52 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2 nd S. IX. Jan. 21. '60. 



Arithmetical Notation (2 nd S. viii. 41. 460. 

 520.) — The common usage of the middle ages 

 being to divide number into digitus, articulus, and 

 eompositus, I presume that computus, occurring 

 with the two other words, must be taken as either 

 intended to be eompositus, or as a mistake, until 

 more instances are produced. I never found any 

 word bu,t eompositus joined with digitus and arti- 

 cidus. 



There is no doubt that compotus and computus 

 are the same word, and that either spelling is very 

 frequent. But my experience is utterly at vari- 

 ance with that of H F., who pronounces "an ac- 

 count of money " to be a meaning of compotus 

 common enough to be called the usual one. 

 When doctors differ, a third doctor must be called 

 in : and I call in Doctor Ducange, whom I have 

 never till now consulted on this question. He 

 first points out that computus originally means 

 computation of any kind, and cites ancient au- 

 thors, as Julius Firrnicus and St. Jerome. He 

 then goes on thus : — " Compotus, seu Computus, 

 apud Scriptores, Ecclesiasticus potissimum intelli- 



gitur " Of this he goes on to give ample 



instances, noticing also the manner in which Com- 

 poiista means a settler of time by the sun and 

 moon, &c. If H. F. can support his assertion that 

 the usual meaning of computus refers to money, it 

 will be a useful correction of Ducange. As at 

 present informed, I take the fact to be that " Com- 

 putus Ecclesiasticus," the standing title of the 

 calendar, subsided into " Computus," with " Ec- 

 clesiasticus " understood, just as " Holy Bible " 

 has subsided into " Bible," or " sum total " into 

 " sum," a word which never implied addition 

 until it came to stand alone after keeping com- 

 pany with " total." No doubt there may be occa- 

 sional uses of the original meaning of computus : 

 the question is about their frequency. 



Before leaving this subject, I notice some 

 amount of tendency to confusion between Com- 

 putus and Composilus, from Compositio, used as a 

 translation of Syntaxis. The Almanac called the 

 " Compost of Ptolemajus " seems to contain the 

 word in a confusion between the senses of Com- 

 putus and Syntaxis. Ducange notices one instance 

 of Compositus used for Computus. 



A. De Morgan. 



Boydell's Shaksfeare Gallery (2 nd S. viii. 

 50. 97. 313. 457.) It is singular that those gentle- 

 men who have attempted to reply to V. H. Q.'s 

 original Query should be unacquainted with that 

 interesting volume, The Patronage of British Art; 

 an Historical Sketch, comprising an Account of the 

 Bise and Progress of Art and Artists in London, 

 from the beginning of the Reign of George the 

 Second, &c, by John Pye, 8vo. 1845. In this 

 work (p. 279.) will be found a reprint of Mr. 

 Tassie's Sale Catalogue, indicating the subjects, 

 names of artists, purchasers, and prices of" the 



different works which formed the Shakspeare 

 Gallery. V. H. Q. may also be referred to a 

 very interesting essay, entitled " The Shakespeare 

 Gallery, — an Illustration," which forms the second 

 section of a pamphlet by that able advocate of 

 British Art, the late William Carey, entitled 

 Varice ; Historical Observations on Anti-British 

 and Anti-Contemporarian Prejudices, &c, 8vo. 

 1822. The chief object of this essay is to show 

 that the striking events of English history, es- 

 pecially as delineated by the forcible pencil of 

 Northcote, possessed stronger interest and brought 

 higher prices at the sale than the more imagina- 

 tive and academical compositions of Hamilton, 

 Angelica Kauffman, and others. An account 

 of the lottery also appeared in the Projector, 

 No. XLIL, and was reprinted in the Gentleman s 

 Magazine, vol. lxxv. p. 213. William Bates. 



Sir Robert le Grys (2 nd S. viii. 268.) — The 

 family of Le Grys is extinct in Norfolk. C. Le 

 Grys was owner of the manor-house of Morton 

 in Norfolk, of which parish Robert Le Grys was 

 rector till 1790. He was a good scholar and a 

 friend of Dr. Samuel Parr. X. Y. 



The Three Kings or Colon (2 nd S. viii. 505.) 

 — There is, at this time, a public-house in Boston, 

 Lincolnshire, called the " Indian Queen ; " it pro- 

 bably took its name from some fancifully dressed 

 figures which I well remember were painted on 

 its ancient sign-board. There were three figures, 

 and these were so uncouth, and unlike anything 

 known at that time, that the house had borne the 

 name of " The Three Merry Devils." This tavern 

 originally bore the name and sign of " The Three 

 Kings of Cologne," but the sign faded, and the 

 title became obsolete, and the medheval designa- 

 tion of the house was desecrated and degraded as 

 I have stated. 



Another tavern in Boston lias, at present, for 

 its name the curious combination of " The Bull 

 and Magpye," and bears for its sign a literal bull 

 and as literal a magpye. This name and sign has 

 also mediaeval origin. The ancient title of the 

 house was the " Bull and Pie," both words having 

 a reference to the Roman Catholic faith ; the bull 

 being the Pope's Bull, and Pie or Pye being the 

 familiar name in English for the Popish Ordinal ; 

 that is, the book which contained the ordinances 

 for solemnising the offices of the Church. A MS. 

 called The Salisbury Pie, — Regulse de omnibus 

 histoiiis inchoandi, &c," was advertised for sale 

 by Mr. Kerslake, of Bristol, in 1858. This was 

 one of the Service Books of the Romish Church. 

 There was a celebrated inn in Aldgate called the 

 " Pie " in 1659, and later. See Nares's Glossary, 

 p. 16. ed. 1857; see also Gutch's Collect. Cur. ii. 

 169. Pie or Pye is supposed to be an abridge- 

 ment of the Greek word, Pinax, an index. 



Pishey Thompson. 





