NOTES AND QUERIES: 



A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION 



FOR 



LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTiaUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC. 



•* vnien found, make a note of." — Captain Cuttle. 



Vol. IV. — No. 99.] Saturday, September 20. 1851. 



f Price Threepence. 

 t Stamped Edition, 4'^' 



CONTENTS. 

 Notes : — 



Venerable Bede*s Mental Aritlimetic « . - 



Hj-phenism, Hjplienic, Hyphenization . . - 



Gray and Cowley ------ 



Minor Notes i—'Tirowiatu — Meaninj! of Whitsunday — 

 Anagramniatic Pun by William Oldys — Ballad of 

 Chevy Chase : Ovid — Horace Walpole at Eton 



Queries : — 



Continental Watchmen and their Songs - .. - 



Minor Queries :— Quotation from Bacon — Carmagnoles 



— The Use of Tobacco by tlie Elizabethan Ladies — 

 Covines — Story referred to by .Teremy Tjylor— Plant 

 in Texas — Discount — Sacre Clieveux, — "Mad as a 

 March Hare " — Payments for D.e*truction of Vermin 



— Fire unknown — Matthew Paris's Historia Minor — 

 Mother Bunche's Fairy Talcs — Monnmentil Sym- 

 bolism — Meaning of " Stickle" and " Dray" — Son 

 of the Morning — Gild Book, - . - - 



Replies : — 



Pope and Flatman --,--- 

 Test of the Strength of a Bow . . - - 



Baskerville the Printer . - . - - 



Replies to Minor Queries: — Mazer Wood and Sin- 

 eaters — " A Posie of other Men's Flowers " — Table 

 Book— Bj-iwiniiable — Sjmnels — A Ship's Benh — 

 Suicides buried in Cross-roads — A Sword-blade Note 



— Domesday Book of Scotland — Dole-bank — The 

 Letter " V" — Cardinal Wolsey — Nervous — Cole- 

 ridge's Essays on Beauty — " Nao" or " Naw," a Ship — 

 Dnde derivalur S-.onelVenge — Nick Nack — Meaning 

 of Carfax — Hand giving the B-nediction — Unlucky 

 for Pregnant Women to take an Oath — Borough-En- 

 glish — Date of a Charter - , . - 



Miscellaneous: — 



Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues,. &c. - ■« 



Books and Odd Volumes wanted - - - - 



Notices to Correspondents . - . . 



Adverliiemjents - - . , . 



Page 



, 201 

 203 



■ 204 



205 

 206 



208 



209 

 210 

 211 



2U 



- 215 



- 215 



- 215 



-. 216 



VENERABLE BEDe's MENTAL ALMANAC. 



If our own ancient British sage, tlie Venerable 

 Bede, could rise up from the dust of eleven cen- 

 turies, he might find us, notwithstanding all our 

 astounding improvements, in a worse position, in 

 one respect at least, th;m when he left us; and as 

 the subject would be one in which he was well 

 versed, it would indubitably attract his attention. | 



He might then set about teaching us from his 

 own writings a mental resource^ fai- sujiorior to 

 any similar device practised by ourselves, by which 

 the day of the week belonging to any day of the 



month, in any year of the Christian era, might 

 easily and speedily be found. 



And when, the few, who would give themselves 

 the trouble of thoroughly understanding it, came 

 to perceive its easiness of acquirement, its simpli- 

 city in practice, and its firm hold upon the memory, 

 they might well marvel how so admirable a facility 

 should have been so entirely forgotten, or by what 

 perversion of judgment it could have been super- 

 seded by tlie comparatively clumsy and imprac- 

 ticable method of the Dominical letters. 



Let us hear his description of it in his own 

 words : 



" QUJE src FERIA IN Calendis. 



" Simile autem huic tradunt argumentum ad inve- 

 niendain diem Calendarum promptissimum. 



" Habet ergo regiilares Januaiiiis ii, Februarius v, 

 Martius v, Apriles i, Maius iii, Junius vi, Jubus i, 

 Augustus mi, September vu, October ii, Novem- 

 ber V, December vu. Qui videlicet regulares hoc 

 specialiter indicant, quota sit feria per Calendas, eo 

 anno quo septem coucurrentes adscript! sunt dies : 

 CEeteris vero annis addes concurrentes quotquot in pra?- 

 senti fueruntadnotati ad regulares niensiumslngulorum, 

 et ita diem qalendarum sine errore semper invenies. 

 Hoc tantum memor esto, ut cum imminente anno bis- 

 sextili unus concurrentium intermittendus est dies, 

 eo tamen numero quern intermissurus es in Jannaria 

 Februarioque utaris: ac in calendis primu,ni Martiis 

 per ilium qui circulo centinetur solis computare incipias. 

 Cuin ergo diem calendarum, verbi gratia, Januarium, 

 qusrere vis ; dicis Januarius n, adde concurrentes 

 septimana; dies qui fiierunt anno quo eomputas, utpote 

 III, fiunt quinque ; qiiinta feria intrant calendar Januari». 

 Item anno qui sex liabet concurrentes, sume v regulares 

 mensis Martii, adde concurrentes sex, fiunt undecim, 

 tolle septem, remanent quatuor, quarta feria sunt 

 Calenda; Martia;." — Beda; Venerabilis, De Temporum 

 liatione, caput xxi. 



The meaning of this may be expressed as fol- 

 lows : — Attached to the twelve months of the 

 year aixi certain fixed numbers called regulars, 

 ranging from I to vii, denoting the days of the 

 week in their usual order. These regulars, in any 

 year whereof tiie concurrent, or solar epact, is 

 or 7, express, of themselves, the commencing day 

 of each month : but in other years, whatever the 

 solar epact of the year may be, that epact must bo 



Vol. IV.— No. 99. 



