Ancient Cornish name:
Miz-merp, horse month.

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Jewel: Bloodstone. Courage and wisdom.

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Upon St. David's Day
Put oats and barley in the clay.

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The leeke is white and green, whereby is ment
That Britaines are both stout and eminent;
Next to the lion and the unicorne,
The leek's the fairest emblyn that is worne.

Harleian MS.

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On the first of March
The crows begin to search,
By the first of April
They are sitting still,
By the first of May
They are a' flown away;
Croupin' greedy back again,
Wi' October's wind and rain.

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He who freely lops in March will get his lap full of fruit.

Portuguese saying.

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Tossing his mane of snows in wildest eddies and tangles,

Warlike March cometh in, hoarse, with tempestuous breath.

Through all the moaning chimneys, and 'thwart all the hollows and angles,

Round the shuddering house, breathing of winter and death.

W. D. Howells.

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Welcome, O March! whose kindly days and dry
Make April ready for the throstle's song,
Thou first redresser of the winter's wrong.

W. Morris.

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Of Gardens.

For March there come violets, especially the single blue, which are the earliest; the early daffodil, the daisy, the almond tree in blossom, the peach tree in blossom, the cornelian (dogwood) tree in blossom, sweetbrier.

Bacon.

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A frosty winter, and a dusty March,
And a rain about Aperill,
And another about the Lammas time
When the corn begins to fill,
Is worth a ploughy of gold
And all her pins theretill.

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Come gather the crocus-cups with me,
And dream of the summer coming;
Saffron, and purple, and snowy white,
All awake to the first bees humming.
The white is there for the maiden-heart,
And the purple is there for sorrow;
The saffron is there for the true true love,
And they'll all be dead to-morrow.

Sebastian Evans.

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Beside the garden path the crocus now
Puts forth its head to woo the genial breeze,
And finds the snowdrop, hardier visitant,
Already basking in the solar ray.
Upon the brooke the water cresses float
More greenly, and the bordering reeds exalt
Higher their speary summits. Joyously,
From stone to stone, the ouzel flits along,
Startling the linnet from the hawthorn bough;
While on the elm-tree, overshadowing deep
The low-roofed cottage white, the blackbird sits
Cheerily hymning the awakened year.

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Blank earth-baldness clothes itself afresh,
And breaks into the crocus-purple hour.

Tennyson.

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Spring's an expansive time: yet I don't trust
March with its peck of dust,
Nor April with its rainbow-crowned brief showers,
Nor even May, whose flowers
One frost may wither through the sunless hours.

C. Rossetti.

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If it does not freeze on the tenth of March a fertile year may be expected.

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In March is good graffing, the skilful do know,
So long as the wind in the east do not blow:
From moon being changed, till past be the prime,
For graffing and cropping is very good time.

Tusser.

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In March and in April, from morning to night,
In sowing and setting good huswives delight:
To have in a garden or other like plot,
To trim up their house, and to furnish their pot.

Tusser.

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To the Daffodil.

O Love-star of the unbeloved March,

When cold and shrill,

Forth flows beneath a low dim-lighted arch

The wind that beats sharp crag and barren hill,

And keeps unfilmed the lately torpid rill!

Herald and harbinger! with thee
Begins the year's great jubilee!
Of her solemnities sublime
(A sacristan whose gusty taper
Flashes through earliest morning vapour)
Thou ring'st dark nocturns and dim prime.
Birds that have yet no heart for song
Gain strength with thee to twitter,
And, warm at last, where hollies throng,
The mirror'd sunbeams glitter.

A. De Vere.

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The softest turf of English green,
With sloping walks and trees between,
And then a bed of flowers half-seen.
Here daffodils in early Spring
And violets their off'rings bring,
And sweetest birds their hymns outsing.

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When country roads begin to thaw
In mottled spots of damp and dust,

And fences by the margin draw
Along the frozen crust

Their graphic silhouettes, I say,

The Spring is coming round this way.

When suddenly some shadow bird
Goes wavering beneath the gaze,

And through the hedge the moan is heard
Of kine that fain would graze

In grasses new, I smile and say,

The Spring is coming round this way.

Whitcomb Riley.

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Oh, what a dawn of day!
How the March sun feels like May!
All is blue again
After last night's rain.

Browning.

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No summer flowers are half so sweet
As those of early Spring.

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Under the furze is hunger and cold,
Under the broom is silver and gold.

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The Spring.

When wintry weather's all a-done,
An' brooks do sparkle in the zun,
An' naisy-builden rooks do vlee
Wi' sticks toward their elem tree;
When birds do zing, an' we can zee
Upon the bough the buds o' spring—
Then I'm as happy as a king,
A'vield wi' health an' sunshine.
Vor then the cowslips hangin' flow'r
A-wetted in the zunny show'r,
Do grow wi' vi'lets, sweet o' smell,
Beside the wood-screen'd graegle's bell;
Where drushes aggs, wi' sky-blue shell,
Do lie in mossy nest among
Thorns, while they do zing their zong
At evenin' in the zunsheen.

W. Barnes.

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A camomile bed,—
The more it is trodden,
The more it will spread.

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Thunder in spring
Cold will bring.

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March search, April try,
May will prove if you live or die.

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March wind and May sun
Makes clothes white and maids dun.

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March does from April gain
Three days, and they're in rain,
Returned by April in's bad kind,
Three days, and they're in wind.

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Sun set in a clear,
Easterly wind's near;
Sun set in a bank,
Westerly will not lack.

Scotland.

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In the morning look toward the south east;
In the evening look toward the north west.

China.

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Pale moon doth rain,
Red moon doth blow,
White moon doth neither rain nor snow.

Latin proverb.

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Any person neglecting to kill the first butterfly he may see for the season will have ill luck throughout the year.

Devon and Hants.

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St. Patrick's Day. (March 17th.)

Gervase of Tilbury gives a legend that on St. Patrick's Day, to do homage to him, the fish rise from the sea, pass in procession before his altar, and then disappear.

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Divination by a daffodil.

When a daffodil I see
Hanging down his head t'wards me,
Guesse I may what I must be:
First, I shall decline my head;
Secondly, I shall be dead;
Lastly, safely buryed.

Herrick.

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Hail! once again, that sweet strong note!
Loud on my loftiest larch,
Thou quaverest with thy mottled throat,
Brave minstrel of bleak March!

A. Austin.

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March twenty-first, Spring begins.

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Where the wind is at twelve o'clock on the twenty-first of March, there she'll bide for three months afterwards.

Surrey and Hants.

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When the wind blows from N.E.—a uniformly dry quarter during the week of the vernal equinox—it is an all but unfailing guide to the general character of the ensuing season.

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Our vernal signs the Ram begins,
Then comes the Bull, in May the Twins;
The Crab in June, next Leo shines,
And Virgo ends the northern signs.
The Balance brings autumnal fruits,
The Scorpion stings, the Archer shoots;
December's Goat brings wintry blast,
Aquarius rain, the Fish come last.

E. C. Brewer.

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Spring is here when you can tread on nine daisies at once on the village green.

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There is a saying that if boys be beaten with an elder stick it hinders their growth.

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When our Lord falls in our Lady's lap
England will meet with a great mishap.

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There is a tradition amongst New Forest gipsies that you must not soap your face on Good Friday, as it is said that soapsuds were thrown in Our Lord's face on the day of His Crucifixion.

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Thou wilt remember one warm morn when winter

Crept aged from the earth, and spring's first breath

Blew soft from the moist hills; the blackthorn boughs,

So dark in the bare wood, when glistening

In the sunshine were white with coming buds,

Like the bright side of a sorrow, and the banks

Had violets opening from sleep like eyes.

Browning.

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If apples bloom in March,
In vain for 'um you'll sarch;
If apples bloom in April,
Why then they'll be plentiful;
If apples bloom in May,
You may eat 'um night and day.

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From whatever quarter the wind blows on Palm Sunday, it will continue to blow for the greater part of the coming summer.

Hants.

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As many days of fog in March, so many days of frost in May, on corresponding days.

Hants.

In Spring a tub of rain makes a spoonful of mud. In Autumn a spoonful of rain makes a tub of mud.

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There is a tradition that twin lambs are scarce in Leap Year.

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Sleep with your head to the North—you will have sickness; to the South—long life; to the East—health and riches; to the West—fame.

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