102 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 93. 



self in diffusing the Roman Catholic version of the 

 Vulgate set forth by the Spanish hierarchy." 



It is well known that the Bible Society keeps 

 on its shelves both the Protestant and Roman 

 Catholic versions in French, Italian, Portuguese, 

 and Spanish. Its endeavours at present are, I 

 believe, confined to attempting to circulate the 

 Roman Catholic versions, on the ground that it is 

 impossible to circulate the more coi'rect Protestant 

 ones. IMy Queries are : — 



1. Was Mr. Borrow sent out by the Bible So- 

 ciety to circulate the Protestant Scriptures ? 



2. Whose translation of the Vulgate was set 

 forth by the Spanish hierarchy ? E. M. B. 



66. Dogmatism and Puppyism. — 



" Dogmatism is nothing but puppyism come to its 

 full growth." 



I find this quotation in a leader of The Times. 

 Can you or any of your readers inform me of its 

 origin ? ? 



67. A Saxon Sell-house. — A reader of " Notes 

 AND Queries," who subscribes himself A Lover 

 or Bells, has kindly referred me to a passage in 

 Hume's History of JSngkaid, in which it is said 

 that, according to a statute of Athelstan, " a ceorle 

 or husbandman who had been able to purchase five 

 hides of land, and had a chapel, a kitchen, a hall, 

 and a bell" was raised to the rank of a Thane. 

 The marginal reference in Hume is to Selden's 

 Titles of Hono?-; and in that work the statute is 

 thus given : 



" If achurle or a countryman so thrived that heehad 

 fully five hides of his owne land, a church, and a kitchen, 

 a bel -house, a borougli-gate with a seate, and any dis- 

 tinct office in the king's court, then was ho henceforth 

 of cquall honour or dignitie with a Thane." 



Selden considers that the bel-ho7ise was the dining- 

 hall to which the guests and family were sum- 

 moned by the ringing of a bell. He thinks the 

 ■word corresponds with tinello, tinelo, and tinel, the 

 It.alian, Spanish, and French words for a "public 

 hall" or " dining-room," — " so named, because the 

 ti7i or tinslins of a bell at the times of dinner or 

 supper in it were signified by it." 



I beg to ask whether the existing knowledge of 

 the details of Saxon architecture substantiates 

 Selden's view ; and whether this bell was also the 

 alarum-bell of the castle, hanging in an outside 

 turret ? 



Many thanks to my correspondent, and to 

 " Notes and Queries" for the introduction ti- his 

 notice. Alfred Gatty. 



Cycle of the Moon. — Can any of your corre- 

 spondents inform me in what year the new 

 moon last fell on the \st of January ? I am no 

 astronomer, but I believe the moon's cycle is a 



period of nineteen years, and that whenever the 

 new moon falls on the 1st January, the cycle 

 begins. Benbow. 



Birmingham. 



[The above matter is made the more puzzling to all 

 whorare not astronomers, by the pertinacity with which 

 popular writers persist in speaking of the moon's mo- 

 tions as if they were regular. 



There is no particular beginning to the cycle of 

 nineteen years : anybody may make it begin when he 

 pleases. What it means is this : that in any set of 

 nineteen years, the new and full moons generally (not 

 always) fall on the same days as in the preceding nine- 

 teen years. For instance, in 1831, the I4th of March 

 was a day of new moon : go on nineteen years, that is, 

 to the 14th of March, 1850; most probably, not cer- 

 tainly, this must be a day of now mocn. It happens, 

 liowevcr, otherwise ; for in 1850 the new moon is on the 

 13th. But in the Aprils of both years, the new moons 

 are on the 12th ; in the Junes, on the 10th. All that 

 can be said is, that where any day of any year is new 

 moon, most probably that day 7iineteen years is new 

 moon also, and certainly either the day before or the 

 day after. In that cycle of nineteen years, which is 

 called the cycle of the (/olden number, there is an arbi- 

 trary beginning, which has something to do with the 

 new moon falling near the 1st of January. The cycle 

 in which we now are, began (that is, had the year 

 marked 1) in 1843. 



To find the last time when the new moon fell on 

 the 1st of January with certainty, would be no easy 

 problem for any but an astronomer. The nearest 

 which our correspondent can do is this. Take Mr. De 

 Morgan's recently published Bonk of Almattacs, and 

 turn to almanac 37. Take the day in question 

 (Jan. 1 ), and from the first of the Roman numbers 

 written opposite (xxx.) subtract one (xxix.). Look 

 back into the new style index (p. 7.), then any one 

 year which lias the cpact 29 is very likely to have the 

 new moon on the 1st of January; epact 30 may also 

 have it. Now, on looking, wo find that we are not in 

 that period of the world's existence at which cpact 29 

 makes its appearance ; no such thing has occurred since 

 1699, nor will occur until 1900. We are then in a 

 period in which new moons on the 1st of January are 

 comparatively infrequent. Our best chance is when the 

 epact is 30, as in 1843 : here there is a narrow miss 

 of what we want, for it was new moon on the day pre- 

 vious, as late as seven in the evening. 



Our correspondent's notion that the moon's cycle 

 begins with a new moon on the 1st of January, is 

 probably derived from this, that the calendar is so con- 

 trived that for a very long period the years which have 

 1 for their golden number, have a new moon near the 

 1st of January, either on it, or within a day of it.] 



Cockei-s Arithmetic. — At a sale of books by 

 Messrs. Puttick and Simpson, a copy of Cocker's 

 Arithmetic was sold for 8/. lOs., date 1678, said 

 to be one of the only two extant. It is stated that 

 Dr. Dibdin had never seen any edition printed in 

 the seventeenth century, and mentions the thirty- 

 second as the earliest he had met with. I have in 



