278 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2"* S. NO 66., April 4. '57. 



ubertas, fertility, by the sheaf of corn ; experientia, 

 wisdom, by the serpent ; and torus, strength or 

 muscle by the lion ; so that the motto in full 

 would be " in otio, ubertate, toro, experientia," 



B. P. C. 



Families of Tyzach and Henzell (2"^ S. ii. 335.) 

 — These families came from Flanders in the early 

 part of the seventeenth century, and established 

 themselves as glassmakers upon the Tyne. Wdn. 



Free-Martin (2"'> S. iii. 148. 235.) — A re- 

 markable instance of a multiple birth proving 

 prolific occurred in the family of a near connexion. 

 A lady residing in this county, the sister of my 

 aunt by marriage, had at a birth three sons, who 

 all grew up to be men. While they were infants 

 the likeness between them was so marvellous that, 

 as the eldest was heir to an entailed estate, they 

 were compelled to dress him differently from the 

 .others. When the children were some months 

 old the second infant fell against the bars of the 

 nursery grate, and scarred his face so badly that 

 his identification became an easy matter. The 

 eldest and youngest still retained their remark- 

 able similitude, which continually deceived their 

 nearest relatives. When they grew up they all 

 married ; two of them espousing twin sisters, and 

 they all had offspring. My paternal grandmother 

 had twins twice. In each case they were boys. 

 The second batch of duplicates both married, one 

 had children, the other had not. Of the elder 

 twins one only married, and his union was not a 

 fruitful one. John Pavin Phillips. 



Haverfordwest. 



Education of the Peasantry (2"^ S. iii. 87.) — 

 I have long wished to ascertain whether there be 

 a rule to direct foot passengers as to the proper 

 place they are to occupy on the side path ; also 

 by what- authority such rule is established. In 

 this metropolis one cannot walk ten paces in a 

 straight line along any fashionable thoroughfare 

 without being jostled. If your correspondent 

 Vbyan Rheged would kindly state whether there 

 be a remedy, municipal, parliamentary, or other- 

 wise, for this inconvenience, which is caused, not 

 by the peasantry alone, but by those who ought 

 to know better, ha woald confer a favour on a 

 great many others besides yours, Viator. 



Dublin. 



Almanacks (2^^ S. iii. 226.) — Upwards of 

 seventy years before the appearance of Moore's 

 Almanack one wa? printed in Aberdeen with the 

 title : 



"Progtiostication for the yeare of our Redemption 

 1626, the second after Leape-)'eare. Priated at Aber- 

 deen by Edward Raban for David Melville, 1626. 



About the year 1820 the editors of Moore's 

 Almanack began the attempt of discarding the 



monthly column containing the moon's supposed 

 influence on the members of the human body ; 

 and as an experiment, to ascertain the feelings of 

 the public on the occasion, printed at first only 

 100,000 copies ; but the omission was soon de- 

 tected, and nearly the whole edition returned on 

 their hands, and they were obliged to reprint the 

 favourite column. See Rally's Remarks on the 

 Defective State of the Nautical Almanac. 



The Chinese astronomers (Imperial, I presume) 

 every year compose an Almanack or Calendar, at 

 the head of which is the Emperor's edict, by which 

 all are forbidden, under pain of death, to use or 

 publish any other calendar ; and of this work 

 several millions of copies are yearly sold ; this is 

 said to have been the case from time immemorial. 



The Imperial Edict puts one in mind of the 

 somewhat parallel legal monopoly of the trade in 

 almanacks granted to the Stationers' Company 

 and the Universities by James I., which was 

 abolished through the instrumentality of Thomas 

 Carnan, a bookseller, who gained a cause over the 

 Stationers' Co. in the Court of Common Pleas in 

 1775. The bill brought in by Lord North in 

 1779 to renew the privilege was rejected by a 

 ma,jority of 45. 



Connected with the subject It may be mentioned 

 that Heylin In his Cosmography says, speaking of 

 the burning of old St. Paul's steeple (5 Queen 

 Elizabeth, 1562) that 



" It was by the carelessness of the sexton consumed 

 with fire, which happening in a thundering and tem- 

 pestuous day was by him confidently aflSrmed to be done 

 by lightening, and was so generally believed till the 

 hour of his death ; but not many years since, to disabuse 

 the world, he confessed the truth of it, on which discovery' 

 the burning of St. Paul's steeple by Lightning was left 

 out of our common almanacks, where formerly it stood 

 among the ordinary Epochs or accounts of Time." 



^ R. W. Hack WOOD. 



First English Almanack (2"'^ S. iii. 226.) — 

 What is the date of the first almanack known to 

 have been printed in England f 



Is the Almanack for 1442 often referred to as 

 preserved in the Bibliothique du Roi, Paris, in 

 manuscript, and preserved merely as a specimen 

 of almanack-making, or is it printed and kept as 

 one of the earliest specimens of that art ? 



Has the derivation of the word almanack ever 

 been satisfactorily settled ? It is generally, I 

 think, received as from the Arabic, the article al 

 and mana or manah, " to count ; " but other de- 

 rivations are given, such as the Arabic al and the 

 Greek fi-nif, " a month," and the Teutonic almaen 

 achte, of which Verstegan says : 



"They [the Saxons] vsed to engraue vpon certaine 

 squared sticks about a foot in length, or shorter or longer 

 as they pleased, the courses of the Moones of the whole 

 yeare, whei-eby they could alwayes certainly tell when the 

 new moons, full moons and changes should happen, as 

 also their festiual daies ; and such a earned stick they 

 called an Al man aght, that is to say Al-mon-heed, to wit, 



