346 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 79. 



to be discovered by " our hoste," who " toke liis 

 wit " from the sun's altitude for the purpose ! But 

 he knew ab-eady that the fourth part of the day 

 IN TIME had elapsed, he must necessarily have 

 also known what that time was, without the ne- 

 cessity of calculating it ! 



Now, Chaucer, whose choice of expression on 

 scientific subjects is often singularly exact, says, 

 "Our hoste saw that the sonue," Sic. ; he must there- 

 fore have been referring to some visible situation : 

 because, afterwards, when the time of day has 

 been obtained from calculation, the phrase changes 

 to "g-flft conclude" that it was ten of the clock. 



It seems, therefore, certain that, even setting 

 aside the question of consistency between (1.) and 

 (2.), we must, npon other grounds, assume that 

 Chaucer had some meaning in tlie expression 

 " arke of the artificial day," different from what 

 must be admitted to be its obvious and received 

 signification. 



To what other ark, then, could he have been 

 alluding, if not to the horary diurnal ark? 



I think, to the Azimuthal Arch of the Hori- 

 zon included between the point of sunrise and that 

 of sunset! 



The situation of any point in that arch is called 

 its bearing; it is estimated by reference to the 

 points of the compass ; it is therefore visually 

 ascertainable : and it requires no previous know- 

 ledge of the hour in order to determine when the 

 sun has completed the fourth, or any other, portion 

 of it. 



Here, then, is/);v'mrt /ac/e probability established 

 in favour of this interpretation. And if, upon 

 examination, we find that it also clears away the 

 discrepancy between {1.) and (2.), probability 

 becomes certainty. 



Assuming, upon evidence which I shall hereafter 

 explain, that the sun's declination, on the day of 

 the journe}', was 13° 26' North, or thirteen degrees 

 and a half, — the sun's bearing at rising, in the 

 neighbourhood of London, would be E.ISr.E., at 

 getting W.N.W.; the whole included arch, 224°; 

 and the time at which the sun would complete 

 one-fourth, or have the bearing S.E. by E., would 

 be about 20 minutes past nine a.m., — thus leaving 

 40 minutes to represent Chaucer's " halfe an hour 

 and more ! " 



A very remarkable approximation — which con- 

 verts a statement apparently contradictory, into a 

 strong confirmation of the deduction to be ob- 

 tained from the other physical facts grouped 

 together by Chaucer with such extraordinary 

 skill! 



On the other hand, it is impossible to deny that 

 the "hoste's" subsequent admonition to tlie pj!.- 

 grims to make the best use of their time, wariikiig 

 them that "the fourthe partie of this day is gon," 

 seems again to favour the idea that it is the day's 

 actual horary duration that is alluded to. 



This can be only hypothetically accounted for 

 by observing that in this, as in many other in- 

 stances, Chaucer seems to delight in a sort of dis- 

 guised phraseology; as though to veil his true 

 meaning, and designedly to create scientific puzzles 

 to exercise the knowledge .aud discernment of his 

 readers. A. E. B. 



Leeds, April 14. 1851. 



FOREIGN ENGI-ISH GUIDE TO AMSTERDAM. 



I doubt not many of your readers will have been 

 as much amused as myself with the choice speci- 

 mens of Foreign English enshrined in your pages. 

 Wiien at Amstei-dam, some years since, I purchased 

 a Guide to that city, v/hich I regard as a consider- 

 able literary curiosity in the same line. It was pub- 

 lished at Amsterdam, by E. Maascamp, in 1829, 

 and contains from beginning to end a series of 

 broken English, professing all the while to be 

 written by an Englishman. 



It commences with the following " Advertise- 

 ment :" 



" The city of Amsterdam — rem.irkable as .being one 

 oftlie chief raetropoles of Europe, and as being iniaany 

 respects the general market of wbole the universe ; 

 justly celebrated for — its large interior canals, ou both 

 of their sides enlivened and sheltered by rangesof large, 

 thick, and beautiful trees, and presenting, on large 

 broad and neatly kept, most regularly pay'd quays, 

 long cliains of sumptuous habitations, or rather palaces 

 of tlie principal and weathy merchants ; moreover re- 

 markable by its Museum for the objects of the fine 

 arts, &c., its numberless public edifices adapted either 

 .t.9\.\ie cukivcdion of arts, or to the exertions of trade, 

 or to es^aW/s/imen^s ch;irital)le purposes, or of temples of 

 all manners of divine worship — the city of Amsterdam, 

 we say," &c. It is dated " This 15">° of Juln, 1829." 



In page 14. the author gives us an account of 

 his habits, &c. : — 



" I live in Amsterdam since some considerable time 

 I drink no strong liquors, nor do I smoke tobacco 

 and with all this — I have not been attdched by those 

 agues and fevers w*"' frequently reign here from the 

 month of Juin to the end of the autumn : and twenty 

 foreigners whom I know, do follow the same system, 

 and are still as healthy as I myself; while 1 have seen 

 a ijreat many of natives taking their drams and smoking 

 their pipes ad libllem, and moreover chawing toijacco in 

 a quite disgusting manner, who," &c. 



An Amsterdam Sunday, p. 42. : 



" On Sundays and holydays the shops and ware- 

 houses, and, intra muros, those of public entertainment 

 are close : the devotees go to church, and sajQctify the 

 sabbath. Others go to walk outside the towngates: 

 after their walk, they hasten to fine public-play-gardens, 

 jvhere wine, tliea, &c. is sold. Neither the rooi)ility 

 remains idle at tkese ejitertainments. Every one in- 

 vites his damsel, and joyously they enter play-gardens 

 of a little less brilliancy than the former. There, at 

 the crying sound of an instrument that rents the ear. 



