Mat 31. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



421 



the moon could have arisen with this star on tlie 

 18th of April, should be the identical year to 

 which Tyrwiiitt, reasoning from historical evidence 

 alone, would fain attribute the writinn; of the 

 Canterbury Tales. (Vide Introductory Discourse, 

 note 3.) 



On the 18th of April, J 388, Libra Min al auwa, 

 and the moon, rose together about half-past three 

 p. M. in the neighbourhood of Canterbury ; and 

 Tyrwhitt, alluding to tlie writing of the Canter- 

 bury Tales, " could hardly suppose it was much 

 advanced before 1389 ! " 



Such a coincidence is more than remarkable — 

 It is convincing : especially when we add to it 

 that 1388 "is the very date that, by a slight and 

 probable injury to the last figure, might become 

 the traditional one of 1383 ! " 



Sliould my view, therefore, of the true reading 

 of this passage in Chaucer be correct, it becomes 

 of infinitely greater interest and importance than 

 a mere literal emendation, because it supplies that 

 which has always been supposed wanting to the 

 Canterbury Tales, viz., some means of identifying 

 the year to which their action ought to be at- 

 tributed. Hitherto, so unlikely has it appeared 

 that Chaucer, who so amply furnishes materials 

 for the minor branches of the date, should leave 

 the year unnoted, that it has been accounted for 

 iu the supposition that he reserved it for the un- 

 finished portion of his performance. But if we 

 consider the ingenious thougli somewhat tortuous 

 methods resorted to by him to convey some of the 

 other data, it is by no means impiobalde that he 

 might really have devised this circumstance of the 

 moon's rising as a means of at least corroborating 

 a date that he miglit intend to record afterwards 

 in more direct terms. A. E.B. 



P. S. — Since writing the foregoing I have ob- 

 tained, through the kindness of Mr. Thoms, the 

 several readings of the lines commented upon 

 in six different MSS. in the British Museum. 

 And I have great satisfaction in finding that five 

 out of the six confirm my hypothesis, at least with 

 respect to the uncertain spelling of " alway." The 

 readings in respect of the two words are these : 



1 meene - - alweye. 



In mena - - alway. 



I mene - - allweye. 



In mcne - - allwey. 



I mene - - alweie. 



I mene - - alwaye. 



I acknowledge that, from the first, if I could 

 have discovered a probable interpretation of 

 " mene" as an inde|)endent word, I should have 

 preferred it rather than that of making it a part 

 of the Arabic name, because I think that the star 

 is sufTiciently identified by the tatter portion of its 

 name " Al auwa," and because the preservation of 

 "mene" in its proper place in the line would afford 



a rearling much less forced than that I was obliged 

 to have recourse to. Now it very singidarly 

 happens that in " Notes and Queries " of this 

 day (page 388.) I find, upon the authority of 

 A. C. M., that there is an Armorican word " menex" 

 or " mene," signifying a summit or boundary. 

 Here is an accidental, though most probable, 

 original of the Chaucerian " mene," because the 

 moon's place in longitude at the time specified 

 was precisely on the verge or boundary of Libra : 

 or even in the sense "summit" the word would 

 be by no means inappropriate to that point of a 

 sign in the ecliptic which fii'^t emerges from the 

 horizon ; with such a reading the lines would 

 stand thus, which is a very slight change from 

 their present form : 



" Then, with the mone's exaltacioun 

 In menez Libra, Alwai gan ascende, 

 As we were eiitrying at a towne's end." 



Perhaps A. C. M. would be good enough to cite 

 his authorities for the word " mene," " menez " — 

 in the signification of " summit " or " margin " — 

 with examples, if possible, of its use in these or 

 kindred senses. 



And perhaps some Arabic scholar will explain 

 the name " JNlin al auwa," and show in what way 

 the absence of the prefix " Min" would affect it ? 



A. E. B. 



TRADITIONS FROM BEMOTE PERIODS THROUGH FEW 

 LINKS. 



In some of your former numbers (Vol. iii., 

 pp. 206. 237. 289.) allusions have been made by 

 your correspondents, showing that traditions may 

 come down from remote periods through very 

 few links. Having myself seen a man whose father 

 lived in the time of Oliver Cromwell, I trust I 

 shall be excused for stating some particulars of 

 this fact, which I think will be considered by 

 your readers as one of the most remarkable oa 

 record. In the year 1844 died James Horrocks, 

 a small farmer, who lived at Harwood, a short 

 distance from Bolton, in Lancashire, having com- 

 pleted his hundredth year. This circumstance, 

 however, w.as not so remarkable as that of his 

 own birth, his father, William Horrocks, having 

 been born in 1657, one year before the death of 

 Cromwell, and having married in 1741, at the 

 advanced age of eighty-four, a second wife, a 

 young and buxom woman of twenty-six, by 

 whom he had one child, the above James Hor- 

 rocks, born ]\Iai'ch 14, 1744, and baptized at 

 Bradshaw Chapel, near Bolton. 



It is believed that the first wife of William 

 Horrocks had been employed in the well-known 

 family of the Chethanis, at Castleton Hall, near 

 Rochdale (a branch of that of Humphrey Che- 

 tham), by whom they were both much respected; 

 and soon after the second marriage, he and his 



