COUNTRY LIFE
DOES any one now read Sir Thomas Browne or, if he reads him, read him for anything else than the force of his language? He was, after all, a good naturalist, and had a certain gift for weather prophecy. So far as he kept statistics he was inclined (in spite of his notable gift for belief) to disbelieve the popular tags. The old doggerel verses concerned with Candlemas appear among his Vulgar Errors. Candlemas, which falls on February 2nd, shares with St. Swithin, of July 15th, the gift of long-term prognostication, but substitutes cold for wet ; and the attribu- tion of this gift is of very long standing. Sir Thomas quotes: Si Sol Splendescat Maria Purificante Major Erit Glades Post Festum Quam Fuit Ante— a couplet, incidentally, that interests those who concern themselves with the history of rhyme. This year, it so happens, the first series of sunny frosts began on Candlemas Day, and the one premature crocus "laid its cheek to mire," in Meredith's uncomely phrase. Yet in spite of the quite abnormal number of precocities, the various blossoms- lungwort, primula, daphne, aconite, heather and the rest--seemed not to feel the frost, perhaps in part because it was very white. Frost is usually a friend in the early months of the year ; but a fiend in April and May.
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