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the elementary arithmetic of schools. As might be ex- 

 pected, all the first traces of these figures in England were 

 found in the old calendars and calculations with which, 

 here and there, the "monkish scholars busied themselves. 

 Chaucer in his "Dreme" (about 1375) speaks of them as 

 " figures newe" in a passage the t mor of which shows that 

 he was aware of the enormous improvement which they 

 ofiered upon the old use of the Roman signs. The first 

 printed book which is known to contain the Arabic nume- 

 rals is an old blackletter quarto printed at Louvain in 1476, 

 entitled Fasciculus Temporum. Caxton, I believe, never 

 uses them, in the works issued from his press ; but in 

 his Mirrour of the World, 1480, is a curious wood-cut 

 representing a man sitting at a desk, and before him a 

 board on which are drawn some rude representations of 

 Arabic figures. The earliest authentic instances of monu- 

 mental or structural inscriptions with Arabic numerals are 

 given in the ArcJiccologlcal Journal for 1850, and were accep- 

 ted by the Archaeological Institute as genuine : — On a ]ych 

 gate, at Bi-ay, Berkshire, 1448 ; on a quarry of stained 

 glass, at St. Cross's Hospital, Hampshire, 1497 ; on a stone, 

 also at St. Cross's, 1503. I believe that nothing earlier 

 than these is really known. There are, indeed, plenty 

 which claim to be of greater antiquity — but one or two 

 explanations will probably answer for them all. In several 

 cases the bottom of the antique 4, in the hundreds, has 

 been cut off", leaving an apparent date of the eleventh 

 century. In still more cases a rude 5 has been read 

 for a 1. These numerals would be used for inscriptions, 

 as a mere fancy -lettering, long before their real im- 

 portance was understood. Merchants would go on using 

 the old figures, which had served their fathers. So we find 

 the old system holding its place in all known public or 

 private accounts till the beginning, and in many cases till 

 far on into the sixteenth century. One curious exception. 



