The Dog Days

The almanacs fixed the Dog Days from 3 July to 11 August, a name the Romans gave the hottest weeks because they blamed the rising of the Dog Star, Canicula, for heat and sickness. Old writers said that when the star rose the sea boiled, wine turned sour and dogs began to go mad. Chambers notes that the star no longer rises with the sun until late August, yet the name lived on, and town magistrates still ordered dogs to be muzzled at the start of July. Hone prints a squib from Cambridge, where an order of 1824 had every dog muzzled or tied up.