1719. A surprising meteor was seen about eight o’clock in the evening, from all parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland. To an observer in St. Paul’s churchyard, it appeared a ball of fire as large as the moon, of a pale bluish light, and with little motion, till in a moment it assumed the shape of a common meteor with a stream of light, double the diameter of its first appearance, emitting a splendour by which the smallest print might have been read. Its duration was not above half a minute, and its greatest light about the tenth part of a minute. At Exeter its light exceeded that of the sun at noonday, and there it seemed to break like a skyrocket, into sparks of red fire, which reflected that colour on the houses, and shortly after a report, loud as cannon, shook the windows, succeeded at the interval of a minute by about thirty others; “they sounded just as the tower guns did in Mincing-lane, but shook the houses and windows much more.” Mr. Whiston calculated the greatest height of this extraordinary meteor to have been forty-three or fifty-one statute miles: it gradually descended lower till it came to Devonshire, where it was about thirty-nine miles high, and broke over the sea, near the coast of Brittany; its altitude then being about thirty miles.[32] * * * * * FLORAL DIRECTORY. Yellow Star of Bethlehem. _Ormithogalum luteum._ Dedicated to _St. Joseph_. [32] Whiston’s Account of a Meteor, 8vo. 1719. ~March 20.~ _St. Cuthbert_, Bp. of Lindisfarne, A. D. 687. _St. Wulfran_, Abp. of Sens, A. D. 720. _St. Cuthbert._ Of this saint there will be mention hereafter. CHRONOLOGY. 1727. Sir Isaac Newton died; he was born December 25th, 1642. 1751. Frederick, prince of Wales, father of king George III. died aged 44. 1793. Died William Murray, earl of Mansfield. He was born on the 2d of March, 1705, and during thirty years, and until his death, presided as lord chief justice of the court of King’s Bench. He was eminent as a lawyer, and dignified as a judge. It is said that he altered the common law of England, by ingrafting upon it the civil law in his decisions. As an elegant scholar, of highly cultivated and vigorous intellect, he shone in the constellation of great men, which arose in the reign of queen Anne. In eloquence and beauty of diction, he outrivalled his predecessors, and has not been excelled by any successor in the high office he filled. 1811. Napoleon, son of the late emperor of France, by the empress Maria Louisa, was born, and received the title of king of Rome. On the 20th of March, the sun enters the constellation ♈ _Aries_, or the Ram, which is the first zodiacal sign; and this day is _the first day of Spring_.