associations, with large capitals, undermined his interests, and he again gave fortunes to others which ought to have been his own reward. 12. ASCENSION DAY, OR HOLY THURSDAY. This day always falls on the Thursday but one before Whitsuntide. It has been set apart from the earliest period to commemorate the ascension of our Saviour into Heaven. Queen Elizabeth made a regulation, that the people should on this day, with the curate and principal parishioners, walk in procession, to define and perpetuate the memory of the boundaries of the parishes: and that appropriate prayers should be offered up at all convenient places, giving thanks to God for the increase and abundance of his blessings. The origin of a Venetian custom on this day has been thus given by a late intelligent traveller: "All the world has heard of the annual ceremony of the Doge wedding the sea; few, however, know any thing of its origin and circumstances. In the year 997, the Venetians subdued the people of Narenta; a city on the other side of the Adriatic, inhabited by pirates, not much worse perhaps than themselves, but whom they regarded with a jealous eye. The fleet which accomplished this conquest, had sailed from Venice on the day of the Ascension, and that day was afterwards commemorated every year in some simple and rude way. Nearly two hundred years after this, the Pope Alexander III., persecuted by the Emperor Barbarossa, fled for shelter to the inaccessible city; and the Venetians having effected a reconciliation between these two great personages, saw the emperor, who personally attended on the occasion, seek in their basilica of St. Marco an absolution at the hands of the fugitive pontiff. The latter evinced his gratitude to his protectors in a charac→ teristic manner, by conferring on them the investiture of the Adriatic; and the ceremony took place on the day of the com memoration just mentioned. The gift of a ring is, it seems, symbolical of an investiture, but it is likewise a symbol of marriage; whence the idea of the Doge espousing the sea, and the custom for him to pronounce the following emphatic words while consigning that feudal or nuptial ring to the waves: Mare! noi ti sposiamo in segno del nostro vero e perpetuo Dominio! —The boat in which the Doge used to go out to sea for the ceremony was not at first that gaudy machine called il Bucentoro; for the order of the senate for its construction was only given in the beginning of the fourteenth century, and ran thus: Quod fabricetur navilium ducentorum hominum; and it appears that Ducentorum in course of time became by corruption Bucentoro. This vessel had three decks, each 100 feet long by 22, and was set in motion by 168 rowers on the lower deck, besides a number of towing barges: the second deck was most gorgeously fitted up with crimson velvet and gold, allegorical statues, gilt basso-relievos and trophies, presenting a heterogeneous assemblage of heathen gods and goddesses, with canonized saints and madonnas. All that was great at Venice and high in dignity attended on the occasion; and the Doge, "His high throne under state Of richest texture spread, at the upper end The venerable bridegroom of the Adriatic, when all was ready, and while the Pope's legate or a prelate, his representative, poured a libation of holy water into the sea, rose, and with great solemnity dropped his wedding-ring on the consecrated wave! All the foreign ministers, those even of maritime powers, such as the ambassador of England, witnessed the scene; yet it seems, never entered their protest against a union of which undoubtedly they must have felt very jealous*.” 19. ST. DUNSTAN. He was born at Glastonbury in the year 925, and is said to have been related to King Athelston. He was a man of very considerable abilities, and King Edgar * Travels in Italy and Sicily, by M. Simond, promoted him to the see of Worcester, and afterwards to that of London. In 959 the pope confirmed his appointment as Archbishop of Canterbury, and made him his legate. He died in 988, in his sixty-fourth year. 22. WHIT-SUNDAY. The great festival of Whitsuntide is celebrated seven weeks after Easter, to commemorate the descent of the Holy Ghost on the Apostles after the ascension of our Saviour. In the ancient church it was the custom at this season to baptize, and those persons who were about to receive this rite were expected to appear in white garments, hence the derivation of Whit-Sunday. 22. 1770. PRINCESS OF HOMBERG BORN. Elizabeth, Princess of Homberg, sister to his Majesty, King William IV., was married April 7, 1818, to Frederick Joseph Louis, Landgrave of Hesse Homberg, who died April 2, 1829, in his sixty-first year. This and the following day were formerly festivals, for the same reason as Monday and Tuesday in Easter-week. Their religious character, however, is now almost obsolete, and they are chiefly observed as holidays among the lower classes. 26. ST. AUGUSTIN, OR AUSTIN. The first Archbishop of Canterbury. He was sent with other missionaries by Gregory the Great to preach the Gospel in this island. He landed on the east side of Kent in 596, and converted Ethelbert, the powerful King of Kent, and many of his subjects. After a life zealously devoted to the cause of Christianity, he died about the year 607, but the precise period is unknown. 27. VENERABLE BEDE. This great prodigy of learning was born at Yarrow, in Northumberland, in the year 672. He obtained the title of Venerable, for his unaffected piety and profound learning, for he wrote on most of the branches of knowledge then cultivated in Europe. His writings have been collected and printed in eight folio volumes. He died in the year 735. 29. TRINITY-SUNDAY. The sabbath following Whitsuntide. It is a festival of the church in adoration of the union of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. It was first commemorated about the year 920, but was not formally admitted into the Romish church till the fourteenth century. It is still a custom of ancient usage for the judges and great law-officers of the crown, together with the lordmayor, aldermen, and common-council, to attend divine service at St. Paul's Cathedral, and hear a sermon, which is always preached there on this day by the lordmayor's chaplain. 29. 1660. KING CHARLES II. RESTORED. This day is the anniversary of the King's entry into London, and re-establishment of royalty, which had been suspended from the death of his father. The vulgar custom of wearing oak-leaves on this day, is in commemoration of the shelter afforded to Charles by an oak while making his escape from England, after his defeat at Worcester, by Cromwell. 29. 1830. ROBERT HAMILTON, M. D. DIED, ÆTAT. 82. Dr. Hamilton, though descended from a Scottish family, was born at Coleraine in Ireland in 1748. He was educated for the medical profession at the University of Edinburgh, and in 1780 entered the army as a regimental surgeon; from which, however, he retired in 1784, and settled at Ipswich as a physician. In 1795 he was totally deprived of sight through a rheumatic affection, when in the enjoyment of an extensive practice. He was a member of the College of Physicians and of the Medical Societies of London and Edinburgh. He was the author of several professional works which evince the extent of his abilities. His Duties of a Regimental Surgeon Considered, in 2 Volumes, is a fund of valuable information on an important subject. 30. 1640. SIR PETER PAUL RUBENS died, ÆTAT. 63. He was the most eminent of the Flemish school of painters, of whom Sir Joshua Reynolds said: "that those who cannot see the extraordinary merit of this great painter, either have a narrow conception of the variety of art, or are led away by the affectation of approving nothing but what comes from the Italian school." APOSTROPHE TO PAINTING. BY SIR MARTIN ARCHER SHEE, P. R.A. Bless'd be the skill which thus enshrines the great, Which seems to fix the falling stars of mind, |