Bacculi, Annales, Staves, Stakes, Cloggs, &c. by the last of which Dr. PLOTT calls the specimen he has described. They appear to have been introduced into this country at the Norman conquest.

memory.

Before printing was introduced, and when manuscripts were scarce and dear, these Runic almanacs were particularly useful in assisting the In all visits to distant churches, in all pilgrimages, &c. they were made the instruments of instruction and regularity; and that they might be doubly serviceable, they were frequently carved on the tops of pilgrims' staves, or stakes, so as to regulate their times of assembling at particular spots, and also to support them in their wearisome journies. These Runic almanacs, like others in manuscript, bore the characters of pagan superstition until about the fourth century, when they partook of both heathen and Christian emblematical devices, so as to be more generally saleable; but after the seventh century, they became wholly Christian, and that they might be made as universally serviceable as possible, they were sometimes cut on sword scabbards, implements of husbandry, &c. &c. In Denmark and Sweden they are to this day cut on walking-canes and sticks.

Those immense square pillars or obelisks in Egypt, the hieroglyphical characters on which have so much perplexed the learned, have been

considered as containing directions for the monthly rural labours of the Egyptians, and consequently to have been the first species of almanac ever used, of which the Runic staves before-mentioned are but very humble imitations, though of somewhat similar construction. When the repetition of the same figures or characters on each of those vast pillars is considered, which would perhaps never have been so uniformly alike, unless for some such general and extensively useful purpose; the titles assigned to them by the Egyptian priests, of " fingers of the sun," to which orb they were usually dedicated; and the nature of the stone of which they were composed, being of various colours, and regarded as typical of the four elements;there is reasonable ground for concluding that they were intended as almanacs rather than as histories of their sovereigns, or for or for any other of the uses that have been assigned them by the ingenuity of antiquaries.

There does not appear to be any trace of the original inventors of almanacs, whether in wood, in manuscript, or in print. The first in print is generally admitted to be that of JOHN MULLER, of Monteregio, better known by the name of REGIOMONTANUS. This person opened a printing house, and published his first almanac at Nuremburgh in the year 1472, wherein he not only gave the characters of each year and of the

months, but foretold the eclipses, &c. for thirty years in advance.

The first recorded account we have of almanacs in this country, appears in the year book of HENRY the Seventh, or about fifteen years subsequently to that of MULLER; though the late Mr. JACKSON, of Exeter, in a work published by him, says, “I have in my possession an almanac made in the reign of EDWARD the Third, of parchment, being about one hundred and forty years prior to MULLER's, not in the usual form of a sheet, or a book, but in separate pieces, folded in the shape of a flat stick, or lath, in the Saxon fashion; it is perfectly fair, and exhibits the best specimen of aneient numerals I have yet met with."

A Year

Is that space of time occupied, apparently, by the sun in performing his course through the twelve signs of the zodiac; but, in strictness, by the earth in making the entire revolution of its own orbit; which is indiscriminately called the natural, solar, or tropical year, to distinguish it from the astronomical, and numerous other denominations of years.

Sir ISAAC NEWTON has determined the solar year, to consist of 365 days, 15 hours, 48 minutes,

and 57 seconds; and it is agreeably to such calculation that we now regulate our measure of time. Later Philosophers, however, compute the Solar year to consist of only 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 48 seconds; and among them, the justly celebrated Dr. Kelly, who recently discovered, and afforded tables for the correction of, some trifling errors in the Nautical Almanac. Others contend, and with much ability, that our years are not always of precisely the same duration; and that it is consequently impracticable to fix the accurate and determinate period of a yearly revolution. The civil or political year, as established by law, consists of 365 days in common years, or 366 days in bissextile or leap years, with the exception of such as happen on centurial years, not divisible by 4, as explained under the head CALENDAR. Our civil year begins on the 1st of January, except in some few cases, in which it still commences on the 25th of March, "the Annunciation," as it used generally to do in this country, until the year 1752, as shewn under the head of MARCH: while the Church still, as to her solemn service, renews the year on the first Sunday in Advent, which is always that next to, or on, ST. ANDREW'S day. In Scotland, the year was, by a proclamation which bears date so early as the 27th of November 1599, ordered thenceforth to commence in that kingdom on the 1st of January, instead of the 25th of March.

Our ancestors, after the establishment of Chris tianity, usually began their year at Christmas, and reckoned their æra from the incarnation, until the reign of WILLIAM the Conqueror, when a new mode was observed for some time, and the year of our Lord CHRIST was seldom mentioned, that of the reign of WILLIAM being substituted in its stead. At subsequent periods we again reverted to the antient custom, both as regarded the commencement of the year, and mode of calculating from the nativity; and although in later ages the time of beginning the year has varied, the expressions of anno Christi, the year of Christ; anno Domini, the year of our Lord; or that yet more emphatical term, anno gratiæ, the year of grace; have been continued down to the present moment. But from the time of the Conqueror, all state proclamations, - patents, and acts of parliament, as well as charters, have been continued to be dated from the years of the reigns of the respective sovereigns, with the addition of " and in the year of our Lord, &c.:" and also, in many instances, of the number of reigns subsequent to the conquest, as thus, "anno regni regis HENRICI Quarti post conquesta sexto." During the usurpation of CROMWELL, the year of our Lord alone was made the general method of dating the public records, and even every trifling private deed.

The RUSSIANS, who did not adopt the Christian æra until the year 1725, continued until that