Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/396

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. i. APRIL 23, 1904.

and made exchanges in stamps with him, but shortly after left New York and went to California.

"I was in Montreal from 1860 to 1864. I had gathered some ten or a dozen foreign stamps as far back as 1857-8, France, England, and one lOgr. Hanover ; but 1 never saw or heard of any collectors until 1862, when I chanced to see the collection <probably forty or so) of a man named J. A. Nutter, and I made exchanges with him for local stamps, as I (having been brought up in New York) knew where the local stamps or posts were. I left anada in 1864, and after a short time abandoned the druggist business and came to Boston, and have been here ever since. J. W. Scott I never heard of until 1867 ; the previous account of him I got from W. P. Brown. You can depend on it that no other dealer was earlier than James Brennan in

1863 1 note in the Philatelic Journal of America

for March, 1885, being the first number of that .paper, the statement that Dr. Blackie, of Nashville, has been ' collecting for twenty-nine years,' but that sort of talk is absurd. Letters from foreign countries were almost invariably paid in money and were stamped paid by the Postmaster. Street letter-boxes were unknown here, at any rate, and -where would he have got the stamps in 1856? But the egotism of the average stamp-collector is some- thing very awful My earliest commercial rela- tions with Great Britain were with F. E. Millar, of Dalston, George Prior, of Fenchurch Street, London, a H. Hill, of Argyll Street, Glasgow, and H. M. Lennox, Newhall Terrace, Glasgow."

At 9 th S. x. 83 I quoted the sum of 1,920. paid in 1897 for a pair (Id. and 2d.) of "Post Office Mauritius" as a record price ; but that record was broken on 13 January last, when an unused copy of the 2d. was sold by Messrs. (Puttick & Simpson for 1,450. The discovery of this specimen in a collection formed in 11864 by Mr. James Bonar, now of Hampstead, is chronicled in the London Philatelist for 1303, pp. 269, 301; 1904, p. 1.

P. J. ANDERSON.

University Library, Aberdeen.

EASTER DAY BY THE JULIAN RECKONING. 3-n the old editions of the Prayer Book, before the reformation of the Calendar in England, a table is given " to find Easter for ever." 'This was founded on the notion that nineteen years were exactly equal to 235 lunations, so that at the end of each period of nineteen years (the number in which is called the Golden Number) the moon will be at the same age (as it is called), or distance from conjunction with the sun. As a matter of fact, 235 lunations exceed nineteen true tropical years by about two hours, and fall short of nineteen Julian years by about one and a half hours. But there was no provision in the Julian calendar for readjusting this difference; and as that calendar is still observed in the Eastern Church, Easter which, with us and all Christian nations -which have accepted the reformed Gregorian

calendar, is always within a week of the paschal full moon (there is a special provision that it shall not be on the day of it) now falls, in Russia and Greece, more than a week from the full moon. The table to which reference has been made gives the Sunday letters in a horizontal line above, and the Golden Numbers in a vertical line on the left, by a combination of which the date of Easter can be taken out at sight. It seems to have been forgotten (I have before me the edition of 1662) to note that leap years have two Sunday letters, the first applicable to January and February, and the second to the remainder of the year. Thus for the present year D and C are the Sunday letters ; C must be taken in determining Easter, and as the Golden Number is 5, Easter Day fell by the Julian reckoning on 28 March, corresponding to our 10 April by the reformed calendar, and was so observed in the Oriental Church, one week after our Easter and eleven days after the paschal full moon. W. T. LYNN.

Blackheath.

KENTISH CUSTOM ON EASTER DAY. The following cutting is from the Standard of 4 April, in reference to a custom already alluded to in former series of ' N. & Q.' ; but why the name of the place should be per- sistently called Biddenham, and not Bidden- den, i cannot say. The former place is in Bedfordshire, the latter in Kent, about five miles from Cran brook :

"The village of Biddenham, Kent, was crowded yesterday with visitors from the adjoining towns and villages, who flocked there on Easter Day to witness the annual distribution of what is known as the 'Biddenham Maids.' This singular custom, which has been in existence for several hundred years, consists of a distribution of bread and cheese to poor residents, and the presentation to all visitors of a cake made of flour and water, bearing an im- pression of the famous ' Maids,' who were joined at the hips and shoulders. The legend is that in 1100 there were born in Biddenham two girls, joined together as described, and they lived thus for thirty-four years, and when one died, the other, refusing to be operated upon, also died within six hours. By their will they founded the charity."

In Lewis's 'Topographical Dictionary,' s.v. 'Biddenden,' is the following notice of this custom :

" A distribution of bread and cheese to the poor Lakes place on Easter Sunday, the expense of which ^s defrayed from the rental of about 20 acres of land, the reputed bequests of the Biddenden Maids,
 * wo sisters of the name of Chulkhurst, who, accord-

ing to tradition, were joined by the hips and shoulders in the year 1100, and, having lived in lours of each other."
 * hat state to the age of thirty-four, died within six

JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.

Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.