The Sun.
London, England, 1849-07-25 00:00:00

ST. SWITHIN'S DAY, JULY 15.

If wet on St. Swithin's Day, it will be wet for forty days;
but if fine, it will be fine for forty days.—Ohl Proverb.

A friend, under the signature of Ecer.. ANTIQ., has
sent us the following brief but interesting paper :
The return of Sr. Swithin's Day, and the tradition
connected with it, naturally lead to the inquiry, who
was the Saint commemorated, and whence the origin of
the tradition coupled with his name.

The following remarks will help the inquirer to a
tolerably comet view of this subject, and tend to satisfy
him that that which is often considered a mere foolish

proverbial saying, has for its foundation a certain degree
of philosophical truth.
Swithin—in the Saxon, Swithum—was descended
from a Saxon family of rank, and was born about the
year 800. Ho was a native of the city of Winchester.
He passed his youth in study, and had acquired the
reputation of considerable literary attainments, when
Helmstan, Bishop of Winchester, ordained him priest,
and appointed him president of a monastery in tha,
city, which afterwards bore his name—the priory of
St. Swithin. On the accession of King Ethelwolf to
the throne, in 833, he was appointed Sub-deacon of
Winchester, Lord Chancellor, and the King's principal
adviser, both in Church and State. On the death of
Helmstan, in 844, Ethelwolf promoted Swithin to the see
of Winchester, at that time the metropolis of England,
to which he was consecrated in 852, and in which
he remained until his death, which took place A.D.
862-3. His remains were interred, according to his re-
quest, in the open churchyard of the Minster, but they
were afterwards removed into the new church, at the
desire of Bishop Walkelyn, in the year 1093.
St. Swithin is universally esteemed to have been a
man of exemplary sanctity of life and manners, accord•
in.' to the religion of the times in which he lived.
Many- miracles have been attributed to him, and these
are referred to in the following very old versification of

the lives of the saints:—
" Seynt Swithin his bishopricke to al goodnesse drough,
The towne also of Wynchestre he amended inough. '
Warton's History of English Poetry, Vol. I.
Your readers will all be aware of the popular adage,
that "if it rain on St. Swithin's Day, we shall have a
continuance of it for forty days after." To this proverb
Gay alludes in his " Trivia:"
" If on St. Swithin's feast the welki❑ lowers,
And every penthouse streams with hasty showers,
Twice twenty days shall clouds with fleeces drain,
And wash the pavement with incessant rain."
The Scotch proverb is thus expressed:—
" Saint Swithin's thy, gif yo do rain,
For forty daies it will remain;
Saint Swithin's day, an ye be fair,
For forty daies 'twill rain nae mair."

The following is the vulgar origin of this adage:—
The Saint desired to be buried in the open church-
yard ; in allusion to which Bishop Hall adds that he
wished his body to be laid, " where the drops of rain
might wet his grave ; thinking that no vault was so
good to cover his grave as that of heaven."
This request is complied with ; but :some monks,
after he had been canonized, considering it undignified
for his remains to lie in a public cemetery, obtained an
order to remove them into the choir, where bishops were
wont to be buried, which was to have been done with so-

lean procession on the 15th July. On that day, however,
and for the 39 succeeding ones, it rained almost without
intermission, and with such violence that the design was
abandoned, as displeasing to St. Swithin, heretical, and
blasphemous. This fact is sufficiently authenticated by
tradition to be assumed as true, and hence the origin of
the saying referred to above.
But passing over this view of the subject, there is a
rational ground for this popular belief; and philosophy
may be brought in to aid us in explaining the con-
tinuance of an adage, which had its origin probably
only in superstition. It has been well remarked,
" though originating in the superstitious belief that
the rain which fell at the period appointed for the re•
moval of St. Swithin's remains was the result of super-
natural agency, this adage can only have retained its
popularity from being founded in some degree, in fact or
experience." Mr. Howard in his " Climate of London,"
observes, " the tradition is so far valuable as it proves
that the summers in this southern part of the island
were subject a thousand years ago to occasional heavy
rains, in the same way as at present." Again—" Tee
notion commonly entertained on this subject, if put
strictly to the test of experience, at any one station at
this part of our island, will be found fallacious. To do
justice, however, to popular observation, I may now
state, that in a great majority of our summers, a showery
period, which, with some latitude as to time and local
circumstances, may be admitted to constitute daily rain
for forty days, does come on about the time indicated by
is
this tradition; not that any long space before
often
so dry as to mark distinctly its commencement." ' Mr.
Howard as taken some pains to ascertain how far the
popular notion is borne out by fact. The result of his
investigation is, that in 1807 it rained with us on the
day in question, and a dry time followed; and the same
in 1808. In 1818 and 1819 it was dry on the 15th, and
a very dry time in each case followed. The other sum-
mers occurring between 1807 and 1819 appear to have
come under the general proposition, " that in a majority
of summers a showery period, which, with some lati-
tude as to time and circumstances, may be admitted to
constitute daily rain for forty days, does come on or
about the time indicated by the tradition of St. Swithin."
In fact, rain in the middle of July, in the climate of
England, is seasonable, and therefore t) be expected;
and if rain falls on any given day about that period, it
usually happens that it will also fall for many days after.
Thus St. Swithin's Day is (fortunately for the adage)
placed in this twofold natural situation:—first, that it
occurs in a part of the summer which is usually rainy;
and, secondly, that if it should be a rainy day, it is na-
tural it should be followed by other rainy days. It re
mains only to add that St. Swithin's Day falls in the Dog
Days, at which time the heat of the sun is usually the
most intense, and which has afforded the following phi-
losophical solution of the forty days' rain, if it should
ensue:—viz., that if a heavy rain falls on the earth at
this season, the heat is so great that the evaporation is
proportionately quickened. The water which has been
thrown on the earth re ascends rapidly in the forim of
vapour; in the higher regions of the atmosphere
is
condensed; it falls again; it is evaporateorai• ias.end—bi
evaporation, into the air again—it is condensed_ n
the
falls again; and thus repeatedly for many day, t"
winch:, or other changes in the atintoisaphoeiree,dicmarirzsitihede
clouds to distant parts; or rather,.
heat of the season suffers the rain, when it has fallen, to
sink into the earth.
The writer trusts the above remarks will lyc considered
in some measure a rational and philosophical solution of
the popular adage, that if it rains on St. Swithin's Day,
an re will be rain for forty days after.—Bradford
1 Observer.
.5

THE ISLAND OF GRENADA.—The Lords of the
Treasury having been pleased, as signified by a letter
from Mr. Ilayter, one of their Lordships' Secretaries,
to approve of the arrangements necessary to be made,
in consequence of the repeal of the imperial duties of
Customs heretofore levied in the Island of Grenada, and
the requisite instructions having been issued to the
officers of the Customs Department in that colony for
carrying their Lordships' directions into effect, the Com-
missioners of the Customs have caused a notification to
that effect to be made to the Collectors and Comptrollers
of the
throughout the United Kingdom, and the officers of the
revenue in the Colonies for their government,
Department at