Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/11

{{rh|{{sm|12 S. I. {{sc|Jan}}. 1, 1916.]}}|NOTES AND QUERIES.}5}} Barton Turf, Binham, and Ludham his figure is not to be found, so probably the note in Messrs. Bond and Camm's book has been misplaced.

To end with a query. In the Proceedings of the Bury and West Suffolk Archæological Institute (vol. i. p. 222) there is described a representation of Sir John Schorne which is said to have come from a rood-screen at Sudbury. In 1850 it belonged to Mr. Gainsborough Dupont. In The Archæological Journal (vol. xxv. pp. 334-44) a description is given of a stained-glass panel with a figure of Schorne, which in 1838 belonged to a resident of Bury St. Edmunds. And in The Reliquary for 1902 (p. 40) mention is made of the leaf of a vellum Antiphoner at Clare, in private possession, with an illumination or miniature of Sir John. Can any one say where these are now to be found?

printing of almanacs in England can be traced back to pre-Elizabethan times, for the earliest one known was printed by Richard Pynson in 1497. Afterwards the exclusive right to sell almanacs and prognostications was granted by Queen Elizabeth to the Stationers' Company, and James I. extended the privilege to the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and for about two centuries these bodies were the only ones permitted to issue printed calendars. It was not until 1834, when the heavy stamp duty of one shilling and threepence per copy was repealed, that local printers were able to publish their own productions; and even up to the present day most of the locally printed almanacs contain the calendar and other matter supplied by the Company, and used for the "inside," having added thereto advertisements and much local information to make up the little volumes, which are mostly small octavos. It is this extra material, or Companion to the Almanac, that I am here most concerned with and interested in, for I wish to indicate how useful it is for topographical and genealogical purposes a point which has not been sufficiently noted. Yet a small collection of such annuals of any county should be most instructive and may well be consulted for the above information. These little records of a year's work are still popular, and their genesis from the official sheets and later forecasts and prognostications of Old Moore, Poor Robin, and poorer Partridge is well known; the calendar itself is derived from the old authority.

To show the growth of these slender ephemerides I subjoin a list of almanacs for the county of Huntingdon, with a few notes detailing the local uses and some of their contents. My list commences with a small volume published by the Stationers' Company in 1782, but the county is yet more closely connected with the Company than this implies, for in the year 1802 the latter consigned to "Mr. Gregory the editorship of the Gentleman's Diary and another of the almanacs." From the year 1817 he had the general superintendence of the almanacs published by them, which had been for a long time conducted by Dr. Hutton. "Mr. Gregory" was the famous mathematician, Dr. Olinthus Gregory—born at Yaxley, Huntingdonshire, Jan. 29, 1774, died at Woolwich in 1841; so the pleasure of perusing these slight works is enhanced by their recalling some interesting historical associations. Mr. J. Wright of St. Neots kindly sent me a list of those in his collection, which added to mine and the B.M. sheets make up the total.

After the repeal of the stamp tax, almanacs became much more numerous, and some of them published from Stationers' Hall, about this time and later, contained information relating to many counties, so that their circulation was extensive, whilst others limited their scope to a district or just a few counties.

(1) The earliest almanac connected with Huntingdonshire is one in my possession dated 1782. It is printed in red and black, size 5 in. by 3 in., and called—

It has an engraved view of Stationers' Hall and the Stationers' arms, and gives a list of the fairs in Huntingdonshire, and the names of members of Parliament, &c. This particular copy belonged to some one in St. Neots, and he made almost daily entries about the weather. The forecast in the almanac for Feb. 11 was "mild and temperate weather for the season," and the observer writes: "Very windy, high wind"; and on May 16 the forecast was: "Hot and dry weather." He noticed that it was "Rainy weather to the 28th," and on the 31st, "River out of its banks."

This copy seems of quite a recent date for weather lore compared with the Lincoln-