Craws and the New Style

Rooks were said to begin gathering sticks for their nests twelve days after Candlemas, a date which by the old calendar fell on what is now 26 February. Dr Waugh used to tell how, home from his first session at Edinburgh University and keen to show off, he asked his father’s old gardener whether the craws counted by the old style or by the new one brought in by Act of Parliament. The gardener gave him a look of contempt and put him right.