About the time of Lord Kames's establishment at Blair-Drummond, or
perhaps a little earlier, a certain Master Claridge published "The
Country Calendar; or, The Shepherd of Banbury's Rules to know of the
Change of the Weather." It professed to be based upon forty years'
experience, and is said to have met with great favor. I name it only
because it embodies these old couplets, which still lead a vagabond life
up and down the pages of country-almanacs:--

"If the grass grows in Janiveer,
It grows the worst for't all the year."

"The Welshman had rather see his dam on the bier.
Than to see a fair Februeer."

"When April blows his horn,
It's good both for hay and corn."

"A cold May and a windy
Makes a full barn and a findy."

"A swarm of bees in May
Is worth a load of hay;
But a swarm in July
Is not worth a fly."

Will any couplets of Tennyson reap as large a fame?

About the same period, John Mills, a Fellow of the Royal Society,
published a work of a totally different character,--being very methodic,