2"^ s. Yi. m, Aug. 28. '58.3 NOTES AND QUERIES. 



171 



These are the points in which Newtou starts 

 in advance of his predecessors, with a powerful 

 body of deduction substituted for ingenious con- 

 jectures : there is no occasion to say anything 

 of what followed. Bouillaud, in raising an ob- 

 jection to Kepler, had asked why the planets 

 are to be stiipidi, while the sun is anima matrix ; 

 why the sun is to move the earth, and not the 

 earth to move the moon. It used to be said, I 

 think of Charles Fox, that before he proceeded to 

 demolish his opponent, he would recapitulate that 

 opponent's argument with so much additional 

 force and clearness, that his friends trembled for 

 his power to answer, until he proceeded to show 

 them that those who know best how to thrust 

 know best how to parry. Bouillaud seems to 

 have gone to work in the same way ; at least as 

 to the first branch of the performance : before 

 proceeding to demolish Kepler, he gives him the 

 inverse square of the distance, and a considerable 

 approach towards uniiiersal gravitation. 



I end with two anagrams* of Newton's name, 

 this instant seen, which will illustrate my subject. 

 As to some part of Newton's preliminary ideas, 

 we must say Not new ; as to the rest. Went on. 



A. De Morgan. 



MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS. 



(2°-^ S. vi. 86.) 



Possessed with the full desire to forward the at- 

 tempts of your correspondents to rescue the fast- 

 fading inscriptions in our churches from impending 

 obliteration, these preliminary suggestive hints are 

 thrown out to forward the end proposed. 



It is probable the first division will be formed 

 of inscriptions bearing dates previous to the year 

 1500. As many of these have been published by 

 local historians, others are preserved in the British 

 Museum, and some are in private collections, the 

 fjuestion naturally presents itself whether they 

 should be recopied to form parts of the proposed 

 national collection. 



The second division would probably be formed 

 of inscriptions in which some or all of the requi- 

 site dates are omitted. Here it may be asked, 

 and the question morits the attention of antiqua- 

 ries. At what period were dates first introduced 

 in reference to the birth or death of the individual 

 recorded, and more particularly when was the age 

 first deemed a necessary part of every monumental 

 inscription ? 



It is unnecessary now to occupy your space 



* To exhaust the subject, the following may be added. 

 As to perceptions, 710 newt ; as to reputations, won ten, that 

 ie, remembering that he was not appreciated (how much 

 soever admired) in his own day, ten now. If any one can 

 make more out of, the word, I think it must be by Swe- 

 denborg's theory of cyrrespoiidences, or something equally 

 potent. 



with farther suggestions; some plan must be de- 

 finitely arranged. That one difficulty satisfacto- 

 rily adjusted, and there remains but little doubt 

 that copies of these valuable records will be for- 

 warded from every part of the kingdom. 



A tolerably large collection of extracts from 

 parish registers, and fully bearing out the pre- 

 mises of S. F. Creswell, are fully at his service 

 on application. H. D'Aveney. 



It is certainly time for the Society of Antiqua- 

 ries to act energetically in carrying out at once 

 their proposed measures for the permanent re- 

 cording of inscriptions in our churchyards, other- 

 wise the less exalted among the population of this 

 country will in a few years know very little of 

 their ancestors. A new source of mischief has 

 arisen among a certain active class of Gothic revi- 

 valists, who so love to meddle with and mend our 

 old churches and their precincts, that very soon 

 little but nineteenth century work will remain. 

 They have now taken to advocate the laying 

 prostrate all the old tombstones in our church- 

 yards, so that the weather, and the feet of passers- 

 by, will very speedily obliterate every vestige of 

 inscription. 



This has just been most ruthlessly done at the 

 parish church of Oakham : every stone has been 

 uprooted, shifted, and laid flat on its back, so as 

 to form footpaths all round the church. 



Is there no ecclesiastical authority competent to 

 cope with this new phase of barbarism ? Has any 

 one an unrestrainable power to do what he likes 

 with the memorials of the parishioners ? May he 

 with impunity shift them about hither and thither, 

 rending them from the spots they were meant to 

 mark, and converting these consecrated slabs into 

 paving-stones ? 



We had at Oakham some picturesque groups 

 of these monumental stones ; all now are reduced 

 to a dead level, apparently for the sole purpose of 

 providing a commodious play -ground for the 

 parish school. 



Cannot a churchyard be set in order without- 

 scattering to the wind the bones of the parishioners, 

 and destroying their tombstones? (?). 



SERFDOM IN ENGLAND. 



(2"" S. vi. 90.) 



Your correspondent, Mr. Kensington, has been 

 misinformed. There have been no serfs in Eng- 

 land for at least two centuries. We have not as 

 yet, probably never shall have, evidence to prove 

 the exact date when all Englishmen became free. 

 It would, however, be very difficult to find villains 

 anywhere except in the law books after the acces- 

 sion of Queen Elizabeth. How long the villain 

 continued to be a part of the English constitution 



