A fonder mate, or happier bride?

Next morn he waked her with a song,
'Behold (he said) the new-born day,
The Lark his matin-peal has rung;
Arise, my love, and come away!'

Together through the fields they strayed,
And to the murmuring rivulet's side;
Renewed their vows, and hopped, and played,
With artless joy and decent pride.

When O! with grief my Muse relates
What dire misfortune closed the tale;

Sent by an order from the Fates,

A Gunner met them in the vale.

Alarmed, the lover cried, 'My dear,
Haste, haste away, from danger fly;
Here, Gunner, point thy thunder here;
O spare my love, and let me die !'

R

At him the Gunner took his aim,
Too sure the volleyed thunder flew !
O had he chose some other game,

Or shot as he was wont to do!

Divided Pair! forgive the wrong,
While I with tears your fate rehearse;
I'll join the Widow's plaintive song,
And save the Lover in my verse.

JAGO.

JULY.

THIS word is derived from the Latin Julius, the surname of C. Cæsar, the dictator, who was born in it. Mark Anthony first gave to this month the name of July, which was before called Quintilis, as being the fifth month in the year, in the old Roman calendar established by Romulus. July was called by the Saxons, heu-monat, or hey-monat, because therein they usually mowed, and made their hay-harvest.

Remarkable Days.

2.-VISITATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. THIS festival was instituted by Pope Urban VI, in commemoration of that remarkable journey which the Mother of our Lord took into the mountains of Judæa, in order to visit the mother of St. John the Baptist.

3.-DOG-DAYS BEGIN.

These are a certain number of days before and after the heliacal rising of Canicula, or the dog-star, in the morning. The dog-days in our modern Almanacks occupy the time from July 3d to August 11th; the name being applied now, as it was formerly, to the hottest time of the year.

4. TRANSLATION OF SAINT MARTIN.

This day was appointed to commemorate the removal or translation of St. Martin's body from one tomb to another much more noble and magnificent ; an honour conferred upon the deceased saint by Perpetuus, one of his successors in the see of Tours. His festival is celebrated on the 11th of November, which see..

*6. 1189.-RICHARD I BEGAN TO REIGN. The most shining part of this prince's character was his military talents; no man ever in that romantic age carried courage and intrepidity to a greater height; and this quality gained him the appellation of the lion-hearted, cœur de lion. He passionately loved glory; and, as his conduct in the field was not inferior to his valour, he seems to have possessed every talent necessary for acquiring it: his resentments also were high, his pride unconquerable, and his subjects, as well as his neighbours, had therefore reason to apprehend, from the continuance of his reign, a perpetual scene of blood and violence. Of an impetuous and vehement spirit, he was distinguished by all the good as well as the bad qualities which are incident to that character. He was open, frank, generous, sincere, and brave; he was revengeful, domineering, ambitious, haughty, and cruel, and was thus better calculated to dazzle men by the splendour of his enterprizes, than either to promote their happiness, or his own grandeur, by a sound and well-regulated policy. As military talents make great impression on the people, he seems to have been much beloved by his English subjects; and he is remarked to have been the first prince of the Norman line who bore a sincere affection and regard for them. He passed, however, only four months of his reign in that kingdom; the crusade employed him near three years he was detained about four months in captivity; the rest of his reign was spent either in war, or preparations for war, against France: and he

was so pleased with the fame which he had acquired in the east, that he seemed determined, notwithstanding all his past misfortunes, to have further exhausted his kingdom, and to have exposed himself to new hazards, by conducting another expedition against the infidels.-Hume.

7.-THOMAS A BECKET.

This haughty prelate was born in London, in the year 1119, and was the son of Gilbert, a merchant, and Matilda, a Saracen lady, who is said to have fallen in love with him when he was a prisoner to her father in Jerusalem. In 1159 he made a campaign with King Henry into Toulouse, having in his own pay 1200 horse, besides a retinue of 700 knights or gentlemen.

*7. 1816.-RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN died.
Ye orators! whom yet our councils yield,
Mourn for the veteran Hero of your field.
The worthy Rival of the wondrous three 3,
Whose words were sparks of immortality!
Ye bards!-to whom the Drama's Muse is dear,
He was your Master! emulate him here?!-
Ye men of wit and social eloquence!

He was your brother! bear his ashes hence !—
While powers of mind, almost of boundless range,
Complete in kind—as various in their change;
While eloquence-wit-poesy-and mirth,
That humbler harmonist of care on earth,
Survive within our souls-while lives our sense
Of pride in merit's proud pre-eminence,
Long shall we seek his likeness-long, in vain,
And turn to all of him which may remain,
Sighing that Nature formed but one such man,
And broke the die-in moulding SHERIDAN.

*12. 1536.-ERASMUS DIED.

Fox, Pitt, and Burke.

2 Drury Lane Theatre, where the whole of this monody was

J

livered.

*14. 1789.-THE BASTILE DESTROYED.
Ye horrid tow'rs, th' abode of broken hearts!
Ye dungeons, and ye cages of despair!
There's not an English heart that would not leap,
To hear that ye were fall'n at last-to know
That ev❜n our enemies, so oft employed

In forging chains for us, themselves were free.

15. SAINT SWITHIN.

COWPER.

Swithin, in the Saxon Swithum, received his clerical tonsure, and put on the monastic habit, in the old monastery at Winchester: he was of noble parentage, and passed his youth in the study of grammar, philosophy, and the scriptures. Swithin was promoted to holy orders by Helmstan, Bishop of Winchester; at whose death, in 852, King Ethelwolf granted him the see. In this he continued eleven years, and died in 868. For some verses on the popular superstition respecting this day, see our last volume, p. 189.

*18. 1374.-PETRARCH Died.

Petrarch thus describes his retirement to Vaucluse: Here (says he) I make war upon my senses, and treat them as my enemies. My eyes, which have drawn me into a thousand difficulties, see no longer either gold or precious stones, or ivory or purple; they behold nothing, save the firmament, the water, and the rocks. The only female who comes within their sight, is a swarthy old woman, dry and parched as the Lybian deserts. My ears are no longer courted by those harmonies of instruments or voices which have often transported my soul; they hear nothing but the lowing of cattle, the bleating of sheep, the warbling of birds, and the murmurs of the stream.

I keep silence from morn to night. There is no one to converse with; for people constantly employed, either in spreading their nets, or taking care of their vines and orchards, have no knowledge of the intercourses of the world, or the conversations of society. I often content myself with the brown

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