March in Janiveer, Janiveer in March I fear. March hack ham, comes in like a lion, goes out like a lamb.

A bushel of March dust is worth a king's ransom. March grass never did good.

A windy March, and a showery April, make a beautiful May.

A March wisher is never a good fisher.

March wind and May sun, make clothes white and maids dun.

So

many frosts in March, so many in May March many weathers.

March birds are best.

April showers bring forth May flowers.

In April the cuckoo show his bill.

In May he sing night and day.

In June he change his tune.

In July away he fly.

In August away he must.

Chaucer writes in his Canterbury tales :

When that Aprilis with her showery soote
The droughte of March had pierced to the roote.
When April blows his horn, it's good both for
hay and corn.

A cold April the barn will fill.

An April flood carries away the frog and her

brood.

A cold May and a windy, makes a full barn and a findy.

The merry month of May.

April and May are the keys of the year.

May, come she early or come she late, she'll make the cow to quake.

Beans blow before May doth go.

A May flood never did good.

Look at your corn in May, and you'll come weeping away.

Look at the same in June, and you'll come home in another tune.

Shear your sheep in May, and shear them all away.
A swarm of bees in May is worth a load of hay;
But a swarm in July is not worth a fly.
Calm weather in June sets corn in tune.

If on the eleventh of June it rain,*

*

It foretells a wet harvest, men sain.

If the second of July it be rainy weather,†
"Twill rain more or less for four weeks together.
A shower in July, when the corn begins to fill,
Is worth a plough of oxen, and all belongs there till,

*St. Barnabas.

†The Visitation.

*

No tempest, good July,lest corn come off blue by. Dry August and warm, doth harvest no harm. If the twentyfourth of August be fair and clear,* Then hope for a prosperous autumn that year. September, blow soft, 'till the fruit's in the loft. Good October, a good blast,

To blow the hog acorn and mast.

November take flail, let ships no more sail.

When the wind's in the East, it's neither good for man nor beast.

When the wind's in the South, it's in the rain's mouth.

When the wind's in the South,

It blows the bait into the fishes' mouth.

No weather is ill, if the wind be still.
A hot May makes a fat churchyard.
When the sloetree is as white as a sheet,
Sow your barley whether it be dry or wet.
A green winter makes a fat churchyard.
Hail brings frost in the tail.

A snow year, a rich

year.

Winter's thunder's summer's wonder.

* St. Bartholemew.

Drought never bred dearth in England.

Whoso hath but a mouth, shall ne'er in England suffer drought.

When the sand doth feed the clay,

England woe and welladay.

But when the clay doth feed the sand,
Then it is well with Angle Land.

After a famine in the stall,

Comes a famine in the hall.

When the cuckoo comes to the bare thorn,

Sell your cow, and buy your corn:
But when she comes to the full bit,
Sell your corn, and buy your sheep.
If the cock moult before the hen,
We shall have weather thick and thin;
But if the hen moult before the cock,
We shall have weather hard as a block.

As the days lengthen, so the cold strengthen.

If there be a rainbow in the eve, it will rain and leave.

But if there be a rainbow in the morrow, it will neither leed nor borrow.

A rainbow in the morning
Is the shepherd's warning,
But a rainbow at night
Is the shepherd's delight.

When the clouds are upon the hills, they'll come down by the rills.

Winter's thunder, and summer's flood,
Never boded Englishman good.

If Candlemas Day be fair and bright,
Winter will have another flight:

If on Candlemas Day it be shower and rain,
Winter is gone, and will not come again.
If St. Paul's Day be faire and cleere,
It doth betide a happie yeere.

I insert in conclusion the well known rules of the Shepherd of Banbury,

If the sun rise red and fiery, wind and rain.* If cloudy and it soon decrease, certain fair weather.

Clouds small and round, like a dapple grey with a North wind, fair weather for two or three days.

Large clouds like rocks, forebode great showers. If small clouds increase, much rain,

If large clouds decrease, fair weather.

Mists, if they rise in low ground and soon vanish, fair weather.

* The same is observed of the Moon, of whose three several indications the adage says,

Pallida luna pluit, rubicunda flat, alba serenat.