2"^ S. X. Skpt. 8. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



195 



gations of the reverend author have brought him, 

 on some of the leading points. 



The book is divided into two parts : the firat 



appertaining " to ancient history in general;" and 



the second " to the personal history of our Lord Jesus 



Christ." The extracts are drawn from the latter. 



The Passion of our Lord. 



"I would fain hope tliat we have now, to the satisfac- 

 tion of the reader, established on a solid basis the true 

 time of the death of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 

 We have seen, by a variety of details, . . . that he made 

 his solemn entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday the 

 21st of March, which was the tenth day of the Jewish 

 month Nisan ; that he was betrayed by Judas Iscariot on 

 Wednesdaj' evening the 24th of March ; that he cele- 

 brated the Passover and instituted the sacrament of the 

 Eucharist on Thursday evening, March the 25th ; that 

 he was crucitied on Friday, March the 2fith ; and that he 

 rose from the grave on Easter Sunday, March the 28th. 

 This' great event took place in the 4741st year of the 

 Julian period, in the ninth month of the fourth year of 

 the 201st Olympiad, in the last month of the 780th year 

 of Kome, the 7ord year of the Julian calendar, the 28th 

 year of the modern Christian sera ; in the 19th year of 

 the associate reign of Tiberius, and the loth year of his 

 sole reign, when Lucius Rubellius Geminus and Cains 

 Fufius Geminus were consuls." — Ch. vii. pp. 428-461. 



Ottr Lord's Age at the Time of his Baptism. 



" We may safely therefore consider the point as decided 

 by reason and authority, that our Lord came to his bap- 

 tism when He had passed the birth-day on which He had 

 completed his thirtieth year, and consequently that he was 

 then in the thirty-first year of his age." — Ch. ix. pp, 

 524-534. 



The Day of our Lord's Nativity. 



"Jesus completed his thirtieth year on the twenty-fifth 

 of December preceding his baptism, in the j'ear of the 

 Julian period 4737 ; the sixth month of the first year of 

 the 201st Olympiad ; on the fifth day of the ninth month 

 A. U. C. 777 ; the sixty-ninth year of the Julian calen- 

 dar, which was Bissextile ; and when M. Asinius Agrippa 

 and Cossus Cernelius Lentulus were consuls. 



"Consequently (4737-30) He was born on the twenty- 

 fifth of December, A. J. P. 4707 ; the sixth month of the 

 third year of the 193rd Olympiad ; on the fifth day of the 

 ninth month A. U. C. 747 ; the thirty-ninth year of the 

 Julian calendar ; when D. Lselius Balbus and C. Antis- 

 tius Vetus were consuls ; on the twenty-third day in the 

 fourth month of the twenty-sixth year after the battle of 

 Actium ; about the tenth day of the seventh month in 

 the 35th year of Herod, from the time he was made king 

 by the Roman senate ; and exactly, as Orosius states the 

 fact, though he has erred in his date (lib. vi. c. 18.), in 

 the very same year in which Augustus shut the temple of 

 Janus the third time, in token of uNivERSAt, peace." — 

 Ch. X. pp. 535-563. 



As the year of our Lord's birth is thus shown 

 to have preceded the common Christian cera six 

 tjears., having taken place in the 747tE year of 

 Home, the year silently adopted by the French 

 Benedictines in their learned work on the Art of 

 Verifying Dates, it follows, that the Rev. Dr. Cum- 

 ming's calculation of the coming of the Great Tribu- 

 lation, in 1867, must be reduced by a like number 

 of years ; and, consequently, that it behoves us to 

 have our houses set in order before 1861 ! Ekic. 

 Ville-Marie, Canada. 



X 



Separation of Sexes in Churches (2"* S. vii. 

 326. etonte.') — The following passage is extracted 

 from, I believe, a scarce pamphlet containing two 

 curious and very plain-spoken sermons, Of Luxury, 

 more particularly ivith respect to Apparel, on 1 Tim. 

 ii. 9., by a country clergyman. 4to. Lond. 1736, 

 p. 41.: — 



"And, indeed, it is a great pity our churches are not 

 better contrived for religious purposes; but men and 

 women sit together promiscuously ; wherein they have 

 departed from the ancient simplicitj', which still remains 

 in many of our country churches, where, the seats being 

 single, the upper ones are filled by the men only, and 

 the lower by the other sex : so that the men see not the 

 women at all, nor the women the face of a man, except 

 the person who ofticiates, during the whole service. Were 

 thej' all so, there would not perhaps be so many present, 

 but those who were would probably behave with more 

 decency' than now thev do." 



W. D. Macrat. 



" Nancy Dawson " (2"'' S. x. 126.) — According 

 to Lowndes, the life of this celebrated dancer 

 was published in 1760; but the book is so rare 

 that I have been unable to meet with a copy. 

 The Dramatic History of Master Edicard, Miss 

 Ann, and Others, published anonymously by the 

 facetious George Alexander Stevens, in 1785, 

 was a " Satire upon Edward Shuter, the Come- 

 dian, and Nancy Dawson, the far-famed toast." 

 From this work it appears that she first appeared, 

 as a dancer, at Sadler's Wells ; and as " she was 

 extremely agreeable in her figure, and the novelty 

 of her dancing added to it, with her excellence in 

 her execution, she soon grew to be a favorite 

 with the town ; and at the ensuing season was 

 engaged at Covent Garden play-house. She be- 

 came vastly celebrated, admired, imitated, and 

 followed by every body." 



The popular song of " Nancy Dawson " is given 

 at p. 110. of the present volume of " N. & Q." 

 The tune became very popular about the middle 

 of the last century. It was printed in many col- 

 lections as a country-dance ; was arranged with 

 variations for the harpsichord, as Miss Dawson's 

 Hornpipe ; was introduced in " Love in a Vil- 

 lage " (1762), as the housemaid's song ; and is 

 still known in the nursery as " Here we go round 

 the mulberry-bush." 



Smith, in his Book for a Rainy Day, says : — 



" I have been informed that Nancy, when a girl, sat 

 up skittles at a tavern in High Street, Marylebone. Sir 

 William Musgrave, in his Adversaria, (No. 5719) in the 

 British Museum, says that ' Nancy Dawson was the wife 

 of a publican near Kelso, on the borders of Scotland.' " 



Her portrait, in oil, is preserved at the Gar- 

 rick Club ; and there are four different prints of 

 her, one of which, by Spooner, is in Dr. Burney's 

 Collection of Theatrical Portraits in the British 

 Museum. Another is by G. Pulley (folio), dan- 

 cing a hornpipe, with the song; a third is by 

 Watson ; and a fourth, in theatrical costume, with 

 a sheet of music in her hand, has no engraver's 



