Page 14. 13. Edw. 1.25. price of an Oxe, 5sh." English. 1 sh." "A. D. 1285, Henri I. for carcass of beef at pasture Amount of bread to be gotten from a bu. of wheat is summed up at 40 lb. 9 oz. 12 pwt. according to stat. 51 of Henri 3. Latin. "A. 24 Henr. 8. a butcher shall sell a lb. tr. of beef or pork for a penny and a farthing, a lb. of lamb or veal for § penny, and not dearer." English. "A. D. 1544 and 36 Hen. 3. A proclamation made enhansing the value of gold to the rate of XLVIII s. and silver to IIII s. the ounce." Page 15-24. After several pages of astronomical facts and tables, followed immediately by a plan and elaborate description of a model fortress, our note-maker discourses on bread. * * * English. "Assize [measure acd. to Webster] of bread. Fine corkot is not now used, but we have 3 sorts of bread. 1. white we is the course corkot in Stat. 51, H. 3. 2. wheaten whose weight is sesquialtera [half as much again] to the white. 3. household whose weight [is] double to the white Note that the baker is allowed iiijs. in a Quarter in the country and vjs in the city. Wheaten bread is made of the whole wheat, and at vjd. the Quarter the weight of pony wheaten is Avoird. 11120. So at iiijs. iiijd (the baker's price) the pony wheaton is 1 lb. Av. The baker's gain is his vjd allowance in the strike and what bread he can make of a strike, about 35 lb. Av., for in so many pounds he is paid his market price and allowed vjd over and his bran. At Bedford and Stafford 5 strikes of wheat weigh 6 cwt. Avoir. great weight.—Mr. Freeman." Page 31. "Stat. 12. Henr. 7. 5. The measure of a Bushell English. shall contain 8 gallons of wheat, and every gallon contain 8 pound of wheat of Troy weight, and every pound contain 12 ounces of Troy weight, and every ounce contain 20 sterlings, and every sterling pwt. the weight of 32 cornes of wheat, according to the old law of this land. Note that common wheat cornes taken at adventure one wh another go 40 to a sterling weight. Corn is now measured by Ale measure which seemes to be made of Avoirdupois weight, it ought to be made of Troy weight." Page 34. * "If an inch be divided into 60 pts, the sides of the English. cubes weighing zij Troy shall be in Gold 18, Lead 21, Silver 22, Copper 23, Lattin (or brass) 23, Steel 24, Iron 241, Tin 24. So inscribed on an old brass box." Page 35-36 Two pages are now given to memoranda of the weight of various articles reckoned from 1654 to 1677. It is a motley collection, honey, bees' wax, brown thread, bible-paper, silver coin, blood by the pint, flour and meal. Our note-maker was evidently an epicure with a liking for bird-flesh. He carefully records the pounds and ounces Avoird. of day-larks and night-larks, of a capon, a fat goose, a good wild duck, a rooster lap-wing, a gray plover and a wood pigeon. "Goose Egs and Hens Egs" are tried on the balance, and likewise "green pease in the shelles." "Glass in my chancel the foot of ( old weighs Avoird. ounces 17, 11," says our note-maker, and so he seems to have been a minister of the English church. His steel yard is kept busy with daucusseeds (the daucus is a kind of parsnip), with a haberdine (that is, a dried salt cod), with flax spun fine for shirts, with "Newcastle coles" and a "Bermudas orange," with tin by the hundred weight and with "bell-mettall," with a "Salmon of 2 foot between gill and tail," with "Scotch markerell" [mackerel] with "herring's, we weigh but ziij, and with "Thorn-bacs" [fish of the ray kind.] Page 37. The next thirty-four pages are given mainly to mathematical tables, illustrated by exquisitely drawn diagrams, and to discussions on the length of the year made of the Julian and the Greogarian calendars, and the era of Trabouassar. But scattered herein are some curious notes. Several are on heraldry; one of them, apparently in cipher, has been carefully erased. Page 49. "To measure short times. Hang a bullet in a string English. 39 inches from the middle of Bullet, the Vibrations are seconds." Page 60. "Versus menoratini "Astra Dabit Dius gratisque tuabit egenos, Page 71. "A. D. 840. On the day before Ascension Day, that Latin. is May 5th, at the ninth hour was a total eclipse of the sun, so that the stars shown out as though it were night." Page 74. "A degree (or 60 miles) squared" is a measure which our note-maker uses for large areas. He thus reckons the surfaces of the continents: Page 77. Churches and chapels, Surveyed by James Moor. "1653, July 19. The Tower of the Cathedrall church. 89 130,200 RALPH PATRICK." English. in Gloucester is to the leads in height, 60 yards. As I measured it by pocket quadrant by a stationary distance of 50 yards towards K. Edwards gate in the church yard." "A talent of silver contains 3000 shekels." Page 78. "A. D. 1293. 21. Edw. 1. Jurors to have 40s in English. lands by the year, that is the value of 8 oxen by the yeare. The sherrif shall not receive any Oxe but of 5 price or this value." "The old price for carriage wh 2 horses xa a day, wh 3 horses x iiij d'. Majna. Cart. cap. 21.” Page 78. "33 H. 8. at vja viija. Best yew bow at iijs iiija, and 8 Eliz. 10 staves were risen from 5£ to 12£ the hundred." Page 79-82. More tables and more measures, tables of annuities, tables of European measures and European coins reckoned in their English equivalents. Page 83. "The great ship built at Woolwich 1637. Length 225 English. feet, breadth from outside to outside 48. The fore part 4 storyes under deck, the stern 6 storyes under deck. Carries 96 pieces of Ordinance. Her carriage, tun and tunnage 1800 tunnes whereof carriage is 1400 tunne. One of the Anchors was 4 yards long beside the ring and his weight stamped 440p. These measures I took abord her. The charge of building and setting out was esteemed by the shipwrights at 90,000£ beside victualling. The length is reckoned from the Lanthorn in the stern to the end of the foremast is about 25 foot, the breadth within 42 foot, every story about 7 foot high. The cannon loft about 55 yards long, 40 pieces on a side, the rest at ends. On the foremast standeth an armed king on horseback wh this motto, 'Ab Edgaro quatuor maria vindico.' 999 Page 83. "A canon bullet flies 4 Italian miles, and this in two min." English. Page 84. Here are the sovereigns of England: - [10] 66 87 [1] 100 Conquisitor, Rufus, hinc Henricus primus, et inde Post tres Henricos, Edwardus quartus, and alter, Et Ricus, Henricus qui septimus, atq octavus, Our note-maker writes of "the taxe of ship-money" levied March 26th 1644 on Eton and Northtonshire: "I am taxed now at 1 of of of the kingdom." From this it would seem that he must have been a man of wealth and prominence, but not a word for Charles or Cromwell drops from his lips. Weights and distances rather than king-craft and politics absorb his thought. The dimensions of Noah's Ark, and the temples of King Solomon, Zerubabbel and Herod Agrippa are duly recorded, as well as those of St. Paul's and Westminster in London. Then this versatile man measures with equal exactness the size of a turkey's egg, and "the diameter of the skirt of Thom of Lincoln," a great bell seven feet wide. A few lines on "sterling silver now coined in England with Allay of Copper out of the fire," and a discussion on cube root complete these notes. In closing I would say that this book is still in my possession. If any one is sufficiently interested by this account to desire to see the original, it will give me great pleasure to show it at any time. IN PERSPECTIVES. BY W. G. LEWIS, PHILADELPHIA. N the painting of a landscape, no beauty of coloring nor delicacy of touch can atone for the lack of perspective. If the laws of distance be not observed, if the objects in the foreground and those in the background are represented with equal distinctness and of equal size, the picture loses all merit; while the closer the true proportions are observed, the more of life and nature it will portray. But the painter is not the only one who ought to be careful of perspectives. Life is full of them; and just as far as we adapt our conduct to their proportions will be our success in living a true and worthy life. Yet this is not always an easy thing to do. To recognize the most important things, to give them the first place in our lives, and to arrange the others in their true order, is no small or easy task; yet without it life will be as complete failure as the painting with all notion of the far and near left out. The me chanic must discover the comparative significance of each part of his work, and apply his energies accordingly. The carpenter |