Volume 1

The every-day book, or, The guide to the year : relating the popular amusements, sports, ceremonies, manner, customs, and events, incident to the three hundred and sixty-five days, in past and present times : being a series of five thousand anecdotes and facts : forming a perpetual key to the almanac... / by William Hone.

  • Hone, William, 1780-1842.
Date:
[1857?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The every-day book, or, The guide to the year : relating the popular amusements, sports, ceremonies, manner, customs, and events, incident to the three hundred and sixty-five days, in past and present times : being a series of five thousand anecdotes and facts : forming a perpetual key to the almanac... / by William Hone. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/884
    Wolves of our ancient forests, impelled by 'hunger at this season, were wont to prowl and attack man himself; the inferior ani- mals, on whom they usually preyed, having teti.'ed or perishet. from the inclemency of the weather. The Saxons also called this month “Aefter-yula,” or After Christmas. In illuminated calendars prefixed to catholic missals, or service books, January was frequently depicted as a man with fagots or a woodman’s axe, shivering and blowing his fingers. Spenser intro- duces this month in nis Faerie Queene ; Then came old January, wrapped well In many weeds to keep the cold away; Yet did he quake and quiver like to quell; ■And blow his nayles towarme them if he may; For they were numb'd with holding all the day An hatchet keene, with which he felled wood, And from the trees did lop the needlesse spray, 5lanuarp l. fA close holiday at all public offices except the Excise, Cus- toms, and Stamps. This festival stands in the calendar of the church of England, as well as in that of the Roman catholic church. It is said to have been instituted about 487; It first appeared in the reformed English liturgy in 1550. Without noticing every saint to whom each day is dedicated in the Roman catholic calen< dars, the names of saints will be given day by day, as they stand under each day in the last edition of their “ Lives,” by the Rev. Alban Butler, in 12 vols. 8vo. (M the authority of that work the periods will be mentioned when the saints most noted for their miracles flourished, and some of those miracles be stated. Other miracles will be given: First, from ” The Golden Legend,” a black letter folio volume, printed by W. de Worde.—Secondly, from ” The Church History of Britain,” by the Benedictine father, S. Cressy, dedicated by him to the queen con- sort of Charles II., a folio, printed in 1668.— Thirdly, from the catholic translation of the ” Lives of the Saints,” by the Rev. Father Peter Ribadeneira, priest of the society of Jesus, second edition, London,1730, 2vols. folio ; and Fourthly, from other sources which will be named. By this means the reader will be ac- quainted with legends that rendered the saints and the celebration of their festivals popular. For example,the saints in Butler’s Lives on this day occur in the following order : S(. Fulgentius; St. Odilo, or Olou ; St. Almachus, or Telemackns; St. Eu- getidut, or Oyend; St. Fanchea, or Faine ; St. Mochua, or Moncain, alias Clannus ; St. Mochua, alias Cronan, of Balia. Sts. Mochua. According to Butler, these were Irish saints. One founded the mo- nastery, now the town of Balia, in Con- naught. The other is said to have founded 120 eelli, and thirty churches, in one of which he passed thirty years, and died about the sixth century. Bishop Patrick, in his “ Reflexions upon the Devotions of the Roman Church,” 1674, 8vo. cites of St. Mochua, that while walking and pray- ing, and seeing a company of lambs run- ning hastily to suck their mothers, he drew a line upon the ground which none of the hungry lambs durst pass. Patrick again cites, that St. Mochua having been vi- sited by St Kyenanus and fifteen of his clergy, they came to an impetuous and impassable river on their return, and wanted a boat; whereupon St. Mochua spread his mantle on the water, and Kye- nanus with his fifteen priests were carried safely over upon the mantle, which floated back again to St. Mochua without wrinkle or wetting. St. Fanchea, or Faine, is said by Butler to have been an Irish saint of the sixth century. Patrick quotes that St. Endeus desiring to become a monk, his compa- nions approached to dissuade him ; but, upon the prayers of St. Faine, and her making the sign of the cross, their feet stuck to the earth like immovable stones, until by repentance they were loosed and went their way. St. Fulgentius, according to Butler, died on the 1st of January, 533, sometimes went barefoot, never undressed to take rest, noi ate flesh meat, but chiefly lived on pulse and herbs, though when old he admitted the use of a little oil. He preached, ex- plained mysteries, controverted with here- tics, and built monasteries. Butler con- cludes by relating, that after his death, a bishop named Pontian was assured in a vision of Fulgentius’s immortality; that his relics were translated to Bourges, where they are venerated; and that the saint’s head is in the church of the archbishop’s seminary. NEW YEAR’S DAY. Tlie King of Light, father of aged Time, Hath brought about that day, which is the prime To the slow gliding months, when every eye Wears symptoms of a sober jollity; And every hand is ready to present Some service in a real compliment. Whilst some in gol^ «n letters write then love. Some speak affection by a ring or glove, Or pins and points (for ev’n the peasant may After his ruder fashion, he as gay As the brisk courtly sir,) and thinks that h< Cannot, without a gross absurdity.