The Monitor-register., 1897-07-30
ST. Swithin. His nau-

The present remarkable but by no
means unprecedented "spell of weather.
has provoked much talk about st. Swi-
Trims Day and it meteorological tradi.
tion. People are saying that because it
rained on St. Swithin's Day it has rained
every day since, and will continue 80 to
do until forty days from that date have
elapsed. Thus will be fulfilled the saw.
ing of the familiar but usually misquoted
lines:
st. swithins Day, If thou dost rain,
For forty days it will remain.
st. Swithin's Day, if thou be fair,
For forty days twill rain nae mair.
Truly, the outlook seems favorable for
such fulfillment. 1.-THE rain it raipeth
every day." and there is no prospect of
abatement. But-we shall see.
For this much is to be said in conf.
dence, that. unlike many other old
traditions, the st. Swithin's Day legend
has no basis in reason or in fact. st,
Swithin was, indeed, 9 real person. He
was born about the year 800, was made
Bishop of Winchester by King Ethel.
wulf, whose tutor he had been, died after
career of good works in 862, and, at
his own express command, was buried
not within the cathedral, as was the GUS
tom, but in mean place without it's
walls. So far, SO good. More than
century later-to wit, on July Is, 971-
his body was disinterred and placed
within the cathedral. AS a rebuke to
those who thus disobeyed the saints
command, says the legend, there came
on that day a tremendous downpour of
rain, which continued for forty days and
forty nights, and ever since the rule
expressed in the rhyming saying has
been fulfilled.
Now the facts are these: In the first
place, July 10, 971, when st. Swithin's
body was removed, was fair and bright,
and not drop of rain fell, at least at
Winchester. In the second place, there
Is no instance on record of the fulfillment
of the rule. There have been plenty of
rainy July 15ths, but not one has been
followed by forty days of rain. Some
years ago the matter was carefully inves-
tigated by the authorities of Greenwich
Observatory. 1t was found that in q
period of twenty years there had been
several stormy St. Swithin's Days, but
not one of them had been followed by
forty days of rain, nor had any of the
rainless ones been followed by forty rain.
less days. On the contrary, the forty
days following the wet st. Swithin's
Days were on the average dryer than
those following the fair ones, thus indi-
eating the reverse of the rule.
Finally. and most to the present point,
st. Swithin's Day this year was not
rainy. 1t was one of the most conspicu-
ously rainless days of this whole year.
There were few light local showers in
the Ohio and Tennessee valleys, but
otherwise not drop of rain fell that day
in the whole United States. 1t had
rained daily for some time before, and it
has been raining daily ever since, but
that one day seemed to be singled out of
the whole wet month to be dry and fair.
The wet weather we are now b aving is
following, therefore, not a rainy, but
fair ST. Swithin's Day. A more direct
contradiction of the old legend could not
we'll be conceived. Nevertheless, people
will continue to quote the saying as
Gospel truth and to avoid walking under
ladders and to decline to sit down in
thirteen at table. 1t may be true that
error ''dies among his worshippers," but
takes weary long time to do it.-M r
Tribune.