صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

AUGUST.

O'er fields embrowned, lo! August slowly bends!
And yellow Plenty, smiling, gilds the lands.

The eighth month was named after Augustus Cæsar, in honour of his having obtained the consulate before the time usually prescribed, and having thrice subdued Egypt.

1. LAMMAS DAY.

A festival in honour of St. Peter's imprisonment. Lammas, or loaf-mass, for an offering made by the Saxons of bread, with new wheat, indicative of the first fruits of harvest.

1. 1831. LONDON BRIDGE OPENED.

The ceremony of opening this splendid edifice, took place this day, and was attended by their Majesties, and many thousands of spectators. Such was the anxiety to obtain places on the bridge, that, it is said, £50 was offered and refused for a single ticket. A splendid tent for the accommodation and entertainment of the Royal party, was erected on the city side of the bridge, and adjoining tents for the bridge Committee, the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, Common Council, and numerous others. At three o'clock, their Majesties took water at Somerset

House, and proceeded in the midst of a dense mass of boats, barges, and people; and on their arrival at the bridge, they were received by the Committee amid the firing of cannon, and the shouts of the populace. The whole presented a grand and enlivening appearance; the bridge was covered with banners, and the vessels with flags of all nations. To add to the scene, a balloon ascended in a grand style on the Southwark side. After partaking of a splendid entertainment the royal party re-embarked, much pleased with the ceremony.

The bridge was commenced on the 7th of May 1825, thus occupying seven years and three months in its erection. Upwards of 120,000 tons of stone were used in the construction, and more than 800 men employed daily upon it. The bridge consists of five beautifully formed elliptical arches, the centre one being 152 feet in span (the largest elliptical stone arch in existence), and 29 feet 6 inches in height. The other arches are 140, and 130 feet in span. The whole has a handsome and antique appearance. The approaches to the bridge, however, have been much censured, and certainly appear very awkwardly contrived for the neighbourhoods into which they lead.

The demolition of the old bridge, which it is evident was capable of standing many centuries, was commenced on the 21st of November, 1831.

6.

TRANSFIGURATION OF OUR LORD.

A festival in commemoration of our Saviour's transfiguration, or his change of appearance, on the top of Mount Tabor.

NAME OF JESUS.

The Holy Name of Jesus is a festival kept in the Romish Church on the second sunday after the Epiphany. In the reformed calendar it was removed to this day, but for what reason does not appear. In the ancient church the Name of Jesus was inscribed on the top of crosses erected on the highways by the means of initials, thus, I. H. S. Jesus Hominum Salvator, or I. N. R. I. Jesus Nazarenus Rex Judæorum, or I. H. C. Jesus Humanitatis Consolator. These crosses, with the name of Jesus thus affixed, were on the appointed day more devoutly reverenced than usual, every pious Christian making it a point not to omit his acknowledgment to the great author of his faith.

10. ST. LAWRENCE,

A Spaniard, and treasurer of the church of Rome. Having distributed some of the church property to the poor, he was sentenced, by Valerian, to be broiled on a gridiron; which sentence he underwent in the year 258.

13, 1792. QUEEN ADELAIDE BORN.

Adelaide Amelia Louisa Teresa Caroline, sister to the reigning Duke of Saxe Meiningen, was married July 11, 1818, to his present Majesty.

15. ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. This day commemorates the assumption or ascension of the Virgin Mary into Heaven.

18, 1831. ARCHBISHOP MAGEE DIED, ÆTAT. 66. The Rev. William Magee, D. D., Archbishop of Dublin, Bishop of Glendalagh, and Primate of Ireland; Chancellor of the Order of St. Patrick, Visitor of Trinity College, Dublin, and M. R. I. A., was born of humble parents, and to his own

exertions owed his advancement in life. In 1801 he published his well known Discourses on the Scriptural Doctrines of the Atonement and Sacrifice, the effect of which was his advancement in the church; in 1813 to the Deanery of Cork; in 1819 to the Bishopric of Raphoe; and in 1822 to the See of Dublin, by the late Lord Liverpool.

KING WILLIAM IV. BORN.

21, 1765.

Or rather Tholomew, or Tolmai.

24. ST. BARTHOLOMEW,

He was one of the

apostles of Christ, and after spreading the Gospel through various barbarous countries, suffered martyrdom in Great Armenia.

27, 1830. COMTE LOUIS DE SEGUR DIED,

ÆTAT. 77.

Louis, eldest son of the Marquis de Segur, was born at Paris in 1753. He served in the revolutionary war in America, and in 1786 was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of St. Petersburgh; during his sojourn at which he accompanied the Empress Catherine in her celebrated journey to the Crimea. When the revolution broke out, in 1789, he returned to Paris and joined the royalists; and on the dethronement of the King, was arrested by the Committee of Public Safety. Being afterwards liberated, he left France, and having lost all his property, supported himself, his father, and family, by the productions of his pen; after the fall of Robespierre he returned to Paris, and voted for the consulship for life to Buonaparte, which he thought was the only way of consolidating the new institutions. After being elected a member of the National Institute, he became a Senator in 1813. On the restoration of Louis XVIII. he was made a peer of France, but on Buonaparte's return from Elba, having accepted a peerage from Napoleon, he was stripped of all his dignities on the final restoration in 1815. The remainder of his days were spent in retirement and literary pursuits.

Among his numerous productions are The History of Modern

Europe; Moral and Political Gallery; Political Picture of Europe; History of the Reign of Frederick William the Second; Poetical Pieces; and an Ancient and Modern History for Youth, in 38 volumes.

28. ST. AUGUSTINE.

He was born of poor parents, at Tagosta, in Africa, in 354; and in early life led a dissolute course. Being converted in 386, he became a rigid devotee, and after serving as a priest for many years, was ordained bishop of Hippo in 395. He was founder of the oldest order of monks, and after many years of zealous devotion, he resigned this life in the year 430.

29. ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST BEHEADed.

A festival in remembrance of the decolation of St John. (See page 71.) ·

31, 1688. JOHN BUNYAN died.

[graphic]

The justly celebrated Bunyan was born at Elstow, near Bedford, in the cottage here represented. His father was a tinker, but the son became pastor of a Baptist congregation at Bedford, which being condemned as an unlawful conventicle, by the infamous government of Charles II. the pastor was thrown into Bedford goal, and there kept for twelve years and a half, where he wrote his immortal Pilgrim's Progress, and other works.

« السابقةمتابعة »