318 On some Curiosities and Statistics of Parish Registers. 



the whole of this period at the chapelry of Etchilhampton in that 

 parish. 



At the Restoration^ the register books returned naturally to the 

 care of the clergy, where they have ever since remained. 



The Cherhill books begin in 1690 — one year after the accession 

 of William and Mary. From this date until 1 754 we have only 

 one book used at a time, made of vellum, with baptisms and marriages 

 at one end and burials at the other, until they met in the middle 

 and a new book had to be begun. In the books of Broad Hinton, 

 however, of this period (and in fact from the time of their com- 

 mencement in 1611) the three entries appear to have been kept in 

 parallel columns, the baptisms generally taking up more than one 

 half of the page, the burials a smaller portion, and the marriages 

 being inserted vertically between them. The most curious thing 

 that I find in the Cherhill books of this time is a horoscope, or what 

 I suppose to be such. This occurs opposite to the entry of the 

 baptism of one Hesther Smith in February, 17-5q,^ and is as follows: 



n t ^ 



1.7.11.12 

 I I \ 



7 8 6 7 5 



What the connection is between the zodiacal signs and the figures 

 placed beneath them, or what is the nature of the calculation, I 

 have been unable to discover, and should feel greatly beholden to 

 anyone who could inform me. The only other apparent reference to 

 astrology with which I am acquainted is one mentioned by Burns, 

 in his History of Parochial Registers. This is at St. Edmund's, 



1 This fractional-looking way of writing dates in the first three months of the 

 year, arising from the beginning of the ecclesiastical year on March 25th, and 

 of the legal year on January 1st, although of frequent occurence, is by no 

 means universal. This "ecclesiastical" year is of course not to be confused 

 with the spiritual year, often called ecclesiastical, which begins in Advent. In 

 an old Prayer Book in my possession, printed at Oxford in 1740, is a " Tfote, 

 that the Supputation of the year of our Lord in the Church of England begin- 

 neth the 5th and 20th day of March." 



