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Transcriber’s Notes

  Typographical transcription used: text between ~tildes~,
  _underscores_, and =equal signs= represents text printed in the
  original work in blackletter, italics and bold face, respectively.
  Small capitals have been transcribed as ALL CAPITALS. Superscript text
  has been transcribed as ^{text}.

  More transcriber’s notes (including a list of corrections) may be
  found at the end of this text.


[Illustration: PETRARCH’S INKSTAND.

IN THE POSSESSION OF MISS EDGEWORTH, PRESENTED TO HER BY A LADY.]

    By beauty won from soft Italia’s land,
    Here Cupid, Petrarch’s Cupid, takes his stand.
    Arch suppliant, welcome to thy fav’rite isle,
    Close thy spread wings, and rest thee here awhile;
    Still the true heart with kindred strains inspire,
    Breathe all a poet’s softness, all his fire;
    But if the perjured knight approach this font,
    Forbid the words to come as they were wont,
    Forbid the ink to flow, the pen to write,
    And send the false one baffled from thy sight.

  _Miss Edgeworth._




  THE
  EVERY-DAY BOOK
  AND
  TABLE BOOK;

  OR,

  EVERLASTING CALENDAR OF POPULAR AMUSEMENTS,
  SPORTS, PASTIMES, CEREMONIES, MANNERS,
  CUSTOMS, AND EVENTS,

  INCIDENT TO
  ~Each of the Three Hundred and Sixty-five Days,~
  IN PAST AND PRESENT TIMES;

  FORMING A
  COMPLETE HISTORY OF THE YEAR, MONTHS, AND SEASONS,

  AND A

  PERPETUAL KEY TO THE ALMANAC;

  INCLUDING

  ACCOUNTS OF THE WEATHER, RULES FOR HEALTH AND CONDUCT, REMARKABLE AND
  IMPORTANT ANECDOTES, FACTS, AND NOTICES, IN CHRONOLOGY, ANTIQUITIES,
  TOPOGRAPHY, BIOGRAPHY, NATURAL HISTORY, ART, SCIENCE, AND GENERAL
  LITERATURE; DERIVED FROM THE MOST AUTHENTIC SOURCES, AND VALUABLE
  ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS, WITH POETICAL ELUCIDATIONS, FOR DAILY USE AND
  DIVERSION.

  BY WILLIAM HONE.

    I tell of festivals, and fairs, and plays,
    Of merriment, and mirth, and bonfire blaze;
    I tell of Christmas-mummings, new year’s day,
    Of twelfth-night king and queen, and children’s play;
    I tell of valentines, and true-love’s-knots,
    Of omens, cunning men, and drawing lots:

    I tell of brooks, of blossoms, birds and bowers,
    Of April, May, of June, and July-flowers;
    I tell of May-poles, hock-carts, wassails, wakes,
    Of bridegrooms, brides, and of their bridal cakes;
    I tell of groves, of twilights, and I sing
    The court of Mab, and of the fairy king.

  HERRICK.

  WITH FOUR HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SIX ENGRAVINGS.

  IN THREE VOLUMES.

  VOL. III.

  LONDON:
  PRINTED FOR THOMAS TEGG,
  73, CHEAPSIDE.


J. Haddon, Printer, Castle Street, Finsbury.




PREFACE.


On the close of the EVERY-DAY BOOK, which commenced on New Year’s Day,
1825, and ended in the last week of 1826, I began this work.

The only prospectus of the TABLE BOOK was the eight versified lines on
the title-page. They appeared on New Year’s Day, prefixed to the first
number; which, with the successive sheets, to the present date,
constitute the volume now in the reader’s hands, and the entire of my
endeavours during the half year.

So long as I am enabled, and the public continue to be pleased, the
TABLE BOOK will be continued. The kind reception of the weekly numbers,
and the monthly parts, encourages me to hope that like favour will be
extended to the half-yearly volume. Its multifarious contents and the
illustrative engravings, with the help of the copious index, realize my
wish, “to please the young, and help divert the wise.” Perhaps, if the
good old window-seats had not gone out of fashion, it might be called a
parlour-window book--a good name for a volume of agreeable reading
selected from the book-case, and left lying about, for the constant
recreation of the family, and the casual amusement of