554 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION F. 



8.— ON THE LUNERAL: BEING A METHOD FOR 

 DISCOVERING WEEKDAY DATES FROM THE 

 YEAR OF OUR LORD TILL A FRESH ALTERA- 

 TION IS MADE IN THE CALENDAR. 



By W. E. STOPFORD. 



Use. 



History is condensed diary, and the dates of the one are 

 the dates of the other in condensed form. Without dates 

 all narrative is without an essential point. More than this, 

 they often require to be full and complete. If I were to ask 

 when such and such an event took place, and were informed 

 on the 14th December, 1329, I should know it happened 

 before or after another event whose date I was previously 

 acquainted with. This would be comparative knowledge, 

 with which I might be satisfied ; but if I wished to make 

 myself thoroughly at home with all the circumstances of the 

 event, I should prefer to be told it occurred or commenced 

 at 2'30 P.M., Thursday, 14th December, 1329. It is quite 

 possible the specific knowledge I should then have acquired 

 might account for other events immediately preceding or fol- 

 lowing it. In such a form as this should I find the dale 

 given in diary, which as reading is infinitely pleasanter, and 

 far more reliable, than history. By tallying one with another, 

 weekday dates confirm and establish the accuracy of other 

 dates : on one occasion I came across a date in history that 

 gave the day of the week, the day of the month, and two 

 consecutive years, showing uncertainty in this respect, and 

 by glancing at the Luneral I was able to decide upon one of 

 them. 



There seems, then, to be a call for some method of arriving * 

 at weekday dates, at least, of historical events, if one may be 

 found to work with ease and fair simplicity, and such a one 

 am I prepared to lay before you, together with the proof of 

 its accuracy. 



Method. 



The Instructions state that all the letters in the square 

 stand for Sundays ; this is true in relation to the months, but 

 in relation to the numbers which stand round, and which I 

 propose to commence with, the letters stand for days of the 

 week, B C D G P T V standing for Sunday, Monday, 

 Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. In 

 effect, the Luneral has two objects ; first, to give the day of 



