The Seasons - July to December (about 1050) - Different ancient manuscript calendars furnish many curious illuminations illustrating country life among our ancestors. To the tables of the different months were frequently added pictures representing the agricultural labours, sports, or ceremonies which characterized each. This is taken from an Anglo-Saxon calendar, written a few years before the Norman Conquest, and now preserved in the Cottonian Library, Julius, A. VI. The drawings occupy the foot of the page in each month, and are remarkable for their spirited style of execution. These drawings are very valuable illustrations of the costume and manners of our Saxon forefathers, and some of them are also curious from their connection with the original Anglo-Saxon names of the months. In the month of July the Anglo-Saxon husbandmen are represented as employed in mowing and making hay. August, the husbandmen are represented reaping for it was the month in which the harvest began. September, represented as the month of hunting, the Anglo-Saxon huntsmen being engaged in the chase of the boar. October was devoted to the pleasures of the chase, such as hawking. November was the month of feasting and rejoicing for crops having been gathered in and was also the month of sacrificing a portion of the livestock to the gods. December, the illumination represents the Saxon farmer as occupied this month in thrashing and winnowing his corn.