so much business of the greatest consequence going forward; but if I ever bring my houshold to town again during the drawing of a lottery, I will give you leave to say, that there is not a more egregious ass in England than

Your humble Servant,

CHRIST. QUIDNUNC.

A Dissertation on Almanacks; with the Plan of a New One for the Use of People of Fashion:

SIR,

MONG the numerous liteA rary Advertisements in this month, many of the Almanacks for the approaching New-Year make no small figure, though they are not of a large size; and if the general utility of them is seriously considered, they may rank with the most celebrated publications. They have all their several attractions for their several purchasers. To those of a poetical turn the Cambridge Sheet must be particularly acceptable, as the Nine Muses have joined to dress up the twelve Months in the newest Parnassian fashion; and to this Sheet Vincent Wing's will be no contemptible supplement, as the weather may now be known in it by poetical rules. By those who wish to keep their bodies in repair from January to December, the salutary rules laid down by Rider should be read with great care; and the Riddles in the Lady's and Gentleman's Diary will happily serve to improve the minds of the two sexes, by taking them off from trifling subjects, and fixing their attention upon matters of the last importance.--With regard to

Poor Robin's Almanack, no highwayman should be without it, as there is included in it an approved method for restoring hanged persons to life; and Mr. Moore's Loyal® Almanack is a very proper pocketcompanion for every country-gentleman in the kingdom, especially as he has now added "observations on ploughs."

However, though all these annual productions, published by the sagacious body of Philomaths, and Astrologers, have their intrinsic merits-there is not one, in my opinion, among the great variety of Almanacks, contrived for the use of people of fashion. I have resolved, therefore, to remedy this defect, by publishing one every year under the title of the St. James's

Calendar.

The plan which has hitherto been followed by our Almanack-makers, can be of no use whatever to the polite world, who are as widely separated in their manner of living from the common herd of people, as the inhabitants of Otaheite. To know the exact rising and setting of the sun may serve to direct the vulgar tradesman and mechanic when to open shop, or go to work; but persons of fashion, whose hours are not marked by the course of that luminary, are indifferent about its motions and, like those who live under the Equinoctial Line, have their days and nights of an equal degree of length all the year round. The Red-letter days, pointed out in our common Almanacks, may, perhaps, be observed by some formal ladies, who regulate their going to church by them; but people of quality perceive no difference between the moveable or, immoveable Feasts or Fasts, and know no

use

use of Sdnday, but as it serves to call them to the card-table. What advantage can a smart fellow reap from Rider's list of Fairs, which can only be of service to his groom? Or what use can any gentleman or lady make of those Diaries now in scribed to them, which are filled with algebra and mathematicks?, In a word, the present uncouth way of dividing the months into saintsdays, Sundays, and the like, is no more adapted to the present modes of polite life, than the Roman Ides, Nones, and Calends.

Instead of supposing, with the vulgar tribe of Astronomers, that the day begins at sun-rise; my day, commencing at the time that it usually breaks into fashionable apartments, will be determined by the rising of people of quality. Thus, the morning dawns with ear. ly risers between eleven and twelve, and noon commences at fourwhen, at this time of the year, the dinner and wax-lights come in together. For want of a thorough knowledge of the distribution of the day, all who have any connection with the polite world may be guilty of many mistakes: when an honest man from the Minories intends a nobleman a visit after dinner, he may perhaps find him sipping his morning chocolate. The inconveniences of the Old Style in our manner of reckoning the days' were so manifest, that it was thought proper to amend them by an act of Parliament. I am resolved, in like manner, to introduce the new style of dividing the hours into my Almanack; for can any thing be more absurd than to fix the name of morning, noon, and evening, at present, on the same hours which bore those appellations in the reign

of Queen Elizabeth? A duchess is so far from dining at eleven, that it often happens that her grace has not then opened her eyes on the tea-table: and a maid of honour would no more rise at six in the morning, as it was called by the dames of Queen Bess's court, than she would, in imitation of those dames, breakfast upon strong beer and beef-steaks. In those houses, indeed, where the hours of quality are observed by one part of the family, the impolite irregularity of the other, in adhering to the Old Style, often occasions great disturbance: for, as Lady Townly says, "such a house is worse than an inn with ten stage-coaches. What between the impertinent people of business in a morning, and the intolerable thick shoes of footmen at noon, one has not a wink of sleep all night."

The reformation which I have also made in respect to the red-letter days, is no less considerable. I have not only expunged that immense catalogue of saints which croud the Popish calendar, but have blotted out all the other saints that still retain their places in our common almanacks; well knowing, that persons of fashion pay as little attention to the apostles and evangelists, as to St. Mildred, St. Bridget, or St. Winifrid. I retain, indeed, the name of St. John, because I am sure that people of quality will not think of any body's being designed under that title, cept the late Lord Bolingbroke.

Having thus discarded the saints people whom nobody knows, I have taken care to introduce my readers into the best company; for the red letters in my calendar will serve to distinguish those days on