The Shepherd of Banbury's Rules to Judge of the Changes of the Weather, Grounded on Forty Years' Experience Part 1

The Shepherd of Banbury's Rules to Judge of the Changes of the Weather, Grounded on Forty Years' Experience.

by John Claridge.

INTRODUCTION.

AS we very justly esteem it a fit Tribute of Admiration to adorn natural Curiosities, by setting them as richly and as advantageously as art can direct, so the following Observations of the Shepherd of _Banbury_ have appeared to me worthy of being presented to the Eye of the Public, with all the l.u.s.tre that it was in my Power to give them.

It is one thing to observe, and another to reason upon Observations, and it very rarely happens that both can be taken into the Compa.s.s of one Man's Life. We ought therefore to consider it as a very lucky Incident, when the Observations of another Man, upon whom we can depend, fall into our Hands, and enable us to add natural Experience to the Notions derived to us from Books of Philosophy.

THERE is a Degree of Pedantry in Desarts as well as Colleges. Men who derive their Knowledge entirely from Experience are apt to despise what they call Book Learning, and Men of great Reading are as apt to fall into a less excusable mistake, that of taking the Knowledge of Words for the Knowledge of Things; whereas there are not any two points more opposite in Nature, since we very rarely see, that either true Scholars are talkative, or that talkative Men are true Scholars.

THE Shepherd, whose sole Business it is to observe what has a Reference to the Flock under his Care, who spends all his Days and many of his Nights in the open Air, and under the wide spread Canopy of Heaven, is in a Manner obliged to take particular Notice of the Alterations of the Weather, and when once he comes to take a Pleasure in making such Observations, it is amazing how great a Progress he makes in them, and to how great a Certainty at last he arrives by mere dint of comparing Signs and Events, and correcting one Remark by another. Every thing in Time becomes to him a Sort of Weather-Gage. The Sun, the Moon, the Stars, the Clouds, the Winds, the Mists, the Trees, the Flowers, the Herbs, and almost every Animal with which he is acquainted. All these I say become to such a person Instruments of real Knowledge.

THERE are a Sort of half wise People, who from the Consideration of the Distances of Things, are apt to treat such Prognostications, as they phrase them, with much Contempt. They can see no Connexion between a Cat's was.h.i.+ng her Face, and the Sky's being overspread with Clouds, and therefore they boldly p.r.o.nounce that the one has no Relation to the other. Yet the same People will readily own that the fluttering of the Flame of a Candle is a certain token of Wind, which however is not discernible by their Feeling; because it lies within the Compa.s.s of their Understanding to discern that this Fluctuation of the Flame is caused by the Wind acting upon it, and therefore they are inclined to believe this, though it does not fall actually under the Cognizance of their Senses. But a Man of a larger Compa.s.s of Knowledge, who is acquainted with the Nature and Qualities of the Air, and knows what an Effect any Alterations in the Weight, the Dryness, or the Humidity of it has upon all animal Bodies, easily perceives the Reason why other Animals are much sooner sensible of any Alterations that happen in that Element than Men, and therefore to him the cawing of Ravens, the chattering of Swallows, and a Cat's was.h.i.+ng her Face are not superst.i.tious Signs, but natural tokens (like that of the Candle's fluttering) of a Change of Weather, and as such they have been thought worthy of Notice by _Aristotle_, _Virgil_, _Pliny_, and all the wisest and gravest Writers of Antiquity.

BUT still a few slight and trivial Observations of this Kind, and such as are in the Power of every Man to make, go but a very little Way in furnis.h.i.+ng us with a useful Knowledge of the Indications of the Weather. To supply these, and to have constantly at Hand the Means of judging of these Alterations, Men of great Genius have invented, and wonderful Inventions they are! Instruments for measuring the Heat, the Cold, the Weight, the Dryness, and the Humidity of the Air, with great Exactness, and upon these they reason as to the changes of Weather with great Accuracy and Certainty. It would undoubtedly be a great Folly to pretend to question either the Truth of their Observations, or the Usefulness of them: but then we may have leave to consider how far, and to how great a Degree they are useful. The Thermometer measures exactly the Degrees of Heat, but the Air must be hot to such or such a Degree before it is discerned by this Instrument. The barometer indicates the Weight of the Air, and the rising and falling of the Quicksilver expresses the Alterations in its Weight with wonderful Nicety, but then those Alterations are the Cause of this. In like manner the Hygrometer, or Hygroscope, measures the Dryness or the Humidity of the Air very plainly and very exactly, but the Weather must alter, must become dryer or moister than it was, before these Alterations are visible; and therefore, however ingenious, however curious, however useful these Instruments may be in other Respects, they undoubtedly contribute very little to the prognosticating a Change of Weather at a Distance; and it is from the Experience of this, that they are so little esteemed, so lightly regarded by the common People.

OUR Shepherd's Observations are of quite another Nature, most of them give us a Day's Notice, many a Week's, and some extend to several Months' Prognostication of the Changes of the Weather, and of how great Use these may be to all Ranks and Degrees of People, to the sedentary Valetudinarian, as well as the active Traveller, to the Sportsman who pursues his Game, as well as to the industrious Husbandman who constantly follows his Labour; in short, to every Man in every Situation in some Degree or other, is so very clear and intelligible, that it would, be a mere waste of Words, and a very idle display of Rhetoric, to attempt the making it clearer. Every Man living would be glad to foresee the Alterations of Weather if he could, and consequently to most People, if not to all, these Observations, grounded on no less than forty Years' Experience, cannot but be acceptable.

TO make the best use of one's Talent, and to employ the Lights derived from the Station in which Providence has placed one for the Benefit of Mankind, is undoubtedly discharging one's Duty, answering the End of our Creation, and corresponding with the OEconomy of Nature, which does nothing in vain. This Proposition is equally true, let a Man's Station be what it will. It is the Manner in which we perform, and not the Character, that makes the Player, and in this Sense what Man is not a Player? Here then is an Instance of one who has for many Years studied his Part, and now communicates his Discoveries freely. In a Physician, in a Philosopher, in a Mathematician, this would be highly commendable, and why not in a Shepherd? We do not cast our own Parts in the Drama of Life; no, this is performed by the great Author of Nature.

He who adjusted every Thing on Earth with such Beauty and Harmony, he who taught the Heavenly Bodies to move; the same distributed their several Offices to Men. May we not therefore suppose that every Man's Part is well cast, and that our Abilities are exactly proportioned to our Stations? If so, he who does all he can, does all that ought to be expected from him, and merits from impartial Judges the most general and just Applause. To be convinced of this, we need not only reflect on the narrow and selfish Conduct of some, who either by Study or by Chance, have acquired certain valuable Secrets, which with the utmost Industry they conceal in order to be the more admired, or that they may render them beneficial to themselves. How contrary the Conduct of our Shepherd! His Pains were all his own, but the Fruit of them he thus generously offers to the Public. Good Sense and the dictates of Nature taught him this Maxim, _That what might benefit_ many, _should not be concealed by_ one _from Views of_ Profit _or of_ Pride.

IN my Remarks upon the Shepherd's Rules, I have sometimes endeavoured to support them by Authorities, which I must confess would have been of little Use if the Author had been a Person of Learning; but when it is considered that these Observations were purely the Effect of his own Attention and Experience, it certainly strengthens them, and adds greatly to their Credit that they have been esteemed evident Signs of the same Effects, by the greatest Masters in this Kind of Science. The Art of prognosticating the Weather may be considered as a Kind of decyphering, and in that Art it is always allowed a point of great Consequence, when several Masters therein agree as to the meaning of a Character, and it is from thence very justly presumed that this Character is rightly decyphered.

I have also endeavoured to explain most of his Observations, according to the Rules of the new Philosophy, which, as it is grounded upon.

Experiments, so it generally speaking enables us to give a fair and rational Account of almost all the Phaenomena taken notice of by the Shepherd of _Banbury_.

I likewise have added some other Rules in Relation to the Weather, taken from the common sayings of our Country People, and from old _English_ Books of Husbandry, but I have distinguished all these from the Observations themselves, so that the Reader will have no Trouble to discern the Text from the Commentary, or to know what belongs to the Shepherd of _Banbury_, and what to the Editor of his Observations. This I think may serve by the Way of Introduction, let us now proceed to the Rules themselves.

THE

_Country Calendar_,

OR THE

SHEPHERD OF BANBURY's

OBSERVATIONS.

I.

SUN. _If the Sun rise red and firey._ } Wind and Rain.

THE Reason of this Appearance is, because the Sun s.h.i.+nes through a large Ma.s.s of Vapours, which occasions that red Colour that has been always esteemed a Sign of Rain, especially if the Face of the Sun appear bigger than it ought, for then in a few Hours the Clouds will grow black, and be condensed into Rain, sudden and sharp, if in the Summer, but settled and moderate if in Winter.

THE old _English_ Rule published in our first Almanacks agrees exactly with our Author's Observation.

If red the Sun begins his Race, Be sure that Rain will fall apace.

IF the Reader would see this elegantly described, the Master of Poets hath it thus.[_a_]

Above the Rest, the Sun, who never lies, Foretels the Change of Weather in the Skies; For if he rise unwilling to his Race, Clouds on his Brow, and Spots upon his Face, Or if thro' Mists he shoots his sullen Beams, Frugal of light, in loose and straggling Streams, Suspect a drizzling Day and southern Rain, Fatal to Fruits and Flocks, and promis'd Grain.

[Footnote _a_:

Sol quoque & exoriens, & c.u.m se condit in undas, _Signa_ dabit: _Solem_ certissima signa sequuntur, Et quae Mane refert, & quae surgentibus _Astris_, Ille ubi nascentem _maculis_ variaverit Ortum Concavus in Nubem, medioque refugerit Orbe; Suspecti tibi sint _Imbres_. Namque urget ab alto Arboribusque satisque Notus Pecorique sinister.

Virgil. Georgic. lib. i. v. 438.]

II.

_If cloudy, and it soon decrease._ } Certain fair Weather.

I Conceive the Reason of this to be, that the Vapours being then specifically lighter than the Air, are still rising upwards, in which they are a.s.sisted by the Heat of the Sun Beams, agreeable to the Notion of Dr. _Derham_, who observes, that after much cloudy Weather, it is always fair before it rains, because the watery Vapours are not condensed till they reach the cold upper Region, agreeable to the common _English_ saying,

The Evening red, and Morning grey, Is a Sign of a fair Day.

IT is also an Observation, of _Pliny's_ in his natural History.[_b_]

[Footnote _b_: Nat. Hist. lib. xviii. cap. 35.]

SI ab ortu solis repellentur Nubes, & ad occasum abibunt, _Serenitatem_ denunciabunt,

That is,

IF at Sun rising the Clouds are driven away, and retire as it were to the _West_, this denotes fair Weather.

THERE is an old Adage to this Purpose, which, because it is very prettily expressed, deserves our notice, _viz._

A red Evening and a grey Morning, Sets the Pilgrim a Walking.

In _French_ thus.

Le rogue Soir, & blanc Matin; Font rejouvir le Pelerin.

The _Italians_ say the same.

Sera rosa, & nigro Matino; Allegra il Peregrino.

III.

CLOUDS _Small and round, like a } Dappley-grey, with a_ North-Wind. } Fair Weather for 2 or 3 Days.