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 shines through a large Mass 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_: