Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/350

 286

NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. v. A, is, 1912.

that the sun remained longest in Gemini and Cancer, and the least time in Sagitt- arius and Capricornus. (The actual number of days given in the preceding table should not be taken too literally : they were found by mere subtraction of dates, without con- sidering the time of the day.)

All that has been considered so far has reference to the solar cycle ; but these runic calendars, as well as the clogs, were usually arranged to gives the dates of the new moons. Sometimes the date of the Paschal moon, on which the date of Easter is based, was given also, but not on this calendar. The possibility of predicting the date of a new moon is due to the discovery by Meto {B.C. 433) that the sun and the moon com- plete a cycle relative to one another in nineteen years. The difference between 235 lunations and 19 solar years is very small, but sufficient to destroy the accuracy of the calendar after several cycles. Leap years also cause discrepancies, so that the pre- diction of a new moon may be one or even two days in error. This, of course, would be useless for the purposes of modern astronomy, but it was good enough for fishermen and others, in order to know on what dates they could pursue their trades in the night time. (It is pointed out that a similar inaccuracy finds its way into the ecclesiastical calendar: the Paschal moon is merely a tabular moon, which may differ by a day or so from the actual moon.)

Since the Metonic cycle covers a period of nineteen years, if the first year of any one cycle is known, the number of years which have elapsed since that year, divided by nineteen, will give the number of complete cycles which have elapsed as quotient, and the number of years towards another cycle as remainder. This remainder is known as the Golden Number of the year. All years having the same Golden Number would have the new moons on the same dates, if the Metonic cycle were exact. If the Golden Number of a year, and the date of any one new moon in that year, are known, a symbol denoting the Golden Number can be connected with this date. A luna- tion being approximately 29J days, if the same symbol is repeated at intervals of 29 and 30 days alternately, the Golden Number of a year will be the only thing required to find the dates of all the new moons in that year. Not only so, but if we have this infor- mation for one year only, the dates of the new moons in the remaining years of the cycle can easily be computed. E. CHAPPELL. (To be continued.}

SIGNS OF OLD LONDON. (See 11 S. i. 402, 465 ; ii. 323 ; iii. 64, 426; iv. 226.) Many of these must figure in Elizabethan literature, and it would be interesting to know how many allusions to popular taverns are to be found in our old authors. I have noticed the following :

"Boar's Head," Eastcheap (11 S. iii. 65), is, of course, immortalized by ' 1 Henry IV.,' II. iv.

" King's Head " in Fisli Street. (US. iii. 65), v. ' London Prodigal,' IT. iv. 14.

" Rose " at Temple Bar (11 S. iii. 65), v. ' London Prodigal,' II. iv. 15. As this play appeared in 1605, we have an earlier reference to the " Hose " than that given by MR. McMuRRAY. T. Heywood mentions a tavern of this name frequented by gardeners.

" Mitre," Cheapside (11 S. iii. 65), ' Sir Thomas More,' II. i. 5 the scene is Cheapside refers to " the Miter by the great Conduit." This, too, is much earlier than MR. McMUR- RAY'S " Mitre," temp. Chas. II.

"Ship Tavern," Tower Hill (11 S. ii. 323), Old Bailey (11 S. iii. 65). T. Heywood says, " To ' The Ship ' the merchant goes."

" Nag's Head," Cheapside (US. iii.1 64, 65). Arden supped at a London inn of this name. 'Arden of Faversham,' II. ii. 43, 137.

"Star," Bishopsgate (11 S. i. 465), Cheapside (11 S. iii. 65). The "Star" is the name of the tavern patronized by shepherds in Hey- wood's ' London Taverns.'

"Swan," St. Giles, Cripplegate (11 S. ii. 426), Crooked Lane (11 S. iii. 65), may be the "Swan" the muses love in the last-men- tioned poem.

Excepting the " Boar's Head " at East- cheap, I have failed to find a Shakespearian tavern among those given by MB. McMuKRAY. Had the " Porpentine," " Centaur," " Phoenix," " Tiger " (all from ' Comedy of Errors ') ; " Elephant " (' Twelfth Night,' III. iv. 39); "Bear at Bridgefoot " ('Puritan,' I. iv. 300); "Staire in Bread St." (' Sir Thos. More,' II. i. 12) ; or " Poll head " ('Sir Thos. More,' III. ii. 292), any real existence ?

Here are some provincial inns which may have existed outside poetic imaginations : " The Three Horse Loves at Stony Stratford " (' Sir John Oldcastle,' V. iii. 31) ; " The Rose at Barking " (' Sir J. Oldcastle,' IV. iv. 13) ; " Sheeres at St. Albans " (' Sir J. Oldcastle,' V. v. 12) ; " Red Lion at Waltham " (' Knight of the Burning Pestle,' II. i.) ; " Lion" (' Arden of Faversham,' II. i. 66) ; " George at Croydon " (' London Prodigal,' I. ii. 92) ; " George at Waltham " (' Merry Devil of Edmonton,' I. i. 2) ; " At the Sign of the Egg-shell, Bradford " (' George-a- Greene,' IV. iii.). P. A. MCELWAINE.

Dublin.