This being the 73rd year since my Almanack first appeared to the
world, and having for several years presented you with observations
that have come to pass to the admiration of many, I have likewise
presented you with several hieroglyphics," &c.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

That such a personage really did exist there can be little doubt, Bromley
(in _Engraved Portraits, &c._) gives 1657 as the date of his birth, and
says that there was a portrait of him by Drapentier _ad vivum_. Lysons
mentions him as one of the remarkable men who, at different periods,
resided at Lambeth, and says that his house was in Calcott's Alley, High
Street, then called Back Lane, where he seems to have enlightened his
generation in the threefold capacity of astrologer, physician, and
schoolmaster.

J. C. B.

* * * * *

Miscellaneous.

NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC.

Professor De Morgan has just furnished a new contribution to _L' Art de
verifier les Dates_, in the shape of a small but most useful and practical
book, entitled _The Book of Almanacks, with an Index of Reference, by which
the Almanack may be found for every year, whether in the Old Style or New,
from any Epoch Ancient or Modern up to_ A. D. 2000. _With means of finding
the Day of any New or Full Moon from_ B. C. 2000 _to_ A. D. 2000. An
example will show, better even than this ample title-page, the great
utility of this work to the historical enquirer. Walter Scott, speaking of
the battle of Bannockburn, which was fought on the day of St. John the
Baptist, June 24, 1314, says,

"It was a night of lovely June,
High rose in cloudless blue the moon."

Now, should the reader be desirous of testing the accuracy of this
statement, (and how many statements have ere this been tested by the fact
of the moon's age!), he turns to Professor De Morgan's Index, which at 1314
gives Epact 3., Dominical Letter F., Number of Almanack 17. Turning to this
almanack, he finds that the 24th June was on a Monday; from the
Introduction (p. xiii.) and a very easy calculation, he learns that the
full moon of June, 1314, would be on the 27th, or within a day, and from a
more exact method (at p. xiv.), that the full moon was within two hours of
nine A.M., on the 28th. So that Sir Walter was correct, there being more
than half moon on the night of which he was speaking. Such an instance as
the one cited will show how valuable the _Book of Almanacks_