MARCH

The first month of the Roman year, and the third of the English. In the ecclesiastical calendar used in England till the change of style in 1752 this was also the first month, as it was in the Roman. It is named Martius, in honour of Mars,the reputed father of Romulus. There is an old proverb still prevalent in Scotland, which represents March as borrowing three days from April, which have thence come to be designated the borrowed days. They will be found noticed in the Complainte of ■ Scotland. Upon this subject Dr. Jamie son observes, " Those who are much addicted to superstition will neither borrow nor lend on any of these days. If any one would propose to borrow of them, they would consider it as an evidence that the person wished to employ the article for the purpose of witchcraft against the lenders." March. In Music, a military air, played by inflatile and pulsatile instruments, to regulate the steps and to animate the minds of soldiers. The march, however, has long been adapted to every species of musical instrument, and some of the most celebrated compositions of the greatest masters are in this style; as the March of the Priests in Mozart's Zauber-flbte, the Peasant's March in Weber's Freischutz, and above all Beethoven's Funeral Marches. In the Supplement to the First Edition of the Encyclopcedia, it is truly said that a march should be always composed in common time, with an odd crotchet or quaver at the beginning. It is usually quick for ordinary marching, and slow for grand occasions; but no general rules can be laid down for its composition. March, in Military language, signifies the motion of a body of troops from one place to another. It consists of three measures: 1. ordinary time, in which about 75 paces are taken in a minute; 2. quick time. In which about 108 steps are taken in a minute; 3. the quickest, or as it is called wheeling time, at the rate of 300 feet in the same space. [s. 727]