Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/482

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. i. JUNE n, 1910.

" Curiously enough, the slab above the vault . . . .was inscribed with the date 1649." (see Times, 18 Feb., 1909). The latter date is the historical one. It might have been 164f or 1648-9. Presumably 1649 was inscribed on the slab in or after 1813, when the position of the vault containing the remains of King Charles was ascertained.

Much of the above is taken from ' The Book of Common Prayer, with Notes, Legal and Historical,' by Archibald John Stephens, Ecclesiastical History Society, 1849, vol. i. pp. 272-5.

The following puts the differences between the historical and the civil year plainly. It is taken from a very useful little book. 'The Jubilee Date-Book. The Regnal Years of the Kings and Queens of England, from William the Conqueror to Victoria,' by Walford D. Selby, of H.M. Public Record Office (Wyman & Sons, 1887) :

" In using this Table [i.e., Table of Regnal Years] it is necessary to bear in mind that the dates are calculated according to what is known as the Historical year, that is to say, the year as calculated at the present day from 1 January to 31 December. The reader must remember, how- ever, that early documents were dated according to the Civil (otherwise Ecclesiastical or Legal) year, which began on the 25th of March. Thus all dates between the 1st of January and the 24th of March, inclusive, according to the Historical computation, are to be assigned to a date one year (numerically) in advance of the Civil year. To take an example : the reign of King James I. commenced, according to the historical calculation, on 24 March, 1603, but by the civil year computa- tion it was 24 March, 1602 ; and yet, according to both systems, the second day of this reign was 25 March, 1603."

The term Old Style does not refer to the English civil year, but relates to the Julian calendar, which for centuries before the introduction of the New Style by Pope Gregory XIII. had been the calendar of the Christian world, and is to-day the erroneous calendar of Russia and Greece.

ROBERT PIEBPOINT.

SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATORS (11 S. i. 327, 414). I have several volumes of the 1762 edition of Theobald. In this all the illustrations are designed by Gravelot and engraved by Van der G ucht.

In another edition, probably not Theo- bald's, printed in 1734 (for J. Tonson), the illustrators are various. Some of the illus- trations are signed J. Smith (apparently as engraver) ; others are said to be designed and engraved by Du Guernier, and one, at least, by Fourdrinier.

J. FOSTER PALMER.

Royal Avenue, S.W.

HORNBOOK TEMP. ELIZABETH (11 S. i. 48). There is a large amount of .interesting information, though very badly arranged, in the late Andrew W. Tuer's ' History of the Hornbook.'- London, 1897. Many refer- ences to the hornbook in English literature are there brought together. MR. A. E. H. SWAEN'S quotation is introduced twice (pp. 75 and 301). It can be best illustrated by the words set to music, by Thomas Morley in ' A Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practical Musicke,' London, 1608, printed by Tuer on pp. 31 and 302 :

" Christes crosse be my speede, in all vertue to proceede, A.b.c.d.e.f.g.h.i.k.l.m.n.o.p. q . r . s . & t . double w . v . x . with y . ezod . & per se . con per se . tittle . tittle . est . Amen, When you have done begin againe, begin againe."

Tuer's 'History ' gives many cuts of horn- books, from which their usual contents and arrangement may be seen. A black-letter example, e.g., on p. 296 has the following : 1. A cross. Hence the names " Chris se- Crosse," " Christ's-cross row, n &c., for the A B C (p. 62). 2. A capital A. 3. A lower- case alphabet (no /, two forms for s, v u in this order). 4. The form for et or and ( &, & per se, or ampersand. See Prof. Skeat, 4 S. viii. 468, ' A Student's Pastime,' p. 67). 5. A full stop ( = tittle). 6. The five vowels. 7. A capital alphabet (no J, no separate form for V, the z is a minuscule). 8. A syllabarium in two divisions, each headed by the five vowels. 9. "In the name of the Father, and of the Sonne, and of the holy Ghost. Amen. n 10. The Lord's Prayer.

On p. 44 may be seen a hornbook in Roman type, said to be of the reign of Elizabeth, the arrangement in which is almost exactly the same ; and so in many other instances.

In MR. SWAEN'S extract " to crish Crosse ?? seems to mean " to say the ABC.' 1 " Great A Jl in a hornbook is regularly printed by itself after the cross, before the lower-case alphabet (Hence " Great A, little a, bounc- ing b,' 1 of the nursery rime). With, regard to "before I could come to q, n it may be noted that in one of the hornbooks above referred to q is at the end of the first line, while in the other it begins the second. As for " e perce e " or " e per se e, ?? a comparison of * the words from Morley's book might support the suggestion that this is for " & per se n or " & per se & " ( = ampersand). See, however, the remarks on p. 299 of Tuer, and ' The Stanford Dictionary l under " a per se, A per se A, n &c. " Comperce " or " con per se " is the contraction for con.