Hone’s Everyday Book (page 4/6)

Vernal Equinox

Perhaps not a very clear illustration of an equinox, but still a pretty woodcut of the Sun’s rays reaching the Earth.

April

April is a youth with curly hair and carrying a garland. He wears a tunic and sandals, with a cape billowing out behind him in the wind, and he rides a bucking bull that is jumping up out of a puddle, reminding us that [in England] April is a season [...] [more...]

May

A poem beneath the picture reads as follows: [more...]

Francis Grose, Esq. F.S.A. etc.

Francis Grose was a well-known historian and lexicographer. There are some scanned images from his Antiquities and also his 1811 dictionary of slang. [more...]

June

(page 738) [more...]

Summer

(page 817) [more...]

July

A naked and barefoot bearded man rides a lion, holding reins. He carries a two-handed scythe strapped to his back, with a sickle at his side, and laughs, with his right [...] [more...]

August and Virgo

“AUGUST
The eigth wsa August, being rich array’d
In garment all of gold downe to the ground:
Yet rode he not, but led a lovely mayd
Forth by the lily hand, the which was crown’d
With eares of corne [wheat], and full her hand was found.
That was the righteous Virgin, which of old
Liv’d heare on earth, and plenty made abound;
But after wrong was lov’d, and justice solde,
She left th’ unrighteous world, and was to heav’n extoll’d. Spenser ” (p. 1058) [more...]