ption of the manciple.

"Of maysters had he moo than thryes ten
That were of lawe expirte and curyous,
Of whyche there were a dosen in that hous
Worthy to be," &c.;

P.H.F.
March 23, 1850.

_Ecclesiastical Year_ (No. 24. p. 381.).--The following note on the
calendar is authority for the statement respecting the beginning of the
ecclesiastical year:--

"Note that the Golden Number and the Dominicall letter doeth
change euery yeere the first day of January. Note also, that the
yeere of our Lord beginneth the xxv. day of March, the same
supposed to be the first day upon which the world was created,
and the day when Christ was conceived in the womb of the Virgin
Mary."

As in the Book of Common Prayer, Lond. 1614, p. 2. Bishop Cosins
remarks, "beginneth the 25th day of March."

"Romani annum suum auspicantur ad calendas Januarias. Idem
faciunt hodierni Romani et qui in aliis regnis papae authoritatem
agnoseunt. Ecclesia autem Anglicana sequitur suppotationem
antiquam a Dionysio Exiguo inchoatum, anno Christi 532."

Nicholl's Commentary on the Book of Common Prayer, additional notes, p.
10. Fol. Lond. 1712, vid. loe.

In the Book of Common Prayer, Oxford, 1716, the note is,--

"_Note._--The supputation of the year of our Lord in the Church
of England beginneth the five-and-twentieth day of March."

This note does not now appear in our Prayer Books, being omitted, I
suppose, in consequence {421} of the adoption of the new style in
England in 1752. The daily course of lessons used to begin, as it does
now, with the Book of Genesis and of St. Matthew, in January; the
collects, epistles, and gospels with those for Advent.

M.
Oxford.

_Paying through the Nose_ (No. 21. p. 335.).--I have always understood
this to be merely a degenerated pronunciation of the last word. Paying
through _the noose_ gives the idea so exactly, that, as far as the
etymology goes, it is explanatory enough. But whether _that_ reading has
an historical origin may be another question. It scarcely seems to need
one.

C.W.H.

_Quem Deus vult perdere, &c._ (No. 22. p. 351.).--The correct reading
is, "Quem Jupiter vult perdere, dementat prius." See Duport's
_Gnomologia Homerica_, p. 282. (Cantab. 1660.) Athenagoras quotes Greek
lines, and renders them in Latin (p. 121. Oxon. 1682):

"At daemon homini quum struit aliquid malum,
Pervertit illi primitus mentem suam."

The