Page:Archaeologia Volume 13.djvu/198

 1 48 Additional Remarks w the by very intelligent and unbiased antiquaries. May I not then fafely venture to again advance, that there has not been a well authen- ticated infcription on wood, ftone, or metal, yet difcovered with Arabic numerals of an earlier period than 1454, and that de- noting on a brafs plate in Ware church the death of Ellen Wood, and Mr. Gough tells me, that on another brafs plate in the fame church over the remains of Mr. Bramber, who there founded a chauntry chapel, there is the date of the year 1484 in the fame numerals. The earlieft ufe of thefe characters in fpecifying the dates of deeds, and in numbering the leaves or pages of books in MS. is another proper object of inquiry. Againft the repeated affertions of Dr. Harris, in his Hiftory of Kent, that they were thus originally employed by the compiler of Textus RofFenfis, I declined offering myfelf as an evidence, from not having feen that curious book up-? wards of twenty years, and from my not having ever confulted it for the purpofe of afcertaining this point. I therefore chiefly re- lied on the opinion of Dr. Pegge, who had feen it, and who had procured a collated copy, only fuggefting the great improbability there was of bifhop Ernulf's having fo frequently ufed thefe vulgar figures in marking the leaves without having fuffered any of them to flip by accident into the text itfelf. But I fliall now fubjoin a clear and full report given by the archdeacon of Rochefter, who, with Mr.Wrighte, our fecretary, has, at my requeft, lately examin- ed the book. " We are both (writes Dr. Law) decidedly of opi- nion, that the figures on the top of the pages are modern. I Ihould not have prefumed to adduce my teftimony, if there could be a doubt of the recent infertion of the above figures. Mr.Wrighte took a fac firnile of the numeral characters at the beginning of the book, which is now conveyed to you. I am amazed that any one who ever infpecled the Textus RofFenfis could fuppofe the nu- merals