according to the season and scarcity, that the same root which in June sold for several shillings per quart, now sells as low, sometimes, as sixpence a bushel. Those who wish to taste the potato in the greatest perfection, must pay a visit to a sister country, where this useful vegetable is much larger and finer than in England, and is cooked in a very superior manner. It is produced in such abundance in Ireland, as to form, with butter-milk, the almost only food of the lower classes. The sowing of wheat is generally completed in this month when the weather is too wet for this occupation, the farmer ploughs up the stubble fields for winter fallows. Acorns are sown at this season, and the planting of forest and fruit trees takes place. The prudent will observe what passions reign Or walnut (whose malignant touch impairs PHILIPS. . NOUEMBER. THE Saxons called November wint-monat, or wind-month, on account of the prevalence of high winds in this month. Remarkable Days. 1.-ALL SAINTS. In the early ages of Christianity the word saint was applied to all believers, as is evident in the use of it by Saint Paul and Saint Luke; but the term was afterwards restricted to such as excelled in Christian virtues. In the Romish church, holy persons, canonized by the Pope, are called saints, and are invoked and supplicated by the professors of that religion. For some rural customs on this day, see T. T. for 1814, pp. 278-9. 2.-ALL Souls. In Catholic countries, on the eve and day of All Souls, the churches are hung with black; the tombs are opened; a coffin covered with black, and surrounded with wax lights, is placed in the nave of the church, and, in one corner, figures in wood, representing the souls of the deceased, are halfway plunged into the flames. *3. 1787.-BISHOP LOWth died. Quando iterum tecum, sim modo dignus, ero. 5.-KING WILLIAM LANDED. The glorious revolution of 1688 is commemorated on this day; when the throne of England became vested in the illustrious House of Orange. Although King William landed on the 5th of November, the almanacks still continue the mistake of marking it as the fourth. 5.-POWDER PLOT. This day is kept to commemorate the diabolical attempt of the Papists to blow up the Parliament House. The best account of this nefarious transaction is detailed in Hume's History of England, vol. vi, pp. 33-38, 8vo edition, 1802. 6.-SAINT LEonard. Leonard, or Lienard, was a French nobleman of great reputation in the court of Clovis I. He died about the year 559, and has always been implored by prisoners as their guardian saint. *7. 1665.-FIRST ENGLISH GAZETTE: On the late MASSACRE in PIEMONT'. Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones Who were thy sheep, and in their antient fold In 1655, the Duke of Savoy determined to compel his reformed subjects, in the vallies of Piedmont, to embrace popery, or quit their country. All who remained and refused to be converted, with their wives and children, suffered a most barbarous massacre. Those who escaped, fled into the mountains, from whence they sent agents into England to CROMWELL for relief, He instantly commanded a general fast, and promoted a national contribution, in which nearly forty thousand pounds were collected. The persecution was suspended, the duke recalled his army, and the survivi inhabitants of the Piedmontese vallies were reins ated in their cottages, and the peaceable exercise of their religion. On this business, there are several state-letters in Cromwell's name written by Milton.-See these Letters translated, and more on this interesting subject, in Jones's History of the Waldenses, vol. ii, p. 342, et seq. The vales redoubled to the hills, and they To Heaven. Their martyred blood and ashes sow 9.-LORD MAYOR'S DAY. The word mayor, if we adopt the etymology of Verstegan, comes from the antient English maier, able or potent, of the verb may or can. King Richard I, A.D. 1189, first changed the bailiffs of London into Mayors; by whose example, others were afterwards appointed. The power of the Lord Mayor is very extensive; for he is not only the King's Representative in the civil government of the city, but also First Commissioner of the Lieutenancy; Perpetual Coroner and Escheator within the city and its liberties, and in the Borough of Southwark; Chief Justice of Oyer and Terminer, and gaol delivery of Newgate; Judge of the Courts of Wardmote at the election of aldermen; Conservator of the rivers Thames and Medway; Perpetual Commissioner in all affairs relating to the river Lea; and Chief Butler to the King at all coronations. No corporation business is valid without his authority; and no election of a mayor for the ensuing year is legal without his presence, he being living. 6 Although the office of the Lord Mayor be elective, yet his supremacy does not cease even on the death of the sovereign; and when this happens, he is considered as the principal officer in the kingdom, and takes his place accordingly in the Privy-council, until the new king be proclaimed.' The convivial preparations for the celebration of Lord Mayor's Day, in London, are upon a very large scale :— Countless turbots and unnumbered soles The busy hum of greasy scullions sounds, The order of the procession is well described in the following parody of a speech in Shakspeare's Henry V : Suppose that you have seen The new-appointed MAYOR at QUEEN-STAIRS' Here the Lord Mayor lands, and proceeds to the Exchequer to be sworn; after this, he returns by water, and disembarks at Blackfriars. The cavalcade advances to Guildhall amidst admiring crowds of citizens, their wives, and children. Meanwhile, in Guildhall, Common Council in their mazarine gowns 'Three Cranes' Wharf, at the bottom of Queen-street, Cheapside, at which place the Lord Mayor used to take water. This place has been abandoned for Blackfriars, for some years past. 2 From three o'clock, when the doors are opened, till halfpast six, |