NOTES AND QUERIES. 112 S.IL SEPT. 23,1916.
" Calculated and referr'd to the Meridian of the
famous | University and Town of Cambridge;
where the Pole | Artick Ls elevated above the
Horizon 52 17 m , but may | serve for any other
part of Great Brittnin.
" By Xathaniel Culpepper Student in Physick, | and the Celestial Science.
God moves the Heavens, and His mighty Hand, Both Planets, Earth, and Ocean doth command." (Imprint.)
Plomer places the publication of this almanac between 1680 and 1738. Nicholas Culpeper, astrologer and physician, published an ephemeris for the years 1651-3. He died in 1654. Nathaniel may have been one of his seven children, but he is unknown to the dictionaries. Culpeper prophesies the weather throughout the year, and tells what portion of your anatomy is affected daily, but he omits the human figure which is usually at this date the single engraving of each almanac. There are ' Remarks upon the Honest Lawyer and his Country Clyent ' in verse.
2. " FLY | AN | ALMANACK | for the Year of our | LORD GOD | 1694 | Being the Second after Leap-Year | Calculated for the Meridian of I Kings-Lynn, | Where the Pole Artick is elevated | 52 deg. 43 min. above the Horizon, and | mav very well serve for any part of | ENGLAND. r> (Imprint.)
Plomer gives the run of 'Fly' from 1653 to 1736. 'Culpeper' gives no saints in his calendar, .' Fly ' has one almost daily. His almanac proper consists of only 16 pp., but it is followed by a " prognostication " with a fresh title, containing among other things
" divers Observations for Physick, Husbandry and Gardening : and also for the making of all sorts of Bonds, Bills, Acquietances, Wills and Inden- tures."
3. Another of the Cambridge almanacs is called ' Dove, Speculum Anni.' Plomer says it first appeared in 1643, and was continued between 1 661 and 1 709. Like 'Fly,' ' Dove ' is in two parts, and gives a copious list of saints with comments on some of the principal festivals. It has also tables of weights and measures, of the value of foreign coins in English money, of reversion for renewing leases, and a list of the bishoprics in England and Wales, with the number of parishes in each.
4. ' Pond ' suits his almanac to the meridian of Saffron Waldron. He gives his readers full instructions how to manage their gardens month by month, and in the latter part prints several receipts, " shewing how to cure many principal diseases, incident to Horses, Cows and Sheep." In common with many other almanacs he gives a list of the principal fairs in England and Wales. One
of his features is some poetry applicable to
each month. This is for July :
The Sun in's progress now returning (lack A steed), he mounts upon the Lyons back, Whose raging heat ripens the fruits o' th' earth,- Without the which we should have little Mirth.
The personal advice for this month is :
" Forbear superfluous drinking, but eat heartily; use cold Herbs and Meat, abstain from Physick^ Perfume your house every morning with Tar, use Carduus Benedictus boiled, and drink fasting."
5. ' Swallow,' calculated for " the famous University and Town of Cambridge," gives instructions for the measuring of land and timber, with diagrams, a list of " meats good for the whole body, and of a sanguine juyce," " meat good to temper Choller and to asswage heat with moistness," " rules for drawing of blood," largely astrological, and a list of medicines. This almanac, which lasted from 1641 till 1736, was sometimes printed in London.
6. John Wing published at Cambridge 'Olympia Dcmata' for 1694, "calculated according to art and referred to the Horizon of the ancient and renowned Borrough Towa of Stamford." This was one of a long series begun by John's uncle, Vincent Wing, in, 1641, interrupted after 1644, resumed in 1653, and continued by Vincent till 1672. The annvial sale of this almanac is said to have averaged 50,000 copies. The publica- ion was continued bv his descendants at irregular intervals till 1805 (' D.N.B.'). John Wing styles himself " Mathematician." His almanac contains
" the Lunations, Conjunctions, and Aspects of the Planets, the increase, decrease and length of the day and night, with the rising, southing and setting of the Planets and Fixed Stars throughout, the Year, whereby may be known the exact hour of the night at all times, when either the Moon or Stars are seen."
Wing occasionally tries his hand at verse. He opens thus in January :
Welcome, good Header, to another year,
Th6 Sun and Mars in opposition are,
Let Subjects learn obedience to their Kings,
Since home bred factions (sic) always ruin brings^
He ends thk month with :
Nascitur indique per quem non nasitur alter.
Wing's is the most astrological of the Cambridge-printed almanacs. He gives a long description of the eclipse of the siua due June 11, 1694. Wing was a land- surveyor, as an advertisement shows, and lived at Pickworth, Rutlandshire.
A list of the almanacs collected by Anthony Wood, many of them interleaved, and from 1657 onwards used by their owner for his notes, may be seen in Clark's ' Life-
