Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 7.djvu/110

76 carved on stone, .and of the times of the same Master. One of these is in the porter's lodge, the other on the mantle-piece of the fire-place in an upper chamber, now called "the Nun's room," part of the old Masters' lodging, supposed to have been the work of Robert Shirborne. It is carved on a scroll, as follows—"R S Dilexi Sapiēciam anno doi 1503. " The date is the same in both instances, and the unusual form of the 5 (similar to the letter h) renders it deserving of special notice. This form occurs, however, in the "chiffres vulgaires de France," given by De Vaines. It is found in the date of the sepulchral brass of Robert Mayo, in the church of St. Mary, Coslany, Norwich, given in Mr. Wright's curious memoir "on the antiquity of dates expressed in Arabic Numerals," in the Journal of the Archaeological Association. It is identical with the character quinas, the fifth of the numerical symbols used by Gerbert, in the system of calculation introduced about the close of the tenth century.

subsequently communicated a notice of the remains of the ancient Episcopal manor-house at Bishop's Waltham, Hants, consisting of an extensive range of buildings, formerly the bishop's stables, and in later times used as a malt-house. At the end of this building is a cottage, in the wall of which is to be seen inserted a sculptured stone, bearing an escutcheon of the arms of Thomas Langton, Bishop of Winchester (a cross charged with three roses), and beneath it the date 1493, as here represented, being the year in which he was translated to that see from Salisbury. The stone is decayed and the Arabic numerals somewhat worn, especially the second, of which one extremity is now broken away; the figure was, however, evidently the Arabic 4.

The curious piece of plate presented by the same Bishop Langton to Pembroke College, Cambridge (as stated by Godwin), and still there preserved, usually termed the "Anathema cup," bears' an inscription, in which both Roman and Arabic numerals are found united. It is as follows:— 1 • 4 • 9 • 7

The anathema has not availed for the preservation of the cover of this tassea. A representation of the cup is given in Mr. Smith's interesting "Specimens of College Plate," (Transactions of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, vol. i.)

presented to the Institute a plaster cast of another date, 1494, in Arabic numerals, which is seen over the west door of the church