94 
the elementary arithmetic of schools. As might be ex- 
pected, all the first traces of these figures in England were 
found in the old calendars and calculations with which, 
here and there, the monkish scholars busied themselves. 
Chaucer in his “Dreme” (about 1375) speaks of them as 
“figures newe” in a passage the tenor of which shows that 
he was aware of the enormous improvement which they 
offered upon the old use of the Roman signs. The first 
printed book which is known to contain the Arabic nume- 
rals is an old blackletter quarto printed at Louvain in 1476, 
entitled Fasciculus Temporum. Caxton, I believe, never 
uses them, in the works issued from his press ; but in 
his Mirrour of the World, 1480, is a curious wood-cut 
representing a man sitting at a desk, and before him a 
board on which are drawn some rude representations of 
Arabic figures. The earliest authentic instances of monu- 
mental or structural inscriptions with Arabic numerals are 
given in the Archceological Journal for 1850, and were accep- 
ted by the Archaeological Institute as genuine : — On a lych 
gate, at Bray, Berkshire, 1448 • on a quarry of stained 
glass, at St. Cross’s Hospital, Hampshire, 1497 ; on a stone, 
also at St. Cross’s, 1503. I believe that nothing earlier 
than these is really known. There are, indeed, plenty 
which claim to be of greater antiquity — 'but one or two 
explanations will probably answer for them all. In several 
cases the bottom of the antique 4, in the hundreds, has 
been cut off, leaving an apparent date of the eleventh 
century. In still more cases a rude 5 has been read 
for a 1. These numerals would be used for inscriptions, 
as a mere fancy -lettering, long before their real im- 
portance was understood. Merchants would go on using 
the old figures, which had served their fathers. So we find 
the old system holding its place in all known public or 
private accounts till the beginning, and in many cases till 
far on into the sixteenth century. One curious exception, 
