A Brief Inquiry, by John Ward, F.R.S. & Rhet. Prof. Gresh. into the Reading of Two Dates in Arabian Figures, Cut upon Stones Which Were Found in Ireland; Communicated to the Royal Society, on November 10. 1743. and December 6. 1744

runs North and South; is above a Mile in Length, and near half a Mile in Breadth; so that I apprehend there will be a continual Current to the South. A Man was going over the Moss when it began to move: As he was going Eastward, he perceiv'd, to his great Astonishment, that the Ground under his Feet moved Southward. He turn'd back speedily, and had the good Fortune to escape being swallowed up. I have been at the Moss to make Observations every Day this Week: If any thing happens worth your Knowlege, you may depend upon hearing further from, SIR, Your very affectionate Humble Servant, L. Richmond. XIII. A brief Inquiry, by John Ward, F.R.S. & Rhet. Prof. Gresh. into the Reading of two Dates in Arabian Figures, cut upon Stones which were found in Ireland; communicated to the Royal Society, on November 10. 1743. and December 6. 1744. Read Feb. 28. TWO Dates in Arabian Figures, transmitted from Ireland, were some time since laid before this Learned Society. But as the the Reading, which had been given them, seemed doubtful to the Gentlemen then present, they were pleased to honour me with desiring my further Thoughts concerning them. Both those Dates are said to be cut on Stones, and in Relief. I considered them as carefully, as I was able, and after the strictest Examination could see no sufficient Reason to think either of them so old, as had been represented. For which Opinion I now take Leave to offer the following Reasons. I. One of the Stones, which was found in the Friers Abbey, and is now fixed in the Wall of a Garden belonging to Alderman Baldwin in Corke, contains together with the Date several Words cut in capital Letters, as also two human Images (one a Trumpeter and the other a Drummer) with other Ornaments and Decorations. (See Tab. I. Fig. 2.) The Date, as there expressed, runs thus: A.D. 158. But it is evident, here must be some Mistake; since it is generally allowed by Chronologers, that this Way of computing Time from the Birth of Christ, which is called the Christian Era, was not introduced till the sixth Century, in the Reign of the Emperor Justinian, and is commonly ascribed to Dionysius Exiguus (a). It has therefore been supposed, that the Figure 1 is omitted in the Place of Thousands, which would make the Date 1158; and for which there seems to be sufficient Place, as there is not for any other Figure afterwards. But that the Sculpture on this Stone cannot (a) See Petav. De doctrin. temp. L. xii. c. 2, 3. Bever. Instit. chronol. L. ii. c. 10. Strauch. Breviar. chron. L. iv. c. 40. quaeß. 4. cannot be so antient, appears to me highly probable from several Considerations, taken from the Shape of the Figures, Form of the Letters, Spelling of the Words, and Dress of the Images. As to the Figures, I have never met with the Five any thing like the Shape of it upon this Stone (which comes pretty near the modern Form) till the fourteenth Century; except in one single Instance of a Date 1295, (a) which I had the Honour to communicate to this Society upon the Seventh of June last. In the Table of Characters prefixed to No. 439 of the Philosophical Transactions the Figure Five is given from three Writers of the thirteenth Century, in two Forms both very different from that upon this Stone. One was taken from Maximus Planudes, a Greek Writer, which is like the β of that Language inverted in this manner γ; and the other from Johannes de Sacro Bosco and Roger Bacon, which is made thus q. The latter of these continued in Use till the Beginning of the sixteenth Century, as appears from a Manuscript preserved in the Inner Temple (b), bearing Date the xxI Yere of King Henry the vii, and the Yere of our Lorde 1409; to which is prefixed a Calender, wherein all the Figures are like those of Roger Bacon. The Letters in this Sculpture are mixed, being partly Roman, and partly Saxon; as we often find, that the Workmen took great Liberties in varying and mixing their Letters. Those of the latter Sort are (a) See Phil. Trans. No. 474. p. 91. (b) This they call their Grace Book, because it contains, among many other Things, Graces to be used before and after Meals. are D, G, N, and O, the Shape of which may be seen in the Draught of this Sculpture. The first of them occurs in several Coins of King Henry the Eighth, King Edward the Sixth, and Queen Mary. And the three last are found together, cut in Relief over the Eastern Gate of Lincoln's Inn, in the following Date, ANNO DNI 1518, the Form both of the Letters and Figures agreeing likewise with those of the Sculpture. (See Tab. I. Fig. 3.) I shall only add, what our celebrated Antiquary, Mr. Camden, has observed, that the Saxon Characters were used in Ireland in his Time (a). Nothing therefore appears in the Letters, which can necessarily carry the Antiquity of them higher than the sixteenth Century. Nor is there any thing in the Spelling of the Words, but what agrees with the Manner of Writing in that Century, more especially while the Orthography of the English Language continued so various and uncertain, as it did for the greatest Part of it. The only Words, that call for any Remarks are fere for fear, or feare with e final, dow for do or doe, and shall and well with a double ll. As to the first of these, we then often find the a omitted in Words of that Form; as clene, clere clerely, nere, yere yerely, and the like. And as to dow for do or doe, I meet with dowthe for doeth or doth, and gowilde for golde or gold (b). And such Monosyllables, as shall and well, --- (a) Britann. pag. 730, edit. 1607. (b) See Sir Richard Gresham's Petition to King Henry VIII. Cotton Libr. Cleop. E. 4. Sir Tho. Gresham's Memorial to Queen Mary. Ibid. Otbo, E. X. 3. His Memorial to Queen Elizabeth in 1558, found among Lord Burgley's Papers, and now in the Hands of James West Esquire. well, were in the former Part of that Century more commonly written with a single \( l \) than double \( ll \), but afterwards promiscuously, as may be seen by the Bibles printed in those Times. With regard to the Images, King Philip is the first, whom I have seen dressed with a high crowned Hat and Feather. Nor does it seem improbable, that he might introduce that Fashion here in England. Ruffs do not appear among us till pretty late in the Reign of King Henry the Eighth, and were small at first; but afterwards they increased in their Size gradually, till they became very large under Queen Elizabeth, and so continued thro' the next Reign, and Part of the following, when they were succeeded by broad laced Bands. It is true indeed, that we find Ruffs upon the Images of some of our Princes, or other great Persons, placed on their funeral Monuments, and elsewhere, which seem to exceed the Fashion then in Use. But as these Images were made after their Death, so the Habits are suited not to their Times, but those when the Artists lived, and the Monuments were erected, where they are found; which Circumstance, if not attended to, will be apt to mislead us in several other Things relating to our Antiquities. The close striped Jackets, shaped to the Body, with Small Buttons, and striped Breeches, came in about the same time with the Ruffs. The ingenious Artist, and diligent Searcher into our English Antiquities, Mr. George Vertue, shewed me a Portrait of William Herbert, the first Earl of Pembroke, so habited in the Reign of King Edward the Sixth; which, he said, was the oldest Picture, that he remembered to have seen in that Habit. And he had likewise another another of Edward Clinton, Earl of Lincoln, and Lord Admiral in Queen Elizabeth's Reign, dressed with a Cap and Feather, a striped Jacket, small Buttons, and a Ruff. These several Considerations induce me to think, that this Sculpture was made in the sixteenth Century, and probably not before the Reign of Queen Elizabeth; considering the Largeness of the Ruffs, and some other Circumstances already mentioned, which seem not to suit with more early Times. And from thence I would conclude, that the Figure omitted in the Date must have been a Decimal. Some Figure is evidently wanting, which, had it been a 1 in the Place of Thousands, might easily have been supplied, tho the Sculpture is in Relief, by fixing in a small Piece of Stone in the Form of that Figure. And that this Mistake was owing to the Workman may be presumed from hence, that the Word you is likewise omitted in the Sentence below. II. The other Stone was found in an old Castle since pulled down, which was called Kilbritain, in Irish the Church or Cell, or rather the Burial Place of the Britains. It is now at the House of Mr. Stowel at Kilbritain near Corke, and contains some imperfect Remains of an Inscription, besides the Date. (See Tab. I. Fig. 4.) Two Copies of it have been transmitted hither, one of which being taken by laying a clean Sheet of white Paper over the Stone, and tracing out the whole Inscription with a Blacklead Pencil, must therefore be the more exact. But so small a Fragment only of the Stone has been preserved, that no certain Judgement can thence be made of the Whole; and not one perfect Word remains mains upon it, unless perhaps the last. And as to the Date, which has been read 1035, I cannot come into that Sentiment for these Reasons. The same Objection lies here against the Shape of the Figure Five, as in the other Date, for the Rea- son there given. And what has been taken for a Cipher in the Place of Hundreds, I apprehend to be only an imperfect Four, which wants the oblique Stroke, descending on each Side transversly from the circular Part in this manner Q; for which there appears to be Room at the Bottom of the Circle, which does not come so low as the other Figures before and after it, tho' it equals them in Height at the Top. There is a Sample of this Figure both in Johannes de Sacro Bosco and Roger Bacon, as also in the Manuscript of the Inner Temple cited above, which shews that it remained in Use till the sixteenth Century. As this Inscription is cut in Relief, the extreme Parts of that Figure might as well be broken off, as the much greater Parts of the mutilated Letters in the Lines above it. And I would further observe, that the Probability of this Opinion seems to be not a little confirmed by a parallel Instance of the same Figure, which formerly came before this Society, in a Date found at Colchester; the Figures of which were at first thought to express the Year 1090, that in the Place of Hundreds being taken for a Cipher, as in the present Case, by not attending to the side Strokes, which were pretty near defaced; till upon a more accurate View of the Original by a very worthy Member, and skilful Antiquary, that Mistake was discovered, and the Date found to be 1490. For a further Account of which, together with a Draught of the Date, I must beg Leave to refer to N°. 439 of the Transactions mentioned above. But as this Manner of writing the Four appears as antient as the Time of Johannes de Sacro Bosco, who died in the Year 1256, the Age of this Irish Date cannot so well be determined by that Figure, as by the Form of the Five, which follows it, and so exactly agrees with the modern Shape, that it cannot, I think, from any Instance I have yet met with, be justly deemed much older than the sixteenth Century. Upon the best Judgment therefore, which I can form of these two Dates, from such Arguments as the Nature of the Subject admits of, it appears to me highly probable, that neither of them can be more antient, than the Times I have here assigned them. Gresham College, Feb. 21. 1744-5. J. Ward. XIV. A Letter from the Reverend Henry Miles, D.D. F.R.S. to Mr. Henry Baker, F.R.S. of firing Phosphorus by Electricity. Dear Sir, Read March 7. It came into my Head last Night, to try whether the Effluvia of an excited glass Tube would not kindle Phosphorus; and, having been using my Tube for the sake of a little Exercise, I took a small Bit of about a Quarter of an Inch