9 th S.V.JAN. 20, i9oa] NOTES AND QUERIES.
41
LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 1900.
CONTENTS. No. 108.
NOTES Beginning of the Twentieth Century, 41 Modern Zodiacs, 42 -Byroniana, 43 -Field-Marshals in the Army Cowper 44 Aubrey's ' Brief Lives 'Dickens Misquota- tion "Gnu," 451900 and the " Styles " Seasonable Misprint "Comparisons are odious" A "Sunday" Hare Miss Adelaide Kemble, 46.
QUERIES: " Hippin "Francis Mercer Nicholas Hem- ington Sidbury, Devon Army Rank Carey, M.P. Green Fairies at Woolpit "Vine "=a Flexible Shoot, 47 South Africa " the grave of reputations "Mr. Bing " Argh "Inscriptions at the Parish Church, Scarborough " Bally " and "Ballyrag "Suffolk Name for Ladybird, 48 Sir E. Widrington " Petigrewe " ' The Pen: a Journal' Willis and Puckridge Families Island of Providence " Old Jamaica," 49.
REPLIES : -South African Names, 49 Order of the Bath, 50-Gray and Walpole " Horning " " Nimmet "Scott Quotation Scandal about Queen Elizabeth Clerks of the Board of Green Cloth Right of Sanctuary "Frail," 51
Cardinal York Vowel Combination eo Origin of "Tips" J. D. S. Douglas Iron Pavement Flaxman's Wife, 52 Lincoln's Inn Fields " Sock " " Doctor," Christian Name, 53 Brothers with same '.Christian Name Marriage and Baptism Superstitions " Soft as a toad " Thomas Brooks, 54 Delaval " Polder ": "Loophole" Browning's ' Luria ' " Howk " Bleeding Image in Christ Church, Dublin, 55 Gold Coins of the Forum " Memorize ""Mays " " Hoon aff " Correspondence of English Ambassadors to France, 56 ' Pickwickian Studies '" Boer "Statue in Bergen, Norway Pasquil
" Th6 Beurre " Old Church at Chingford Cox's Museum, 57 English Travellers in Savoy" Witchelt "= Ill-shod Authors Wanted, 58.
NOTES ON BOOKS . Macaulay's 'Works of Gower' Adeane's 'Early Married Life of Lady Stanley ' Sut- cliffe's 'By Moor and Fell ' Marillier's 'University Magazines Walton's ' Compleat Angler.'
THE BEGINNING OF THE TWENTIETH
CENTURY.
THOSE who spell the daily papers, par- ticularly the one which hails from Printing House Square, must have become rather weary of the mass of letters on so simple a subject as the true date of the commence- ment of the next (twentieth) century. It is editorially remarked in the first number of
- N.& Q.' for the present year that we must wait
another year for that commencement, which obviously will not take place until 1 January, 1901. Nevertheless, strange as it may appear, there are some who hold that it has already begun ; and apparently amongst these must be reckoned one whose dictum reminds us of the expression attributed to Cicero, that the rising of the stars was then regulated by imperial decree a rather misplaced joke at the reformation of the calendar by Julius Cresar. Perhaps the following statement of facts may be helpful.
It is well known that the method of reckoning dates by the birth of Christ was first brought into vogue by Dionysius Exiguus in the sixth century of our era, and therefore it may be well to refer to the actual
words of that writer. It will be noticed in
doing so that the ecclesiastical reckoning was
not from the birth of Christ, but the Incar-
nation, that is the day of the. Annunciation ;
the modern modification of taking the birth is
simply in order to make the year begin at the
Roman date, which was a week after Christmas
Day. From the time of Constantino the im-
perial reckoning was by the indiction, a
period of fifteen years, the first of which began
in A.D. 313, when the edict of Milan was put
forth under the joint authority of Cons tan-
tine and Licinius, and eleven years before the
foundation of Constantinople. Now we will
turn to Dionysius (the surname Exiguus has
been taken to mean either that he was small
in stature or humble in mind), who begins
his * Argumenta Paschalia' thus :
" Si nosse vis quotus sit annus ab incarnatione Domini nostri Jesu Christi, computa quindecies xxxiv., fiunt DX. ; iis semper adde xn. regulares, fiunt DXXII. ; adde etiam indictionem anni cujus volueris, ut puta tertiam, consulatu Probi junioris, fiunt simul anni DXXV. Isti sunt anni ab incarna- tione Domini."
This means that the year A.D. 525 was the third of an indiction, and that if the period of indictions were carried back, there would be thirty -four periods (510 years) and twelve years more up to A.D. 522, when an indiction period was completed, so that 523 was the first year of a new indiction, as 313 was the first of the first, 210 years or fourteen indic- tion periods before. We have here, then, a means of comparing the Dionysian chrono- logy with that of the empire. A.D. 525 was the third of an indiction, and the year of the consulship of Philoxenus and Probus junior. This would be the (Varronian) year of Home 1278 ; whilst A.D. 1 was the year of Rome 753. and that of the consulship of Lentulus and Piso. Dionysius Exiguus takes 25 March in that year as the date of the incarnation of Christ, and 25 December as that of his nativity; the modern modification takes 31 December following as the end of B.C. 1, and the next day, 1 January, as the commence- ment of A.D. 1. One year from this was, of course, completed on 31 December, A.D. 1, and the second year of the era began on 1 Jan- uary, A.D. 2. In like manner, one hundred years, or one century, was completed on 31 December, A.D. 100, and the second century began on 1 January, 101. Carrying this on, nineteen centuries from the assumed date of the birth of Christ will be finished on 31 De- cember, A.D. 1900, and the twentieth century will begin on 1 January, 1901. All this is unaffected by the question of the true date of the birth of Christ, it being impos-
