18.-WHIT-SUNDAY.. On Whit-Sunday, or White-Sunday, the catechumens, who were then baptized, as well as those who had been baptized before at Easter, appeared, in the antient church, in white garments. The celebration of divine service in St. Peter's church at Rome, on Whit-Sunday, is described in T.T. for 1815, p. 165. 19.-WHIT-MONDAY. This day and Whit-Tuesday are observed as festivals, for the same reason as Monday and Tuesday in Easter. Their religious character, however, is almost obsolete, and they are now kept as holidays, in which the lower classes still pursue their favourite diversions. For an account of the Eton Montem, see T. T. for 1815, p. 168. The Whitsun Ales and other customs formerly observed at this season, are noticed in T.T. for 1814, pp. 119-120. Dunstan was promoted to the see of Worcester by King Edgar; he was afterwards Bishop of London, and Archbishop of Canterbury. He died in 988, in the 64th year of his age, and in the 27th of his archiepiscopal dignity. His miracles are too commonly known to be repeated. 21, 23, 24.-EMBER DAYS.-See p. 25.-TRINITY SUNDAY. 43. Stephen, Bishop of Liege, first drew up an office in commemoration of the Holy Trinity, about the year 920; but the festival was not formally admitted into the Romish church till the fourteenth century, under the pontificate of John XXII.-See T.T. for 1820, p. 135; and The Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity briefly stated and defended,' by the Rev. T. H. Horne, M.A., author of an Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures;' of which last work a third edition has lately been published, greatly improved and enlarged, in four thick volumes octavo. 26. AUGUSTIN, or AUSTIN. This English apostle, as he is termed, was commissioned by Pope Gregory the Great to convert the Saxons. He was created Archbishop of Canterbury in 556, and died about the year 610.-See a fuller account of him in T.T. for 1815, p. 174. 27.-VENERABLE BEDE. Bede was born at Yarrow in Northumberland, in 673. His grand work is the Ecclesiastical History of the Saxons. Bede has obtained the title of Venerable, for his profound learning and unaffected piety. Mr. WORDSWORTH, in his 'Sonnets and Memorials,' recently published, has paid an elegant tribute to the memory of BEDE. Having described the 'primitive Saxon clergy,' their entire devotion to religious duties, and their secluded life, the poet thus beautifully continues his sonnettal chain of linked sweetness long drawn out:' Methinks that to some vacant hermitage My feet would rather turn-to some dry nook In the soft heav'n of a translucent pool; Thence creeping under forest arches cool, Perchance would throng my dreams. A beechen bowl, Crisp, yellow leaves my bed; the hooting owl My night-watch: nor should e'er the crested fowl From thorp or vill his matins sound for me, Tired of the world and all its industry. But what if one, through grove or flow'ry mead, Perpetual industry. Sublime recluse! 29.-CORPUS CHRISTI. This festival, the body of Christ,' was appointed in honour of the Eucharist, and always falls on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday. It is called the Feté Dieu, or Corpus Christi, and is one of the most remarkable festivals of the Romish church, beginning on Trinity Sunday, and ending on the Sunday following. See T.T. for 1818, p. 117. 29.-KING CHARLES II RESTORED. On the 8th of May, 1660, Charles II was proclaimed in London and Westminster, and afterwards throughout his dominions, with great joy and universal acclamations. See T.T. for 1815, p. 176; for 1820, p. 137; and for 1821, pp. 108-110. *31. 1821.-OLIVER CROMWELL DIED, ÆT. 79, The last lineal descendant of the celebrated Protector; being the great grandson of Henry Cromwell, Lord-deputy of Ireland, who was the fourth son of the Protector. He has left a daughter, Elizabeth Oliveria, married to T. A. Russel, Esq. of Cheshunt, not long before his decease. Mr. C. published Memoirs of the Protector, Oliver Cromwell, and his Sons Richard and Henry,' illustrated by Original Letters and other family Papers, with six portraits, in quarto; and since reprinted in two vols. 8vo. Another (collateral) descendant, Mr. Thomas Cromwell, has just published a second edition of his Oliver Cromwell and his Times,' which steers a middle course between the prejudiced representations of Hume, and the panegyric of Mr. Oliver Cromwell. Mr. Thomas C. He expired in the act of concluding a translation of St. John's Gospel. exhibits very considerable research in his attempt to ascertain the Protector's real character; and is fully entitled to the praise of candour in his representations and fidelity in his statements. As a fair specimen of his book, we give the following excellent summary of the character of Cromwell. He was a compound of such virtues and vices, of qualities so various and so opposed, that a mind and powers exactly similar to his own were alone perhaps capable of literally developing his career. Religious to the last, in his private and domestic conduct, he accustomed himself to the practice of a greater or less degree of dissimulation throughout his public life. Enthusiastic to a high degree in the cause he had espoused, he yet calculated consequences one by one, as they occurred, with almost unfailing exactness. So simple were his language and manners, that he appeared incapable of disguising a purpose that had arisen in his mind; yet by penetration and address the most exquisite, did he at the same time so read the hearts, and so accommodate himself to the humours, of all with whom he associated, as at once to make them his firm friends, and footstools to his future elevation over them. His existence became a perpetual harlequinade: his expressions shifting from the spiritual to the coarsely jocular; his conduct, from the pliant to the overbearing; from the submissive to the most vehement contradictions and the boldest opposition. He could be gentle, almost to effeminacy; or rude, almost to brutality: the protector of an insect, or a savage presiding at a human massacre! He was found to have faculties, tempers, tastes, nay even apparent habits, adapted to all seasons and occasions. Hence he could pursue an object by the most concealed and devious tracks, or pounce upon it, like the eagle, by a single flight and stoop: he could charm away impediments from his path, or shiver them to fragments at a blow: he could enter with an equal zest into the occupations of preaching, fighting, and reigning; was equally at home in the prayer-meeting, the camp, and the palace: and, as hitherto he had brewed, and farmed, with all a tradesman's tact for the arts of business and acquiring wealth, he now bestrode his war-horse with a grace entirely chivalric, and vaulted from the saddle but to sit the throne with an ease that made royalty seem a portion of his nature. Meanwhile, in every change of time and circumstance, religion, be it once again peculiarly observed, far from contracting, enlarged her hold upon his feelings, but gradually deserting his judgment, while her sphere of influence was lamentably abridged. In fact, the success that attended all his undertakings taught his enthusiasm so greatly to extend it in idea, that, finally, his every action appeared to him directed by an heavenly guidance, and his very crimes the offspring of a decreed necessity, or instruments to execute upon earth God's righteous vengeance!'-See T.T. for 1817, p. 257, for a character of Cromwell, by Mr. Noble. Åstronomical Occurrences In MAY 1823. SOLAR PHENOMENA. THE Sun enters Gemini at 39 m. after 10 in the evening of this month. He also rises and sets, during the same period, as in the following TABLE Of the Sun's Rising and Setting for every fifth Day. |