Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/349

 us, V.APRIL is, 1912.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

285

1861, at the early age of twenty-four, no friend showed greater sorrow and sympathy than he. On retiring from The Athenaeum owing to ill-health, he, when handing his last proof to my brother, took the pin from the scarf he was wearing and presented it to him ; and on the 1st of August, 1868, he gave a farewell dinner to the employees of the printing and publishing offices. His health did not- allow him to be present, and he entrusted to my father his " words of welcome," in which he " thanked his guests and fellow- workers with all his heart most cordially for the help they had given him. Although Chorley retired from the staff of The Athenceum in the summer of 1868, he still occasionally contributed to its columns, and he wrote the obituary notice of Dickens which appeared, bearing his signa- ture, on the 18th of June, 1870. In this, after reference to the literary life of his friend, Chorley says :

" Those who were admitted to know Charles Dickens in the intimacy of his own home cannot without such emotion as almost incapacitates the heart and hand recall the charm of his bounteous and scenial hospitality. Nothing can be conceived more perfect in tact, more freely equal, whatever the rank of his guests, than was his warm welcome. The frank grasp of his hand the bright smile on his manly face the cheery greeting are things not to be forgotten while life and reason last by those

who were privileged to share them When the

story of his life shall come to be told on some distant day, then, and not till then, this amazing vitality, which set him apart from every human being 1 have approached, will present itself as one of the most remarkable features in the life and works of one of the greatest and most beneficent men of genius England has produced since the days of Shakespeare."

The death of Chorley took place very suddenly, on the morning of Friday, the 16th of February, 1872. It was a" great shock to my father, who only the previous day had called upon him, and found him full of cheerfulness and talk of his future plans. He was buried beside his brother John in Brompton Cemetery, my father being among the mourners ; my brother and myself were also present, together with a deputation from The Athenaeum printing office.

Hewlett's biography my father's copy has fastened in it Chorley's letter on his retirement from The Athenceum contains an excellent portrait of him. Like his friend Dickens, he dressed with care, and in winter generally wore an overcoat of the richest velvet, either black or dark maroon.

JOHN COLLINS FRANCIS.

(To l)e continued.)

A RUNIC CALENDAR.

VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM. ROOM 132,

(See ante, p. 261.)

THE next item on the calendar to be con- sidered is that of the signs of the Zodiac. These are represented pictorially, and under each one appears a rune. Instead of beginning these signs with Aries, as is usual, Aquarius is placed first : this is because the sun enters Aquarius during January, and as it requires approximately one month to traverse each sign, the month that any given sign is entered is readily obtained.

The runes underneath the pictures give the day of the month on which the sun enters the signs, and on referring to the complete calendar it is easy to count up how many days are required for the sun to traverse each sign. The periods are a follows :

Sign. Aquarius Pisces Aries Taurus Gemini Cancer Leo Virgo Libra

Rvne.

Duration. 30 30 30 31 32 31 31 31 30

Scorpio R, 30

Sagittarius T 30

Capricornus 29

The variation of these periods is inter- esting, as a division of the year into twelve equal parts would give 30 days each, very approximately ; and this could be carried out by allotting 30 and 31 days alternately, just as the maker of this calendar has done for the lunar cycle, to be discussed later. The fact that such an obvious arrangement has been avoided in favour of a more com- plex one shows that an equal division of time is not aimed at.

At the probable date when this calendar was made, the events of the solar cycle were occurring eleven days too early, owing to the long use of the inaccurate Julian calendar ; so that the apparent velocity of the sun at that time was least towards the middle of June, and greatest towards the middle of December. It follows, therefore,