Notes and Queries, Vol. IV, Number 99, September 20, 1851 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.

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Title: Notes and Queries, Vol. IV, Number 99, September 20, 1851

A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists,

Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.

Author: Various

Editor: George Bell

Release Date: January 15, 2012 [EBook #38574]

Language: English

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Vol. IV.—No. 99.

NOTES AND QUERIES:

A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION

FOR

LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.

When found, make a note of.—CAPTAIN CUTTLE.

VOL. IV.—No. 99.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 20. 1851.

Price Threepence. Stamped Edition, 4d.

Saxon characters have been marked in braces as in {Eafel}.

CONTENTS.

NOTES:—

Venerable Bede's Mental Arithmetic 201

Hyphenism, Hyphenic, Hyphenization 203

Gray and Cowley 204

Minor Notes:—Ὑπωπιάζω—Meaning of Whitsunday—Anagrammatic Pun by William Oldys—Ballad of Chevy Chase: Ovid—Horace Walpole at Eton 205

QUERIES:—

Continental Watchmen and their Songs 206

Minor Queries:—Quotation from Bacon—Carmagnoles—The Use of Tobacco by the Elizabethan Ladies—Covines—Story referred to by Jeremy Taylor—Plant in Texas—Discount—Sacre Cheveux—Mad as a March Hare—Payments for Destruction of Vermin—Fire unknown—Matthew Paris's Historia Minor—Mother Bunche's Fairy Tales—Monumental Symbolism—Meaning of Stickle and Dray—Son of the Morning—Gild Book 208

REPLIES:—

Pope and Flatman 209

Test of the Strength of a Bow 210

Baskerville the Printer 211

Replies to Minor Queries:—Mazer Wood and Sin-eaters—A Posie of other Men's Flowers—Table Book—Briwingable—Simnels—A Ship's Berth—Suicides buried in Cross-roads—A Sword-blade Note—Domesday Book of Scotland—Dole-bank—The Letter V—Cardinal Wolsey—Nervous—Coleridge's Essays on Beauty—Nao or Naw, a Ship—Unde derivatur Stonehenge—Nick Nack—Meaning of Carfax—Hand giving the Benediction—Unlucky for Pregnant Women to take an Oath—Borough-English—Date of a Charter 211

MISCELLANEOUS:—

Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c. 215

Books and Odd Volumes wanted 215

Notices to Correspondents 215

Advertisements 216

List of Notes and Queries volumes and pages

Notes.

VENERABLE BEDE'S MENTAL ALMANAC.

If our own ancient British sage, the Venerable Bede, could rise up from the dust of eleven centuries, he might find us, notwithstanding all our astounding improvements, in a worse position, in one respect at least, than when he left us; and as the subject would be one in which he was well versed, it would indubitably attract his attention.

He might then set about teaching us from his own writings a mental resource, far superior to any similar device practised by ourselves, by which the day of the week belonging to any day of the month, in any year of the Christian era, might easily and speedily be found.

And when the few, who would give themselves the trouble of thoroughly understanding it, came to perceive its easiness of acquirement, its simplicity in practice, and its firm hold upon the memory, they might well marvel how so admirable a facility should have been so entirely forgotten, or by what perversion of judgment it could have been superseded by the comparatively clumsy and impracticable method of the Dominical letters.

Let us hear his description of it in his own words:

"QUÆ SIT FERIA IN CALENDIS.

"Simile autem huic tradunt argumentum ad inveniendam diem Calendarum promptissimum.

Habet ergo regulares Januarius II, Februarius V, Martius V, Apriles I, Maius III, Junius VI, Julius I, Augustus IIII, September VII, October II, November V, December VII. Qui videlicet regulares hoc specialiter indicant, quota sit feria per Calendas, eo anno quo septem concurrentes adscripti sunt dies: cæteris vero annis addes concurrentes quotquot in præsenti fuerunt adnotati ad regulares mensium singulorum, et ita diem calendarum sine errore semper invenies. Hoc tantum memor esto, ut cum imminente anno bisextili unus concurrentium intermittendus est dies, eo tamen numero quem intermissurus es in Januario Februarioque utaris: ac in calendis primum Martiis per illum qui circulo centinetur solis computare incipias. Cum ergo diem calendarum, verbi gratia, Januarium, quærere vis; dicis Januarius II, adde concurrentes septimanæ dies qui fuerunt anno quo computas, utpote III, fiunt quinque; quinta feria intrant calendæ Januariæ. Item anno qui sex habet concurrentes, sume v regulares mensis Martii, adde concurrentes sex, fiunt undecim, tolle septem, remanent quatuor, quarta feria sunt Calendæ Martiæ.—Bedæ Venerabilis, De Temporum Ratione, caput xxi.

The meaning of this may be expressed as follows:—Attached to the twelve months of the year are certain fixed numbers called regulars, ranging from I to VII, denoting the days of the week in their usual order. These regulars, in any year whereof the concurrent, or solar epact, is 0 or 7, express, of themselves, the commencing day of each month: but in other years, whatever the solar epact of the year may be, that epact must be added to the regular of any month to indicate, in a similar manner, the commencing day of that month.

It follows, therefore, that the only burthen the memory need be charged with is the distribution of the regulars among the several months; because the other element, the solar epact (which also ranges from 1 to 7), may either be obtained from a short mental calculation, or, should the system come into general use, it would soon become a matter of public notoriety during the continuance of each current year.

Now, these solar epacts have several practical advantages over the Dominical letters. 1. They are numerical in themselves, and therefore they are found at once, and used directly, without the complication of converting figures into letters and letters into figures. 2. They increase progressively in every year; whereas the Dominical letters have a crab-like retrogressive progress, which impedes facility